And I Don't Commend it to the House

Vince 'Vinny' Cable has had to perform some extra-ordinary political backflips in order to maintain his status as Secretary of State for Business. But the latest volte face, U-turn, flip-flop call it what you will, could be something of a first in British political history.

Vince's department has a policy to ramp up student tuition fees and the Tories have graciously allowed them to abstain given that every Lib-Dem MP signed a pledge to do so over their dead body. Conservatives could see an interesting dilemma occuring where whatever way Lib-Dem Ministers voted make them appear mad, bad or sad.

Clegg must have taken the political gamble that the students would swallow their medicine just like before as British young people are apolitical and apathetic. And yet they are not. The eruption of anger from the campuses has taken everyone by surprise not least the hapless NUS president, Aaron Porter who tied himself in knots and didn't even attend the last protest.

The control freakery of the police is fuelling the anger as is the cutting of the £30 a week allowance for poor sixth formers, a needless and pernicious 'saving'.

The Scottish and Welsh Parliaments are ensuring their countries' students are not exposed to such huge liabilities which just underlines how avoidable the policy is.

Vince may end up not supporting his own bill, but in any event Lib-Dem support among students is below sea level.

You're an Embarrassment

FIFA President, Sepp Blatter (left), did not feel moved to open any level of inquiry when the BBC Panorama team made allegations of corruption by senior board members.

Blatter answers to no-one. To be FIFA President is to be annointed into business royalty where usual business standards do not apply.

FIFA Vice-President, Jack Warner had already been caught flogging $1m worth of tickets to agencies and touts in 2006. His punishment was to be asked to repay the money. It would appear being caught did not deter him from doing it again this year.

Putting to one side these grave allegations, Andy Anson head of 'our' bid committtee called Panorama "an embarrassment to the BBC."

The wrath of many media organisations, particularly owned by Rupert Murdoch has been to lay into the Beeb accusing them of "sabotage" just before the decision on whether Britain should host 2018 World Cup. Was it not the Sunday Times who first revelead delegates taking 'sweeteners'?. Anyway, it would hardly be in the BBC's interests as they would get to broadcast the World Cup where Sky would not. In any case it was good to see old-fashioned investigative journalism infuriating these remote sporting despots.

The conditions set by FIFA on any World Cup bid are sickenly restrictive. The host country must agree to allow FIFA to protect its Amazonian like revenue stream by making temporary changes to tax and commercial law. We saw this in South Africa where all street sellers were cleared out within a mile of the stadia. During wet matches fans were only allowed to use FIFA umbrellas and not their own.

Suddenly our bid looks less favourable then the Russians. FIFA may yet regret getting into bed with Putin et al who are not so pliant as we would have been. To Sepp it is a mere detail.

Too Much Too Young

David (Lord) Young's indiscreet restaurant burbling about the "so-called" recession sounded rather like some Harry Enfield character or at least a scene from 'Yes, Minister.'

Amid the reassuring sound of fish knives on fine porcelain and claret glasses nudging together, Young poured out classic Tory indifference to the hard-pressed and unemployed.

As an adviser to the PM on business, he felt he did not have to accede to the Coalition's transparently false mantra of "we're all in this together." He scoffed at rising unemployment and cuts in public services as a lot of "fuss."

His best line was probably when he compared the level of public spending for 2010 being broadly similar to 2007, omitting to mention the tens of billions sucked out to support irresponsible banks. "Now I don't remember being short of money in 2007". Young wasn't short of money even in 1957, he was born into wealth and was able to thrive unlike "most people".

Once exposed, by the Telegraph of all papers, he immediately began distancing himself from his own remarks, like a footballer who has just been sent off, decrying needless fouling. Cameron had shown ruthless qualities previously and should have sacked him on the spot but instead showed he was really jolly angry at the old fool. Young did better by resigning a few hours later.

Labour frontbenchers could hardly contain their delight in having so many lines gifted to them which they can quote back to Cameron ad nauseam. The old image of Tory complacent aloofness is starting to return because the old detachment from the common man's plight had never really gone away.

Breeding Contempt

I am not sure I would agree with David Cameron the announcement of a Royal wedding in a few months amounted to, "a great day for Britain."

But Republican tendencies to one side, the new focus on the Royal family was a great day for tabloid editors and semi-redundant society watchers.

Prince William comes across as an amiable chap and Katherine Middleton seems a canny lass herself but their obvious difference in class will be exploited by the media with relish. There are few articles more nauseating than the adopted superiority of society commentators making terse remarks about perceived lapses in protocol.

Ms Middleton, unlike William, struggles to trace her family back to Edward II. Like practically all of Britons she only has to go back a maximum of four generations to find working class roots. To some of us, it is a source of reassurance of our equality and shared national heritage. To the snobby hacks, it will be a rich vein of bile and viciousness which will be mined to exhaustion.

It is beyond doubt her family will have pure lies told about them. Every relative looking a bit blurry-eyed in the back of a taxi will be presented as a huge story with a 'screamer' headline. Some will sue for damages and win. They will be compelled to take on heightened security and will wonder whether it was all worth it.

The first to be attacked looks to be Katherine's mother, Carole, who according to the gossip columns, works for a living, chews gum and uses the word 'toilet.'

It would be appropriate to offer the young couple every happiness yet the misery has hardly begun.

Just Read the Book

George Bush Jnr, or good ol 'W', once bet his political strategist, Karl Rove he could read more books in a year.

This detail emerged from Bush's autobio published last week. I think Rove won the bet but W still consumed almost 100 himself. That would not really matter if he hadn't been President at the time and not a first year undergraduate.

Surprisingly some were rather intellectual, which reminded me of that line from the film 'A Fish Called Wanda,'

"Monkeys don't read philosophy."

