Are Tories and Libdems fighting over green energy? Not exactly
contribution by Gary Dunion
Yesterday, the Daily Telegraph’s stark above-the-fold headline warned: Reforms add £300 to energy bills. A leaked memo (now here) authored by Number 10’s energy advisor, Ben Moxham, warns that green energy and energy efficiency measures will increase household bills by a third by 2020.
He attacks the Department of Energy and Climate Change’s projections (PDF), which have the net cost of green measures at just 1%, or £13, by the end of the decade.
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Why Labour shouldn’t just listen to “commuter belt” voters
Shadow Minister Gareth Thomas and pollster Peter Kellner recently wrote a pamphlet called the Politics of Anxiety, setting out how Labour can win the support of ‘commuter belt’ voters who live in Outer London and the South East.
Their ideas were reported in the Independent last week and on the Progress website.
It hasn’t been published yet, but we got hold of a copy and thought we’d have a look at it.
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Abortion amendment worth supporting
Libdem MP Julian Huppert has tabled the following amendment to the NHS Bill, due to be debated tomorrow.
Abortion groups including Abortion Rights are encouraging their members to support this amendment.
If you are planning to get in touch with your MP regarding the bill, you can encourage them to support it.
The text of the amendment is as follows:
Page 17, line 11 [Clause 20], at end insert –
(5) In discharging its duty under subsection (1) the Board must ensure that all organisations offering information or advice in relation to unplanned pregnancy choices must follow current evidence-based guidance produced by a professional medical organisation specified by the Secretary of State.
It aims to ensure that any organisation contracted by the NHS to provide pregnancy decision-making support must meet the same high standards of medical accuracy and impartiality which abortion providers currently maintain, and seeks to prevent organisations which are ideologically opposed to abortion or which offer biased, inaccurate or judgemental advice from becoming part of any formal NHS care pathway.
Without a govt stimulus our economy will sink further
It was interesting to note two FT Op-Eds this morning calling for the same thing – fiscal stimulus.
Clive Crook did it with regard to the USA:
[Obama] should propose a strong new stimulus, more ambitious than the measures mooted so far. At the same time, with new and equal emphasis, he should call for strong fiscal restraint in the longer term. This means tax increases for the middle class as well as the rich, and cuts to Social Security and Medicare. The president, finally, must spell this out.
Unintended consequences of well-laid plans
The overthrow of Gaddafi has led to the uncovering of evidence that the CIA colluded with him to torture their suspected opponents, among whom is one prominent rebel leader.
An apparently humanitarian policy by the west has, therefore, exposed its earlier lack of humanitarianism. Pessimists might add that this could mean that in supporting the overthrow of Gaddafi, the west has helped install a regime which has a grudge against us.
These are examples of what Edward Tenner called the revenge effect - how our actions can rebound to bite us on the arse.
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Montgomerie pushes ‘Dr Death’ slur against Evan Harris [update]
The editor of ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie, likes to style himself as the leader of the moderate, sensible, conservative movement in the UK. But his nastiness is increasingly on show with the upcoming abortion vote.
For the past few days, his website has been referring to Dr Evan Harris as ‘Dr Death’ – picking up a slur frequently parroted by Nadine Dorries MP.
In his article for the Sunday Telegraph today, Montgomerie repeats it again.
The ‘nickname’ isn’t widely used at all, except by some internet commenters and by Nadine Dorries.
The Telegraph columnist Christina Odone did use it, but has now stopped as far as I can tell. The broadcaster Gerri Peev used it in the Daily Mail but apparently apologised for it afterwards.
It was the Daily Mail that first made the slur prominent here. That article also seems to be keen to focus on his Jewish origins.
Dr Death was originally the nickname for Aribert Ferdinand Heim, an Austrian who worked as an SS doctor in a Nazi concentration camp. Update: it was also the nickname for another Nazi doctor Josef Mengele.
Does Montgomerie not think it might be a bit insensitive and rude to refer to a Jewish person, who has family that had to escape from the Holocaust, with a nickname that originally applied to a Nazi killer?
