Week of Nov 11 – Nov 17 – US Daily Review

Read Time:6 Minute, 16 Second

Looking at the news and opinion out of London each day.

11-17-14

Cameron: world facing second economic crash

The Prime Minister has warned that a second global crash could be looming

Cameron says that too many politicians have offered “easy answers”. True. So where are the hard ones?

As next May draws nearer, no political party is yet facing up to the scale of challenge of deficit reduction.

Can I have two national identities?

Scottish nationalists argue that they and many of their fellow Scots are primarily Scottish. They see this as an exclusive identity, precluding them from happily also being British or UK citizens. Unionists in Scotland claim they are content to be Scottish and British. They wish to enjoy both identities, accepting the sovereignty of the Westminster UK Parliament with proportionate local decision making in Scotland.

11-16-14

Don’t the Tories know who they stand for?

Ukip’s rise is the effect of the Conservative Party’s unpopularity, not the cause of it

The politics of identity

When I first entered UK politics we discussed mainstream subjects like living standards, taxes, the level of public spending, the balance of payments, criminal justice, planning and transport. We thought little about identity. We had inherited a United Kingdom which was self governing, proud of its history, and on the side of freedom and democracy.

There’s only one Alan Johnson (that’s why Labour’s in such trouble)

What’s happened to my party?

11-15-14

Sir John Major is right. We need a full time EU negotiator. Who should it be?

Lord Callanan or Peter Lilley would be strong choices

It’s not just Ed Miliband. Labour’s on the wrong side of history

Thanks to globalisation, ‘progressive’ politicians have nowhere to turn

The subversive wonders of Kilkenomics – where economics meets stand-up

This brainy festival is fast becoming a part of Ireland’s popular culture

11-14-14

Ten reasons why I won’t be joining UKIP

But the Conservatives need fundamental change.

Sir John Major, Cameron’s unofficial EU negotiator

John Major’s speech in Berlin yesterday was aimed at a European audience, but his warning that Britain has a just under 50% chance of quitting the EU still gets plenty of pick-up in the British press this morning. The former Prime Minister hasn’t always helped Downing Street out in his interventions over the past few years, but Number 10 did work with Major on this speech.

Creating wealth is at least as progressive as wealth distribution (almost certainly a lot more so)

Few have explained why better than Lord Hailsham when he addressed the Conservative Christian Fellowship nearly 25 years ago.

Ed Miliband sounds good, but lacks substance and show

Instead of offering workable alternatives, Labour’s leader is like a geeky Russell Brand

Oppositions are meant to oppose

People have written in asking for my thoughts on the events of Monday in the Commons. I have long made clear on this site, in the Commons, in public and in private that I had urged them to opt out and supported the opt out of all the criminal justice measures undertaken by the current government, and did not wish them to opt back in to any measure. I argued this on the simple ground of Parliamentary sovereignty.

11-13-14

Ukip’s puppet David Cameron cuts a pathetic figure

Well this is a pleasant surprise. After all the years of indifference, David Cameron has condescended to notice us. Not just notice us but want us too. His come-hither smiles and fluttering eyelashes are enough to bring a blush to the cheek.

Has David Cameron finally learnt that doing an impression of Nigel Farage is a bad idea?

It’s too late for David Cameron to build an anti-Ukip coalition in Rochester for next week’s by-election. But there’s still time to build one for 2015

How can Labour overcome Ed Miliband’s poor appeal to voters?

How do Labour campaigners overcome the Ed Miliband problem on the doorstep? Today’s Standard poll finds just 13 per cent of voters think he is ready to be Prime Minister, down from 22 per cent in June. MPs, candidates and activists have noticed a hardening in voters’ attitudes towards the Labour leader. One says: ‘Voters have gone from thinking “I’m not sure about this guy” to “I’ve made up my mind about this guy and I’m not going to vote for him”.’

Access to benefits

The government has reminded me of action taken so far to limit access to benefits by recent EU arrivals in the UK. I thought many of you might like to see it, as this is a matter you often write about.

11-12-14

It’s not immigrants that Ukip voters hate: it’s London

Labour is perhaps more a party of London, these days, than either the Liberal Democrats or the Conservatives

The CBI and a referendum on the EU

We read from the CBI conference that a few large companies and the CBI leadership are against an EU referendum. They think it could create uncertainties and make life more difficult for big business.

The opposite is the truth.

How Ed Miliband lost his winning hand

You can’t run a ’35 per cent strategy’ when the Greens have knocked your vote into the low thirties

11-11-14

Government wins European Arrest Warrant ‘vote’

So Labour lost its vote delaying the vote on the European Arrest Warrant that wasn’t technically a vote on that measure anyway. The first vote, that the question not be put today so that Parliament could have a full debate and vote another day, was lost, with 272 MPs voting ‘no’ with the government and 229 voting with Labour.

Ukip’s march northwards isn’t just a Labour problem

Nigel Farage might be a tweed-wearing public schoolboy, but northerners don’t all hate him

Labour unrest: What Ed Miliband can learn from David Cameron’s struggles with the Tories

Well, the Labour party certainly knows how to give the appearance of a fight when its back is against the wall. Many MPs and supporters have spent quite a lot of this fine autumn day tweeting frantically that this morning’s unpleasant headlines (summarised in their full gory glory by James here) are a plot by the media to stop their thoroughly decent leader making it to Downing Street and why aren’t we all writing about the problems that David Cameron has with the Conservative party instead?

Falling petrol and diesel prices

The sharp fall in the oil price in recent weeks is as welcome as a tax cut. We see the results at the petrol pumps, with petrol and diesel for our cars, vans and lorries down in price.

More people will now see the awesome Tower of London poppies

You have to see the poppies at close hand to understand. It is only when you see the care with which they have been made — each blood-red ceramic petal distinctively curled and folded — that you grasp the concept; and then you see how those individual blooms make up that sea of red, and you have an idea of the scale of the sacrifice.

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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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