Red Threads

Post-budget spam of the week

2010-03-25T08:20:00.004Z

A friend was sent the below.

We've all had this sort of spam, but the timing of this con-artist of this spammer is impeccable, the day after the Government confirmed a deficit of £167bn ...

-----Original Message-----
From: Hon Gordon Brown [mailto:info@cox.net]
Sent: 25 March 2010 04:10
To: undisclosed-recipients:
Subject: Contact Hon David Miliband(hon.davidmiliband@discuz.org)

OFFICE OF THE PRIME MINISTER
TREASURY AND MINISTER FOR CIVIL SERVICE,
LONDON, UNITED KINGDOM.

Our ref: ATM/13470/IDR
Your ref:...Date: 25/03/2010

IMMEDIATE PAYMENT NOTIFICATION

I am The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP,Prime Minister British Government. This
letter is to officially inform you that (ATM Card Number 048000101775550)
has been

accredited with your favor. Your Personal Identification Number is 477.The
VISA Card Value is Ј4,000,000.00(Four Million, Great British Pounds
Sterling).

This office will send to you an Visa/ATM CARD that you will use to withdraw
your funds in any ATM MACHINE CENTER or Visa card outlet in the world with a

maximum of Ј5000 GBP daily.Further more,You will be required to re-confirm
the following information to enable;The Rt Hon David Miliband MP Secretary
of

State for Foreign and Commonwealth Office. begin in processing of your VISA
CARD.

(1)Full names: (2)Address: (3)Country: (4)Nationality: (5)Phone #: (6)Age:
(7)Occupation: (8) Post Codes

Forward Reply To:(hon.davidmiliband@discuz.org).

TAKE NOTICE: That you are warned to stop further communications with any
other
person(s) or office(s) different from the staff of the State for Foreign and
Commonwealth Affairs to avoid hitches in receiving your payment.

Regards,

The Rt Hon Gordon Brown MP
Prime Minister
Phone: +447024024522

Whoops! Who fed ConHome wrong polling data?

2010-02-23T13:35:00.003Z

Whoops! With all the talk on Newsnight last night about sources, with Rawnsley forced to defend the veracity of his No 10 "bullying" stories, the Tories have their tales between their legs this morning. They had it "from a normally impeccable source" that, as Tim Montgomery tweeted "Tory lead doubles to 12% in immediate wake of Bullygate".

He has in the last few minutes corrected himself via tweet and ConHome: "Many apologies, I published inaccurate information about last night's YouGov poll." The figures were actually unchanged: C39-Lab33-LD17 ... a Tory lead of six points, not 12. Unfortunately bruiser Eric Pickles' bragging from last night are still there for all to see.

So who was this "usually impeccable source"? Apparently The Sun has declined to to the full figures on its site, leaving it to Reuters. Private Eye has recently speculated that Tom Newton-Dunn, old Etonian political editor, has become The Sun's de facto "link man" with the Tories ... Could it be his mistake?

Fraser Nelson: Balls is a crypto-Soviet, I am a crypto-McCarthyite ...

2009-12-27T10:28:00.010Z

Fraser Nelson, Spectator editor and arch-Thatcherite, takes issue with what seems a perfectly reasonable - you might even say innocuous - statement by Ed Balls in his Sunday Times interview today:

“I think our family policy now is actually about the strength of the adult relationships and that is important for the progress of the children.”

What is Fraser actually objecting to in this statement? We don't really find out, as he immediately goes off on a tangent, parroting the Tory line about promoting marriage and ending welfare depedency - oh, and of course, Balls is a crypto-Soviet "lefty":

"Does Balls have any idea about the extent of which the welfare state under Labour has robbed the low-income family of its economic function, about how adults are no longer better off together, and incentivised to split up with all the effects that has on the children? But it gets better: children are to be given lessons in the importance of relationships from 2011. More resources may be given to marriage guidance services. It’s like Balls is mentally living in 1975 Moscow. Family problems? Why, the Party will simply ask the schools to simply program the kids to be better at relationships."

Is it just me, or do relationship lessons in school sound like a reasonable, moderate, interesting idea? We have already have Relate for grown-ups. Why not start earlier? Certainly, as evidence of Balls' Brezhnev-style statism, it is pretty weak.

So why are the Tories - and the Right - apparently so scared of Balls, if his politics are so old-fashioned? Are they worried his policies might actually be popular?

Sounds like McCarthyite paranoia to me. And if Fraser Nelson wants to talk about jobs ...

Unemployment under Thatcher peaked at 3.5m. That's 3.5m families "robbed of their economic function". And the Centre for Economic Policy Research estimates that unemployment in the 1930s peaked at 15% in 1932.

In this recession, at least the Government is trying to do something about it. The UK unemployment rate was 7.9% in the last quarter. Wild predictions of 3m or even 4m unemployed now - touch wood - seem wide of the mark.

This is because of Government action like the Young Britain campaign - a pledge to create 85,000 jobs for the young - more apprenticeships and university places.

Balls may be stuck in the 1970s ... Nelson - who would apparently do nothing but tinker with marriage rules - is stuck in the 1930s, 15% unemployment and all.

Good to see the Thatcherites are calling the policy shots, Dave

2009-10-09T13:08:00.012+01:00

The ads in GoogleMail aren't working - they suggested I join these guys:

Their URL, conwayfor.org, keeps making me think of Derek Conway ... Conway for PM? Probably not their intention.

I should probably have heard of a group so influential in the Tory party. Indeed, their website gleefully quotes David Cameron: 'The largest and most effective pressure group in the Conservative Party today', he calls them.

