Tuesday, 25 April 2017

The "Oh not another bloody election" election - day 7

The big issue left over from Sunday was "Corbyn as a threat to national security".  All the media picked up on Andrew Marr's questions and Corbyn's considered answers on drones and nuclear weapons, and the Tories were more than happy to pitch in.  Awkwardly, so were Labour, who assured the world the party is pro-Trident within two hours of the Marr show (better than normal response time).

And Monday's spokespeople were Corbyn's election coordiator Andrew Gwynne and shadow defence secretary Nia Griffiths.  Both reinforced the fact that renewing Trident is party policy and would be in the manifesto.

At least Gwynne opposed first use, in contrast to Michael Fallon who told Today (and other outlets) that we reserve that option.  "In the most extreme circumstances you can’t rule out the use of nuclear weapons as a first strike.”  That shocked me.  I can't have been keeping up.

Trident is a lost cause for Corbyn, given public opinion, but his reasoning on a putative drone attack to take out Daesh's al-Baghdadi might be more promising.  Fallon claimed "Yesterday we had the staggering performance of somebody who wants to be prime minister saying he wouldn’t necessarily authorise strikes against terrorists."  Sorry mate, but wanting to see the evidence, challenging it, pursuing the question of "collateral damage" is exactly what I'd expect of a prime minister.



The Greens were more united on Trident.  Co-leader Jonathan Bartley told us

"Voters are being offered a choice between Tory first strike fanaticism and Labour’s HMS Pointless. What could be more immoral than considering a first use of nuclear weapons, knowing full well that it would lead to the death of countless civilians? And what could be more illogical that pledging to renew a multibillion pound nuclear weapons system that will never be used? With people struggling to get by in Britain it’s inexcusable to be ploughing people’s money into this cold war relic."



Yougov brought out a Wales-only survey which caused a few shock waves.


The "coalition of chaos" theme is doing well for the Tories.  All but the Greens are distancing themselves from any thought of working together.  There might be a handful of local arrangements, unofficial and even unacknowledged (and possibly led only by the Greens), but that's about it.  Corbyn proposed that the real progressive alliance is Labour with the unions (and he's reported to have gone down better with the Scottish TUC than he did at the Scottish Labour conference).

In other coalition news, the Communist party of Britain has come out for Labour, much to Tory delight, and the SNP has challenged Labour to foreswear coalitions with Tories in Scottish councils.


Lots of people wondered where May was.

But the Times's Sam Coates had the answer.


Defence secretary Michael Fallon, as well as laying into Corbyn on national security, had to respond to accusations that the Tories have stolen Ed Miliband's energy price freeze policy which they labelled Marxist and worse in 2015.  He had enough to say, but it didn't impress Miliband.

Andrea Leadsom, the Defra secretary, told the Commons that plans for dealing with air pollution would be withheld until after the election, despite Monday being the court-imposed deadline for publication.  She denied that government is "running scared of diesel drivers".  Yet somehow the niceties of purdah don't seem to apply to Philip Hammond's fund for small businesses to cushion increases in business rates.  It will be rolled out to support Tory efforts in the local votes next week as well as the general election.

Everybody's favourite ex-MP Esther McVey might reappear as member for Tatton.  She's reported to be on a shortlist of three, which is the process mandated by Central Office for all the seats which currently don't have a candidate.

And the first Tory leaflet of the season has appeared, hammering the leadership angle




UKIP held an integration event (yes, I know) which I found difficult.  Several of the headline subjects - sharia law, FGM, for example - are things that do need attention, but this was UKIP trying to deal with them.  Luckily the Secret Barrister has taken much of the "Integration Agenda" apart so I'll just quote the conclusion:

"No-one wants to suggest that UKIP are a bunch of hog-brained, village ninnies who haven’t even consulted Google before firing off a range of mind-spasmingly senseless policies designed to prey on the very worst racial prejudices of their core voters. But an Integration Agenda that proposes intimately examining the genitals of children from minority groups, dragging such children through courts as witnesses where there is no prospect of conviction and locking up people for longer on the basis of their race, does not assist their cause."

In other UKIP news, Arron Banks finally visited his target constituency and discovered that Clacton kippers don't like carpetbaggers.  So he's withdrawn his kind offer to become the area's MP and backed the candidate they were actually thinking of selecting.  And Paul Nuttall still hasn't decided whether he dares to stand again, telling reporters (when he finally emerged from the dark, panelled room he'd hidden in) to wait for an NEC meeting at the end of the week.



LibDem Lynne Featherstone, who did most of the legwork on FGM in particular during the coalition wasn't impressed by UKIP's integration agenda either.

"Ukip’s approach is horrifically heavy-handed and will alienate the very communities we are trying to reach out to. We should be training our teachers and other providers such as community experts to identify those at risk and teaching children themselves that FGM is wrong and to come forward if they fear for themselves or a friend.

 "In coalition, we put a statutory duty on frontline workers to report concerns of FGM - we need them to have the confidence to do so, and this means better training. Research shows that school teachers are still too scared to talk about FGM, honour-based violence and forced marriage, let alone report it. This is where we should concentrate our efforts not forcing girls to undergo invasive medical examinations.

 "Ukip seem to try and out-do Le Pen with right-wing policies that are insensitive and frankly outrageous."

Over the weekend Paul Nuttall flagged Kate Hoey as one of the Brexiter MPs UKIP might decide not to challenge, but Tim Farron launched the LibDems' attack (bold, since Hoey has a 10,000 majority, but worth a shot in a constituency which recorded one of the highest Remain votes last June).
Oh, and it was announced that LibDem membership topped 100,000 on Monday.




Nicola Stugeon also addressed the Scottish TUC


May might indeed want to distract attention from the cases (though of course it's not inevitable that prosecutions will be recommended) but the CPS deadlines for decision on the various cases are
late May and early June".


Last thing: on Newsnight, Peter Mandelson was asked what Labour's position on brexit is.  His response?  "Search me." Describing himself as a proud "saboteur", Mandelson outlined his group Open Britain's attack list of 20 seats where they hope to spoil the chances of Brexiters getting elected.  What difference might 20 seats make? We'll see. For some reason, though his antipathy to Corbyn was open, he restrained himself from scuppering anybody's career by fingering them as a future leader.

For some reason I was reminded of John Prescott's crab called Peter.



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