Martin Kettle's Blog, page 62
October 13, 2016
Nicola Sturgeon’s manoeuvres offer a chance to shape Brexit | Martin Kettle
Last week’s Conservative conference has catalysed every corner of British politics. Theresa May’s insistence that the EU referendum gives her a mandate that could remove Britain from the European single market – and prerogative powers to achieve it – has proved to be a serious, perhaps ultimately even a fatal, piece of overreach and a blood transfusion to the opposition. As unintended consequences go, it doesn’t get much bigger than this.
Related: The unromantic truth: oil money is vital to the Scottish nationalist cause | Ian Jack
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October 10, 2016
Igor Levit review – boldness and brilliance
Wigmore Hall, London
In the second of his season-long survey of Beethoven’s piano sonatas, Levit’s playing highlighted the white-hot invention of the composer’s writing
The eight Wigmore Hall recitals that make up Igor Levit’s season-long survey of the the 32 Beethoven piano sonatas stretch from this autumn to next June. If the schedule appears stately, the playing is anything but. Where some pianists may approach the 32 in a reverent mood of homage, Levit’s playing constantly highlights the white-hot invention of Beethoven’s writing, the stylistic disruptions and innovations, and the extreme contrasts of dynamics.
Related: Igor Levit: the leaner, meaner piano machine
Continue reading...October 6, 2016
It’s time to bring submarine May to the surface
Theresa May squeezed every drop of juice out of Brexit means Brexit. Now, the phrase has finally been despatched to the speechwriters’ knacker’s yard. It has served its purpose well, which was to persuade Tory leave voters – the majority of the party – that they could trust the former remainer with the Brexit cause. At Birmingham this week they decided that they can.
But as one banal catchphrase exits stage left, another enters stage right to fill its place. The new May cliche is that she is not going to provide a running commentary on the Brexit negotiations. She said it to Andrew Marr in an interview at the start of the conference on Sunday, and on Wednesday in her main address. She will doubtless say it again when MPs return to parliament next week.
Related: Theresa May consigns Cameron to history in populist conference speech
Continue reading...September 30, 2016
Philharmonia/Salonen review – exemplary Stravinsky double bill
Royal Festival Hall, London
Esa-Pekka Salonen’s readings of Oedipus Rex and the Symphony of Psalms were thrilling while Peter Sellars’s staging of the opera-oratorio was deft
Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Stravinsky survey came to a close in a concert labelled Tragedy. It’s obvious why the tag applies to the first half’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex; less clear in the case of the radiantly austere Symphony of Psalms in the second. The two pieces have plenty of other links, however: both in Latin, both choral, both monumental (though in different ways), both marked by Stravinsky’s re-embrace of religion, and both written in 1926-30 as his neoclassicism evolved in new ways.
Related: Facing the music: Esa-Pekka Salonen
Continue reading...September 29, 2016
A warning to Corbyn: the centre ground hasn’t disappeared, it is being reshaped | Martin Kettle
Theresa May has a superior grasp of centrism, culturally and politically. That’s why she is winning
It is less than 18 months since Ed Balls was one of the big beasts of British politics. Yet how long ago that era seems when one reads his agonised account of the May 2015 election in his memoir, Speaking Out.As a Financial Times reviewer pungently put it, the Balls generation already “reeks of yesterday.”
Labour lost last year, Balls writes, because it was not sufficiently trusted on the economy, and because Ed Miliband was not credible enough as a potential prime minister. This is what most politicians, as well as most political scientists, election analysts and commentators, myself included, believed at the time and believe now.
Related: Jeremy Corbyn’s critics must decide: unity or terminal decline | Owen Jones
Continue reading...September 26, 2016
RLPO/Petrenko review –full of fine things
Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool
Vasily Petrenko brought fire and precision to Beethoven’s Ninth and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra played with fierce concentration
The choral climax of Vasily Petrenko’s Beethoven cycle with his Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra – all the symphonies played over 10 days – coincided with the arrival in town of the Labour party conference. No prizes for guessing where the spirit of brotherly love was more convincing – and it wasn’t in the conference centre down the hill by the Mersey.
To judge by the fire and precision that Petrenko brought to the Ninth Symphony, this was a season-starting cycle to treasure. Petrenko may appear a coolly restrained presence on the podium, but his orchestra played throughout with a fierce concentration that spoke of total rapport.
Continue reading...September 22, 2016
It’ll take a general election for Labour to face up to its crisis | Martin Kettle
If members back Jeremy Corbyn the party will remain divided. All hope now rests with the wider public
If there is one issue in British politics on which the Labour party has always spoken for the public, it is the National Health Service. Through bad times and good, the opinion polls have almost always put Labour ahead of the Tories on the NHS. No matter how hard David Cameron tried to boost his standing on this issue, and at times he tried very hard indeed, the best he ever managed was to dent Labour’s lead.
Related: May more trusted than Corbyn on Britain's key issues, poll finds
Few politicians are less curious about the changes that have happened in Britain in his lifetime than Corbyn
Related: Jeremy Corbyn is not unpopular – but he is divisive | John Curtice
Continue reading...September 16, 2016
Yulianna Avdeeva – exhilarating and articulate with natural verve
Wigmore Hall, London
The Russian’s Wigmore debut demonstrated newfound warmth and generosity in her playing, while retaining a formidable concentration
In 2010, when Yulianna Avdeeva gave her first London recital after winning the Warsaw Chopin piano competition critics heard too much steely dominance in her playing. One can only assume that something good must have happened to Avdeeva in the intervening years, because in this Wigmore debut recital her playing was generous and warm, though the concentration was absolutely formidable.
She began with Bach’s second English suite, well controlled but without rigidity, the tone rich in the Russian manner, the forward propulsion infectious. In the ornate Sarabande Avdeeva showed she can contain the natural verve of her playing when she needs to, and the conversation between the hands had natural grace. The closing Gigue was grandly done, exhilarating and articulate.
Continue reading...September 15, 2016
Brexit was a revolt against liberalism. We’ve entered a new political era | Martin Kettle
Six weeks ago, the British government unexpectedly turned down the dimmer switch on the Hinkley Point nuclear power station project. Today it insouciantly turned the switch right back up again. The deal – colossal in terms of its £18bn cost, UK energy needs and relations with sovereign investors like China – is still exactly the same in most of its essentials as it was in July.
Yet while it now turns out that there will be no U-turn over Hinkley, the delay has involved something a bit more substantial than a governmental summer screen break. In today’s announcement, the business secretary, Greg Clark, highlighted that the go-ahead for Hinkley was subject to two conditions. One is that the UK government keeps a golden share in Hinkley and similar projects; the other is that ownership of key national assets will be subject to a national security test.
September 12, 2016
David Cameron gambled and lost – he had to go | Martin Kettle
Enoch Powell’s famous remark that all political careers end in failure was never so apposite as in the case of David Cameron. Three months ago Cameron commanded British politics. He was expecting to be prime minister until 2019. It’s still a mere two months since he left No 10 after six years in the job.
Now he is heading for the exit from Westminster altogether, quitting as a backbench MP after initially promising to stay on until the next election. The air has gone out of his career with astonishing speed. And he’s not yet 50.
Related: David Cameron to resign as MP for Witney with immediate effect
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