All 197 entries tagged Politics

Why the next Speaker has to be Sir George Young

I won’t predict the next Speaker of the House of Commons. My last prediction, that Michael Martin would cling on, proved to be somewhere in the region of wrong.

Instead, I’ll offer a few reasons why the Conservative MP for North-West Hampshire, Sir George Young, should be trusted with the role.

1) Independence
He’s not afraid to walk the difficult path. In Andover, the centre of his constituency, he disagreed with almost every Conservative in the town on plans for an enormous Tesco warehouse. They generally supported it – he was one of the leaders of the campaign against it. By doing so, he was against those who wanted the jobs, but probably caught the public mood at the time. Perhaps he was guilty of following that public mood for electoral gain, but nevertheless, don’t we need a Speaker who’s in touch with what the public wants right now?

2) Transparency
Sir George was one of the first MPs to publish their expenses online. I doubt there are any others who reveal their spending in as much detail as this. In 06/07 he claimed £165 for food, for instance. The one black mark on his record might be that he maxed out his second home allowance for the last two years.

3) Balance
If convention is that the Speakership rotates between someone from the Government benches and someone from the Opposition benches, it really is time for a Tory.

4) Form
As the Chairman of the Select Committee on Standards and Privileges, he knows how the system works but can’t be blamed for its failings. He’s also a man in tune with the times – he led a campaign to get broadband into rural areas back in 2001.

5) The X Factor
He’s likable. He’s not annoyed anyone on the opposition benches, and he’s a lover of Parliament (theyworkforyou.com says he has well-above average attendance). Yes, he’s a Baronet, and yes he’s what people might call a ‘Grandee’, but he’s also a safe pair of hands, from the right party, at the right time.

P.S. Make of this disclosure what you will, but I lived, for just over a year, in Sir George’s constituency and regularly met with him to do radio interviews. That fact probably colours/informs my judgement somewhat.

Christopher Doidge : 20 May 2009 09:00 |  Tags: House Of Commons Michael Martin Parliament Politics Sir George Young Speaker |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

'Education, Education, Education': The Results

Figures released quietly on Friday reveal the success of some of the government’s education programmes.

Michael Gove, the Tories’ Education Spokesman, asked the government how children on free school meals (the widely used guide to childrens’ family wealth) had done at A-Level and in their Sats tests (soon to be abolished).

These are the answers he got:

Those on free school meals who sat Maths A-Level:
2004: 554 (13.8%)
2008: 705 (17.1%)

Those on free school meals who sat Further Maths A-Level:
2004: 31 (0.8%)
2008: 53 (1.3%)

Those on free school meals who achieved Level 7 in their KS3 Maths tests:
2002: 5,120
2006: 9,233

But it’s not all good news. While Maths has been a big success, English results have actually worsened.

Those on free school meals who achieved Level 7 in their KS3 English tests:
2002: 2,663
2006: 2,364

These figures only reflect successes (or otherwise) in English, Maths and Science. Many teachers say the focus on these three subjects came at the expense of other subjects, especially at primary school. Where maths figures appear to be good news, those for modern languages show the inverse. Those getting two language GCSEs at grades A* to C fell from 7.3% of pupils in 1996 to 4.7% in 2008.

Christopher Doidge : 19 May 2009 09:00 |  Tags: A-Levels Education Gcses Politics Sats Schools |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

The Speaker will cling on

I think the Speaker of the House of Commons did enough today to cling onto his big green seat.

He was, of course, awful. Woeful. Abysmal. He needed a good showing, and he summarily proved he didn’t know House of Commons rules by getting confused over the technical arcania of substantive motions. I was momentarily transported back to student politics.

Shudder.

But he was nice to Gordon Prentice and Douglas Carswell who did their very best to rile him.

This was out of character, and was the one solitary thing he did today that was different from last week. Hidden in his measured, if stuttered tone was a smidgen of a whiff of a note of change.

The Speaker didn’t give the people (nor the media) what they wanted though. No retirement date. No immediate release of every MP’s expenses. And beyond that faint dram of forced friendliness, no sign of change.

He doesn’t want to go. The PM may want him to go politically, but electorally a by-election in the until-now safe Glasgow North East seat would be disastrous. And a contrived band of Scottish friends, led by the ridiculous Lord Foulkes, don’t want him to go.

