Cameron told to “personally atone” for slavery
“David Cameron faced calls to ‘personally atone’ for his family’s historic ties to slavery as his first day visiting Jamaica was overshadowed by a row about reparations. The Prime Minister was publicly pressed on whether Britain will pay compensation to Caribbean countries for its role in the slave trade by Portia Simpson Miller, Jamaica’s Prime Minister. Campaigners accused the UK of racism for compensating slaver owners but not those enslaved when the practice was abolished in 1833” – Daily Telegraph
Kirkup: Brexit is more likely than you think
“A British exit from the EU is more likely than the consensus suggests. It also remains just possible that Mr Cameron will campaign for that exit when the referendum comes – although with the EU transfixed by the migration crisis and Mr Cameron still wary of making clear demands for his renegotiation, a vote next autumn looks less likely than one in 2017” – James Kirkup, Daily Telegraph
>Today:
- Tory Diary: Should Britain leave the EU? Hear Steve Baker at ConHome’s Party Conference fringe meeting
- Tory Diary: How are you likely to vote in the coming EU Referendum? Please take our pre-Conservative Conference survey
>Yesterday:
New politics, old speech
“Jeremy Corbyn’s offer of straight- talking, honest politics was overshadowed yesterday after it emerged that passages of his first conference speech were recycled from a draft rejected by five former Labour leaders. Mr Corbyn used the speech to make an impassioned plea to voters not to accept inequality or injustice as he committed the party to a total rejection of David Cameron’s austerity programme. He promised to ‘speak to everyone in Britain’, but was accused of failing to address voters who had deserted Labour at the last election” – The Times (£)
- Revealed: Corbyn used an old speech – Alex Massie, Spectator
- Corbyn will regret outsourcing his policy to Labour Party members – William Hague, Daily Telegraph
>Yesterday:
- Video: Jeremy Corbyn’s first speech as Labour leader
- Left Watch: Corbyn’s conference speech: underwhelmingly, inevitably dull
- Video: McTernan versus Williams on Corbynomics
Bromides, jibes, anecdotes, digressions…
“’I want to speak to everyone in Britain,’ Mr Corbyn said near the beginning, before spending five minutes thanking various Labour party figures, including his thwarted leadership rivals who may disagree that the summer’s campaign was ‘an amazing three-month experience for all of us’. What followed was a disjointed series of bromides, jibes, anecdotes, digressions, descriptions of party processes, interspersed with odd moments of articulate anger and eloquent passion” – John McDermott, Financial Times
- A hint of Nicholas Parsons from the old codger – Quentin Letts, Daily Mail
- Mr Cor-Bean – The Sun (£)
- Corbyn heckled for refusing to say “Israel” at Labour Friends of Israel meeting – Daily Telegraph
- Corbyn calls on Cameron to intervene over Saudi execution – Independent
Finkelstein: Labour are stuck with Corbyn
“The party has had 17 leaders and it has not pushed out a single one between elections. Labour has only deposed a leader once in any circumstances. This came immediately after the 1922 election, when John Clynes was superseded by Ramsay MacDonald, who was returning to the leadership upon re-election to parliament” – Daniel Finkelstein, The Times (£)
- They cheered Corbyn like kamikaze pilots before taking off to oblivion – Max Hastings, Daily Mail
- Corbyn appeals to members over the heads of his queasy MPs – Financial Times editorial
- Corbyn avoided disasters but also avoided substance – The Times editorial (£)
- Corbyn will steal from the poor as well as the rich – Ross Clark, Daily Express
- Corbyn doesn’t want to sit in Number Ten. He wants to sit outside – Dan Hodges, Daily Telegraph
- Corbyn helps Labour forget election defeat – Jonathan Freedland, Guardian
- Corbyn’s speech was a resounding success – Liam Young, Independent
- Cameron’s 24-point poll lead over Corbyn – Daily Mail
Burnham: “Immigration causes low wages”
“Immigration is causing low wages and poverty for British workers, Shadow Home Secretary Andy Burnham will warn. He will say Labour must ‘face up’ to the fact that immigration has made the UK a more unequal society, in a blunt message to Labour’s annual conference… ‘It has made life harder for people in our poorest communities, where wages have been undercut and job security lost’” – Birmingham Mail
- The benefits of migration are questionable – Martin Wolf, Financial Times
- Berlin agrees steps to curb migrants as Merkel faces backlash – Financial Times
SNP MP resigns whip after police launch inquiry
“Michelle Thomson, the SNP frontbench spokeswoman on business affairs, has resigned the party whip after police launched an inquiry into property deals conducted by her lawyer. Police Scotland confirmed that its officers had been instructed by the Crown Office ‘to carry out an initial investigation into alleged irregularities relating to property deals’. The police announcement plunged the SNP into disarray” – The Times (£)
- Judge dismisses key plank of Alistair Carmichael defence – Scotsman
>Today:
Carney warns investors face “huge” climate change losses
“The governor of the Bank of England has thrown down the gauntlet to the fossil fuel industry with a blunt warning that investors face ‘potentially huge’ losses from climate change action that could make vast reserves of oil, coal and gas ‘literally unburnable’. In a sweeping assessment of the financial risks posed by global warming, Mark Carney acknowledged there was a danger the assets of fossil fuel companies could be left ‘stranded’ by tougher rules to curb climate change” – Financial Times
Altmann defends pension changes
“Savers who receive less than the new £151.25-a-week state pension will still be better off, the new Pensions Minister has declared. In her first major newspaper interview since taking up her post, Baroness (Ros) Altmann fought back against critics who claim the new system is unfair. She told Money Mail that those who complain about deductions to their payout simply do not understand how the old and new state pensions work” – Daily Mail
Doubts about Boris’s cycling plans
“It remains to be seen if Johnson’s plans will nurture a cycling culture of similar civility [to Copenhagen] that embraces a much larger and more varied London public or, to be pessimistic, encourage two-wheel boy racers in Wiggo kits to treat strips of London’s roads as private racetracks. Better cycling conditions can certainly be a big part of making London’s streets more hospitable, but that doesn’t mean that cyclists should be given whatever they want at the expense of everything else that can contribute to that goal” – Dave Hill, Guardian
- Boris explains London’s decision to turn down Tour de France – Guardian
- Why I’m backing Zac Goldsmith – Matthew Elliott, Daily Telegraph
- Is Zac Goldsmith a “proper Tory”? – Dave Hill, Guardian
Russia sends deadliest jets to help Assad
“Russia has sent six of its most advanced fighter bombers to Syria as it seeks to tilt the war in President Assad’s favour. Hours after President Obama told President Putin at a frosty meeting in New York that the Syrian dictator must go, a group of Su-34 Fullbacks were spotted at an airbase in Latakia, an Assad stronghold” – The Times (£)
- The remarkable similarity of Putin’s and Obama’s speeches at the UN – Julia Ioffe, Foreign Policy
- Saudi Arabia says Assad must go – Guardian
News in brief
- British journalists face five years in Indonesian jail for visa violation – Guardian
- First womb transplant in British hospital within weeks – The Times (£)
- Police to ignore ban on smoking in cars with children – Daily Mail
- Uber faces massive crackdown in London – Daily Telegraph