Left v right and right v wrong: part IV

Further to my previous posts about why left-wing people tend to support fiscal stimulus and right-wingers to support budget-balancing, Paul Krugman (pictured) has devoted his column in the New York Times to the subject. Here’s the important part:
Real-world events — stagnation in Ireland, the original poster child* for austerity, falling interest rates in the United [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Friday, 26 April 2013 at 2:07 pm

Blake’s 14: bipartisan schools reform

I was intrigued by a line in Michael Gove’s speech to teachers and headteachers today:
I’m also an admirer of John Blake of Labour Teachers, who has transcended party politics to praise all schools which succeed for their pupils, even if they are academies or free schools…
I hadn’t come across Blake before, but I was sure [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Thursday, 25 April 2013 at 10:01 pm

Some More Thatcherite Than Others

Great detail in a YouGov poll spotted by Hopi Sen, who sent me this “Skitch”. Among those who thought Thatcher was a great prime minister, Blair is her heir; among those who thought she was terrible, Cameron is.

This is partly a false negative created by Labour supporters who disliked Thatcher and therefore say that Cameron [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 6:42 pm

Lloyd George: My Part in His Downfall

The 1922 Committee of backbench Conservative MPs held its 90th anniversary celebration last night. The committee was founded, as any pedant knows, in 1923. I was grateful to Graham Brady, the chairman, for inviting me. Gervais Rentoul, MP for Lowestoft and the founding chairman of the Committee, was my second cousin twice removed (his great-grandfather, [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 11:44 am

Abu Qatada: Theresa May not defeated yet

The problem with holding a “council of war”, as David Cameron did yesterday with Theresa May, Chris Grayling and Dominic Grieve, is that the Abu Qatada case has not been solved for 11 years and won’t be for a while yet. The Prime Minister looks as if he is “gripping it” – by having a meeting [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Wednesday, 24 April 2013 at 8:47 am

Top 10 Misquotations

The fabulous misquotation by The New York Times on the day of Lady Thatcher’s death, “Turn if you like; the lady’s not for turning,” suggests another subject for a Top 10. As I argued the other day, what Mrs Thatcher actually said

was one of the best-crafted word plays in modern English speech-writing, transforming the familiar phrase “U-turn” [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 3:30 pm

How Not to Help Guantanamo Detainees

Just done a turn with Hilary Stauffer of Reprieve on Islam Channel (updated link) in which she argued (a) that the British government could take Shaker Aamer (pictured) back from Guantanamo because the Justice and Security (“secret courts”) Bill would allow it to keep its complicity in his torture secret; (b) that the obstacle to [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 2:51 pm

Political Ads on TV: As You Were

Although most informed observers thought the European Court of Human Rights would rule against the UK’s ban on political advertising on television, the Grand Chamber has done the opposite. By the narrowest margin of nine votes to eight it has ruled that the ban is proportionate, and is therefore compatible with the freedom of expression, [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 22 April 2013 at 11:25 am

Kamikaze or clever?

My column for The Independent on Sunday today is a big fat “don’t know”. I thought my esteemed colleague Andrew Grice’s front-page lead in The Independent on Friday was one of those moments that will appear in those chronologies we instant historians like to put at the back of our books:
19 April 2013: Labour’s decision [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 3:25 pm

“Electoral reform – Coming sooner than you think?”

Political Betting is back on form with this Question To Which The Answer Is No, number 931 in my series, last week. The book of QTWTAIN is still available, just £6.14 for the download.
Meanwhile, number 933 has just been asked by Mehdi Hasan:
I’ve long been a critic of the explosion in CCTV/public surveillance, but the Boston bombings [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 21 April 2013 at 2:50 pm