Why is climate change going down the political agenda?
contribution by Climate Sock
After a pause in hostilities for the election, it looks like the favourite climate story of the year has resurfaced. A new poll is out and being covered with the headline that fewer people now believe in climate change or think that it’s an urgent issue demanding attention.
There’s some truth in the basic argument that people are now less convinced and worried about climate change than they have been in the past.
But when the Guardian runs a story like this, it gets widely noticed and repeated, and there are several reasons why we shouldn’t get too carried away by the news.
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The David Laws paradox explains why I’m on the left
There are three lessons of David Laws’ resignation.
1. If you want to keep your job, following the rules has lexicographic priority over technical ability. Laws was widely regarded, even before the platitudes that followed his resignation, as superbly able minister. This was not enough to keep him in a job. The message here is that it is better to be a prissy, priggish follower of rules than a man of any other virtues – which is a perfect recipe for mediocrity.
It is in this sense that I agree with James Forsyth, that there’s something very depressing about this affair.
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Why David Laws had to go.
I have tremendous sympathy for the difficult position in which David Laws found himself.
Nevertheless, and regardless of his personal motives in this matter, its perfectly clear that he did breach Parliamentary rules, as they stood between 2006 and 2009 and, therefore, placed himself into a position that would inevitably become untenable at the point at which his living arrangements during the period became public knowledge.
And efforts by his colleagues and supporters to engineer an ‘escape clause’ by either salami-slicing the definition of what consitutites a partner or by suggesting that an element of homophobic intent may lie behind the Telegraph’s decision to run with this story is both deeply misguided and rather disingenuous.
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Spain’s credit rating problem could be ours next
The credit rating agency Fitch yesterday cut Spain’s credit rating from AAA to AA.
Have they done this because they think Spain is not getting to grips with its public finances? No.
They’ve cut the rating because the Spanish Government’s efforts to reduce their budget deficit through cuts.
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David Laws and the transition to gay equality
Update: David Laws has now resigned. He is replaced by Danny Alexander.
Separately to the finding on the expenses issue, the David Laws revelations might well come to be seen as the close of an era of transition to equality for politicians who are gay.
Some have tonight expressed disappointment that, in the Britain of 2010, the most powerful gay man in the Cabinet did not feel he could be open about his sexuality. That is an understandable instinct, but it is surely legitimate to think that these are highly personal decisions.
Most of us would be reluctant to think we could pronounce, without having lived in their shoes, on somebody else’s choices about their own life.
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Israel subverts human rights for a key critic
The Shin Bet security service will thwart the activity of any group or individual seeking to harm the Jewish and democratic character of the State of Israel, even if such activity is sanctioned by the law.
- Letter sent by Israeli Prime Minister’s Office, on behalf of Shin Bet, 2007
On Thursday, prominent political activist Ameer Makhoul, a Palestinian citizen of Israel, was indicted with serious charges of espionage and ‘aiding an enemy’.
As General Director of NGO-network Ittijah, Makhoul’s arrest and detention is attracting international attention as concern mounts about the increasing crackdown on dissent in Israel.
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The ’siege mentality’ of English nationalism
Like clockwork, with each World Cup or Euro Championship comes the urban myth based on some grand anti-English design or some hollow conspiracy theory whipped up by tabloids for the populace to consume.
The fact is, an alarming number of Brits are happy to be treated like imbeciles the moment there’s a whiff of international football in the air.
The rumours appear to have been kickstarted by (make a wild guess) the Sun when they published an article under the header “Bid to ban England tops in World Cup pubs“.
Anyone with more than a brain cell would have detected that the headline had nothing to do with the facts.
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Cameron says 80% of Tory cuts must be spending. No they don’t
Speaking yesterday on the Today programme about the need to reduce the budget deficit, David Cameron claimed that most of the reduction had to come from spending cuts.
80% in fact, with only 20% of the reduction coming via tax increases.
If you look internationally at when countries have had to deal with horrendous budget deficits, like the one that we were left by Labour, the international evidence shows that the 80-20 split is about the right proportion
…
That is if you like the gold standard that has been set internationally.
But is that the ‘gold standard’ internationally?
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Is David Miliband’s attack on the City credible?
David Miliband is targeting ‘immoral’ city excesses.
There’s a few images come to mind when we think of what it means to be a Blairite; that it is a portion of New Labourism that promoted, and was happy to see, the super rich.
That it excused immaturity, ill-thought and unnecessary risk in the city so long as UK boom financed the public sector to an extent that we no longer have the privilege of maintaining.
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Meddling in our lives, despite evidence it doesn’t work
The sacking of David Nutt by Alan Johnson last year cemented Labour’s reputation for policy based evidence making. The fitting of the facts to previously agreed upon policy objectives is an egregiously common practice for those in government.
The election to the Tory benches of Nadine “smear Tim Ireland” Dorries and the appointment of Philipa “cure the gays” Stroud to the back room of the Department for Work and Pensions left me nonplussed, to say the least. The lamentable loss of Evan Harris from parliament further dented any hope I had of a new rational approach to evidence and policy.
So I think it safe to say that I never had Chris Giles’ faith that the formation of a Conservative-Liberal coalition government would announce the resurrection of something long dead.
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Where’s Libdem outrage on Clegg’s Gary McKinnon u-turn?
contribution by Imran Ahmed
The Deputy Prime Minister, in his own words, on Gary McKinnon.
Writing in the Daily Mail, 4th August 2009
Expert lawyers assure me that, even at this 11th hour, the Government could prosecute him for those crimes here at home, instead of in the U.S.
It is imperative that it does so. Quite simply, the rest of Mr McKinnon’s life is on the line. It appals me that, so far at least, no one in government seems prepared to lift a finger to help him
You can be sure that if the situation was reversed, American politicians would be moving hell and high water to protect one of their citizens from such a gross injustice.
