CentreRight

The Sharia Show

The discussion on Press TV I posted about previously can be viewed here.  Some of the things said by Islamic clerics and students on this show were, IMHO, absolutely remarkable.

Tortoises storm PMQs

I'm not 100% convinced by Tim's tortoise-and-the-hare analogy, but if today's PMQ performance from David Cameron represents a genuine change of approach, then it's one up to the tortoises.

It was a dramatic shift in style: a re-rejection, if you will, of Punch-and-Judy politics that was particularly appropriate to his carefully constructed sequence of questions.

Tory leaders have so often wasted the huge opportunity that they alone possess: the ability to subject the Prime Minister to a forensic line of enquiry. No one else gets the chance to put the PM on the stand, doing to him what a prosecuting barrister would do to a dodgy witness.

What we normally get, however, is more akin to a boxing match than a courtroom confrontation – the combatants slugging it out punch-by-punch. Occasionally, this is justified, and David Cameron has administered some well-deserved monsterings in his time.

But making Gordon Brown look bad is not the same as making David Cameron look good – and the latter never looks better than when he's cool, calm and speaking up for the concerns of the general public. It is an approach that helped him make such an impact when he first became leader, and I think it worked very well today.

More!

Sickening: 69 MPs back Parliamentary motion praising Fidel Castro

Searching through the House of Commons website this morning I was stunned to find that 69 members of Parliament (65 Labour, 2 Plaid Cymru, 1 LibDem and George Galloway) have put their names to a motion praising Fidel Castro.

The Early Day Motion, tabled by the habitually unpromoted, Castro-lover Colin Burgon (who, by the way, sits for a marginal seat) pays tribute to Castro's "achievements" in the field of healthcare and education - in the face, obviously, of the "the 44 year illegal US embargo of the Cuban economy" - and "the esteem in which Castro is held by the people and leaders of Africa, Asia and Latin America for leading the calls for emancipation of the world's poorest people from slavery, hunger and the denial of human rights".

I won't personally seek to offer any points of clarification on this issue but ask you instead to take a look at Danny Finkelstein's excellent article in the Times this morning for a full appraisal of the malevolence that has characterized the 49-year Castro regime:

"Let's eliminate from our inquiries the idea that Fidel was somehow better than the rest of them, better than Honecker and so forth. Those cigars, those battle fatigues, that beard. Kinda cool, no? No. Death sentences for those who want to flee, prison sentences for dissidents, gags for the press, jail for homosexuals, ruinous central planning for the economy, his support for a nuclear first strike against America, his opposition to any kind of reform, his four-hour long speeches, his personality cult. Fidel Castro was just like the rest of them"

I will never understand how any British Member of Parliament feels able to voice their support for such a cruel and undemocratic regime.

The full, grubby little list of signatories can be found below...

Lisbon Treaty sets out costly demands for climate change

Today’s parliamentary debates on the Treaty start with climate change. There is a lot to fight here because the EU has a terribly ill-conceived framework for thinking about climate change and they have frighteningly worrying and damaging legislation to deal with it.

Oddly enough Article 174 (TFEU) of the Treaty relates to the EU’s environmental policy. According to Article 174, one of the objectives of the Union is to promote “measures at international level to deal with regional or worldwide environmental problems.” The Lisbon Treaty adds to this paragraph an express reference: “…in particular combating climate change.” The Lisbon Treaty recognises tackling climate change as a specific EU policy objective.

Commons security breached (again)

Earlier this week the anti-aeroplane protestors were able to breach security at Heathrow Airport and today they've got on to the roof of Parliament (smuggling chains through security!).  All very reassuring.

10.30am: Ben Brogan writes: "I will now devote the rest of my days to campaigning FOR a third runway at Heathrow, and preferably a fourth - through the gardens of these idiots."  As someone who flew about forty times last year I'm signing up to Ben's campaign.

We shouldn't be surprised that MPs look after themselves

The recent kerfuffle about MPs’ expenses, incomes, and the funding of politics reminded me of a conversation I had some months ago with a leading Conservative figure about tax. I said that I thought tax could be a good issue for the Conservatives, if done right (‘done right’ meaning designed to benefit the ‘strugglers’ and the whole economy, and communicated well) because in the end people are driven by their self-interest, and they are rather good at discerning that self-interest.

