Kevin Maguire and Friends

Fight! Fight! Fight!

2009-05-06T16:40:19Z

PMQs was so bloody today that David Cameron and Gordon Brown may as well put on boxing gloves and slug it out in a boxing ring. Cameron hating the Prime Minister and the PM loathing the Tory leader makes for great Punch and Judy politics. Cameron clearly won the bout by using Hazel Blears to batter Brown, Brown doing well to survive the onslaught by just staying standing and landing the odd counter blow of his own against my favourite Bullingdon Boy who failed to ask about the economy.

But I thought the Tory whips erred when four backbenchers - Stephen Crabb, Edward Garnier, Gerald Howarth and Andrew Rosindell - used questions to taunt Brown rather weakly after Cameron's sustained ferocity. From the press gallery they gave substance to Brown's taunt about the "hollowness" of Cons who avoided issues like the rconomy(today's Treasury committee report on the Budget is bad for the Government) until Iain Duncan Smith raised the Gurkhas.

And is Nick Clegg becoming Cameron's Mini Me? The Lib Dem leader's jibe "There comes a point when stubborness isn't leadership, it's stupidity" was more Cameroonish than Cleggite. If only Clegg's voice was stronger.

Labour May Day Alert

2009-05-04T14:07:17Z

I don't know who should be more alarmed, Denis MacShane or me, but I often agree these days with the Rotherham MP and I think he's right about the latest Labour leadership frenzy.

Harriet Harman may yet change her mind in the unlikely event Gordon Brown is ousted but today's oath of loyalty from the party's deputy leader is double-edged. Harman's killed speculation about her own ambitions yet, bizarrely, the more hats potentially in the ring strengthens the PM's position. The prospect of three months of civil war will deter a challenge. What Brown must fear most is the emergence of a successor who could be anointed.

For The Few Not The Many

2009-04-23T09:50:24Z

I hereby volunteer for a wage rise to pay 50% tax on 150 grand upwards. A number of broadcasters and writers appear to be under the mistaken impression that Middle Britain's enjoys six-figure salaries when half the workforce is on less than 24k a year and only a tenth earn above 40k. Perhaps some very well-heeled media figures are confusing their own salaries with those of viewers, listeners and readers. Whatever, it means means Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will struggle to get a fair hearing for fairness though I believe popular sentiment - and certainly social justice - is on their side.

The Guardian wittily included Britain's most notorious banker in a piece on what Alistair Darling's Budget means for different categories of people:

Single, on £703,000 income from private pension

Before: This incredibly lucky pensioner - you can guess who he is - would have paid £271,130 in tax on his very generous pension had he drawn it for the full tax year, producing a net income of £431,174. After: Even this pensioner will benefit from a cut in tax, paying £696 less in the 2009-10 tax year. He will enjoy a net pension of £431,870. But in 2010-11 he will pay more tax, leaving him worse off by £57,890. His net pension income will be £373,980.

Fred the Shred could be just the man to sell the 50% tax...

Jack Jones

2009-04-22T08:10:09Z

Jack Jones was a hero of mine and I'm very sad he's died, aged 96. To be in the presence of the International Brigader and former general secretary of the Transport and General Workers Union was to rub shoulders with a great man. Yet Jack remained free of the airs and graces that infected some lesser colleagues, turning down a peerage(though he did become a Companion of Honour because that was in the gift of the Queen and not a Prime Minister) and fighting for pensioners after retiring as leader in 1978 instead of lolling on the red benches of the House of Cronies.

I last saw Jack a few months ago at the launch of Andrew Murray's excellent history of the T&G to mark its merger into Unite and I bitterly regret not asking him to sign my copy. There was a queue and I thought there'd be another chance but now, sadly, there'll never be a next time.

I asked Geoffrey Goodman, the veteran Mirror industrial editor who is one of the finest journalists I have the honour of knowing, and who knew Jack considerably better than I, how he viewed him and I hope Geoffrey doesn't mind me reproducing his reply:

"In a few words...Jack Jones was called 'The Emperor' before he retired as well as the 'Most powerful man in the country'. Both labels were hyperbole and often given with prejudice, malice and political motive. But in truth there was a touch of reality in both. He was a very powerful figure in the sense that leading the nation's largest trade union [over 2 million members at that point] made him influential by definition. As for 'Emperor' - well, only in the sense that no other single trade union leader[not even with the miners] carried such political influence with the then Labour governments under both Wilsion and Callaghan.

