Uk politics

One of the most striking things about the debate in the Commons this afternoon on Britain and International Security was that rather than debate the complexities of intervening in Syria, a lot of MPs were very keen to talk about the name of the terror group the government might take action against. MP after MP from all sides of the House rose to complain about the BBC’s decision not to call the group ‘Daesh’, and started to hatch a powerful plan to gang up on the broadcaster and use ‘Daesh’ anyway, until the corporation relents. Alex Salmond even went so far as to say that ‘we could actually achieve something together’ - not in combating the terror group per se, but at least in getting the BBC to rebrand it. Same difference.

Chooom! Davies has arrived. Sir Howard’s report made a text-book landing on the PM’s desk yesterday afternoon and began taxiing towards Cameron’s in-tray. But the PM hasn’t read it yet. Or so he claimed at PMQs. He therefore avoided any commitment to building a third runway at Heathrow. And his excuse? Wilful ignorance. Seriously? He hasn’t read it? Given the time and cash the damn thing has gobbled up he might have glanced at the executive summary. Sir Howard has worked his way through twenty million smackers reaching a foregone conclusion. His defenders point out that this money was very well spent because Sir Howard pays scrupulous personal attention to every detail of an important commission.

The EU referendum makes me suspect that the grownups don't know what they're doing. I can see how we got to this point but it seems absurd that something so fundamental should be up - not just  for debate but possibly even - for reversal. It is doubly absurd because David Cameron has said that he will be campaigning - as you would expect of a conservative - for the status quo. So why are you doing this? I mouth at the television, wishing heartily that he would fight his internal party battles on his own time. Bewilderment is, it seems to me, one of the main forces behind this referendum. Some - many - people are bewildered by the EU. Getting your head around it is hard because the organisation is unique: there are no good metaphors for it.

Tonight, it is still not clear how the Greek situation will be resolved. The European Central Bank--which is desperate to avoid being dragged into the politics of this situation--has chosen a middle way on its emergency assistance to Greek banks. It has neither ended it—which would have crashed the whole Greek banking system—nor extended it, which would have enabled the banks to stay open and eased the pressure on the Syriza-led government. Greek banks will definitely be closed tomorrow and probably until the referendum on Sunday. The next big question is what happens on Tuesday when the bailout programme ends and a payment comes due to the IMF which Athens will not be able to make.

The phoney war continues. While Labour searches for its next Michael Foot, the party’s stand-in boss, Harriet Harman, seems keen to lose the 2020 election as soon as possible. Some argue Ed Miliband has already performed that task. Either way, defeat is the only thing Labour does efficiently nowadays. Ms Harman attacked the PM’s plan to abolish a policy that many hail as Gordon Brown’s Worst Ever Idea: tax credits. These mean that thousands of Whitehall scribblers deposit cash with workers who then return the money, via thousands more scribblers, to the government which never owned it in the first place. Labour loves the N Korean ambience of this system because it turns every citizen into a state vassal.

Zac Goldsmith is in the race to be the Tory candidate for Mayor of London. After announcing his intention to seek the nomination last week, Goldsmith balloted his constituents in Richmond Park for their permission: 79 per cent of those who responded said he should run, while 18 per cent said no. Although the turnout was just under 26 per cent, it’s still a victory for Goldsmith’s brand of direct democracy. In response to his local referendum, Goldsmith said he’d work ‘tirelessly to repay my constituents’ loyalty’: ‘I am hugely grateful to the residents of Richmond Park and North Kingston for taking part in the ballot, and am overwhelmed by the mandate they have given me to run for Mayor.

On the radio this morning, a campaigner from the Child Poverty Action Group had an 'emperor’s new clothes' moment. Why not, she said, treat the young like the old. If the Tories insisted on having a 'triple lock' on pension benefits for the elderly, which guaranteed that the state pension must increase every year by whatever target was the highest - inflation, average earnings or a minimum of 2.5 per cent - why not put a triple lock on the benefits of poor families. The state would then treat the young like the old, and subsidise the future as it subsidises the past. You will understand why she was speaking out of turn when you listen to David Cameron describe his plans to cut £12 billion today.

Ed Miliband believed that after the financial crisis, Britain had moved to the left. He argued that there was no need to adopt all the Blairite positions to win. The election result appears to have disproved that thesis. But, as Andy Grice argues in his column today, Blairite is still being chucked around as the insult of choice in this Labour leadership contest. As Grice points out, Labour particularly need the Blair agenda’s ability to connect with English swing voters now given what has happened in Scotland. In a world in which the swing required for Labour to win Midlothian is larger than to take Kensington, Labour will have to take most of the seats south of the border to gain a working majority. Now, Blair has not helped himself since leaving office.

The new chairs of the select committees have been announced. Before 2009, the party whips handed out the chairmanships of these committees but now they are voted in by MPs. As well as several returning chairs, there are a few interesting new appointments. Labour’s Frank Field will be an effective chair of the Work and Pensions committee, holding the government to account over roll out of Universal Credit and the £12 billion cuts to welfare spending. Jesse Norman steps back into the limelight as chair of the Culture, Media and Sport committee, after being passed over for a job in the new government.