Owner: Bright's Blog URL:http://www.newstatesman.com/blogs/brights-blog Join Date: Wed, 04 Apr 2007 05:23:26 -0500 Rating:0 Site Description: Politics uncovered by Martin Bright, New Statesman political editor Site statistics:Click here
I Salute David Davis 2008-06-12 09:00:46 The Conservative shadow Home Secretary has resigned over the introduction of 42 days without chargeAs I said in my column this week: why has no senior Labour politician resigned over 42 days as a matter of principle? Now DavidDavis
has done the decent thing and demonstrated what it is to be a conviction politician.
Davis always claimed that opposition to 42 days was not a matter of political posi Read more:Salute
Not enough fire in the belly 2008-06-12 04:20:20 Labour's younger ministers are competent and assiduous, but none has yet emerged as inspirational. Will we need to skip a generation before someone arrives with the guts to carry out the necessary revolution?So why has no one moved against Gordon Brown? Where are the bold spirits in the cabinet prepared to resign over 42 days detention without charge, as Robin Cook did over the decision to go to w Read more:belly
Interview: Alistair Darling 2008-06-12 04:20:20 Alistair Darling was once the safest pair of hands in the government. A year after becoming Chancellor, our political editor, Martin Bright, asks him where it all went wrongWho'd be Alistair Darling? Once viewed as the safest pair of hands in the government, he has presided over a period of crisis in the Treasury not witnessed since the time of Norman Lamont (and a young adviser called David Camer Read more:Alistair
PM's speech on liberty 2008-06-17 11:14:21 Gordon Brown does "small and intimate well" - he should give up the speechesWatching the Prime Minister deliver his speech on security and liberty
this afternoon, I did begin to wonder why he bothers. As soon as he locks into declamatory mode, it is very difficult for the audience to maintain their concentration.
He rounded off with a less-than convincing defence of the Labour government's record
The Afghansti Prophecy 2008-06-18 07:22:10 Peter Kosminsky's Afghansti touches a contemporary nerveAt the end of Afghansti, Peter Kosminky's documentary about Soviet soldiers in Afghanistan shown on More4 last night, a senior officer is asked to make a prediction. What will people would say about the Afghan war in 30 years time? His answer was something like this: "We will think 100 times before attempting to resolve international problems Read more:Prophecy
Brown's Henley Nemesis and the Anti-Messiah Complex 2008-06-27 11:08:18 The result of the by-election in Boris Johnson's old seat was no surprise, but the symbolism surrounding it speaks volumesThe Henley by-election result was crushing, but at least the Labour Party had the guts to stand a candidate. Labour's Richard McKenzie came fifth, behind the Greens and the BNP. He gained a little more than 1,000 votes and I don't know why, but somehow being in four figures jus Read more:Brown
, Messiah
, Complex
Mr Brown's long year 2008-06-26 04:24:21 One survey suggests that "Real New Labour", an eminently moderate group, could well become the dominant factionThe propitious start to Gordon Brown
's first year as Prime Minister - the calm and statesmanlike response to the foiled London and Glasgow terror attacks, the summer floods and the outbreak of foot-and-mouth - all now serve only to highlight how dreadful things became in the months that f
Is it a Boycott or Not? 2008-06-24 08:10:17 The proposed academic boycott of Israel continues to test friendshipsA close friend and respected academic has asked me to post the whole of the controversial Motion 25 from the University and College Union Congress in May. This is the one that proposes a "boycott" of Israel, which I oppose. As he points out, the word "boycott" is never used.
Well here it is. Decide for yourself:
25 - Composite: Read more:Boycott
Brave New World 2008-06-24 07:26:34 The "blogosphere" is a haven for the cowardly, the vicious and the ignorantThere is a lot of guff talked about the "blogosphere". In reality, it is neither a utopia of free speech nor is it entirely given over to conspiracy theorists and whackos.
I didn't agree with all of Polly Toynbee's column this morning. She doesn't seem to be sure whether people are wrong to be miserable, or just miserable Read more:Brave
, World
, Brave New World
Daftness Abounds 2008-06-19 13:43:17 The spat between Culture Secretary Andy Burnham and Liberty's director Shami Chakrabarti is unseemly and adds nothing to the debateAndy Burnham was daft to suggest that something inapproriate was going on between David Davis and Shami Chakrabarti. The Labour Party should stop sniping and put up a candidate if it has the courage of its convictions.
