Bright's Blog
Politics uncovered by Martin Bright, New Statesman political editor
No glory for the other Team GB
- 10 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 21 August 2008
The Olympics and Georgia were both opportunities for Brown: why did he not seize the moment?
There is something uniquely dreadful about the situation Gordon Brown found himself in as he returned from his summer holiday. He should have been basking in the reflected glory of the "Team GB" Olympic success. This could have been his "1966 moment". But somehow even the words of congratulation from Downing Street misfired. "I think the whole nation is totally delighted and really proud at everything that's been achieved," he [...]
Israel and The British Left: The Great Betrayal Revisited
- 56 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 19 August 2008
An article from earlier this year continues to provoke discussion, but it should not poison other debates
It is difficult to know what to do about people visiting this site who hide behind their anonymity to make obsessive and personal comments. We do not have a policy on these so-called "trolls". Perhaps we should. Much of this comment would never have seen the light of day in the pre-internet age because there is only a certain amount of space on the letters page. Magazines and newspapers do [...]
The Death of Michael Baxandall
- 0 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 19 August 2008
The passing of a great art critic stirs mixed memories
I have just read the obituary of Michael Baxandall in the Telegraph. I was deeply affected by his Painting and Experience in Fifteenth Century Italy . As the obituary says, the book "demonstrated that context should be taken much more widely. to include not just the learning of humanists, but also practical skills -- and not just those of the elite, such as dancing and manners, but [...]
Walktalk Reaches London
- 1 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 18 August 2008
Gill Hicks, a survivor of the 7/7 bombings, has walked from Leeds to London for peace, on prosthetic legs
Gill Hicks and her husband Joe Kerr are completely remarkable people. Their Walktalk project is an initiative to bring together Muslims and non-Muslims working for peace and tackling extremism and intolerance together. They have walked from Leeds to London via 22 towns and cities including Luton, from where the bombers took the train to carry out their suicide mission.
The walkers were joined en route by Met [...]
New Statesman Investigates -- Update
- 30 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 18 August 2008
Readers are voting in numbers for an investigation into the government's asylum policy
There has already been a phenomenal response to our New Statesman Investigates feature. At the last count more than two-thirds of people were voting for us to look into the scandal of the treatment of asylum seekers in this country. There are still large numbers voting for us to have a dig around the UK's lobbying industry. But not so much interest in Tory party funding, Prince Charles [...]
Sunday Roundup - 17 August 2008
- 1 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 17 August 2008
A weekly look at the politics stories and comment in the Sunday newspapers
The summer is the time to try of new columnists or just mix it around a bit. Rafael Behr makes a good fist of it in the Observer's main politics slot arguing for the Westminster Village to take "fourth-party politics" more seriously. Despite the excruciating premiership football references (such laddishness is seen as necessary in case anyone mistook Britain's oldest newspaper for the senior common room), this is [...]
Bright's Blog Top Ten
- 2 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 15 August 2008
Here they are: the best read articles on the blog. Feel free to read them again
Thanks to the wonders of Google and the New Statesman's peerless web team I can now reveal the articles that you readers have loved and loathed the best. Click on the links to be angered or soothed one more time.
1. The Great Betrayal2. Hamas at Olympia3. Wanted: New Thinking Pioneers4. Unity Mitford and Hitler's Baby5. [...]
Livingstone's £20,000 Chinese Takeaway
- 12 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 15 August 2008
The former mayor and his economics guru fly off on luxury Olympics junket
When Livingstone and his Trotskyist cronies were given a multi-million pound payoff from city hall I wondered how much they would be giving away to good causes. As it happens it's Livingstone and his aide John Ross who have been reviving charity - from the Chinese government.
As Andrew Gilligan reports in today's Evening Standard these champions of the working person stayed at [...]
The factions square up
- 9 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 14 August 2008
There is, as ever within Labour, a third way, and this one seeks a return to the party's true values under its present leader
The battle lines are now drawn and the fight for the soul of the Labour Party has begun in earnest. In some ways this is a blessed relief. David Miliband's pre-holiday intervention in the Guardian lanced a disfiguring conspiratorial boil that had been festering for far too long. The candidate of the "anyone but Miliband" campaign has yet to emerge, but already there is talk of a union-backed "bloke ticket" [...]
New Statesman investigates...
- 55 comments
- Posted by
- 13 August 2008
We want you to get involved in a first in British journalism by voting for the next New Statesman investigation. Here you have a number of choices or alternatively why not suggest your own?
In recent years the New Statesman has developed an unrivalled reputation for investigative journalism. Whether it was Stephen Gray's revelations about CIA rendition flights, Martin Bright's string of stories exposing the link between the Foreign Office's and radical Islamists or Chris Ames's work on the government's notorious dossier on weapons of mass destruction, the NS has a trackrecord of being there first.
Now we want to get you involved. In [...]
