IDS & Welfare reform

IDS is not trying to play political chess. He is advancing an agenda that he believes in with all his heart – and the public are willing to give him a try. Labour is intellectually exhausted, and Toynbee knows it. The result is the best chance we’ve had in a generation to make British poverty history writes Fraser Nelson in an excellent Spectator blog.

Jesse Norman on Big Society

What is Big Society? A political philosophy that says there are unimaginable reserves of social energy beneith society and that government can play an important role in liberating them - helping people to help themselves and developing social capital says Jesse Norman in this week's Politics Weekly podcast from the Guardian.

Man's natural state is to be in society. Man is a social animal, and that's where you get that linkage to social habit for example, and the missing ingredient you get if you follow that line of thought through is that it starts with 'habits', continues with 'practices' and ends up with 'institutions'.

The criticism is therefore that the state versus individual - or traditional view - misses out this crucial third element of 'institutions' - and those are the things which give people's lives point, purpose, energy and meaning - whether its the local church school you send your children to, or Manchester United football club.

All explained in his book The Big Society.

Drugs Harris about John

"Cocaine, the perfect drug for a brittle and anxious Britain" writes John Harris in one of the most fatuous articles I have ever read.

His point? "Cocaine is not a drug to plug you into the collective consciousness; instead it leaves you marooned on your own tedious island, little caring about what anyone else has to contribute. Unlike ecstasy, cannabis, or acid, it is not contemplative or mind-expanding."

So there you have it. Stick to ecstasy, cannabis, or acid. Thanks for that John.

The sovereignty of Van Rompuy

'The time of the homogenous nation-state is over… The national and the European interest can no longer be separated; they coincide… We have together to fight the danger of a new Euro-scepticism. This is no longer the monopoly of a few countries. In every Member State, there are people who believe their country can survive alone in the globalised world. It is more than an illusion: it is a lie!'

European President Herman Van Rompuy in a Berlin speech delivered today.

Archbishop Cranmer reports.

Happy half-birthday to the Coalition

It is now six months since the Coalition was formed and came to power. So what have they achieved in that time?

Dependably, the economy - and specifically a yawning budget deficit inherited from Labour - has been the Coalition's first priority. Indeed it has widely handicapped - as they knew it would - the Coalition's hopes and abilities to develop policies requiring spending in other areas. But George Osborne's emergency Budget back in July and the Comprehensive Spending Review in October have greatly strengthened market confidence in the Coalition's ability to reduce the deficit, keeping medium and long-term lending rates low for the foreseable future. Many will see this as a rather unremarkable achievement based as it is deep in the bowels of the economy. But it provides the very foundation of an efficient and properly functioning economy saving both businesses and families countless billions of pounds in increased prices, currencies and costs that would otherwise have been a huge - and perhaps unbearable - burden. The notable exception to this - and it has to be said, an increasingly isolated one - is the Ballsian view that any lowering of public spending for the next year or more (the timescale appears to be flexibly long) will produce a double-dip recession and a  'lost decade' like the 1930's. How Labour's glee club would love that.

In truth the Coalition's economic narrative has effectively - and rather cleverly - neutralised the economy as an issue after the disaster it became under Labour. The Brown view, that nothing could be touched for fear of depression or worse - Portugal, Ireland and Greece - has now receded. Going forward, there are still major issues over growth and the opposition will continue to land pyrrhic victories by reference to totemic issues like Sheffield Forgemasters - as if an £80m loan would ruin the economy. But an aura of quiet calm and professional dignity has enveloped the Coalition government. Its economic management is now undoubted - remember those Mandelsonian taunts of 'boy George sailing too close to the wind'? - indeed it is widely admired across global financial institutions. And it is George Osborne and his team - including Danny Alexander and even David Laws who prepared the ground - that have played a crucial role here. This will be the Coalition's greatest - though I suspect largely forgotten - legacy.

A cascade of revolutions have also been launched right across government as the pent-up frustration of five lost years under Labour's sclerotically-centralised Brownian bureaucracy which stifled communities, people and business is desperately unwound.

