Latest news with #Glasman
Spectator
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Spectator
Are the ‘lanyard class' the new enemy?
Globalisation, liberalism, neoliberalism, managerialism, internationalism, multiculturalism, human resources, wokeness, identity politics, progressivism, EDI, DEI, corporatism, proceduralism, elitism, environmentalism, transnationalism: there are a lot of things that voters are said to be protesting against. But now there's a new buzzword going round. What voters are really annoyed about is the 'lanyard class'. Lord (Maurice) Glasman came up with the phrase. I visit him in the House of Lords (wearing my parliamentary lanyard, of course) to ask him what he means. 'The lanyard came into my head about 18 months ago as the symbol of the progressives,' he says. 'It was more of a poetic idea: 'The Lanyard'. I wrote a couple of poems that will never be published on the lanyard as a symbol for something horrible that I was trying to decipher.' Glasman is the founder of Blue Labour, a culturally conservative faction of the Labour movement that is appreciated by several in No. 10 – and across the Atlantic (he was the only Labour figure to be invited to Donald Trump's inauguration). Glasman first mentioned lanyards in an interview with the Observer last month and then expanded on it in an address at the Policy Exchange thinktank. I was in the audience, and several people repeated the phrase 'lanyard class' back to him during the questions. Earlier this month, Janice Turner wrote in the Times that the strength of Reform could be attributed to a rebellion against the lanyard class: The officious, rules-obsessed professional cadre who set the tone in corporate HR and run the public sector.' If you look at archive footage from the 1980s, the lanyard barely seems to exist.
New European
06-05-2025
- Politics
- New European
Labour's lunacy and asylum policy
Promising to end the practice of placing asylum seekers in hotels, exactly the kind of socially conservative policy the government is embracing, is a great example of those unintended consequences. In opposition, the simple answer often works: you are battling for a few seconds of airtime anywhere you can get it, and so the short, sharp, popular answer is the good one. The difference in government is that you can actually make it happen. You also have to deal with the consequences. The problem is Labour didn't seem to think before making this promise, or consider why the last government started using hotels so widely in the first place. A large part of the answer is that many areas of the UK have acute housing shortages. There is no supply of publicly owned accommodation sitting empty, ready and waiting for asylum seekers. And so, the government now rents homes on the private market. In some areas, people trying to rent privately were already competing with their council for homes, which are facing a shortfall. Now, those private renters are having to compete with both their local councils and with the Home Office. Under one scheme introduced under the last Conservative government but extended under Labour, private landlords are offered up to five years' guaranteed rent, with all property management and repairs handled by Serco, with no fees. All of this is compounding the problems of the housing shortage both for councils trying to find homes, and for people trying to rent. This is where the logic of simple answers – especially simple answers to take on Reform on their own turf – leads: at some point soon the Daily Mail will notice this scandal, and it will be front page stuff. The bid for Labour to look like they were taking tough action on the asylum system will be a gift to Reform. In the wake of Labour's performance in the local elections – which was worse than most of the pollsters' worst-case scenarios – many on Labour's right are tempted not just by the simple answer, but by the simple answers that also conveniently vindicate the policies they've wanted to enact all along. Most of the skill of politics is learning how to resist these temptations, but the campaign group Blue Labour has never bothered itself with political skill. Its founder, Lord Glasman – a man who Ed Miliband must surely regret giving a peerage – has a bizarre set of policy prescriptions, including embracing Donald Trump's 'Bennite' tariffs plans. Blue Labour's influence on the government is disputed and Glasman is sufficiently out-there that even the 'post-liberals' and Blue Labour sympathisers tend to push him to the sidelines. But his spiritual successor Jonathan Rutherford is still an enthusiastic promoter of his ideas. Again, though, scrutinising these proposals leads to more questions than answers. Rutherford says Labour should simply tackle the issue of grooming gangs, for example. But this is a scandal largely based on historical activity, when the issue was genuinely barely discussed and the practice widespread. That omertà is gone: Channel 4, hardly a bastion of British Conservatism, did a huge documentary on it recently. The scandal dominates the newspapers (and was largely unearthed by those mainstream papers). The actual issue is whether historical activity is best handled by a further national public inquiry or by local ones. What solution does Rutherford think makes the issue go away? What would stop Reform or others continuing to cynically exploit it? On these questions, he is strangely silent. Rutherford is no better when he's trying to set out a positive policy agenda. He believes universities have expanded too much and wants many of them to close, or else to be 're-founded'. He is, of course, welcome to that belief, but in many towns across the country the university is one of the major employers – and is heavily tied in to other local businesses. The loss of universities would lead to dramatic collapses in local economies for which Labour would be blamed. How this is supposed to lead to a revival of either growth or Labour's political fortunes is anyone's guess. Britain spent 14 years with a government that failed