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Archive for January, 2011

Alan should return, but Ed will excel

24/01/2011, 07:00:11 AM

by John Woodcock

Much of what has been written about Alan Johnson since Thursday has read like the obituary of a man who has stepped off the political stage for good.

That need not be the case; I hope he will want to return to the front line before too long.

Commentary pondering whether Alan’s relaxed temperament made his exit inevitable is as poorly-founded as the assertion that a man who excelled as a minister for a decade could be fairly labelled gaffe-prone after a single slip.

Worse is the suggestion that his comeback is unlikely because he will be in his mid-sixties by the next election and therefore past it. It is sad that the generation of politicians which banned age discrimination and abolished the compulsory retirement age seems under pressure to be ever more fresh-faced and youthful (not that fresh-faced youth is a bad thing, you understand).

But while sad for Alan, we are all looking forward to seeing Ed Balls get stuck into George Osborne in the way he did Michael Gove.

Ed excelled in the leadership campaign for his early recognition that it was often those just above the cut off level for targeted support who were among the most disillusioned with Labour by the end of our third term in government.

We will need those instincts in the tough months ahead.

It is, of course, essential that we speak up for current and future generations of college students set to be deprived of vital financial support; that we are angry on behalf of firms who are crying out for a better skills base and can ill-afford to see young people put off from further and higher education.

But we know we must also heed the message on the doorstep from slightly better off families whose children did not generally qualify for extra help. They were cross about that, and rightly demand that we prove we are on their side too.

John Woodcock is Labour and Cooperative MP for Barrow and Furness.

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Sunday Review: Dhobi Ghat, No One Killed Jessica

23/01/2011, 03:00:29 PM

by Siôn Simon

Relatively few of the Indian films on release in the UK these days are what one traditionally understands by “Bollywood”.

No One Killed Jessica, for instance – which is packing them in at the moment – is a melodramatic political thriller with a message. The characters do not suddenly break into song or dance. The original soundtrack by Amit Trivedi is no more obtrusive than that of any Hollywood film. (Though the terrible soft rock crescendo of the last half hour would probably have been at least curbed in California).

The two main characters are strong single women. (To be fair, this is a Bollywood first, but it’s not exactly common in any other country’s films either). So assertive and modern are the lead pair that one of them says fuck to her boss a lot, likes casual sex and does yoga upside down in her office, while the other is the de facto head of her family. Traditional Bollywood stereotypes are firmly behind us. (more…)

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The Sunday Review: Norman Rockwell’s America

23/01/2011, 12:00:34 PM

by Sarah Ciacci

Norman Rockwell is best known as an illustrator who for more than sixty years reflected American life and its times in illustrations and paintings. But he became a household name through his magazine covers for the Saturday Evening Post.

This exhibition displays all 323 covers created between 1916 and 1963, along with illustrations and paintings for advertisements, magazines and books. Not only does the exhibition provide a comprehensive look at Rockwell’s career, it is a chronicle of twentieth century America.

His work has long been criticised adversely by art historians and critics – it is somewhat sentimental and reflects an idealised version of American life. On many levels, though, this exhibition is a fascinating opportunity not only to see Rockwell’s technical brilliance, but also his view of an ignored America.

As he put it, “I was showing the America I knew and observed to others who might not have noticed”. With such a huge following – the Saturday Evening Post was selling 3m copies in the mid thirties – Rockwell helped create a sense of what it meant to be an American, at a time when the mass-produced, national magazine culture was a unifying force in that enormous country.

His covers for the Post are displayed chronologically, and follow America through world war one, the toaring twenties, the depression years, world war two, the boom of the 1950s, and the early swinging sixties.

Through these periods of transformation we see Rockwell’s beautifully executed work developing partly in response to a changing America and partly for practical reasons, as the development of four-colour printing in the 1920s leads to more colourful illustrations while changes in the layout of the cover leads to new compositions.

However, there is also continuity in his style; continuity based on his interest in the everyman and in humourously pulling out the mundane details of everyday life in a manner which allowed the Post’s readership to identify with the lanky, lean characters on the front of the magazines.

Scenes involving children reoccur constantly; scenes that we can all relate to such as delivering a first Valentine’s card, running races, discovering that Father Christmas might not exist, or sitting outside the headmaster’s office after getting into a scrap at school.

The first 1916 cover shows a young boy forced to babysit, pushing a pram while looking fairly annoyed at his friends who are off to play baseball. In many images the attention is focused on the figures, with anonymous backgrounds and often few references to twentieth century life, creating a reassuring picture of continuity for an American public which was experiencing great change. Rockwell also uses reference to the past to reinforce the theme of stability, his characters wearing slightly outdated clothing, sitting on antique furniture and living and working in ramshackle buildings.

