Martin Kettle's Blog, page 59

LPO/Jurowski review – discipline, energy and whip-smart direction

Royal Festival Hall, London
In a show of great mutual understanding, Vladimir Jurowski led the London Philharmonic through a thoughtful and refreshing programme of enormous musical contrasts

There are exciting upsides, of which more in a moment, to Vladimir Jurowski’s year of London Philharmonic concerts at the Southbank Centre around the themes of religion and faith. But there are also things that demand caution and even scepticism: in particular the implicit policy at the Southbank Centre, of which this festival is the latest example, that classical music is to be promoted more for the history and ideas that may, or may not, inspire it than for the quality and reward of the music itself.

This issue niggled away through these second and third concerts of the series. In both cases, as is the way with Jurowski, the programming was innovative and rewarding. But the promotion of works by Kancheli, Martinu and Vaughan Williams as essentially elegaic in the first of the two concerts seemed tendentious and not particularly illuminating. Similarly with the works by Rebel, Milhaud and Adams that made up the next concert, where the enormous musical contrasts were the stimulating thing, not the claim that they all challenged an existing order.

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The lady's not for turning away: Theresa May's message for America | Martin Kettle

Far from breaking with the past, the PM’s Philadelphia speech was a subtle bid to woo the US back to multilateral institutions

Theresa May’s speech to the Republican party conference in Philadelphia on Thursday has been interpreted as a break with the past in US-UK foreign policy thinking to mark the Donald Trump era. Yet in most respects it was no such thing. In fact, it was mostly a staunch and subtle argument for renewing the status quo in order to stop any such break from happening.

Great care obviously went into the drafting of the speech, partly so that it would impress the US Republican audience, partly so it would not frighten the suspicious horses back in Britain, and above all so that it could begin to frame the conversation between the May and Trump teams that got under way in the White House on Friday.

Related: Theresa May looks for new friends among the world’s strongmen | Simon Tisdall

Related: Theresa May's meeting with Donald Trump 'could sour Brexit negotiations'

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Theresa May must stand up to Donald Trump. Britain doesn’t need a poodle | Martin Kettle

The prime minister’s talk of ‘leading together’ with the new president is sheer folly. She looks set to repeat the errors of Tony Blair

Theresa May’s early visit to Donald Trump probably seemed like a good idea at the time. Pushing to the front of the White House queue is what British prime ministers do when there’s a new US president. Trump knows and likes Britain too, to the extent that he cares about any foreign country. The two countries are also allies. And new leaders need to have face time.

But the race was always a demeaning ritual, and now it is more demeaning than ever. Transatlantic relations are important, of course. But what would it matter if the British prime minister met the US president in February, rather than in January? Nothing would be lost. No other country except perhaps Israel cares so neurotically about Washington’s welcome mat.

Related: MPs call on Theresa May to stand up to Trump over torture remarks

Related: Trump claims torture works but experts warn of its 'potentially existential' costs

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A new concert hall for London? The artistic case is clear, the political one less so

Hamburg’s new world-class public venue trumpets its host city to the world. London is already a beacon, and doesn’t need Simon Rattle’s dream hall in quite the same way

Last week Hamburg got a big one. Now Munich wants one. Paris, which got its own a couple of years ago, is already planning a second. Los Angeles has one. Manchester and Birmingham got theirs in the not-so distant past. London, however, has none.

Big cities like to build modern state-of-the-art concert halls. They build them partly for artistic reasons – because good music matters, because a top-notch hall can offer top-notch performing and rehearsal conditions, excellent acoustics, exciting public spaces, flexibility to accommodate different repertoire and be a draw for performers and audiences.

Related: Simon Rattle says Barbican hall can't fit in a fifth of LSO's repertoire

Related: Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/Hengelbrock review – storming debut for hall of wonders

Related: London's new concert hall project has stalled – and it's no great loss

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The President Trump effect may be a whole new British focus on Europe | Martin Kettle

His views have little support here or on the mainland. But then, he is a uniquely American phenomenon, and most politics is local

A cold January week has brought the west a chill new-year reality check. First Theresa May confirmed that Britain really is closing the door on the European Union not lingering by its fireside. Now, the stage is set in Washington for the words “I, Donald John Trump, do solemnly swear …” to usher America over the threshold and into the unknown.