"But that was not unique since his union, the TGWU as it was then called, had already provided leaders with similar influence - Ernest Bevin, Arthur Deakin and Frank Cousins. So Jones was in line with one of the most extraordinary features of 20th century labour politics - one union, the TGWU, had provided a series of leaders of outstanding character and vision - a feat unequalled by any other trade union.

"Jones was very much the product of his age: a Liverpool docker from a dockers' family, born into socialism and the fight for working people to have a voice in society. He fought with the International Brigade in Spain, was badly wounded, and returned to become a full time union official in the Midlands during WW2. He helped organise war time production in tanks, aircraft, etc. When Frank Cousins became general secretary of the TGWU in the mid 1950's, Cousins brought him to London and groomed him as his successor.

"It was a remarkable journey for a remarkable man who remained a working class hero to his dying day and always kept to living in his original council flat in South london. His modesty and integrity became an exemplar as a working class icon."

Blink and You'll Miss The Cons

2009-04-20T10:30:10Z

Next weekend's Con spring forum in Cheltenham doesn't look worth attending. Cash-strapped Labour couldn't afford a gathering this year and the Tories might as well not bother if this is all they can arrange.

Flipping through the agenda I see there's just one hour of discussion on Saturday and two hours 40 minutes on Sunday, an ungrand total of three hours 40 minutes over two days. Mad NHS axeman Daniel Hannan gets a not quite Andy Warhol 10 mins and Cameron's own speech is a relatively brief 25 mins.

Thinking of going for the vibrant fringe? Think again. Only eight are listed. But surely a party that believes it's on the verge of power for the first time in a dozen years will pull in the exhibitors? Err, no. Just 11 have signed up. Regular stallholder Ron Pain shouldn't bother to pack many of the ties he sells.

Tale of Two Damians

2009-04-16T12:00:13Z

So Damian Green lives to leak another day while Damian McBride licks his wounds.

The Tory immigration spokesman Damian Green was very emotional when he gave a news conference a few moments ago in the Commons press gallery, hands shaking and his voice occasionally quivering. Understandable, I suppose, when you've just learned you won't be charged after Plod raided your office and home. The purveyor of Home Office documents to right-wing newspapers(and the odd TV channel) said he won't be demanding the resignation of Home Secretary Jacqui Smith. Yet he called her "poor" and insisted ministers must take responsibility for civil servants and the police. "I prescribe to the old Italian proverb - fish stink from the head down." Ouch! I wonder if by the end of the day some of the Tory bad boys will be demanding Ms Smith spend more time at her taxpayer-funded stone sink.

And Gordon Brown's finally said "sorry" - "Well, I'm sorry for what happened..." which admittedly can be interpreted in several ways but does include the "s" word - for his former aide Damian McBride's moment of email madness to Derek Draper. I can't help thinking that if the Prime Minister was going to issue an apology, he should have done so in the "regret" letters to David Cameron et al a few days ago instead of during a visit in Scotland. Either the PM's reinforced the Government's problems, created a double-whammy, or it's a good day to bury bad news.

I'll be interested to watch how the Government tries to limit the damage over the fiasco of the Tory Damian's arrest without the help of the Government's own Damian who, away from that email nonsense, has a sharp political brain.

immigration spokesman was

Police, Camera, Legal Action?

2009-04-15T10:10:26Z

More evidence has emerged of police dishing out summary justice to G20 protesters. Officers lashing out will come as no surprise to anyone who has gone on a march. The death of by-stander Ian Tomlinson was a fortunately rare tragedy. Most police do a good job in trying circumstances. But I can think of few protests where those taking part have not accused them of being heavy handed. The complaints have almost always been dismissed by senior officers. Well they can't do that anymore and the reason is sitting in your pocket or on your desk - the mobile phone camera. Anyone can film officers who are out of order and hold them to account. The problem is this can now be deemed illegal under anti-terror laws. That is ridiculous. As we are always told, the innocent have nothing to fear....

