Responding to the New Statesman
Fraser Nelson 2:42pm
All of us in 22 Old Queen Street are admiring the New Statesman this week, guest edited by Alastair Campbell. He’s evidently put a hell of a lot of work into it and ransacked his contacts book: diary by Sarah Brown, interview with Alex Ferguson (Pete, a dedicated Man Utd fan, says it’s one of the best he’s read), Danny Finkelstein on the theory of the left waking up to the net (except they’re not, but it’s a good read) and Anthony Charles Lynton Blair on his new friend, God. While the Spectator is evidently on the other side of the fence to The New Statesman we’re not really rivals, insofar as very few people stand at WH Smith and go “eeny meeny” between the two of us. I very much doubt that CoffeeHousers read the New Statesman as a matter of course. But you should today: it’s a genuinely good read. Campbell has missed his vocation.
Anyway, it’s a special honour for yours truly to be given a mention in such an issue, and in the opening paragraph of the political column no less. I am introduced as a “Cameron cheerleader” (remember that next time you’re all slating me for being too cruel to him) and the writer, James Macintyre, gives a fascinating view of the Tory Party from planet zog.
The CoffeeHousers who despair at Cameron’s lack of radical policies would do well to read this piece, as it will cheer you up immensely. Cameron has adopted a “state-slashing, neo-Thatcherite agenda. While Cameron claims to be committed to spending increases, he is backing “spending cuts and tax cuts.” Rather than declaring Europe to be a low priority, Cameron “presides over the most anti-European parliamentary party in Tory history”. He has apparently reversed his plan not to expand grammar schools (damn, I missed that story) and, even better, William Hague is now a neoconservative. Result! Macintyre can also reveal Tory plans to “penalise single mothers.” He doesn’t give details. Perhaps he’s saving that for next week.
Macintyre, of course, is just giving the view of the Tories from the hard left – and it’s no less valid that our view of Labour from our vantage point, the fair-and-balanced right. But I would like to answer the point he made, taking off from a Radio Scotland debate we had a few months ago. “Challenged by this correspondent to name one single significant change Cameron has made,” he says, I “merely said they were ‘too numerous to mention’”. The implication being that I couldn’t name any.
I’ve never met Macintyre, but assume he thinks that anything stopping short of the nationalisation of the means of production is a capitalist plot. So he was unlikely to be convinced by my explanation. But here are five for starters.
1. Cameron has embraced the social justice agenda, and has fully grasped what previous Conservative governments only dimly perceived: that Labour policies are entrenching poverty.
2. He has explicitly dedicated the party to the real victims of Labour policies: those in the benefits trap, or whose children are condemned to sink schools. The aim of the Cameron government is to give the poor the same choice as the rich have. And my, how Labour hate it.
3. His welfare reform proposal was so radical it was copied by the government.
4. He has developed a language that is not open to the misinterpretation on immigration and on crime. Hugely significant.
5. Given the party a mass appeal – now has a 20 point lead over Labour.
On Macintyre’s claims about Tory cuts, let’s hope he turns out to be right. I suspect Cameron will have no choice but to take these lies and make them true somehow (as George Michael so memorably put it*) and eventually scrap his proposal to keep spending more each year. But as for the rest of it, Cameron being wedded to old-style Tory policies? If only.
UPDATE: Macintyre rebuts my rebuttal - he obviously didn't get the George Michael reference . And my response? I've been beaten to it - Conservative Party Reptile says it all.
*We had a debate in the office as to whether the George Michael reference was too obscure to use. For the curious, it’s 2’07 into the below clip:
Previous
Wilhelm
March 19th, 2009 2:58pm Report this commentWhy do the media grovel at the feet of football manager Alex Fergusson ? He's just a tea cup tosser.
Tiberius
March 19th, 2009 3:08pm Report this commentWell that's dealt with a few unresolved arguments, Fraser, not least another list of 5 reasons to vote Tory.
So Campbell has missed his vocation, has he? You mean he hasn't noticed 666 embedded on his scalp?
Mark
March 19th, 2009 3:47pm Report this commentI think you'll find that between writing pornography and working for Tony Blair Alastair Campbell was a journalist. So if that is his vocation he had found it. He is not a gentleman.