Good to see the Thatcherites are calling the policy shots, Dave. Check out their latest pamphlet, for example, which calls for a cut in corporation tax similar to that proposed by John McCain in the presidential election - 10%. It's written by members of the Taxpayers Alliance.

Let's hope the Tories, currently advocating only a 3% cut, adopt the plan and go the same way as McCain come May.

Tasteful tweet of the week

2009-10-09T12:37:00.002+01:00

The award goes to @BenBradshaw for this effort earlier today:

the camerons got good nhs care thanks to Labour's investment and reform. is this the "big government" he derides?

Left Foot Forward banned from Tory conference - a backhanded compliment

2009-10-03T00:30:00.004+01:00

See this from top new prog website Left Foot Forward:

Left Foot Forward has been banned from attending Conservative Party conference. In a letter dated 23rd September from the Conservative Party’s Head of Conferences, Stephen Williams writes:

“I am writing to let you know that you application to attend the above event [Conservative Party Conference] has been rejected…

“For over twenty years the party has included the following words on its application forms; ‘the completion and submission of this application does not confer any right upon the applicant to attend conference. The Conservative Party reserves the right to refuse admission to any person without ascribing any reason thereto.’

“I am sure you appreciate that these words and this policy were carefully chosen to avoid the development of any misunderstanding.

“I know this is not the reply you were hoping for, and I am sorry for that. However, it would not be sensible for me to fly in the face of agreed and accepted practices.”

Left Foot Forward will, nonetheless, report live from the Conservative fringe.

Take it as a backhanded compliment, I think. It's not like Labour hasn't been known to to do the same. I can think of at least one Labour pressure group that in the past denied a press pass to Iain Dale, then of 18 Doughty Street, for fear of adverse coverage.

Mandy: Even in the 1970s I was relatively influential

2009-10-02T11:47:00.014+01:00

Earlier this week, Peter Mandelson castigated the Tories in his Labour conference speech for their lack of commitment to industrial activism

When did you last hear David Cameron or George Osborne last say anything about Britain's industrial future?

Such a line of attack would have been pretty much unimaginable only a few years ago. New Labour bought into the Thatcherite shibboleth that the only indispensible industrial policy was not to have one at all.

The Tories may try to label this as a return to 1970s-style dirigisme. In fact, you get the impression Mandy would quite like that. Labour conference this week was all about stressing the new, post-crash dividing line: government action is needed to deal with the recession, and the Tories would do nothing. The new bogey decade is the Thatcherite 1980s where the Government 'did nothing' to help out-of-work young people.

Mandy warms to this theme in an article on youth unemployment for the Young Fabian Anticiaptions magazine, published this week (as ever, check for modesty):

Back in the 1970s, I chaired the British Youtyh Council and whilst there published what was then a relatively influential report: "Youth Unemployment: Causes and Curses". I remember taking it to the Prime Minister, Jim Callaghan, in Downing Street to discuss the issue of young people and their prospects.

Even then, the now First Secretary of State was relatively infleuntial!

Guido's beloved FDP

2009-09-29T00:02:00.006+01:00

Guido is very impressed with the result of the German election, particularly that of the third party, the pro-business, anti-tax, anti-regulation Free Democrats. And he chides the Lib Dems for not yet congratulating their 'liberal' German equivalents:

Cameron was quick to offer fraternal congratulations to Angela Merkel’s Christian Democrats. So far no word from Clegg, the Free Democrats are their sister party and sit with the LibDems in the European Parliament.
The German FDP have had their best showing in decades on a pro-business, tax-cutting manifesto which has driven the Social Democrats out of the government. Most LibDems seem disinterested, only LiberalVision is ecstatic. Makes you wonder if they prefer permanent opposition…

Two quick points:

The FDP got 14.6% of the vote in Germany on Sunday. The Lib Dems here got 18.3% in 2005 on a perhaps less Fawkes-friendly ticket of raising taxes on the rich.

The FDP benefits from a much fairer, more proportional, electoral system which Guido presumably supports ... though I can find no mention whatsoever of electoral reform on his blog.

Sorry if this sounds insufferably po-faced or anything!

Balls is just stating the obvious

2009-09-16T17:21:00.006+01:00

Paul Waugh and Theo Blackwell have been discussing Ed Balls' article in the latest, Ken Livingston-edited New Statesman. In it, Balls says:

We did not always strike this balance right: in public service reform, we sometimes sounded as though private sector solutions were always more efficient.

Is this really a leadership pitch to the left, as they're saying? It sounds more like the stating of the obvious to me, especially post-crash.

The Blair government came in with what seemed like a mania to privatise left, right and centre, which has now (Royal Mail aside), thankfully eased. It seemed like some sort of virility test to impress Middle England, even though it was obvious to some of us that mainstream voters weren't that supportive of privatisation after all.

One possible source of regret is surely the disastrous PPP for London Underground. Balls's mentor, GB, was so determined it should happen he rushed it through to make the contracts signed and irreversible before Livingstone power over the the running of tube by being elected Mayor of London in 2000.

Is this some sort of coded apology to Ken?

Muse are the perfect New Tory band

2009-09-16T16:55:00.003+01:00

Tory Bear is clearly desperate for his teenage heroes (how young is he?), Muse, to be revealed as Tories. It wouldn't surprise me if they were, as I elucidated as a comment on the TB site ...

Muse are the perfect New Tory band.

They have that veneer of cool that
might make someone who is totally uncool think that they are cool. If you see
what I mean.

