.comment-link {margin-left:.6em;}

Thursday, October 03, 2024

Starmer kills off Leveson two

I am currently reading James O'Brien's book 'How they broke Britain' in which he recounts how David Cameron was reported to have met with Rupert Murdoch's executives on 26 separate occasions during his first 15 months in office, while Gordon Brown and Tony Blair also worked assidiously to woo the media magnate.

Despite this chumminess, Cameron couldn't avoid setting up the Leveson Inquiry following the revelation that missing school girl, Milly Dowler's voicemail had been hacked by journalists working for the News of the World. 

However, none of the legislation needed to fulfil Leveson's recommendations ever materialised, while Leveson 2, which was goimg to investigate clandestine relationships and inappropriate connections between the police and journalists was finally buried by the 2017 Conservative election manifesto.

Effectively, all that evidence and work by the inquiry has disappeared into the ether, leaving litle changed in the way the media operates, the abuses and the close relationship between leading politicians and the so-called independent organisations that are meant to scrutinise them on our behalf. But wait, we have a new government, or do we?

The Guardian reports that Keir Starmer has dismayed press regulation campaigners by confirming he has no plans to revive the second part of the Leveson inquiry into the British newspaper industry.

The paper says that the prime minister told reporters on Thursday that other issues would take precedence: “We set out in our manifesto our programme for action for this government. We’ve laid that out in the king’s speech. That clearly sets out our priorities and the second half of Leveson is not among them":

Labour and News UK have declined to comment on claims that he reached an understanding before the election with the Murdoch family’s News UK, owner of the Times and the Sun, to avoid restarting the public inquiry.

Hacked Off, which campaigns for tougher press regulation, accused him of lacking the courage to stand up to newspaper owners: “Sir Keir Starmer promised a government of integrity. He cannot achieve that while failing to commit to proceeding with an unfinished inquiry into mass criminality across the most powerful industry in the country.”

The first part of Lord Leveson’s inquiry into press ethics took place more than a decade ago, in the wake of the phone-hacking scandal that led to the closure of the News of the World. After newspaper editors and victims of press intrusion were called to give evidence during 2011 and 2012, the high court judge produced a series of largely unfulfilled recommendations on how to regulate British newspapers.

The second part of the inquiry was due to examine the relationship between the media and the police, but was put on hold until the conclusion of a series of ongoing criminal investigations. This part – dubbed Leveson 2 – was then permanently cancelled by Matt Hancock, then culture secretary, in 2018 after lobbying from News UK, despite strong parliamentary backing for another inquiry.

Jeremy Corbyn pledged to revive the inquiry when he was Labour leader. But Starmer, who led the unsuccessful criminal prosecution of News UK boss Rebekah Brooks, has softened his party’s stance on press regulation. The Sun and the Sunday Times endorsed the Labour party ahead of the general election.
Everything has changed but nothing has changed, and it is the public who are the losers.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  0 comments

Wednesday, October 02, 2024

Breeding for Britain

Tory Party conferences always have an air of unreality about them, especially when they take place in the middle of a leadership election, but rarely do they jump the shark and get as surreal as the current gathering of right wingers has managed this week.

If people thought Kemi Badenoch was off the wall in telling an interviewer that maternity pay is “excessive” and people should exercise “more personal responsibility", then clearly they should have paid more attention to what followed.

The London Economic website reports that a Conservative Party panel has discussed how to persuade women to “breed for Britain”:

According to Bylines Times reporter Adam Bienkov, a fringe meeting on immigration touched upon the matter of declining birth rates in the UK as they debated how to “grow more” social care workers.

It comes just hours after Kemi Badenoch, one of the leading candidates to replace Rishi Sunak as leader of the Conservative Party, suggested maternity pay was “excessive” in the UK and should be reconsidered in order to cut taxation.
I suppose asking people to have more sex to curb immigration is an improvement on the usual solurions that come from these gatherings. We just have to avoid thinking about them doing it.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  1 comments

Tuesday, October 01, 2024

Fracking hell

Just when you thought that fracking was dead and buried in the UK, the Tories are proposing to revive the controversial method of drilling for gas.

The Guardian reports that senior Conservatives are considering pushing for a lifting of the moratorium on fracking in England to become party policy.

