Tagged news

As I'm writing this nearly a full week before you're reading it, God only knows what will have happened in the meantime. The local and European elections may have completely redrawn the political map of Britain; another slew of bent MPs may have been harried by their furious constituents into standing down at the next general election or been thrown to the wolves by an increasingly desperate David Cameron.

Change is in the air. Not since the controversy surrounding the Iraq War has British politics been so shaken from without. The public are baying for blood. The pitiful excuses of those caught indulging in extravagant 'necessities' has turned into to the universal self-flagellation of our political elites. Those unwilling to repent are swiftly being dispatched.

What should we make of the recent disruption in relations between the Government and the Muslim Council of Britain? Once feted as the voice of Muslims in Britain, the MCB has been severely rebuked by ministers over allegations that one of its leaders was supporting violence against Israel. Communities Secretary Hazel Blears has now called for further clarification on the MCB's position. Does this mean that the Government has put dialogue with the Muslim community on hold?

This week I heard two Labour Prime Ministers, Gordon Brown and Kevin Rudd, admit that the balance between individual enterprise and the common good has been eroded. The world economic system, they now agree, must be reshaped to reflect the values we would apply to our own families. But how is this to be achieved?

In the early days of Brown's premiership much emphasis was placed on making our constitution fit for the twenty-first century. What have we got to show for the "Governance of Britain" programme, launched in July 2007, which aims at "shifting power... increasing the accountability of Government; reinvigorating our democracy; and building a new relationship between the citizen and the state"?

Ministers in the current Labour government have famously found it difficult to talk about economic redistribution. While the Blair-Brown administration has consciously set about engineering significant improvements in the incomes of the working poor, it has struggled to communicate this commitment to the electorate.

Across Europe third way style social democracy appears in crisis. This model looks suited to the benign economic circumstances of yesteryear. Here Cameron's Tories have surged ahead in the polls spreading their seductive charm around the country.