The commentators 14-10-15...on politicsHow can John McDonnell (pictured) have announced at the Labour party conference that he supported the government’s fiscal responsibility charter and two weeks later say that he opposes it? Incompetence will have played its part. I was involved in too much maladroit opposition policymaking myself not to be able to see that. Without a proper staff you stumble around a bit, especially at the beginning. Even so, this is quite a spectacular pratfall
- Daniel Finkelstein, The Times Since it must end soon, Jeremy Corbyn’s only logical option is to allow his imminent political death to concentrate his mind on what to do with the little time available. He may already appreciate that his most realistic ambition, biblically, is to be not the Joshua who takes Labour into the promised land but the Moses who leads the party out of bondage to the Blairite/Brownite ideology, into a spell in the wilderness that will not – with David Cameron elegantly feigning to colonise the centre ground – be brief
- Matthew Norman, Independent Tom Watson is no longer a credible MP; he has turned into the aggressor — a man who has caused an injustice rather than rooted one out. He has embarrassed his party with his cruel disregard for another man’s reputation. He has misused his privileges as a parliamentarian. He may even have stopped police from focusing on urgent, current abuse cases with his insistence on their concentrating obsessively on the past. I have no hope that he will stand down as an MP but, if he realised the enormity of the damage he has caused, he would do so
- Alice Thomson, The Times Whenever a Labour spokesperson is interviewed, they need to shoehorn in the work penalty over and over again, until the narrative that the Tories are driving workers into hardship becomes common sense. This must become the Tories’ new poll tax. If they begin to retreat, then they can be made to look weak. If they fail to give ground, they make themselves ever more politically toxic. Momentum – the new grassroots successor to Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership campaign – is manned by passionate young activists who don’t want the enthusiasm of the summer to dissipate. Here is a campaign for them to make their own
- Owen Jones, The Guardian Corbyn needs to get to grips with the mainstream media. Shunning Andrew Marr and the Sun is not a strategy that will lead to electoral success.
But the Press, too, must rethink. If people are offended by Corbyn's singalong choices or dress sense, it is fair that they are reported. If his oratory leaves something to be desired, it is fair that that, too, is commented upon. But let's get this into perspective. Those are side issues; the first job of the Press is to report the news, so when a new leader makes his first important setpiece speech, it would be good if newspapers told us what he said rather than what they thought - Editor's blog: All singing from the wrong hymn sheet Comment Awards, 2015Thursday 17 September, 2015 The Financial Times and The Times again lead the way in this year's ei Comment Awards, with eleven nominations apiece in the shortlists announced today.
Sathnam Sanghera is responsible for four of those Times nominations - featuring in the media commentator, diversity, technology and individual comment piece categories. Freelance Yomi Adegoke who founded Birthday Magazine for black teenage girls, is among four writers shortlisted in two categories - in her case young commentariat and media commentator. George Monbiot of the Guardian completes the media line-up and is also nominated as science commentator and Gillian Tett of the FT is listed in both business and economics. Her colleague Janan Ganesh is shortlisted for political commentator and the big prize - commentariat of the year, where he is up against the two most recent winners David Aaronovitch (also nominated for comment piece of the year) and Caitlin Moran. SubScribe is honoured and surprised to find a place on the individual blogger shortlist, and fully expects to come third behind Barrister Blogger Matthew Scott and Stuart Forster of Go-eat-Do. You can see all the shortlists here. Comment archive, 2015 |
|
October 9
Politics October 8 Cameron speech October 7 Conservatives October 6 Conservatives October 5 Conservatives
October 2 UK politics October 1 Labour conference September 30 Labour conference September 29 Politics September 28 Volkswagen September 25
Politics September 24 Volkswagen September 23 Politics September 22 "Pig-gate" September 21 Politics September 18
Labour September 17 Jeremy Corbyn September 16 Jeremy Corbyn September 15 Jeremy Corbyn September 14 Jeremy Corbyn September 11
Jeremy Corbyn September 10 Migrant crisis September 9 Drone strikes September 8 Migrant crisis September 7 Migrant crisis August 28
Virginia TV shootings August 27 Jeremy Corbyn August 26 Politics August 25 Politics August 24 Labour leadership August 21
Politics August 20 Student debt August 19 Labour leadership August 18 Labour leadership August 17 Labour leadership August 14
Labour leadership August 13 Politics August 12 Politics August 11 Politics August 10 Labour leadership August 7
Kids Company August 6 Kids Company August 5 Labour leadership August 4 Labour leadership August 3 Calais July 24
Labour leadership July 23 Labour leadership July 22 Labour leadership July 21 Counter-terrorism July 20 Boris Johnson, Greece If you would like
to subscribe to help to keep SubScribe going, please click here |