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| They finally did it. This week the Tories stopped pretending, once and for all, that they were ever engaged in a modernisation process. It's been moribund for years. Cameron is as likely to mention huskies in PMQs as he is to sacrifice a young lamb. But this week, they actually got rid of all the evidence there ever was a modernisation programme. The Conservatives deleted all their pre-election speech and news archive and then posted a robot blocker on their website to stop Google users from ever finding them. The promise of no more "pointless reorganisations" of the NHS? Gone. The promise of "vote blue, go green"? Gone. The promise to use the internet for more "transparent" government? Gone. The great retoxifying whitewash of Liberal Conservativism has begun. The past was a dream. It never happened. Weakened to the point of impotence by coalition, a spotty electoral track record and his own equivocations, Cameron is now firmly under the control of his backbenchers and his crusading ministers. This week showed how trenchantly right-wing and old-school-Conservative the party had become. It is, in many ways, more conservative than the Tory party which was labelled, not unfairly, the 'nasty party'. John Major himself even looks like a progressive crusader next to the current leadership. On the day the UK was elected to the UN's human rights council, Theresa May demanded her underlings dismantle the law preventing government officials from making someone stateless. She wants the power to take away the passport of a British citizen and put them in a permanent legal limbo. Tory MP David Davies (not that one) demanded that absent fathers be put "in chains" and forced to work. Many Tory backbenchers focused their political work exclusively on an arcane point of European human rights law. Their ferocious ideological commitment to scrapping British membership of the EU appears to have alienated the public so severely that the 'in' and 'out' camps are now neck-and-neck. The bedroom tax returned to the Commons, with even Danny Alexander's father coming out against it. The government scraped through, although its majority was cut to just 26. A group of Liberal Democrats split from their leadership, insisting - not unfairly - that only tenants with an extra bedroom who refuse to move to a smaller location should face the financial penalty. That sort of basic fair play could have saved the coalition an awful lot of bad press over the last year. Instead, the main headline emerging from the debate came from a Labour MP who pointed out that his brother faced losing his home of 20 years because he was a kidney patient using the extra room for a dialysis machine. That chimes with the general effect of the policy. The majority of people hit by the bedroom tax will be disabled. It is a bona fide public relations disaster – a benefit cut so wrongheaded and unjust that even the British public are against it. On probation, Chris Grayling pushed ahead with his plans for privatisation. The issue has stayed mostly below the radar, because it seems dry and boring. But all it will take is one preventable murder and it will be very firmly above the radar. One of the biggest problems with Grayling's plans is that they separate supervision of low-and-medium from high risk offenders, with the latter still being dealt with by the probation service. That fragmentation could allow a potentially dangerous individual to go unchecked. If the worst comes to the worst, the media backlash would be severe. The privatisation continued apace over at the Department for Education, where plans for privatising social care provision were being put into place, with a typically aggressive and unpleasant communications drive. Wherever you look you see ministers pushing through privatisation, backbenchers ranting about Europe and desperate, underhand attempts to pretend the Tories never experimented with liberalism in the first place. Partly this is a result of the political context Cameron found himself in. If these were economically fortunate times, his social liberalism would be centre stage rather than his almost-messianic faith in the free market. Instead, he is driving through a privatisation agenda with little public support and a welfare agenda with plenty of public victims. You can see why they needed to delete those old speeches. Their sunny, optimistic, charitable disposition runs completely counter to the harsh reality of the present. Best of newsBetter late than never: Cameron expecting a snub in Sri Lanka following human rights outburst David Cameron was steeling himself for an embarrassing snub by Sri Lankan president Mahindra Rajapaksa today, after he decided to ignore official advice and go to the north of the country to meet victims of human rights abuses. Could the government finally be about to stamp out gay conversion therapy? The prospect of government action against so-called gay conversion therapists grew yesterday, after it emerged it planned to respond to concerns about the practice when they are voiced in a parliamentary debate next week. Labour nearly ten times more in debt than the Tories Labour is now over £10 million more in debt than the Conservative party, figures released today revealed. Children 'trapped in British limbo' Britain is failing to abide by its legal duty to protect the rights of children and is trapping immigrants in a traumatic legal limbo, campaigners have said. Clare Short: 'Coalition would be good for Miliband' Britain would be better off if Ed Miliband faces the "challenge" of a coalition government rather than enjoying a big majority, Clare Short has suggested. Revenge for Werritty? Liam Fox takes first step in prosecuting the Guardian Liam Fox has demanded to know if the Guardian can be prosecuted for publishing details of UK and US' surveillance techniques, as he intensifies his attack on the newspaper. Best of Comment and AnalysisComment: Cameron finally discovers human rights - but it's too little, too late Why does it take a mass public outcry to make the prime minister respond to reports of human rights atrocities? Comment: Gove's disgraceful attack on social workers is meant to soften us up for the private sector Social workers have been left dispirited and unappreciated after a sustained government assault on their profession. The Battle for Britain Read an exclusive extract from David Torrance's insider account of the fight for Scottish independence. Could Europe's legal high power-grab be a Trojan Horse for drugs reform? A largely ignored parliamentary debate this evening could herald a sea change in the way we treat drugs – and open the doors to a more liberal, evidence-based approach. Comment: The Greens are Britain's first female political party Our macho political culture invariably described political parties using male characteristics. They don't know what to make of a party with such strong female leadership. | CIOT: Low income campaigners call for wider universal credit pilotLITRG is calling for the Government to introduce a revised pilot of the new universal credit system. Cogent: New Online Skillsstore for the Science IndustriesCogent and the National Skills Academy Process Industries, has today launched Skillsstore.com. NASUWT "disappointed" that Education Secretary "resorted to provocation"NASUWT comments on the ongoing dispute with the Secretary of State for Education. CPA: Construction survey indicates broader growth aheadThe Construction Trade Survey shows construction activity rose for the second consecutive quarter in Q3. 3M: Fantastic makeovers film showcased on Peter Andre's 60 Minute MakeoverOriginal covers for radiators by Couture Cases will be showcased on Peter Andre's 60 Minute Makeover. The world looks up to English education as an international benchmark - Cambridge AssessmentBritain is at the heart of overseas educational investment - and Cambridge Assessment is a key player. BSIA South East event challenges perception of ‘victimless’ business crimeBusiness crime should never be dismissed as low level, or victimless. CIOT: Have you paid too much tax on your redundancy payment?When an employer becomes insolvent, payments made by RPO to employees often wrongly have tax deducted. RSPCA: Gordon Ramsay should drop "barbaric" foie gras altogetherThe RSPCA is glad Gordon Ramsay dropped his supplier but sale of foie gras should be banned. |
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