He thought this rather crass. He insisted that people took a broader view. I suggested that MPs appeared to be very good at discerning their own self-interest and acting accordingly, so why shouldn’t the rest of us be the same? MPs are forever deciding to act in ways that suit their careers; they trim their own opinions about what’s best for the country to suit the furtherance of their position within the party and for the prospects of that party; whether in the content or the process of politics, they constantly adjust their principles to ease the desired outcome. I don’t blame them one bit, they are no different from journalists, business people, teachers, engineers and bus drivers. We are all just as our genes designed us. We can take a broad view where we are not personally affected, but where we are closely touched, we look to what’s best for ourselves and our families.

Thatcher and Portillo

To continue Conor's discussion of Portillo's show...

IMHO, this was a very poor piece of television.

In a documentary about Thatcher's legacy, I point out that there was no mention AT ALL of the following:

• The Falklands
• Sale of Council Housing
• The Unions / Miners (beyond a very brief reference to the winter of discontent)
• Privatisation
• The Cold War
• UK/US Thatcher/Reagan relations

Whatever you might think of any or all of those things, I think you would agree that they were central aspects of the Thatcher years and are amongst the main factors that generate her legacy.

Instead, the show spent over half an hour on the Poll Tax, and about 40 minutes on her influence or otherwise after she'd left office.

Not coincidentally, these are times and events during which Michael Portillo had himself risen to prominence.  Those factors in which he personally had involvement received coverage.  Those in which he did not, did not.  So there was a second theme to the production: how great Michael Portillo is and how foolish the Party was not to have chosen him as leader. 

I am afraid that Portillo is a useful servant of our media class, who in the interests of "balance" get to use him as a token Tory.  For them, balance = Diane "I love Mao" Abbott, i.e. hard left, and Portillo, i.e. soft left.

Further, he is the ideal tool when one wants to make a "documentary" that gives a highly unbalanced view of Britain's greatest peacetime Prime Minister, in which precisely none of her achievements are discussed in any way, but rather much sniping is done by erstwhile colleagues under the aegis of a presenter whose credentials are supposedly unimpeachable as he's a famous Tory; or rather, in reality, a famous ex-Tory whose prime interest is self-aggrandisement.  That he harms the Party that gave him all he has in public life in the process seems to be neither here nor there to him.

The Luck of the Irish - thanks to Northern Rock

What is going on at Northern Rock? At the end of its third business day in public ownership, we can now see a pattern emerging - their aggressive, reckless approach to banking is alive and well, and no more so than in its foreign subsidiaries. As Alistair Darling promised, it is "business as usual".

As UK taxpayers who own this business, we should be alarmed. I have already outlined how in Denmark Northern Rock is offering interest rates to savers 1 - 1.5% above that offered by the Danish banks and the Danish Government, and the saver's money is proclaimed to be guaranteed by the UK taxpayer

The Long Parliament

It has just gone 10pm and I've been sitting in here, the House of Commons chamber, for over six hours wanting to speak against the EU Constitutional Treaty.

Who says our Parliamentary system is hoplessly out-dated and needs reform?

The philosophy of Rambo

This article by Spengler, from last April, is brilliant.  It sets out how The Lord of the Rings and the rest of the Middle Earth literature constitute Tolkein's attempt to form a Christian mythology that could replace Europe's pagan myths.  To undermine old pagan heroism by establishing its vulnerability to manipulation by evil.  The Lord of the Rings can then be seen as a direct attempt to rebut the Ring Cycle - Wagner's attempt to recreate old Northern European myth.

**Spoiler alert - this will give away Rambo's plot**

It might seem a bit absurd but I think that Rambo actually offers a pagan riposte.  A few comparisons...

Boris bounces into lead

Some exciting opinion poll news from Ross Lydall of the Evening Standard in the battle for Mayor of London. A YouGov poll for ITV's London Tonight shows Boris Johnson ahead of Ken Livingstone by 5%.  Unlike the earlier polls which showed Livingstone ahead this one has a decent sample size of 1,003 Livingstone's campaign have hit back leaking a MORI poll showing "when forced to choose between Ken and Boris, of those certain to vote, 49 per cent opted for the Mayor and 47 per cent for the Tory."

What I found interesting and encouraging about the MORI poll was that of those certain to vote being allowed to choose across the field 38 per cent backed Ken, 35 per cent Boris, 14 per cent Brian Paddick and two per cent for Green Party candidate Sian Berry. In other wards Livingstone lead went down fractionally, from 3% to 2%, when the second preferences were exercised.

What's no good about the YouGov poll is that it ignores this business about the second preferences. which are key. But generally YouGov have proved more accurate than MORI so the overall news is promising.