I disagree with David T on Harry's Place who says Read more:Abounds
Wanted: A Liberal Challenger to David Davis 2008-06-19 07:40:20 The New Statesman this week calls for a genuinely liberal candidate to stand against DavidDavis
. Who should it be?Here is the full text of this week's New Statesman leader. Any suggestions for a candidate to challenge David Davis most welcome.
Labour voters deserve a choice
The New Statesman has opposed the extension of detention without charge for terror suspects to 42 days from the moment it wa Read more:Liberal
, Challenger
Shiv Malik -- latest 2008-06-19 07:34:12 Mixed (but on the whole good) news from the hearing into whether a journalist should hand over his notes to Greater Manchester PoliceCongratulations to Shiv Malik
for challenging the production order from Greater Manchester Police demanding material relating to the book he has been writing with ex-jihadi sympathiser Hassan Butt.
Although the hearing at the high court decided that the order was rig
On parables and principles 2008-06-19 05:15:33 Where is the David Davis of the left, prepared to resign and challenge the government's authoritarian agenda?One of the first messages I received after David Davis resigned from the Conservative front bench was from an old friend on the left. We marched together in the 1980s, shook buckets for miners and hoped against hope for a Neil Kinnock premiership. My friend is now a senior lecturer in polit
David Davis: A Hollow Victory? 2008-07-11 05:19:27 The victory for the Conservative candidate in Haltemprice and Howden raises uncomfortable questions for Labour and the Lib DemsSo DavidDavis
now has a majority of 15,355 votes. And to think he was a candidate for "decapitation" in the last election.
With a turnout of 34 per cent, it would be tempting to agree with Home Office minister Tony McNulty that this was "a vain stunt that became and rema Read more:Hollow
, Victory
Boris Does the Right Thing 2008-07-10 14:16:02 The new mayor of London should be congratulated for embracing the "living wage".Since becoming a high-profle critic of Ken Livingstone (whatever did happen to him?) I'm sometimes asked what I make of Boris
Johnson.
It's a bit early to tell, but the Ray Lewis saga suggests that the new Mayor should have reformed the processes in City Hall before appointing his advisors. A proper confirmation heari Read more:Right
, Thing
Hamas at Olympia 2008-07-10 12:44:06 Why I have decided to pull out of IslamExpo this weekendI was very uncomfortable about accepting an invitation to speak at IslamExpo this year. What appears to be a celebration of Islam is, in reality, a rally for a particular brand of Islam based on the thinking of the Muslim Brotherhood and Jamaat-i-Islami.
I am particularly concerned about its connections to Mohammed Sawalha, the President of Read more:Hamas
, Olympia
A sea change on immigration? 2008-07-10 04:18:50 On public service reform, the government is at last beginning to listen to front-line staff, rather than Whitehall mandarinsThis past week, I found myself hunting people traffickers and drug smugglers with the immigration minister, Liam Byrne, off the coast of Southampton. The crew of the Vigilant, one of five "cutters" that patrol this island's waters, put on a good show for the minister and asse
Brown's Cones Hotline Moment 2008-07-08 04:48:18 Concerns over food waste are well-founded, but Brown
's comments make him look out of touchGordon Brown's speech on Britain's food storage habits was a strange political moment. Could this be his version of John Major's Cones Hotline
: not a bad idea in itself, but somehow redolent of the man himself. When the Prime Minister becomes a red-faced motorist in a traffic jam it's demeaning of his office. Read more:Moment
Ingrid Betancourt -- who she? 2008-07-03 07:48:39 The parochialism of the UK media plumbed new depths with coverage of the release of the kidnapped Colombian politicianI rushed home last night hoping to watch the release of Ingrid Betancourt, the former Colombian presidential candidate held by FARC guerrillas for six years. The story had everything. Revolutionary terroists infiltrated by the Colombian army, government agents disguised as aid work
Interview: Ed Balls 2008-07-03 04:29:43 With soaring street violence and constant classroom testing, Martin Bright and Suzanne Moore ask the children's secretary, if the next generation is getting a fair dealWe interview Ed Balls
the day after yet another terrible murder of a teenager in London. Sixteen-year-old Ben Kinsella was stabbed four times in the neck and chest following a party to celebrate the end of his exams. Kinsella was de
When discrimination works 2008-07-03 04:29:43 Parents of children who are now at private school are already talking of moving them to the local state sixth formThere was a curious story on page three of the Sunday Times at the weekend. With the headline "Universities told to favour poor schools", it concerned one of the most intriguing institutions created by Gordon Brown's government when it was still in its full honeymoon flush.
