24May
Jonathan Freedland on the best way for Labour to revive itself - have a competitive leadership contest.
Timothy Garton Ash encourages Labour leader-nominee Gordon Brown to stand up to Murdoch and Dacre. The proposed Lisbon Treaty is a stopgap, a tidying-up exercise following the rejection of the Constitution in 2005. It is vital that Europe pulls its weight, and acts as a balance to prevent the North Americans from throwing their weight around in such an unseemly manner. It is vital that the new British prime minister, whoever that might be, acts in the best interests of Britain and of Europe. The best interests of press barons are, in general, not the best interests of the country.
Death to immigrants! is the cry of Margaret Hodge, the xenophobic member for Barking. She calls for new arrivals to the UK to remain in damp, overcrowded, squalid, unhealthy conditions, purely so that those who had the fortune to be born in the UK can take over all the clean houses. The problem, of course, is that there aren't enough houses to go round, and that has arisen because Brown and Blair put the interests of the front page of the Daily Hell House prices fall one penny! World to end tomorrow! ahead of humanitarian needs.
Iain Dale canvasses after the most incompetent person from the Blair governments. We have little time for his nominee, R. Kelly, who was decent in the first five years, but then vanished up his own arse. Nor do we like Tessa Jowell, unless we're asking her to sign a large personal cheque. Geoff Hoon was poor, Margaret Beckett presided over the destruction of the countryside, nothing quite so made David Plunkett as the manner of his resignations (plural). Tony Blair should have gone in 2003, after it emerged that he had failed in his duty as minister for the civil service. Our money's on Gordon Brown, who has mortgaged the country's future and squandered it on creating more jobs for the boys. We'll be paying off his wastrel legacy for the rest of our lives.
Funk and Justice for All
But let's go back to John Reid. Must we? We must. The man who is no longer the Minister in charge of Justice has been in a right old funk to-day. Three of the people served with control orders have skipped the country; now five of the 20 lucky recipients have buggered off to do something less boring instead. As ever, John Reid has a long, long list of people to blame.
Control orders are not our first plan. They're not even our second plan, said Mr. Reid to-day. He didn't exactly spell out Plan A, or Plan B. He blamed political opponents, the members of the Upper Chamber and opposition parties who combined to ensure that the orders had some measure of judicial oversight, and the legislation would need to be renewed every year. Mr. Reid also blamed the judges, who have not backed the Ministry of Funk's preferred arguments. That would be for the rather simple reason that they've never been asked to rule on the Ministry of Funk's preferred arguments, because they've never been made in court. The judges have interpreted the law as it stands, and they have done so correctly.
The Conservatives back the use of evidence derived from intercepted telephone calls in court, and using electronic tags. John Reid says that he will propose new measures in the near future; the other parties will not commit themselves to backing them until they find out what's actually on the table. It's also not clear if these measures will be proposed before Mr. Reid is resigned from the cabinet.
