EU: The politics equivalent to the hokey cokey

Can't we have a more subtle debate about the EU than being in or out? David Cameron (or whoever wrote it for him) has a go in the Daily Telegraph today. It's not the most coherent article ever written but its broad theme is an important one: that the EU is bogged down in talks about mechanisms when it should be a forum for collective action on the major challenges facing member states.
Rather than having "red-lines" to defend, when will a British PM head to one of these summits with a positive agenda? Why is Britain always on the defensive rather than putting forward its own vision for the future of the EU?

Bernard Manning

Whenever a public figure dies there is a tendency to play down their failings. This comes from the basic decency most people have that results in a laudable reluctance to speak ill of those who have died.
Bernard Manning's death is undoubtedly a sad event for his friends and family. It would be a terrible error however to ignore the tasteless material he used in acts that was hugely offensive to both ethnic minorities and gay people and portray him as some kind of Northern working class hero.
If we accept it is wrong to criticise those who cannot defend themselves it would perhaps be best for those of us who disliked him to note Mr Manning's death, nothing more. It is certainly misguided for the Manchester Evening News to invite people to pay tribute to him.

Tories back on the attack

David Cameron's speech in Tooting today and his comments on the Tories being progressive have elicited much comment. VFTN agrees there is much in his remarks to mull over but for now expresses a simple gratitude that DC has finally got past the grammar schools debacle and got back on the front foot before Blair leaves office.

Grammar schools: it just won't go away.

Tucked away in the Yorkshire Post today, Francis Maude having his say on the grammar school row. It was all DC's fault it would seem.
Time for all Tories to just take a vow of silence on this one and make setting out a coherent education policy a priority for conference.

Biofuels blarney

A little while ago, VFTN pointed out Cameron's half-term holiday to Greece was far from environmentally friendly and put the argument as to why off-setting is pointless. That post is here.
In a similar vein, Guido has today set out why the current enthusiasm for biofuels is misplaced. Again, for the purposes of the argument, it does not matter whether one is convinced about global warming or not. The fact is that if you wanted to produce biofuels on a scale necessary to replace oil it would remove so much land from food production as to trigger a food crisis. Those who are trying to push the green agenda are doing nobody any favours by suggesting biofuels and offsetting are somehow magic solutions.

How long will Hilary Armstrong last as a backbench MP?

VFTN only asks this question because when he lived and worked in the North-East the Durham North-West MP was notable for rarely having anything must to say about life in her own constituency and the issues affecting the people who voted for her. It will be interesting to see whether she does throw herself into the role of constituency MP or finds herself another role to keep busy.

Update: Paul Linford is less sceptical than me and believes she will stay one for one more parliament.

To seek reaction.... update

Just a note to welcome Iain Dale's comment. As he rightly points out, there are times when the very act of revealing one's evidence for a story might lead to the identification of a source which, whether journalist, opinionated commentator or other, is unforgiveable. In such circumstances it is therefore left to the reader to decide how much they trust the author and what weight to give to those who offer alternative accounts.That is an easier judgement to reach in blogs which offer readers a more personal interaction with their authors. But applying that lesson to the debate over the Melissa Kite story, how is the casual reader expected to tell the difference between a well-sourced story and ill-informed speculation when a piece is written by a journalist who is really just a name on a page? Anyway, Dale's post has undoubtedly kept the lobby on its toes which is no bad thing at all.

To seek reaction, or not seek reaction, that is the question

Seen as every blogger in the blogosphere has had their say on Iain Dale's spat with several lobby journalists (in the unlikely event you haven't seen it, the original post is here and the latest follow-up is here), VFTN may have well have his say.

