A Letter to the Mail

I’ve been intending to write this piece for a while now – for ten days to be precise. Dear Liam Fox, I wanted to start, because as you might remember – or not, in fact, because ten days is a long time in politics – ten days ago, much to his unfeigned surprise I am sure, the defence secretary’s charming letter criticising aid targets was leaked to the press. Now you might also remember that for more than understandable reasons – after all the letter was obviously aimed at the wider public and the far-right of the party rather than him – David Cameron didn’t even bother with an answer. Or maybe he did and it just wasn’t leaked but that amounts to the same, following the basic principle of modern government communication: if it hasn’t been leaked, it could as well not have happened. Anyway, it was such a nice and polite and only ever so slightly populist and inflammatory letter that I thought it deserved an answer. And, heaven knows, I was only too happy to take care of that. But time has this funny habit never to be available in sufficient quantities, and so the letter drafted in my head slowly sank into oblivion.

Thankfully, though, pride of British journalism The Daily Mail joined the debate with predictable enthusiasm and stirred up my irritation once more with its coverage of G8 spending on foreign aid. Britain, the Mail revealed, currently spends more on aid as a percentage of GDP than any other G8 country and shows the strongest commitment to reach the 0.7% target. Now call me naive, but in my world-view that is something to be proud of. And the Mail, I reasoned, likes a bit of national pride, so surely they wouldn’t miss the opportunity to point out that we’re doing a lot better than the French? I had so much to learn.

A Balance Act

Justice is a balance act. Ken Clarke was reminded of that when he tried to walk the tightrope this morning – and failed spectacularly. How deep he will fall we have yet to see, but with the opposition clamouring for his head and the Tory right hoping to finally replace him with a more tough on crime and prison works candidate, David Cameron’s dislike for reshuffles and sacking ministers is his best hope.

The outcry was provoked by Clarke’s unfortunate remark that there are types of rape that are more serious than others. He was trying to explain that statistics on average sentences for rape were skewed by cases like consensual sex between teenagers. Of course that makes sense. And so does the remark that cases can ‘vary extraordinarily one from another and in the end the judge has to decide on the circumstances.’ The reason why judges have margins of discretion when they impose sentences is that our justice system takes factors like the circumstances of the crime and the record of the offender into consideration, and rightly so.

Be in no doubt, the remarks were ill-conceived to say the very least.

The Thick Society

There we are, it’s official now: The Yes and No to AV campaigns have declared the British electorate to be as thick as a brick. Although I’m sure even the brick would be offended by the insults thrown at its intelligence by various leaflets and broadcasts on electoral reform. But, whatever else can be said about them (a lot), at least they have thought of a whole variety of ways to treat everyone like a complete moron.

It starts with simply patronising – the best example probably being this NO2AV video, starring a bunch of confused students getting a lesson on AV by an equally clueless teacher. To give them at least some credit, they must either be quite tolerable actors or the No-campaign is right and there are indeed people out there who are too thick to rank a few options in order of preference.

Compassionate Tories and the Nasty Welfare State?

When it comes to decontaminating his party’s brand, David Cameron spares no effort. Compassionate Conservatism seems to be one of his favourite catchphrases characterising the new Tories. Only this weekend the prime minister used his speech at the Conservative spring forum to tell the audience that ‘compassion is in our nature. Go to almost any community hall, any neighbourhood association or any charity sale up and down the country and you’ll find members of this party.’ To tell from their reaction, the party faithful enjoyed a bit of flattery after all the unpopularity they are facing in the polls these days. So what is wrong with a little pat on the back from the PM for his suffering party? Maybe, put that way, there is nothing wrong with it. But it’s not so much the new image they try to present that I find worrying. It is the underlying attitude.