Eagle Eye
What they didn’t like about Osborne’s speech
I have written about Ed Miliband for The Independent tomorrow, and my fear that the worst outcome of the election, only two years and one month away, would be that Labour will win it in its present unprepared and happy-lefty state.
As I was writing, George Osborne was giving a speech that illustrated my argument. Not [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 2 April 2013 at 10:38 pm
An Apocalyptic Elegy
I went away for only the long Easter weekend, but there is a lot to catch up on.
Mike McCarthy’s article in which he took his leave of 15 years as The Independent’s environment editor on Saturday was a lovely example of the apocalyptic eco-elegiac tradition.
If, over the past decade and a half, you have closely [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 2 April 2013 at 5:38 pm
1974 All Over Again
A friend who is 10 years older than me, who was active in the Labour Party in the 1970s (I joined in 1981), urges me to remember 1974
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 27 March 2013 at 8:47 pm
A Measure of Labour’s Problem
David Miliband’s resignation as an MP to run a charity in New York is a loss to the Labour Party. More than that, though, it tells us what a state Labour is in.
There has recently been speculation about the possibility of Alistair Darling replacing Ed Balls as shadow chancellor – a change on which Darling [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 9:40 pm
Did the Iraq War Cause the Great Recession?
Haven’t had a full-dress straight up and down Question To Which The Answer Is No for a while. This is the real thing. Number 908, asked by Henry Farrell, The Monkey Cage, from an original article by Thomas Oatley.
Thanks to James Plunkett, who spotted it.
Meanwhile, we had number 907, asked by James Chapman of the [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 3:50 pm
Left v right or right v wrong?
Tony Blair often says that the debate about the response to the economic crisis is not a matter of left versus right but of right versus wrong.
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Tuesday, 26 March 2013 at 11:45 am
Into the Top 140
I should like to thank my mum.
And those good people at Time who have listed me as one of the 140 Best Twitter Feeds of 2013.
Distinguished company and all, in a list beginning with Chelsea Clinton, Mia Farrow and Bill Gates. Especially as I currently have a stripe across my face (it’s a another rather [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 25 March 2013 at 10:20 pm
Socialist Intentions
India Knight in The Sunday Times (pay wall) on Michael Gove’s curriculum reform:
Gove, rightly, calls his proposals “fundamental building blocks”. These will result in children learning fractions from the age of five, knowing their times tables by the age of nine and learning to recite poetry from the age of five, with an added emphasis [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 24 March 2013 at 6:04 pm
“Mistakes Were Made”
George Osborne on ITV1 Daybreak on the morning after the Budget said he “wanted to be straight with the nation about the problems we face”. Good idea.
He went on: “We have made a lot of mistakes as a country, over many years, building up these debts.” How graciously bipartisan, accepting that these were national mistakes, [...]
By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 23 March 2013 at 11:00 am
Is austerity now “in the past”?
We’re £53bn through, with £52bn more spending cuts to come by 2015/16. What’s more, this is just the start of it. Because the UK’s growth prospects are so dismal there are going to be more cuts (or tax rises) needed by 2017/18.
By Ben Chu | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Friday, 22 March 2013 at 11:39 am
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