The parties divide
There is a new political dividing line, says Rachel Sylvester. It is between Labour's belief that it is right to borrow to tackle the economic crisis and the Tories' conviction that any spending must be paid for by savings, not debt. Labour strategists are convinced that the economic downturn will play into their hands because voters want the State to intervene at a time when they feel threatened by the brutality of the markets. The Conservatives, however, are equally certain that they are following the right course with what they call the “housewife” strategy. The Government must tighten the purse strings rather than simply wave around a public credit card. Rachel Sylvester The Times
Full article: From Dear Prudence to Beg, Steal or Borrow 
One of the reasons why Mr Brown looks a little happier is that he senses, probably for the first time in his political career, a deep underlying shift towards progressive politics, writes Steve Richards. By contrast, Mr Cameron and his senior colleagues need to do some deep thinking, well beyond decisions about political choreography and media presentation, in order to decide where this epoch-changing crisis leaves their party, whether it changes their views on the relationship between the state and the market, and if so in what ways. As the former Chancellor Nigel Lawson once said: “Parties that win the battle of ideas win elections.” Steve Richards The Independent
Full article: The party that wins the battle of ideas will win the election
A bogus moralist
How dare Lord Dacre preach about the freedom and morality of the press? asks Polly Toynbee. He probably does more damage to the nation's happiness and wellbeing than any other single person. Press freedom is precious - but the right to privacy is precious too. There is no "press freedom" to tell us exactly what everyone does without their clothes on. Who wouldn't prefer Mr Justice Eady protecting people's reasonable right to privacy than Judge Paul Dacre waving his chequebook from his tawdry pulpit, deciding who shall be whipped in public for which sins. Polly Toynbee The Guardian
Full article: Judge Dacre dispenses little justice from his bully pulpit
Neil Lyndon: Sanctimonious Dacre
Unforgotten
Since the unveiling of the Cenotaph in 1920, wars have acquired the capacity to extinguish not just lives but civilisation, says a Times Leader. That is why the Second World War produced a wholesale reorganisation of Western Europe intended to preserve peace in perpetuity, not just a balance of power; and why the true rationale for modern wars such as those in Iraq and Afghanistan is that by creating the conditions for democracy they may yet limit the scope for future conflict. War is not glorious. But those who have died so that others may live in freedom and peace will always deserve what the poet Laurence Binyon called their country's “proud thanksgiving”. Ninety years hence we will still remember them. Leader The Times
Full article: Loss and remembrance
Picture Past: Armistice Day
Obama and class
The myth that virtually everyone in America is middle class was much rehearsed in these elections, says Linda Colley. In reality, the US possesses a powerful upper class, and one of the narrow gateways to it is still an Ivy League education. It is partly this, I suspect, that accounts for some of the ferocity of Sarah Palin's attacks on Obama during the campaign. For while she may be "white", she is also in some respects far more of an outsider than he: not only female and not Ivy League, but also stuck in the wrong part of the US. Linda Colley The Guardian
Full article: Barbara Obama would not have stood a chance of election to the Oval office
Obama's fairy godmother
Naughty bankers
Government and banks are playing a game of chicken, writes Tracy Corrigan. And the banks are in a particularly awkward spot. Their customers never liked them and now they hate them. Bankers had better get used to the idea that for the next few years they are going to have roughly the same social status as the house-elves in J K Rowling's Harry Potter books. I suggest that next time they visit Mr Darling, they should start hitting themselves over the head, while muttering "Bad banker. Banker must punish himself most grievously." Tracy Corrigan Daily Telegraph
Full article: Financial crisis: Bad banker. Now take your punishment
In Brief
Is he black?
To say that Mr Obama is black is to say, in effect, that his mother had no race or that her race was somehow obliterated by her choice of husband. Is to say that no one much had realised, had quite noticed, that her son was, in fact, mixed race. Is to say that being mixed race is not also to be something. David Aaronovitch The Times
Full article: Black, white or neither? The mixed race dilemma
Boring rights
A British Bill of Rights? Noble pursuits like this are best left to the Americans, who have exciting rights to defend in the first place, like the right to bear arms. What on earth do we have in Britain? We'd have to invent some rights before we could write them down. We can't even swear at a burglar without being prosecuted. Melissa Kite Daily Telegraph
Full article: It's a British right to make fun of human rights
Hard sell
It's good that real choice is available at a time when gas and electricity prices have been going through the roof. But the energy salesmen are a bore. There are plenty of people out there who are considerably more vulnerable than me, who are being talked into all kinds of deals at all times of the day or night. Boris Johnson Daily Telegraph
Full article: Be it npower or British Gas, beware of power companies bearing shiny cricket balls
Poor housing
The Government wants to use social housing as a tool of social engineering, to discipline the new “undeserving” classes. What's required is surely bold action in planning and investment to try to stimulate the building of decent-sized homes. Instead, we get a timorous discussion of how best to share out the squalor. Mick Hume The Times
Full article: The problem is the wrong houses, not the wrong tenants
Strictly entertainment
Strictly Come Dancing isn't about rewarding the excellence of masters. It's a glitzy televised bunfight in which women who are famous for acting in soap operas or modelling clothes (but not dancing) compete with men who are famous for playing rugby or presenting morning television (but not dancing). The result, ultimately, doesn't matter. The spectacle does. Michael Deacon Daily Telegraph
Full article: On Strictly Come Dancing and X-factor, results don't matter. Just ask John Sergeant
Did you know?
Barack and his wife Michelle are both huge fans of Sir Cliff Richard. Sir Cliff has already been invited to sing his Eurovision hit Congratulations at Obama's inauguration ceremony in January. "Cliff's a guy with real soul," Barack told the New York Times, "I was amazed when I first met him to discover he was in fact Caucasian." Craig Brown Daily Telegraph
Full article: Barack Obama and his pet mouse Hope
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