Uk politics

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Never mind fake news, this is fake government

From our UK edition

There’s a line in 'All the President’s Men' which seems dismally appropriate for our current government: 'News that would have occasioned banner headlines a few weeks ago was now simply mentioned in a larger story'. When things fall apart, boy they really fall apart.  This is not Watergate, of course, and Brexit must happen because that is what the people have commanded. Nevertheless, this is not a government that inspires confidence even on its own benches. And by God there is too much news. More, certainly, than can fit in a single story or be the subject of its own banner headlines.  Up until now, the standard view has been that Boris Johnson is less trouble in the Foreign Office than he would be were he left to prowl the back benches.

Isabel Hardman

MPs tear into Boris Johnson for Iran blunder

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson mysteriously decided to update the House of Commons on the fight against Islamic State today, even though everyone else was talking about another aspect of the Foreign Secretary’s job. He decided to include the row over his comments about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe in this statement, presumably to take some of the heat out of the row. His other tactic in trying to reduce the row further was to accuse anyone who attacked him for his blunder in which he told the Foreign Affairs Committee last week that Zaghari-Ratcliffe was teaching journalism of playing party politics.

Ross Clark

Has Brexit really made us all happier?

From our UK edition

Apparently we’re all getting a little happier – if a little more anxious. The government’s official happiness index shows that we rate our overall life satisfaction at an average of 7.7 out of 10. We think our lives are 7.9 out of 10 worthwhile. We rate our happiness yesterday at 7.5 out of 10 and our anxiety rating at 2.9 out of 10 – a slight rise on early 2015 when national anxiety reached a low but still much less than when the index started in 2011.  Does it mean anything though?

Isabel Hardman

Why the social care crisis could get worse much sooner than you think

From our UK edition

Social care is in crisis: everyone knows that. And everyone knows that if nothing is done about the long-term sustainability of the sector, then the crisis will only get worse. But less well-known is that there is a short-term crisis looming that could threaten the sector very quickly, too. Over the past few years, the sector has been trying to work out the implications of a court ruling that carers who stay overnight are entitled to the minimum wage for their sleep-in shifts, rather than a flat rate fee for a ‘sleep-in’ shift.

Nick Cohen

Our dismal leaders make me mourn the decline of the professional politician

From our UK edition

The collapse of the old order in the West provoked a collapse in confidence in ‘professional politicians’. It was a boo phrase as reliable as ‘heretic’ in the medieval church. A speaker wishing to endear himself or herself to the audience only had to say that the country was sick to the back teeth of them to earn a round of applause. On a material level, there were rational reasons for the loathing. We do not say often enough that Western societies have failed their peoples. The average Briton or American has not had a pay rise for over a decade. Growth rates in Britain appear to have taken a permanent knock, and that is before Brexit. Any people can put up with suffering if they know it is a temporary measure.

Steerpike

Priti Patel’s jet set lifestyle continues

From our UK edition

Priti Patel’s working holiday to Israel – in which she held secret meetings with Israeli politicians, including the country’s PM Benjamin Netanyahu – has landed her in hot water. Despite the backlash to Patel’s foreign escapade, however, it seems her jet set lifestyle shows no sign of stopping. In Parliament this afternoon, Patel had a chance to defend herself and tell MPs what she got up to on her summer trip. The only hitch? She couldn't make it. In Patel’s absence, it was left to her deputy, Alistair Burt, to fill in. So where was Patel? 'She is presently in the air,' he told MPs to laughter in the Commons. https://www.youtube.com/watch?

James Kirkup

Priti Patel’s survival speaks volumes about the state of May’s premiership

From our UK edition

'Extraordinary' is perhaps the most over-used word in the Westminster lexicon. Days, statements, speeches, developments – all are routinely described as extraordinary, so often that the word is, well, ordinary. But some extraordinary things deserve the term more than others. A statement issued yesterday by the Department for International Development about Priti Patel’s holiday is more than ordinarily extraordinary. I’ll leave aside the fairly obvious politics of all this: under any other circumstances, Ms Patel would have been sacked, and the fact that she hasn’t been is just another comment on the state of Theresa May’s premiership.

