The Overcrowded Centre: Tory MP Attacks Labour From The Left On NHS Privatisation

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

Tory Conservative Labour LibDem Liberal Democrat Rosettes

 

2015 is already proving to be a difficult year for those of us who would defend politicians from the accusation that they are “all the same”.

Nobody, save the most ardently partisan Kool-Aid drinkers, is seriously excited by any of the main political parties as they jostle for position in the overcrowded political centre. And as blue merges with red, and red pretends to be blue, who can blame voters for wanting to be rid of any candidate sporting a Conservative, Labour or Liberal Democrat rosette?

Case in point: Robert Halfon, the incumbent Conservative MP for Harlow (this blogger’s hometown constituency) is now openly attacking his Labour challenger for – of all things – being too supportive of private sector involvement in the NHS.

Round About Harlow reports:

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Labour Ooze Hatred Of The Successful And Ignorance Of The Working Class

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James Blunt Chris Bryant MP

 

We may as well just admit it: the Labour Party has a serious class problem.

Just as the memory of Ed Miliband’s hasty sacking of his ally Emily Thornberry for the crime of tweeting a picture of a white van was starting to fade from memory, the new Shadow Culture Secretary, Chris Bryant, found himself on the wrong end of a tongue-lashing from singer James Blunt after appearing to suggest that some of Britain’s most successful performing artists had succeeded at the expense of their working class peers.

Both the Guardian and the Telegraph sum up the story well enough, complete with blow-by-blow accounts of the duelling letters exchanged between Bryant and Blunt. And the Spectator is quite right to point out the irony of a Labour shadow minister decrying the lack of ladders to success for working class artists, when it was the Labour legacy of closing grammar schools that so contributed to the problem of lack of social mobility.

On the plus side, parts of James Blunt’s angry letter resemble the anti-Labour comeback that every Tory wishes that he or she could make, if only they could think a little quicker on their feet:

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TV Election Debates? Empty-Chair The Lot Of Them

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

 

Behold our political leaders debating whether or not they should participate in televised debates ahead of the general election.

We have wasted an inordinate amount of time over the past two weeks worrying about the general election televisised party leader debates. Countless headlines and front pages have been devoted to the “will they, won’t they” game of brinksmanship being played out by David Cameron and the other party leaders. Ed Miliband wasted the better part of his Prime Minister’s Questions attack on the subject. And for what?

What are we really getting excited about when we feverishly speculate over whether the debates will happen, and which of the identikit politicians will bother to appear on stage? Do we actually expect to hear serious new policy initiatives being announced? An honest discussion about the budget deficit, and competing but realistic spending plans that will bring the public finances back into balance? A searching discussion about twenty-first century Britain’s place in the world?

Has anything happened over the past five years to give us cause to hope for these things? And here’s an even more important question: Why do we care about the debates anyway?

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It Will Take A Far Better Comedian Than Al Murray To Make A Laughing Stock Of UKIP

Samuel Hooper4 Comments

 

Do you recognise this man?

You may remember him from a short-lived television sitcom a few years back, in which he played the self-important, somewhat sexist and xenophobic proprietor of a scruffy, down-at-heel pub. Yes, this is Al Murray the Pub Landlord.

Murray’s career has consisted primarily of wringing the same laughs out of the same jokes involving the same character, over and over again, year after year; if you’ve seen one of his television or stage shows, you have more or less seen them all. But Al Murray’s latest reinvention comes with a political twist – he is running for election as the Free United Kingdom Party (FUKP) candidate in South Thanet, the same constituency that UKIP leader Nigel Farage is contesting in the general election this May.

Murray’s apparent goal is to win a few more laughs (and a much needed publicity boost) by melding his stereotypical pub landlord persona with Nigel Farage’s pro-British populism, a process that is aided by their shared love of real ale; this is not complex, thought-provoking comedy.

The Spectator provides a taste of FUKP’s manifesto:

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This Week’s Cowardly Assault On Liberty Comes To You Courtesy Of David Cameron

Samuel Hooper2 Comments

David Cameron Paris Attack Charlie Hebdo 3

 

It is nearly one week since murderous Islamic extremists launched their three-day campaign of terror across Paris, striking at one of the core pillars of western democratic society: a free press exercising their fundamental right to freedom of speech. But before the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre and the kosher market siege have even been laid to rest, David Cameron and his government have started planning their own assault on the rights of the individual and the foundations of a free society.

Of course, David Cameron’s assault is couched in the gentle, persuasive diplomatic language of the politician. There will be no masked men clad in black, no sudden hail of gunfire and no hostages taken – unless you count the right to live our lives free from intrusive snooping from a government that believes it can keep us completely safe, if only it knows enough about us all.

The Guardian provides a good summary of the enhanced laws and powers that David Cameron and the security services want to take for themselves:

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