Muse, of course, are total rubbish, thoroughly in the MOR
rock tradition of overblown, slightly gothic choruses. To me, they have clearly
always wanted to be Radiohead. But ultimately they're just fucking boring.

To stretch the analogy to the limits of usefulness, I think that makes
Tony Blair Thom Yorke ...

MPs boozing during the Commons Afghanistan debate?

2009-07-16T23:39:00.012+01:00

Glad to hear the Tories aren't getting complacent about winning the next election - or the state of Afghanistan.

It seems I wasn't the only person following the cricket today. Like most people who have to work for a living, I had to follow online updates from sites like Cricinfo. Here's one update, helpfully sent in by a reader:

"Hello from Westminster!" cheers Ed Condon from the Policy Exchange, one of those slightly meaningless think tanks which British politics is filled with. "In the pub with, wait for it.... 10 chiefs of staff and six MPs. Your tax pounds are hard at work!"

I can't imagine such an impeccably Tory think-tank hanging around with anyone but Tory MPs, or their 'chiefs of staff'. Whoever they are.

The post seems to have come in the same over that Kevin Pietersen got out, around 1613 this afternoon. So much for the Tories' outrage about lack of helicopters. This was slap bang in the middle of the House of Commons Afghanistan debate.

Brown-Nixon: we noticed. Next!

2009-07-08T16:45:00.014+01:00

The opening passage of Jonathan Freedland's Guardian column today seems to be gently sending up the commentariat for its propensity for hyperbole, group-think and superciliousness:

Brown is surely the first man since Nixon to walk on a beach in jacket, shirt and black leather shoes. He, like Nixon, is seen as a brooding leader, aided by a clutch of loyal hatchet men ready to resort to all manner of dirty tricks to destroy his enemies. Note too the bitter jealousy felt for a predecessor blessed with the sunny charm he lacks: Kennedy in Nixon's case, Blair in Brown's. The prime minister feels vaguely like an outsider in London, just as Nixon did in Washington. He shares Nixon's conviction that the establishment looks down on him as provincial and uncouth.

As Freedland points out later in the column, he is the umpteenth columnist to notice some striking similarities, in terms of style and personality, between the PM and the Watergate President.

Cult mag Bad Idea probably got there first; to be followed by, inter alia, Martin Bright, Dominic Sandbrook, Christopher Hope and Matthew Parris.

Now, I have nothing but admiration for some of these people. Martin Bright was the first columnist to make the comparison. Parris is ok. But the general point needs to be made - the comparison is getting pretty tired.

Freedland notes that when you concentrate on the really substantive issues - matters of war and peace, for example - the parallels fall away; 'Instead, he is beginning to build up a decent legacy', says Freedland, most notably in saving the banks and combating the recession.

Perhaps labouring such comparisons open the door for less respectable commentators, risibly, to compare Brown to Stalin, Mugabe or Hitler.

Enough already

Show this to any young person thinking of voting Tory

2009-06-27T12:10:00.004+01:00

This, from Don't Panic, was definitely my video of the week:

The New Young Conservatives
by DontPanicOnline

The video has already been removed from You Tube 'due to a copyright claim by London Conservative Future'. You can see why; they know it has the damaging potential of Cameron's infamous Bullingdon club snap.

Anyone desperate to avoid a Tory victory at the next election should show it to any friends thinking of voting for Cameron, especially if they are under 30. The reaction I got from one serious waverer: 'What idiots! I am never voting for them.'

Result.

A mini-McBride in the making?

2009-06-27T04:59:00.006+01:00

Ben Bradshaw, after at last being promoted to the cabinet, finally gets to nominate a (at least one) special adviser.

It's Lenny Shallcross - his long-time Parliamentary aide and general carrier-out-of-anything-and-everything - who has moved into DCMS.

It seems, though, we may have something of a mini-McBride in the making. Shallcross seems already to have the former Brown chief spinner's knack for e-incontinence, if this 2005 story from an Oxford student newspaper is to be believed ...

AN OXFORD student has expressed her dismay after receiving an offensive email sent to her accidentally from her MP's office detailing her alleged ‘insufferable' arrogance. Hannah Caspar, a biochemistry student at Merton College, wrote a letter to her Labour MP Ben Bradshaw in January to express general political concerns. She had claimed Bradshaw did not adequately represent the views of his constituents.

She also made reference to a speech he had made to her and fellow pupils when she was at Maynards Girls' School in Exeter during 2000 where they felt he had come across as a “yes man of Labour, devoid of unique thought.” However, the response she received was not what she was expecting. In the email which Bradshaw's PA, Lenny Shallcross, thought he was sending to his Colleagues, he made specific reference to her background. He wrote: “I don't know why this girl has annoyed me so much.

The arrogance is insufferable.” His concluded the message: “If you can suggest any sarcastic comments to add, [they will be] gratefully received.” Caspar told The Oxford Student: “At first I was stunned and couldn't believe it, I had to read the email several times. Then I was shocked and very hurt. It was a really personal attack.” When she emailed Shallcross to point out his mistake, he simply responded, “No!” making no attempt to apologise.

She expressed particular annoyance at his attitude, because she had written to Bradshaw about issues such as the Iraq War and foxhunting which she wanted addressing. “It isn't a point scoring contest,” she said. “You shouldn't try to skirt issues by belittling the sender. The email shows the contempt that his office has for his constituents.” She received a reply to her original letter the day after Shallcross' email, Bradshaw seeming to be entirely unaware of his PA's unfortunate mistake.

