Public Accounts
News, views and scoops from the political village
PMQs review
Posted by James Macintyre - 04 November 2009 12:58
Cameron avoids discussing the Lisbon Treaty
From Westminster
David Cameron's apparent U-turn on a Lisbon Treaty referendum was the elephant in the room at a session of Prime Minister's Questions today that was dominated once again by the ongoing violence in Afghanistan. Labour MPs -- including David Blunkett -- ridiculed Cameron's 2007 promise in the Sun by repeatedly referring to the phrase "cast-iron guarantee", but Cameron avoided ...
Words that return to haunt Cameron
Posted by James Macintyre - 03 November 2009 16:13
Proof of the folly of pleasing the Sun
If ever proof was needed of how misguided it is to conduct British politics as a campaign to please the Murdoch-owned Sun newspaper, it came this afternoon, when the president of the Czech Republic, Václav Klaus, signed the Lisbon Treaty.
Here was David Cameron in the Sun in 2007:
If you really want to signal you're a break from the past, Prime Minister, ...
Two questions for Cameron . . .
Posted by James Macintyre - 02 November 2009 13:18
. . . on Tory MP's "Jews under the Nazis" expenses comparison
My colleague George Eaton has already highlighted the obscene comparison made by the Tory MP David Wilshire. Just to remind you, he said:
"The witch hunt against MPs in general will undermine democracy. It will weaken parliament -- handing yet more power to governments. Branding a whole group of people as undesirables led to Hitler's gas chambers."
Cameron has given his response:
"It's a ...
Chief Rabbi of Poland on BBC
Posted by James Macintyre - 30 October 2009 10:35
He can't escape his own instincts
First, let us remember, here is what the Chief Rabbi of Poland, Michael Schudrich, said back in July -- when he was speaking from the heart, openly, and before he was leant on:
From: Michael Schudrich [mailto:xxxx] Sent: 27 July 2009 18:21To: James MacintyreSubject: Re: Quote request
Dear James,
I do not comment on political decisions. However, it is clear that Mr ...
Kaminski: the facts
Posted by James Macintyre - 29 October 2009 13:59
What Poland's Chief Rabbi actually said
Not for the first -- nor doubtless the last -- time, the Michal Kaminski affair has returned to the political scene today, starting with a debate on the Today programme between David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, and his shadow William Hague. On Kaminski, the exchange focused on a quotation from the Chief Rabbi of Poland, which was among a number ...
Should the BBC's Mark Thompson resign?
Posted by James Macintyre - 27 October 2009 15:33
Former minister gives his view
Much has been said -- including by me -- about the controversial decision to host Nick Griffin on BBC1's Question Time and the subsequent BBC spin surrounding it. Less discussed has been the position of Mark Thompson, who critics say has failed to make the right call on a single major episode in his time as the corporation's director general. ...
The regressive Pope, by the Boston Globe
Posted by James Macintyre - 27 October 2009 13:03
Story behind Rome's assault on Canterbury
To anyone interested in the state of modern Christianity, the Roman Catholic Church, Anglicanism or, indeed, life itself, let me heartily recommend a read of this exceptional piece by James Carroll in the Boston Globe.
The "hook" for the article is the Vatican's disgraceful mugging of Rowan Williams and his fragile Anglican Communion, but the essay delves much deeper than that. ...
Left Foot Forward
Posted by James Macintyre - 27 October 2009 12:47
Will Straw leads the way
To anyone out there interested in following politics online -- and even to those who aren't -- I really cannot strongly enough recommend the site Left Foot Forward, run by Will Straw.
The site -- evidence-based and purely factual -- is second to none in its ability to smash the (right-wing) conventional wisdom of contemporary British politics. Everyone reading this should make ...
Think the BBC doesn't do spin?
Posted by James Macintyre - 26 October 2009 10:42
Reflections on a shameful weekend for the corporation
To be fair to the BBC, unlike many other media outlets it rarely spins in its own favour. In fact, its news output is often absurdly self-critical and self-consumed, with disproportionate coverage of itself.
Fascinatingly and depressingly, all this changed over Nick Griffin's appearance on Question Time last week.
It started with the protests, the images of which were -- admittedly -- highly ...
PMQs Review
Posted by James Macintyre - 21 October 2009 12:38
Brown and Cameron clash over Royal Mail strikes
David Cameron and Gordon Brown clashed in heated exchanges about Royal Mail today, as the Tory leader sought to blame the impending strikes on the Prime Minister's leadership.
Cameron attributed the industrial dispute to Brown's alleged failure to push through the part-privatisation of Royal Mail this year. "He stopped the bill because he couldn't sell it to his backbenchers," Cameron said.
Brown said ...
Obama and Cameron: the truth at last
Posted by James Macintyre - 21 October 2009 10:10
Clinton to meet Hague over Europe allies
Sometimes when you wait long enough, reality emerges for all to see. And so it is this morning with the news that Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, will meet tomorrow with William Hague, the shadow foreign secretary, amid fast-growing concerns in Washington over the British Conservative Party's foreign policy. Clinton may wish to ask Hague why he has ...
Death of Anglicanism?
Posted by James Macintyre - 20 October 2009 18:13
No: more or less business as usual
So, Rome has finally made its move. The Vatican's announcement of a new body to welcome some Anglicans, discussed at a joint press conference with the Archbishop of Westminster and the Archbishop of Canterbury today, will understandably unsettle those preoccupied with the political preservation of the younger church. And it is clear that Rowan Williams was -- though he would never ...
Boris v Cameron part 94
Posted by James Macintyre - 19 October 2009 18:24
Latest divide over "Estuary Airport"
Some three months ago, I reported that relations between David Cameron, the Conservative leader, and his rival Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, were at a low over a number of substantial issues. One of those was "Johnson's plans for an estuary airport". As ever, there were howls of protest in the partisan Tory blogosphere. It is now more or less ...
Is Cameron a pre-emptive or reactive leader?
Posted by James Macintyre - 16 October 2009 20:38
Perception over reality on expenses
I just had a call from a BBC producer who, testing my views on the expenses affair, said: "Obviously Cameron has taken swift action on this." And from the media coverage this week, you could be forgiven for thinking that Cameron had been very tough indeed over the latest batch of Tory MPs to be caught up in the scandal. Some broadcasters ...
Political neutrality and the Jewish Chronicle
Posted by Julian Kossoff - 14 October 2009 16:06
Is the voice of Anglo-Jewry cosying up to the Tories?
Guest post from Julian Kossoff
The Kaminski affair was the freaky sideshow of the Tory party conference in Manchester. David Cameron and his handlers toiled hard to kill allegations that the Polish MEP Michal Kaminski, Cameron's new best friend in Europe, had an unsavoury anti-Semitic and homophobic track record, dismissing this as a Guardian/Labour stitch-up.
But by the middle of the week they ...