Later this year similar thresholds may be crossed in other lands. A Dutch general election in March in which the nationalist anti-immigrant Freedom party (PVV) may outscore all rivals and double its representation. A French presidential election in April and May, which the Front National’s Marine Le Pen may even win. A German election in the autumn where the anti-immigrant AfD, one of whose regional leaders condemned Berlin’s holocaust memorial in a speech in a beer hall this week, is expected to make gains.

Related: May’s speech sounded like Trump. The only thing missing was the wall | Dan Roberts

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PMQs shows it’s Jeremy Corbyn, not Theresa May, who has no Brexit plan | Martin Kettle

Riding high after her Brexit speech, May made short work of the Labour leader’s scripted performance with missed opportunities to press her on a white paper

Even if Jeremy Corbyn were a much more adept parliamentary performer, today’s prime minister’s questions would have been a tough fixture. And so it proved.

Theresa May arrived in the Commons off the back of a personal success in her Brexit speech yesterday. It was full of claims that may not survive contact with the other member states – it called to mind Mike Tyson’s comment that all his opponents had a plan “’till they get punched in the mouth” – but there is no denying that it was a personal success, got good press reviews and pulled her party together. Everything about May’s demeanour today was that of a prime minister with fresh authority.

Related: PMQs verdict: May sees off Corbyn over Brexit

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Why Germany is proud of the Elbphilharmonie – and why Britain should care about that

Germany’s great and good basked in the cultural glow as Hamburg’s concert hall opened its doors last night. In the UK, such a project would be mired in political squabbling and public scorn

Ask yourself this. If Liverpool or Glasgow built a stunning new concert hall, would it be not just the talk – and the pride – of the town itself? Would its opening attract the Queen and the prime minister? Would a huge contingent of the world’s artistic press come for the occasion – and would they content themselves by asking respectful questions, and even applauding, in spite of the fact that the whole project came in at €866m, overdue and over budget, most of it paid for by the city itself?

I simply don’t think that any of this would happen in the UK, even in London.

Related: Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/Hengelbrock review – storming debut for hall of wonders

Tickets are sold out for six months. The aim is that every child in Hamburg will see a concert in the first year

Related: The Guardian view on culture and devolution: the Hamburg model | Editorial

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Theresa May to give her Brexit speech on Tuesday – as it happened

Rolling coverage of the day’s political developments as they happen

Afternoon summary

3.32pm GMT

Members are electing a general secretary, not a dictator: my response to @gerard_coynehttps://t.co/wLsEM5sr54

3.30pm GMT

Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, has used Twitter to highlight his own priorities in the Unite leadership contest.

I stand on my record as a General Secretary who has delivered for @unitetheunion members & representatives.
I promise to continue to deliver pic.twitter.com/IS4tj8VJ9n

3.13pm GMT

Northern Ireland Secretary James Brokenshire has warned that a new election to the Stormont Assembly will be divisive and in danger of driving people further apart.

He is co-chairing talks in Belfast today with Irish foreign minister Charles Flanagan in a bid to defuse the crisis caused by Martin McGuinness’ resignation as deputy first minister and first minister Arlene Foster’s refusal to stand aside temporarily from her office.

It is important for the parties to talk together and anything that indicates a move to encourage that type of discussion I take as helpful, albeit that position does remain serious and stark.

We are still looking at an election but we are doing everything we can as the two governments to work with the political parties to see if there is a way forward that can be found.

2.25pm GMT

Here are some tributes to Prof Anthony King, the political scientist and BBC elections expert who has died at the age of 82. (See 9.34am.)

From Harriet Harman, the former deputy Labour leader

Very sad to hear of the death of Prof Anthony King. Great analyst of UK politics and brilliant communicator. My thoughts with his family.