Seb
March 19th, 2009 3:49pm Report this commentBizarre view of the masterplan. Has Cameron actually got any policies to back up the claim that he now understands how not to entrench poverty or to radically reform welfare?
I was under the impression the only difference between Cameron and Purnell, is Cameron doesnt want to reform single-parents benefits.
To read this fraser you would think he actually had something constituting an alterative plan.
As far as I can see, your view of what Cameron will do get more divorced from what he actually says he will do every week.
mac
March 19th, 2009 4:01pm Report this comment"The CoffeeHousers who despair at Cameron’s lack of radical policies would do well to read this piece . . ."
Why, because Campbell says it, it must true?
Don't be daft, Fraser.
Seems that In ransacking his contacts book Campbell has overlooked the author of the dodgy Iraq dossier. Surely he was worth a guest article, too?
Tony Nicholls
March 19th, 2009 4:05pm Report this commentI do so wish that Cameron was a neo-Thatcherite committed to slashing state spending and cutting taxes. Someone needs to be.
30 years ago the Tories inherited a bankrupt and broken country and had to make some tough choices to fix it.
The current situation is infinitely worse and will require even tougher choices.
David Ossitt
March 19th, 2009 4:10pm Report this commentCampbell has missed his vocation.
And just what would that be I wonder?
Consigliere to some Mafia Don?
Wilhelm
March 19th, 2009 4:17pm Report this commentJust saw the photo of the barbarian Alex Ferguson and Campbell in the New Statesman, its a liebour love in, soook fest.
seb
March 19th, 2009 4:24pm Report this commentSeb
Are you the same as 'seb' [me]?
I'd call myself Sebastian but I'm too lazy to type such a long name.
I've checked out A. Lynton Blair's New Statesman faith-based piece and was not allowed in. The article, my screen told me, could not be found. Still, I did note that Lynton appears to have written a piece entitled 'Why We Must Do God'.
Yours
seb
Has anyone read this? Is it in fact as bonkers as the title suggests. Which god must be all 'do'? A witty precis of Princess Tony's article would be welcome here as, no doubt, no one still resident in the real world really wants to read it.
kinglear
March 19th, 2009 4:29pm Report this commentMark - he is not a gentleman. Too bloody right he's not
Kevyn Bodman
March 19th, 2009 4:35pm Report this comment'Pete, a dedicated Man Utd. fan says it's one of the best he's read.'
Meaningless.
It's like asking every Catalan leaving Camp Nou after seeing Real Madrid lose 5-0 if they enjoyed the match.
What do non-partisans think?
As for sporting figures, I would like to see a 10 page profile and interview with Martyn Williams when he retires,but I don't expect to see it in a political weekly.
Anthony Charles Lynton Blair on his new friend God.
I wouldn't be interested in any of Blair's opinions on any subject now that he, thankfully,is out of power and doesn't have a major effect on my life.
Alastair Campbell, the same one who earned his living for years as a bullying manipulator when press chief at No 10?
Fraser, I think your post displays an element of clubbish professional courtesy that might not be mirrored in your readership.
I do not dismiss contacts with Labour supporters and voters. Many of them are decent and a few of my friends are Labour voters, but really,Blair and Campbell?
Haven't you rumbled them for the deeply unpleasant characters they are?
Charm might be present there, but it doesn't make up for the core of their character and subsequent behaviour.
I would not be reading the New Statesman this week; although I do buy it for train journeys in the UK,this week I'd have no trouble going without.
P.S. Note to non rugby fans: Martyn Williams is a very fine player and has been a key member of the Wales team for years.
I don't know of any plans to retire but I hope he gets a great send-off when he does stop playing.
David Ossitt
March 19th, 2009 4:36pm Report this commentI think that my first post got lost again!
Campbell has missed his vocation.
What would that be?
Consigliere to some Mafia Don?
Donna
March 19th, 2009 4:41pm Report this commentI don't think the George Michael quote was too obscure to use. I got it, anyhow. Not sure it warrented the whole video being added in.
