What does Cameron’s “broken society” say about us?
Reading the Grauniad’s interview with David Cameron and the accompanying article, it’s very difficult not to become depressed that after 10 years of Blair, within a couple of years we’re going to be under the thumb of his very real heir, and with not just the Labour party but the entirety of the left raising barely a whimper of defiance.
Cameron’s broken society gambit is almost certainly the one detail that makes me despair the most. He knows it’s not true, we know it isn’t true, the government knows it isn’t true, even the Times, whose sister paper has done the most to perpetuate the notion knows it isn’t true, and yet I don’t think I can recall a single politician, whether they be Labour or Liberal Democrat who has directly challenged Cameron to provide some real evidence that British society is any sense broken.
Here’s Cameron’s incredibly weak case for it:
He denies he is giving a false picture of Britain by talking of a broken society, saying: “There is a general incivility that people have to put up with, people shouting at you on the bus or abusing you on the street, or road rage. There is a lot of casual violence; and I think it is important to draw attention to it.”
Bag carriers against Gordon Brown
All journalists hate slow news days, and bank holiday Mondays are often the slowest news days of the lot. Let’s be charitable and assume that this is why the Guardian led its politics coverage this morning with a potboiler of the worst order from Nicholas Watt.
It seems that an obscure New Labour speechwriter – hyped up as ‘a key ally of Tony Blair’, in a failed attempt to sex up the copy – has attacked Gordon Brown in a most unoriginal manner in a small circulation pointy-head magazine.
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Where is the Agency, John?
There is an article by John McDonnell published in yesterday’s Morning Star, which I feel at once encapsulates the reasons why people on the left feel a lingering affection for the Labour Party and also why that Party is in reality a no-goer. And indeed I think McDonnell himself is emblematic of that same duality.
In the article, McDonnell begins with his ususal rallying cry “New Labour is dead” and seeks to take us forward via the construcation of a new set of economic policies (dare one say an Alternative Economic Strategy?) based on left-wing and socialist politics. He appears to be offering the notion that thus we will be able to take control of the Labour Party’s political direction via victory in a sub-Gramscian war of ideas.
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The mistake of underestimating Boris
Boris is enjoying a honeymoon as London Mayor, as Andrew Grice of The Independent writes on his politics blog.
Will it last? I fear that Boris Johnson’s critics are already repeating the mistake they made during the campaign, as I argue in a New Statesman column on the Mayoral race fallout.
Gleefully anticipating a gaffe-filled mayoralty that will wreck David Cameron’s project helps Johnson to set expectations very low. Johnson benefits as much as Ronald Reagan or George W Bush ever did from being seriously “misunderestimated”. Which other candidate would have got away with floundering and being roughly £100m out on their sums for buses in the televised mayoral debates?
But if he merely remembers to put his trousers on every morning and get to work, Johnson’s mayoralty will be acclaimed as a triumph. But the real test must be the same any other mayor would face: delivery. That – with Johnson presented as a hands-off “chairman of the board” – is truly a test of the Cameron project”.
Rather than expecting a total fiasco, we should be scrutinising what the Tory modernisers want to do with power.
Perhaps the (conservative) answer will be not very much at all.
Drugs policy: Brown fiddles while…
Not long after I moved to Hackney, I witnessed an armed robbery. From a range of about three feet, the fact that the robber was a crackhead was as obvious as the hammer and kitchen knife he was waving about.
A few years later, my partner and baby daughter were abducted outside my house. continue reading… »
We’re watching you Boris
This piece of news is too delicious not to write about. Bruce Anderson says Boris is a libertarian. And yet the Sun says London’s new mayor is planning to ban consuming alcohol on the tube.
Where to now, Labour left?
Until very recently I would broadly have fallen into the category of the ‘Labour Left’.
I was never totally comfortable with attempts by sections of the left to pull away from the Labour Party, which I had been brought up since childhood to see as “my” party, and which latterly I had come to see as a vehicle via which the Labour Movement could exercise its influence in the party political field: Lenin’s classic formulation of the “bourgeois workers’ party” could not describe it better.
In spite of a brief spell as a member of the Socialist Alliance, I quickly rejoined Labour and argued tooth and nail with comrades that things hadn’t changed so very much. It is now self-evident that I was wrong.