"He was extraordinarily elegant in his turn of phrase" says Prof John Curtice who called Anthony King "a broadcaster's dream" pic.twitter.com/AB8AXnzpfO

David Dimbleby pays tribute to the renowned election expert Professor Anthony King who has died age 82 https://t.co/JQGoO7u5WF #wato pic.twitter.com/RWwZNTvlw3

Very sorry to hear of the death of Tony King. Interviewed him many times. He combined warmth with expertise. Great broadcaster. https://t.co/Fp5a5mrME3

For decades, Tony King lit up election nights for millions in Britain. He was also the most insightful of scholars, and the loveliest of men

@martinkettle #tony king bridged the worlds of academia, the media and public policy, always stimulating company with fresh insights.

Sad news that the political scientist Tony King has died

Anthony King's work loomed large in my education, and thousands of other people's. https://t.co/S0fjtpGQDe

This is turning into dreadful month of losses for the academic community. Tony King was one of best researchers British politics has seen. https://t.co/PyE5u6yXQo

Just heard the sad news that Professor Anthony King has passed away. A great man & a great friend. RIP Tony.

RIP Tony King. He knew better than most not only how British politics really works, but how to bring the study of it to life.

Breaking my Twy-January to pay my respects to Anthony King - the external examiner on my PhD and a brilliant scholar and communicator. RIP. https://t.co/LFaMDwHiYV

Very sad news about Anthony King's passing. He was a giant in the profession and in public life more generally. I liked him enormously

RIP Professor Anthony King, responsible for one of the great telly moments of our lifetimes. pic.twitter.com/rmWCBFgnV4

1.59pm GMT

It seems it is a case of too-little-too-late by the Democratic Unionist party in their moves to avoid another election to a new Northern Ireland assembly.

The DUP suddenly found the money today - £50,000 to be precise - for an Irish language bursary the party’s culture minister Paul Givan cut from his budget just before Christmas. (See 9.44am.)

1.48pm GMT

As my colleague Alan Travis reports, police have confirmed that the speech given by Amber Rudd, the home secretary, at the Tory party conference in October has been officially recorded as a hate incident. Joshua Silver, an Oxford physics professor, complained because he thought the speech was anti-foreigner.

Related: Amber Rudd speech on foreign workers recorded as hate incident

I didn’t actually see the speech but I’ve read the draft. And I’ve looked at all the feedback that there was to the speech. I’ve read the speech carefully and I’ve looked at all the feedback.

It’s discriminating against foreigners, you pick on them and say we want to give jobs to British people and not to foreigners. It was interpreted that way.

Of course it wasn’t a hate incident. What Amber Rudd said was no different from Gordon Brown when he said there should be British jobs for British workers.

I think Mr Silver should be thoroughly ashamed of himself because what he’s doing is to bring a well-intentioned piece of legislation into disrepute. The meaning behind the legislation is very important, it’s meant to deal with hate crimes, and Mr Silver has been totally unable to justify what he’s done in the face of your questioning and is bringing that legislation into disrepute.

1.13pm GMT

You can read all today’s Guardian political stories here.

As for the rest of the papers, here is the PoliticsHome list of top 10 must reads and here is the ConservativeHome round-up of today’s political stories.

Mr Hammond, when he was Foreign Secretary, took the 15 per cent stake in Cambridgeshire-based Hydramach in October 2015, according to records at Companies House.

Months later – in April 2016 – Hydramach was one of eight companies which won the grant to develop low fat and low sugar soups, ready meals and sauces from Innovate UK, a tech start up quango run by the Department for Business.

Jeremy Corbyn’s opposition to nuclear power is being exploited by the Conservatives as they fight to win a crucial seat for the first time in 80 years.

The Tories are taking advantage of the fact that election spending limits do not yet apply in the marginal seat of Copeland in Cumbria, which is home to the Sellafield nuclear reprocessing plant. It will also be the site of a new nuclear power station that could be in place by 2024.

How Tories are putting Jeremy Corbyn at the centre of their by-election campaign, on @BBCr4today & https://t.co/Fbg3yiG8in pic.twitter.com/m9U46dyZb0

12.28pm GMT

Len McCluskey, the Unite general secretary, has dismissed Gerard Coyne’s claims about the need to “clean up” the union (see 11.40am) as “nonsense”. He also accused Coyne of devaluing the union’s achievements and of proposing to act as a “dictator” if he wins.