When she wrote to inform him of his PA's actions he sent her an apology which she describes as “bland”. Casper told this newspaper she felt “appalled by the reply.” When contacted by The Oxford Student, a spokeswoman for the South West division of The Labour Party declined to make an official comment.

Mangled metaphor by a racist of the day

2009-06-24T11:35:00.004+01:00

Well, actually yesterday. Simon Darby, deputy leader of the BNP complained on the C4 News that

They're trying to airbrush white people out of the equation

A cliche-wielding racist ... Must remember to invite him round for tea!

Woodcock to stand down from No 10

2009-06-18T17:35:00.007+01:00

Easy to miss during today's hilarious expenses allegations, a very interesting nugget from the FT's Westminster Blog:

I have it on good authority that John Woodcock, one of Brown’s two spokesmen, is to quit; the move could come soon.
Apparently he wants to stand at the next general election as candidate for Barrow and Furness, John Hutton’s seat. The latter resigned as defence secretary amid the reshuffle excitement of two weeks ago. Woodcock used to be Hutton’s special adviser.

He will spend some time backstage at 10 Downing Street before he starts campaigning later in the year.

Unfortunately for Woodcock, his chances of preserving the seat are far from assured given that Hutton’s majority is relatively slim. Then again, the life expectancy of a Brown adviser isn’t exactly infinite these days.

Woodcock and Michael Dugher became Brown’s joint spokesmen after Damian McBride took a back seat last autumn. It’s fair to say that Dugher has seemed far more enthusiastic in the role.

Interesting to hear about Sheffield-hailing Woodcock's interest in his old boss's vacant seat of Barrow and Furness. Presumably that would, by default, make him one of Parliament's biggest advocates of nuclear bombs. BAE Systems is in line to build the four nuclear subs as part of the Government's plans to replace Trident.

But aren't special advisers becoming MPs and then ministers all part of Parliament's current problems? Peter Oborne made this point a while before the expenses crisis blew up, in his book, The Rise of the Political Class. It's a compelling case, though Oborne comes close to saying the racist, sexist, homophobic old establishment was somehow better (he doesn't necessarily accept it was racist, sexist homophobic).

Not that one of the emblems of the Parliamentary crisis, Michael Martin, could really be described as political class ...

More on BIS - Mandy's new girlfriend

2009-06-11T22:02:00.003+01:00

Nice to see my point about BIS echoed in Parliament and in the press. Well, more or less.

The new name got me wondering: why BIS? Some have expressed concern about the lack of 'universities' in the title. Surely BIS is an overused word anyway. You've got:

The Bank for International Settlements, the bank for central banks.

TIm Sweeney's excellent Beats in Space.

Then there's '90s Scottish Indie poppers Bis. I remember buying the below song on DIY-style 7" vinyl. Mail-order. To complete the circle, is that Peter Mandelson's new girlfriend, Geraldine Smith, on vocals?

BIS: undemocratic behemoth

2009-06-09T16:55:00.009+01:00

People are right to worry about the high number of Lords being promoted to the cabinet under Brown.

Martin Bright says:

This was a desperate reshuffle. With Lord Adonis at Transport and Lord Mandelson at Business, Innovation and Skills (and presumably Universities and Enterprise and Regulatory Reform as well) this is the least democratic government Britain has seen since the end if the Second World War.

Quite. 'BIS' (Business Innovation and Skills, Dept for) is the new amalgam of the old Department for Business (BERR) and the short-lived Department for Innovation, Universities and Skills (DIUS). Aka First Secretary Mandelson's aggrandised power base. An undemocratic behemoth if ever there was one. Take a look at its list of 11 (yes, 11!) ministers:

Department for Business, Innovation and Skills

* Minister of State - The Rt Hon Pat McFadden MP**
* Minister of State - The Rt Hon Lord Drayson* & ** (jointly with the Ministry of Defence)
* Minister of State - The Rt Hon David Lammy MP
* Minister of State - The Rt Hon Rosie Winterton MP*** (jointly with the Department for Communities and Local Government)
* Minister of State - Lord Davies of Abersoch CBE* (jointly with the Foreign and Commonwealth Office)
* Minister of State - Kevin Brennan MP (jointly with the Department for Children, Schools and Families)
* Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Lord Carter of Barnes (jointly with the Department for Culture, Media and Sport)
* Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Ian Lucas MP
* Parliamentary Under Secretary of State - Baroness Vadera (jointly with Cabinet Office)
* Parliamentary Under Secretary of State* - Lord Young of Norwood Green (and Lord in Waiting - paid)

Plus Mandy. Of the 11, five are unelected peers, among them some of the most influential figures in the government - Mandelson, Vadera, Carter, Drayson.

No institution better illustrates (simply by existing) the need for a democratic House of Lords. Now.

Bob Ainsworth: consummate media performer

2009-06-05T16:30:00.005+01:00

Let no-one say that Gordon is scratching around for Cabinet ministers. Bob Ainsworth, for example, has been on course for promotion ever since this stellar performance on Newsnight.

Over-60s stand firm for Brown

2009-06-05T15:24:00.004+01:00

Crazy 48 hours, huh?

Here's a useful tally of those ministers who have resigned, come out for GB, stayed silent since Purnell's resignation last night

***BBC has just reported Hoon has stepped down, as I write***

Not sure how much more of this the Govt can cope with. But with the reshuffle largely complete, GB may be secure, for now. Well, until Monday, if the James Purnell/Phil Collins strategy is vindicated.

