Fourth Estate
George Eaton's take on the latest comment from left and right
Autism should never be used as a political insult
Posted by George Eaton - 05 November 2009 12:41
We condemned George Osborne; we should condemn France's Europe minister, too
When George Osborne suggested that Gordon Brown could be "faintly autistic" there was justified outrage. The shadow chancellor was rebuked by Labour and Lib Dem politicians and other public figures, including Nick Hornby, who memorably remarked: "George Osborne doesn't seem to have noticed that most people over the age of eight no longer use serious and distressing disabilities as a way ...
Media mob pays attention to Twittersphere
Posted by Samira Shackle - 04 November 2009 14:05
New Statesman sets the agenda on the rise of mob rule
Radio 4's Moral Maze tonight features a debate on the division between popular protest and mob rule. Its website summarises the topic for discussion:
When does a popular and spontaneous protest become mob rule? Fans of Twitter, the micro-blogging site, have chalked up a couple of notable victories of late. Followers helped to expose a legal injunction against the Guardian and Twitter-led ...
The Sun gives Cameron a pass on Europe
Posted by George Eaton - 04 November 2009 13:35
Where are the cries of betrayal?
Is the Sun going soft? Today's leader on the Lisbon Treaty is uncharacteristically pragmatic. Far from attacking David Cameron's decision to abandon his "cast-iron guarantee" of a referendum, it resignedly accepts the treaty as a "fact of life" and bizarrely declares that the Tory leader "stuck by his original pledge".
The red-top does not even adopt the position taken by ...
Is Brown planning a March election?
Posted by George Eaton - 04 November 2009 10:47
Labour should avoid delaying an election until June
I've long thought that Gordon Brown should avoid the ignominy of an election at the last possible date (3 June). The parallels with John Major would be too uncomfortable.
So I'm not surprised to see a story in today's Telegraph suggesting that Brown could go to the polls on 25 March. Andrew Porter writes: "Some civil servants have noted that government planning ...
Would Cameron lose a Lisbon referendum?
Posted by George Eaton - 03 November 2009 13:16
Who would win a post-ratification vote?
We all know that David Cameron will renege on his pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, but what would the result be if one was called?
Over at Comment Central, Daniel Finkelstein suggests the No campaign would be defeated. He writes: "Why would the result of a post-ratification referendum be different to one held before ratification? Simple. People react ...
Will the Tory right revolt over Lisbon?
Posted by George Eaton - 02 November 2009 18:36
Can Cameron avoid another civil war over Europe?
"When the facts change, I change my mind. What do you do, sir?" So ran John Maynard Keynes's celebrated riposte. It is essentially this defence that David Cameron will employ when he breaks his pledge to hold a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.
He will argue that his promise was made at a time when the treaty was unratified. He will point out ...
Tory MP: Politicians treated like Jews in Nazi Germany
Posted by George Eaton - 02 November 2009 10:57
The most absurd statement on the expenses scandal?
So we've heard Anthony Steen claim that voters are only angered by his expenses because they are envious of his "very, very large house". We've heard Alan Duncan declare that MPs are "treated like shit" and "forced to live on rations". But we've now heard what is indisputably the most absurd statement on the expenses scandal.
The Tory MP David Wilshire has compared ...
Kaminski ties continue to shame the Tories
Posted by George Eaton - 29 October 2009 13:14
The party's dishonesty is doing it no favours
The questions over the Tories' sinister European alliance just won't go away. William Hague and David Miliband's tête-à-tête on the Today programme this morning has placed the party's relationship with the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski under new scrutiny.
At the centre of the debate are the comments first made about Kaminski by the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, to my ...
Osborne under assault from all sides
Posted by George Eaton - 28 October 2009 12:08
Alastair Campbell slams Boy George
It must count as some achievement to simultaneously attract the ire of attract the ire of Alastair Campbell and Simon Heffer. That's the unusual position in which George Osborne finds himself this morning, with Campbell writing a deliciously catty letter to the Financial Times and Heffer calling on David Cameron to sack his shadow chancellor.
The departure point for Campbell's letter ...
Heseltine challenges Cameron on Europe
Posted by George Eaton - 27 October 2009 12:17
Big beast predicts that Eurosceptic alliance will end
Today's Times reports that Lord Heseltine believes the Conservatives will have to ditch their far-right allies and return to the European People's Party if they win power.
Is there any chance of this happening? Almost certainly not. David Cameron's Euroscepticism continues to insulate him from right-wing dissent and keeps grass-roots Tories onside. Heseltine's prediction is a case of of the wish ...
Five of the Best
Posted by George Eaton - 27 October 2009 10:36
The top five comment pieces from today's papers
The Times's David Aaronovitch says that the political class now refuses to put the positive case for immigration:
It is utterly false to say that we haven't talked about immigration. Many of our newspapers do very little but talk about it. They don't "debate" it because their operating assumption, like Mr Field's, is that it is bad; it overwhelms us; floods us; ...
Abolition of criminal libel will aid dissidents worldwide
Posted by George Eaton - 26 October 2009 13:18
The UK's move robs despots of one of their main excuses
The slow march forward of free speech in Britain continues today as the arcane laws of sedition and criminal libel are abolished. The laws, which date from the time of the Star Chamber, were used against John Wilkes to prevent him from reporting on parliament and against Thomas Paine to punish him for his anti-monarchist Rights of Man.
They may have fallen ...
Is Miliband heading to Brussels?
Posted by George Eaton - 23 October 2009 14:24
Could he become Europe's first foreign minister?
It's been a good week for David Miliband. On Tuesday he was touted as the man to save the Labour Party and today the Times and the Guardian report that he is in line to become Europe's first foreign minister.
Miliband is said to be admired in Paris and Brussels as one of the few genuine Europhiles in Gordon Brown's ...
Frank Field is wrong on the BNP
Posted by George Eaton - 22 October 2009 18:38
Curbing immigration won't defeat the far right
The argument that mainstream parties should counter the BNP by adopting a hardline position on immigration was discredited long ago. But the bizarre tag team of Nicholas Soames and Frank Field can't resist making it again in today's Telegraph.
To call for harsher curbs on migrants is to perpetuate the myth that it is immigration, rather than a failed neoliberal system, that ...
Five of the Best: on the BNP
Posted by George Eaton - 22 October 2009 16:40
The top five comment pieces on the BNP and Question Time
In the Guardian, Gary Younge argues that New Labour enabled the rise of the BNP by failing to tackle racism head-on:
New Labour extinguished all hope of class solidarity and singularly failed to provide principled anti-racist alternatives, leaving a significant section of the white working class to seek cheap refuge in racism and xenophobia. In their identity they see not the potential ...
