Latest news with #IainDale
Daily Mail
a day ago
- Entertainment
- Daily Mail
ANDREW PIERCE: Celebrate Mrs T! Just what would grumpy Ted say?
The feud between Ted Heath and Margaret Thatcher, who ousted him as Tory leader, was one of the most long-running and rancorous in politics. So what a nice surprise to learn that the Sir Edward Heath Charitable Foundation, set up to promote his memory, is to honour the Iron Lady. Next month they will mark the centenary of her birth with a tribute at the Sarah Thorne Theatre in Broadstairs, the genteel seaside resort in Kent where Heath was born in 1925. There will be a discussion chaired by Iain Dale, who has written a new biography of her. The panel on July 20 includes John Redwood, who ran Mrs T's Downing Street policy unit, Virginia Bottomley, who served in her government, and veteran MP Roger Gale, who – as a former TV producer – advised the Iron Lady on how to conduct herself when parliament was televised in 1989. Steve Nallon, the voice of Maggie for Spitting Image, will also be on the panel. Michael MacManus, who worked for Heath and Thatcher, said: 'I don't think my fellow trustees ever expected to stage an event celebrating Mrs T, but I think it's a great departure.' Truss could make a dram out of a crisis Much mockery of 49-day PM Liz Truss after she promoted an Irish whiskey brand alongside bare-knuckle fighter Dougie Joyce, once jailed for punching a pensioner. Sir Roderic Lyne, our former ambassador to Russia, suggests Truss might follow the example of Alec Douglas-Home after his 14 months in No 10: 'Perhaps she could take up salmon fishing like Douglas-Home. It goes down very well with a wee dram.' What a bunch of heels Labour MPs were cock-a-hoop after Prime Minister's Questions last week amid suggestions they had discovered Kemi Badenoch's 'Achilles heel'. They claimed they could see the Tory leader had forgotten to remove a 'bargain sale' label from the sole of one her shoes. Quipped one Labourite: 'She must know she's on the way out and will soon lose that nice extra salary as Opposition leader. She's already cutting back on essentials!' But is this yet another Labour dirty trick? The Tory leader's office certainly thinks so. The footwear was from M&S, said a source. And there was no such 'bargain' tag upon them. Flushed with Labour's surprise success in last week's Scottish Parliament by-election, party insiders know who to thank for victory over the SNP. 'Virtually every Labour MP came up to campaign in Hamilton. The only one who didn't was Keir Starmer – so it definitely was Keir 'wot won it',' sniped one. Labour historians noted that the Govan shipyard, where Starmer outlined his defence strategy last week, was earmarked for closure by the Heath Tory government in 1971. It was saved after a 'work-in' organised by Communist union leaders Jimmy Airlie and Jimmy Reid. Lefty Labour MPs grumble that the massive expansion in defence spending, which will benefit the Govan yard, will be paid for by trimming benefits – the sort of cuts those Communist diehards would have fought to resist. Labour MP Markus Campbell-Savours may now sport a Trotskyite beard, but he wants reform of the House of Lords to be delayed. Young Markus should perhaps have declared a family interest. His father Dale, a former Labour MP, is now a life peer. The status quo suits the Campbell-Savours family just fine. Meanwhile, peers are feathering their nests. Last week they increased their hotel expenses allowance from £103 to £125 a night. That's well above the rate of inflation.
