The Guardian (Free subscription) | yesterday
How do we stop people like Margery feeling they are now part of a small white minority? Margery and I have never met but she emails out of the blue and obviously she wants to get things off her chest, so I suggest we meet for coffee. Nothing doing. Keen to talk, not keen to be caught doing so. Sheltered here by a pseudonym. "Let's leave it," she says. "I'm not that brave." God...
Ana the Imp (Free subscription) | yesterday
Lovers of the English language, or words in general, will be mindful that this year marks the three-hundredth anniversary of the birth of Doctor Samuel Johnson, the compiler of our first dictionary. His namesake, the equally larger than life Boris Johnson marked the occasion with a piece in The Daily Telegraph , pointing out how ill-fitted he would be as commentator in our PC world: Polly Toynbee would...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 26/11/2009
We kick things off this week by picking up on the recent suggestion of our colleague Jenny Russell that Labour is about to crown the wrong Miliband – David instead of Ed. And if the mood in the pod is anything to go by, Jenny might have things right – we all lean Ed's way in a straight Miliband choice, although Polly Toynbee insists that what is really needed is a wide-ranging and open...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 25/11/2009
Over the last year we have watched as a bank-induced credit crunch morphed into debate on public services cuts. While the public have bailed out the bankers, whose flawed system led us into this mess, it is those least able to afford it who are facing the reality of having their pay and benefits frozen, and vital services cut. We simply cannot allow this to happen. As Polly Toynbee says ( Comment...
Vino's Political Blog (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
Polly Toynbee writes an article I strongly agree with . The current clamour for public expenditure cuts seems to me rather foolish - and ignores the alternative way of balancing the budget when the economic situation improves - tax increases. The higher top tax rate of 50% is a step in the right direction. Additionally, the government could lift the upper earnings limit on National Insurance, thus...
Labourhome (Free subscription) | 24/11/2009
Polly Toynbee covered the report here and Richard Murphy debated Tory MP Michael Fallon on the Today programme here. The “In Place of Cuts” report published to by Compass sets out tax proposals, which would see 90% of income earners benefit from reforms that make Britain fairer, and help avoid prolonging the recession. The report [...]
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
As Brown and Cameron clash on how to slash the deficit, a new blueprint spells out how tax reform could curb it fairly The leaders were still shadow-boxing at the Confederation for British Industry conference yesterday. In the red corner Gordon Brown thumped out his warning that " Choking off recovery too soon would be fatal ". In the blue corner David Cameron hit back, warning again of...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
If Labour cannot win the coming election with Gordon Brown, it certainly can't win it without him ( Here's the last hard choice for Labour: leader or country , 14 November). Imagine the bickering and infighting among his potential successors, none of whom has shown any flair or national leadership potential. What that would do to an electorate, already thoroughly disillusioned by politics and politicians,...
Tory Bear (Free subscription) | 23/11/2009
The problem whe n you become a poster girl for a political party is realising that instead of being a random groupie on twitter, when you get the endorsement of party elders, party slaves and party cheerleaders, when you are photographed with the PM, you deserve a little more scrutiny. LabourList proudly state young Ellie Gellard is their most influential communicator online. It takes a pretty sick...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 20/11/2009
The wild escalation of top salaries goes across both sectors – and so must the solution: a high pay commission If ever there were a need for a high pay commission to put some rationality into out-of-control top pay scales, this is it. The Equality and Human Rights Commission is looking for a new chief executive. Its chairman, Trevor Phillips, called in Hayes Consulting to establish what the...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
The Queen's speech might have been just seven minutes long, but we devote a whole 21 minutes of this week's show to it. And not just what was in it but also what wasn't in it. David Cameron criticised Gordon Brown for not incorporating Christopher Kelly's reforms on MPs' expenses. Michael White thinks is was at least politically naïve of Brown. Polly Toynbee gives her reaction to the speech....
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
I sense growing detachment, alienation and indifference where the monarchy is concerned The Westminster neighbourhood should be back to normal this morning after the Queen's golden coach and all those metal railings have been put back into storage. "The captains and the kings depart," as Kipling put it in Recessional, his prophetically melancholy poem of 1897. Three melancholy exchanges...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
EU leaders meet in Brussels tonight, where they'll decide who'll be the first President of the European Council. Former Latvian president Vaira Vike-Freiberga - unlike most candidates - has formally declared an interest in standing. She says the selection process is male-dominated and undemocratic. A report from Human Rights Watch finds repression as bad under President Raúl Castro as it was...
Islington Newmania (Free subscription) | 19/11/2009
On Hopi`s blog today he was gushing about the latest Labour PPB “ Fighters and Believers”. If you bother with it , and avoid spontaneous combustion ,you will be struck by the clammy religiosity . Timmy Worstall meanwhile was pouring scorn on the notion that Jesus was a socialist . A presumably sanctimonious leftie feels that in an eventful life Jesus found time to register support for progressive...
The Guardian (Free subscription) | 18/11/2009
Regrets hung in the air, but don't dismiss the Queen's speech as a packet of fag-end gestures. Many of these bills could pass Not dead yet. Alive, alive-O was Labour's message heralded by trumpets. Though delivered in deathly regal deadpan, here was a programme with substance flashing out a lighthouse reminder of what Labour stands for. Electioneering? Of course, and why not? The Westminster village...
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