The Week in Politics
• The curious case of Cam and Kam took centre-stage again this week following the Chief Rabbi of Poland’s sudden decision to clarify remarks he had made to the New Statesman about the leader of the slightly-left-of-Fascist grouping in the European Parliament. And it’s not just the Polish and Latvian extremists who are causing concern, their Belgian and Dutch allies have sexist and Islamophobic tendencies as well.
• Jealous at the amount of time David Cameron is spending with his new best friends in Europe (and William Hague), boy George (Osborne) sought to win back his affections by bashing the bankers and casting doubts over the stimulus. Sadly for Osborne, the Financial Times turned against him while his claim that “the White House have confirmed that they would have been out of recession in the US even without the stimulus” turned out to be false.
• The Daily Mail, having condemned Nick Griffin the week before, went back to its bad old ways – fanning the flames of racial tension with a highly inaccurate headline proclaiming the “number of new arrivals has surged by 50% under Labour” – a stat shot down by Left Foot Forward. Here’s what some of the Mail’s readers thought about their story:
“would anyone like to estimate when the nation will fall into a civil war with ethnic groups fighting each other, needless to say armed police are needed in North London to patrol the streets, another 5 to 10 years and most of out cities will look like Beruit!” – Richard de Gerber, Kingston upon Thames.
“And it would appear the Government have ordered all of the mainstream TV news companies not to report this as i have not seen it on any news forecast. Freedom of the Press is being suborned. No to Lisbon. Out of the EU. Down with Labour. Bring charges of Treason against these vile perpetrators.” – Andrew, Walsall West Midlands.
What a lovely bunch they are!
Progressive of the Week
Michael Heseltine who, according to The Times, “predicts that Mr Cameron will have to rejoin the European People’s Party (EPP) soon after the election.” The Economist today shares his view: “if this shoddy, shaming alliance is the price [Cameron] was obliged to pay his party for the changes needed to make it seem modern and compassionate, what sort of party is it that Mr Cameron leads?”
Regressive of the Week
So many Kaminski-deniers, so many climate change deniers, so many choices… To the European Parliament, and, no, this award goes not to the aforementioned Warsaw MEP but Britain’s very own East Midlands Tory MEP Roger Helmer who, in a midweek article on ConservativeHome, dismissed the views of one of the world’s foremost climate experts, Nobel laureate Dr Rajendra K Pachauri because “in terms of faith he is a Hindu”.
And the credentials of Mr Helmer? In March he described the “climate alarmist scare” as a “media driven frenzy” and a conspiracy to get “more power for supra-national institutions like the EU and the UN”. So much for “Vote Blue, Go Green”
Evidence of the week
As Copenhagen approaches, Spain managed to generate close to half its electricity from renewables. The UK, which currently produces just 5.5 per cent from renewables, has the UK has half of the tidal resource and over one-third of the wave resource in Europe.
What’s trending on Twitter
That’s right, it’s the race that’s everyone’s talking about, sparking more interest than even the XFactor and Strictly. Speaking of which, here are some of the funnier tweets on this topic:
@davidtbreaker: John & Edward for #EUPresident and Foreign Secretary! #notolisbon #supportklaus #xfactor #x-factor
@kajleers: Bono: “if you elect me to be the first EU president, I’ll stop singing.” #eu #eupresident
@bngr: @pk_dublin @allancavanagh how about Boris Johnson for #eupresident
@GaeMar01: #Blair’s acceptance speech as Emperor of New Europe http://bit.ly/nXo2k #stopblair #eu09 #EUPresident
@GaeMar01: Miliband: #EUPresident ~ #Blair would “stop the traffic” ~ a lollipop lady is about the best job for Blair. #stopblair
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One Response to “Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward”
Shamik Das
RT @leftfootfwd: Look Left – The Week in Fast Forward: http://is.gd/4Imtn <— Let me know what u think of my latest post Mr @samblackledge!