Here is the statement McCluskey issued about Coyne’s manifesto.

Yet again Gerard Coyne appears unaware of Unite’s rules and procedures. The matter of subscription rates is for the elected executive council who will make any decision one way or another. Members are electing a general secretary, not a dictator.

12.03pm GMT

The Sun’s Tom Newton Dunn says Theresa May is expected to deliver her Brexit speech on Tuesday next week - and that the supreme court could deliver its article 50 judgment on the same day.

Theresa May to reveal her plan for Brexit next week - speech probably on Tuesday, as well as Supreme Court verdicthttps://t.co/F4AUjn9ARU

11.59am GMT

Labour is urging the government to build a tidal lagoon power plant in Swansea Bay.

Clive Lewis, the shadow business secretary, backed the idea following the publication of a government review, headed by the former energy minister Charles Hendry, saying the government should press ahead with a tidal energy scheme.

Related: Tidal lagoons 'could ensure UK power supplies'

We have high hopes that tidal energy will get cheaper fast, as we’ve seen in other renewable technologies. The government has repeatedly delayed this project, despite Labour backing it months ago. It’s time to stop dithering and get it built.

11.40am GMT

Gerard Coyne does not seem to have generate huge media interest in his manifesto launch.

In Birmingham for launch of Gerard Coyne manifesto for Unite general-sec, but I'm almost only reporter here pic.twitter.com/cID0Q02S5c

Our current leader spends too much of his time – and your money – playing at Westminster politics. I will never try to be the puppet master of the Labour Party. The most important job is standing up for you the members, wherever you live and work in England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, the Republic of Ireland or Gibraltar.

Your union takes more than £150m of subscription money from members every year. I do not believe there is enough openness about how your money is spent, so I will introduce proper transparency to Unite’s finances. At the moment members of the union cannot see what their money is being spent on. If elected as general secretary I will set up a new value for money and audit committee, directly elected from the lay membership, to ensure you get the best value for your subscriptions.

11.14am GMT

The Scottish government has urged the UK government not to implement section 40 of the Crime and Courts Act, the provision that would mean newspapers who do not sign up to a government-approved regulator having to pay the costs of people who sue them for libel even if the newspapers win. In a statement Fiona Hyslop, the Scottish culture secretary, said:

We are committed to ensuring the practices which led to the Leveson Inquiry in the first place do not happen again and we believe that all individuals should have the ability to seek redress when they feel they have been the victim of press malpractice.

However, the context of press regulation in Scotland is quite distinct from that in England and Wales and section 40 of the crime and courts act does not apply under Scots law. We have not introduced statutory measures to incentivise participation in the regulatory system, as has happened in Westminster, and I can confirm we have no plans to do so.

10.46am GMT

Here is the NHS England bulletin out today (pdf) with the performance statistics for November 2016.

And here are some of the key points.

The long-term trend is one of greater volumes of both urgent and emergency care and elective activity, with A&E attendances up 4.5% [the 12 months to November compared with the previous 12-month period], emergency admissions up 3.5%, diagnostic tests up 4.8% and consultant-led treatment up 4.4%.

10.01am GMT

The latest figures from NHS England show that only 88.4% of A&E patients in November were dealt with within four hours, Sky News reports. The target is 95%.

I will post more on this when I have looked in detail at the figures.

9.44am GMT

A Democratic Unionist minister has reversed his controversial decision to cut an Irish language initiative in the midst of Stormont’s eco-boiler scandal, the Press Association reports.

Communities minister Paul Givan’s decision to cut a £50,000 bursary to pay for children to visit gaelic speaking communities - the Gaeltacht - infuriated Sinn Fein and has been seen as a key factor in the republican party’s decision to pull the plug on the power-sharing institutions.

In a tweet on Thursday morning, Givan said: “My decision on the Liofa Bursary Scheme was not a political decision. I have now identified the necessary funding to advance this scheme.”

My decision on the Líofa Bursary Scheme was not a political decision. I have now identified the necessary funding to advance this scheme.

