Labour introduced twice as much privatisation into the NHS as this government

Channel 4 News interview with Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham being very defensive about the NHS (and he cannot respond to the point that Labour introduced twice as much privatisation into the NHS as this government):  http://www.channel4.com/news/labour-nhs-health-paramedics-reform-hospitals-video

Labour have attempted to weaponise the NHS only to find their bomb has blown up in their face.

An archaic nonsense

Is there no more compelling argument to end the "right" (actually an archaic nonsense) that Commonwealth immigrants have an automatic ability to vote in British elections and decide British policies:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/29/surge-in-voters-born-overseas

These people (immigrants voting in elections in which they have no moral right to participate) are corrupt.

Ironically they are bringing to this country the corrupt practises that they are running away from in their own countries.

Let me speak directly to these foreign-born people:  if you vote in elections where you have no moral entitlement to vote you cannot complain if society turns against you.

You don't need the law to change to know what you are doing is wrong.

Labour is probably finished - it would take a generation to replace the sycophants

As if things could not get any worse for the Labour Party one of their former supporters George Monbiot launches a blistering attack on the "hold your nose and vote for Labour" strategy:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/28/convictions-politics-fear-syriza-podemos-snp-green

"Labour is probably finished. It would take a generation to replace the sycophants who let Tony Blair and Gordon Brown rip their party’s values to shreds. By then it will be history."

My goodness, we are only at the beginning of the election campaign and already leading commentators have given the Labour Party up for dead and talk as if the funereal procession is already on its way to the graveyard for the final obsequations.

"The state will have to learn to let go"

On Daily Politics earlier today Steve Reed MP was interviewed about Labour's policy on the NHS and refused to support Ed Miliband's line ("The state will have to learn to let go"):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b051bc3b/daily-politics-30012015

Lord Prescott has called Labour MPs who criticise Ed Miliband "Tory collaborators".

Does this mean that in the event of a Labour victory in May individuals such as Steve Reed and Liz Kendall will have their heads shaved and be paraded through the streets spat at and jeered by a mob?

Left wing hypocrisy is just as odious as right wing hypocrisy

Why does the New Statesman cover on privilege in public life omit Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt?

Are we supposed to believe that his Old Etonian status is neither here nor there and that he is really a horny-handed son of the soil?

Are we meant to take away the message that there is no privilege in the Labour Party?

Left wing hypocrisy is just as odious as right wing hypocrisy you know.

There is a Blairite plot to bring down Ed Miliband

Journalist Owen Jones writes a piece today that is ostensibly in support of Ed Miliband:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/30/ed-miliband-fight-cynicism-media-politicians

And yet...

If one looks at the photograph and subheading, they seem subliminally to be saying the opposite of the Jones text:

Owen Jones is saying Ed Miliband is basically a decent bloke but the photograph shows him giving the most withering look to a black member of an audience.  It is the sort of look Nick Griffin might give to David Lammy.  The caption below the image says "we are all in it for base motives" - the opposite meaning of the Jones argument.

Who took this photograph?

It is credited to Stefan Rousseau and the Press Association.

Who is Stefan Rousseau?

It appears that for several years he photographed Tony Blair in adulatory images of near-hagiographication:  http://www.stefanrousseau.com/about.html

NOW will you believe there is a Blairite plot to bring down Ed Miliband.

Just because you are paranoid doesn't mean they are not out to get you!

If Russian military aircraft violate United Kingdom air space I think we are justified in shooting them down.

Newsnight excellent this evening.

There is no unity on the left

This is a left-ish writer (John Rentoul) writing in a leftish newspaper (the Independent) about a left-wing party (Labour) 97 days before the general election:  http://www.independent.co.uk/voices/comment/daily-catchup-winter-crisis-for-the-nhs--miliband-and-burnham-dont-know-how-to-fix-it-10009845.html

(Prime Minister's Questions yesterday) "Miliband failed to respond and looked lost. He has played politics with the NHS and Cameron has played politics with Miliband’s playing politics, and the Labour leader has been completely out-played".

"Andy Burnham's interview about the NHS with Kirsty Wark on Newsnight on Tuesday was a “car crash” "

There is no unity on the left.  There is no loyalty.  They would rather see their colleagues fail than have a leftish faction gain power of which they disapprove.

Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead

Have just finished reading Sag Harbor by Colson Whitehead.

It is a novel set in 1980s Long Island, and is about black yuppies in the holiday resort of Sag Harbor.

Nothing in particular happens, but the recreation of that nothingness has a Proustian quality in the way minutiae is assembled into eternal themes.

"I was appalled, but you know me.  I was nostalgic for everything, big and small.  Nostalgic for what never happened and nostalgic about what will be, looking forward to looking back on a time when things got easier."

Is there no-one who is willing to fight for Ed Miliband?

Very harsh of the Guardian to illustrate a Rafael Behr article on the future of the Labour Party with a picture of Ed Miliband already the other side of the Exit door:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/blog/2015/jan/28/labour-interesting-alliances-forming-to-plot-partys-future

"The perpetually betrayed left craves Syriza-style Marxist revivalism and the aristocracy of New Labour complain that their legacy has been traduced."