Does he not consider that Evan Harris’ parents may themselves feel hurt by the slur? Even the Daily Mail has mostly stopped using the slur now.
Today, Montgomerie was seen whining earlier:
Because I referred to @DrEvanHarris’ nickname of “Dr Death” in SunTel he’s sent me DMs accusing me of anti-Semitism http://tgr.ph/nf7QF7
I doubt that is exactly what happened here, since I’ve known Montgomerie of misrepresenting events in the past. He should publish the DMs or Dr Evan Harris should.
But Harris has a point about how disgusting the slur is and how insensitive it is to employ it constantly like this.
One last point. Montgomerie also refers in his article to Harris’ “support for abortion and euthanasia”. This is misinformed too.
Euthanasia is much broader than assisted dying (also called ‘voluntary euthanasia’, and has massive public support). Euthanasia can also be involuntary – also referred to as murder. Voluntary assisted dying is what many Liberals in the UK including Harris, advocate. What does it say about Montgomerie that he is willing to deliberately confuse the two?
Tim Montgomerie should apologise for using the disgusting slur and trying to popularise it, instead of trying to play the victim.
UPDATE
Dr Evan Harris has now sent me the full private discussion between him and Tim Montgomerie, after the latter decided to make it public.
DrEvanHarris
I am surprised you repeated the Dr Mengele Dr Death slur in your article gratuitously. Pretty poor showing picking up D Mail anti-semitism
17 hours agoDrEvanHarris
Also what evidence have you got that I threatened Nick Clegg? Becuas there is no truth in that whatsoever. Will you retract both?
17 hours agoTimMontgomerie
Anti Semitism? Are you serious?
17 hours agoDrEvanHarris
Yes the Daily Mail used that [emphasis mine] as thinly veiled Dr mengele reference which your close friend then picked up, perhaps *initially* oblivious.
16 hours agoDrEvanHarris
You should think of the implications when you write insults disguised as journalism.
16 hours ago
Montgomerie then tweets that he himself was accused of anti-semitism, when clearly that was not the case.
What a disgusting attempt to play the victim. We’re still waiting for an apology. Montgomerie seems to have stopped tweeting for the time being.
He is still whining that it is justified because the Daily Mail used it once. Pathetic.
Watch: A ‘Proms Patois Patter’ for Starkey
This is excellent: an ode to David Starkey over his comments on Newsnight, by the singer Melinda Hughes.
The ending is good.
Update: I got the name wrong earlier. Melinda Hughes is also on Twitter.
Right-wingers screeching about abortion vote are ignoring reality
Howls of anguish and betrayal levelled at Cameron over the abortion vote u-turn are littered across the right-wing media today.
The Daily Mail and Nadine Dorries cannot contain their rage. Not only will his team vote against the amendments, but they are also urging other Tory MPs to follow their lead! There’s no doubt defeat would be very embarrassing.
I’m tempted to just laugh at right-wing commentary, but there is also a point to be made about how willing they are to ignore key considerations.
Murdo defends plans to disband Scottish Tories
David Cameron is facing the prospect of the end of the Scottish Conservative Party, reports the Telegraph today.
Late last night on BBC Radio 5Live, Murdo Fraser, who is favourite to become leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist Party, defended his plan to ballot members to wind up the party if he wins.
Listen
How the UK/US neo-liberal model of capitalism compares with others
One of the strong arguments put forward by neo-liberals is that deregulated market economies may not be fair but they bring home the bacon: if we learn to stop worrying about inequality, we will be happy to accept policies and greater prosperity.
The English-speaking countries have gone furthest in doing this, powering faster growth – the ‘Anglo-Saxon model’.
Yesterday, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics brought out the latest set of their wonderful series of international data.
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» Revealed: govt to restrict abortion counselling despite Nadine Dorries vote
» Would raising the tax threshold actually help the poorest?
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» Violence in the office
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» The world is entering the third phase of the crisis, warns ILO
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