Monday

Nick Boles

The Westminster sex scandal is a chance to change politics for the better

From our UK edition

In the last few weeks, stories of sexual harassment and abuse have swept through Westminster like a storm. Like many men in Parliament, I first thought the best policy would be to keep my head down and wait for it to pass. But I have now decided that’s not good enough. Male MPs need to stand up and be counted. We need to be vocal in our support of female colleagues who are pressing for a dramatic shift in the culture of Parliament. This is an opportunity to change politics for the better and we must seize it. It takes courage for anyone to complain about sexual harassment or abuse. For most, the experience will have been profoundly disagreeable and humiliating, and the urge to try and forget about it almost overwhelming.

Isabel Hardman

It’s not just the Green Belt that could cause a political row on housing

From our UK edition

The Conservatives are having yet another one of their Green Belt rows. Over the weekend, it was reported that Philip Hammond wants to relax restrictions on the Green Belt in order to get more homes built, but the Prime Minister isn’t very keen on the political implications of a liberalisation of planning laws. She remembers the bruising political rows that David Cameron’s government had with the National Trust, the Campaign to Protect Rural England, and the Telegraph, and feels that this is a battle she could ill-afford.

Tom Goodenough

Will Priti Patel’s ‘busman’s holiday’ to Israel cost her her job?

From our UK edition

Priti Patel's vacation to Israel certainly has the feeling of a busman’s holiday to it. The international development secretary is now admitting she met several Israel cabinet ministers, as well as the country’s Prime Minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, during the summer trip which she paid for herself. Patel’s big problem doesn’t only stem from these undeclared meetings, however, but her reaction to them, which has turned this story into something toxic which could cost Patel her job in the cabinet. Last week, when it emerged she had held these meetings with Israeli politicians, Patel was adamant that Boris knew all about it. She told the Guardian: ‘Boris Johnson knew about the visit.

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn is right: MPs could do with training

From our UK edition

Party leaders are meeting this afternoon to discuss Westminster’s response to the sexual harassment allegations sweeping all parts of the political spectrum. Ahead of the meeting, Jeremy Corbyn has called for a training programme for MPs after every general election on how to treat their employees, while Theresa May has said that parliament itself needs a ‘proper process where people can make complaints and bring allegations’. Corbyn’s training idea makes a fair bit of sense. MPs are not elected based on their ability to run a small business, but that is effectively what they have to do with their staff in Parliament and in the constituency.

Toby Young

When will the Guardian investigate the offshore trusts used by Guardian Media Group?

From our UK edition

I wrote this piece last year when the Guardian published its first story about the Panama Papers, but if you substitute the word ‘Paradise’ for ‘Panama’ it could just as easily apply to today’s Guardian splash about the use by the Queen’s private estate of an offshore tax shelter in the Cayman Islands. If anything, this takes the Guardian’s hypocrisy to new heights.

Steerpike

John McDonnell reins in his republicanism

From our UK edition

John McDonnell is no fan of the Royal Family. The shadow Chancellor once joked about ‘looking forward’ to seeing papier-mâché models of the Royals guillotined. Yet with Labour now on the brink of snatching power from the Tories, McDonnell appears to have reined in his republicanism somewhat. Not too long ago, today’s story that the Queen’s private estate invested money offshore would have been a perfect opportunity for McDonnell to criticise the Royal Family. But when asked on the Today programme to do just that, he seemed somewhat reluctant to go after the Queen. Here’s what he said: ‘Well I don’t want to just..err..target the Queen in this’ Mr S is sure the Queen will be grateful...

