By Steve Parkhurst, Senior Editor, USDR.
Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.
7-27-15
Love to hate luxury property in London? This is why you’re wrong
Luxury high-rises like the Aykon Tower, ‘poor doors’ and off-plan sales to the overseas super-rich can all play a role in tackling the city’s housing crisis
Why a Germany of robust debate would be better for Europe
Consensus has smothered the nation’s domestic politics – it needs a dose of reality-based controversy
There is no status quo in the forthcoming EU referendum
Those who have already made up their minds to recommend staying in the EU whatever Mr Cameron negotiates think they can control the referendum for Yes. They aim to run a campaign claiming that Yes is Yes to the status quo, Yes is the risk free option, and that No would mean all sorts of dire futures which they intend to portray by lies and scare stories.
7-26-15
Parliament’s traditions are something to cherish
Mhairi Black is a separatist, and knows what she’s doing when she tries to shame our living links to this country’s past.
Loans to Ireland
Some have raised the issue of the UK’s loans to Ireland, made at the point of transition from Labour to Coalition in 2010. The Coalition decided to lend money bilaterally to Ireland so it was not part of an EU scheme, and offered no precedent for the UK in future having to join Euro area bail outs.
7-25-15
When even the Treasury can’t understand the tax system, it’s time for simplification
If officials are boggled by the system they oversee, what hope is there for the rest of us?
Labour’s leadership crisis has turned into Game of Clones
If I were Tony Blair, I’d be very worried…
7-24-15
May’s review of deaths in police custody is another example of responsible government in action
The Home Secretary doesn’t have to address this thorny issue. That she is choosing to is laudable.
7-23-15
Forget Jeremy Corbyn – Labour should be seizing the chance to reinvent itself
Britain needs a modern Left-wing party that embraces consumerism and individual choice
Of course politicians don’t care about lowering house prices
Nevertheless, the price of property is beginning to define our economy – and it’s a serious cause for concern
Labour can come back from the brink. But it seems to lack the will to do so
In 1983 Neil Kinnock urged the party to unify – and people listened. The mood in today’s smaller, less confident Labour appears more fatalistic
More jobs go thanks to dear energy
Recently the media gave little attention to an important and worrying announcement – more than 700 jobs went in the UK steel industry. You would have thought they would have given that top billing, with interviews of those left without a job, and angry remonstrations with the managers who carried it out. Far from it. Perhaps the reason is that the closure was brought about primarily by EU/UK energy policy. The company made clear it could not longer afford UK energy prices.
7-22-15
Daily catch-up: I think I’d better stop trying to predict the Labour leadership election
This morning’s YouGov poll doesn’t necessarily suggest Jeremy Corbyn will win, but who can say?
Labour’s crisis is Tony Blair’s fault – just not how Jeremy Corbyn thinks
Blair understood instinctively that British politics is a battle between head and heart
How the Party can now make the most of its London Mayoral selection
Labour’s Corbyn troubles open up new opportunities for next May’s contest. A bigger Open Primary than planned offers a means of taking them.
7-21-15
David Cameron has given his best speech yet on tackling Islamic extremism
The Prime Minister’s Birmingham speech on radicalisation and Muslim communities in the UK given earlier today is a rather important one. Regular readers will know that I’m not easy to please in this area, but it seems to me that David Cameron has come to understand the real problem of Islamic extremism and has been developing his attitudes towards that problem.
The National Grid must change to stop a new dark age
Ministers must break up the Soviet-style National Grid in order to save Britain from an energy crunch
David Cameron is right to tackle extremist ideas as well as behaviour
The Prime Minister set out an extensive approach to combat extremism, but must not forget to fight poisonous ideologies
Has Liz Kendall’s campaign run out of momentum?
Liz Kendall’s chances of winning the Labour leadership contest appear to be slipping away. On several measures, she has fallen into fourth place. Kendall has just 12 nominations from constituency Labour parties, compared to 58 for Yvette Cooper, 67 for Andy Burnham and 70 for Jeremy Corbyn.
In five years, the Tories have got smarter – and Labour have got more divided
Comparing today’s headlines to those from 21st July 2010 is instructive.
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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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