Bagehot's notebook

DESPITE stiff competition from local and mayoral election results involving almost 200 local authorities across England, Wales and Scotland, Peter Mandelson, the former Labour cabinet minister, co-inventor of Blairism and ex-European Union trade commissioner, is set to make headlines this afternoon by calling for Britain to hold an in-out referendum on EU membership.

Voices on the Tory right have already reacted with enthusiasm, with ConservativeHome arguing that David Cameron should follow Lord Mandelson's lead and announce an in-out referendum.

Continue reading "Should Britain's government offer an in-out referendum on EU membership?" »

TOM Watson, the Labour MP who has done more than most members of the British Parliament to uncover wrongdoing within the media companies run by Rupert Murdoch, likes to compare the Murdoch press to an organised crime gang. Tiring of claims by James Murdoch—the patriarch's son and a former boss of the firm's British media interests—that he knew nothing of illegal behaviour in his firm's tabloid newsrooms, Mr Watson famously called him “the first mafia boss in history who didn’t know he was running a criminal enterprise”.

Continue reading "If Tom Watson really believes Rupert Murdoch is a menace, why didn't he work for a cross-party report condemning him?" »

BAGEHOT spent today in Singapore on the final leg of a trip watching the British foreign secretary at work in Asia. A future column will discuss Britain's new foreign policy plans, but this week's print column—written from the road—examines a furore back home triggered by the latest hearings of the Leveson inquiry into press ethics. Ripples from the debate about the British press, and its unhealthily swaggering relations with the country's political leaders, reached Asia all week.

Continue reading "Are British newspapers a menace to democracy?" »

REPORTING from a summit some years ago, your correspondent found himself following the foreign minister of another country into a press conference. The foreign minister in question, a celebrated public intellectual at home, was strolling at an easy lope into the room when his attention was caught by something to his left. The distraction, it turned out, was the minister's own reflection in the shiny glass of an interpreter's booth. The ministerial hand rose and came to rest on the ministerial hair, its owner oblivious to the British journalist just behind him. Pat, pat, smooth, went the hand. A last check. A nod. Oh yes. Looking good. And in we went.

Continue reading "The British government's prosperity agenda hits the road" »

THE BRITISH debate about shale gas extraction has made headlines today, following the publication of a government-commissioned study suggesting that the unconventional drilling technique can safely be tested further, despite apparently causing two small earthquakes near the northern resort town of Blackpool. The domestic argument is already trundling along familiar tramlines. Environmental campaign groups and left-wing newspapers have expressed concern, arguing that it would be better to focus on renewable energy sources. Right-wing newspapers have accused green activists of having a "general hostility to fossil fuels".

Continue reading "Why the debate over British shale gas extraction is for high stakes" »

MY PRINT column this week looks back at a run of grim headlines for David Cameron and his coalition government, and questions the idea that his biggest problem is being exposed as an out-of-touch toff:

“LET’S not mince words,” said one of the Conservative Party’s heavy-hitters: our party has come to be seen as arrogant, selfish and—fatally—“out of touch”. The out-of-touch charge has rung in the ears of David Cameron and his closest ally, George Osborne, this week, after days of unforced errors.

Continue reading "David Cameron's bad week" »

ACCORDING to the Daily Telegraph's well-researched front-page offering this morning—"Tory MPs round on Cameron and Osborne"—the gay marriage thing made it onto the list of stink-bombs lobbed at David Cameron during a "robust" private meeting last week with senior Tory backbenchers.

As I mentioned last week, I struggle to see the link between gay weddings and the government's recent, genuine offences against competence: a poorly-presented budget, and advice on preparing for a petrol strike that failed to take into account the detail that British motorists, when panicked, have the rational capacity of hens.

But there you go.

Continue reading "Another reason why the Tory right are wrong about gay marriage" »