Filed under: Uncategorized
Drop everything. Hold the front page. Wow. Huge news breaking that may come to be regarded as THE PIVOTAL MOMENT in the 2008 American Election: Dan Hannan is about to announce his endorsement. The Conservatve MEP and extraordinary self-publicist (he’s written a book recently in case you’ve managed to miss it – which by the way is to be advised), will not keep us waiting much longer.
CentreLeft spies inform me that both the Obama and McCain camps are are on tenterhooks having courted Hannan vigorously over the last few months believing that his decision will be key to the outcome in a number of election-deciding swing states which have close ties to Kent and the Home Counties.
Forget the debates, don’t worry about the economy, Hannan’s announcing and that’s going to be a game changer. I know I can’t wait.
Filed under: Uncategorized
John McCain has received some rather odd praise for his response to a supporter who described Obama as an ‘Arab’ at a rally last week in Ohio. Correcting the mistake McCain responded:
No ma’am. He’s a decent, family man, a citizen I just happen to have disagreements with
Ah. Well that’s good to know. Because he couldn’t be a decent, family man, and an Arab, now could he? It’s strange to note how the inherent racism within McCain’s discourse (intended or not) has seemingly been overlooked by mainstream commentators…Still it gives us on the blogs something to talk write about I suppose.
George Osborne has broken the cautious consensus of the last week writing today in the Standard and fingering Brown as the instigator of the current financial crisis. The shadow-Chancellor is, CentreLeft spies inform, angry at having been frozen out of Treasury briefings, who were in turn angry at Osborne for leaking information last week.
This public tit-for-tat is far from the sober and serious Conservative response that has characterised the last fortnight. It is, however, a sign of growing anxiety amongst the Conservative leadership, at the political capital that Brown is apparently mining from the current financial turmoil.
The economic crisis is an uncomfortable political climate for centre-right parties wedded to a belief in free enterprise and deregulation. If the Conservatives succeed in identifying Brown and the Labour Government as in some way responsible for the current mess then they may succeed in avoiding this problem. Should they fail and Brown can claim to have saved – not crippled – the financial system then the Conservatives will find themselves in a particularly uncomfortable political space.
Filed under: Book Review, Cameron's Conservatives | Tags: cameron on cameron, dylan jones
As the downturn bites and the Parties converge looking for consensus, CentreLeft asks whether David Cameron really is a Statesman-in-waiting? Where better to start the analysis than in a review of Dylan Jones’ recent tome Cameron on Cameron…
David Cameron is a nice man who loves his family, tolerates all creeds, cultures and characters, and most importantly, likes both Lily Allen AND Amy Winehouse. He’s a dog person, watches Lewis and listens to Radio 1. He’s probably kind to small fluffy animals.
This much is clear from an exhaustive analysis of Dylan Jones’ Cameron on Cameron. It makes for extremely entertaining reading. The book is based on a series of conversations between Jones, the editor of GQ magazine, and Cameron and as such is exceedingly easy to read. The format – half political commentary, half friendly conversation – is easy to follow and echoes the pally, even hagiographic style of its author’s main publication. Dave is presented as a sympathetic character facing a legion of challenges on the road to election. Jones describes him bravely confronting accusations of racism in Ealing in July 2007 and the following by-electoral disaster, back bench sedition and even overcoming the horrors of an Eton and Oxford education, to finally stand before us as DC, social radical, family defender and bane of Bottler Brown.
Jon Cruddas certainly had a dilemma over Gordon Brown’s reshuffle. And it is a shame for the party that he has not joined the government. Cruddas could have helped turn a Brown-Blair armistice into a Labour Party ‘popular front’. By staying out, the government tilts a little further right than it might otherwise have done.
Westminster watchers believe he was made a rather more concrete offer – indeed series of offers – than the somewhat vague non-job to be a nominal regional minister which he turned down following the deputy leadership election.
Had Cruddas been offered a Cabinet post, he certainly ought to have taken it. But it is also easy to understand why he may have feared being subject to collective responsibility without a full seat at the top table – for example, had he, rather than Margaret Beckett become the Housing Minister (attending Cabinet, but not a full member of it), especially as the table is getting rather crowded for intense debates about political strategy.
Cruddas was keen to get more involved in party management. But there would have been genuine difficulties reconciling an expanded role for Cruddas with the deputy leader and party chair Harriett Harman, especially with Brown, Alexander, E.Miliband, Mandelson and now Campbell all seeking a voice in campaign message and organisation. Hence the compromise of a backbench role while leading the party’s challenge to the BNP.
The decision to refuse office may still have been finely balanced.
Party loyalists may well feel that Cruddas should have accepted the ‘all hands on deck’ call to serve, but not being seen as desperate for office also plays well in these anti-political times.
And Cruddas’ chances in a future leadership contest could be increased or reduced by not having ministerial experience. Remaining on the backbenches would allow him to be a ‘clean break’ candidate – but he would have more work to do to establish himself as a potential premier with both MPs and the broader public.
Indeed, Cruddas does have experience in government – as a former Downing Street fixer and link to the unions for Tony Blair. Cruddas’ new status as the ‘tribune of the left’ can be overstated – it also reflects the failure of those left of New Labour to find new arguments and leaders during the last decade.
But Cruddas has begun to fill that space and establish himself as a significant voice in the party, though he is more likely to repeat his deputy leader ‘kingmaker’ role than to be leader himself.
He has done well during these turbulent few months by challenging on policy and not on personality. If he continues to do that from the backbenches, he may continue to feel that he made the right choice.