There are a number of points to be made:

VFTN is a huge fan of Dale's but it is not right for him to say he writes opinionated comment and has no pretensions towards journalism. When you mark a post exclusive, as he did with the first post on the alleged spin operation on Gordon Brown's anti-terror proposals, and go on to talk about unearthing facts then that is certainly journalism. There is nothing wrong with mixing news and comment, plenty of newspapers do so either explicitly or with their choice of stories and the angle they take with them. Call it journalism, call it opinionated comment, but the original post on the Brown spin operation was presented as fact and put serious question marks against the Sunday lobby.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the Sunday lobby have fought back and with a reasonable unified voice insisted he is wrong. It is therefore up to Dale to prove his point. He does not have to reveal his source but he should be able to provide some kind of evidence that what he is saying is true and the Sunday lobby are covering up. Dale, after all, is not averse to pointing out the poorly sourced journalism of others. Witness his attack on a now infamous article by Melissa Kite.
Having said all that, Dale is right to point out that, whatever conditions were placed on the briefing, if one or two of the lobby had bothered to ring the Tories they would have discovered that Brown had put his foot in it and damaged genuine efforts on all sides to reach a consensus on security.
VFTN has some sympathy with the view expressed by Fraser Nelson that it is unwise for hacks, particularly the Sunday variety, to risk losing stories for the sake of reaction but the lobby must have realised that none of them had it exclusively and, in their shoes, VFTN might have sought reaction in the hope it would move the story on should it appear on telly on the Saturday night.
The conclusion: no-one comes out of this episode looking good. If Brown's machine did put a no-reaction clause on a briefing then they should stop spinning that Brown will mark an end to spin. Bloggers have free reign to comment on what they like but if they want to take responsibility for unearthing facts and publishing them they must be prepared to defend the stories with evidence of truth or they are no better than the mainstream hacks they frequently, and often justifiably, criticise. The lobby also ends up looking stupid for either missing a story by failing to make one call or accepting a briefing with conditions attached.
Finally, rather than complaining about using Sunday papers to float policies the Tories would do well to get better at doing it themselves. Perhaps Mr Coulson will help.

Coulson is Cameron's choice

David Davis did remarkably well this morning on Andrew Marr. He clearly hates the grammar school policy but struck a healthy balance between supporting his leader and maintaining his own credibility by admitting that his own preference was for more grammar schools but that he supported the party's policy because he lost the leadership election. However, it was a shame that Davis agreed he and the rest of the Shadow Cabinet had been consulted only for Marr to fail to ask the obvious follow-up which was whether he objected in that meeting has has been widely suggested.
More intriguing was his answer to a question about the appointment of ex-News of the World editor Andy Coulson. He confirmed he hadn't been consulted about that one. So the man Cameron extended the hand of solidarity to after beating him in the leadership election did not even have a say on the Coulson appointment.
Clearly Davis and Cameron don't pretend to be big buddies but there seems to be a growing body of evidence the Tory leader isn't really talking to anyone much outside his own circles. Will much was made of the Graham Brady intervention in the grammar schools row it was Dominic Grieve who really forced the embarassing U-turn. Grieve undoubtedly felt able to speak out because he feels no great loyalty to DC. Now the Shadow Home Secretary, who represents a reasonable constituency of opinion in the party, isn't being consulted about major appointments.
Cameron must realise that he can't just bulldoze his ideas through the party and needs to keep these senior figures on board.

Olympic logo or picture of vomit?

VFTN doesn't want to say much about the new olympic logo, unveiled today. Andy Murray's face says it all here.
Update: It seems VFTN is not alone. Matthew d'Ancona's view is less than favourable.

Cameron not just confused on grammars

Amid all the problems DC is having with grammar schools it is perhaps not so surprising that few have paid attention to the fact that he his spending his half term holiday in Greece. I am assuming he flew which would have bunged a few tonnes of CO2 into the atmosphere. Now, I was under the impression DC had made the environment a priority and he is worried about CO2 emissions.
I know, I know, no doubt he has "offset" these carbon emissions. Well, sorry, but that's just pointless. Whether you believe global warming caused by human activity is happening or not you can agree this. Offsetting is pointless.
The idea of offsetting is basically this: you take a flight, feel guilty, cough up a few quid to some organisation who then buys a tree which as it grows will absorb the CO2 you generated. Fine so far. But what happens if the land that tree is on changes ownership and it is chopped down next year and used as firewood? What happens when everyone decides to offset and we create a world where all useful land is covered in trees and so cannot be used for other things like, erm, food production?
If you believe that CO2 causes climate change you have two choices, try and emit less by modifying your lifestyle (ie not taking the family to Greece) or carrying on as normal and stop lecturing to other people. You cannot have it both ways.