National Business Review
2 days ago
- Politics
- National Business Review
Iron Ladies show their mettle
Publishers have never under-estimated the appeal of prime ministerial memoirs, particularly if they are female. A primary example is Margaret Thatcher, a conviction politician who revelled in her reputation as the ''Iron Lady' who resisted any concession to communism. In fact, the epithet was first used in a Soviet newspaper in 1977. Thatcher pursued radical economic reforms and fought the Falklands War. She was tough on her cabinet colleagues and was 'not for turning' once she had decided on a course of action. As a woman, she was also judged for her emotional quotient, being reduced to tears on occasions of national and personal tragedy, while showing courage after an Irish bombing attempt on her life. Yet her period in power ended badly and Thatcherism is still a catchcry on the left for all of Britain's economic and other ills. Margaret Thatcher, by Iain Dale. A new biography, Margaret Thatcher, by Iain Dale, has just appeared, aimed at a new generation who were born after she left office in November 1990. Dale says he isn't trying to replace Charles Moore's magisterial three-volume biography or the dozens of others on her 11 and a half years as prime minister. Rather, it was to explain those 'basking in the glory of her achievements, or formed in the shadow of her failures … [and] to bust the many myths that have grown up about her'. Future task That will also be the future task for political scientists and historians studying the phenomenon of Dame Jacinda Ardern, the third of New Zealand's female prime ministers. Her autobiography, A Different Kind of Power, was launched globally this week, in the same way as books by the Clintons and the Obamas. The world's largest publisher, German-owned Penguin Random House, specialises in getting returns from million-dollar-plus advances. It must be emphasised, despite the widespread publicity about the strengths and weaknesses of its insights into the local political scene, New Zealanders are not the book's primary audience. Instead, it has been honed by a gifted communicator, aided by skilful editors and marketers, as an inspirational story about a woman's rise to international celebrity status and empathetic power from humble beginnings. It's mainly a human drama with strong emotional content, sufficient doses of levity to keep you reading, and an uplifting message of self-help if you want it. Most book buyers are women, and many of them want to read a true-life story of someone who aspired to make the world a better place, while also raising a family. The Ardern story is hard to beat in ticking those boxes. Two-thirds of the book is devoted to her rise to fame and overcoming the mental doubts of anxiety, imposter syndrome, and inferiority complex. Early childhood It starts with an early childhood growing up in a gang-infested forestry town, Murupara, that would rate among this country's worst. Young Jacinda and her older sister, Louise, had to be removed from the local school because of bullying. Her hard-working parents moved on to dairying and orcharding in Waikato to supplement their incomes (her father was in the Police). They were unusual among other Kiwi families because of their Mormon religion, which emphasised family values and women's roles as mothers. They spurned caffeine and alcohol. (Mormon families are also required to have three months' supply of food, we learn.) The outside world penetrated this life only through the six o'clock news. The Lockerbie bombing, the fall of the Berlin Wall, the tanks in Tiananmen Square, and Nelson Mandela walking free from prison all made their mark on young Jacinda. She writes, in italics: 'The world is so big and life could be fragile, I understood. But not so big that one person can't do something to change it.' Anecdotes abound through life in high school and university, as the 'political' Ardern takes shape through organising youth events, debating, and culminating in helping to run an election campaign for Harry Duynhoven, Labour MP for New Plymouth. You can almost hear the intervention of an editor as Ardern is prompted, 'Tell us more about this and that.' She kept a diary, so readers learn about the boy who robbed the fish-and-chip shop where she worked, later turning up at a party that night; the tragic account of a teenage suicide; an heirloom violin that was lost in a swindle; a long-buried family secret; and, in a longshot coincidence, a boy from Murupara who played with the Ardern girls later turning up as a drag queen in Wellington. Jacinda Ardern and Helen Clark, posted on Clark's X feed. Rapid rise As they say, you can't make this stuff up. The Duynhoven campaigning was followed by an internship in Parliament and a rapid rise to working in Helen Clark's Office of the Prime Minister. Only in New Zealand, overseas readers might wonder, could a 20-something be so quickly employed by the country's most powerful politician. This closeness to power proves too intoxicating. A brief interlude follows of an OE in London. Older sister Louise is already there, and Labour connections provide a public servant job advising on policy for Tony Blair. A single reference is made to the International Union of Socialist Youth, where at 27, Ardern was elected unopposed as president for a two-year term at the world congress in the Dominican Republic in 2008. This should be big news but only her opportunity for travel is recorded. Nothing is said about these travels to places such as Hungary, Jordan, Israel, Algeria, and China. That editor must have signalled – 'don't bother with the political stuff'. (IUSY has 122 leftwing, non-communist member organisations from more than 100 countries.) The story moves back to New Zealand as Ardern's political career takes off, landing her 20th on the Labour list of candidates in the 2008 election, which Labour lost. She begins her parliamentary career in opposition, but that nosey editor ensures the boring stuff is left out. The focus remains on the