“But that’s not logical, Captain”

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 at 1:43 pm The posh phrase is cognitive dissonance, but it means people believe incompatible things, and today’s ComRes poll for The Independent has a striking example. After the next election, which of the two main political parties do you think is most likely to… Make your family better …

“Our NHS,” says Jeremy Hunt

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Tuesday, 1 October 2013 at 4:06 pm Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, has just addressed the Conservative Party conference, and called it “our NHS”, as Isabel Hardman notes. The Tories have as much claim to the health service as does the party of Nye Bevan (pictured), as I pointed out in …

The Truth About Those Rip-Off Energy Companies

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Wednesday, 2 October 2013 at 9:42 am I mentioned profit margins in the energy industry in my column in The Independent on Sunday. I pointed out that margins were not high, although they had risen at the end of last year and start of this one, “from being a bit …

David Cameron, progressive centrist

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Wednesday, 2 October 2013 at 3:04 pm A serviceable speech.* Appalling jokes. Clunky joins between prefabricated sections. But it did the job, positioning the Conservatives as the party of the progressive centre. He even got them to clap social workers, after praising the excellent Frontline programme to get top graduates …

Peter Oborne: Ideologue as Journalist

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Thursday, 3 October 2013 at 3:55 pm David Aaronovitch’s letter to the editor of The Spectator this week is worth reproducing outside the magazine’s semi-pay-wall: Sir: Your edition of 28 September included a 1,500-word demand from the journalist Peter Oborne to the effect that the Times, the newspaper that I work for, …

The Demeaning of Politics

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Thursday, 3 October 2013 at 10:14 pm Guido Fawkes, that establishment lackey who works for the paywalled Murdoch mainstream media and who is on Paul Dacre’s side in the current stramash, has been laying in to Alastair Campbell, who is on the other side. Fawkes seems to think that …

“If we’d just stuck a question mark on it none of this would have happened”

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Friday, 4 October 2013 at 9:23 am Just as I decide to wind up the Questions To Which The Answer Is No series, it secures its greatest triumph. Matthew Bayley of Sky News reported this morning: View from Daily Mail newsroom – “If we’d just stuck a question mark after the headline none …

Crossovers

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Friday, 4 October 2013 at 10:47 pm What do Mehdi Hasan, Roberto Mangabeira Unger and Marine le Pen have in common? They all seem to be experiencing left-right confusion. By chance, just as I was enjoying Hasan’s letter to Paul Dacre, editor of the Daily Mail, explaining how much they had …

“I thought he would be no good, but actually he has surprised me a bit”

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Saturday, 5 October 2013 at 5:03 pm About whom did one voter make that comment? The Times has put the transcript of a focus group it commissioned from YouGov on its website (on a tab on the story here, pay wall). Good focus-group material is hard to come by, and …

Top 10 Party Conference Speeches

By John Rentoul Eagle Eye Last updated: Monday, 7 October 2013 at 12:18 pm My Top Ten in the New Review, the Independent on Sunday magazine, yesterday was Party Conference Speeches. Margot James, the Conservative MP, liked the list but wanted YouTube links. I’ve found seven of them. 1. Hugh Gaitskell, 1960 “There are some of us who will fight, and fight, …