Distress Call

2009-04-13T11:36:29Z

NADINE Dorries must be upset and distraught about the unfounded allegations made against her.
But I worry her distress is affecting her judgement. During various television and radio appearances this morning she made some wild allegations, not least that Damian McBride has taken politics to a "new moral low".
Is this really worse than cash-for-questions? Or a former Cabinet minister committing perjury?
Or selling peerages? Or buying seats in Parliament?
The only question Ms Dorries declined to answer is whether her own party also engaged in dirty tricks. I wonder why.

Spare Us the Hypocrisy

2009-04-12T11:00:14Z

I'm on Tyneside so it's interesting to observe the storm over Damian McBride's email blowing through Westminster 300 miles away. The issue wasn't raised last night by drinkers in the pubs of South Shields(or at any rate the Steamboat, Alum House and Riverside) despite the widespread TV, radio and some newspaper coverage. Or it wasn't mentioned until I brought it up. And then the good people of the town only wanted to know the details of David Cameron's supposed condition, Osborne's alleged behaviour etc.

I chuck in these few observations from Up North because I don't like an argument to take place without being part of it:

1) Damian McBride will be missed by Gordon Brown. McBride's formidably bright and away from this nonsense he provided sharp political advice. He was particularly close to hacks on Tory-leaning papers so the Cons will be relieved he's gone.

2) Paul Staines has an old-fashioned scoop for the newish media. So hat's off to my old mate Guided Fawkes. And I admire his ability to spin himself as well as his story.

3) How Staines got hold of the emails is intriguing. As is the Sunday Express obtaining Jacqui Smith's movie bill. Dark arts are not the exclusive preserve of one individual or a single party.

4) Please spare us the two-faced hypocritcal moralising. Tory bloggers like Staines or failed wannabe MP Iain Dale regularly post inaccurate gossip, rumours and innuendo. If the details in the email had been slipped to them about Labour figures, I bet they'd have posted them instead of issuing Sunday sermons. Remember Dale mocking John Prescott's manhood?

5) I'd like to hear publicly what Cameron's spindoctor Andy Coulson thinks about this. Privately he warned newspapers not to publish details(and seems to have been partly ignored). Coulson, of course, was hired by Cameron to deploy his skills for the Cons after he was forced to quit the News of the World when it was discovered the paper was paying £100,000-plus to tap the mobiles of Royals.

6) And just what is the truth of Cameron's alleged embarrassing complaint of a highly personal nature? I, like the drinkers in the Steamboat, Alum and Riverside, would like to know.

Now, what do you think...

Maggie's End

2009-04-10T09:18:13Z

MAGGIE'S End is as unashamedly controversial as the cruellest of Prime Ministers. To joke about "Going Underground" and "Burn Baby Burn" while Thatcher's alive is near the knuckle. The blue rinse and red braces brigade will have a heart attack over "The Lady's Not For Burning" drunken knees-up down the pub.

But Thatcher did that - she polarised people, divided the country, broke Britain into two.
The smashed communities and industries systematically destroyed will never forget.
So on the 25th anniversary of the civil war that was the miners' strike, Thatcher's no right to expect mercy from those she persecuted. The play on at London's Shaw Theatre until April 18 is a dark comedy about the ructions when a New Labour Prime Minister awards his party's bogeywoman a state funeral.

Trade unions led by the North East pitmen put up the money to stage in London what was a great hit in Durham City. Thatcher might have defeated the miners but the brass band, magnificent colliery banners and redundant miners at the opening night showed the spirit of defiance burns bright. You can read a few of the reviews here, here and here.

Maggie's End is as much a clash between Old and New Labour as an indictment of Thatcher's crimes. Because if Gordon Brown misguidedly nationalised Thatcher in death by putting her on a gun carriage, he'd split the country again. Half would cheer, the other half jeer. There would be street parties in the North, Scotland, Wales and, yes, those parts of London and the South England which suffered under her stilettos. With capitalism collapsing, bank nationalisation is the only state funeral Thatcher deserves.
The failure of the free market, deregulated economy is the final nail in the coffin of the greed-is-good culture she championed.