Most of the Labour voters I spoke to on the doorstep were none too impressed with the scheming against Brown. Granted, most were women over 60 (94 in one case). But I think they may have a point in their wariness of doing something so impulsive and risky. Things may look bad now, but perhaps a bit of faith is what's required.

***MORE BAD NEWS: Tories take control of Derbyshire County Council***

***MORE BAD NEWS: Tories take control of Lancashire County Council***

Smiling assassin on the John

2009-05-24T12:05:00.006+01:00

One of my favourite MP expenses claims revealed last week was former Home Sec John Reid's £30 claim for a black, glittery toilet seat.

This must be among the most inexplicable of all claims. The man known for having the smile - and style - of an assassin, who at the Home Office positioned himself somewhere to the right of Genghis Khan, who proudly wears the scars of Glasgow Labour politics, submitting a receipt for an item that would not have been out of place on Elton John's wedding list.

John Smith

2009-05-17T10:35:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Rupa Huq for tagging me into this, three questions about John Smith, who died fifteen years ago to the week. I then have to tag others, like a chain letter ...

Where were you when you heard John Smith had died?

I was at at secondary school when he died. I'm pretty certain there was no public announcement ... so I would have probably been told by my mum when I got home. I would then have watched Newsround and the BBC One News at Six. I don't remember where, but I distinctly remember watching footage of a Tory MP (don't know who) being told about the death in the middle of a press conference, and him clearly being on the verge of tears.

How did you view John Smith when he was leader and how do you view him now?

I didn't have much of a view of him, being the age I was. I remember my Mum and I being very disappointed when Kinnock stood down in '92 (we sent him a telegram asking him not to resign). But John Smith seemed alright to me. I remember my Granddad describing a 'devastating' performance in the Commons of Smith's ... possibly about Arms to Iraq.

As for now: it's difficult. I don't really have much of an 'organic' view of him, but one shaped by the reminiscences of others. A 'waspish' and 'devastating' Commons performer. A member of the Old Right of the party. A serious, perhaps boring public persona. His shadow budget (as Shadow Chancellor) of 1992 is often blamed for losing Labour that year's general election. I tend to disagree.

Do you think he would have made a good Prime Minister?

Why not? He was serious, able and had real conviction. (By the way, I think he would have been elected in 1997).

What do you think is his lasting legacy?

The biggest of achievement of Blair's first term, Devolution, was inherited from Smith. It wouldn't have happened without him. And by 1994 I think Labour had changed sufficiently to be elected. Blair went further, and some of that - the worship of wealth, for example - is coming back to haunt us now.

Tagging:

Tim McLoughlin
Tom Miller
Alex Hilton/Labour Home

Liam Byrne on BBC News just now

2009-05-14T18:45:00.005+01:00

Liam Byrne was really trying to take the fight to Cameron on expenses on the Beeb just now. His criticism of the Tories' committee to review its MPs' expenses - with phrases like 'cosy confines of party HQ' and 'party apparatchiks' - is severely time limited, tho'; it is only an interim measure before Christopher Kelly reports.

And the claim that GB 'broke the deadlock' on the issue with his feeble flat-rate proposal a couple of weeks ago stretches credulity ...

More and more, is Cameron being treated like a PM-in-waiting?

2009-05-12T23:20:00.008+01:00

Well, didn't Cameron manage to turn the tables in the expenses row? Lots of positive coverage on the BBC, for example, for his sudden decree that Tory MPs don't claim for furniture or food in their second homes. We'll see what the papers are like.

I can't help but think the BBC coverage was a bit too positive. 'Appalled Cameron leads payback', was the headline. Nick Robinson is a well known Tory, granted, but his clear implication tonight was that Cameron's (let's face it) essentially reactive measures displayed 'decisiveness' and 'leadership':

For David Cameron the stories of cash for moats and manure was both a threat and an opportunity. A threat to his claim to have changed and modernised the Conservative Party but also an opportunity to demonstrate leadership in doing just that ... Labour [has] been left trailing in David Cameron's wake ...

And Norman Smith's report on Radio 4's 6pm bulletin described how Cameron had 'summoned' senior Tories to instruct them to pay some of the money back, without even mentioning that Cameron himself has come under scrutiny for a £680 home repair bill. Which left me shouting at the radio - 'What? He summoned himself?'

(This is not to sat to say the proposal is not spot on - Brown should have done exactly the same thing a couple of weeks ago when he went on You Tube. As we know, he came up with a lump-sum half-measure which pleased no-one, effectively paving the way for Cameron to take the initiative).

Notwithstanding some greater scrutiny of their policies, there is the inevitable tendency for PMs-in -waiting get an easy ride from a media hoping for access when the new regime enters Downing Street. Is it happening for Cameron now? Tories made exactly this complaint against coverage of Blair before the 1997 election. But nothing remotely as serious as these Tory expenses revelations happened to Labour between 1994 and 1997, did it?

Expenses doppelgänger

2009-05-12T22:39:00.011+01:00

Iain Dale tonight praised Hazel Blears for coming out and saying she will pay back the capital gains tax she avoided paying on her 'second' home.

I couldn't help but notice the clip of Hazel on the BBC News at Ten, and the startling resemblance between long-time Blears special adviser Paul Richards (flanking Blears in the clip) and the Dale himself ... it just dawned on me.

Not sure what I could be implying here, but it could be explosive.

Dale

Richards

Cheney for President

2009-04-28T13:32:00.003+01:00

Look at this guy:

I comfort myself in the knowledge that only someone with such a dubious line in facial adornment could possibly pen an article entitled Cheney for President.