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Goodbye to Ken
London, my London, looked little different this morning, when I tried to shake off the mares of the night before (Bojo and the BNP at City Hall) in the Regent’s Park summer series 10k race. I did about as well as the Labour Party on Dismayday, leaden legs limping lumpenly to the finish line.
The sun was shining, the plane trees were fruiting, the bus lanes were still functioning, there was still the same myriad mix of people, united in our variety. This is the city I never dreamt I would stay in when I first arrived here from the provinces. And this is the city I have grown to love and call home.
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Was it the Standard wot won it?
So, it’s the weekend after the week before, and an alliance of gameshow fans, 4×4 drivers, suburban curtain-twitchers, BNP second-preferences, Labourphobes and the thoroughly fed-up, mostly from places that don’t even count as London, have foisted a Thatcherite mayor on our generally left-leaning city. continue reading… »
Reasons why Boris as mayor isn’t so bad
I try and be an optimist, so here goes…
1) Closeness of the race says to me that right-wing newspapers have little impact. Despite the combined endorsement of The Sun, Daily Mail, Telegraph, Times and Evening Boris, there was only 6% between them. I wish we had better exit polling in this country because I bet most voted for Boris on the basis of change, not al-Qaradawi or Lee Jasper of Hugo Chavez.
2) He started off from the traditional right Spectator crowd and gradually changed his mind on nearly everything. The Congestion Charge will remain; he’s also opposed to the Third runway; he backed off on repealing the smoking ban; embraced London’s multiculturalism; said he was proud of his Muslim heritage (compared to what he used to say); said he supported amnesty for long-term illegal migrants; is unlikely to try his new fangled and super-expensive bus programme.
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Mayor election live blog and open thread
01:52am Boris said:
On a more serious note, Johnson said: “I do not for one moment believe that this election shows that London has been transformed overnight into a Conservative city.”
But he said he thought the result did show that the Conservatives could be “trusted with the greatest, most cosmopolitan and generous-hearted city” in the world.
He got the first bit right. He still needs to prove the second part.
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Election special and live blogging…
LIBERAL CONSPIRACY CALLS FOR KEN LIVINGSTONE
… on the basis a wide range of conversations we’ve had throughout the day with people in the field and with senior insiders… and my mates from the pub.
—————
2am I’m signing off from the live-blogging for now. It’s become boring and the only graphics the BBC can muster up is the tired Gordon Brown ‘From Stalin to Mr Bean’ one… besides, I have an article to file. I might continue in the comments though.
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Simon Hughes for Ken?
Dave Hill finds that Libdem’r Simon Hughes, “urged voters to cast their second preference for someone who had served London already”. He’s advocating Paddick as first choice of course, but does that mean Ken should be no. 2?
By electing Boris, we could end up burying him
There are many very good reasons not to vote for Boris Johnson, but most likely we will wake up on Friday to that result.
The election now comes down to a question of turnout and of appealing to second preferences, particularly of Liberal Democrat voters. The key unknown may be what impact last minute doubts about Johnson have. (Two-thirds of the Politics Home ‘insider panel’ think this will make a difference, but will it be enough?)
As I wrote in a Comment is Free piece on how we have come this close to the prospect of Mayor Boris, the Conservative Party has successfully Boris-proofed Lynton Crosby’s campaign from the candidate, and is now worrying about how to Boris-proof David Cameron’s ambitions to be Prime Minister from the possible fallout of Johnson’s Mayoralty.
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Ten reasons to vote Ken
During the weeks of the election campaign that’s eaten my life, I’ve striven to be fair to Boris Johnson. There was, though, never much chance I’d vote for him. That said, I’ve also been testing my loyalty to Ken Livingstone. I believe his various critics, including those with roots on the left, have over-spun or overstated their cases against him, but that isn’t to say they lack all force. There’s also the question of how much difference a change of mayor would really make.
On the day campaigning officially began, I argued that the job description and moderate content of Johnson’s stated polices meant that many of the differences were less of Big Ideas than emphasis. This wasn’t what Team Ken wanted to hear, as it made clear in a letter the Guardian published the following day: its job from the off has been to sharpen the contrast in substance – of both policy and pedigree – between the two men; Johnson’s, in keeping with David Cameron’s approach, has been to position himself just enough to the blue side of the incumbent to mobilise Tory support without confirming suspicions that he’s daft and extreme.
