The swivel-eyed, the glass-eyed and the cross-eyed | Simon Hoggart | Politics. No sign of David Cameron in the Commons chamber. Perhaps he was lying in a darkened room, or consulting a hermit on top of a Himalayan mountain. His party appears to be disintegrating into endless factions beneath him. Loonies versus sort-of sane.
Swivel-eyed against glass eyed. Herding cats? On Monday we started the last stages of the gay marriage bill, beginning with the timetable. There wasn't enough time for the debate. Sir Peter Bottomley (C, Worthing W) was, I think, in favour of gay marriage, which he compared to the Reform Act, the abolition of slavery and women's suffrage. Sir Gerald Howarth (C, Aldershot) said that the Commons might have voted in favour by a large majority, but only a minority of Tories had backed it. A new constitutional tenet: a bill doesn't just need most MPs; it needs the support of most MPs who agree with Sir Gerald!
Another constitutional innovation: MPs should not pass laws if they could be abusing the Labour party instead. Daniel Byles, (C, N. EU referendum bill to be put forward by Tory MP | Politics. A drawn-out parliamentary battle over the holding of an EU referendum by 2017 is now in prospect after the Tory MP James Wharton came top of the private member's ballot and vowed to try to pilot such a bill on to the statute book. Downing Street confirmed that Conservative MPs would be instructed by their whips to vote for the bill but they will not have the support of their coalition partners. The move follows a show of strength by Tory Eurosceptics on Wednesday night in a vote on an amendment on the Queen's speech that regretted the absence of an in-out EU referendum bill in the government's legislative programme.
Dissenting Conservative MPs numbered 114, although David Cameron's aides insisted the vote was not a blow to his authority because he had allowed a free vote and was relaxed about the outcome. John Baron, the leader of the Tory dissidents, said: "We are going to keep at this. There is deep distrust out there. He now hoped the bill could lay the issue to rest.
David Cameron fights UN plan to commit to reduced income inequality | Politics. David Cameron is fighting plans to place a commitment to reducing income inequality in the developing world into a major UN report that will set out a series of targets to replace the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Amid fears that the commitment could create "perverse incentives", and actually slow down the battle to eradicate extreme poverty, the prime minister said the UN should focus on "measurable, concrete" goals. These include ending extreme poverty and hunger by 2030. On the final leg of his three-day trip to the US, the prime minister arrived in New York on Tuesday for the last meetings of the panel that is due to report to the UN secretary general by the end of the month on the successors to the MDGs. The trip has inevitably been overshadowed by the furore back at Westminster over a possible EU referendum.
"We think it is right that we should be using this [panel] to address equality of opportunity. Obviously we want to be lifting up the world's poorest. David Cameron should beware the referendum trap | Steve Richards | Comment is free. Beware the deadly lure of referendums. In the United Kingdom referendums are proposed for the wrong reasons – and even after they have been offered are rarely held. Leaders make the offer not because they have discovered a sudden passion for new forms of direct democracy.
Their motive is the precise opposite. They fear losing control and hope that the prospect of a vote at some seemingly safe distant point will make life easier for them in the meantime. Instead they become even more trapped. Leaders are drawn towards referendums only to be torn apart the closer they get to a full embrace. They have a mountain of evidence to warn them of what will happen, but still they make their fatal moves. David Cameron is the latest to be caught out. Because the zany pattern of national referendums is that they can be proposed, but are rarely staged. After 1997 the referendum on the single currency was never held. On the rare occasions when a national referendum is held it solves nothing.
Labour voters increasingly turning against the poor, study says | Politics. Labour party supporters increasingly believe that welfare recipients are undeserving and that the welfare state encourages dependence, with a noticeable share saying that poverty is caused by a personal failing rather than a problem with society, a landmark study reveals. A report for the Joseph Rowntree Foundation examined the links between public attitudes to poverty, welfare and the state of the economy using data collected as part of the British Social Attitudes survey. It found that the traditional view that the poor were seen sympathetically during recessions has disappeared, with support for welfare "largely confined (to) recipients of unemployment benefits". The report says there is a "general trend" where the public accepts that individual characteristics rather than societal issues cause poverty.
Most striking was that this change over the past 30 years can be put down to the shifting opinions of Labour voters. What the foundation seems to pinpoint is a major cultural shift. Labour election victory in 2015 looks a distant prospect, says pollster | Politics. Labour has a mountain to climb to win the next election outright, and is still failing to chalk up big enough leads on image or leadership to make it likely to secure an overall majority, according to polling which will be put to a Labour conference to be addressed this weekend by Ed Miliband.