to deliver economic growth, and failed, if anything even more calamitously, at running public services. Nothing works and everything is expensive, and that is why most of us are sick of politics and sick of politicians. As the last government failed to deliver, it got ever-more focused on owning the libs – if it couldn't make anything better, it did at least try to make sure those on the left were unhappiest of all. Labour swept to a landslide majority last year because the public were comprehensively sick of that bullshit. The vote was a resounding 'no' to the Conservative Party more than it was a 'yes' to Labour – but it was a vote for growth, for fixing public services, and for making politics normal again. Instead, Labour has been captured by a faction that seems determined to deliver the Conservative agenda, framed as a tactical approach to stop Reform. None of the strategists behind this approach seem to notice that it's what the Conservatives were doing in power, nor that it's what Labour has done for much of its first year. Instead, they rail against an imaginary Labour agenda that doesn't exist. Ed Miliband is mostly pushing for the government to boost investment in energy and jobs – yes, they happen to be green, but so is most new technology. This should be the easiest thing for them to embrace, but because they're so ingrained in the culture wars they've decided it is their enemy. Labour's attempt to find a simple answer to asylum hotels is almost inevitably going to blow up in its face, to Reform's benefit. Its efforts to take on Reform dead-on will do the same, alienating the party from its real 21st-century voting base all the while – and wedding it to a tired Blue Labour faction that is more a rag-tag collection of grievances than a coherent ideology. Voters did not reject the Conservative Party to replace it with a tribute act. They will similarly not abandon Reform for Reform-lite. Labour needs to find its own tune and start dancing to that, and fast.
Telegraph
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
MPs try to force grooming gang inquiry
MPs have backed campaigners in a cross-party demand for a national public inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. Labour, Tory and Reform UK politicians have backed an 18-month inquiry set up under a parliamentary statute with powers to compel witnesses to attend. They are proposing it would investigate and name any institutions or individuals responsible for covering up the child sex abuse perpetrated by grooming gangs. Among those backing the call are Labour peer Lord Glasman, Nigel Farage, the Reform UK leader, Chris Philp, shadow home secretary, and Katie Lam, a Tory frontbencher and former Home Office adviser. A Bill that could enact the inquiry has been drafted by Crush Crime, a campaign group. 'The public demands justice. There can be no further excuses for delays. There must be no stone left unturned in the search for the truth,' said Dr Lawrence Newport, director of the campaign. 'This is a chance for politicians to end the cover-up culture. We gave the Government a chance to do the right thing – but we are now forced to bring forward our own bill because they have failed to act.' His comments came as Jess Phillips, Home Office minister, told MPs she expected local inquiries into grooming gangs to 'go further' than the five already announced. The Government has so far rejected calls for a full national inquiry but is awaiting the findings from an audit by Baroness Casey into grooming, its scale, nature and profile of the gangs behind it, including the characteristics of offenders. Ms Phillips told MPs: 'Whilst we have committed to five, I expect to actually go further and I will answer the question of when the framework for what local authorities will be tasked with, will be released later in May as will Baroness Casey's review, which I have committed to publishing.' She added: 'I'm going to go on the basis of facts, and I'm going to follow them wherever they tell me. Wherever they tell me there are victims that need help, that is where I will go.' Backing the calls for a national inquiry, however, Lord Glasman said: 'The gangs are still operating. The British public expect action so the police and other services finally get a grip of this disgrace. I support an inquiry to get to the truth and improve how all parts of the state deal with sexual abuse of children'. Mr Philp said: 'Only a national public inquiry will get to the truth. Local councils, local police forces and even the then chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party covered up these sickening crimes because of misplaced concerns about community relations. 'Statutory powers are needed to force the disclosure of evidence. A handful of local enquiries are totally inadequate, and the government seem to be backtracking even on this. I will be pushing an amendment to the Crime and Policing Bill to a vote on the floor of the House to establish a national rape gang inquiry.' Mr Farage said: 'Labour and Tories have failed on the grooming gangs. They have failed to bring justice to the thousands of victims across multiple decades of these horrific crimes. They have failed to hold anyone in authority to account for years of cover-ups and failure. 'We must have a comprehensive inquiry that no authority or offender can hide from. 'We must stop the judges keeping these criminal trials secret, an outrageous recent development that the government ignores. We must have a national inquiry so we stop the gangs that are still organising the sexual abuse of children today.' Ms Lam said: 'Thousands of victims in dozens of communities have had their lives ruined by these gangs. The state has failed these children and their families time and time again. 'In many towns, gangs will still be operating, and the public servants who covered up these crimes have faced no consequences. 'We need a full, independent national inquiry to uncover the scale of these horrors: the victims deserve justice, and the public deserves to know the truth.'
