It has been wall-to-wall Europe this week. There has not been a media outlet that has undercooked the news that David Cameron has done a deal with Europe. Except that it is less a deal and more of a first staging post in the process of negotiation needed to come to an agreement. It will be the agreement itself that will represent the successful, or otherwise, outcome of the negotiations.
Despite not being the final word by any stretch of the imagination, everyone seems to have an opinion on whether the PM has been successful or not. Unsurprisingly, these views seem remarkably in line with pre-existing views on for or against continued membership of the EU.
So what can we learn from the political news this week?
- Is there a US Corbyn? The first round of primaries in the presidential race had the media rushing around looking for parallels between the UK and US systems. The trouble is there often aren’t that many but the idea of ‘an outsider’, ‘anti-politics’ candidate seems to have found some favour in recent weeks. The trouble was that those candidates didn’t win in Iowa. Hillary Clinton won (admittedly only just) for the Democrats and Ted Cruz took the win for the Republicans. Both main ‘outsiders’, Bernie Saunders (Dems) and Donald Trump (Reps) are crying foul. The prospect of a ‘business as usual’, two established politicians, slugging it out over expensive attack ads, looks the most likely outcome of the primaries.
- The charity crusade. The Sun has been busy this week trying to overtake the Daily Mail as the charity sector’s favourite newspaper. A series of allegations this week about Age UK have added to pressure on the sector and there has also been more Parliamentary activity over Kid’s Company. All these types of headlines make more political intervention inevitable.
- The trouble with Heathrow… According to a letter from Andrew Tyrie, chair of the Treasury Select Committee, to George Osborne, the case made by the Davies Commission was ‘opaque’ and Tyrie also complained that Ministers had failed to answer technical questions tabled in the House of Commons. He questioned whether the Commission’s published analysis was a sufficient basis to make a decision and considered that ‘a good deal more information is required’. Sadly for the Department for Transport, he believed that with the decision being ‘crucial to the future of the British economy’, it should not be left to them.
- It’s all the fault of universities. The PM has accused ‘top’ universities of not doing enough to tackle racism and class discrimination. In an article in the Sunday Times, the PM had a wide ranging dig at universities, the armed forces and businesses for ‘ingrained, institutional and insidious’ attitudes. He has promised legislation to force universities to release data on students and applications as a way to solve the problem.
- Labour learns lessons. When it was announced the Lord Adonis was to head-up the new National Infrastructure Commission, there were a queue of MPs ready to put the boot on. However, when the PM announced that Labour MP David Lammy was to review into whether the police and court system is racially biased, the news was much more warmly received and he was even wished well. Labour even tried to turn the tables on the PM by saying “it is now important that the Government ensures this review leads to real change.”