Ex-Bill star Mark Wingett was DC Carver the TV copper during the momentous 1984-5 pit strike and in Maggie's End is Leon, a demoralised militant who rediscovers his political passion when Thatcher's granted the full works. He watched old episodes of When the Boat Comes In to pick up a Tyneside accent! And he only fully understood the hostility to Thatcher after visiting the North East. "Down here we were very divorced from the miners' strike," Wingett told me. "We had collections and we did bits and pieces but we were sheltered from what was really going on. Going up was a real eye-opener. Just talking to people brought home how they still feel about her. She ripped the heart out of communities and that will never be forgotten. A man at a Labour Party do said there used to be 10 pits around here and now there are none. That makes a real difference to how you feel. Do I like Thatcher? No, I don't like Thatcher."

Wingett's on-stage wife Melanie Hill(an actor who coincidentally played his spouse, Marie Carver, for two years in the Bill) lived and breathed her dislike of Thatcher.
Bread star Hill was born in Sunderland, Thatcher sinking what was once the world's biggest shipbuilding town. "I come from Sunderland and I was there when they launched the last ship," she told me. "How can I like what she did. She tried to destroy the area. In the play when Leon's daughter says all that happened a long time ago he says 'Not for me'. It's like that for me and a lot of people. We remember what she was and what she did. And that's how they'll always remember her."

The tensions between Old and New Labour are cleverly played out between the Wingett and his greasy pole-climbing New Labour MP. He stayed true to his principles, was jailed during the poll tax riots then turned to booze. And she's sold-out by becoming a parliamentary aide in a New Labour Government. He denounces New Labour as the "bastard child of Thatcherism" and denounces privatisation. But she sees it as a triumph of pragmatism and hails the likes of the minimum wage, doubled spending on education and the fox hunting ban as successes he never achieved.

Modern Labour's obsession with celebrities has the Home Secretary demanding bigger names when he hears Jim Davidson, Phil Collins, Anthony Worrall Thompson, Carol Vorderman("Can't we do better than that?") and Jeremy Clarkson will attend the funeral.
Maggie's End is funny and Thatcher's name earns a few panto boos, though I admit even hardened I - the disembodied voice of a BBC presenter heard in the play - winced when the Home Secretary dismissed the "Kelly option" to bump off Leon because he doesn't go for country walks.

Tyneside playwrights Ed Waugh and Trevor Wood are prepared for right-wing abuse.
Wood, who spent 15 years in the Royal Navy including the Falklands, joked the legacy of Thatcherism is to be condemned by her rabid disciples for daring to question her considerable impact. Maybe Tories, including members of the British Airways Thatcher Fan Club who have booked tickets, should view the show as a back-handed compliment. I suppose it's a tribute to the dominance of She Who Must Be Obeyed that 19 years after a coup ousted her, Thatcher still incites opinion.

There's no sitting on the fence with Thatcher: you're either for her or against her. I'm against and, from a mining family in South Shields, and I vividly recall the strike and the mass despair. Thatcher was an arrogant, vicious Prime Minister. That's how I and millions of others will always remember her. Go and see Maggie's End.

Bandwagon Boris

2009-04-09T09:50:17Z

Boris Johnson has had a fun morning glorying for Bob Quick's departure. Bungling Quick's fate was actually sealed when Jacqui Smith told Met chief Sir Paul Stephenson he had to go last night. But that did not stop BoJo, chair of the Met Police Authority, ringing the Today programme to pompously announce the news and crowbar himself into the headlines. His opportunism has left the Home Office gasping with disbelief and, possibly, envy. One insider said they were "disgusted" at the London mayor's "grandstanding" and far ruder things are being said in private.

A Quick Resignation

2009-04-09T09:20:14Z

The now ex-top terror cop Bob Quick's never enjoyed so much praise, showered with compliments for resigning after inadvertently leaking details of that secret al-Qaeda operation inadvertently shared with the world yesterday when he walked into No 10. My advice to Quick's successor, John Yates, is to shun the publicity and order a stock of cardboard folders.

Quick's resignation raises a few questions:

Would Quick have gone if he didn't have form after the raid on Damian Green's Commons office and apology for accusing the Cons of dirty tricks over his wife's car business? Possibly not. To compromise a major anti-terror raid, however, was a serious breach of security and a potential hanging offence in itself.

Would Quick still be in post if Sir Paul Stephenson hadn't replaced Sir Ian Blair as Met Commissioner? I wonder. Blair was incapable of taking a decision other than to exonerate himself over Jean Charles de Menezes. Newish Stephenson promised leadership.

