Cameron at least has one special skill – to hold together an ungovernable party which is irrevocably split. He does not appear to have an ultimate belief in anything – only to sustain his own position and his party at whatever cost to the country at large. That explains his early embrace of driving an anti-climate change sleigh and hugging a hoodies to de-nastify the Nasty Party, only to be unceremoniously junked as soon as he got to No.10. It explains his latest gyrations over the EU and immigration, promising what he can’t deliver in order to deflect the UKIP rampage, putting Britain at risk of real isolation to score points for personal and party advantage, and alienating the whole of the EU (and the US too, behind the scenes) for the sake of short-term electoral gain. Continue reading
Tagged with Ed Miliband
A tale of two Labour coups
Today’s Times (£) reports last night’s reshuffle as having been to prevent a coup (later clarified to say a “backbench coup“). The BBC are trying to give the story legs. There certainly was concern about the possible actions of two right-wing backbenchers to further undermine Ed Miliband’s leadership, and the reshuffle was designed to strengthen the small band of those personally loyal to Ed within the shadow cabinet, but that isn’t the internal threat that Ed really needs to worry about.
There are in fact two coups that should worry him and party members. They are both the work of shifting alliances of leading but disloyal members of his shadow cabinet. Continue reading
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Convince me, Ed, by convincing Josephine and Xiomara
Labour could elect a leader equipped with movie star sex appeal, a double first in applied astrophysics, Churchillian oratory, the ability to juggle three flaming torches simultaneously and serious talent as a hard bop tenor saxophonist. And still the first thing the Tory media would say about her is that she was ‘unconvincing’.
Such is the designation that the Quentin Letts of this world have made stick to everyone who has held the top job throughout my adult lifetime. Variously they have been lambasted as donkey jacketed coffin-dodgers, Welsh windbags, staid Scottish bank managers, satanically-possessed crypto-communists or closet autistics who only bother to get up each morning to advance their own prime ministerial ambitions.
Whatever today’s variation, the charge has been that “Labour is out of touch”, and that those who head it understand average voters about as well as they understand colloquial Swahili. The latest victim is Ed Miliband, routinely portrayed as the Sheldon Cooper of British politics, a geeky loser with all the stage charisma of those I-speak-your-weight machines once found at tacky 1960s seaside resorts. Chin up, mate. It kind of goes with the territory. Continue reading
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Investment, jobs, growth must be Labour’s policy, not austerity
Labour has had a successful party conference, Ed Miliband made a powerful speech with a strong commanding narrative of Labour’s objectives for government, but the only let-down was in the crucial area of economic policy.
Ed Balls’ embrace of the the right-wing Tory orthodoxy of prolonged austerity until at least 2020 is as unbelievable as it is indefensible. He clearly must believe that the voters don’t trust Labour because it’s profligate so we must at all costs prove to the electorate that we’re fiscally sound and hence be at least as tough as Osborne in pursuing austerity to cut the deficit. But the record shows that Labour has not been reckless with public expenditure.
The last Labour Government’s biggest deficit in the pre-crash years was 3% of GDP, yet the Thatcher-Major governments ran deficits bigger than this in 10 or their 18 years. So who was the more profligate? But anyway from my personal experience what disgruntled voters complain about isn’t that Labour is profligate, but rather: why should I vote for Labour when it’s no different from the Tories in pursuing endless spending cuts? – exactly what Ed Balls is committing to. Continue reading
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The genocide of Christians is the legacy of Blair. Labour must learn the lessons
The persecution of Christians in Iraq has become a genocide, say their religious leaders. The slaughter of the Yazidi and others by Isis militias is no different. And there is no doubt that the 2003 invasion of Iraq planned by Bush and Blair contributed to its current disintegration and the increasing disaster caused by Isis, as Blair’s chosen successor David Miliband has now conceded. The outcome, he says “induces a high degree of humility.”
Though a few will continue to trumpet Blair’s legacy and he remains an unikely figure at middle eastern peace talks, the likely judgement of history on Blair is already clear. He may or may not be judged in a court of law for war crimes, but he is already a pariah.
That is nothing new. In a sense he was driven out of the leadership of the party in 2007 because he was already such a liability. But as Labour prepares to seek government once again as the man who led it to its last victory stands implicated in the worst of all crimes, it is vital that it learns the lesson of his failures. Continue reading