Both moustache and column could be satirical I suppose. It wouldn't be first time American irony has gone straight over my head.

More on the ideology of Guido

2009-04-25T04:20:00.005+01:00

Reading Terry Eagleton in the LRB today, this passage struck m as relevant to the previous post:

Liberty had traditionally meant not personal freedom, but freedom for certain privileged social groups – in effect, the licence of the lawless aristocrat. From Lord Byron to Oscar Wilde, the aristocrat and the anarchist have always been secret bedfellows. If the English love a character, they also love a lord, which is one reason Byron (who was literally an aristocrat) and Wilde (who was spiritually one) are held in such high esteem.

Where raving is liberty, and the new aristocrats are bankers. 'Dave the Rave - licence of the of the lawless aristocrat.' Not exactly a an election poster slogan, but is that him at around 00:14?

Vice on Staines

2009-04-24T17:07:00.002+01:00

http://www.viceland.com/wp/2009/04/bringing-back-thatcherism-one-rave-at-a-time/

Interesting. There are few cool people in politics, let alone the Tories. Not that anyone who has ever worked in high finance could be remotely cool, of course.

Guido is essentially an 'anarchist', as Peter Wilby argues in this week's New Statesman. Libertarianism and raving (and drugs) are obvious ideological bedfellows, of course.

No mention of the young Staines's alleged wearing of 'Hang Nelson Mandella' t-shirts, either.

Greer on Thatcher

2009-04-20T16:58:00.003+01:00

Amid the mountain of guff being written on the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming PM, Germaine Greer's piece in the Guardian a couple of Saturdays ago really stands out. Greer so effortlessly out-smarts most of the full-time political commentariat, it's almost embarrassing.

A text from a mate of mine about the piece is worth reproducing:

Among a myriad of of fine points, she wrote the best analysis of Thatcher's human failings I have ever seen: 1. Lack of reading. 2. Lack of imagination. 3. Lack of insight. 4. Lack of humour. That, my friend, is utter perfection.

Can't put it better than that.

Jowell leads Austin a merry dance

2009-04-20T11:02:00.008+01:00

The BBC News website on the fraught Erith and Thamesmead selection:

'Jowell makes apology to fellow MP

Olympics minister Tessa Jowell has apologised to a fellow Labour MP for not saying she was to visit his seat, the scene of a party selection battle.

She did not inform John Austin, the retiring MP for Erith and Thamesmead, she would attend a meeting organised by one candidate seeking to succeed him.

Complaints that non-local candidates are being favoured have caused ructions during the south-east London contest.

A hustings was called off after allegations of ballet box tampering.'

Perhaps a Strictly-style dance-off is the only logical way forward.

Hannan sounds like a crank

2009-03-25T15:19:00.005Z

Right-wing blogs like Guido, Drudge and Coffee House were seriously impressed by Tory MEP Daniel Hannan's broadside following Gordon's speech to the European Parliament.

They're hoping it'll become an internet phenomenon. Here's hoping indeed ... it'll scare voters in the UK.

The guy sounds like a crank, indistinguishable from UKIP, bad-mouthing the European Parliament from the inside and referring to 'Brezhnev-era apparatchiks'.

Hannan rails against the fact that Brown has 'subsidised where you have not nationalised outright, swaths of our economy including the car industry and many of the banks.'

I had been under the impression that support for bank recapitalisation and subsidising lending to industry - including the car industry - were official Tory party policy. Will the Tory leadership disown these comments? Or will we see Cameron and Osborne campaigning for Hannan's re-election in June?

Hannan proves himself wrong within the space of two paragraphs

2009-02-27T11:29:00.007Z

Daniel Hannan on the Telegraph's blogs says that

Black cabs are cabin'd, cribb'd confined - bound in to a price structure that doesn't let them respond to customer demand. They raised their fares during the prosperous years (and, to be fair, the years of rising fuel prices); but are not now able to drop them to a level where they again become a viable option. It's another example of how regulation almost always makes things worse.

Black cabs are of course too expensive. But talk about defeating yourself within the space of a single, short blog post.

His previous paragraph:

Well, I was barely ever on a bus before the age of 26: they were too unreliable. Nowadays, though, I use them all the time. The improvement of bus services in London since Oyster cards came in is perhaps Ken Livingstone's sole achievement as mayor.

And why do you think they improved, Daniel? As if by magic? No, greater regulation of course.

Well said Mandy!

2009-02-18T14:08:00.003Z

It's not often I unreservedly agree with Peter Mandelson. But here ...

Only a matter of days after London Mayor Boris Johnson used the f-word against Keith Vaz, Business Secretary Lord Peter Mandelson has used it to put down the chairman of Starbucks – but while Johnson was swearing in what he thought was a private telephone conversation, Mandelson was talking in front of the press at an official event.

Speaking on the American CNBC TV channel about how the credit crunch is affecting his business, Howard Schultz had said: "The place that concerns us the most is western Europe, and specifically the UK. The UK is in a spiral." He added that his biggest concerns were "unemployment, the sub-prime mortgage crisis, particularly in the UK, and I think consumer confidence, particularly in the UK, is very, very poor".

Eager to dispel the general feeling in the US that the UK economy is in extremely poor shape, Mandelson said on the same TV programme: "The UK is not spiralling, although I've noticed Starbucks is in a great deal of trouble – but that might be because of their over-expansion given the state of the market. So please don't project Starbucks on to the UK economy as a whole."