The paper says that Conservatives have criticised the energy secretary, Ed Miliband, for Labour’s election pledge to end new oil and gas licences in the North Sea, and some are mooting a return to experimenting with drilling onshore for gas in an effort to lower energy bills:

There has been a moratorium on fracking in England since 2019 because of earthquakes caused by the method. Experts say extracting gas from shale would take years, is far less accessible than once thought and would do little to reduce energy bills. To frack, shale rocks, containing tiny pockets of methane, are blasted with a mixture of sand, water and chemicals to create fissures through which the gas can escape, to be siphoned off at the surface.

Andrew Bowie, the shadow energy minister, is supporting the shadow housing minister, Kemi Badenoch, in the leadership race. He said the next Tory leader should bring back fracking.

“I do support fracking,” he told a fringe event at the conference. “I represent an oil and gas constituency that is dependent in its entirety on the oil and gas industry. The experts will tell you that they are already fracking in the North Sea. I know it isn’t currently party policy to frack but I don’t know what Kemi will do on it.”

The shadow energy secretary, Claire Coutinho, suggested she would back lifting the moratorium, telling the Guardian: “What I am backing is cheap energy no matter where it comes from. If there is evidence that fracking would provide cheap energy then we would look at it. But I think what everyone wants is low bills and cheap energy and we won’t rule anything out.”

Badenoch did not rule it out: “I am not laying out specific policies yet, but I know there are colleagues who want to lift the moratorium and we will discuss policies at a later stage.”

The issue is hugely controversial among the public and in the Tory party because of the disruption to communities caused by fracking, including earthquakes. It also counteracts pledges to reduce oil and gas use in the UK.

The former prime minister Liz Truss tried to bring back fracking during her short-lived tenure and a chaotic vote on the matter is seen as one of the reasons for the collapse of her government. Shortly after her administration fell, her successor, Rishi Sunak, confirmed he would keep the moratorium, and that remains Conservative policy.
Essentially then, the Tories are trying to recover support by adopting a policy that is deeply unpopular in the affected communities, that mines a greenhouse gas and thus is environmentally unsound, and which is supported by Liz Truss. What could possibly go wrong.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  2 comments

Monday, September 30, 2024

Tories reject motherhood and apple pie again

One of the Tory party's big probems is their resemblance to the Bourbons - they have learnt nothing and forgotten everything. That much is apparent from remarks by Kemi Badenoch this morning, that must surely have sent some of her party's activists thinking back to the contest between Theresa May and Andrea Leadsom in 2016.

Back then Leadsom was forced to withdraw from the Conservative leadership contest after she suggested in an interview with the Times that she would make a better prime minister than May because she had children, whereas her opponent had none. A firestorm ensued which threatened to sour the final, all-female leg of this contest and there was no coming back for the hapless South Northamptonshire MP.

Now, we have Kemi Badenoch telling an interviewer that maternity pay is “excessive” and people should exercise “more personal responsibility”:

The shadow communities secretary said one of the principles she was fighting her Tory leadership contest around was a call for the state to do less, as “the answer cannot be let the government help people to have babies”.

However, she has since clarified her remarks, saying she does “believe in maternity pay”.

Badenoch said on X: “Contrary to what some have said, I clearly said the burden of regulation on businesses had gone too far … of course I believe in maternity pay!”

Earlier, in an interview with Times Radio, she was asked if she thought maternity pay was at the right level.

Badenoch said: “Maternity pay varies, depending on who you work for. But statutory maternity pay is a function of tax, tax comes from people who are working. We’re taking from one group of people and giving to another. This, in my view, is excessive.

“Businesses are closing, businesses are not starting in the UK, because they say that the burden of regulation is too high.”

Asked again if she thought maternity pay was excessive, Badenoch replied: “I think it’s gone too far the other way, in terms of general business regulation. We need to allow businesses, especially small businesses, to make more of those decisions.

“The exact amount of maternity pay, in my view, is neither here nor there. We need to make sure that we are creating an environment where people can work and people can have more freedom to make their own decisions.”

The Tory leadership hopeful was told that the current level of maternity pay was necessary for people who could not afford to have a baby without it.

