OpEd: Politics 08-06-15

The commentators 08-06-15

...on British politics

The Labour leadership candidate Liz Kendall is thinking about young people — and wrestling with the failure of politicians to deliver the early intervention in children’s lives that they all profess to believe in. In one of the clearest breaks of policy with Ed Miliband she has abandoned his policy of cutting tuition fees (the introduction of which has not deterred poorer students from attending university) and, instead, wants to address why some deprived children start school as much as 20 months behind their peers on some key measures of development — and never catch up.
- Tim Montgomerie, The Times

As we go forward towards the next election, every vehicle in the Tory convoy should be bear a fluttering pennant saying “Living Wage.” Winston Churchill campaigned for it in the early years of the last century, and he was right. The political landscape is in flux. Labour is in disarray – but eventually they will get their act together. If we want to keep serving the interests of the British people, at home and abroad, then we need to engage our forward gears and roar on, so that the breakthrough becomes a full-scale breakout.
- Boris Johnson, Daily Telegraph

The greatest danger just now is to prefer being right to being successful. As with any vote, the key component in the EU referendum is those who have not made up their minds. All No-inclined politicians should be doing much more to find out what the undecided
- Charles Moore, Daily Telegraph

If Mr Cameron wants his government to thrive and its goodwill believed, he can’t just cry “Make it so!” but must bear down on basic efficiency. Too often that word is used to mean cost-savings: actually it should mean making things work. You don’t walk far or fast if you’ve economised on shoes and the soles keep falling off.
- Libby Purves, The Times

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This wasn't a story about journalists and celebs whose misfortunes no one really cares about, it was about a landmark ruling on privacy, about the comeuppance of an organisation that had repeatedly denied that it had anything to do with phone-hacking until it was dragged, kicking and screaming, into court.
Too embarrassed to look in the mirror?

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The worst possible strategy to prevent Brexit is to send forth lots of men in suits with PowerPoints, spouting statistics. Almost as bad would be long speeches about “social Europe” and “our common European destiny”. The British don’t have much fondness for the EU, but they have even less for isolation – or the epic upheaval that Brexit would undoubtedly entail. This is not, I know, the glad confident morning that EU enthusiasts crave. But so what? The heart of practical politics is not minding why you win - Matthew d'Ancona, The Guardian

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