But it was when speaking at a diplomatic cocktail reception at the official residence of the British consul-general in New York that Mandelson really lost his cool. He said: "Why should I have this guy running down the country? Who the f*** is he?" Then he asked of Starbucks: "How the hell are they doing?"

The answer to this question is that Starbucks' profits fell by 69 per cent in the last quarter of 2008 and the company has announced that it is to close 300 outlets on top of 600 that shut last year. Total jobs lost could come to around 7000.

Worth reproducing in full, I think. Hattip: Public Servant, obv.

TSC recruits ringer - looks like they need him

2009-02-10T22:16:00.000Z

Robert Peston's verdict on today's much-hyped grilling of the 'World's Worst Bankers' is, I think, an implicit criticism of the Treasury Select Committee:

Apologies carry weight when they are accompanied by a clear explanation by the miscreants of what they did wrong and why. And the problem with the sorries uttered by the former bosses of Royal Bank of Scotland and HBOS is that they lacked a detailed account of why they did what they did. Mistakes were admitted - but motivation was glossed over.

Nick Robinson's verdict on the radio earlier was similar. So, is the TSC up to it? Many of the line-up seem to have held frontbench positions for a short time and then been sacked. Select Committee membership continues to be a consolation prize for such types. Wouldn't we have preferred a few more brain cells to rub together ... ? Here's a quick rundown:

John McFall (Chair) - Junior minister, Northern Ireland Office, 1998-1999 - sacked.
Michael Fallon - Junior education minister, '90-2 (sacked by the people of Darlington at the '92 election in favour of Alan Milburn), opposition Treasury spokesman '97-8 - retired due to 'ill health'.
George Mudie - Junior education minister, '98-9 - sacked.
Graham Brady - Resigned as Shadow Europe Minister in 2007 over grammar schools row
John Thurso - Lib Dem Scottish spokes to 2006 - sacked.
Nick Ainger - Junior Wales Minister, 2005-2007 - sacked.
Colin Breed - Sacked at least once as Lib Dem Treasury spokes
Jim Cousins - sacked as frontbencher in 1996 for missing a Commons vote for returning late from Kurdistan.
Sally Keeble - Junior DfID minister, 2002-3 - sacked.
Andy Love - DTI miniser to 2005 - sacked.
John Mann
Mark Todd
Sir Peter Viggers - Sacked by Thatcher as Industry minister in 1989.

I make that nine sackings out of thirteen. No wonder that, in the past week, they felt the need to recruit a ringer with proper academic credentials.

Cameron the opportunist

2009-02-08T10:36:00.004Z

On the reading the Guardian's interview with Sharon Shoesmith yesterday, it becomes clearer how two politicians - Ed Balls and David Cameron - used the huge media fuss over the issue of Baby P for political purposes.

Shoesmith feels she was forced out by politicians responding to intense press hysteria, and accuses Balls of 'breathtaking recklessness' by insisting on her sacking, saying Haringey social services' work had been hampered by the upheaval.

I am still inclined to think that Balls did the right thing, though he may not have had much choice. Powerful newspapers like the Sun, which delivered a 1.2m-signature petition to Downing Street demanding Shoesmith's dismissal, would have settled for nothing less. Politically, Balls would have found it impossible to take a more conciliatory line.

But what about David Cameron? At that fateful PMQs he decried the "raft of excuses and not one apology … the buck has got to stop somewhere". But Shoesmith had already apologised several times on national television.

SInce becoming Tory leader, Cameron has been pretty successful at painting Brown as an opportunistic political tactician on a range of issues: the election fiasco of late summer 2007, 10p tax, 42 days, Heathrow's third runway. Although Brown levelled the very same accusation at Cameron on many of these issues, it never really stuck.

Brown ended up on the wrong side of the argument on 10p, 42 days, the third runway. It looked like he was trying to outflank the Tories on the right for the sake of popularity. This was probably exactly what he was trying to do. Cameron was able to ride the tide of opinion building up against the government on all these issues.

Meanwhile, the Tory leader successfully concentrated on strategy while Brown got tactically bogged down. Husky dogs, 'let sunshine rule the day' and nice noises about Polly Toynbee were all famous examples of him giving the impression of centrism without any actual policies to match. All very vacuous - but at least it didn't involve cosying up to narrow sectional interests like BAA or the Police.

But on Baby P, Cameron seems to have jumped straight on the bandwagon for narrow tactical reasons. That's an ok thing to do if your overall strategy is right. However, the economic crisis - as Steve Richards showed in the Independent this week - may have brought Cameron's first strategic missteps.

US in 'Biden drone' snub to EU

2009-02-07T16:36:00.008Z

Talk about a half-arsed sounding speech from Joe Biden during his trip to Munich ...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/7876653.stm

Is he drunk? Jetlagged? More plausible, perhaps, that they sent a satellite-controlled Biden drone, a la Pakistan ... in what is being seen as a reflection of the new administration's priorities.

Just listen to the Zomby-like delivery of such dead words as

' ... reject the zero-sum mentalities of the rigid ideologies ... common prosperity ... '

Inspiring stuff!

Tory uses the 'n' and 's' words on live TV

2009-02-04T17:56:00.005Z

The Carol Thatcher 'golliwog' incident has exercised the blogosphere via Iain Dale, and Derek Draper and Mark Day at Labour List.

Michael Eboda was spot-on on Today when he said if it was about the white Andy Murray, it was 'patently ridiculous' to sack Thatcher. But the BBC denies it was about Murray. The implication is that it was about a black player and I think this makes all the difference.

A similar point, about the context in which these words are used, was made forthrightly by the Tory MP Philip Davies on BBC News earlier. He used the words 'nigger' and 'spastic' to illustrate his point.