Rockwell’s covers during times of war and hardship are of particular interest. He did not depict the horrors of war or the suffering of the depression. Instead, he showed children having fun during World War I while in the 1930s he reflected how the public distracted themselves from the grim realities by going to the movies, amusement parks or by playing cards and board games. (more…)

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Sunday News Review

23/01/2011, 08:47:52 AM

Balls comes out fighting

Ed Balls, the new shadow chancellor, claimed on Saturday that the government’s “reckless gamble” of massive spending cuts was already harming the economy as the country headed for high unemployment, lower mortgage lending and slower growth. Balls, who was promoted last week after the surprise resignation of Alan Johnson, showed signs of a newly combative approach as he claimed that the coalition had turned a promising economic outlook into a gloomy one by pushing through “the fastest, deepest deficit reduction in Britain’s peacetime history”. Labour MPs had become frustrated during the first months of Ed Miliband’s leadership at how the coalition managed to pin all blame for the deficit on Labour. They were also dismayed at how Tories and Lib Dems had convinced large sections of the public that there was no alternative to their strategy of savage fiscal retrenchment. – the Guardian

The appointment of Ed Balls as Shadow Chancellor is great news for the country. Alan Johnson is a nice man but a fighter is needed for these tough times. Alan simply wasn’t challenging the ConDems’ economic policy of cuts, cuts and more cuts. Ed’s background means he is well prepared. He left Oxford University with a first class degree then went to Harvard. I first met him in the 90s when he was a young journalist in the States on the Financial Times. We would chat about economic policy and even in those days it was obvious he was headed for big things. Ed will challenge Slasher Osborne and his mistaken programme of austerity that isn’t working. He is aggressive, smart, passionate and a battler with a big advantage over the coalition – a really good understanding of economics. He will quickly challenge the ConDems’ long list of broken promises – VAT, tuition fees and the slashing of public sector jobs nobody voted for. – David Blanchflower, the Mirror

Labour’s alternative plan would put jobs and growth first. Instead of doing backroom deals with the banks on the disclosure of their pay, we would apply the bank bonus tax again. It brought in £3.5 billion last year which could be used this year to help create the jobs and growth we need. The lesson of history is that good economics is good politics. But when Chancellors put political ideology or expediency before economic logic, the country pays a heavy price. This Tory Chancellor and this Tory-led government are repeating the mistakes of the 1930s and 1980s, but they just keep ploughing on. They had a choice about which path to go down, and it is already becoming clear they have made the wrong choice. It is not too late to change course. It is not too late for an alternative. And if they do not provide it to the British people, Ed Miliband and I will. Of course we do not oppose every cut, but the Tory-led government is cutting too far too fast. And over the coming weeks and months, we will hold them to account for the reckless gamble they have taken, and the historic mistake they have made. – Ed Balls

Coulson departure raises more questions

Gordon Brown has asked the police to investigate whether he was the victim of phone hacking, The Independent on Sundayhas learnt. Mr Brown has written at least one letter to the Metropolitan Police over concerns that his phone was targeted when he was Chancellor, during the latter stages of Andy Coulson’s reign as editor of the News of the World. Mr Brown’s aides last night declined to comment. It is understood that Scotland Yard sought clarification from the former prime minister after his request. Sources have told The IoS that Tony Blair, his predecessor as prime minister, had also asked police some months ago to investigate whether messages left by him had been the subject of hacking (he did not have his own mobile phone until after he left No 10). – Independent on Sunday

(more…)

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Votes for prisoners: tough shadow ministerial soundbites don’t help

22/01/2011, 05:00:56 PM

by Hannah McFaull

Shadow justice minister, Sadiq Khan MP, has consistently said that the government should be “standing up for the victims of crime” instead of giving the vote to “dangerous convicted prisoners”. This is a false dichotomy, a comment which risks inflaming tension around an already emotive issue.

Research and polling has consistently shown that for the majority of victims of crime, the result they want from the criminal justice process is that no one has to suffer again in the way that they have. On a basic level, before you get into crime prevention, this means stopping reoffending. When you dig even further into the numbers, victims of crime rank rehabilitation and reform of the individual much higher than punishment as priorities for the justice system.

Casting aside other arguments about the need to address the underlying causes of crime, penal reformers are right to say that treating prisoners as citizens has a much higher success rate at reintroduction into society following time inside. Many prisoners come from socially excluded backgrounds and won’t have had the experiences of social responsibility that many people in society have.

This could be paying tax on earnings in prison and understanding why taxation is important. It could be training on how to fill in a job application or buy an Oyster card. Or it could be involvement in the political process through gaining the franchise. The truth is that voting, tax and working are social responsibilities more than they are social rights and getting prisoners involved in this process can only be a positive step.