5,532 people have registered their support for Boris Johnson's campaign. Have you?

Is there more to life than meets the eye?

Abortion is back on the political agenda.  Yesterday we learnt that David Cameron will vote for a more restrictive abortion limit.  Today, a new website has been launched - Passion for Life - that champions a 'pro-life' perspective ahead of the important debates on the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.  The website hosts these two thought-provoking new videos...

She is a lot more than the parody

I enjoyed last night's BBC 4 programme on Margaret Thatcher. Michael Portillo (on whose leadership campaign team I declare I served) showed again how the camera loves him.  He exploited the vast range of post-premiership footage to show glimpses of Margaret's theatrical best.  The Lady is the most flamboyant diva on the stage.  However I sensed at times that the programme played up to, and sought to reinforce, the stereotype that Lady T had become a parody of herself. There is so much that could have been explored about her role post 1990. (As an aside much was made about the need to see the Conservative Party 'change' and seeing Mellor on screen again must have reminded even the most dubious that this is right.)

One thing I'm disappointed Michael did not find time to make mention of was the role that Margaret played in 1993 in breaking the consensus of despair that was the West's foreign policy towards events in Bosnia.  Through interviews (including an extended one on the BCC news at 6 in the studio) and speeches in the States Margaret forced the West to confront the so-called ethnic cleansing that was going on against Muslims (worth repeating in the light of today's events....yes against Muslims) and intervene.

McCain Gains

Hold the Obamamania just a minute. There's an unmissable post at RedState on his dwindling lead over McCain. The Ramussen tracker poll has shown McCain leading Obama recently, though most still have him behind. Meanwhile, blogger Dan McLaughlin has a convincing analysis of why bigger Democratic primary turnout may not mean that much. The Republicans are holding their fire; it's a long time til November.

Nick Clegg MP - running scared?

On Saturday Louise Bagshawe noted that David Heath was running scared of his Tory opponent in his ultra-marginal seat and was backing a vote on the EU Treatystution out of fear, rather than conviction.

Over at The Guardian's Comment is free Open Europe's Neil O'Brien has unearthed a great quote from Nick Clegg from before the last General Election:

"The real reason, of course, why the government does not want to hold a referendum is the fear that it may lose ... Nothing will do more damage to the pro-European movement than giving room to the suspicion that we have something to hide, that we do not have the 'cojones' to carry out our argument to the people."

In Neil's must-read article he also dismisses Mr Clegg's argument for an in-out referendum:

"Most people in Britain don't want to see further centralisation of power in the EU - but at the same time they want to reform the EU, not leave it. Only offering people a polarising "in or out" referendum would be a dishonest attempt to push people into positions they don't hold."

The 'celebrification' of politics

Last night I chaired a discussion at the London School of Economics about the ‘celebrification’ of politics. I was surprised that no-one on the panel, nor anyone from the audience, made a single plea for policy over personality. Everyone essentially accepted that we’ve always had the politics of celebrity, since the very birth of democracy, that people are today simply recreating the village culture of gossip using whatever media is available. Furthermore, no-one last night thought this was anything but natural and worthwhile.

This was a welcome relief from the self-styled statesmen of journalism who are forever bemoaning the dropping of standards. By contrast, the Polis/LSE discussion accepted that a major task for voters is to establish the true nature of those who would be our leaders and that this inevitably done through ‘celebrification’ ranging from soft human-interest stories to scandal-mongering.

I tend to agree with that. I do think policy is vital, but I’m confident that voters are pretty good at discerning their self-interest through all the babble. What voters also need to know is what kind of people are in place to take the difficult decisions when events present them with the unexpected. Politician’s behaviour as spied through the media is as close as most people are going to get to knowing that.

Team Clinton circulate Obama-in-turban photo

This Associated Press photo of Barack Obama visiting Africa is being circulated by Team Clinton.  Drudge has the story.

Do we need a high-tech Domesday Book?

Philip Johnston thinks not:

"What we are now witnessing with this explosion in the number of centrally controlled databases is the development of something awesomely intrusive, the creation of a gigantic high-tech Domesday Book to take down all our particulars and track us from cradle to grave. If by rejecting any notion of a universal DNA database, the Home Office now recognises there is a line to be drawn, then that is to be welcomed. The debate we need to have is not about how to expand the database state but what we can now do to limit and reduce it."

Click here to see the recent CPS paper on how it has been coming about.