personal as the young politician begins dating on advice that she should have a life outside politics. Readers are introduced to the alpha male Clarke Gayford, who has a higher profile as a broadcasting personality. That changes when Andrew Little steps aside as leader and Ardern, deputy for just five months, is elevated just weeks before the 2017 general election. Clarke Gayford, Jacinda Ardern, and baby Neve at the United Nations. Worlds collide The couple's desire for a family becomes paramount and the two worlds collide in a dramatic climax as Ardern learns she is pregnant on election night after years of failed fertility treatments. Again, you can't make this stuff up. As coalition negotiations start on the formation of a Labour-New Zealand First Government, Ardern is chomping on water biscuits and salt-and-vinegar chips to stave off bouts of morning sickness. Amazingly, her pregnancy remains secret from her colleagues and the Diplomatic Protection Service, who do not twig when they drop the couple off to a medical appointment, thinking they are calling on a friend with a bottle of wine. The birth of baby Neve in June 2018 and the beginnings of motherhood are given as much prominence as other early milestones of the prime ministership. The visit to the annual United Nations annual leaders' meeting is a logistical nightmare if you are a breastfeeding mum, and Neve makes history as the first baby to appear on the UN General Assembly floor. We are reminded of the editor's presence as a teenage infatuation with the 'Peace Train' song by Cat Stevens contributes another flukey coincidence – the appearance of Yusuf Islam at the We Are One memorial concert for the victims of the Christchurch mosque shootings. Only four brief chapters, out of 30, are left to cover subsequent events, including the most contentious period of Ardern's term as prime minister. This has disappointed reviewers, who note the lack of references to issues that saw a sharp drop in support for the Government after Labour's 2020 election win that produced the first single-party majority under MMP. It comes as a surprise, in the memoir's final melodramatic reveal, that the resignation announcement on January 19, 2023, was partly caused by a cancer scare rather than not having 'enough fuel in the tank' to continue the onerous duties of public leadership and raising a family. A Different Kind of Power: A memoir, by Jacinda Ardern (Penguin). Nevil Gibson is a former editor at large for NBR. He has contributed film and book reviews to various publications. This is supplied content and not paid for by NBR.
The Independent
29-01-2025
- Business
- The Independent
What is the state pension triple-lock – and how could it be means-tested?
The pension triple-lock should be means tested to make sure the country is 'growing' Conservative leader Kemi Badenoch has said, sparking criticism from Labour opponents. Speaking on LBC earlier this month, the leader of the opposition said the Conservatives are 'going to look at means testing' the measure used to increase the state pension year on year. It is currently in place for all pensioners, regardless of income or savings. Speaking to host Iain Dale, Ms Badenoch said: 'Means-testing is something which we don't do properly here.' 'Starting with the triple-lock is not how to solve the problem. We need to start with: why are we not making the same kind of money we used to make? 'I tell people we've started living off our inheritance, we're living off the work that previous generations did. We've got to give something to the next generation. What are we leaving them with? That's what we've got to sort out.' The Conservative leader has been asked by MPs to clarify what her comments would entail, but has so far not responded. They are a far cry from her predecessor Rishi Sunak's pre-election promise to introduce the ' triple lock plus,' which would have also seen the tax-free pension allowance increased every year. What is means testing? Means testing is when a person's finances are assessed to determine if they are eligible for a certain payment, or eligible for it at a different scale. It is based on the principle that those with less personal wealth should be more eligible to receive financial assistance than those with higher wealth. Labour recently drew criticism for its mean testing of the winter fuel payment, which meant that only pensioners on the lowest incomes were eligible for the cold weather benefit. Means testing the state pension triple-lock would likely mean reducing the annual rise for certain pensioners based on factors like their income, savings, and assets. This could either be done with a sharp cut-off, as with the changes to the winter fuel payment, or on a sliding scale. What is the state pension triple lock? The triple-lock guarantee, first implemented in 2011, means the state pension increases year-on-year by the highest of three measures. These are: In 2024, the state pension increased by 8.5 per cent, in line with the previous September's inflation figure. This April, it will go up by 4.1 per cent, matching wage growth in 2024. The triple lock was introduced to ensure that the state pension would not be outstripped by rising prices, nor by the average spending power of those in work. The measure has been criticised for potentially lacking long-term sustainability, costing the government more each year. In 2023/24, pension payments cost the government an estimated £124.3 billion. What is the state pension age in the UK? The current state pension age in the UK is 66. This is the age at which you can retire and start receiving your state pension. Before this, you can only withdraw from a personal pension, depending on your provider, and usually not before you reach 55. The state pension age is set to rise from May 6, 2026, to 67. This transition will be gradual, with the state pension age being 66 and 1 month for someone born on April 6, 1960, 66 and 2 months for someone born on May 6, 1960, and so on. It will then hit 67 for anyone born on or after March 6, 1961.