All they have by way of weaponry is the sharp sword of convention.

Rarely do five or six people stand up to sixty million and win. In this battle, full of history and precedents, they just might.

Christopher Doidge : 18 May 2009 20:39 |  Tags: Government House Of Commons Michael Martin Parliament Politics Speaker |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

They're not all scum

I think the Telegraph, and others, have gone too far with MP’s expenses now.

Yes, some of them are money-grabbing little sh*ts who deserve the marching orders they’ll be given at the next election.

But some of the MPs who’ve had their expenses splashed across the newspapers really have done nothing wrong.

The Daily Mail have the news that Oliver Letwin claimed £2,000 to replace a leaking pipe under his tennis court. His response that:

I was served a statutory notice by the water company to repair the leaking pipe, which runs underneath the tennis court and garden. No improvements were made to the tennis court or garden.”

seems to have been pretty much ignored – the paper’s still run the story and painted him as an expenses cheat in the process.

Another overblown example is the Prime Minister – yes his cleaner seems to be flipping expensive, but suggesting he was siphoning off public money to line his brother’s pockets is pretty close to an outright lie, and yet it’s the impression most people will now have.

I’m not too worried about individual MPs being slandered though – their electorate will see through the media bluster at the next election.

But I think the general ‘they’re all at it’ mood of the press is going to be really damaging. With a change of government more than likely, you’d expect turnout at the next election to be higher than 2001 and 2005.

But if the public think politicians are universally a breed of tight-fisted, public money-stealing good-for-nothings then it wouldn’t surprise me if turnout actually dropped. What, after all, is the point of voting for anyone if every politician is bent?

Gordon Brown’s claim that the system is at fault is nearly half-right, but it takes a certain kind of person to exploit that system.

However, the media’s completely over-the-top wall-to-wall coverage of the 650+ liars, cheats and bastards will do nothing for the public’s faith in democracy. And if that breaks down, we really are screwed.

Christopher Doidge : 11 May 2009 12:54 |  Tags: Media Mps Expenses Newspapers Politics |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Cracking the Tories' "Broken Society" Code

The Conservatives have been holding their cards close to their chest on social policy for a while.

While David Cameron has derided Britain’s “broken society” for months, he’s not offered much of an idea as to how he’d stick it back together again.

But today his Shadow Home Secretary, Chris Grayling (right), might have identified the remedy, and it’s meant finally admitting what’s been on their minds all along:

Britain’s society is failing because Britain’s parents are failing to properly bring up their children.

I’m paraphrasing, but that’s what “Broken Britain” – (c) The Tories, The Sun & The Daily Mail – means.

The answer? The government should do bad parents’ job for them.

Grayling’s announcement today that he might introduce legal ‘groundings’ for children who misbehave is the clearest indication yet of the direction of travel for the Conservatives’ social policy.

Where Labour took the long view of trying to fix society by putting more money into childcare and schools, the Conservatives will administer some short, sharp shocks.

So now the window is open, how much further are Cameron and Grayling willing to go with this idea? How much further will they intrude into the once-sacred family life in order to ‘fix’ Broken Britain?

Christopher Doidge : 23 Feb 2009 16:58 |  Tags: Chris Grayling Conservative Party Politics Society Tories |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

How 12500 new British jobs is actually just 500.

Much of the media seemed to fall for the Department for Transport’s PR this morning.

‘Super express’ trains contract gives boost to British jobs said the Guardian.

The Daily Mail said: Government buys British for intercity train fleet

The Telegraph seemed to fall hook, line and sinker: Next generation of Intercity trains to be built in Britain they said.

The only trouble is, none of those headlines appear to be entirely accurate.

They all stemmed from the DfT’s confident announcement that ‘This will create or safeguard some 12,500 manufacturing jobs in these regions [of the UK].’

But as the day’s gone on, that number’s begun to look like a big ball of spin.

The 12,500 appears to include maintenance workers, who could hardly have found their jobs offshored! “Safeguarding”, here, seems like an exaggeration.

Hitachi, part of the winning consortium, issued a UK press release that goes along with the DfT’s version of events. But they also issued a global press release, which has a different version.

