Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
4-28-14
Boris Johnson must act fast if he wants the glittering prize
It’s a wonderful dilemma for an ambitious politician: does he go for a third term as London Mayor, or fulfil his destiny in the greatest job of all?
Vote Tory if you want EU reform
The European Union wastes too much of your money. It pokes its nose in where it is not needed and it gets too much in the way of British businesses when it should be bending over backwards to help.
4-27-14
Yes, Britain is a Christian country
How Nick Clegg missed his chance with Nigel Farage
At the start of the year, some of the air seemed to have gone out of the Ukip balloon. The party’s warnings about the scale of Romanian and Bulgarian immigration to Britain hadn’t been borne out by events. But the debates with Nick Clegg enabled Nigel Farage to get his momentum back. In those debates, Clegg was too passive in the first one and then over-compensated in the second with the result that he ended up losing both of them.
Why does Ed Davey want to keep us in the dark?
The Energy and Climate Change Secretary is trying to hoodwink us over the value of wind farms
Javid has signalled a ceasefire in the battle for press regulation – has Cameron?
The Culture Secretary has taken a strong line on press freedom. Is this a shift in stance from the Prime Minister, or submission to the exigencies of 2015?
4-26-14
Old Labour, New Danger
From Cornwall to Scotland, the UK is in dire need of defenders
Whenever a minority is given special legal status, our common citizenship is attacked
As Barclays’ profits fall and bonus payments rise, public anger grows over a return to the executive gravy train
4-25-14
Doing God works well for Cameron
David Cameron’s decision to hug-a-Christian seems to have worked pretty well, judging by the political response he’s provoked. For starters, his comments about Britain being ‘evangelical’ about its status as a Christian country managed to enrage the sort of people who also might annoy the churchgoing conservatives he needs to win back after the row over gay marriage.
What’s wrong with political journalism
I do not wish to encourage, even by implication, the idea that if only a journalist is sufficiently honest and independent-minded, he or she will arrive at the truth.
UKIP stand by their latest trouble man
More trouble for Ukip this morning: it seems that yet another party official has some colourful views about ‘people of color’. David Challice, who is understood to work at Ukip HQ, once suggested that ‘cash-strapped Moslems’ should have multiple wives.
Crime is down – does the Government deserve any credit?
A fall of 15 per cent is a single year is very impressive
4-24-14
Benefit cuts creating new generation of entrepreneurs, Bank of England suggests
Iain Duncan Smith hails Britain’s ‘entrepreneurial spirit’ after Bank of England suggests welfare reforms are encouraging people to become self-employed
“Middle-class ethnic minority voters could help Tories win election”
But is the key factor rising incomes or white neighbours or both – and if so to what degree?
Sorry, Boris Johnson: you’re not the man to save the Tories
I once thought Johnson a formidable opponent, but now I – and many Tory voters – don’t believe he’s cut out to be PM
4-23-14
What Cameron and Osborne’s rare joint appearance tells us about their relationship
David Cameron and George Osborne managed to garner more attention for their infrastructure announcement (or re-announcement) today by organising their first joint appearance alone together in four years – and making sure the media were aware that this was the case.
Yesterday’s rare joint appearance cements a solid partnership and foreshadows Tory election strategy
4-22-14
Honest work can’t put a roof over people’s heads: true Tories should be appalled
The inflation of London’s house prices of course spreads far beyond Mayfair or Bloomsbury. Small flats in Plaistow – by no stretch of the imagination the “prime centre” – now sell for close to or more than a quarter of a million pounds – and are likely to be purchased as “buy to let” investments, with high rents and insecure tenancies. Registered Social Landlords are building or developing properties in London which offer a more secure tenancy, but they are now allowed and indeed encouraged to charge 80 per cent of local market values. This is called “affordable” housing.
The Ukip posters will offend more Londoners than eastern Europeans
Globalisation is like a rising tide; we’re all living in our separate ponds with their own little social ecosystems until the floodwater starts to rise and turns them into one big lake. Many fish, especially, the big ones, are going to benefit but many will suffer in this frightening new world.
No more surrendering to EU bureaucrats
An outright victory for Nigel Farage will be nothing less than a political earthquake
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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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