Daily Mail
27-04-2025
- Politics
- Daily Mail
Labour peer says party 'will get its head kicked in' by Reform in local elections and must 'stop talking gibberish about diversity'
Labour 'will get its head kicked in' by Reform in the local elections this week and must 'stop talking gibberish about diversity' to win back disillusioned working class voters, a senior party peer has warned. Maurice Glasman, the founder of the influential Blue Labour group, issued a grave warning days before the local elections in which Nigel Farage 's party is expected to make significant gains. Reform are expected to win mayoral votes in two Red Wall Labour heartlands in East Yorkshire and Lincolnshire. They are also in with a chance of winning the Runcorn and Helsby by-election triggered by the resignation of incumbent Labour MP Mike Amesbury. Mr Glasman, who attended the inauguration of Donald Trump, has previously lashed out at Labour for being too 'progressive' and abandoning traditional working class voters. In an interview with the Observer he praised the US president's tariffs, saying he felt 'fantastic' witnessing 'the end of globalisation'. Discussing the upcoming elections he said Labour had to alter course to the right. 'It's game over if they don't change. People are losing faith in government, in the most general way, and someone has to stop that. Labour must be a pro-worker, patriotic party, not talking gibberish about diversity.' Lord Glasman's Blue Labour group, which is pressing for the party to rebuild its links with working class voters, is enjoying a growing influence with senior Labour figures, including the PM's chief of staff Morgan McSweeney. Lord Glasman said in January Mr McSweeney was 'one of ours, we love him'. But he suggested the government was still going in the wrong direction, and attacked Attorney General Lord Hermer as an 'arrogant, progressive fool' - and called for him to be sacked over the deal to cede control of the Chagos Islands. The only Labour figure at Donald Trump's inauguration, he also criticised Rachel Reeves, saying the Chancellor had become 'just a drone for the Treasury'. A senior minister admitted today that Labour has made some unpopular decisions in Government, but insisted its agenda was starting to bear fruit. Pat McFadden, a senior Cabinet Office minister, was asked by Sky News' Sunday Morning with Trevor Phillips about Labour trailing behind Reform UK in opinion polls ahead of the coming local elections. He told the programme: 'Look, we had some tough stuff to sort out after the election last year and I accept that some of those decisions have not been the most popular, but we are starting to see things turn around now.' Mr McFadden pointed to a fall in NHS waiting lists for 'six months in a row', adding: 'So, we're starting to turn things around, but it will take some time to feel the benefit of these things, and at year end we know we've got more to do, because people want to see delivery. They want to see a Labour Government turn around the NHS.' In an attack on both the Tories and Reform, he added: 'We will do that and it's a big contrast to what we inherited with the NHS, or, indeed, another force on the right that doesn't believe in the NHS at all.'
Telegraph
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Telegraph
Starmer faces grassroots rebellion over grooming gangs
Sir Keir Starmer is facing a grassroots rebellion over his refusal to launch a national inquiry into the grooming gangs scandal. The Prime Minister has rejected demands to launch a statutory inquiry into the historical sexual abuse of thousands of children by gangs of men, predominantly of Pakistani heritage. On Thursday, Sir Keir denied plans for up to five initial local inquiries had been scaled back after the Government said it would make the money available for councils but they could use it as they wished to tackle grooming. But Blue Labour, a campaign group founded by the Labour peer Lord Glasman, insisted Sir Keir had not gone far enough and called on him to commit to a nationwide government-backed inquiry. The group said: 'Blue Labour's position on the grooming and rape gangs is unchanged. This is a national evil that requires a national response. 'Local authorities lack the necessary capabilities and legal authority to carry out investigations, and often they are in need of investigation themselves. 'We need a national inquiry with full statutory powers. The decades-long abuse of young girls and its cover-up is a sickness that must be exorcised from the body politic. 'Labour is committed to reforming the state and its institutions, to restoring trust and consent in government, and to renewing the social covenant that binds us together. We can start the renewal here.' 'An evil that has got to be seen to be public' Lord Glasman told The Telegraph: 'Our position is unchanged. We call for an immediate national inquiry with full powers of arrest. This is an evil that has got to be seen to be public.' A political theorist who first coined the term 'Blue Labour' in 2009, Lord Glasman is viewed as an important voice within Labour and has the ear of Morgan McSweeney, Sir Keir's chief of staff. He is said to have informed Mr McSweeney's thinking on immigration and how Labour can appeal to disillusioned working-class voters who are minded to back Reform UK. He has broken with the Government line on a number of issues, including the Chagos Islands handover deal to Mauritius as well as the appointment of Lord Hermer as Attorney General. Blue Labour is said to have a growing number of supporters on the Labour back benches. These are known to include Jonathan Hinder, the MP for the Red Wall constituency of Pendle and Clitheroe in Lancashire. Other backers include Dan Carden, a former ally of Jeremy Corbyn, who in January broke ranks with Sir Keir to call for a full national inquiry into grooming gangs. The same call has been made by Kemi Badenoch, the Tory leader, and Nigel Farage, the leader of Reform UK.
