George Osborne is so steeped in politics he just can’t help himself. His review of the memoir of “my friend David” in today’s Evening Standard sends a shiver down the spine – under cover of an apparently fawning review he gently sticks the knife in.

I’ve written a review of David Cameron’s memoirs for today’s ⁦@EveningStandard⁩ – a book about the future as well as the past pic.twitter.com/O5zNPkLmpN

— George Osborne (@George_Osborne) September 19, 2019

First of all he lists all of Dave’s projects that have died a death and now feel like a lifetime ago – “the long term economic plan; deficit control; coalition with the Lib Dems; the Big Society; education reform; Tory modernisation; vote blue to go green; hug a hoodie…” It’s half wistful, half cleverly designed to draw attention to the fact that while Cameron’s life has been on hold ever since, stuck in “a kind of purgatory” as George describes it sympathetically, Osborne has most definitely Moved On. ...  Continue reading

Am I allowed to feel joyful? It’s an argument I often have with myself. And I recently found a book that has helped crystallise my inner debate. Christian Wiman, a lauded American poet, has collected his favourite poems on the subject but it is no “Little Book of Joy”, designed to cheer us up while defecating. On the contrary, in his opening essay he wrestles seriously with my question. Like him, saturated in the increasingly horrifying news cycle, I too often react to the idea of joy with affront:

There was a time when David Lammy wasn’t the provocative rabble-rouser that he is today. Elected as the MP for Tottenham at a by-election in 2000, Lammy spent the first 16 years of his parliamentary career as a thoughtful, measured public servant – someone who was prepared to defy conventional wisdom and challenge orthodox liberal thinking.

His stock rose particularly during the 2011 riots, which were sparked by the death of Mark Duggan in his own constituency. Lammy did not fall into the trap of excusing the mob violence. “Just because you’re poor doesn’t mean you can’t know the moral difference between what is right and wrong,” he said at the time. ...  Continue reading

Here’s a rare “Question to which the Answer Is Yes” in a headline. In The New York Magazine Park MacDougald asks ‘Is Tucker Carlson the Most Important Pundit in America?’

It’s not just that the Fox host has the ear of the US President, but that he’s at the very centre of the conservative zeitgeist.

Today the Social Market Foundation launched a report that claims to reveal an unrecognised but “critical” dimension of politics:

They then explain that by “anarchist” they’re not referring to “a particular strand of radical, syndicalist politics” but to “the questioning of existing institutions that is characteristic of current populist politics.”

The authors are right to identify trust versus mistrust in the establishment as an important dividing line in our troubled politics. However, the labels used – “anarchist”, and the opposing “centrist” – is misleading. ...  Continue reading

A final word on the Liberal Democrats, from the FT’s Miranda Green. Formerly Paddy Ashdown’s press secretary, she had some tough words to share at a IPPR/UK in a Changing Europe fringe event packed with Lib Dem activists.

“What happened to the Liberal Democrats as the rational party? What of the Lib Dems as a gathering point? And the principle of compromise, where we learn to live together?”

“I am very worried about the Lib Dems ending up on one side of a polarised culture war, representing urban areas, the educated, the young, the prosperous etc.”

“This is a decision taken for election time. It’s not a decision taken in a calm, rational, what’s-best-for-the-country way.” ...  Continue reading

Guy Verhofstadt, ex-Belgian PM and inexhaustible gift to pro-Brexit campaigners, got a lot of coverage for his theory of Europeanism at the Lib Dem conference, but what got less attention was the latest opinion poll from his native Flanders:

Belgium (Flanders), Ipsos poll:

VB-ID: 25% (+6)
N-VA-ECR: 23% (-3)
Open Vld-RE: 13% (-1)
CD&V-EPP: 12% (-2)
Groen-G/EFA: 11% (+1)
sp.a-S&D: 8% (-3)
PVDA-LEFT: 6%

+/- vs. 2019 General Election

Field work: 2-10 September 2019
Sample size: 1,000
➤ https://t.co/vv0wIVKgVf pic.twitter.com/5mmOLIuEkY

— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) September 13, 2019

In first place is a resurgent Vlaams Belang (Flemish Interest) – an outfit of hard right populists, which is allied to the likes of Marie Le Pen and Matteo Salvini. Not far behind is VB’s main rival, the New Flemish Alliance, which represents a lighter shade of eurosceptic Flemish separatism. Together, the two nationalist parties have nearly half the vote. Meanwhile the liberal and pro-federalist party that Mr Verhofstadt founded, ‘Open VLD’, is polling at just 13%. ...  Continue reading

Watching the pictures of Xavier Bettel circulate on Twitter last night, it struck me how much the etiquette of international diplomacy has changed. On the one hand, it’s a good thing, surely, that the public are getting to see the inner workings and dynamics of our leaders’ relationships with foreign nations. After all, within the Brexit vote was a challenge to remedy the lack of transparency within European politics.

But reading the celebration on Twitter of Bettel’s smug nod to the empty lectern at the press conference Boris Johnson had chickened out of, it felt less like transparency and more like a different kind of political pantomime. ...  Continue reading