Rather than 12,500 manufacturing jobs, as stated by the DfT, Hitachi promise their shareholders the deal will “secure up to 12,500 direct and indirect jobs in the local supply and services industry and local supporting communities.” It doesn’t say create, and doesn’t say manufacturing. “Local supporting communities” could mean Joyce who works in the nearby corner shop.

What’s more, it appears the trains will be designed and, largely, constructed in Japan. Only the final assembly and some basic manufacturing will be done in Britain.

Transport Briefing says just 500 manufacturing jobs will be created here in Britain. I’ll repeat that again: Five Hundred.

It appears that of the Department for Transport’s headline figure, just 2.5% are new jobs.

Why does all of this matter? Well, there was another bid for the £7.5bn tender from Bombardier, who are based in Derby and would have designed and constructed the trains in Britain.

I’m not a protectionist, but the spin coming out of the DfT today has been particularly effective, and particularly deceitful. Slowly the media’s realising they’ve been had.

Edit: The BBC just beat me to it on the spin story.

Christopher Doidge : 12 Feb 2009 18:13 |  Tags: Department For Transport Government Lord Adonis Politics Spin Trains Transport |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Obama copying Brown's economic plan?

Writing about web page http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/27/AR2009012700457.html

This article in the Washington Post (signup required) might provide some rare good news for Gordon Brown.

The U.S. Treasury is planning to help America’s banks in much the same way as Gordon Brown has in the UK.

On the table are several approaches, which officials have begun to experiment with on a smaller scale. One would give the firms a federal guarantee protecting them against losses on assets that are backed by failing mortgages and other troubled loans. Another would set up new government institutions to buy these toxic assets. A third would inject more money into financial firms in exchange for ownership stakes, perhaps ending with nationalization in all but name.

Pretty much entirely the British plan then, and the piece also goes on to say how the whole project will rely on ‘trial and error’ and ‘a combination of initiatives’.

For the ‘Saviour of the World’ ^{(© All Media Outlets)} to be considering exactly what Gordon Brown has been often criticised for will surely give the PM something to smile about.

He might be under fire for having caused the problem, but if Obama’s economic team is in complete agreement about how to fix it, Gordon Brown might just come out of this with his head held high.

Either that or the UK and US are both doomed.

Christopher Doidge : 28 Jan 2009 18:09 |  Tags: Banks Economy Gordon Brown Politics President Obama United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Recognition = £££?

The Consultative Group on the Past of Northern Ireland is publishing its final report today.

Clearly the most contentious part of it will be the suggestion that victims of the Troubles’ families (both terrorists and those killed by terrorists) will be eligible to receive £12,000.

The co-Chair of the group is adamant this is not ‘compensation’.

This is ‘recognition’ of people’s loss, given in answer to people’s complaints that recognition is lacking.

But I can’t help thinking the Consultative Group has added two plus two and got five.

How many of those asking for ‘recognition’ specifically asked for money? I suspect the bureaucrats have completely misconstrued what they were asking for.

A quick glance at the Consultative Group’s website suggests many people are unhappy at the £12,000 idea and wanted recognition of another kind.

Christopher Doidge : 28 Jan 2009 08:27 |  Tags: Consultative Group On The Past Northern Ireland Politics |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Doing things differently… some of the time

Writing about web page http://edition.cnn.com/video/#/video/politics/2009/01/27/intv.obama.arabiya.alarabiya

President Obama is certainly doing things differently. His first broadcast interview was with Dubai-based Al-Arabiya, one of the most watched TV channels in the Middle East.

Watching it though, there were a few parallels with the past.

He often listens to a question, and begins his answer with “Well what I think is important is this…”

Mr Obama’s message to the Muslim world is that America’s now listening.

As an interviewee, not so much.

Christopher Doidge : 27 Jan 2009 10:26 |  Tags: Al-Arabiya Interview Journalism Middle East Politics President Obama Television United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

President Obama

I thought his inaugural was great. Not too lofty, but realistic, demanding and forthright.

Well done to Jon Favreau (his 27-year-old speechwriter) who I imagine was crapping himself today.

The newspapers might find it a little underwhelming tomorrow, but this was a speech for the soundbite age, and so it had three moments that performed that job perfectly. From today, he’ll be judged more harshly on what he does than on what he says – a complete reversal from the campaign.

I think that’s why there was no “Yes We Can”, no “Change We Can Believe In”. Obama knows the campaign is behind him, at least for about eighteen months.