"They no longer look to Miliband as the author of Labour’s intellectual future."

"The essential analysis is that New Labour simultaneously failed to tame excesses of the market and placed too much faith in the centralised bureaucratic state as a mechanism for effecting social change. The Blair-Brown years were, in this view, a missed opportunity to regenerate an older tradition of Labour politics that was more explicit in its attachment to values of cooperation, community, faith and identity. From that weakness, it is argued, flow many of the party’s current difficulties connecting with and inspiring disillusioned voters."

My goodness are we going to have 99 days of watching the Labour party self-destruct?

Lefty populist Owen Jones is threatening secession and the foundation of a new party (like that worked in 1931).

And the Blairite rump is attacking the very cornerstone of Labour's electoral strategy:  http://www.theguardian.com/politics/2015/jan/27/miliband-nhs-plans-risk-losing-election-blair-supporters-warn

Is there no-one who is willing to fight for Ed Miliband?

It's like that moment in the film Troy when the hero Achilles (David Cameron) kills the hulking great brute (Ed Balls) and all the opposition army cowers in fear:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BiLCJxpqi4

Although this is a hectic period for me, and there is little time to stop and think, still I know that I have to look for another job as the Institute is moving back to London in June.

Alec Nussbaum has hinted I could have a part-time role working from home, but I am undecided whether this would be a good idea.

The Reading Room is already being packed up.

The ordination of Libby Lane as first Anglican woman bishop in the Church of England

The more I think about the ordination of Libby Lane as first Anglican woman bishop in the Church of England the more depressing it becomes.

Will all the rigmarole yesterday (and the decades of in-fighting and manoeuvring and backstairs fixing that led up to it) have led to the salvation of even one soul?

I doubt it.

It is just the priests fighting among themselves over where they are in the order of precedence and hierarchy over a church where the ordinary people are turning their backs and walking away.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30974547

http://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/30-january/news/uk/c-of-e-s-first-woman-bishop-consecrated

And in an odd cod-Shakespearean poem the ginger group Women And The Church ("Watch") compares Libby Lane to Richard III  - who was by any serious historical analysis a usurper:  http://womenandthechurch.org/news/for-26th-january-2015/

1970s kitsch socialism

In an item this evening on the death of Demis Roussos on Channel 4 News they had the Greek singer performing Forever and Ever over film of Alexis Tsipras acknowledging the adulation of the crowds in Athens.

It had a surreal feel of 1970s kitsch socialism.

The gender might change but the same oppressive class stays in power

Was it not wholly predictable that the first Anglican woman bishop was from a private school background?

And of course she went to Oxford.

And what's the betting that she will go straight into the House of Lords?

The gender might change but the same oppressive class stays in power.

Note also that she wants to be a "role model for girls" http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/jan/25/first-female-bishop-libby-lane-role-model

If you step into ANY Anglican parish congregation you will see that it is over 70% female (often 80% or 90%).

The correct response of this gender imbalance according to Libby Lane is to attract more girls.

How callously stupid the Anglican hierarchy has become.

They are obsessed with their own internal politics and talking to themselves.

No wonder the ordinary people (80% self identifying as Christian according to the Census) think these priests have nothing relevant to say.  Sermons are mostly just politically correct lectures.  Parish priests (with some exceptions) are mostly just wannabe social workers.

Protesting about the weak neo-liberal-running-dog bourgeois-appeasing manifesto of Ed Miliband

Inspired no doubt by the success of Syriza in the Greek election sixteen Labour MPs have just published a manifesto of their own, protesting about the weak neo-liberal-running-dog bourgeois-appeasing manifesto of Ed Miliband.  The Labour rebels are Diane Abbott, Dave Anderson, Katy Clark, Jeremy Corbyn, John Cryer, Fabian Hamilton, Kelvin Hopkins, Ian Lavery, John McDonnell, Michael Meacher, Ian Mearns, Grahame Morris, Linda Riordan, Steve Rotherham, Jim Sheridan, Chris Williamson.  Among several demands they insist that the railways are taken back into public ownership (conveniently forgetting that it was a publicly-owned section of the railways that was responsible for the closure and chaos at Kings Cross station over the Christmas holiday - nationalised organisations are always contemptuous of their customers) http://labourlist.org/2015/01/16-labour-mps-release-statement-calling-for-change-in-party-policy-direction/

We are of course fourteen weeks away from the general election.

That's about 84 campaign days (I am assuming the parties are going to give it a rest on Sundays).

What are we to make of such disloyalty at the very moment when Labour needs unity and commitment?

Presumably large sections of the Labour party have given up on May 2015.

They know they are going down, and the landing is going to be hard.

They also know that in the wake of defeat, among the resignations and recriminations and bitter internecine in-fighting, there will be an opportunity for a charismatic faction to seize control of the Labour Party.  They fear the return of David Miliband and the neo-Blairites.  Therefore they are getting their offering in first.