Davies said that Scope used to be called the Spastic Society but the word had since become a term of abuse and therefore unacceptable. I don't think 'nigger' has ever been acceptable, though, despite its recent appropriation by some black people.

I found myself simultaneously agreeing with, and recoiling from, Davies. Given we seem to have to go through all these terms on a tortuous word-by-word basis shows the vast shades of grey surrounding the issue of language use.

To borrow the words of a great man, the BBC has 'screwed up' again, firstly by letting some - but not all - of this story out, and secondly, by being so obviously inconsistent vis-a-vis the loathsome Chris Moyles. Both points Iain Dale made on Today, I might add.

2009-01-22T09:15:00.003Z

Reading the Milburn interview in Saturday's Times, I was drawn to the quote:

People think I've got a game plan, but I'm not Michael Heseltine

No, Alan, you're far more right-wing ...

This fresh bout of gloom might actually do Gordon good

2009-01-19T19:53:00.005Z

Mike Smithson on Political Betting brings us more poll gloom for Labour. This time it's from MORI, showing a large swing to the Tories - of 10% - from its last poll. The trend is in keeping with the YouGov poll in the Sunday Times and the ComRes poll for the Sindie.

Sad to say, but could Tory commentators like Fraser Nelson or Danny Finkelstein be right, that 2009 will see Tories regain their consistently big poll leads? Was Brown's recovery in late 2008, to within touching distance of Cameron, just a blip?

Nelson's and others' line goes like this: the recession will start to bite, and incumbents do badly when this happens, as a rule. This will prompt voters to remember why they disliked Brown quite so much just a few months ago. They think that Brown's 'window of opportunity', between the bank rescue and a wider recession, is closing fast.

But what happened to the argument doing the rounds last month, seemingly borne out by the polls, that Brown would lose for a different reason: the 'Churchill' factor? Voters thought Brown was the best man for the crisis, Cameron the best man for after the crisis. But are the figures so bad that an upswing by May 2010 are out of the question?

Nils Blythe - the nerd's Robert Peston - said on PM today that post-war recessions usually lasted about two years. This one started around the middle of last year, so a May 2010 election could conceivably come at the beginning of an upswing. Though that might make any difference to Brown's electoral prospects.

But the truth is - no-one really knows. This isn't like previous recessions, and the action taken by the Government to bailout out the banks (twice) is has never really been tried before. Will Hutton managed to sound apocalyptic in the Observer yesterday but optimistic on the World at One today. Perhaps that's because Brown's plan contained the essential elements he proposed for underwriting or buying the banks' toxic assets.

Today's plan might even work in finally freeing up lending and getting the economy moving again. If it does, perhaps Brown can still prosper. The narrative would be this: unprecedented times demanded unprecedented measures. This was not just your average Tory-style recession, but the gravest crisis since the 1930s. And Gordon rescued us.

Fanciful?

Obama to talk to Hamas

2009-01-08T23:57:00.008Z

Check this report in the Guardian:

Obama camp 'prepared to talk to Hamas'

Is this the first sign that Obama really will be the broad-minded, 'professor-President' we're all hoping for? One that really wants to address policy problems in an objective way, where a solution is more than important that ideology?

Anyone who's read Terry Eagleton's Ideology (and agreed with it - something of a proviso) knows that to claim to have escaped the clutches of ideology is a claim of Canutian proportions.

But on foreign policy, Obama need only look at the very clearest evidence of policy failure. On Israel-Palestine, more innocents are dying than ever while Bush sits idly by, his interest in a lasting solution as small as Clinton's was great. On Iran, lumpen neocon tough-talk means that Iran is closer to a bomb, and more influential in the region, than ever.

Obama is acutely aware of such policy failure. Given that he is not hampered by extreme right-wing ideology (Bush), or extreme political pessimism (Blair) - he should do alright.

Given, received, thumbed

2009-01-08T13:41:00.005Z

Some books from this Christmas just passed:

David Runciman - Political Hypocrisy

Been reading this on the tube. Seriously good. More to say about it soon.

George Orwell - Essays

Joe Sacco - Palestine

Very topical - more to say on this shortly (having only read the introduction by Edward Said) if I get the time.

Misha Glenny on the Mafia and Yugoslavia.

Tony Benn's diaries 2001-2007 (I was given this twice).

There are more ... can't think of them now.

Welcome to Red Threads (Merry Xmas)

2008-12-25T22:09:00.000Z

Back in Sheffield for Xmas, family have encouraged me to start this (political) blog. Let's see if it comes to anything.

Sleepwalking to disaster?

2008-12-25T14:59:00.006Z

In our family we have, in recent years, developed a tradition of providing crossword-style clues on our presents. For example, my sis gave me a Boston RedSox-themed Martini set - two glasses and a shaker. The clue was

Small Spanish Sea (7)

Mar (Spanish for Sea) - tiny. Geddit? But my Dad failed to get

Preferred mode of transport into disaster (9)

The answer is Sleepwalk. I said 'sleepwalking to disaster' was a minor political cliché, used to refer to the build-up to the Iraq war, perhaps, or the causes of the economic crisis. Maybe it was a bit too obscure: Google yielded only 61,000 hits.

Incidentally, the latter clue was for Glasgow DJ duo Optimo's new Sleepwalk mix.

I got JD Twitch (of Optimo fame)'s Ten Inches of Fear compo, a mix of Crass Records stuff from the mid to late '80s. Ten inch plus CD. Niiiice.