Red on Red Ed Attacks Mount

Paul Waugh sums up the week ahead:

“Welfare cuts rows. Football hooliganism on the march. Left-wing trade unionists threatening general strikes. Communist dictators wielding nukes. There’s a distinctly 1980s feel to today’s ‘Back to the Future’ news as the country prepares to bury Margaret Thatcher later this week.”

Harry Reid Blocks Thatcher Tribute | Speccie
Heywood’s Maggie Praise Makes Me Queasy | James Forsyth
Maggie Myths Debunked | Madsen Pirie
What the Left Would Rather Spend £10 Million On | The Commentator
Me Against the Easily Offended | Helen Lewis
Thatcher: Death of a Revolutionary | IEA
Olympics Ceremony Was Labour Political Broadcast | Toby Young
Ed Balls | Buzzfeed UK
Cameron Battles With Foreign Office Diplomats | Bloomberg
Who Sacked the Most Miners? | Allister Heath
BBC Risked Students’ Lives in North Korea | Mail

TUESDAY, APRIL 16, 2013

Red on Red Ed Attacks Mount

The bigger stories of the week have understandably seen Ed’s internal party troubles slip under the radar. Over the past few days both Labour big beasts and the party’s new blood have been queuing up to snark at their leader. Whether it is welfare, immigration or One Nation, the red on reds are adding up:

Tony Blair: “Parts of the political landscape that had been cast in shadow for some years, at least under New Labour and the first years of coalition government, are illuminated in sharp relief. The Conservative Party is back clothing itself in the mantle of fiscal responsibility, buttressed by moves against ‘benefit scroungers’, immigrants squeezing out British workers and – of course – Labour profligacy. The Labour Party is back as the party opposing ‘Tory cuts’, highlighting the cruel consequences of the Conservative policies on welfare and representing the disadvantaged and vulnerable.”
David Blunkett: “One Nation’ cannot and should never be simply the avoidance of the most obvious injustice or collective suicide. It has to be about a great deal more than politics built on grievance and the unhappiness of a resentful and selfish public sphere.”
John Reid: “You have to move from being a voice of protest to offering solutions as you move from being an effective opposition to a potential government.”
Ben Bradshaw: “On the button as usual, Tony Blair’s article for the New Statesman centenary edition”
Tessa Jowell: “Tony Blair won three elections, he published what I think lots of people think was a very good analysis of the way forward for Labour… (Jo Coburn: “Is the advice right?”) Yeah, absolutely.”
Simon Danczuk: “I go knocking on doors in Rochdale on a very regular basis and the people in Rochdale are quite clear that the trust in the welfare system has broken down. They see people on a daily basis who they perceive to be ‘swinging the lead’ and I think that’s probably true. There are people who are on benefits who should be in employment.”

As Dan Hodges notes, the Blairite zombies have risen. A broken wrist is the least of Ed’s worries…

MONDAY, APRIL 15, 2013

How Maggie’s Funeral Will Be Seen

Click to enlarge.

Cross-Party Slamming For Jeremy “I ♥ Maggie” Heywood

Following on from Guido’s earlier story about Jeremy Heywood’s Telegraphpiece, here come the MPs to put the boot in. Labour’s John Mann tells Guido:

“Jeremy Heywood crosses well beyond the bounds of acceptable impartiality and the danger of this is that it sets precedence for the future. A civil service that is not neutral is neutered.”

Tory MP Aidan Burley adds:

‘Jeremy Heywood and Bob Kerslake would be wise to concentrate on their day jobs of implementing complex policies like welfare reform, rather than penning puff pieces based on their predecessors memories of another PM. It beggars belief that they should take it upon themselves to draft such a sycophantic article – have they not got more important things to do, like inform the decisions of the current Prime Minister? It’s a double edged sword: the tribute seems weakened by hidden digs and coded messages. If they don’t like David Cameron and Francis Maude daring to challenge the legendary Whitehall bureaucracy and inertia, perhaps they should offer themselves up as another much needed “efficiency saving”?’