Brown and Miliband Left Standing
- 24 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 12 August 2008
As Nicolas Sarkozy races to Tbilisi with his foreign minister Bernard Kouchner, Britain is stuck in the starting blocks
The speed with which the French president has reacted to events in Georgia is impressive. New Labour has always had a blind-spot for foreign affairs (its main players speak no foreign languages and have little knowledge of, or interest in, "abroad").
It is deeply embarrassing that Sarkozy has spoken to Merkel, Berlusconi and "colleagues of Mr Brown". What is going on? David Miliband issued a statement on Monday condemning [...]
Nutsgate - The Plot Thickens
- 0 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 12 August 2008
Another prominent Tory is drawn into the controversy over donations from the backers of Nuts TV
Michael Gove always looked on shaky ground after his comments about the lads magazine Nuts and the end of civilisation. It later turned out that Gove had taken money from a company called Red Fig, one of the backers of Nuts TV, the magazine's broadcast oulet.
Now it seems that shadow arts minister Ed Vaizey took £1,500 from Red Fig in thr run-up to the last election. Naughty, naughty.
Good [...]
New Statesman Ownership Battle
- 7 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 12 August 2008
A diary entry from January 1976 demonstrates the prominent part the NS has always played in UK politics
I've just been re-reading Bernard Donoughue's Downing Street Diary and stumbled across the following entry:
Tuesday 20 January 1976"I raised the question of the future of the New Statesman with him. Its circulation is now down to 33,000 and he wants Kissin and Lever* to buy it. He had told Kissin he would do the negotaition, but now wants to stay out of it and let them do it."
[...]Sunday Roundup - 10 August 2008
- 1 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 10 August 2008
A weekly look at the politics stories in the Sunday newspapers
A good start from Toby Helm, the new Whitehall Editor of The Observer with a story about the trade union dream ticket of Jon Cruddas and Alan Johnson. The idea is that the unions feel this is the only way to stop David Miliband and a perceived return to Blairite free market fundamentalism. So there is now a pincer movement from the left and right to replace Gordon [...]
Why Prudence needs Justice
- 5 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 07 August 2008
Labour could again become the party of justice, but not while inequality is on the increase and social mobility stalled
Over the summer, as new Labour's "Prosecco plotters" plan the overthrow of Gordon Brown from their Tuscan villas, they could do worse than plan a day trip to nearby Siena to visit the city's town hall, a symbol of civic autonomy since the 14th century. There, spread across three walls of the so-called Sala della Pace (Room of Peace), is a magnificent fresco by Ambrogio Lorenzetti known as the Allegory [...]
The politics of love
- 0 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 07 August 2008
After a long hiatus, Randy Newman has produced an album of beauty and anger
When Randy Newman released the single "A Few Words in Defence of Our Country" last year, it was something of an event, and not just because it heralded Harps and Angels, the first studio album by the Los Angeles songwriter in nearly a decade. The song was a spoken-word polemic about Bush-era America set to a nostalgic, old-time country waltz. The lyrics caught the imagination of liberal America to the [...]
My Absolute Favourite Post Ever
- 3 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 06 August 2008
Red Harry is one of my regular anonymous posters. I hope you enjoy this parody of his style from Jonny Mac
Bright: "What a lovely bit of sun and blue sky we had earlier this summer."
redharry: "Typical neo-fascist bollix from the Islamophobe Bright, promoting Tory blue over other minority colours in a frankly sickening racist display that is comparable only to the ravings of the lunatic anti-immigrant Anthony Browne. What a disgrace that the once proud NS published this right wing, scare-mongering, so called "weather-related" Nazi propoganda." [...]
The Other Conservative Ads
- 2 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 06 August 2008
The Tories' ad campaign is well-judged - right down to the traditional dog-whistle policies they are playing down
I have to take my hat off to the designers of the Conservative Party's sunny uplands website. Lots of smiling young faces and the verve of a party that thinks it's heading back into power. The slogans of the pop-up adverts are great, showing the Cameroons' capacity for empathy. Who in middle Britain could possibly argue with the following?:
A Neighbourhood I Feel Safe InA Home of My [...]
Participatory Democracy: The Way Forward
- 1 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 06 August 2008
An article on a new book on Democracy sparked some real discussion and debate
My piece on Paul Ginsborg's book Democracy sparked some great comments on the blog but also some suggestions for further reading.
Thanks to Michael MacPherson for recommending the Citizens' Initiative and Referendum and pointing out Michael Wills's parliamentary statement last month. He also refers to a dissenting voice in Red Pepper magazine.
Daniel Taghioff links to a good Wikipedia entry [...]
Trots Get the Boot from City Hall
- 97 comments
- Posted by Martin Bright
- 05 August 2008
Ken Livingstone's Socialist Action cronies have finally left City Hall, but not without fat cat pay-offs
I return from holiday to the sight of John Ross, Ken Livingstone's bonkers economics adviser staring out at me from the front page of the Evening Standard. Apparently this champion of the working man has been given a six-figure pay-off, which should buy him a nice dacha somewhere in his beloved Russia. Or maybe he will donate it to charity.
It seems the small coterie of Trotskyists that [...]