I am not arguing that all prisoners should definitely have the right to vote. In fact, as a penal reformer there are much more pressing issues on which we should be concentrating.

But comments like those made by Sadiq Khan only serve to confuse what victims actually want – less offending in future – with what is politically viable for a shadow justice minister in opposition.

Issues of rehabilitation, reintegration, crime and punishment are complex and emotive. Here there are issues of delicate European and UK sovereignty at play too. Very little is self-evident in matters such as these. Perhaps the one thing that is, is that sound bites don’t do a great deal to help the debate.

Hannah McFaull blogs here.

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The week Uncut

22/01/2011, 02:00:45 PM

In case you missed them, these were the best read pieces on Uncut in the last seven days:

Uncut brings you the Johnson resignation and Balls promotion

Alan Johnson for the life and for the leaving of it – bravo!

Alex Hilton claims only electoral reform can save democracy in his Uncut debut

Dan Hodges thinks the NHS reforms are Cameron’s operation Barbarossa

Tom Harris’ frank open letter to the boss (Ed not Bruce)

Tory MP and all round comedy character Chris Kelly hits back at Cry baby jibes

John Spellar wants Labour to worry about the real middle

The Uncut editorial: neither Cameron nor Coulson are the real story

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We need to keep our sense of class, while embracing them all

22/01/2011, 11:28:54 AM

by Emma Burnell

The Labour party has always understood and been uniquely informed by the class struggle and the struggling classes. This is not to say that we are solely a party of the working class – that has never been true. But our strength has been in the finding of common interests between the working and middle classes, and formatting policies that allowed both better lives for themselves and better dreams for their children.

This was considerably easier when the social strata of the UK was more clearly delineated. To paraphrase the Frost Report, the upper class wore bowler hats and the working class knew their place. But if class ever was that clear-cut, it certainly isn’t now. It’s a more elusive beast, shadowy and ill-defined by a combination of our jobs, education levels, property ownership and history. (more…)

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Saturday News Review

22/01/2011, 09:58:25 AM

Coulson falls on sword

Andy Coulson, one of the key members of David Cameron‘s inner circle, has resigned as Downing Street’s director of communications, saying the wave of allegations that he was involved in illegal phone hacking when editor of the News of the World made it impossible for him to continue. “When the spokesman needs a spokesman, it is time to move on,” Andy Coulson Coulson said in a carefully crafted statement which had been in preparation for 48 hours. Downing Street insisted his departure was not precipitated by any fresh piece of damning evidence that would undercut Coulson’s claim he was unaware that phone hacking was prevalent at the News of the World under his editorship. Officials said the steady drip of allegations, and the likelihood that they would continue through civil court cases and possible police inquiries, was taking a toll on Coulson’s family and making it harder for him to focus. – the Guardian

Mr Coulson said the claims, which concerned his time as editor of the Sunday tabloid, meant he could not give the Prime Minister the “110 per cent needed”. The departure was a blow to Mr Cameron, who said that his aide had been “punished for the same offence twice”. Mr Coulson stood down as News of the World editor in 2007 soon after a reporter from his paper was jailed for phone hacking. The Prime Minister reluctantly agreed to accept the resignation on Wednesday evening, but it was not announced until yesterday because they had to finalise a timetable for his departure. The timing led to claims that the Government was trying to “bury bad news” while Tony Blair was appearing at the Iraq inquiry and the furore over Alan Johnson’s resignation was still dominating the news schedules. – the Telegraph (more…)

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Bloomberg speech shows Balls can find what he needs in Keynes

21/01/2011, 05:55:27 PM

by Anthony Painter

Following his very well received Bloomberg speech, I cautioned back in September on Uncut against a “no retreat, no surrender” political strategy. Ed Balls is now shadow chancellor. He faces a number of challenges. One of which is how to respond to the Bloomberg speech.

Actually the speech – if followed to its logical conclusion – provides a powerful political narrative that in some ways resolves one of Labour’s current problems: how does it free itself from the perceived failures of its past?

The speech had a core argument that was anything but deficit denial. It was actually a different strategy for dealing with the deficit. Counter-intuitively, but based on completely sound Keynesian economics, Ed Balls argued that, in these circumstances, government should pursue an expansionist fiscal policy. The result will be an economy that grows more quickly and creates more jobs. The government’s counterargument is that in an open economy there are limits to the degree to which you can do this. Furthermore, they said, by May 2010 the UK was breaching those limits (there was scant evidence for this as tracking long term interest rates demonstrates; though the argument was of risk rather than immediacy). (more…)

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