The YouGov polling, commissioned by Progress, suggests the party is still seen as "nice" but incapable of taking tough decisions. Miliband's personal ratings have hardly improved over the past year. In an article for Progress, the New Labour pressure group, the YouGov president, Peter Kellner, describes the polling as "profoundly troubling" for Labour, saying that despite the unpopularity of the government, Labour has uncomfortably small leads and has been unable to generate wide public enthusiasm. Labour, he advises, needs to think what it will do if it fails to win an overall majority. Kellner suggests that Miliband may be holding back party support. David Cameron blasted in full-page Times ad by 'disillusioned' Tory voter | Media. An anonymous "disillusioned" Tory voter has splashed out an estimated £16,000 for a full-page advert in the Times to beg David Cameron and George Osborne to learn about the "unpleasant realities of the real world".
The advert in Tuesday's Times takes the form of a letter to the prime minister and the chancellor and is signed simply as "Martin, full name and address supplied". "Martin" takes Cameron to task over the ballooning national debt and gives him a three-point plan to get the economy working again: get rid of a quarter of all senior civil servants; remove unnecessary health and safety departments; and review all capital expenditure projects whose return does not materialise for several years. He suggests that only capital expenditure projects that have at least 50% UK labour content should be considered and warns that bolting foreign trains together in a British plant "is hardly the same". He also takes him to task on his boasts about the 1 million jobs he has created. Like the unions before it, the press has shown us who really governs Britain | Martin Kettle. For 20 torrid years, from the mid-1960s to the mid-1980s, "Who governs?
" – parliament or trade unions – was the central issue in domestic politics. In 1969 Harold Wilson's Labour government tried, in Barbara Castle's In Place of Strife white paper, to bring the unions within the law. The unions, and a significant part of the Labour party, fought off the attempt. Ted Heath's Tory government tried again in the 1970s, and was driven from office. Jim Callaghan's Labour government ceded the unions a share of power, but he fell because of the unions too. Margaret Thatcher succeeded where Heath had failed, at traumatic cost to the unions – partly self-inflicted – that persists to this day. The question still matters in Britain today. Today two groups are the equivalents of the unions of yesteryear. Unless something improbably statesmanlike happens in the next few weeks, it is increasingly clear that the press has now defeated parliament's two-year attempt to bring it within the rule of law.
Ukip is dragging David Cameron to the right, says Nick Clegg | Politics. Nick Clegg: 'My job is to make sure that my party does not get pulled left or right as Cameron goes right and Miliband goes left.' Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian Nick Clegg has claimed that the struggle on the right of British politics caused by Ukip's surge was pulling David Cameron away from the centre ground and making day-to-day progress in the coalition government more difficult. Interviewed on the eve of the local elections, and facing the prospect of coming fourth in terms of share of the vote behind Ukip, the Liberal Democrat leader and deputy prime minister vowed to "dig in my heels and make sure the centre of gravity of the government as a whole does not get pulled rightwards due to the internal dynamics of the Conservative party".
It is the first time that Clegg has acknowledged that the rightward shift of the Conservatives is making the functioning of government more difficult. He added: "I have personally never presented plan A like a tablet of stone. Labour's golden policy key? Build, build and build more | Polly Toynbee. The general election is two years and a few days away. By then the political landscape may feel like another country.
However well Labour does in Thursday's elections, mid-term results in mainly Tory shires tell us relatively little. One thing is certain: 2015 will be the greatest clash between optimism and pessimism in living memory. Labour needs to persuade the country that politics can and will change lives, hopes and national fate. Despite their own disruptive radicalism, the Tories will claim to be the steady-as-you-go option: change is danger. This week's YouGov poll for the Resolution Foundation showed the current mood finely balanced. These are odd times: many in both main parties seem despondent, finding good reasons why they can't, won't and don't deserve to win in 2015.
With right and left upper-cuts from Tony Blair and Len McCluskey, the two Eds may feel a dizzy loss of bearings. Until they peer into the Tory tent, where things look worse. Ken Clarke: Ukip has fruitcakes, loonies, waifs and strays | Politics. Ukip has "fruitcakes, loonies, waifs and strays" in its ranks and among its supporters, Kenneth Clarke has said after a spate of stories questioning the credentials of the party's candidates in this week's local elections. Ukip described the stories – which it claimed were part of a smear campaign by Conservative central office – as "morally reprehensible", but the transport secretary, Patrick McLoughlin, said he knew nothing about a smear campaign, arguing that all parties needed to be subject to scrutiny.
