When it comes to coronavirus, what’s the difference between The USA and New Zealand? Or the UK and Germany?
Their responses to the crisis have been at variance, with New Zealand pursuing a – so far – successful elimination strategy including very strict lock down conditions, while Germany has ramped up testing, numbers of critical care beds and levels of PPE.
Read MoreLondon is a big city with everything that entails. It’s one of the reasons I love it so much. There’s so much to do, to see, to explore. But, of course, at the moment that isn’t true. Our lives have become much smaller – confined to our houses and our flats. For some, just living with families or housemates. For others – like me – living alone and smiling through the back door at the neighbours playing with their children on our shared lawn.
Read MoreSo it’s over. The expected has happened and Labour has the new leader we have known was coming since early polling showed it was a slam dunk. Sir Keir Starmer has taken decisive control of the party with a number of symbolic sackings. Out go Ian Lavery, Jon Trickett and Barry Gardiner. In come Annalise Dodds — the first woman to ever hold the role of Shadow Chancellor and Rachel Reeves, who (despite being bizarrely labelled as soft left in the Times) comes from Labour’s centrist wing and is a trusted pair of hands.
Read Moreabour has a new leader and a chance to turn the page on the divisiveness of the last five years. But under these extraordinary national circumstances, will that be possible?
There will be no chance for Keir Starmer to meet his party’s members face to face; no nationwide tour where he can bring them all together in a wave of excitement and anticipation of the new. All interaction between the incoming leader and his prospective voters will be online.
Read Moret’s finally, nearly over. No not coronavirus, sadly. But that which has been going on even longer — the Labour leadership contest.
If as is widely expected Keir Starmer beats Rebecca Long Bailey, this will signal a shift in power in the party. And while Keir’s non-Corbynite status has sometimes been exaggerated in policy terms his political approach is significantly different.
Read MoreIn a paper published today, progressive think tank IPPR has called for a raft of measures to urgently protect the 4.2 million children in the UK who already live in poverty and risk this being further exacerbated by the crisis. With so many facing economic hardship as a result of the crisis, this is sure to rise.
Read MoreThe show must not go on. That was the message from the government to theatres everywhere. Or was it? Initially, no one was really sure. At first, it seemed to be a case of “It would be quite nice if the show didn’t go on”, but without compulsion, there was no support from insurance and no real understanding of what the impact was going to be on an industry almost entirely run by freelancers.
Read MoreRoy Jenkins once famously said of Tony Blair’s approach to being leader of the opposition that it was “like a man carrying a priceless Ming vase across a highly polished floor”. This “caution first” approach clearly paid off for Blair, who went on to win in a landslide. Could this go some way to explaining the somewhat cautious campaign run by Keir Starmer?
Starmer won’t particularly thank me for comparing him to Blair. He’s trying to build a coalition across a fractured Labour Party and has refused to be pigeon-holed into one faction or another. This can be seen in his extraordinary team, which includes Kat Fletcher and Simon Fletcher (no relation), both of whom worked for Corbyn. His staff also includes Matt Pound, who previously worked for the moderate Labour First faction.
Read MoreBudgets are generally there to do two jobs: to define the priorities of the government and set traps for the opposition. This Budget delivered on both — for now. That it was delivered during a crisis that is likely to have a significant and damaging impact on our economy wasn’t lost, but didn’t feel like the big story. For now, the response has largely been driven by standard politics.
Rishi Sunak’s calm and polished delivery seems to have calmed Tory nerves after an early rebellion over Huawei slashed the government’s majority. But massive programmes of government borrowing and spending aren’t a natural policy offering for Tories. If the economy — as seems almost inevitable — takes a hit this year, this change might find it has fewer champions than is currently the case.
Read MoreMost people were always going to view Rebecca Long-Bailey’s bid for Labour’s top job through the lens of Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. That meant some members would never get behind his chosen successor, while others were destined to vote for Long-Bailey come what may.
The contest to replace a leader as polarising as Corbyn was always going to have that effect. On some occasions, Long-Bailey has struggled to break out of the straitjacket of being seen as the continuity candidate. On others, she has actively leaned into it, as when she was recently interviewed by Corbyn for a campaign video.
Read MoreIf you ask people in the Labour Party for one word that defines Lisa Nandy, many of them would respond with “Towns”. She set up the Centre for Towns and has long advocated an economic rebalancing to support places like her constituency of Wigan, which she has represented since 2010. If this campaign were going to be won on the meme game alone, Nandy would triumph hands down, thanks to her presence across Twitter and Facebook.
Read MorePolitical education has long been a feature of the broad left. In part, this is because they — rightly — feel that most sources of information tend to have a rightward bias. What’s more, the further left you are, the more you feel this to be true.
The truth is that the press has its political leanings and on the whole, it tends to the right. While I don’t buy the line that the BBC is also biased — either to right or left — they do take some of their hierarchy of content from what is reported in the papers, which only enhances the problem.
Read MoreImagine for a moment that you are interviewing to become the CEO of a large, established company. The company has had a great deal of success in the recent past but is now struggling. It has lost its way it is your aim in your interview to help it find it again. In the meantime, its main competitor has reinvented itself—moving from its once stuffy and conservative approach to one of breath-taking audacity. You may be convinced this approach will soon fail based on its internal contradictions, but for now, they are stealing your once loyal customer base.
When preparing the inevitable presentation that will come with the job interview, you will be given all sorts of advice for the role. Some of that will come from people who have done the job before you. They know the organisation and its customers inside out and they were once extremely successful at bringing one to the other. Sure, it was in the days before Facebook was even a thing and Brexit changed everything. But that doesn’t mean that their approach isn’t worth a glance.
Read MoreOver the weekend I went out with two of my best friends. One grew up in Hove, the other in Southampton. I sometimes joke that I’m the only Londoner I know who was actually born here. That isn’t true, but like many such jokes it has enough of the ring of truth.
London is a vast metropolis and because of the appalling economic imbalance of the UK, people are drawn here from all over the country. Also, because we are a leading economic power (for now) people are drawn here from all over the world. It’s part of what makes London so vibrant and interesting. There’s not a language you won’t hear or a cuisine you can’t find. Every weekend you can hear the music of hundreds of cultures or experience the art of a dozen different peoples.
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