Instant Opinion: Keir Starmer must offer more than ‘not being Jeremy Corbyn’
Your guide to the best columns and commentary on Monday 13 July Reaction The
Week Staff Monday, July 13, 2020 - 2:20pm The Week’s daily round-up highlights
the five best opinion pieces from across the British and international media,
with excerpts from each. 1. Tom Harris in The Daily Telegraph on the first 100
days of the Labour leader After 100 days, Keir Starmer needs to offer voters
more than ‘not being Jeremy Corbyn’ “The improvements he has made to his party’s
– and his own – standing are real and important. That he has made mistakes along
the way should hardly surprise anyone, although he needs to make fewer of them
if he is to establish himself as a natural repository of anti-government
support. Electorates have a nasty habit of making judgments about politicians in
the very first few weeks of their tenure, and then refusing to reverse that
judgment. The Covid lockdown may have given Starmer a longer period to bed in
and might even allow him to have an effective relaunch on the other side of this
crisis. From the perspective of a former member, Starmer represents a breath of
fresh air for most Labour supporters after five fraught years. But a sense of
relief won’t be enough for all those red wall voters, because – and I speak from
experience – once you get out of the habit of voting Labour, it’s harder than
you might expect to get back into it.” 2. Nesrine Malik in The Guardian in
defence of those decried as ‘online mobs’ The ‘cancel culture’ war is really
about old elites losing power in the social media age See related What is cancel
culture? “Whenever I talk to people who are suddenly concerned about ‘cancel
culture’ or ‘online mobs’, my first thought is always: ‘Where have you been for
the last decade?’ I’ve been online long enough and, like many others, been
receiving criticism and abuse online for long enough, to know that what some see
as a new pattern of virtual censure by moral purists is mostly a story about the
internet, not ideology or identity. If critics of ‘cancel culture’ are worried
about opinions, posts and writings being constantly patrolled by a growing group
of haters, then I am afraid they are extremely late to the party. I cannot
remember a time where I have written or posted anything without thinking: ‘How
many ways can this possibly be misconstrued, and can I defend it if it were?’
It’s not even a conscious thought process now, it’s instinct.” 3. Sean O’Grady
in The Independent on the recovery of the British economy Forget global Britain
- thanks to Brexit, coronavirus and a trade war with China, we’re losing our
grip “There’s something heroic about Britain trying to chuck its weight around
this way, and of course no one wants to do business with bullies and tyrants.
But still, if the British economy is going to recover from the
coronavirus-induced recession and go on to grow in the 2020s it will need its
friends and its markets, and the British now seem to intent on blanking
virtually everyone. The opportunities seem to be contracting rather than
expanding. As everyone agrees, the UK is a great trading nation, and since
before the industrial revolution has made its living from selling abroad, but
the we don’t seem to be living up to the original hopes of ‘unleashing Britain’s
potential’.” 4. John Prideaux, US editor of The Economist, in The Times on an
abolitionist deserving of a pedestal A slavery statue we can all agree on:
Frederick Douglass “On both sides of the Atlantic a great debate about statues
is under way. So far the focus has mostly been on which lumps of bronze and
marble should be removed by crane, or pushed into the harbour. There has been
less discussion of what to do with all the empty plinths this creates. Yet
putting up statues is fun. It is an opportunity to honour someone who should be
universally admired and, therefore, to make a statement about what the society
doing the putting up values. For those reasons Britain ought to have a statue of
America’s greatest campaigner for the abolition of slavery, Frederick Douglass.
Douglass had such an extraordinary life that the three autobiographies he wrote
hardly seem sufficient.” 5. Nick Akerman, an assistant special prosecutor on the
Watergate Special Prosecution Force, in The New York Times on the unfair fight
set up for the special prosecutor Did Mueller Ever Stand a Chance Against Trump
and Roger Stone? “From the start, Mr. Mueller was restrained by Justice
Department regulations. He was barred, for example, from looking into the
broader relationship between Mr. Trump and Russia through a review of Mr.
Trump’s financial records and tax returns. Furthermore, according to the Mueller
report, Mr. Trump made multiple attempts to fire the special counsel, and it is
difficult, if not almost impossible, to conduct an investigation under those
circumstances... Looking ahead, there needs to be a better mechanism in
extraordinary circumstances - like Watergate and Russian interference in the
2016 election - that allows for the appointment of a truly independent special
prosecutor. We were lucky to get the Mueller report, but Mr. Mueller was acting
under restraints. Unfortunately history tells us that we will need special
counsels in the years ahead, under extraordinary circumstances, and like we did
with Watergate, that office should have true independence to protect our country
and Constitution.” UK News US Russia Crime Science & Health Politics Society Law
Keir Starmer Jeremy Corbyn Social media Boris Johnson Brexit slavery Donald
Trump Russia US election 2016#world_news