The shock development has been interpreted by some as a DUP olive branch to Sinn Fein as devolution teeters on the brink.

While the looming collapse of the ruling executive was triggered by the renewable heat incentive (RHI) affair - a green heating scandal that has left Stormont with a £490m bill - other disputes between the two main parties have been reignited by the furore.

9.34am GMT

Professor Anthony King, one of the undisputed giants of postwar British political science and a familiar face in the BBC’s live coverage of general election night results, has died aged 82.

Born in Canada, and arriving in Britain as a Rhodes scholar in the 1950s, King taught at the school of government at the University of Essex for half a century and never officially retired. After early collaborations on studies of the 1964 and 1966 general elections with David Butler, King replaced Butler as a fixture in BBC television’s coverage of UK general elections from 1983 to 2005.

9.28am GMT

Gerard Coyne has been tweeting about his manifesto launch.

Today, I'm launching my manifesto: I'll clean up Unite, freeze subscriptions & concentrate on union issues, not Westminster politics. pic.twitter.com/OzOFAAiigI

9.20am GMT

Union leadership elections tend to receive little or no attention in the mainstream press but this year’s Unite contest is different. Len McCluskey, the leftwing former docker, was first elected Unite general secretary in 2010 and he was re-elected comfortably in 2013. He is up for re-election again but this time he is facing a more serious challenge, from Gerard Coyne, Unite’s West Midlands regional secretary, who is launching his campaign manifesto this morning.

Unite is one of Britain two 1m-plus member super unions (the other is Unison) and it plays an important role in the British workplace. But Unite is also a very powerful player in Labour party politics, bankrolling the party, filling key seats on the national executive committee and exerting influence over candidate selection, and this leadership contest has become, at least in party, a proxy battle about Jeremy Corbyn. McCluskey is one of Corbyn’s strongest supporters. Coyne is arguing that McCluskey has been wrong to spend so much time dabbling in Labour’s internal politics, but he himself is seen as the candidate of the anti-Corbynites and a Coyne victory would be a significant defeat for the Corbyn project.

One of my main criticisms of Unite’s leadership is that with these huge challenges in front of him, Len McCluskey prefers to spend his time in office using the union’s money and resources to intervene in the running of the Labour Party.

I have no doubt that Unite members, and the workers Unite ought to be representing, would be better off under a Labour government, but it is not up to the General Secretary of Unite to act as Labour’s puppet master.

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Elbphilharmonie Orchestra/Hengelbrock review – storming debut for hall of wonders

Elbphilharmonie, Hamburg
The spectacular possibilities of Hamburg’s new concert venue were celebrated in an imaginative opening concert

Hamburg’s new concert hall is Germany’s latest austerity-defying architectural bobby-dazzler. But what about the music? How do you mark the opening of a lustrous new hall that is now, after all the arguments and the overspend, the pride of Hamburg? The conventional thing to do would be to programme a mighty work of the heavens — Beethoven’s Ninth, Haydn’s Creation, or maybe throw down the gauntlet with a specially commissioned new piece.

Thomas Hengelbrock and his renamed NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester took a different approach for an opening night attended by German president Joachim Gauck, who made a speech, and chancellor Angela Merkel – back in her native city for the occasion – who didn’t. The opening ceremony interwove speeches and a tribute to Hamburg’s two native musical giants, Mendelssohn and Brahms, with the Roy Blas overture and the finale of the second symphony respectively.

Related: 'We thought it was going to destroy us' … Herzog and De Meuron's Hamburg miracle

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Anthony King, face of BBC election night coverage, dies aged 82

Professor who taught at University of Essex for half a century was fixture on results nights from 1983 to 2005

Prof Anthony King, one of the undisputed giants of postwar British political science and a familiar face in the BBC’s live coverage of general election night results, has died aged 82.

Born in Canada, King arrived in Britain as a Rhodes scholar in the 1950s. He taught in the school of government at the University of Essex for half a century and never officially retired. After early collaborations on studies of the 1964 and 1966 general elections with David Butler, King replaced Butler as a fixture in the BBC’s television coverage of general elections from 1983 to 2005.

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