Badenoch replied: “We need to have more personal responsibility. There was a time when there wasn’t any maternity pay and people were having more babies.”
Can she defy the odds and avoid Leadsom's fate. We can only wait and see.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  1 comments

Sunday, September 29, 2024

Tory leadership chaos keeping Starmer afloat

Talk to anybody and it is apparent that not only is the Labour vote soft, but that disillusionment with the new government has set in quickly after a number of decisions and some bad publicity that has undermined the party's image as one standing up for the poor and disadvantaged.

However, as the Independent reports Labour’s standing with the public is holding firm despite a barrage of criticism for Keir Starmer and senior ministers over freebies, his chief of staff Sue Gray and unpopular policy decisions.

The paper says that the weekly Techne UK tracker poll reveals that after a difficult conference in Liverpool for Labour - overshadowed by questions about the prime minister’s integrity and infighting - the party is still at 32 per cent, down just one point:

Meanwhile the Tories, who go into their conference in disarray without a leader and overshadowed by the resignation of former chair Baroness Warsi, have failed to capitalise on Labour’s woes - going up just one point to 22 per cent.

Nigel Farage’s Reform are still challenging the Tories at 18 per cent, with the Lib Dems at 13 per cent and the Greens at 7 per cent - all unchanged.

The lack of movement comes despite ongoing questions about freebies for Starmer including £5,000 in clothes for his wife Victoria, the use of Lord Alli’s luxury flat during his son’s GCSEs, the failure to declare the use of the same flat during Covid, and free tickets to football matches and Taylor Swift concerts totalling £107,000 since 2019.

Sir Keir insisted he has been “transparent” despite being late to declare some gifts, while his deputy prime minister Angela Rayner who used a luxury penthouse in New York claimed “all MPs do it”.

Techne UK’s chief executive Michela Morizzo agreed the prolonged Tory leadership and lack of focus of the official opposition has helped Labour and Sir Keir hold on to support.

She said: “With the Labour Party conference now behind us, and as we look towards the Conservative Party conference this coming weekend, we notice some small changes in voting intention when compared to last week’s tracker poll.

“This small drop in Labour’s support is perhaps not unsurprising given the many problems the government is already facing. People pay great attention to what they expect from the new elected government and they expect to see the campaign’s promises become true very soon. Therefore the honeymoon is always shorter!

“It is still too early to draw any significant conclusions although what is apparent is even though the Labour Party seem beset by problems their vote share remains perhaps unexpectedly steady.”
The warning signs are though evident to see in the polls which find that trust in Labour is low with 42 per cent saying they would not vote in an election now, and 51 per cent saying they have no or little confidence in Starmer’s government.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  0 comments

Saturday, September 28, 2024

Cost of Senedd expansion rises

The BBC report that the Senedd Commission has asked for a 16% uplift to its budget for 2025-26, taking the total figure to £84.3m, after the cost of preparing the Senedd for more politicians rose by an extra £1.2m.

The broadcaster tells us that the Commission wants the extra money to deliver "the biggest change since devolution", as the number of Members of the Senedd (MSs) rises from 60 to 96 in 2026:

The commission will publish its draft budget later ahead of a vote on the proposals in November.

However, a briefing document provided to MSs and obtained by BBC Wales, shows it is seeking an overall budget of £84.3m for 2025-26, an increase of 16.7%.

It says this is necessary due to the coming together of a number of factors, including a commitment to increase public sector wages, pre-election costs as the Welsh Parliament heads towards the 2026 poll and maintenance work on Tŷ Hywel, the block behind the main Senedd building where MSs have their offices.

There are further costs associated with exploring possible options when the Senedd's current lease on Tŷ Hywel expires in 2032.

However, the key challenge facing the commission over the next year will be adapting offices and the Senedd building itself to accommodate 36 more MSs from 2026.
I have argued before that there is no justification for 96 members of the Senedd, and that a more realistic number is 80, which would enable MSs to do their job properly without adding significantly to the cost of supporting them.

This is also Welsh Liberal Democrats policy, so why the party's leader supports 96 members is a mystery.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  0 comments

Friday, September 27, 2024

Warsi quits Tories

The Independent reports that former Tory chair Baroness Sayeeda Warsi has quit the Conservatives in a furious row just as the party is preparing to gather for a crucial conference on its future in Birmingham.