Sunday

Madeleine Kearns

As a trainee teacher, I saw the damage the SNP is inflicting on Scottish education

From our UK edition

Once one of the best in the world, Scotland’s education system has been steadily marching backwards for the past ten years. From the outside, it seems baffling: why, given that Scottish spending per pupil is among the highest in the world, are things going so wrong? From the inside, it’s far easier to understand. You can explain it in three words: Curriculum for Excellence. I’d heard stories about it before I started training as a teacher. By the time I qualified — in April last year — how I wished I’d listened to them. The story starts in 2010, when the new system was introduced with four aims: to create ‘confident individuals’, ‘successful learners’, ‘responsible citizens’ and ‘effective contributors’.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Trial by newspaper

From our UK edition

Amber Rudd: Government is not verging on ‘complete collapse’ Home Secretary Amber Rudd has had a busy media schedule today, appearing on three different political programmes within three hours. First of all, she was on Andrew Marr's sofa. In a week where the so-called ‘Pestminster’ scandal continues to unravel, the Home Secretary addressed concerns over First Secretary of State Damian Green, who is facing allegations that he sexually harassed the journalist Kate Maltby, and that the police found pornography on his computer in 2008, both of which Green denies. Rudd confirmed that Green would be investigated for his conduct in both cases: https://youtu.be/NLre0sPhLU4 AM: Let's look at the Damian Green 'tittle tattle' in the papers today.

James Forsyth

Why Damian Green’s position matters so much to Theresa May

From our UK edition

As Prime Minister, you get something of a pass on those Cabinet members that you inherit from your predecessor. So, Michael Fallon’s resignation as Defence Secretary was not a devastating blow to Theresa May. After all, it was David Cameron who had first appointed Fallon to that job. But the responsibility for Damian Green’s presence in the Cabinet is Theresa May’s alone. Green is as close a political ally of hers as it is possible to be. He was heavily involved in her leadership campaign and on becoming Prime Minister, she immediately elevated him to the Cabinet. After the election disaster, she turned to him to shore up her position.

Damian Green

The porn allegations against me are disreputable smears

From our UK edition

After former Met police assistant commissioner Bob Quick told the Sunday Times that ‘extreme’ pornography was found on Damian Green's computer during a 2008 investigation into government leaks, Green issued a statement denying the accusation. Here it is: This story is completely untrue and comes from a tainted and untrustworthy source. I've been aware for some years that the discredited former Assistant Commissioner Bob Quick has tried to cause me political damage by leaking false information about the raid on my Parliamentary Office. No newspaper has printed this story due to the complete lack of any evidence.

Saturday

James Forsyth

What did Gavin Williamson mean by that?

From our UK edition

The Tory leadership stakes have been upended this week, I say in The Sun today. Gavin Williamson’s elevation to defence secretary shows that he wants to be a contender and that several of those around Theresa May think he might be their best hope. The most interesting question is why Williamson has decided to get out of Downing Street now. He has a sharp political brain and a good feel for the mood of the parliamentary party. So, he’d have known that a reshuffle where he was the only person to enter the Cabinet would put a big target on his back. There are two explanations doing the round in Tory circles for why he has chosen to leave the whips office at such a vital time. The first is that he decided that it was time to get out before things got even trickier.

Peter Hitchens

If all tasteless jokes require a public apology, where will we end up?

From our UK edition

Now, I can’t say I thought all that much of Michael Gove’s laboured joke about Harvey Weinstein and John Humphrys. But what about his apology? If all bad, tasteless jokes require a public apology, where will we end up? Everyone involved in Armando Iannucci’s dreadful, crude and trivialising film about The Death of Stalin would be saying sorry for the rest of their lives, for instance. Also, surely the people who laugh at these things ought to be made to say sorry, too? Should the BBC round up the Wigmore Hall audience who laughed at the Gove joke, and not let them go till they have provided written regrets? Those of you who chortled at home might make a donation to an ‘appropriate’ charity.

The Spectator

Gordon Brown’s memoirs show he is good at blowing his own trumpet – but nothing else

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown has pitched his memoirs as the honest confessions of a decent man. He failed to win the one general election he fought, he asserts, due to a personality that was unsuited to an age of Twitter and emotional displays. His is the Walter Mondale response to failure — the former US vice president said of his defeat in the 1984 presidential election: ‘I think you know I’ve never really warmed up to television, and in fairness to television, it’s never really warmed up to me.’ Admitting to poor media skills is not genuine self-examination on the part of Brown, more an attempt to shift the blame for his failures on to something he considers trivial.