Syriza party winning a majority in the Greek elections

With the Syriza party winning a majority in the Greek elections it is interesting to extrapolate what impact they will have on the United Kingdom's renegotiation with the EU.

One of the most urgent issues in Greece is immigration - Syriza must address the problem.

The Syriza policy is to renegotiate the whole of the EU's asylum policy (see Alexis Tsipras interviewed by Yiannis Baboulias and Daniel Trilling 19th March 2013 http://www.newstatesman.com/austerity-and-its-discontents/2013/03/more-and-more-people-realise-austerity-not-viable-there-no-oth ).

That provides an opportunity for the United Kingdom to renegotiate the issue of free movement within the EU.

And if Syriza fails to solve the problem of immigration they will be out, and a different sort of radical party will presumably take their place.

Very sensible and intelligent report by the Centre for Policy Studies:  http://www.cps.org.uk/publications/reports/voice-and-veto/

Is Andrew Neil going to receive rape threats

Convicted criminal Vicky Pryce appeared on the Daily Politics this lunchtime, giving us her views on the political and economic situation in Greece.

Although I am in favour of the rehabilitation of offenders, I thought that under the Ched Evans principle no public figure must return to public life without sustained campaigns that make their life a misery and target (including rape threats) everyone who tries to engage with that disgraced person?

Vicky Pryce is a role model for young economists.  She is also a role model for young political spouses.  And also a role model for young people who watch the Daily Politics (there must be some).

Is Andrew Neil going to receive rape threats for daring to "employ" Vicky Pryce on his politics programme?

Or is the whole Ched Evans thing just an exercise in bullying by politically correct individuals who enjoy hurting others but feel the need to dress their sadism up in a politically correct format?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Normally I would not bother with the Daily Mirror.  It is full of sensationalist stories about obesity, rape, a worm in a “Chicken McNugget” etc.  But this article by Ben Rossington has some value:  http://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/britains-millions-unpaid-carers-breaking-5026920

It is about a study carried out by Carers UK into the experiences of the 6.5 million people who care for someone else in their family.

This is a huge number of votes – the Conservatives should be developing family-friendly policies to help these people.

The Economist has not quite analysed the situation in developing countries correctly:  http://www.economist.com/news/international/21638333-developing-countries-have-started-weave-social-safety-nets-heres-how-they-should-do-it?fsrc=scn/tw/te/bl/ed/helpingthepoorestofthepoor

The problem developing countries face is lack of trust within society.

The well-off are not willing to help the less well-off because they do not trust the government to allocate the money fairly (or indeed, at all).

The collapse of Labour in Scotland has to be the responsibility of Ed Miliband.

http://news.stv.tv/scotland-decides/news/307347-stv-poll-snp-at-52-as-murphy-fails-to-make-general-election-impact/

On Daily Politics Godfrey Bloom has just informed us that Bongoville is the capital of Bongo Bongo land.

Calling Mr Cameron "bro"

Labour's criticism of Barack Obama rather misses an obvious point.

The Americans, who are well-informed on British politics, have looked at the situation here and decided that Labour is not going to make it.

So despite the ideological affinity between the Democrats and Labour they are backing the likely winners and calling Mr Cameron "bro".

It's called realpolitik.

i100.independent.co.uk/article/why-labour-is-very-angry-with-barack-obama--xJJGogeXse

Actively planning for a post-Ed Miliband future?

What exactly is happening in the Labour Party?

Following Lord Mandelson's appearance on Newsnight (his views teased out by Emily Maitlis let us not forget, not some "star" imported from early morning Radio 4) Mark Ferguson attacks his intervention as "living in the past":  http://labourlist.org/2015/01/living-in-the-past/

Is it simply an ageing grandee nostalgic for his younger days?

Or are we seeing positioning for the future of the Labour Party?

Is it possible that many senior people in the Labour Party have already written-off the May election and are now actively planning for a post-Ed Miliband future?

One in which they would abandon the disastrous flirtations with old-style socialism and recreate "the policies we saw in the Clinton-Blair era".

What is the Labour view on this?

Having established that Chris Bryant is Shadow Culture Minister (a fact I had been previously unaware of, despite being reasonably well-informed on political issues) can we please have a statement from him on the music and videos of Iggy Azelea?

Is the Iggy Azelea oeuvre no better than an episode of the Black & White Minstrel Show?

What is the Labour view on this?

Iggy Azelea https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-zpOMYRi0w

Black & White Minstrels https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KoYOraDt1_k

Samuel Fawcett's analysis of success on the Young Fabians website

There is a gaping hole in Samuel Fawcett's analysis of success on the Young Fabians website:  http://www.youngfabians.org.uk/to_put_it_bluntly

"...no one makes it in this world on their own. Even if someone has managed to start a business from nothing, it cannot be a successful business without having schools, technical colleges and universities to train people who work for you, without hospitals and doctors to keep them healthy, without roads and airports to transport your products, and, crucially, without a population with enough disposable income to buy them" Mr Fawcett sagely advises us.