Labour's characterisation of this Coalition as an narrow, arrogantly-entitled ideological elite imposing social engineering on an unwilling country fits only their own record of thirteen years in government. We will still be paying off Labour's legacy of tax and spend for the next thirty years. And what choice did we get as to how our hard earned money was spent? Absolutely none. Labour always knew best. And that is why the largest budget deficit in our peacetime history will remain quite clearly Labour's legacy.

The Coalition by contrast, launches supply-side, bottom-up revolution right across government - putting people at its heart. They call it the 'big society'. I can think of better names, but it really is not an excercise in cutting public services and having them run by volunteers as the Labour election adverts suggested. Its about giving control - and with it responsibility - to us. Ordinary people like you and me. Able to decide and make a real choice about our health, education, welfare or policing. Not being imposed by an arrogant elite who know better then us how we should live our lives. That path leads to an open immigration policy 'just to rub the right's nose in it' which so damaged decent working people; the falacy of multiculturalism that provided the ethnic ghettoes from which the 7/7 bombers emerged; the deeply unfair culture of welfare dependency that continues to blight the lives of over 8 million of our most vulnerable people or the political ideology that led to 42 days detention without trial and a whole host of illiberal and repressive legislation in the name of battling terror.

What a shameful legacy.

The revolution has only just begun. In education - both compulsory and higher - health, welfare, local government and the way our electoral system works it is already underway. In policing, the house of lords, prisons and the great reform bill, the revolution will take a while longer. It will almost certainly require two terms of government, perhaps more. The democratic and accountable reform of the EU for instance, may take longer still. But if the Big Society means anything, it surely will happen.

Happy half-birthday to the Coalition.

Students & the rainbow coalition

Great Tweet on student riots this afternoon. Somone just pointed out they've torched the Tory HQ because the LibDems changed their minds after a report commissioned by Labour.

You really couldn't make this up.

Clegg kept his word on paedophiles then

An intriguing and well written question at PMQ's today asked Nick Clegg which of his manifesto promises - 'apart from giving paedophiles, rapists and muderers the vote' - had the deputy Prime Minister kept?

The put-down came with the words "I'm not sure whether that was a question, or a line he's rehearsed over and over again for the past few days." Priceless.

Revolting placards

Having some fun at the expense of rioting students, Oli Holden-Rea has come up with the top ten placards for revolting students:

"If you’re going to spend your afternoon protesting, then you’ll want to make sure you draw attention to your cause – or at least appear on TV. Total Politics offers a run-down of some of the more creative ways students have put their education to good use in 'the top ten placards from the tuition fee protests':


1. I thought I was going to Alton Towers
2. I wish my boyfriend was as dirty as your policy
3. This s**t wouldn’t happen at Hogwarts
4. Hairdressing student against cuts
5. Kiss my arts
6. If I could afford higher tuition fees I’d buy a better banner
7. I went to university and all I could aford [sic] was this stupid sign
8. Is this the queue for Justin Bieber tickets?
9. Arts cuts are worse than this comic sans font
10. Angry Sign

Nick Clegg at PMQ's

"Clegg retains the impossibly high moral tone he favored (on many subjects) during his years in opposition. Adhering to a logic that mortals struggle to grasp, with great impatience he insists (as though explaining it to children) that the new policy is somehow in keeping with the old. When it isn’t. It is difficult to see this approach having widespread appeal." writes Iain Martin about today's PMQ's performance from Nick Clegg.

I think he's about right on tone, but utterly wrong on policy.

The LibDems did not win the election. Their manifesto promises cannot therefore be implemented. Indeed the British people did not vote for them to be implemented.

Coalition government is about compromise and agreement. Not lofty ideological principles that are unbreakable. No matter what pledges were signed before the election, the LibDems lost the right to stick to them the moment the electorate voted for a hung parliament.

For Labour to suggest that the LibDems now have no principles is seriously disingenuous - indeed downright dishonest. It is also why a coalition with Labour was never possible. And I thought it was all about numbers...

Tom Chivers on Ashtiani & Islam

"Only the other day, five Anglican bishops decided that the particular flavour of Christian God they were following wasn’t nasty enough to gays and women, so they swapped for a different one. To my knowledge none of them were martyred in a public square in Oxford, and I think we can all say hurrah for that. They might not have been so lucky during the Reformation. This isn’t because the Bible has changed, it’s because Christians have – for the better, by and large." Writes Tom Chivers in Telegraph blogs in a piece about Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani facing stoning for adultery and the true face of Islam. well worth reading.