The Nationa
Duncan v Oborne? 2008-06-30 09:07:55 Will Alan Duncan
square up to Peter Oborne after the Daily Mail columnist wrote about his business links...A fascinating spat is developing between Daily Mail columnist Peter Oborne and the Shadow Business Secretary Alan Duncan.
Writing in the Mail on Saturday, Oborne warned that the Tories' capacity for sleaze was not over. He suggested, for example, that Duncan's links to the oil trading company
Brown's Henley Nemesis and the Anti-Messiah Complex 2008-06-27 11:08:18 The result of the by-election in Boris Johnson's old seat was no surprise, but the symbolism surrounding it speaks volumesThe Henley by-election result was crushing, but at least the Labour Party had the guts to stand a candidate. Labour's Richard McKenzie came fifth, behind the Greens and the BNP. He gained a little more than 1,000 votes and I don't know why, but somehow being in four figures jus Read more:Brown
, Messiah
, Complex
Apocalypse Now 2008-07-25 11:59:12 Few predicted the result of the Glasgow East by-election and the consequences will reverberate for some time Just when we thought it couldn’t get any worse, it just did. The sheer scale of the Labour defeat in Glasgow East (a 22 per cent swing and the loss of a 13,000 majority) makes this no ordinary by-election. The turnout (42 per cent) is only just down on the general election of 2005. This i Read more:Apocalypse
When Marx met Mill 2008-07-24 04:18:40 People just don't want to be told. Personal political responsibility, like virtue, is notoriously difficult to teachMay I suggest some summer reading? Consider it as a little extra homework, or an intellectual workout for the holiday season. The book is Democracy: Crisis and Renewal by Paul Ginsborg, professor of contemporary European history at the University of Florence. Ginsborg is a public int
Karadzic: the Weight of History 2008-07-24 04:11:46 The commentary about the arrest of Radovan Karadzic has reminded us of the devastating significance of the Bosnian conflictIt's good to see something approaching a real discussion about the arrest of Karadzic on this blog rather than the usual knee-jerk position taking and name calling.
Elsewhere I've been really impressed by the quality of the journalism. Ed Vulliamy was his usual passionate sel Read more:Weight
, History
Libel Tourism Revisited 2008-07-22 08:57:07 An alternative remedy to the libel courts suggested by lawyer to the stars Anthony Julius There is a pretty comprehensive summary of the recent Policy Exchange conference on LibelTourism
over at Harry's Place.
I'd forgotten about this imaginative suggestion from Anthony Julius of Mischon de Reya: "Julius added mischievously that occasionally he is consulted by predatory fabulously wealthy clients Read more:Revisited
Karadzic and Srebrenica 2008-07-22 08:37:51 Teach British school children the lessons of the July 1995 massacre of Bosnian Muslims in a UN "safe haven".The arrest of Radovan Karadzic could not have been more timely. Just as international institutions needed a boost, international public enemy number one is delivered to the Hague tribunal. Received wisdom had it that the Serbs would never hand over their most prized war criminal and Karadzic
Obama, Brown and the Commentators 2008-07-21 10:26:31 A brief round-up of the Sunday commentariatFor some time now there has been a triumvirate of must-read Sunday political commentators: Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer, Matthew D'Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph and John Rentoul in the Independent on Sunday. (I'm talking here about the straight Westminster-focused columnists, rather than other more free-form Sunday voices such as Nick Cohen, Catherine Read more:Obama
, Brown
A Big Beast Speaks 2008-07-18 08:15:44 Paul Routledge's catacylsmic shift in allegiance I almost choked om my muesli this mornning when I read the Paul Routledge column in the Mirror. As one of Gordon Brown's most steadfast supporters, I never thought I'd see him come out for anyone else. But here it is, in black and white.
"A near brush with death over the on-off election last autumn sharpened Brown's appetite for life, even if David Read more:Beast
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