To listen to Samuel Fawcett you would think that wealth-producing businesses simply spring into existence when all the aspects he has listed (schools, hospitals, roads etc) are in place.

No mention here of risk.

And yet it is the attitude to risk that decides whether one person will be successful in wealth-creating terms and why another person (perhaps identical) will plod through life in the public sector always taking but never contributing (in wealth terms).

Darshna Soni's report on Channel 4 News

Having watched Darshna Soni's report on Channel 4 News about "British jihadi" Imran Khawaja re-entering the United Kingdom, the evidence strongly suggests he was planning rivers of blood.

http://www.channel4.com/news/

On Newsnight yesterday Lord Mandelson attacked a key Labour policy proposal.

It is reported on the BBC today:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-30890924

"What we need is what I think the Liberal Democrats are proposing" said Lord Mandelson, effectively endorsing the Liberal Democrats.

Does any of the Labour party agree with the leadership?

Ryan Shorthouse is an idiot

The fact that Ryan Shorthouse is an idiot is no reason for him to parade his stupidity before the world:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/immigration/11354519/Instead-of-aping-Ukip-Conservatives-should-be-positive-about-immigration.html

"Conservatives who are younger, more affluent, from an ethnic minority background and know immigrants well" - er how many Conservatives fall into this category Mr Shorthouse?

Or is Bright Blue playing its usual infantile "let's pretend" games?

Half a million foreigners

Nearly half a million foreigners joined the British workforce since 2010:  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/politics/11356040/David-Cameron-admits-nearly-500000-foreigners-have-joined-British-workforce-since-2010.html

As these foreigners are benefiting from a huge increase in their income compared with their country of origin, and as they are benefiting from communal assets paid for by indigenous people (the entire social structure of the United Kingdom, built up over many generations) then it is both reasonable and ethical for these foreigners to pay extra in tax.

Chuka Umunna flouncing off a Sky News interview:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmkRwJ2f8z0

What exactly is a "CBA hand gesture"?

I like James Blunt.

And do please remember Chris Bryant was privately educated and then went to Oxford (the toff's finishing school).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yEl5m8eELeI

I have stopped buying books from Amazon

It is not often I agree with Tribune magazine but certainly I can endorse this article by Andrew Rosthorn about Amazon:  http://www.tribunemagazine.org/2015/01/amazon-apple-and-their-pals-in-luxembourg-must-face-the-tax-man/

I have stopped buying books from Amazon and now use the WH Smith site.

A reference to part of Nick Clegg's genitals

Was it really necessary for Andrew Marr this morning to make a reference to part of Nick Clegg's genitals (vis a vis putting up taxes):  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b050j0fs

It is hardly the image one wants to carry in one's mind as one departs for Sung Eucharist.

And has society so coarsened that this kind of language is considered acceptable for Sunday mornings?

I was in Waitrose at the exotic fruit section when a mother and her two sons (aged 7 or 8) came to stand by my side.  Picking up two coconuts one of the boys said to his brother "Look, giant's testicles!"  The mother was appalled and embarrassed by this behaviour.

We can applaud Mr Miliband’s use of a Margaret Thatcher quote

Ed Miliband’s speech earlier today consisted mostly of vaguely positive statements stuck together with anecdotes:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2014/09/ed-miliband-s-speech-labour-conference-full-text

“So many people have lost faith in the future” is a profound analysis of the national question, but in no way did he provide a solution to it.

“…transforming the idea and ethic of how our country is run” is absolutely what is needed, but at no point did his programme, as expressed through this speech, add up to a transformation – rather it appears to be a series of tinkerings.

“An idea that is just one simple word: Together”.  Is “together” an idea in any meaningful sense?  Is it a euphemism for some kind of collectivisation?

Certainly we can applaud Mr Miliband’s use of a Margaret Thatcher quote:  “And in the four years since we lost the last election, we have learnt hard, important lessons. They start with government having to live within its means”.

But the six “goals” of the Labour election manifesto (for presumably this is what we are being presented with) seem rather thin when judged against the colossal ambition of “…transforming the idea and ethic of how our country is run”.

Raising the minimum wage by £1.50 an hour by 2020 – my goodness this is a meagre goal for such an extended timescale (and mostly these people do not vote).

“…transform our economy so that it starts to create good jobs at decent wages” – you can’t do this without addressing the failure of the state education system, which means Labour endorsing the Gove reforms.

“…our third national goal is for Britain to be truly a world leader in Green technology by 2025, creating one million new jobs as we do”.  And is a future Miliband government via its agencies going to pick the winners?  We are back to groundnuts in Tanganyika. 

“…as many young people leaving school should be able to do apprenticeships as currently go to university” – yes this is a good idea, and one a Labour government can be trusted to deliver. 

“…we will make sure this country is building as many houses as we need. with a half a million new homes” – that will immediately be swamped by the immigrants coming into the country.  But Labour is not talking about immigration (and neither are the Conservatives).  So no new start and no new politics, just the same old lies and deceptions.