Sunshine wins the day: Birbalsingh v Millar

Fiona Millar wrote in yesterday's Guardian “I have seen several Katharine Birbalsinghs come and go. They emerge from nowhere; catch the media’s attention, often because of the way they look. Would she have made the same impact if she had been white and middle aged? Around 1 per cent of what they say is true; the rest is usually eye-catching propaganda that plays into the prejudices of the audience. In my experience these characters usually inhale too much of their own publicity, get over-promoted and vanish as quickly as they appeared.”

Not only is this really dismissive, patronising drivel on a very personal level - something we have come to expect from the nasty party - but it does absolutely nothing to advance her argument that everything in state education is wonderful. From someone who argues in favour of 'bog standard comprehensives' it just shows that even non-white, non middle-aged teachers with years of real experience in classrooms recognise the serious problems that consign each generation to a lack of opportunity, aspiration and ultimately promote poverty.

"I used to stand up at assembly all the time and say: “Be like Martin Luther King. Be like Nelson Mandela.” How then could I, when facing the music, not try to do the right thing? I may be unemployed, but at least I know that if ever I get the chance to stand at assembly again, I can hold my head up high" answers Katharine Birbalsingh. Wonderful. The argument has already been won. Even St. Barack knows the value of real education. He just calls them Charter schools.

Progressive fees

I didn't quite see who the questioner was at PMQ's (Paul Uppal? according to my Twitter feed) but a graduate earning £25,000 would pay just £30 per month in repaying student fees under the Coalition's proposals. That really is extraordinarily progressive, putting enormous emphasis on higher earning graduates to repay the most substantial rates.

I had not realised just how progressive these measures were designed to be.

Labour's shame

The nasty party is now telling us that if you're a North West Labour MP, a member of the GMB union or a regular networker in the strangers bar at the house of commons, it's ok to lie and smear an opponent in order to win office.

It is never acceptable to be dishonest or racist. What a long way the party has fallen. What shame.

Let's hope that until the Labour party is honest and decent, the electorate keep it a long way from office.

Woolas should go immediately.

The wisdom of Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson talking about Conservatism, from a piece suggesting David Cameron is just too nice for his own good. What irony?


'People offer various definitions of right and left. Mine is that to be Conservative is to declare faith not in dogma, but in mankind. To have faith in the wisdom and genius of the British public, and believe that the best route to success is to em

power the many. The 'Big Society' idea - a powerful agenda, disguised by a criminally stupid name.


To be Labour is to be angry, angry about society: leftism starts with a list of Bad People who are to be kept in check. The Old Labour way is to believe that Britain is best if power (and about half the money people earn) is placed with an enlightened elite.

Conservatives want to take power away from government, and give it to the people, whom they trust.'

Rebel Coalition

Interesting graph from the New Statesman blog recording government rebellions in each post war parliament.

The 2010'ers certainly look like a rebel Coalition to me.

The Eton walk

Last weekend I managed a spectacular walk through the New England colours of Windsor Great Park. But what a difference a week makes. Today the leaves have fallen, the branches are largely bare.

Today I took the Thames path from Datchet, across the home park, via what we call the rabbit field to Tom Jones boatyard where elegant slipper launches and steam-driven day boats are beautifully restored. Then up past Romney lock to Windsor bridge and a well deserved cappuccino.

We return to Datchet down Eton high street, across the playing fields and via the 6th fairway running down beside the Thames relief channel. We call it the Eton walk and have used it every Christmas afternoon I can remember.

The picture is Syd Barrett - a founding member of Pink Floyd and one of the greatest casualties of the sixties - about whom I was thinking as I walked. But that's another story.

St Barack may not be doomed

St. Barack is doomed - enter Mrs Clinton writes Simon Heffer.

I agree with his analysis that President Obama blaming the economy - and by inference the electorate for not seeing it - is correct.

But that's a long way from electing Hilary Clinton as the next president. Apart from anything else, she proved incredibly devisive in the last presidential race.

The Politeratti don't want photographs

Big story of the day for our Politeratti? Cameron employs personal photographer at number 10 using public funds. Oh dear.