Hugh
March 19th, 2009 5:09pm Report this commentDonna, too right. It was an interesting post but I can't agree with anything that involves a George Michael video. Please don't do that again.
David Ossitt
March 19th, 2009 6:19pm Report this commentTony Nicholls.
Spot on the button.
bill
March 19th, 2009 6:26pm Report this comment"the other side of the fence to" or "other side of the fence from"
Susan Hill (a dedicated Man U fan since 1958)
March 19th, 2009 6:29pm Report this comment@Tony Nicholls. You said it all for me.
Every word.
Screwtape
March 19th, 2009 7:03pm Report this comment"Cameron cheerleader", well that really did touch a raw nerve didn't it. Black Ali hasn't though properly sussed out the real nature of your relationship with Boy George - now with that he really could have some fun!
As for his interview with Ferguson (which I'll bet was carried out before last Saturday!) it really is diificult to imagine two more obnoxious arrogant Class 1 shits in the same room at the same time. All that would be missing would be Osborne to make the Perfect Trinity.
PS No wonder Hoskin has seemed so subdued this week.
fraser Nelson
March 19th, 2009 7:16pm Report this commentDonna/Hugh, we debated the video. There's so much gloom in the world, we figured it may cheer some people up. But point taken on Georgos - promise not to do it again.
hadrian
March 19th, 2009 8:37pm Report this commentOne certainly hopes that Cameron is framing unambiguous policies on crime...Labour and SNP are pathetically limp on this issue vital to civilized society. Mob rule we don't want, but populist frustration is far from ill founded. Let's hear more about actually PUNISHING criminals!
THX1138
March 19th, 2009 9:06pm Report this commentThe New Statesman we’re not really rivals, insofar as very few people stand at WH Smith and go “eeny meeny” between the two of us. I very much doubt that CoffeeHousers read the New Statesman as a matter of course"
I do
and the arts section is much better in the NS.
Rodders
March 19th, 2009 9:35pm Report this comment"Macintyre, of course, is just giving the view of the Tories from the hard left – and it’s no less valid that our view of Labour from our vantage point, the fair-and-balanced right".
No, no, no, no!
The hard left are fundamentally dishonest and are completely uninterested in the truth.
How can you possibly equate the moderate right with the hard left?!
(Unless I've completely misunderstood what you meant - the typo 'that' instead of 'than' doesn't help).
Red Riding Hood
March 19th, 2009 11:29pm Report this commentForget his politics, drinking habits, manic depression, sudden support for The Dear Leader...
He is a son of the West Riding who pledged his allegiance to the Dingles...
That tells you more than you need to know about his character...
Peter
March 19th, 2009 11:42pm Report this commentTHX1138 (or may I call you THX?): Agreed. I use to read both, prefering the Speccy as it could, occasionally be amusing - something of which one could never accuse the NS. So when time became short, I dropped the NS. Now I read neither regularly - either I've changed, or they have.
Verity
March 20th, 2009 2:06pm Report this commentPeter: They have. Thursdays were most eagerly anticipated when the late Frank Johnson was the editor.
Frankly, it sank like a stone when Boris Johnson, who is not a particularly ept writer and is not an editor, took over. It became a pedestrian Nepotism Central. He published an article by the plodding - and I'm sure this was after some degree of editing - Ron Liddle's then girlfriend. And Johnson's sister, whose writing is as light as a mudslide and every bit as entertaining, and various other people who were not exactly in the spirit of the Speccie. Certainly, in these prudish, bossy, joyless, Labouresque times, The Speccie wouldn't tolerate the often "sick" Jeffrey Barnard.
I stopped buying it after around six months of B Johnson.
c
April 2nd, 2009 4:04pm Report this commentin that list of 5 "policies" you failed to mention a single concrete policy...
a possible exception being welfare reform - but you didn't flesh that out at all.
rather cameroon i.e nice world with no concrete policy behind it.
Winston Smith
April 2nd, 2009 5:55pm Report this comment@c
That's because it was a list of changes not "policies".
Read the article.
Up until Labour's failed attempt at a fiscal stimulus, anouncing an actual policy seemed akin to handing it over to the government to change slightly and adopt.
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