‘One Nation’ versus the Daily Mail comfort zone
It is in Benjamin Disraeli’s novels that the ‘One Nation’ theme can be initially found. In Coningsby, Disraeli criticised the parliamentarians of the day: ‘They knew as little of the real state of their own country as savages of an approaching eclipse.’ He saw clearly that you could not lock power and opportunity into one class in society; society had to act as one to move forward. In Sybil, which had the alternative title The Two Nations, he remarked that ‘the claims of the future are represented by suffering millions.’ Perhaps Michael Foot had it right in Debts of Honour when he remarked that Disraeli had ‘left his shelf-ful of novels to befuddle the Conservative, or Tory, mind for ever more.’
Posted by Nick Thomas-Symonds on 5 October 2012
Just as Margaret Thatcher used ideas of freedom and individualism to win the support of many traditional Labour voters in the late 1970s, so Ed Miliband believes that the themes of social patriotism and egalitarian populism can give Labour the kind of broad appeal it needs to win in 2015. David Cameron will not be fighting ‘Red Ed’ or ‘Weird Ed’ at the next election, so it is back to the drawing-board for the backroom boys at Conservative headquarters.
Posted by David Clark on 2 October 2012
The Tories have lost their two ‘get out of jail free’ cards. The boundary review looks dead. And they made the fatal mistake … of underestimating Miliband and assuming he would be an anchor on Labour’s chances. The extent to which the One Nation concept has deeply discombobulated the Tories should not be underestimated. If voters were watching they would have seen an unremitting stream of harshness. Nothing seemed to be challenging the party or appealing outside the Daily Mail comfort zone: from Jeremy Hunt’s remarks about abortion .through welfare, immigration, the right to shoot burglars, Europe, and economic austerity. Cameron and Michael Gove’s attempts to position themselves in 2010 as the true ‘heirs to Blair’ have been replaced by George Osborne’s announcement that Tony Blair achieved nothing.
Posted by Luke Akehurst on 11 October 2012
Compromising Britain’s security
Judicial cooperation is the final weapon which strengthens law enforcement against criminality. This includes the power of arrest, extradition and sentencing policy. ‘Eurojust’ is the European Union agency which promotes such cooperation, of which the most significant is the European arrest warrant.
This has brought suspected criminals to justice far more speedily and has made it more difficult for UK criminals to escape justice in the rest of the EU. UK withdrawal would significantly damage our ability to contest major criminality. It is extraordinary that Cameron and Theresa May have abandoned the security interests of Britain in order to curry favour from the ignorant, partisan and prejudiced anti-EU views of a handful of Conservative backbenchers. Let’s hope that saner counsels prevail over time.
Posted by Charles Clarke on 17 October 2012
Scrapping citizenship
The government is currently reviewing the national curriculum again. Apparently, it would have liked to scrap citizenship completely. I can imagine that just one look at the citizenship programme of study, which explains how the subject ‘encourages pupils to challenge injustice, inequalities and discrimination’, might have rung alarm bells for this government. Labour gave citizenship a statutory place in the curriculum and this government does not want to go to parliament to wholly remove the subject. It is, however, taking pride in having reduced the curriculum from 29 pages to less than one. The focus will now be on the British monarchy, parliamentary democracy, theories of liberty and rights and how these are underpinned by the constitution. Presumably there will be compulsory lessons in translating the meaning of Magna Carta.
Posted by Jacqui Smith on 15 October 2012
Reviving Lords reform
Despite events in parliament this year, reform of the House of Lords must not fall off the political agenda. Reform is still required but we need to carefully rethink how it proceeds and what form it takes. We should not assume that the only option is a quick fix of electing one percentage or another, as proposed in the recent House of Lords reform bill. Instead, we argue for an ongoing programme of reform in the first instance, with a longer-term move towards a chamber for the UK parliament elected on a federal basis. With the Scottish independence referendum approaching and calls growing for more devolution, this proposal addresses wider needs of reform and offers the chance to reconnect parliament with a disillusioned electorate and finally give expression to the nature of the modern British state.
Posted by Clive Soley, George Foulkes, Helen Liddell and John McFall on 11 October 2012
Blacklisting is alive and well
The most pernicious secrets do not have to be official. That is because the people who have power over our lives are not all part of the state. The Financial Times, to its great credit, is reporting on a growing scandal of blacklisting in the construction industry. The blacklist is an especially nasty form of secrecy. It operates to deny people a livelihood in their chosen trade or profession for perceived trade union activity or general bolshiness. ‘Trade union activity’ might include pointing out lapses in health and safety measures on a construction site, or whistle-blowing on bosses failing to pay the minimum wage. You might find yourself on a blacklist for your political views (like the Hollywood stars in the 1950s), because you rubbed the site manager up the wrong way, or because of the false testimony of an enemy.
Posted by Paul Richards on 19 October 2012
Syria forgotten
We in Labour must not hide behind a naïve belief that any western intervention is an imperialist plot. Some on the left are so wedded to this misconception with the tragic result that they end up giving succour to evil fascist tyrants. Socialists once formed brigades to fight fascism in Spain. Now, some devote more energy to arresting Tony Blair than they do to stopping the Slayer of Syria or than they did against the Butcher of Baghdad before him.
Posted by John Slinger on 9 October 2012