So its OK to have diary secretaries, PR consultants, gatekeepers, speech-writers, media specialists and political advisers? But not a photographer. So no pictures then? No pictures for the constant stream of charities and third sector organisations visiting Downing Street who give back so much in building the 'big society'? No pictures for foreign ambassadors, emissaries, dignitaries and heads of state? No official photographic record of important moments inside number 10?

No real thought then for the little people as we watch - sans images - what goes on in our name at the heart of this administration. I think it was one of the Kennedy's who observed that a man's character was shown by how they looked after those people that they did not need...

Julian Glover on coalition government

Interesting piece in today's Guardian from Julian Glover who is a great supporter of the coalition...

Turn Labour's hate on itself. No one expects the opposition to approve of doing deals with Tories. But the majority of voters understand why it happened. Labour has misjudged the tone. Sneering at Clegg's party will not destroy it. Labour comes over as angry and isolated. Every time a Labour MP calls for the Lib Dems to be destroyed, Clegg's decision to join forces with the Tories in the national interest appears more legitimate.

This is coalition government

This really is copybook coalition politics. No fuss. No bother. No external briefings. Just a comprehensive and convincing restructuring of higher education funding to put British students and universities on a global footing.

Vince Cable and David Willetts have delivered - and way beyond the coalition agreement hammered out in May. They have done so with civility and in the face of deeply partisan criticism from the Labour benches whose thirteen years of government were characterised by the near destruction of university funding based on dumbed-down qualifications attached to absurdly optimistic projections for participation and without the necessary funding.

Now we have widely agreed, evidence-based, bottom-up policy that will stand the test of time. Putting students at the heart of higher education and British universities at the forefront of global educational standards. Anyone who cares about higher education should celebrate the coalition tonight.

No progress at PMQ's

The Labour party is now so far from principle that even when faced with their own policy, they oppose it, says Cameron in a memorable line from today's PMQ's.

He went on to quote from the Labour manifesto - written by one Ed Miliband just a few short months ago - on proposed changes to housing benefit. It showed that Labour themselves wanted changes - including a cap - so that the unfairness of poorer people paying through their taxes for housing benefits on property they could only dream of was rightly stopped.

Progressive? Fair? Social Justice? Once again Ed Miliband finds himself on the wrong side of the argument.

Remembrance

Really nice service at St. Mary's church last night to commemorate villagers who have died over the last few years. A surprisingly large number. Names were read, candles lit, surmon & choir heard, but every person there held grief so private, the service felt almost too intrusive. My mother quietly wept, embarrassed that the passage of time has healed nothing. I don't know if it ever will.

Afterwards we went to the Stag, our spirits lifted by the weekly quiz. And if I'm honest the Pinot Grigio.

 

The Beatles White Album

I listened to the Beatles White album for the first time at the weekend. A rare dose of intuitive Beatle lyrics, harmonies and just sheer joy at being in front of a microphone. Amazing how free-form the songs are - almost like a stream of possibilities knitted together haphazardly into an album. A double one at that.

The lyrics themselves are absurd: 'I told you 'bout Strawberry Fields, You know the place where nothing is real', 'Mother superior jump the gun' or 'Honey Pie, I love you' - the only two lines in Wild Honey Pie. Well known are Ob-La-Di Ob-La-Da, While My Guitar Gently Weeps, Revolution & Back In The USSR, but John Lennon's Piggies, McCartney's melodic Blackbird and well finished Julia are all memorable.

Bored of your current ipod playlists? Download it.

Joe Hargan's butterflies

I saw this picture through the window of a contemporary art gallery in Eton recently. Fish, butterflies, apples? And is that Mohatma Gandhi on the left? Its by an artist called Joe Hargan and costs many thousands of pounds.

The language of politics

'Politics needs insults – they keep democracy afloat' writes Jackie Ashley in today's Guardian. She totally misses the point. Politics is about verbal argument, both oral and written. It thrives on  'reasonable conclusions based on supported facts' as the anti-tea campaigner suggested. That means measured and carefully weighed conclusions supported by verifiable and accurate facts - not 'final solutions' or 'social cleansing' when talking of housing benefits.