A year of Keir: What has Starmer done for his party and the people?
This Sunday will mark the one year anniversary of Sir Keir Starmer’s tenure as leader of the Labour Party. It hasn’t been an easy or even normal year, which should be taken into account when assessing how he’s got on. But the truth is that Leaders of the Opposition rarely get to choose the circumstances under which they oppose. A global pandemic in which every speech he made had to be virtual was not ideal, but it has given him an opportunity to show both leadership and adaptability. Has he done enough, though?
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Lucy Jane Atkinson interview: “Is this a film? Is this a play? Where is that line?”
When I was taught to write interviews as I studied journalism, I was told to add some colour
to the opening. Talk about the room you’re in, the clothes your interviewee is wearing (I
don’t do this on principle as it’s only ever colourful about women) or your journey to get
there.
But of course, when I ‘meet’ director Lucy Jane Atkinson, we’re in different rooms. I can’t
really see her clothes as I am looking at a head and shoulders frame through Zoom and my
journey was one from my bedroom to the living room.
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Sarah Everard: Are women ever safe from men?
I was walking down the street in broad daylight with a friend. We had been swimming. Our hair was still damp and we smelled of chlorine. We were nine. These are obviously the exact circumstances in which I wanted to see my first penis. Clearly, we were asking for it.
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Ted Cruz won't be able to usurp Trump so easily
In the last proper episode of the long-running American soap opera Dallas, arch bad guy JR Ewing is shown what the world would look like if he didn’t exist. Unlike its inspiration, It’s a Wonderful Life, his closest family and friends are happier, more successful and better off without him.
I was reminded of this childhood TV moment when thinking about Donald Trump and his role in global public life over the past decade. I frankly fail to see how anyone wouldn’t be better off if he had just made money instead of headlines – neither the people who have been hurt by his Government; nor even his fervent supporters, some of whom now face jail for allowing that support to fester into insurrection and violence.
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Angela Rayner was right to praise Thatcher's strategy - the left would do well to learn from it.
The further left reaches of Twitter are angry at a member of the Labour leadership. Must be a day with ‘day’ in the name.
This time, it’s Angela Rayner who is being wilfully misunderstood by those who remain completely unreconciled with change at the top of the Labour Party. Her crime was seeming to praise Margaret Thatcher in her wide-ranging closing discussion at the Fabian conference this weekend.
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The Sex and the City reboot won't work, because we don't want to be their friends anymore.
When Sex and the City first launched it was a breath of fresh air for single women in their early 20s, like me. I was just a few years behind Carrie and the gang – and related hard to their disastrous love lives, their bottom of the rung career mishaps and their tiny, grotty apartments.
My friends and I would often ask each other, “Which one are you?” We’d take quizzes in magazines to find out how much of a Charlotte or Samantha we were – we’d even lie about how much sex we’d had, or were having, so we could be more “Samantha”. We all wanted Cynthia Nixon’s brains, Kristin Davis’s poise, Kim Cattrall’s attitude and Sarah Jessica Parker’s heart.
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Christina McAnea becomes first woman General Secretary of Unison
Christina McAnea has been elected the General Secretary of Unison – the public services union. She will be the first woman to lead the UK’s largest union.
McAnea won with 47.7 per cent of the vote. Her nearest competitor was Paul Holmes with 33.8 per cent.
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The government are sending mixed messages on vaccines and elections
On Sunday’s Westminster Hour, Conservative MP Steve Brine said that the local elections in London and elsewhere would “Almost certainly” be delayed due to ongoing Covid measures and restrictions.
However, the government’s message is still one of upbeat sunlit uplands following their mass vaccination rollout, and measures being loosened from late February onwards. The elections are not due until May.
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I hate lockdowns, but I still support the new one
I hated the first lockdown. In fact I hated 2020 from March onwards. Oh sure, there were some good times. I reconnected online with old mates I haven’t seen in ages. A gang of friends and I arranged to meet up virtually every Friday night to watch a terrible movie together (and from about July started dressing up for it). There were quizzes and dances and online immersive theatre. I am blessed with knowing some great and imaginative people.
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Chaotic government messaging over schools continues
Will schools reopen? And if so when? These are the questions on every teacher, parent and pupil’s minds.
Two government ministers – neither of whom are the hapless Education Secretary Gavin Williamson – have given very different answers on what will happen with secondary schools reopening.
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Nine times Left Foot Forward hit the headlines.
We’ve punched above our weight at Left Foot Forward this year, breaking news and getting noticed. Thanks to all our readers for making all this possible.
In no particular order – here’s a selection of coverage of LFF stories from the year.
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A majority of the public think pandemic procurement was corrupt
A new poll carried out by Survation and commissioned by We Own It has found that 59% of the public think that the way the government has handled procurement during the pandemic has been corrupt.
This comes in response to the ‘high priority lane’ identified in a National Audit Office report. This lane prioritised leads from Ministers, MPs, Peers and those with connections to government as more credible. These companies were ten times more likely to win contracts than those who were not in the high priority lane.
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The ‘blue wall’ might be under threat – but Tories could be saved by boundary changes
Recent polling has shown that the Tories are falling back in the seats they dramatically took from Labour last year.
But proposed boundary changes could be happening that would reduce seats in Wales by around eight, while increasing them in the South East by the same amount. Something that would almost certainly advantage the Tories and potentially make up for such losses.
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Law Commission calls for changes to ‘outdated’ misconduct in public office law
The Law Commission, the independent statutory body overseeing reform of the law in England and Wales has recommended scrapping the common law offence of misconduct in public office.
They are calling for two new laws to replace it – an offence of corruption in public office, and an offence of breach of duty in public office. The Commission says this will make the law clearer and easier to follow.
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