Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
10-28-13
All human beings have their assumptions, their biases. But there is something vast and indestructible about the bias of those who have convinced themselves that they, unlike the rest of us, have risen above perspective to inhabit a world of pure facts.
Unemployment: what’s the true picture?
The economic debate is shaping up around a holy trinity – the cost of living, the rate of growth and the level of unemployment. The first is being thrashed out in the energy debate. The second is a perennial media circus. The third is now so familiar that I fear we often fail to understand its complexities.
10-27-13
Cameron shouldn’t play on Miliband’s side of the pitch
With the clock ticking to the next election, the Labour leader’s pledge on energy prices is still setting the agenda
Why is Downing Street floating BBC reform now?
How the BBC is governed and regulated could scarcely be more important, given its dominance of news consumption. But where’s the Commons majority for radical change?
It turns out we would rather vote for someone who would give us more cash
Cameron’s struggle to reduce EU red tape shows how tricky renegotiating membership will be
European Commission President Jose Manuel Borroso agrees there should be some limit the number of new regulations coming out of Brussels. Well whoopie doo.
10-26-13
They used to catch crooks – now they trawl Twitter. Are our police turning into spies?
With crime rates plunging, the police are pouncing on innocents instead — and attacking freedom
Osborne’s satisfaction is like a football team celebrating a goal, while being 3 nil down
If only I’d given Nick Clegg the beating he needed
My failure to discipline my schoolboy ‘toast fag’ properly surely cost this country dear
Farewell Jack Straw
It is a shame that we will be losing Jack Straw at the next election. He has just announced his attention to stand down from a seat he has occupied for more than 30 years.
10-25-13
Labour took a gamble on the economy – and lost. The voters have noticed
So George Osborne wasn’t cutting the economy too far or too fast after all. UK GDP accelerated to 0.8 per cent between July and September, its fastest rate for three years.
Nick Clegg is rejecting liberalism just as the Conservatives are embracing it
A new generation of voters is associating radical politics with the Tory Prime Minister, David Cameron, not his Lib Dem deputy, Nick Clegg
A day to acknowledge the good work of George Osborne
Views of the Chancellor tend to be black-and-white. The truth is more nuanced – but he has consistently been on the right side of the big arguments in government.
The power companies are not the bad guys
Britain’s ‘energy debate’ is populist nonsense – as are Ed Miliband’s price freezes and Sir John Major’s windfall taxes
The UK would be better served by negotiating new terms than by abandoning the EU altogether
10-24-13
Nick Clegg calls for more safeguards on free schools to ‘guarantee’ minimum standards
The Coalition’s decision to hand more freedom to individual schools must be underpinned by more safeguards to “guarantee” minimum standards, Nick Clegg will declare today.
Sir John Major has broken his silence – let’s hope the party is listening
The former PM wants less ‘ideology’ and more talk about what matters to ordinary people
The best and the worst of John Major
The latter’s ordinariness was an electoral asset in 1992. But he is not, as Margaret Thatcher was, strategically minded.
10-23-13
David Cameron pledges to cut green taxes next year despite Lib Dem objections
Green taxes on household energy bills will fall next year despite Liberal Democrat objections, David Cameron’s aides have said.
Boris should stand for the Commons in 2015
A return to Parliament may have a downside for Boris, but it would be all upside for everyone else – in the Conservative Party, at any rate.
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Across The Pond is edited daily by Steve Parkhurst. Steve is a political consultant, a writer at his blog as well as a Senior Editor here at US Daily Review. Follow Steve on Twitter @SteveParkhurst
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