Did the pressure on the Met over footage of an officer knocking down newspaper vendor Ian Tomlinson(who later died) indirectly weaken Quick's position? Yes. Stephenson wouldn't want to be defending his force publicly on two dodgy fronts. Once could be dealt with Quickly, the other cannot.

Would Quick still be around if Ken Livingstone not Boris Johnson was London Mayor? Interesting this. If Livingstone really thinks the resignation's a victory for al-Qaeda, he'd have fought tooth and nail to keep Quick.

Have the Tories got their man? Chris "The Jackal" Grayling will be licking his lips, a score settled after the Green affair. He'd stopped short of calling for Quick's scalp but it sounded like that's what he wanted.

Lib Dem home affairs spokesman Chris Huhne thinks Quick's departure should set a precedent: "He resigned from a position of great responsibility in an honourable way. This should be a lesson to his political masters when they commit similar misjudgements and mistakes."

I wouldn't bet on that, Chris.

Stander for Gordon

2009-04-02T19:10:11Z

The G20 leaders, including Barack Obama, gave Gordon Brown a standing ovation when the London communique was agreed. The pressure is always for Prime Ministers, Presidents, Chancellors and Kings to hail a great deal but the backslapping here seems unusually genuine. The speed at which the new global financial architecture has been sketched out is impressive compared with the recessions of the 1930s and 1980s.

Obama a few moments ago made the point the proof of the meeting will be whether it saves jobs and stops businesses closing. That's difficult to measure but economists will make a stab. One Minister sent me a text saying "Bingo!" When the President admitted the financial "contagion" started on Wall Street which I suspect will be quoted back at the Cons when they try to pin disproportionate blame on Brown.

What will it mean politically for Brown? I'd be surprised if he doesn't enjoy a bounce in the polls. The Tory spinners are worried some of the Obama magic will rub off on him. The pity for Labour is they can't keep the President in Britain for the next 12 months. The country's caught Obamamania and Labour should taunt David Cameron for backing Republican loser John McCain.

One of the few things Cameron's said that I agree with wholeheartedly is an admission there are only "superficial" similarities between him and Obama(Cameron on Cameron by Dylan Jones. I can't remember the page but it has an index). Brown can boast after this week that he shares with the world's most popular politician a lot that is substantial. Brown's bought himself another chance.

Not In My Name, Monsieur

2009-04-02T14:00:09Z

That French Napoleon, Nicolas Sarkozy, has just torn a strip off Mirek Topolanek over the Czech Prime Minister's "road to hell" attack a week ago on Barack Obama's - and by extension Gordon Brown's - plan for global economic recovery. The Czechs hold the European Union's rotating presidency but Sarko pulled himself up to the full 5 feet 5 inches to tell Topo he isn't speaking for the EU.

All the fun at the London summit is behind the scenes with the 20 main delegations all based in rooms off a one kilometre long corridor about two people wide. So leaders keep bumping into others on their way to see someone else and the result is a crowd chaos and the occasional deliberate snub.

Just about every summit I've attended has been hailed a success by the host country but it does sound as if Gordon Brown will have good cause to do so later today.

That Obama magic and Brown determination is paying dividends with Sarko behaving and China's Hu Jinato accepting huge surpluses accumulated by his Communists regime could, through the IMF, revive other economies full of customers for Beijing's microwaves and plastic toys.

We hacks are stuck in a windowless ExCeL hanger in East London though the sun was shining when I went across the Royal Victoria Dock on a launch to do some TV. It's easy to be cynical at these gatherings but for once the sun may also shine on Brown.

Pickled with Pickles?

2009-03-30T21:20:12Z

Cops tonight used pepper spray, I'm told , to subdue two men and a woman behind the Speaker's chair just yards from the chamber of the House of Commons. And No, they weren't MPs. The word from the police is the trio had been to a party and were behaving in a tired and emotional fashion, officers fearing they were about to emulate the hunting mob of a few years back by running onto the floor.

An eye witness saw one had a visitor's pass around his neck as he was carried away, looking dazed - presumably from the spray.

Now I'm not one to gossip but Tory chair Eric Pickles threw a party tonight in that part of the Commons...

UPDATE: This blog's "World Exclusive"* last night set the ball rolling and I enjoyed watching the tale unfold on TV. There are now fuller versions here and here which correct some of the initial details.

* My little joke!