OpEd: UK politics 11-03-15

The commentators 11-03-15

...on UK politics

Has there ever been a more spectacular political reinvention than that of Margaret Hodge? The sun never sets on her Indian summer as headline-pillaging chair of the Commons Public Accounts Committee. Watching her reprise the Torquemada act on Monday, with Rona Fairhead of HSBC and the BBC Trust on her rack, I caught myself reflecting on this metamorphosis and the staggering chutzpah that was its catalyst.
- Matthew Norman, The Independent

Ed Miliband has to rule out a deal with the SNP and has to provide reassurance on spending and on providing continuity as well as change. I can quite see why he would rather not. But loss aversion is very powerful. It is very powerful indeed.
- Daniel Finkelstein, The TImes

Ed Balls’ speech is a useful contribution to the election campaign because it has left no room for doubt. Labour is, we now know, prepared to say anything that might scare someone into voting for it no matter how ridiculous and how easily disproved. And despite everything that has happened in recent years it has still not learned something basic about public spending.
- Stephen Pollard, Daily Express

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Having restored some dignity to the victims, we have yet to learn not to glorify the killer - most particularly by not according him an identity that might secure him a place in folklore. That also means avoiding describing Emwazi as Isis's "star executioner" or saying that he "features" in the group's videos.
For six months we have been providing propaganda for Isis, and sprinkling words such as "evil", "vile", "depraved" around doesn't mitigate that failing.
- Emwazi is not a folk hero, let's stop treating him as if though were

The ideology of a small state or the belief that benefits build dependency are crass, irrelevant details to what at its core is simply a decision about how to treat a human being. This is particularly damning when one person has all the power and the other is forced through economic necessity to take whatever humiliation or pain they are given. To do that to someone – let alone hundreds of thousands – is no accident. It is a conscious decision, that has been made over and over again by this government.
- Frances Ryan, The Guardian