The Periscope Post

Telegraph George Osborne sets a creative example over cuts

Chancellor George Osborne is soon to convene the Star Chamber to begin the Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR), the full report of which is due 50 days. That’s a relatively short amount of time to make a lot of decisions about where and how spending cuts should be enacted, said the Telegraph. However, the paper welcomed the Chamber as a way to “cut creatively, and create a leaner, more efficient state.” When confronted by stories of Whitehall officials pushing their desks closer together and ministers sharing offices to save money, the Telegraph responded: “Given the monumental scale of the deficit, much of this manoeuvring appears almost childishly irrelevant. It is not. For the symbolism of the cuts process matters a great deal.” The paper noted that even small money-saving gestures will help Osborne when it comes to the “big-ticket items” such as welfare and defence. Then, “it will be useful for Mr Osborne to be able to refer to those departments that have already reached agreement, in order to exert pressure on the foot-draggers.”

Independent Blair’s flawed and self-serving analysis

That Tony Blair’s memoir is called “The Journey” should be viewed as the “final irony” according to the Independent. “Blair, the self-styled ‘moderniser’ and ‘rebel’, would keep Labour rooted to the spot, (his) journey is over. Labour needs to move on,” advised the Indie. Blair does not repudiate a single decision he made while in power, according to the paper, except the fox hunting debate and the introduction of the Freedom of Information Act. The Indie said that this gives “The Journey” an air of “familiarity”, because the soap box has not changed. The book also reminded the Indie of Blair’s naivety because in it “(Blair) voices his ‘profound’ disapproval of deficit spending. But deficit spending was what prevented the slump in Britain turning into something still worse.” Although the Indie said that the timing of the publication was very unhelpful to the Labour Party in general, (“It is not just the resurrection of bitter internal splits that does damage, but the naked attempt by Blair to exert influence.”) ultimately, the Indie conclude that “A Journey” “is unlikely to be a major influence on the historical debate” about Tony Blair.

The Times About Time

In his new book, “The Grand Design”, Stephen Hawking writes that God did not create the universe but that it happened through the laws of physics and possibly M-theory. By saying such Hawking not only disagrees with religious believers, but also many modern cosmologists because, “it is widely held that modern cosmology does not answer why the universe began, only how it developed immediately after it began,” The Times explained. The Times went on to declare that it’s “about time” for Hawking’s suggestion and delivered a full-throated approval of the book. “Professor Hawking’s discussion is a powerful challenge. Why the universe exists is not a dry scholarly debate, but a question that occurs to every child. A remarkable intellect gives his answer.”

Daily Mirror Hague has blundered

Foreign Secretary William Hague has publicly denied that he had an affair with his special advisor Christopher Myers, calling the allegations “utterly false”. Hague also spoke about the personal trauma that he and his wife had suffered. The Daily Mirror blamed Hague for drawing attention to himself by speaking-out and thus “catapult[ing] a series of lurid allegations into the public gaze.” The Mirror claimed that until Hague spoke out, “these rumours had been confined to the internet – and they had been largely ignored.” The Mirror finds it hard to believe that “greats like Palmerston and Ernie Bevin, would have been panicked like Mr Hague” and gone public. The paper ultimately condoned “all those who peddle unfounded, hurtful rumours,” such individuals “deserve the criticism coming their way and should be held to account. Mr Hague’s private life is his own business unless it impinges on his public affairs, including the use of taxpayers’ money,” said the Mirror. There was no mention of glass houses in the piece.