Comrade Brucie

I had one of those odd channel hopping moments last night, when switching between a News 24 package on Fidel Castro's retirement and BBC1's birthday tribute to Bruce Forsyth.

The latter was fronted by the supremely irritating Vernon Kay, who was clearly posing as heir apparent to the king of light entertainment.

Fidel to Raul, Brucie to Vernon – I couldn't decide which transition depressed me more.

Of course, I shouldn't make flippant comparisons between the BBC and Cuba. After all, one is a deeply unpleasant leftwing regime and the other is an island in the Caribbean.

Divorce by email

As part of a package of Government measures for the "modernisation" of family court procedures, Justice Minister Bridget Prentice cites two examples  to make divorce procedures less daunting: parties will be able to serve court documents on each other by email, and those applying for an undefended divorce will no longer have to "swear" an affidavit in the presence of a qualified person, but instead complete a "statement of truth" at home and send it in. Described as "saving time and money for both the user and the courts" this may sound like a bright idea for cutting down on paperwork - but has anyone in Government bothered to think through the implications of removing these formalities? Swearing an affidavit in front of a Commissioner for Oaths is, intentionally, a solemn and formal procedure which is much harder to take lightly than filling in a form at home. Likewise, serving divorce papers by email - quite apart from the privacy and security implications - trivialises an important step. Making justice "accessible" is one thing. Making family break-up the kind of thing you can fit into your lunch hour is quite another.

In defence of Chelsea tractors

Just back in the office after visiting my mother in Pimlico for lunch. Walking back to Sloane Square tube I saw the Chelsea Tractors. Three of them in a row. Lined up along Bourne Street with their indicator lights flashing. Their yummy mummy drivers busy picking their children up from Francis Holland. The school run would usually mean more than one child from one or more schools. So the cars might be big but at least they do not entail the ultimate environmental sin of having a driver but no passengers.

These beautiful women showed the pressure in their faces but retained their calm. Would they have managed if they had to cram their offspring into smaller vehicles? For the Mayor of London Ken Livingstone they are the enemy. He sees himself with Castro and Chavez in struggle against them. Beneath the surface environmentalism of his agenda class hatred bubbles away. Livingstone wants to banish these women. I think they deserve medals.

In praise of Claire Short

I have always found Claire short rather sanctimonious and annoying. Yet praise where it is due as this lunchtime she broke ranks from her MP colleagues and said what almost everyone is thinking.  see Tim's piece here.   When the establishment in the form of Brown and Clegg are rallying to Mr Speaker's aid Ms Short encapulsated the case against the Speaker.  Dismissing the familiar, and rather tedious, accusation that anyone who thinks the Speaker is hopeless is driven by class Ms Short told the Daily Politics, "He is not a very good Speaker." She went on, "He is a bit biased to Labour and has not got very much grace." Spot on. She also suggested he make it clear that he will not contest the next election. I'm sure her fellow MPs will now wheel in behind her. If wishing made it so.

The Grapes of Wrath

This afternoon sees the premiere of Only Connect's production of The Grapes of Wrath, starring former guests of Her Majesty at HMP Wormwood Scrubs and HMP Holloway.

The Times has done a feature on it today. Only Connect is a small charity helping rehabilitate prisoners and ex-offenders through the power of the arts. Danny Kruger, David Cameron's special adviser, chairs the charity and his wife Emma is directing this play of Steinbeck's classic novel.

The play is running throughout the week in a theatre near Russell Square, with evening performances Tuesday - Friday. Get your tickets here.

Re: Who should replace Speaker Martin?

Consigning Frank Field to the political neutrality of Speaker of the House of Commons would mean gagging one of the country's best thinkers on the issue of welfare reform. Whitehall spends more taxpayers' money on 'social protection' than it does on anything else and causes enormous harm in how it spends it, undermining work and families and creating mass dependency. Frank Field is the MP who has done most to show a path towards putting this right. Ideally he'd be Secretary of State for Work and Pensions, but failing that we should want him very much able to continue to speak his mind, as he has done so powerfully and persuasively over the last decade. 

"Business as usual" proclaims Northern Rock....in Denmark too!

In the middle of doing research for a larger piece on Northern Rock, I happened to come across its retail bank in Denmark with this fattened pig image in the land of bacon. "Retail bank in Denmark?" I hear you ask. Yes, it's just celebrated its one year anniversary. Moreover, it offers extremely competitive rates for savers over there, and proclaims on its website that:

"Your savings with Northern Rock continue to be safe and secure, protected by the UK Government guarantee arrangements"