Martin Kettle's Blog, page 55
June 15, 2017
Theresa May can still shape Brexit. But she may not have the skills | Martin Kettle
When a political party has existed for as long as Britain’s Conservatives, nothing is entirely without precedent. This even goes for the dire situation in which Theresa May finds herself after she threw away her majority in a snap election before setting out to govern with a divided party in a hung parliament.
Related: Have no pity for May. Don’t forgive, and never forget why she must go | Owen Jones
Related: John Major: Tory-DUP deal risks jeopardising Northern Ireland peace
Continue reading...
June 14, 2017
Igor Levit review – bold Beethoven piano cycle comes to an outstanding end
Wigmore Hall, London
Levit brought drama but never at the expense of thoughtfulness to Beethoven’s final three sonatas
Igor Levit’s performances of Beethoven’s 32 piano sonatas at the Wigmore Hall have stretched from early last autumn to the start of the summer. Individually and cumulatively, they have provided one of the most compelling experiences of the current London concert season. This final recital, consisting of the last three sonatas, epitomised the several that I was able to attend – boldly conceived, sometimes questionable and even uncomfortable, but full of thought and technically outstanding.
Levit is not a Beethovenian purist. He does not play with head metaphorically bowed in reverence to the canon. His Beethoven loves to surprise, and this is surely a necessary instinct. He is at one with Beethoven’s boundary-testing radicalism, a feature that was especially evident in the sometimes reckless but gloriously exciting treatment of some of the early sonatas. In the last three, of course, the stylistic boundaries are tested to even further extremes, but Levit mostly kept his repertoire of shock tactics in check.
Continue reading...June 13, 2017
A Tory-DUP deal is a destructive pact that makes no sense at all | Martin Kettle
In the scrabble for a majority, Theresa May seems to have again rushed into an unnecessary response, overlooking the unionists’ cumbersome baggage
“I’m the person who got us into this mess,” Theresa May told Tory MPs on Monday, “and I’m the one who will get us out of it.” The prime minister is right about the first half of that statement. But she is wrong about the second half. She has not learned from her humbling at the polls last week. In April, she rushed into an unnecessary election. Now, amid the political debris of that error, she is again rushing prematurely into an unnecessary response, in the shape of a destructive pact with the Democratic Unionists in June.
In neither of these cases has May thought the dangers through properly. In her desire to appear decisive and in command she has brushed inconvenient realities aside. But realities always bite back eventually. The principal reality is that the DUP is not just any small party at Westminster. On the contrary, the unionists are a very particular entity. They bring three pieces of specially difficult baggage with them that a UK-wide political party like the Liberal Democrats, Labour or the Greens do not.
Related: A deal with the DUP will be painful for Theresa May, and put peace at risk | Peter Hain
Related: Mrs May’s deal with the DUP threatens 20 years hard work in Ireland | Jonathan Powell
Continue reading...June 12, 2017
Theresa May can survive – by taking a lesson from the coalition handbook | Martin Kettle
In a hung parliament, the art of political survival is to retain control of events and not to become their victim. This is far from easy. It is 24/7 political work, as Labour found between 1974 and 1979, a process brilliantly depicted in James Graham’s play This House. But Theresa May or her successor must master that art if the Tories are to prosper as a minority government.
May faces three acute problems in doing so. The first is the parliamentary arithmetic is against her. The second is that the Conservatives are a wide coalition of political views and interests, with many internal disagreements. The third is that May’s previous highly centralised and controlled style of government has been the antithesis of the nimble flexibility that the new situation requires.
Related: Election 2017: May appeals to MPs for support as her future hangs in balance
The quad was the regular meeting of David Cameron, George Osborne, Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander
Related: Who's who in Theresa May's new cabinet
Continue reading...June 9, 2017
Theresa May's speech annotated – what she said and what she meant
After being granted permission by the Queen to form a new government, the prime minister outlines her plans
Election outcome - live updatesI have just been to see Her Majesty the Queen and I will now form a government. A government that can provide certainty and lead Britain forward at this critical time for our country.
May manages to use “certainty” three times in her 350-word statement. She means “business as usual” but the times are not usual at all.
This government will guide the country through the crucial Brexit talks that begin in just 10 days and deliver on the will of the British people by taking the United Kingdom out of the European Union.
It will work to keep our nation safe and secure by delivering the change that I set out following the appalling attacks in Manchester and London.
Cracking down on the ideology of Islamist extremism and all those who support it and giving the police and the authorities the powers they need to keep our country safe.
The government I lead will put fairness and opportunity at the heart of everything we do so that we will fulfil the promise of Brexit together, and over the next five years build a country in which no one and no community is left behind, a country in which prosperity and opportunity are shared across this United Kingdom.
