OpEd: politics 10-06-15

The commentators 10-06-15

...on politics

The Chancellor's devolution plans are ill-thought through, breaking up the NHS is a perilous gambit and his elected mayors may, in some cases, prove to be despots at war with their local councils rather than agents of benign revolution. If Mr Osborne’s cocktail of parsimony and power-sharing proves toxic, as well it might, then the Tories will reap the whirlwind. Voters tuned out of politics will re-engage in the instant that their bins are unemptied and their streets unswept. It would, however, be suicidal for the Opposition to bank on any such failure, given that the future of local politics may determine who next governs Britain. Unless Mr Miliband’s successor can very soon set out a plan to reshape the architecture of the state, then Labour will disappear down a pothole of its own creation.
- Mary Riddell, Daily Telegraph

Chastising banks is not an end in itself, and becomes absurd when taxpayer-owned banks are fined by the authorities on behalf of those self-same taxpayers. Chastising – and punishing – renegade bankers is another matter. What is infuriating is that so few bankers of any description have been put before a court for their negligence, frauds and other misdemeanours. Bank-bashing, then, has probably run its course; banker-bashing, apart from some windy rhetoric from the politicians, actually never happened, in the sense of crime and punishment. They got away with it, and it is no use taking out our frustrations on the banks themselves. Weak banks do not make for a strong economy.
- The Independent

Scotland should be a broad, open, welcoming place. It can’t afford to become petty and divided if it wants to thrive. No modern culture can be aggressive to outsiders and intolerant of difference or it will wither. If Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon are serious about wanting to lead a great Scotland, they need to bring these monsters under control.
- Alice Thomson, The Times

The prime minister faces a choice. He can grow as a national figure, making the case for Britain in Europe, or he can shrink into the captivity of a ridiculous pretence that his party is united. It is obvious which path his enemies want him to choose.
- Rafael Behr, The Guardian

David Cameron is attempting to settle the issue of Europe within his party for at least a generation. This will almost certainly prove harder than winning a referendum vote. Indeed it may not be possible. After the referendum is almost bound to come a testing period of complaint and resentment. Yet even in these trying conditions, allowing hardliners to feel as though the contest was free and fair is the best thing he can do. If they lose a referendum and Britain remains in the EU it is important — in so far as it can be done — that those promoting “out” feel the result was a reasonable test of public sentiment. It won’t be enough that it was reasonable. They must feel that it was.
- Daniel Finkelstein, 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?