Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
4-14-14
Anti-politics is more than just a phase. Deferential democracy is dead
It’s just a phase, many MPs think. Voters are angry over expenses or Iraq or more expenses. But the mood, they presume, will pass. No, my friends, colleagues and opponents. This anti-politics thingy is not just a phase. It will not abate. We are witnessing a permanent change in the relationship between the governed and the governing.
If Ukraine had joined NATO…
…we would be obliged to defend that country militarily. Which leads to a question: how far east do we really want NATO’s canopy to stretch?
Gove is right to fail schools for religious bias
Here are five words that liberals should say more often: thank God for Michael Gove. The Education Secretary has sent dozens of inspectors to 15 state schools in Birmingham targeted by Islamic radicals – and now, reportedly, plans to extend the idea nationwide, with new powers for Ofsted to fail schools where religious conservatism prevents balanced learning.
4-13-14
David Jones presses public services attack against Welsh Labour
The Welsh Secretary savages Carwyn Jones on education and health in his address to the Welsh conference.
Alex Salmond’s message to Labour supporters: vote ‘yes’ to escape the Tories
When is a conference not a conference? When it’s a rally. Sitting in the hall listening to Alex Salmond this afternoon, it was hard to ignore the feeling that this SNP Spring Conference was about as far away from a party conference as it was possible to get. It really was a political rally – and quite a scary one too.
4-12-14
I’m sick of weak women being praised as ‘strong’
Why are we supposed to admire ‘brave’ Kelly Osbourne checking into a clinic because of her weight gain?
4-11-14
Sajid Javid: the man who thinks big
The new Culture Secretary understands finance, passionately believes in free enterprise – and never trades on the fact that he is a working-class Asian boy made good
How to win the next Conservative leadership election
Post-Miller, post-Evans, post allegations of sexual harrassment, a future speech to the ’22 by a prospective candidate.
Osborne banks the recovery – and whacks his critics
A few months ago, colleagues of George Osborne were worried the Chancellor risked ‘banking the recovery’ too early. If they’re still worried about that, then Osborne certainly isn’t. Today he’s delivering a speech attacking economic pessimists who he says can be proven wrong: ‘Our nation’s best days lie ahead’.
Cameron launches Euro Election campaign
The priorities for renegotiation are listed
4-10-14
Morals of the Miller’s Tale
In politics, you need friends – well, allies, at any rate.
4-9-14
Sajid Javid is the new Culture Secretary
Sajid Javid is the new Culture Secretary. Javid has impressed as a junior minister at the Treasury. He has learnt the political ropes fast despite only becoming an MP in 2010 and having done very little in politics before that. Javid’s appointment will please modernisers and the right alike. The right will be pleased that this Eurosceptic, Thatcherite has made Cabinet. Modernisers will be pleased that the Tories have their first Muslim male Cabinet Minister.
Labour’s response to Maria Miller’s resignation is an embarrassing, incoherent shambles
The mini-reshuffle has been finalised following the resignation of Maria Miller. And the reaction of the Labour Party has been embarrassing. An embarrassing, incoherent shambles.
More Tory MPs break cover on Miller
Tory MPs now feel it’s acceptable to pile in on the Maria Miller row and offer their views. Mark Field has just told the World at One that her apology to the Commons was regarded as ‘unacceptably perfunctory’.
It is far harder for ex-gang members to find the right path than a middle-class kid with committed parents
4-8-14
Maria Miller’s Leveson threat, not her expenses, is why she must go
In July 2011, David Cameron wrote an article for this newspaper praising “the power of transparency”. “Information is power,” he said. “It lets people hold the powerful to account, giving them the tools they need to take on politicians and bureaucrats.”
Boris Johnson: Maria Miller is being hounded
As backbenchers apparently gang up on Maria Miller, she’s seen Conservative and Lib Dem colleagues trying to defend her – and dampen down Esther McVey’s comments – on the airwaves this morning. Boris Johnson told the Today programme that he felt Miller was being hounded (although he didn’t give a view on whether she should go)
But this is just a result of a change in the way the ONS measures things
Jeremy Browne: ‘Under Nick Clegg we’ve turned timid’
Former minister Jeremy Browne says the Liberal Democrats – and the country – would benefit from a stronger dose of liberalism. He outlines his vision
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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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