Ukip's leader, Nigel Farage, has admitted that his party has been overstretched in vetting its 1,700 candidates. During the local election campaign Farage has also jettisoned, seemingly on his whim, longstanding policies such as a flat rate of tax. He said the government had to do more to prevent immigrants accessing some health benefits. He said many Ukip supporters were angry about the failure of the political class. He was scathing about the quality of some Ukip candidates. Soundings. MPs look lazy with short parliamentary hours, says Margaret Hodge | Politics. MPs risk accusations of laziness and poor value for money because the number of hours they work in Westminster appear to be shrinking, according to the senior MP responsible for scrutinising public spending.
Margaret Hodge, who chairs the public accounts committee, said the coalition should lengthen the parliamentary calendar because MPs were spending less time in Westminster scrutinising policy. In an interview with the Guardian, Hodge warned of a growing "democratic vacuum" and said that parliamentary sessions were so short "it feels as if we are hardly working". Her comments, which come as parliament begins to wind down this year's session in preparation for the state opening in May, have been backed by some Conservative and Labour MPs. They will be controversial with teachers after the education secretary, Michael Gove, was criticised by unions for calling for a cut in the length of school holidays last week.
"September sittings have been restored. Legal Aid – some thoughts | Barrister 999. If you venture into the legal blogosphere right now you can see many erudite blogs about the Ministry of Justice’s proposed “reforms” of the legal aid system. I’m taking to blogging for the first time to add my voice to the dissenters. This is a difficult exercise. I am so incensed by the proposals and there are so many points to make that it is difficult to distil them down into any sensible article. I suppose the Powers That Be know that, as it helps them. If you can’t write your campaign slogan on a small yellow sticky note it’s going to be hard to win over the public. The Consultation In summary, the Ministry of Justice has unveiled a “consultation” on reforming legal aid, mostly criminal legal aid. In short form, which is not easy, the current proposals are as follows: Legally-aided criminal defendants will be deprived of the ability to choose their own solicitor.
Add to that that the questions asked in the consultation document don’t go to the heart of the issue: It’s worse than that. Labour down to 35% while Ukip surge continues – Opinium/Observer poll | Politics. Labours's 35% tally in the latest Opinium/Observer poll is one of the lowest since Ed Miliband became leader. Photograph: Owen Humphreys/PA Labour's poll rating has dropped to just 35% and the party is now less trusted to run the economy than it was last September according to the latest Opinium/Observer survey. The findings will dent Labour morale and are bound to lead to renewed calls from within the party for Ed Miliband to deliver a clearer message about its future direction, particularly on spending and welfare policies. While the Tories are still in the doldrums, up 1% at 29% compared with a fortnight ago, David Cameron and George Osborne will be cheered that Labour's lead has been cut to just six percentage points.
State of the parties: intention of those likely to vote Photograph: guardian.co.uk The 35% tally for Labour is one of the lowest since Ed Miliband became leader. The UK Polling Report website shows it has dropped lower – to 34% – in only four polls since September 2010. Dear politicians, exploiting divisions over cuts could come back to bite you | Tom Clark. If we Britons want to know what truly polarised politics look like, we need only glance across the Atlantic. Recent polling in the US asked respondents what they thought about repealing the 1975 Public Affairs Act, entirely fictitious legislation that – in two versions of the same question – it was suggested that either President Obama or the Republicans wanted to axe.
As Mick Blumenthal explains, a small proportion of voters are always willing to offer their views on subjects that they cannot possibly have any real opinion on, but as soon as the hate name Obama was mentioned in connection with the proposed repeal a full 39% of Republicans rushed forward to denounce it. More than a quarter of Democrats, likewise, rush to defend the non-act when it is said to be under Republican threat. At the start of the week, I reported that YouGov's numbers suggested Britons are less inclined overall than the Germans or the French to demand that the government cracks down on people on benefit. Mehdi Hasan: Was Thatcher a 'Champion of Freedom and Democracy'? Don't. Be. Silly. It's time to bury not just Thatcher - but Thatcherism | Seumas Milne. Margaret Thatcher used chemistry degree to approach politics 'with mindset of a scientist' says Mary Archer.
