Politics

The last Lord Ribblesdale, who died in 1925, is remembered chiefly as the subject of a remarkable portrait, known as ‘The Ancestor’, by John Singer Sargent. For those who enjoy the byways of social history, this tall, unmistakably aristocratic figure in late-Victorian hunting garb is also remembered for other things: he was a celebrated amateur boxer capable, it was said, of knocking out any man in the House of Lords; he was a long-time denizen of Rosa Lewis’s louche Cavendish Hotel in Jermyn Street; George Bernard Shaw is believed to have used him as the model for Professor Higgins in Pygmalion; and he surprised London society in 1919 by marrying

Gordon Brown’s decision to turn up in Lisbon yesterday to sign the new EU treaty but only as the other leaders were leaving left him looking more like Mr. Bean than ever. It was typical of how Brown doesn’t quite get triangulation. The excuse the Brownites trotted out was that he had already agreed to talk to the Commons Liaison Committee on Thursday morning and so couldn’t be in two places at once. But as James Kirkup points out over at Three Line whip the timing for this doesn’t add up. Brown claims he agreed to his date with the Liaison Committee on the 5th but the Portuguese had informed

This morning, Gordon Brown told the Commons liaison committee: “You cannot make decisions and assume that people will simply follow them. Most decisions can only be successful if people are part of the process.” After that, he jetted off to sign the Treaty formerly known as the European constitution having denied people the role in the process that the Labour manifesto had promised them.

Mark Mardell has a fascinating post up about a forthcoming EU directive that would allow people to travel to another member state for medical treatment. Left-wing Labour MPs like Frank Dobson are, in typical levelling down fashion, worried about what this will do to the NHS as patients flee our MRSA-ridden hospitals. Already 33 MPs are objecting to it, worried that people might—heaven forefend—receive treatment from a non-state provider abroad and then claim the money back from their local health authority. Will this be the issue that revives Euro-scepticism on the soft-left?

Well, that’s that. So close to glory, yet so far. If ever anyone asks you to explain the quintessence of the Scottish footballing experience you need merely point them towards this afternoon’s game at Hampden Park. Every essential element was duly present. Hope. Fear. Calamity. Melodrama. Passion. Joy. Purgatory. Glory. And finally, that familiar friend Disaster. As it always seems to be, watching Scotland play football was to hop on a switchback that would take you to the top of the highest mountain – with just a momentary pause to admire the splendour of the view and the freshness of the air – before plunging back into the deepest, darkest

John Rentoul’s column in the Independent on Sunday illustrates how the Blair – Brown feud is still poisoning Labour politics. Rentoul points out that most of the September plotters against Blair have been rewarded with jobs under Brown, often in the departments run by the Prime Minister’s closest allies. Rentoul then goes onto reveal that, incredibly, some of these plotters think that Labour needs Ed Balls to take over as leader before the next election. This really does make you question their sanity. It is highly dubious whether Balls will ever have what it takes to be PM—he gets monstered nearly every time he goes on TV—but he certainly isn’t