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July 23rd, 2011

The Murdochs get grilled, Glasman alienates Labour on immigration, and the Eurozone steps back from the abyss: Round up of political blogs for 16 – 22 July

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Blog Admin

July 23rd, 2011

The Murdochs get grilled, Glasman alienates Labour on immigration, and the Eurozone steps back from the abyss: Round up of political blogs for 16 – 22 July

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Chris Gilson, Paul Rainford and Amy Mollett take a look at the week in political blogging.

Phone-hacking

As Rebekah Brooks is arrested, The Coffee House believes that the Met has a chance to rescue its reputation during the London Olympics. Political Betting considers the positive consequences of the Murdoch fall out for Ed Miliband, whereas TheToryDiary are keen to stress that the saga has failed to significantly boost Labour’s ratings. Labour List blogs on the emergence of Ed Miliband mark II.

Channel Four’s Jon Snow asks if the phone-hacking scandal is Britain’s Watergate and Daniel Goodliffe of Labour List optimistically looks ahead to a media landscape without Murdoch. Tuesday’s Select Committee hearings offered politics the chance to come of age writes the Guardian. Lib Dem Voice praises the work of the Select Committee members, not to mention Wendi Deng Murdoch and her right hook. On Friday, Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy reports that James Murdoch may have misled the Select Committee.

Sue Marsh at Labour List takes a look at how the hacking scandal has altered the respective fortunes of the major party leaders. Labour Uncut believes that Cameron needs to start providing some answers but Sunder Katwala believes that his job is safe – although his political project is now in jeopardy.

Peter Apps from Reuters wonders whether Britain is more corrupt than it thinks, while Samira Shackle at The Staggers reports that the scandal may be spreading to papers beyond News International.

Michael Meacher at Left Futures says that Murdoch’s evidence shows that his empire is far too large, and should be broken up, while Daniel Elton at Left Foot Forward thinks that David Cameron is fueling the right’s hatred for the BBC by calling it too powerful.

Henry Manson at politicalbetting.com wonders if newspaper endorsements of political parties will now mean as much in the wake of the phone hacking scandal.

The economy and the eurozone crisis

The False Economy Blog shows that 2011 is looking like a bad year for the economy – and 2012 looks even worse. Richard Murphy at Tax Research UK shows how the foundations for the next financial crisis already exist, while Will Straw at Left Foot Forward shows that the Eurozone crisis is not to blame for the UK’s sluggish growth. Similarly jobs and growth figures for Wales and Scotland make for a gloomy picture according to Ed Jacobs at Left Foot Forward.

Duncan Weldon at Left Foot Forward reckons that this quarter’s increased public borrowing figures will make grim reading for George Osborne, while Labour Left has an HMRC estimate that as much as £600billion in taxes could be going unpaid every year.

Bagehot blogs on Britain changing its mind about a two speed Europe and warns euro-sceptics to temper their joy at the travails of the eurozone, as Stephanie Flanders notes that Thursday’s deal to restructure Greek debt has seen the Euro take one step back from the abyss – although Richard Murphy isn’t so convinced.

Faisal Islam floats the idea that Europe is becoming a country.

Left Foot Forward criticizes a recent Institute for Economic Affairs report on high speed rail, arguing that right wing dogma has obstructed clear thinking on the benefits in terms of jobs and regeneration.

John Redwood reckons it’s ‘groundhog day’ once again for attempts to fix the Euro.

Immigration

Following on from Maurice Glasman’s controversial comments on immigration, Left Foot Forward suggests that the Labour Party needs to distance themselves from such dog whistle politics. The Migrants’ Rights Network similarly lambasts Glasman’s hard-line and unrealistic propositions.

Stumbling and Mumbling discusses the UK’s concern about immigration in the UK in the context of economics and the media, and Conor Ryan warms against anti-immigrant protectionism.

And finally…

Liberal Democrat Voice takes a closer look at David Cameron’s mistakes in the eyes of the public.

Political Scrapbook highlights the scandalous fact that the government is proposing a public services oversight role for the Taxpayers’ Alliance. The False Economy Blog notes that a new white paper has opened the door to the privatization of the NHS.

The JRF blog tackles the issue of social housing and wonders just who has the right to live in the city?

George Eaton at The Staggers says that cuts to the police announced this week, are even worse than expected.

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This work by British Politics and Policy at LSE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.