Public opinion and the welfare state: Thatcher's unfinished revolution | Editorial. Thatcher: the unintended and paradoxical legacy of the lady in blue | Andrew Rawnsley | Comment is free | The Observer. Margaret Thatcher was loved and hated – both for sound economic reasons | Business. Margaret Thatcher fans plan US-style memorial as row grows over funeral | Politics. Margaret Thatcher: divisions grow over funeral and legacy | Politics | The Observer. Margaret Thatcher 'gave her approval' to her son Mark's failed coup attempt in Equatorial Guinea | Politics | The Observer. Don't upset Margaret Thatcher mourners, police warn protesters | Politics | The Observer. No evidence for Iain Duncan Smith benefit cap claim, says research chief | Politics. Margaret Thatcher: the first draft of history | Editorial. Tony Blair warns Labour could be reduced to a protest party as cuts bite | Politics. PM backs Osborne over comments linking Philpott case to welfare | Politics.
Mick Philpott and benefits culture: George Osborne attacked by Labour saying UK needs debate on welfare. George Osborne 'cynical' to link Philpott case with welfare cuts, says Ed Balls | Politics. Food vouchers to provide emergency help but prevent spending on alcohol | Politics. Jobcentre boss denies use of targets for applying sanctions to jobseekers | Society. Barnet council faces high court review of budget cuts | Society. Press regulation deal agreed in late-night talks | Media. Ukip's heartland: immigration, the EU and clean toilets - video. Cameron gambles on MPs' vote over press regulation | Media. Secret courts: the nasty party is back | Editorial. Cameron refuses to veer right as Ukip targets Tory seats in the north | Politics | The Observer. Tories put David Cameron on notice after Eastleigh byelection drubbing | Politics. Don't mention the Iraq war, William Hague tells cabinet | World news. Eastleigh: what do the results say about our political class? | John Harris.
John O’Farrell has changed since the 1980s – unlike the underbelly of the Tory Party. Obituary: Pierre Poujade | News. Achieving a Social State | Publications. Will EDF become the Barbra Streisand of climate protest? | George Monbiot. Rachel Johnson: women shouldn't settle for old Etonians running the country. Edwina Currie warps Thatcher's legacy to women. Ukip MEP defects to Tories | Politics. David Cameron: 'not nearly enough' women MPs | Politics.
Horsemeat scandal: 'government warned two years ago' | UK news. The meat scandal shows all that is rotten about our free marketeers | Will Hutton | Comment is free | The Observer. Maria Hutchings: The off-message candidate Dave's pinning his Eastleigh by-election hopes on. Ed Miliband is a man with the makings of a brave and visionary leader | Polly Toynbee.
Living standards: you've never had it so grim | Editorial. Ukip Eastleigh candidate calls for 'moratorium on immigration' London 2012's legacy: diggers and a potential white elephant in the stadium | UK news. Graduate's Poundland victory leaves government work schemes in tatters | Society. Every coalition U-turn: the list in full | Politics. Michael Gove advisers face claims of smear tactics against foes | Politics | The Observer. Answers, Mr Gove | Observer editorial | Comment is free | The Observer. Are dark arts spinning out of control in Michael Gove's department? | Politics | The Observer. Theresa May proposes fast track promotion for young police officers | UK news. Beware Eric Pickles' quiet revolution | Richard Seymour.
Adam Afriyie denies plot to bring down David Cameron | Politics. Fury over lost London 2012 Games legacy as school sport funds dry up | UK news | The Observer. Cameron's Europe speech and PMQs: Politics live blog | Politics. Ed Miliband warns: Cameron is leading us towards the EU exit | Politics. Statistics cast doubt on coalition's '500,000 new jobs' claim | UK news. UK jobs soar – but how many of these jobs are real? | Business. All politics stories 15 January 2013. Theresa May approves radical overhaul of police pay and conditions | UK news. Secret papers show extent of senior royals' veto over bills | UK news. Budget bombshell: Tories mug OAPs and hand tax breaks to the rich. Ed Miliband speech to the Fabian Society - One Nation Labour: The Party of Change. Labour's 2015 fears are puny compared with the Tories' terror | Polly Toynbee.
Tory fury as Lib Dem peers join Labour to delay boundary review | Politics. David Cameron: Britain would not collapse outside EU | Politics. Tory Eurosceptics' impossible demand poses headache for David Cameron | Politics. All comments for youarehavingalaugh. MPs call for, in private at least, a 32% pay rise | Politics. Right wing people are less intelligent. Right-wingers are less intelligent than left wingers, says controversial study - and conservative politics can lead people to be racist. Germany tells Cameron: don't blackmail the EU | World news. US warns Britain against leaving European Union | World news. There is a problem with welfare, but it's not 'shirkers' | Seumas Milne. Benefits: taking money from the poor | Editorial.
Poorest households will be hit hardest by benefit changes, Whitehall admits | Politics. Chav-bashing – a bad joke turning into bilious policy | John Harris.