Now only actions will do.

Christopher Doidge : 20 Jan 2009 19:06 |  Tags: Politics President Obama United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

This historic day

There is something more to today than the inauguration of the first mixed-race President of the United States.

When Barack Hussein Obama is sworn in at 5pm (GMT) tonight, he’ll assume responsibility for the greatest country in the world.

Its economic, military, social and cultural impact is immense. And its reputation is in need of salvation.

President Obama has been hailed as the Saviour of the America many want the country to become. Yet that task is so great, imbuing responsibility for it in one man has never been as risky.

Two wars, a failing economy, a crumbling infrastructure, a woeful health system and an underperforming education system. These are each difficult crises, just one of which can sink a President.

President Obama does appear to have a once-in-a-generation chance to solve some of these.

But to solve them all – and to simultaneously repair the country’s image, particularly in Latin America and the Middle East – will require a miracle even greater than President Obama’s election.

He begins his term of office with majorities in the House and Senate. With millions of supporters ready to jump in front of traffic for him. And with the goodwill of most of the Western world.

All of these things make it more likely he will let some of us down.

But there will be achievements to savour during the 44th Presidency, and we should appreciate each of them, even if President Obama fails us at times. He is, after all, only human.

It’s been a while.

But today, at last, we’re jealous of America, hoping that the stardust will fall beyond the country’s borders.

Christopher Doidge : 20 Jan 2009 11:00 |  Tags: Inauguration Politics President Obama Presidential Election United States |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Problems for LabourList

This is pretty funny.

A Labour Party apparatchik called Derek Draper set up LabourList as a counter to the wildly successful Conservative Home last week. The only trouble, he’s very close to Peter Mandelson, and unlike the Tory version, LabourList is seen as being too close to the party’s leadership.

Derek’s other problem is a dislike for humour or dissent. He’s been accused of heavily censoring comments left by members of the public, and generally treating the site’s users like poo.

So someone’s set up Labourist. Lacking a certain, er… ‘L’, the site is identical to LabourList, but anyone can leave comments.

It seems completely legal at the moment – LabourList encourages people to use the data on the site elsewhere.

It’d be pretty funny if Labourist turned out to be more popular, made more money from advertising and had more of an effect on the party than the original version – very “bottom-up”.

Christopher Doidge : 17 Jan 2009 13:54 |  Tags: Labour Party Petty Politics |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Is Labour too scared of business to say 'No'?

Finding a good reason to build a third runway at Heathrow Airport isn’t hard. The trouble is, there’s only one.

It’ll apparently be good for business.

Some airlines argue that it’s good for passenger equality too because more ‘slots’ means more cheap flights for the lower-middle class. The only trouble is that it’s not true. George Monbiot estimates more than half of Ryanair’s adverts are placed in the Daily Telegraph.

Put simply, a bigger Heathrow means more flights for people with second homes in the Med.

The strangest thing about the whole Heathrow argument is who is opposing it.

The Mayor of London, the Conservative Party (their leadership, at least) and the Liberal Democrats. All in unison.

For Labour to be left on the other side with the CBI suggests the government’s reasons are skewed somehow.

I think they’re scared.

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling know that in the current economic climate, the economy is their soft spot. Any decision they make that could be seen as damaging to business is, right now, potentially fatal.

What’s strange is that the government hasn’t – until now, at least – taken high-speed rail more seriously. Spain is throwing 220mph lines across their country like confetti. France has had the TGV for years. We’ve got… er… the Channel Tunnel Rail Link. Eventually.

If you’re flying from London to Scotland, the plane is a) cheaper b) quicker and c) more convenient.

Perhaps allowing a third runway is just politically easier. If flights are delayed, airlines get the blame. If a high-speed rail link is delayed, the government is blamed by association.

But by the time a new rail line is built, or a new runway is constructed, Gordon Brown will be gone and forgotten.

This is a long-term decision being taken for a short-term reason: Fear.

Christopher Doidge : 15 Jan 2009 09:08 |  Tags: Business Heathrow Labour Politics Transport |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Palestine and Israel

Some observations on the current crisis in Gaza/Israel:

• Israel’s use of heavy military force is depressing. While we think we know what their objectives are – removing all of the rockets that are being fired into Israel – we don’t know how Israel plans to achieve this. It also seems like an unrealistic goal. Not only will they fail to complete the job without incurring massive casualties, but the rockets will surely return in a matter of weeks or months. Like Lebanon in 2006, Israel seems to have underestimated the size of the task in front of it.