“…create a world-class 21st century health and care service. So the next Labour government will set aside funding so we can have 3000 more midwives, 5000 more homecare workers, 8000 more GPs & 20000 more nurses in our NHS there will be £2.5 billion in an NHS Time to Care Fund to start transforming services for the future.plan for a truly integrated service, for physical health, mental health and care for the elderly” – this is all very well, but is too abstract.  What does this mean is tangible terms for ordinary people?  You can have eight thousand more GPs but if the GP contracts are bungled that additional resource will just go towards shorter hours and more time on the golf course for the existing GPs.

“…it is time to devolve power to England…a constitutional convention” – the Labour record on constitutional tinkering is not good.  After gerrymandered devolution (Scotland was supposed to be set up to secure Labour’s hegemony); incompetent reform of the House of Lords; all that pathetic nonsense about Silver Stick In Waiting who would trust Labour again with constitutional reform?



So rather lacklustre I'm afraid.

Evasive behaviour by Fergus Ewing when interviewed on Daily Politics

Rather doltish evasive behaviour by Fergus Ewing when interviewed on Daily Politics.

He was so frantic to avoid answering Jo Coburn's questions that he just talked endlessly like a contestant on Just A Minute.

What he should have done is to have prepared a few "exclusives" (which needn't have been anything significant, they just had to be new) and brought them out one by one so that Jo Coburn would have been diverted and under cover of which he could have steered the conversation into more congenial areas.

Instead he just bludgeoned his way through the valuable time slot saying the same thing over and over again.

Which made him appear a boorish dolt.

Fergus Ewing is the Scottish Executive's Minister for Energy, Enterprise and Tourism and the SNP Member of the Scottish Parliament for Inverness and Nairn ("Brighton of the north").

The Shadow Education Secretary saying that Labour should battle with UKIP "head on"

For all his Etonian education and academic eminence Tristram Hunt is essentially an unworldly man.

Here we see the Shadow Education Secretary saying that Labour should battle with UKIP "head on":  http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/tristram-hunt-labour-must-confront-the-ukip-threat--not-ignore-it-9981312.html

This is not possible.

It would mean Labour talking about immigration.

And that would involve the inevitable questions about why Labour had an open-door immigration policy in the period 1997-2010 and what they propose to do to clear up "the mess" (for mess is how most people see this issue).

It would also involve apologies.  Humiliating public apologies for getting immigration wrong.  Public apologies, select apologies, one-to-one apologies, painfully extracted apologies, dramatic faux-defiant apologies screaming "yes we were wrong you deserve to hate us", tearful quiet foetal-position apologies begging for forgiveness.

Apologies that would so destroy the morale of the Labour activists that their motivation would start to suffer.

So no, Labour will not be taking UKIP "head on".

Anoosh Chakelian argues that the rise of the Greens is irresistible

In the New Statesman Anoosh Chakelian argues that the rise of the Greens is irresistible, and there is nothing Labour can do to stop them taking votes:  http://www.newstatesman.com/politics/2015/01/why-labour-cant-counter-greens-popularity-green-policies

However, I think Ms Chakelian errs when she portrays the Greens as a progressive party.

They are of course reactionary.

And Green policy is full of contradictions - as you can prove for yourself by engaging them on the subject of immigration.

But Anoosh Chakelian is right - the Greens are going to do a lot of damage to Labour between now and May.

The Dig by John Preston

I have just finished reading The Dig by John Preston.  Competently written, but not great literature.  In many ways it is a curiosity, putting into novel form the real events surrounding the discovery and excavation of the Sutton Hoo treasure (which includes speculating about the thoughts of real people - even assuming they are now dead, it is somewhat distasteful to have John Preston telling us about their marital tensions in a first person format).

There are layers of meaning and narrative in the novel (the slept-in bed in Sutton Hoo house; the communications with the spirit world; the singing of the nightingales etc) but the work is too slight for these to be developed in a satisfying way.

The imminence of war adds a complexity to the book - was King Raedwald (like King Arthur is supposed to do) wakening at the hour of England's need?

http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/online_tours/britain/our_top_ten_british_treasures/the_sutton_hoo_ship-burial.aspx

Matthew Goodwin very reasoned and measured on Daily Politics.

He brings much-needed rationality to areas that are normally shouted over.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

There is a problem with today's edition

Recently I have been watching Daily Politics while having lunch.

However, there is a problem with today's edition - it features Matthew Parris.

It is possible that his oily hypocrisies and flatulent arguments might make me throw up (something I seldom experience with lefties, no matter how odious they are).

I suppose it is the sense of betrayal that is so nauseating.

So I have the problem - do I miss lunch or do I miss Daily Politics?

PS when I announced this generally there was concern that having Matthew Parris broadcast into the office might turn the milk sour.

Shami Chakrabarti's new book On Liberty

The Fabian Society has a review by Frank Judd, Nicole Piché of Shami Chakrabarti's new book On Liberty:  http://www.fabians.org.uk/review-on-liberty-by-shami-chakrabarti/

As you might expect from a Shami Chakrabarti text, it appears to be deliberately uncomprehending of any aspects of liberty that pose politically inconvenient viewpoints.

