Michael White's Blog, page 8
May 18, 2016
Politicians are making peace with Trump, but he's still Trump
It is fascinating to watch positions being adjusted now it looks like the loudmouth Republican candidate might actually win
It didn’t take David Cameron long to realise that, however “divisive, stupid and wrong” he thought Donald Trump may be, he had better dry clean the Downing Street red carpet in case the Republican presidential hopeful decides to include Britain in the “global statesman” phase of his campaign.
It has been fascinating to watch American politicians and pundits adjusting to the prospect that the real-estate dynast and TV celebrity might not explode this spring, but actually become the Republicans’ candidate to face Hillary Clinton in November. He might even win against such a vulnerable candidate.
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May 17, 2016
Is Sir Richard Dearlove seeking refuge from Chilcot?
The former MI6 chief grabbed headlines with strongly-worded concerns about the EU’s proposed visa deal with Turkey. Why?
“I wonder what he meant by that?” is an old joke in diplomacy, sometimes attributed to that crafty Frenchman Talleyrand on hearing of the death of a fellow ambassador, sometimes to the reactionary master diplomat, Metternich, on first learning that Talleyrand himself had popped his aristocratic clogs in 1838.
When listening to successive Radio 3 and 4 news bulletins on Monday, I had a similar thought about headline-grabbing (Europe may face a “populist uprising”) remarks made at the BBC’s admirable World on the Move day by Sir Richard Dearlove. As the formidable former head of M16 or SIS, he was therefore C (M in the Bond movies) from 1999 to 2004, the period of the west’s second Iraq war. We’ll come back to that.
Continue reading...May 16, 2016
Iraq, Syria and the cost of intervention (and non-intervention)
Chilcot report will highlight failures and dire consequences of 2003 invasion – but not intervening carries a price too
A fake bomb that cleared Manchester United’s Old Trafford ground before the team’s last match of the English Premier League’s dramatic season on Sunday inevitably got more media attention than the Islamic State suicide bombers who killed at least seven people, wounding many more, at an Iraqi gas plant a few hours earlier.
Here’s the longer online version of the Guardian’s inside page report. I could find nothing on the Iraq attack in the FT, Times and Mail. With so many bad things going on in the world, not least in neighbouring Syria, that’s unfortunately inevitable.
Continue reading...May 15, 2016
Boris, the EU and Hitler: bad taste, bad judgment | Michael White
Ex-mayor’s offensive comments likening EU to Nazi dictator put him in the same league as rampaging Donald Trump
It would be just about forgivable for an ignorant-and-proud-of-it politician like Ukip’s Nigel (“Give us a job, Boris”) Farage to make glib Hitler comparisons about the European Union.
But for over-educated Boris Johnson, steeped in classical history and a biographer of Winston “Boris” Churchill, it is both frivolous and deeply offensive. It puts the former mayor of London in the same league as rampaging Donald Trump, another intellectual conman from the metropolitan elite, currently busy trying to mislead poor people for career advantage.
Related: Boris Johnson criticised for 'desperate' link between EU and Hitler
Continue reading...May 12, 2016
Angela Merkel is suddenly looking politically mortal
Will the German chancellor survive to serve another term? Should she?
Europe’s most important politician took a bit of a pasting from the Brexit camp this week for allegedly throwing her weight around in David Cameron’s company. She has had a rough few months since the Syrian refugee crisis hit Germany and is suddenly looking politically mortal. But does Angela Merkel deserve it?
Yes and mostly no. In these turbulent times we may miss her quietly steady hand when it’s no longer there to hold.
Continue reading...May 11, 2016
Was David Cameron's corruption remark really a gaffe?
The media are always quick to detect a gaffe, but the PM’s comment is a complex example of the genre
When is a “gaffe” really a gaffe, the kind of unguarded remark that causes legitimate offence, damages good causes and leaves its author permanently scarred by their own behaviour? Not as often as gaffe-seeking media would have us believe as they cheerfully eavesdrop on private conversations.
David Cameron’s “most corrupt countries” remark about Nigeria and Afghanistan, made to the Queen and picked up by ever more sophisticated TV cameras, is a complex example of the genre. It is obviously true, but also undiplomatic on the eve of an anti-corruption conference which Cameron is hosting. Convenient offence was taken.
Related: Oliver Burkeman: George Bush's gaffes, gibberish, and gurning
Continue reading...May 10, 2016
TV showdown with Boris over EU might be worth risk for Cameron
Debate could be PM’s chance to sink rival over his failure to provide a coherent or convincing vision of a post-Brexit Britain
With the road now clear for the remaining “short campaign” to the EU referendum, both sides are accusing their rival of panic: David Cameron for allegedly warning of future European wars, Iain Duncan Smith and Boris Johnson for assorted wild exaggerations. Six more weeks of this second-rate hysteria.
Me, my money for the day’s top panic is on IDS’s “exclusive” Sun revelation. It recycles old news that Angela Merkel vetoed Dave’s plan back in late 2014 for EU member states to apply an “emergency brake” on internal migration. It was well reported at the time.
Related: Iain Duncan Smith: Cameron let Germans veto 'emergency brake'
Related: David Cameron v Boris Johnson live on TV: the EU debate we must have | Polly Toynbee
Continue reading...May 9, 2016
Why Neil Hamilton's return should trouble us
No good can come of a revolt that results in election of a politician with his past record in public life
In all the many sub-dramas over last week’s elections did you find yourself surprised that the disgraced former Tory MP Neil Hamilton managed to get himself elected to the Welsh assembly, one where he already seems to have leadership designs this week?
Me too.
Related: UK elections 2016 at a glance: the key points and results
Continue reading...May 5, 2016
We all feel sorry for child refugees but how will we pay for their needs | Michael White
Cameron’s U-turn is great news for 3,000 stranded Syrian children but it is right to ask where the money will come from
It is not every day that the lead editorial in the Daily Mail could be transposed with minor amendments to the pages of the Guardian or the FT. But it happened on Thursday in the wake of David Cameron’s concession that up to 3,000 refugee children from Syria will now be allowed into Britain. In fact, on this occasion the Guardian’s editorial is more hard-nosed about underlying realities.
A small good deed has been done in an all-too-wicked world. Let the Mail claim the credit for the campaign to show compassion to refugee children. But it is not alone. Personally, I prefer to think that the Labour peer Alf Dubs, rescued as a Jewish child from Adolf Hitler’s clutches, has repaid a debt to history.
Continue reading...May 4, 2016
Schools minister's cult of rigour turns children into gibbering wrecks
Teachers and parents working together is the key to educating six- and seven-year-olds, not Sats tests on split digraphs
You may be forgiven for not having heard of Nick Gibb until the past few days. He has been a political anorak since his teens, and was an accountant before becoming an MP in 1997. Currently he is the schools minister, working under Nicky Morgan.
Ah yes, that should ring a bell.
Related: Primary school tests boycott draws scattered support
Related: The rights and wrongs of testing 10-year-olds on modal verbs | Letters
Related: Dear Ms Morgan: Sats tests are putting young children through hell
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