The summer is the time to try of new columnists or just mix it around a bit. Rafael Behr makes a good fist of it in the Observer’s main politics slot arguing for the Westminster Village to take “fourth-party politics” more seriously. Despite the excruciating premiership football references (such laddishness is seen as necessary in case anyone mistook Britain’s oldest newspaper for the senior common room), this is worth looking at. Behr argues that the fringe-party battle between the BNP and the Greens should be taken seriously because both represent, in their different ways, serious disillusionment with the Labour Party. I would suggest that they are two separate universes of disillusionment: the Greens representing left-leaning middle-class liberals, the other the traditional white working-class vote. But there’s something in Behr’s argument. “As Labour heads into the wilderness, there will be much opining on what the protest vote meant,” he says. That is if that protest vote doesn’t go straight to the Tories.
The most bizarre article this weekend is Bruce Anderson’s argument for checks on the sort of rampant capitalism which is presently affecting a fictional American working man he calls “Hank Hardhat”. If you can ignore the jaw-droppingly patronising nature of the language, this is a heartfelt plea for responsible behaviour within the financial institutions of the free market.
I could hardly believe it when I read the following sentence: “But markets do not only depend on money. They also need morals, and here, they are seriously in deficit.”
The critique that follows is not good news for the Left:
“Fortunately, the Left is not in a position to exploit this. In the US, Mr Obama is trying to distance himself from his left-wing past. In the UK, we have a left-wing and distinctly sub-prime Prime Minister. There would be no point in him trying to dump the blame on anyone else. Otherwise, the free market could be vulnerable to a populist onslaught.”
Michael Portillo is in good form back in his old slot in the Sunday Times. He believes Gordon Brown has made a mistke in removing himself from the international sphere so completely. This has left him exposed over the Russia-Georgia crisis. John Rentoul is up to his usual irritatingly high standard in the Independent on Sunday writing about the internal contradictions in Tory housing policy.
But by far the boldest statement of the weekend was Joan Smith’s This is how Labour can get itself re-elected (also in the Independent on Sunday). Her advice to a Labour government which wants to win the next election is simple enough: “it must get rid of the impression that it’s managerial, pragmatic to the point where it has lost sight of principle, and useless when it comes to delivery.” I’m not sure I agree that the appointment of a miister for delivery will make a lot of difference. But the fight-back could begin here if anyone in Downing Street is listening.
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