What the country needs more than ever is certainty and having secured the largest number of votes and the greatest number of seats in the general election it is clear that only the Conservative and Unionist party has the legitimacy and ability to provide that certainty by commanding a majority in the House of Commons.
As we do, we will continue to work with our friends and allies in the Democratic Unionist party in particular.
Our two parties have enjoyed a strong relationship over many years and this gives me the confidence to believe that we will be able to work together in the interests of the whole United Kingdom.
This will allow us to come together as a country and channel our energies towards a successful Brexit deal that works for everyone in this country, securing a new partnership with the EU which guarantees our long-term prosperity.
That’s what people voted for last June, that’s what we will deliver. Now let’s get to work.
Continue reading...The real winner in a hung parliament is whoever can see past it | Martin Kettle
The 2017 general election has produced a transformed UK political landscape. Few expected a hung parliament, not least the politicians who fought the contest, above all the humbled Theresa May, who threw away her party’s majority.
But this transformed landscape is not unknown territory. Britain has just elected its seventh balanced or nearly balanced parliament since 1945. In many ways these are known unknowns. Anyway the politicians had better get used to it quickly, which many will surely do without difficulty. This is the second hung parliament in the last three elections.
Continue reading...June 8, 2017
What should May and Corbyn do the day after the election? Absolutely nothing | Martin Kettle
• General election 2017 live: final polls show Tory lead as Corbyn and May cast votes
For political journalists the Friday after a general election is both the best of times and the worst of times. The good bit is that the day is boiling over with important political stories: who’s in, who’s out, who’s getting which job, how the nation voted. The demand for your copy is almost endless. The appetite of the beast is without end. The worst bit is that you are knackered.
I’ve covered every election since 1979, and I’ve never done the sensible thing. I’ve never had either the self-discipline or the option of going to bed at 9.30pm on polling day, ignoring the exit poll and the early results and instead starting work fresh and alert around dawn on this most consuming of political days.
It would be far better to let a new PM have time to think. The resulting government would almost certainly be stronger
Related: Go out and vote today, but know this – our grotesque system needs reform | Polly Toynbee
Continue reading...June 2, 2017
General Election 2017: how the Guardian decides who to back
Guardian columnist Martin Kettle explains the process of deciding which political party our paper will endorse with its leader
The Guardian view on the electionA general election endorsement is probably the most important editorial that a newspaper can publish – and almost certainly the longest too.
Whether a paper’s general election leader ever affects the outcome of an election is pretty doubtful. Some have also raised doubts about whether an endorsement is an appropriate intervention, especially in the digital era. Another area of enduring debate is whether a newspaper should offer an endorsement in elections in other countries – the Guardian has done this for many years in the case of the US, and more recently Australia, partly in reflection of the digital editions we now produce there but also because the world of politics has always been connected.
Related: The Scott Trust: why the Guardian is unique
Continue reading...June 1, 2017
Theresa May is too cowardly to allow the Brexit election we so badly need | Martin Kettle
Six weeks ago Theresa May stood in Downing Street and announced that Britain needed a general election to strengthen her hand on Europe. This week, after a reputation-denting campaign in which she has failed to debate Europe or anything else, she has returned to the Brexit theme.
Related: The Supreme Leader doesn’t seem quite so invincible now | Andrew Rawnsley
When May speaks about Europe, the delusions of great power posturing and post-imperial greatness are never far away
Continue reading...May 25, 2017
The US leaks British secrets. Our special relationship should be with Europe | Martin Kettle
It’s clear that the transatlantic security relationship can no longer be taken for granted. We must prioritise alliances with our closest neighbours
National security policy rests on a big and mostly unstated bargain between citizens and the state. Citizens allow state agencies, including the police, to do secret and dangerous things on the basis that they are done for reasons we accept as necessary. To paraphrase the 17th-century philosopher Baruch Spinoza, we give the state power so that we can be free.
The leaking of sensitive secrets disrupts that bargain. That’s one of the reasons why the US security agencies that first leaked the name of the suspect in the Manchester atrocity and then leaked some of the details of the debris collected by police did something very seriously wrong indeed. It helped no one except other would-be bombers. It further upset the distressed bereaved. It did nothing to advance the investigation of the killings or prevent future ones. The agencies, in other words, used their power not to ensure freedom but to put freedom at further risk.
Related: Photographs of Manchester bomb parts published after leak
May should try to address a fundamental truth. The British Isles are not going to move after Brexit
Continue reading...Martin Kettle's Blog
- Martin Kettle's profile
- 2 followers