Therefore Judd and Piché draw attention to Chakrabarti's condemnation of "Those politicians who denigrate and dehumanise immigrants, asylum seekers and refugees with their cynical use of ‘divide and rule’ tactics in an attempt to distract the electorate from a failure to deal with the real social, economic and practical inadequacies and challenges".

But no acknowledgement that immigration against the wishes of the democratic will of the majority is a serious erosion of freedom and justice.

No people can be called free if they cannot control through the democratic process policies such as migration that have such a fundamental social impact on almost everyone.

A society built on an injustice cannot stand.

Severndroog

Did you know Severndroog Castle is now open again?

http://www.severndroogcastle.org.uk/visit-us.html

I'm afraid she looked a bozo

On Daily Politics this lunchtime Andrew Neil totally flummoxed Rachel Reeves (Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions) by asking her for an example from anywhere in the western world where a prices policy worked.

All she could do was quote an incomes policy and try to pass it off as a "price".

I'm afraid she looked a bozo.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Following Tony Blair's admissions today, it is clear that there was not a Peace Process in Northern Ireland, there was a surrender process (to the IRA):  http://www.thejournal.ie/tony-blair-on-the-runs-1879846-Jan2015/?utm_source=twitter_self

This preening man sickens and disgusts me.

The Wolsey Angels

It is unthinkable that the Wolsey Angels should be lost.

If you can afford to do so, please send a donation to the Victoria & Albert fund:  http://www.vam.ac.uk/content/articles/w/wolsey-angels-appeal/

A filmed interview with David Walker, Bishop of Manchester

On Daily Politics today they had a filmed interview with David Walker, Bishop of Manchester.

In the background one saw modern loose chairs set in rows.

And with a sinking feeling one realised:  here is another trendy cleric who delights in ripping out pews.

One of the consolations of disestablishment would be the removal of our historic churches from the hands of these clerical vandals (the disestablished Church can hold their services in portacabins if they object so strongly to Victorian pews).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b04ygd7f/daily-politics-13012015

Labour's policies of redistribution have become impossible as a result of mass immigration

Asinine article on immigration by Maya Goodfellow on LabourList:  http://labourlist.org/2015/01/its-time-labour-challenged-the-toxicity-of-the-immigration-debate/

Immigration has profound social costs.

Studies (by for instance Harvard's Robert Putnam) have shown that immigration drastically reduces trust within society - both trust between indigenous and immigrant communities and trust within indigenous communities.  Without trust the welfare state becomes much more difficult to sustain as the fortunate are less willing to subsidise the less fortunate.  Therefore Labour's policies of redistribution have become impossible as a result of mass immigration.

Of course the Labour party does not understand this.

Which is why they cannot be trusted with immigration policy.

And by the way Ms Goodfellow the debate on immigration only became toxic because people like you screamed "racist" whenever anyone tried to discuss it.

I am not sure I can support the Conservatives at the next election if they are going to drop immigration as a key issue for concern:  http://blogs.spectator.co.uk/coffeehouse/2015/01/tories-drop-weak-policy-areas-for-six-election-priorities-launch/

Reporting on the Paris march the BBC's James Longman told us "there's a party atmosphere here".

Sung Eucharist

Several times during Sung Eucharist this morning I felt very moved, including

Crown Him the Virgin’s Son, the God incarnate born,
Whose arm those crimson trophies won which now His brow adorn;
Fruit of the mystic rose, as of that rose the stem;
The root whence mercy ever flows, the Babe of Bethlehem.

and later

Crown Him the Lord of years, the Potentate of time,
Creator of the rolling spheres, ineffably sublime.
All hail, Redeemer, hail! For Thou has died for me;
Thy praise and glory shall not fail throughout eternity.

Fractious edition of Dateline London earlier today.

Bickering, talking over each other, gestural flouncing.

Gavin Esler kept order but only just.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006m93g

We are seeing rivers of blood

Another day of horrors in France.

We are seeing rivers of blood, and yet still the lefties deny that Enoch Powell was right.

The ordinary people of western Europe never wanted THOSE people anywhere near us.

And if it is possible to repatriate two million French people from Algeria to France (often born there and settled for several generations) why is it so unthinkable to consider repatriating Algerian people from France to Algeria?

http://www.channel4.com/news/four-hostages-killed-in-paris-as-police-storm-two-locations

These are committed Labour activists and supporters

Anonymous article on LabourList, but interesting to note "56% think Labor won’t get a majority":  http://labourlist.org/2015/01/most-labourlist-readers-expect-labour-to-fall-short-of-a-majority/

These are committed Labour activists and supporters.

If even these people are defeatist it does not say much for Labour's prospects.

Of course, the same sample says the Conservatives will not get a majority, but on the whole LabourList readers do not know the Conservative party as intimately as the Labour party therefore we can regard their opinions on the Conservatives as wishful thinking.