• Hamas is an appalling organisation, which is ultimately responsible for what is happening to it. They’ve bullied the people of Gaza, first into voting for them, and then into supporting their actions. Journalists who entered the territory before this current crisis were closely shepherded around so that Gazans found it very difficult to speak freely.

• It’s an unspoken truth, but an Israeli life appears to be worth around a hundred Gazans’. Last night’s excellent report on Newsnight (the best reporting on the subject I’ve seen so far) suggested that just under half of the dead in Gaza were women and children. That figure doesn’t include the male civilians. Israel can say that Hamas are responsible for these deaths (which they are), but Israel should not be so unmoved by this human tragedy.

• The first casualty of war is truth. Israel is using psychological warfare on Gaza by interrupting Hamas TV broadcasts with their own, slightly terrifying messages. Hamas’s rocket-fire is a form of psychological warfare in itself, but two wrongs don’t make a right.

• Israel ought to be getting the international community on its side. Instead, through the United States, they’ve snubbed the UN and are going it alone. Yes, the UN is often a toothless organisation, but it is more often than not the US/Israel coalition that makes it so.

• Hamas’s rockets are, basically, crap. While I wouldn’t want to be sat within their firing range, wouldn’t better use of Patriot missiles be an alternative to Israel’s invasion?

• Long term, a solution to the Gaza problem can only come about by dealing with Iran. I don’t believe Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is completely beyond reason. President-elect Obama’s suggestion of talking to him might be a step in the right direction, although Ahmadinejad will probably demand the impossible in Gaza in return.

Christopher Doidge : 06 Jan 2009 09:48 |  Tags: Gaza Israel Middle East Crisis Palestine Politics |  Comments (1) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Britain's broken back

As President-elect Obama promises to invest in the United States’ infrastructure during the recession, here there’s little sign of progress.

A depressing Friday-night journey from Nottingham to Southampton last week gave me plenty of time to ponder the uselessness of Britain’s transport network. In fact I only had to go about ten miles down the M1 before it became a car park.

We’re a long, relatively thin country with a large proportion of the population spread along a spine running from London to Liverpool/Manchester.

But the spine’s broken.

As of last weekend we’ve now got one medium-speed rail line running from North to South. It’s not bad, but it’s nowhere near enough. It’s also ludicrously expensive, hence why I was sat on the M1.

We’ve got two North-to-South motorways, the M1 and the M6. They are renowned, probably across most of Europe, for being over-stretched.

And then we’ve got internal flights, the use of which ought to be a national embarrassment.

No-one really knows how to solve the problem, and there certainly isn’t a consensus. We’re building Crossrail at the same time as considering putting the brakes on Heathrow’s expansion. We’re widening motorways at the same time as encouraging people to use public transport. It must be the least well-planned area of public policy in Britain. Nothing adds up.

One decision ought to be a no-brainer. We need new railways, stretching from the North to the South. They don’t necessarily need to be TGV-fast – in some ways making them as cheap as possible might be the most important priority.

And it actually makes more sense for them to be freight lines than passenger ones. Anyone who’s tried overtaking a lorry which is itself overtaking another lorry will tell you what causes most of the congestion on the roads.

But we’ve not built the country for rail freight. I spent much of the summer listening to people fight for or against a Tesco Megashed in Hampshire. It was to be bigger than T5 at Heathrow, and would have served most of their supermarkets in the South-East of England. It was right next to a railway line, but they had no intention of ever using it.

Personally I’m not a fan of expanding Heathrow, as it seems obvious to everyone that it was built in the wrong place. The more we expand it, the more we compound the problem. The Thames Estuary idea apparently favoured by Boris Johnson seems a good idea to me, and is worthy of investigation by the government.

Unfortunately it’s all a bit too late. A recession is the ideal time to do some of these things (it’s cheaper and employs people). But it’ll take decades for anything to be done.

We’re in real danger of becoming a country of motorway-bound I-Spy players.

Christopher Doidge : 17 Dec 2008 22:14 |  Tags: Aviation Conservative Party Government Heathrow Labour Politics Transport |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem