Jeremy corbyn

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Labour conference is surprisingly even-tempered. Why?

Why does Labour conference feel so even-tempered so far? In previous years the answer would be that it has been stage-managed to the hilt and all frontbenchers programmed with the lines to take. But this year the party’s conference strapline is ‘Straight talking. Honest politics’ and frontbenchers aren’t being sent daily lines to take, so even if they wanted to be on message, they couldn’t be. Of course, those frontbenchers are enjoying telling fringes that they take one view while their leader takes another, but what’s still remarkable about this conference is how good natured all the fringe meetings have been after a vicious leadership contest. Those running were abused

Steerpike Steerpike

Date night dinner for Jeremy and John

The New Statesman holds the best party of the Labour conference – but Chuka Umunna was the guest of honour and no sign of the leader. Where was Jeremy Corbyn? Toasting his success with his new comrades? Striking a new alliance with the editor of the Daily Mirror? Mr S understands that the Labour leader shunned the more glitzy parties on offer at his first conference as leader in favour of a quiet meal with his friends at Jamie’s Italian. Corbyn was joined for his Italian dinner by John McDonnell and a couple of close aides.  With no flunkies or security guards in sight, the group feasted on pizza and tap water

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

John McDonnell’s speech gave a taste of the madness that has taken over the Labour party

The new shadow chancellor, John McDonnell, told us to expect him to sound like a mild bank manager when he gave his speech today. He ended up sounding like he was auditioning for the remake of Citizen Smith. How many bank managers end their speech by actually scripting a Wolfie-style yawp of ‘Solidarity!’? Perhaps this is all mild and relatively sane by McDonnell’s standards: if so, it offers us an interesting glimpse of the madness which now has the Labour party in its grip. His speech was supposed to be all nuance, policy reviews and open debate but strip that away and you’re left with some of the most deranged,

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Miliband’s spin doctor makes a return to the Labour press office

After Labour’s disastrous election result, Ed Miliband’s spin doctor Tom Baldwin made a swift exit from Labour HQ. For many in the party this was a welcome move; the king of spin was blamed for a number of election gaffes, including allegedly telling the BBC’s Nick Robinson that Miliband saw the HSBC scandal as ‘another Milly Dowler moment’. Despite this, it appears that old habits die hard. Steerpike understands that Baldwin has been spied in the the press office at Labour party conference. Is the spinner making a return to party politics? Given that Baldwin not only has feuds with journalists on a number of nationals, but also wrote a post-election editorial accusing the BBC of showing bias against

The Spectator

John McDonnell’s speech to the Labour party conference – full text

I warn you this is not my usual rant, they get me into trouble and I’ve promised Jeremy to behave myself. Jeremy and I sat down at the beginning of his campaign for the Labour leadership to discuss what they call the strap line for his campaign leaflets and posters. We came up with the strapline you see now. Straight talking, honest politics. It just embodied for me what Jeremy Corbyn is all about. So in the spirit of straight talking, honest politics. Here’s some straight talking. At the heart of Jeremy’s campaign, upon which he received such a huge mandate, was the rejection of austerity politics. But austerity is

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

If only middle-class liberals would shut up, we might get a proper debate

Why are the audiences for political debate programmes so unrepresentative of the voting population? By which I mean, why are they seemingly always stuffed to the gills with Corbynista maniacs? On Any Questions? and Question Time, the best way to get a loud cheer from the crowd is to suggest we should decapitate the Queen, or invade Israel. Is this because of BBC bias? Two contrasting views in the papers these last few days. One from the right-wing journo Allison Pearson, who had to suffer a ‘leftie hell’ on Any Questions?, and who wants the BBC to make a better effort to balance the audiences. And one from media consultant

Steerpike Steerpike

Ghosts of Labour’s past at New Statesman conference bash

As Labour conference kicked off on Sunday on Brighton pier, it was a case of the ghosts of Labour’s past at the annual New Statesman party. The magazine’s editor Jason Cowley told attendees who had their journeys affected by train works not to worry as ‘Corbyn has a plan for the railways’, before reflecting on what had happened to the party in the space of a year.  ‘At our party last year in Manchester Ed Miliband was standing beside me and I introduced him as our next Prime Minister,’ he told partygoers at Brighton’s Al Fresco restaurant. While Miliband stayed away this time, the party’s new leader was also notably absent. With Lucy Powell locked deep in conversation with her

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Stiglitz, Piketty – Jeremy Corbyn’s star ‘advisers’ are, like him, wrong about UK inequality

A new leader with little credibility asks famous economists to ‘advise’ him on economic policy. It’s an old trick. News that Jeremy Corbyn is seeking the counsel of Thomas Piketty and Joe Stiglitz is not surprising – both are in the business of selling books suggesting the world is becoming more unequal than ever, and that a crisis is looming. The problem is that this ain’t so – not in Britain, at any rate. Piketty’s central thesis was brilliantly dismantled by Chris Giles, the FT’s economics editor, who won an award for his expose. But at least Piketty published data that could be scrutinised: Stiglitz seems to make his up on

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

No Trident vote will calm Labour conference tensions

In the past few minutes, the Labour conference arrangements committee has decided not to hold a vote on whether to scrap Trident. This prevents a major split in the party early on into Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. There was insufficient support from constituency party delegates for a debate and vote, and even though Corbyn was making a concerted effort to argue that it didn’t matter if there was a difference of opinion in the party, this is one matter that a number of MPs and members feel strongly is a part of the party’s identity. It does mean that this conference will have a little less tension around it. But it’s

Sebastian Payne

In photos: the Corbynisation of Labour conference

The main halls and speeches at party conferences tend to be the least interesting parts — the words are briefed out to the press in advance, what politicians say is on stage is usually dull and you can watch it all on TV anyway. It’s the fringe events and exhibitions that give a better sense of a party’s mood. Judging by the halls of the Brighton Centre, Jeremy Corbyn has certainly had an impact on the whole party (click on the pictures to enlarge). Wandering through the exhibition halls, I was struck just how many trade unions are present have big flashy stands. Unite the Union has is easily the most

Sebastian Payne

Chuka Umunna: I still won’t serve under Corbyn, despite EU u-turn

Chuka Umunna proved the Labour moderates still have a fan base at his first fringe appearance in Brighton. At a packed out Demos event, the former shadow business secretary and one-time leadership contender, said that a difference of opinion over the EU referendum was not the only reason he didn’t take a job in Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. Despite the Labour leader’s new position of campaigning to remain In come what may — outlined in this op-ed — Umunna suggested he still wouldn’t take a position: ‘We had a good discussion and quite of that actually was really thinking about things in this reshuffle, but there were a number of issues and the EU was one of them. I

Steerpike Steerpike

John Prescott: how I hopped before the Queen

Given the criticism that Jeremy Corbyn received when he failed to sing God Save the Queen at a Battle of Britain memorial service, the Labour leader faces a new dilemma when he is sworn into the Privy council. Although it is custom to get on bended knee and kiss the Queen’s hand, the republican politician is said to be undecided over whether to adhere to this. However, according to John Prescott he may already be spared from one part of the ceremony. Speaking on the Sunday Politics,the former deputy Prime Minister told Andrew Neil that the ceremony does not actually require any kneeling, instead it consists of a fair amount of hopping: ‘When I was first asked

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Corbyn’s new look Labour leadership means he’s happy not to lead

Jeremy Corbyn had a very good interview on Marr this morning. For anyone in the wider, non-Westminster world tuning in (and they do), the new Labour leader would have come across as reasonable, mild, and normal. When Marr pressed him on certain issues, Corbyn looked as though he was an academic having a good debate in his study over a glass of port (or marrow juice, maybe), rather than a politician panicking as he tried to remember the next line that he’d memorised from the spin doctor’s briefing. He even managed to get some quips about internal Labour democracy in, joking that the programme should film ‘compositing in action’. What

Sebastian Payne

Labour conference 2015: Sunday fringe guide

Good morning comrades! Labour’s annual conference kicks off in sunny Brighton today and it’s set to be one of the most exciting gatherings in years. We usually comb through the fringe listings to point you towards the most interesting events. However, the conference programme was printed before Jeremy Corbyn rose to leader and the majority of notable speakers have either quit or been sacked from the shadow cabinet. This makes picking out the best fringes a little more difficult than in previous years. Plus, in the brave new world of Corbyn’s leadership, the people to watch have changed. We’ve gathered a list below of events today featuring speakers both in and outside the new leadership team.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Shaker Aamer to be released: Jeremy Corbyn and the Daily Mail can rejoice together

Shaker Aamer, the last British resident held in Guantanamo Bay, is to be released, the White House has announced. Aamer is alleged to have led a unit of Taliban fighters and have plotted with Osama Bin Laden, but he has never been charged or been on trial. His case is one that David Cameron has raised in discussions with President Obama, and one the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday have been pressing for a good while too, on the grounds that it is indefensible to lock someone up since 2002 without charge or trial (the Mail’s argument has always been that he may be a ‘very bad man’ but that

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Jeremy Corbyn isn’t a man of the people. He’s a man against the people

Corbynistas are always banging on about how we need fewer posh politicians and more politicians who look and sound like ‘ordinary people’. So who has Corbyn appointed as his shadow secretary for environment, food and rural affairs? Kerry McCarthy — a vegan! A member of the snootiest tribe of all, who sustain themselves by nuts and self-righteousness alone and look upon the rest of us as a bloodthirsty, carnivorous blob. When it comes to naked elitism, vegans outdo Etonians every single time. When I addressed the Political Society at Eton in 2013 — the first time I’d ever set my London-Irish foot inside a public school — I was struck

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can the Blairites rescue the Labour party?

The first conference of the Corbyn era has got MPs and journalists scrambling around for a copy of the Labour party’s rule book. Everyone is trying to work out whether or not scrapping Trident will be debated or not. This is the first skirmish in what promises to be a series of procedural fights between Corbyn and his supporters and what is left of the old party establishment. It would be tempting for Labour moderates to end up expending all their energies in these fights, doing what they can to stop the Corbynites seizing control of the commanding heights of the Labour party. But, as I argue in the magazine

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs like Jeremy Corbyn’s PMQs style

Jeremy Corbyn knows he has a lot to prove at his party’s conference, which starts on Sunday. The highlight of his leadership so far has been his new tone at PMQs, which did catch attention, even if the questions he asked rather turned the session into an opportunity for David Cameron to look Prime Ministerial. The Labour leader knows he needs to make changes from that first attempt (his first ever stint at the dispatch box), but he’s not the only one mulling how to manage the session. A number of Tory MPs have told me that they have received a good load of letters and emails since that PMQs

Thursday

Peter Jones

Corbyn’s democracy

The virtuous Mr Corbyn is insisting that New Old Labour should return to its traditional republican ways and take decisions ‘democratically’. The emperor Tiberius (ad 14–37) tried this one and it did not work. The first Roman emperor Augustus agreed to his stepson Tiberius’ accession only because death had cheated him of all his preferred options. The problem was that Tiberius’ heart was not really in it. A man with republican sympathies, he seemed to be keen to persuade the senate to return to involvement in the full process of ‘democratic’ rule and decision-making, duties which that body had embraced for nearly 500 years under the republic, but which Augustus

Tom Holland

Diary – 24 September 2015

Jeremy Corbyn has been compared to plenty of people over the past few months — a geography teacher, Michael Foot, Brian from the Monty Python film — but my favourite comparison was to a horse. Steve Fielding, professor of politics at Nottingham, declared Corbyn’s election ‘an act of political stupidity unparalleled since Caligula appointed his horse to the Roman senate’. As someone with a book just published on Rome’s first imperial dynasty, I was doubly thrilled. First, Professor Fielding had confirmed the conviction in which I had written my history of the first Caesars: that two millennia on, the West’s primal examples of political excess continue to instruct and appal.