But though the choice between the two was not as stark as their media images suggested, there was no doubt they were there. The thing was to clarify and quantify them. I’ve done my best and now feel I can vote for Livingstone with conviction.
Here are 10 reasons why.
Turning politics into a cartel
Two recent politic stories highlight just how rapidly remaining differences between the only two political parties in Britain capable of forming governments continue to erode. That can only be to the detriment of voter choice.
First off, we read that the Smith Institute – a thinktank linked with Gordon Brown – and the Centre for Social Justice – a thinktank linked with Iain Duncan Smith – are to publish a joint strategy on how to get children out of poverty.
As Guardian reporter Andrew Wintour notes, accurately enough: “The joint initiative suggests the differences between the two parties are much smaller than they pretend.”
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Littlejohn endorses Boris
Richard Littlejohn, that paragon of enlightened thinking, wants his readers to vote Boris. Almost as bad as a BNP endorsement? Via SB.
Ken woos Libdems with open letter
Ken Livingstone has published an open letter on his website with the aim of wooing Libdems by pointing out how closely his policies match theirs, in contrast to Boris Johnson.
The letter says:
I do not pretend that I share every single Lib Dem policy but on 90 per cent of issues we agree and we are part of the same progressive tradition in London. And that set of shared values shines through in the many areas where we agree and where we have worked together. I am publishing examples of these areas of agreement because it highlights how we can work together.On most of the key international, national and London issues my positions and those of the Liberal Democrat Party have been the same. Particularly important have been opposition to the war in Iraq; support for the Kyoto climate change treaty and prioritising environmental policy, opposition to tuition fees; support for Proportional Representation; opposition to Tube privatisation, support for higher charges for polluting cars; opposition to nuclear power.
My pledge to Liberal Democrat voters if I am re-elected is twofold. First, that I will continue to deliver on the policies and values that we share. Second, that I will operate an inclusive administration which includes the talents of Lib Dem politicians and supporters.
The ‘Shared Values for London’ article, comparing policies, is here.
Does it convince anyone?
Paddick stations?
The BBC1 Question Time special last night, featuring “the three main London mayoral candidates”, was as depressing a tit-for-tat charade as I’ve seen for some time. The ratio of insult to fact or argument was far, far too high. Maybe I just don’t go to hustings enough these days.
Particularly disappointing was Brian Paddick, God’s new lieutenant. Alternating between ineffectually smug and an unconvincingly macho, he didn’t use his central position on the podium to evince authority or offer anything new. Instead he sounded rather like the school rich kid trying to brag about how clever and decent he is. Embarrassing.
Ken made a direct play for Lib Dem second preferences, claiming he agreed with them on 90 per cent of issues and citing his own past support for Ed Davey. Pluralism or panic? Paddick (revealing that we gravitate to his second name, huh?) then accused him of telling people how to vote and claimed that he and Boris were equally bad.
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Using the boot to generate news
Boris Johnson brushed clouds of doubt aside yesterday as The Sun newspaper endorsed him for Mayor of London. In a double page spread, Britain’s highest-selling paper told their readers to kick out “Caracas” Ken and vote in “Mayor Race Favourite” Boris.
The London edition of the paper also devoted their entire Sun Says column to the race, urging their readers to pick “a new and fresh Champion for London”. And just in case their readers still didn’t know how to vote the paper included a handy how you can vote section.
Of course The Sun’s endorsement of Boris Johnson should come as little surprise. Boris is in many ways the ideal Sun candidate. Here is a public school toff posing as a friend of the working class. A man who speaks almost entirely in mockney puns without actually saying anything even mildly offensive to Murdoch and his chums.
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You can read articles through the front page, via Twitter or rss feeds.
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» So what if the Labour candidates went to Oxbridge?
» Last night’s Labour hustings: will it get interesting or turn to torture?
» It’s now down to Ken to win London for Labour
» The Labour people need
» Blog Nation: what would you like to see discussed?
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» In defence of these fraternal nominations
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