Let us return to the 56% who think Labour will not get a majority.

Winning an election depends upon a transfer of enthusiasm from the political party to the voter.

If there is no enthusiasm in the first place, the voter will not be motivated.

Reports of Prime Minister's Questions were rather overshadowed yesterday by other news, but it is worth noting the Prime Minister's commitment to the restoration of the RAF chapel at Biggin Hill http://www.bbm.org.uk/BHchapel.htm

Enoch Powell was right about those people.

Is it not a concern that under EU free movement impositions those people could come here?

Beatrix Campbell feels compelled to give us her opinion on the Ched Evans issue

Even Beatrix Campbell feels compelled to give us her opinion on the Ched Evans issue.

The erosion of trust in the legal system is a concern here.

Ched Evans was found guilty by a court, and that court also sentenced him.

If people are unhappy about a sentence they can always appeal to the court to have it changed to more accurately match their wishes.  The court can then accept or reject their appeal.  What is totally unacceptable is for virtual mobs to seek to overturn the sentence of a court (which sentence did not include any workplace restrictions).

Otherwise we are in the lynch-mob territory of the Ku Klux Klan 

This articlein the Daily Mirror is typical:  http://linkis.com/www.mirror.co.uk/spo/LOeYK

The irony of this Andy Burnham tweet is amusing.

The Thiepval Memorial (Lutyens) is to be restored for the Somme centenary:   http://www.centenarynews.com/article?id=3160#.VKw5wD06ee4.twitter

Labour is the party that has almost destroyed the NHS

Daily Politics today looked at the "crisis" in Hospital Accident & Emergency departments.

No mention was made of the impact of population growth on demand for hospital services.

Since Labour introduced open-door immigration (according to Lord Mandelson they "sent out search parties looking for immigrants") the population has increased by approximately 8 million.

Given that the NHS provides one hospital per 25k population we would have needed 240 new hospitals on top of the exisiting provision in 1997.

Of course, Labour goes on and on about its rebuilding of hospitals under Blair, Brown and Burnham but this relates to renewing the existing provision (on expensive PFI terms), not providing hospitals for the immigrants they welcomed here.

Indeed, we were given the facile argument that because immigrants were on the whole young people they would never get ill (but as Professor Paul Collier argues, expanding diasporas attract extended family members including the elderly and the sick).

Far from saving the NHS, Labour is the party that has almost destroyed the NHS through a commitment to ever greater immigration.

Effectively during their time in office Labour opened up the NHS to the entire population of the world.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

Remove the right of these people to vote in British elections

Bizarre reasoning in this leading article in The Times:  http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/opinion/leaders/article4313918.ece

Because there are 1.5 million foreign citizens "eligible" to vote in the United Kingdom the article argues that the Conservatives should appease them by adjusting their policies.

Would it not be more democratic and indeed straightforward simply to remove the right of these people to vote in British elections.

As the author of the article admits, the eligibility is just a hangover from the days of Empire and is now an anachronism.

If the Conservatives gain an outright majority in May they should strike hard and strike fast to remove these foreigners from the electoral roll (if they are so keen on voting in our elections they could always apply for citizenship like every other country requires).

Daily Politics

It is a relief to have Daily Politics back.

Over the long holiday my days have lacked the framework of Today (I've been getting up too late), Daily Politics, Newsnight.

And since I started going to the 10.30 Sung Eucharist I no longer get to see Sunday Politics.

There has been Channel 4 News of course.

But it is a relief to have Daily Politics back  http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b006mjxb

A question from the BBC is met by verbal intimidation

This is a tweet by the Guardian's Patrick Wintour about the management of the press at the Ed Milband speech today.

Not nice is it.

A question from the BBC is met by verbal intimidation.

The first of the Conservative election posters

Profound messages encoded in the first of the Conservative election posters.

Deeply religious imagery - Matthew Chapter Seven verses 13-14:
Verse 13 Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat
Verse 14 Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life.

The landscape is northern European (it is apparently German, although it could be in Lincolnshire - perhaps one of the droves from Spalding to Bourne and up onto the Stone Heath) and reveals a pristine environment of clear views, pure air, rural virtue - none of the "urban" attributes that have corrupted society.

The lower half of the Union flag used as an arrow - this is the British way.

This is a lovely piece of work.

Sponsor British-born students on the appropriate courses

If James Dyson wants British graduates all he has to do is sponsor British-born students on the appropriate courses:  http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2015/jan/04/theresa-may-foreign-postgraduates-students-qualification-vote-dyson

No Mr Dyson, you can't have cheapo foreign graduates - as a fat cat industrialist you must pay the full cost of educating the British employees you want.

If you don't want to participate in our society you can of course simply fuck off overseas.

But if you want to export your products from Singapore into the United Kingdom I want tariffs in place that ensure you still pay an appropriate contribution to British society.

"Dyson is searching for scientists and engineers. But there simply are not enough. Quite simply, there aren’t enough out there" James Dyson whines.

Correction Mr Dyson.

There aren't enough at the low price you want to pay.