Ouch…

Heywood Wins Zero Friends With Gushing Thatcher Tribute

A fawning tribute from the normally subdued double team at the top of the Civil Service. Writing in today’s Telegraph Sir Jeremy ‘Sherlock’ Heywood and Sir ‘Bungalow’ Bob Kerslake praise the “kindly and unswervingly loyal”Margaret Thatcher and declare that she was “prime minister who – whatever the pressures – was the best kind of boss.” The OpEd seems to have upset pretty much everyone.
While Tories are passing the sick bucket round and suggesting that this is nothing more than a PR move by the deeply unpopular Heywood to build some bridges; Labour types are equally concerned about the impartiality of the piece given the praise heaped on Maggie’s “radical tax reforms, the abandonment of exchange controls and prices and incomes policies, the introduction of Right to Buy, a major overhaul of industrial relations law and the world’s first privatisation programme.” Pretty much everything the left hated…
More seasoned Whitehall watchers have pointed out the subtle digs at Dave in the piece over Maggie’s apparently loyalty to those civil servant’s around her and her attention to detail – not two compliments you ever hear said about her successor. Ben Brogan, whose wife is a very senior Whitehall mandarin, sees digs at Francis Maude too. Perhaps they’re not so subtle. One Whitehall rager could not get their head round the logic of the“backroom boys” taking such a prominent and public stand: “If they want to be the story they should run for office…”

EU Staff Union Says Hands Off Our Expenses

The pretentiously-named ‘EU Staff for Europe’, the trade union representing Brussels bureaucrats, is firmly against Dave’s budget deal. They are sending round a petition citing grand reasons for opposing the cuts, but their real motive is betrayed early on:

“As you all daily hear and read, the European project is under constant attack. In reaction to the financial crisis, the response proposed by the Member States is to reduce for the first time ever the EU budget. This historical error puts our and future generations at risks and will have long lasting effects. As regards the EU public service, it will severely affect not only the working conditions of the staff in the coming years but also, in the longer-term, the attractivity of the careers in European Institutions.
We therefore would like, as member of the personnel deeply concerned by this situation, to send the constructive letter to the Presidents of the Institutions herebelow. Rather than limiting the action to a cut of expenses, we believe that a more ambitious and forward looking approach is necessary.”

With no hint of irony, they go on:

“It is essential that we do not allow ourselves to be overwhelmed by the rising tide of selfishness and the political groping which lies behind it.”

2,500 union-backed EU turkeys have voted against Christmas so far…

Daily Politics Poll: Welfare a Soft Touch

The Daily Politics team went out onto the streets of Gravesend and Chatham to ask their thoughts on welfare. The results were pretty conclusive…

McBride and Shapps Bond Over Beers

As Guido revealed in his Sun on Sunday column, an unlikely alliance has been forged over beers. The gruesome twosome of Damian McBride and Grant Shapps teamed up for a Macmillian charity pub quiz night last week. McBride tells Guido how Grant “demolished a round of cryptic clues to underground stations”, with the pair finishing second overall. Shapps was rather more coy about his new friend…

Ten Visitors a Day Caught With Knives in Parliament

In yesterday’s Sun column Guido revealed that police guarding the checkpoints at entrances to Parliament have confiscated 641 knives from visitors in the first two months of this year, an average of more than ten a day. Lock knives, flick knives and Swiss army knives were among those found, so much for Dave’s promise to lock up anyone carrying a blade. Some of the more crazy and kinky items confiscated include bungee jumping equipment, stilts, footballs, a hockey stick, and fluffy handcuffs.The 43 people who tried to take whisky, vodka and wine in should have saved their money and taken advantage of Parliament’s subsidised booze instead…

Exclusive: Mitchell Becomes £36,000 ‘Reputation Risk Adviser’

Thrasher has found the perfect job to fill his empty hours now he is only a mere MP, and bide his time before he departs for Europe. Guido can reveal that the former chief whip has been appointed a senior adviser to Montrose Associates, a strategic intelligence  firm specialising in dealing with reputational damage. He will be raking in £36,000-a-year in his new post. Michael Crick is going to be busy…

New ConHome Line-Up Announced

ConservativeHome have bolstered their ranks following the departure of Tim Montgomerie. Mark Wallace, best known for his excellent TV appearances at the TPA and IOD and as the blogger behind CrashBangWallace, joins as Executive Editor. As expected Paul Goodman is Editor. Boris biographer Andrew Gimson is appointed Contributing Editor, and Iain Dale now has a weekly diary. At last some new competition…