It is an affront to British justice that no one in the Labour Party has the courage to do the same… It is time for Gordon Brown and his Attorney General, Baroness Scotland, to step in and do the decent thing.
Why IDS’s “radical” welfare reforms won’t work
Under the new government, the cost of the welfare state will increase, unemployment will go up, and so will the number of people living in poverty. It is worth bearing this in mind when reading the spin about Iain Duncan Smith’s “radical welfare reforms”. Here’s three reflections on his speech today:
1. Duncan Smith’s big idea for getting people into work is to pay them more benefits. Under his plans, everyone who is in low paid work will also get paid Jobseekers’ Allowance, and possibly also Housing and Council Tax Benefit.
He hasn’t yet managed to persuade the Treasury of the advantages of this policy (surprise, surprise).
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Jon Cruddas for Mayor of London: the campaign starts here
Jon Cruddas must be persuaded to run for Mayor of London: he is the only candidate who can win against Boris.
A few years ago I said, ‘If Ken stands for Mayor, the left is in deep trouble‘ and most of those points still hold true. Ken has been working hard for the past two years to build a re-election vehicle that has kept him in the limelight and kept out potential opponents.
But Ken can’t win against Boris. He lost once and there are no reasons why he would win the second time around. And before readers respond with: ‘but he polled higher than Labour’s national vote‘: let me deflate that line.
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This is what a Labour agenda for women could look like
These are glum times for women in politics. Plus ça change, plus c’est la freakin’ même chose. We were treated to an election campaign in which senior women politicans from all parties were told to keep quiet, look demure and generally get the dinner on.
Harman, a proper grown-up feminist whatever her other failings, was reportedly told to STFU by Mandelson, whose pricklish anti-woman agenda is as predictable as it is ghastly. The new Cabinet is as light on the X-chromosomes as Brown’s outgoing Brut-scented line-up.
The Minister for Women position is now Westminster’s own PTA post, handed as an afterthought to Theresa May to be accomplished in all that spare time she’ll have as Home Secretary.
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Here’s what I say on Labour and immigration
Many of the Labour leadership contenders may not want to challenge the myths around immigration, and more’s the shame on them. But instead of wringing my hands about it, it’s my job as a Labour member to try and do something to make them change their minds.
This post is partly a response to Anton at Enemies Of Reason:
If Labour doesn’t want to challenge these [immigration] myths, fine. If it wants to think that it lost the election because it wasn’t tough enough on immigration, fine. But they’ll have a pretty stinging smack in the face coming when they have a re-brand with added Woolas-style dogwhistles but don’t get anywhere. They had the chance to challenge the myths, but instead they’re making myths of their own. And that’s a massive mistake.
The government is calling victims of rape liars
So the new government has somehow found time in its recession-busting schedule to propose a law that will grant anonymity to men accused of rape, who are of course the most pitiable and urgently un of victims of woman-promoting-marriage-destroying-single-mum-supporting-violence-preventing Broken Britain.
Popular wisdom has it that vast numbers of rape allegations are false, when in fact false accusation is believed to account for only a tiny percentage of reported rapes – no higher than false reports for other crimes.
The Daily Fail have somehow produced both the most table-bitingly offensive assessment of the situation so far – from treacherous misogynist Melanie Phillips, who claims that “after Labour’s reign of extreme man-hating feminism, common sense is reasserting itself” – and the most reasonable discussion of the issues for women, from Susanne Moore.
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The class politics of Fake Sheikh scams
Funny how you never hear of a Fake Sheikh sting blushingly rebuffed by the target with a properly decent British response such as ‘thanks awfully old boy, but I really couldn’t possibly. I’m afraid your suggestion would be most, erm, unethical.’
No, the suckers somehow fall for it time and time again.
Fortunately for the Sunday papers, the ker-ching! reflex repeatedly proves irresistible across to the wealthiest 1% of the population, be they royal divorcees, discredited New Labour cabinet ministers or common or garden snooker champs. Front page splashes don’t come any easier than that.
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How should the left frame opposition to spending cuts?
The left-wing response to spending cuts announced yesterday has been, I think, a fairly scattergun approach.
Given that the coalition government have been talking about the coming cuts for months, if not years, it has been built into public expectations. Plus, they’ve announced some gimmicky austerity measures for MPs that will grab headlines and make people think that MPs are also sharing in the pain so it’s alright.
Which means public outrage won’t be that high.
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Libdems killed the Child Trust Fund star
Its official. After a short interim in which newborns will receive a mere £50 or £100, the Child Trust Fund (CTF) is in effect to be axed. As of January 2011, there will be no further government contributions into any CTFs, according to the announcement yesterday.
The Conservatives did not fight the election on a platform of completely abolishing the CTF. Their policy was to trim it back to the poorest families. The Lib Dems, however, have fought two elections on a platform of abolishing the CTF. The effective abolition of the CTF is, quite clearly, a Libdem responsibility.
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How can we keep climate change an important issue?
contribution by Climate Sock
However we measure it, climate change has become a less prominent issue in the UK lately. With a new government that looks unexpectedly stable, climate campaigners can no longer count on another election coming along soon to shake things up.
Instead, they need to find ways of working with the current media and political set-up.
There are significant risks in not addressing the way climate change is currently talked about and acted on.
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» Why don’t MPs pay back tuition fees instead of increasing ours?
» Obama is right to slam BP – and why capitalists should too
» Why does Phillip Blond see civil cohesion as a security issue?
» 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?
» The Labour leadership’s token contender.. and it’s not Diane Abbott
» In defence of these fraternal nominations
» Is this the end for the socialist left?
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