If you pay more you will get the personnel you need.

And please don't argue you can't afford it.  If your business model has to rely on subsidised education for your workers then the conclusion we have to draw is that the market does not want your products at the true cost of producing them.  Which is no great loss really - all you are offering society is extra suction on a vacuum cleaner.

Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali

Have just finished reading Twilight in Delhi by Ahmed Ali.

It was first published in 1940, and although Ahmed Ali was a major Indian author and his writing was aimed at his fellow Indians it is significant that he wrote the novel in English.

It is set in Delhi in 1911, the year of the Coronation Durbar.

It is essential a lament for a culture being overwhelmed by one of the early phases of globalisation (as we know, this experiment in globalisation led to revolt by the Indians and the expulsion of the farangis).

"Nothing" Asghar replied, heaving a sigh, and his beautiful eyes looked deep and sad with pain, and his fresh skin looked wrinkled and old.

His people came of Arab stock and prided themselves on being Saiyyeds, direct descendants of the Prophet, and this low blood in her veins was bound to stand in the way of his father giving his consent to the marriage.

...father has never been sympathetic towards me.  He is always shouting at me and getting angry.  I must not wear pumps or English shirts.  I must not grow my hair in the English fashion.  If I had stayed in Delhi, he wouldn't have even allowed me to learn English.

...a salute of guns announced the arrival of the English King.  As they sounded a shout went up from the crowds, as if the King had come right in their midst.

But most failed to see which was King and which was officials.  The English looked all so alike with their white faces and their similar military uniforms.

(The building of New Delhi) The residents of Delhi resented all this, for their city, in which they had been born and grew up, the city of their dreams and reality, was being changed beyond recognition.  They passed bitter remarks and denounced the Farangis.

Steven Gerrard was broadcast on Channel 4 News this evening

An interview with Steven Gerrard was broadcast on Channel 4 News this evening.

It was only a few minutes, and purchased from another channel, but when the most heavyweight news and current affairs programme of the day is reporting the career move of a sportsman it is an indication that something culturally significant is happening.

Article by John Harris for Prospect

A headline from the Thatcher era begins this article by John Harris for Prospect:  http://www.prospectmagazine.co.uk/features/election-2015-labour-isnt-working

Over four thousand words, and all of them worth reading.

…Labour appears to have invested all its energy in a dire electoral strategy, whereby if its core vote can be kept onside and the party retains enough dismayed former Lib Dems, it can be confident of a narrow victory in May.

…a pattern in which regular crises are followed by supposed comebacks—set-piece speeches, usually, which are briefly poured over, before they quickly fade away—which then give way to more supposed calamities.

…Labour seems incapable of going beyond a poll rating of 35 per cent, and is losing much-needed support to the UK Independence Party (Ukip) and the Greens, while failing to attract disaffected Tories.

…Labour’s problems are clear. In whole swathes of the English south, it is no longer part of the political conversation. In Scotland, to use a term coined by the academic and writer Gerry Hassan, it finds itself in the unenviable position of being “undead”: still nominally in the game, but now dwarfed by the Scottish National Party (SNP) and a range of left-of-centre groups who see it as a conservative relic of a failed past. Meanwhile, in the party’s remaining heartlands, from the south Wales valleys to the post-industrial expanse of south Yorkshire, Labour’s decline is something you can almost feel.

…between 1997 and now, Labour’s share of the vote will have tumbled, usually from somewhere around 70 per cent to the mid-50s.

…the parliamentary party’s narrowing range of backgrounds has only increased its disconnection—not just from its core supporters, but whole swathes of the entire electorate—and accelerated its decline.

…increasingly drowned out by a cacophony of noise about identity, belonging and, with particularly serious implications for Labour, what it is to be politically authentic.

…unbelievably clunky manoeuvrings on immigration.

…the party’s basic mission is being left behind by modernity.

…as if to confirm Labour’s often antediluvian idea of politics, speeches are still the main way he (Ed Miliband) communicates

The same Matthew Parris who is so pro-immigration and pro-EU

If you read The Times on Wednesday you may have looked at the Matthew Parris column.

It was full of nauseating twaddle as usual, but the opening paragraph of the fourth sub-item was worth reproducing.

Here Mr Parris informs us that he has purchased a holiday home in southern Spain.

This is the same Matthew Parris who is so pro-immigration and pro-EU.

You know, the sort of self-righteous creep who will unctuously tell you we have to have immigration of low-skill very-low-wage eastern Europeans because of all the British people who have gone to live on Spain and France.

Now we know why he is so keen on inter-EU migration.

He is a direct beneficiary of this racket (although of course he never declares an interest when he lecturing the rest of us on the subject of immigration).

There is something about a seed catalogue at the beginning of the year that fills me with hope.

Steven Gerrard

By any standards Steven Gerrard is a great athlete.

On the PM programme (BBC Radio 4) it was revealed that he was enrolled in the Liverpool football academy at the age of 8.

In a panegyric report, a commentator said he was one of the last gentleman players, full of all the virtues.