The paper says that the Muslim peer was brought in as chair by David Cameron in 2010 to help detoxify the party’s brand and bring it into the 21st century, but since leaving government in 2014 Warsi has had a difficult relationship with the Tory leadership consistently calling out racism and islamophobia in the Conservative Party:

She has angered many recently as a passionate advocate for the suffering of Palestinians with Rishi Sunak as prime minister and the potential leadership candidates to replace him all supporting Israel instead of condemning the killing of 41,000 people in Gaza.

In a statement on X, formerly Twitter, Baroness Warsi said: “It is with a heavy heart that I have today informed my whip and decided for now to no longer take the Conservative whip.

“This is a sad day for me. I am a Conservative and remain so but sadly the current Party are far removed from the Party I joined and served in Cabinet.

“My decision is a reflection of how far right my Party has moved and the hypocrisy and double standards in its treatment of different communities.

“A timely reminder of the issues that I raise in my book Muslims Don’t Matter.”

The row seems to revolve around her agreeing that referring to ethnic minority Conservatives like Rishi Sunak as “coconuts” - a slur which means of colour on the outside and white on the inside - was an acceptable criticism. Wars pointed out that a trial against the person who had held up the banner, which many deemed racist, had ended in a not guilty verdict.

Baroness Warsi said: “I will not be gagged on a point of principle. And I am not prepared to play games behind closed doors.

“If Rishi Sunak’s party wants to retry and replay the coconut trial despite the acquittal of Marieha Hussain , the clear legal findings and the overwhelming expert witness testimonies then I wish to do so publicly and transparently.

“It would be unfair to do this whilst continuing to take the Conservatives whip.

“I realise I have the privilege of platform and I have decided to exercise that privilege by speaking truth to power.”
If the Tories cannot accommodate Baroness Warsi's views within their party then they really are in trouble.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  0 comments

Thursday, September 26, 2024

Labour's growing pains

The Labour Party are really finding it hard to adjust to government, and I'm not just talking about Ministers and MPs.

It is clear that Starmer's Parliamentary army believe that taking tough decisions and making a virtue of them is the key to demonstrating that they are fit for government. Normally, I would agree, but this only applies if they take the right decisions for the right reasons. 

The cuts to the winter fuel allowance for millions of pensioners and the refusal to abolish the two-child cap on child benefit are demonstrably the wrong decisions, because they penalise the worst-off in our society to achieve a disputed fiscal outcome, while leaving the better-off untouched.

Now, it may well be that they plan to hit the asset-rich in the budget, but that does not excuse the undue haste to flex their governmental muscles at the expense of vulnerable groups in our society. And it seems that the wider Labour Party agree with that assessment.

The Independent reports that delegates at the annual Labour Party conference in Liverpool on Wednesday voted to reverse the introduction of “means-testing for the winter fuel allowance” as part of a union motion.

The paper says that the vote will be seen as a blow for Sir Keir Starmer and Rachel Reeves, even though motions at the party conference are non-binding and the government is not required to respond to them, as it highlights a major division within the party over the controversial policy:

The motion, which was passed by a show of hands, said: “Britain cannot wait for growth, nor turn back to failed austerity.

“We need a vision where pensioners are not the first to face a new wave of cuts and those that profited from decades of deregulation finally help to rebuild Britain.”

It also calls for an end to the “fiscal rules which prevent borrowing to invest” brought in under the previous Tory government, as well as the introduction of wealth taxes to ensure there are “no further cuts to welfare provision for working people and pensioners”.

They propose taxing the top 1 per cent, equalising capital gains tax with income tax and imposing national insurance on investment income.

Unite general secretary Sharon Graham has described the policy as “cruel”, urging the prime minister to admit he made a “misstep”.

She said: “The first thing Labour does is to take away the winter fuel allowance from the poorest in our society while they leave the wealthiest people pretty much untouched.”

Speaking ahead of the vote on Wednesday morning, Ms Graham said: “I do not understand how our new Labour government can cut the winter fuel allowance for pensioners and leave the super-rich untouched.

“This is not what people voted for. It is the wrong decision and needs to be reversed.
The impact of these decisions is already being reflected in the polls and on the doorstep. No wonder the wider Labour Party are nervous.

# posted by Peter Black : 10:17 AM  1 comments

Wednesday, September 25, 2024

Labour must tread carefully on new snoop powers

The Guardian reports that Labour has promised to crack down on benefit fraud by reintroducing “snooper’s charter” proposals mooted under the last government that would allow welfare officials to request information from claimants’ bank accounts.

They say that a fraud, error and debt bill will require banks and other financial institutions to share data that may help identify benefit fraud as part of a package of measures designed to “catch fraudsters faster” and save £1.6bn over five years:

Campaigners warned ministers against adopting any legislation based too closely on the previous government’s widely criticised data protection and digital information bill, which had similar anti-benefit fraud aspirations.

When that bill – condemned by campaigners as an invasion of privacy likely to disproportionately affect older and disabled claimants – was passing through parliament Labour opposed amendments that required banks to share their customers’ data with the department to help it tackle benefit fraud.

The government said the new bill will include enhanced measures to protect vulnerable claimants, and establish safeguards to ensure the new powers are not misused by the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP).

The DWP said: “Staff will be trained to the highest standards on the appropriate use of any new powers, and we will introduce new oversight and reporting mechanisms, to monitor these new powers. DWP will not have access to people’s bank accounts and will not share their personal information with third parties.”

'''

Silkie Carlo, Big Brother Watch’s director, said: “Everyone wants fraud to be dealt with, and the government already has strong powers to investigate the bank statements of suspects.

“But to force banks to constantly spy on benefits recipients without suspicion means that not only millions of disabled people, pensioners and carers will be actively spied on but the whole population’s bank accounts are likely to be monitored for no good reason.

She added: “A financial snooper’s charter targeted to automate suspicion of our country’s poorest is intrusive, unjustified and risks Horizon-style injustice on a mass scale.”

Crossbench peer Beeban Kidron said she hoped the new government was not proposing to resurrect the “egregious proposals” made by the last one. She said: “If the government introduces spyware as previously proposed, I will oppose it with the ferocity that Labour colleagues in opposition did.”

Caroline Selman, a researcher for the Public Law Project charity, said the bill raised questions about whether ministers had learned lessons from the last proposal. “If they are serious about building trust in government use of technology, introducing invasive powers of surveillance with a high risk of harm is not the way to do it,” she said.
Important as it is to tackle fraud the new Labour government need to tread carefully here, and make sure that they get it right.
# posted by Peter Black : 8:52 AM  0 comments

Tuesday, September 24, 2024

Paranoid Labour look for scapegoats

Labour gathered in Liverpool at the weekend for its first annual conferencen since winning the general election under fire for a series of controversial decisions and unsettled by a series of leaks over rows about Sue Gray's pay and the Downing Street operation.

The reaction of several senior cabinet members has been to single out the top civil servant in Whitehall as a potential source of the briefings and call for his sacking.

The Independent reports that Keir Starmer is being urged by several cabinet ministers to sack the top civil servant in Whitehall immediately and stamp his authority on the new Labour government:

Knives are out for cabinet secretary Simon Case, who has been accused of undermining the prime minister and being responsible for briefings against his chief of staff Sue Gray.

One exasperated cabinet minister said: “He [Case] has got to go now.”

Mr Case has denied any inappropriate behaviour and has been put in charge of investigating how damaging leaks at No 10 occurred, including the news that Ms Gray’s salary eclipses the PM’s. Earlier this week the prime minister’s spokesman also said he was satisfied Mr Case was not behind the leaks.

Senior ministers have spoken of their frustration at the seemingly non-stop briefings against the fledgling Labour government which are threatening to destabilise it.

One minister accused Mr Case of “poisoning the well of government” and said his planned departure from government must “be done now with immediate effect to show Keir’s authority and to stop the damage and distraction”.

Another minister told The Independent they have personally raised their concerns with the prime minister and said Mr Case “really should go now”.

Others consider Mr Case’s relationship with Ms Gray to be too corrosive and have accused him of briefing against Ms Gray.

“Case is scheduled to leave at the end of the year having been forced earlier to take six weeks leave, but another 12 weeks of infighting is not viable,” said one insider.
It seems that gaining power is synonymous with paranoia. It's just that nobody expected it to set in so early.
# posted by Peter Black : 6:00 AM  1 comments

This page is powered by Blogger. Isn't yours?