"Yes they do. They just don't understand what it means."

As expected, in Bush's memoirs we have the justification of Iraq war as well as torture through water-boarding. He rather glibly said it was perfectly alright as he had checked with lawyers and delivered the line as if we all knew the high levels of virtue advocates work under. These lawyers would also have had some encouragement from Veep Cheney to provide 'suitable' advice.

On the rounds of interviews for his book, one brave journo dared press him on the issue by asking the simple question (in so many words), "Ok, Bud, if this is not torture, are we OK about foreign police or army doing this to American personnel?" Bush shifted in his seat and gave his universal answer: "Just read the book."

But since then, some poor commentators have ploughed through this simplistic, Texan drivel they have found lots of false and proxy memories. I guess the editors did not dare to cross check if Bush was always there to witness all the conversations he had detailed. But it seems he has probably inadvertantly lifted sections frm other books (like Bob Woodward's). So he comes across as a rather dim, confused, self-conscious, adolescent who just used to be President.

Instant Karma

The British may be somewhat bemused to see a slightly known former Minister effectively kicked out of politics for telling lies about his opponent.

On closer view we see exactly while Phil Woolas's political career has come to a dramatic halt. Phil approved of his campaign literature asking questions of his Lib-Dem opponent, Elwyn Watkins,"Why are the extremists urging for a vote for Watkins?" Woolas also insinuated there was some murky foreign funding going on and that he was probably gay.

Such campaigning may be fairly commonplace in US. But not only are there limits to their acceptability over here and there is also a law which punishes candidates who dish out deliberate mistruths. Woolas was supported during the case by Labour and it cost them £400k in fees. Harriet Harman made clear there is no more funding for pointless appeals. When she said the party was accepting the judgement and would not put up candiates who had been found to be "telling lies" Woolas should have known he was toast.

He is attempting a judicial review which seems the wrong legal avenue - if any appeal is heard it will just lose him his house.

After his grubby and distasteful performances defending the deportation of ghurkas and locking up children at Yarl's Wood, it is hard not to feel a little shadenfreude at his rapid descent into oblivion.

Dishonest Toil

When the Archbishop of Canterbury is informed he has incurred the wrath of the Murdoch press this morning (Sun called him a "chump") he may be reassured he is on the right track.

Rowan Williams's fairly gently critique of IDS's plans to coerce the long-term unemployed into £1 an hour 'jobs' deserved to be much more robust. He only said those on benefits were not necessarily "wicked, stupid or lazy." The plan is a kind of 'pub wisdom' or crackpot suggestion from the Young Conservatives usually dismissed by more experienced members of the cabinet. This looks destined to be instituted, meaning it has approval from the very top.

It is far from clear what economic benefits it will serve. If there were huge amounts of vacancies unfilled then a more convincing justification could be made. But there are at least 5 jobless to every post. IDS says it will instill a work ethic an so furthers his impression of a rather batey and remote Latin prep master devising fiendish punishments for the lower fourth.

But at least the Coalition concede it is punishment for being unemployed. Danny 'Beaker' Alexander, admitted the policy was a "sanction" perhaps he did not realise it means the same as a penalty. We'll see if there is as much enthusiasm for making unemployed managerial staff pick litter for £30 a week.

Under Article 4 of the European Convention on Human Rights, work can only be compulsory if in prison, as part of military service or in a case of national emergency. I would have thought a legal challenge could defeat this odious plot to chain gang the unemployed.

Time to Man Up

Minister for Universities, David Willetts (left), could be more honest with the British people. But he showed he was determined to portray the Coalition Government's radial marketisation of Higher Education as equitable and designed to help poor families.

The bare facts are that undergraduate teacher funding is to be cut by 80 percent and the gap to be funded entirely by the students themselves, paying between £18,000 to £27,000 for a three year course. Giving graduates an easier way of paying hugely inflated fees does not amount to being "progressive" as Willetts claimed in a rather nauseating manner.

The sub-plot was revealed just after the election when he suggested young people should "set their sights a bit lower." Know their place, I guess is another way of putting it.

This privatisation will only save HM Treasury about £1bn so is economically idiotic. But what is shown to be hard-headed economic decision making is more ideological in reality.

Willetts could easily find warm words for sending boys up chimneys for fourteen hours a day. He would say, "We accept for some there will be a slightly longer average working day and but I feel sure many will thrive in this challenging work environment. It is not the role of Government to hold back young enthusiastic workers who chose to provide for their families in this exciting new enterprise. We already know many of the more ambitious 'sweeps' gain a valuable insight into the world of business and in that sense it could not be a more liberal policy..."

Tory families will feel the impact soon and it may yet shake them from their reverie. Lib-Dems have all woken with a start as the photo-ops of their MPs signing a pledge to oppose lifting the cap are repeated on their local TV news.

But if Ministers like Willetts really dared speak the truth it would start, "The Lib-Dems are taking most of the hits. So that's alright then."

Clinging to the Raft

Despite a poor night in the mid-term elections, President Obama can count himself lucky he did not yield both Houses like Bill Clinton in 1994.

The situations have strong parallels; a young, inspiring Democrat President takes the top job just as the economy starts 'tanking'. Naturally he gets a disproportionate degree of blame. It makes Obama's task as progressive a whole lot more difficult having the Democrat majority in the lower House overturned. Nancy Pelosi's tenure as Speaker is certainly over and she has handed to Republican John 'Perma-tan' Boehner (above).

But the Senate was not lost. The surging tide of the Tea Party stopped at Nevada where the rather grey but totally solid Harry Reid fended off the extraordinary challenge of the eccentric Sharron Angle. Reid's narrow win was pivotal in keeping a Democratic majority and also symbolic in defeating the shrill disaffected voices of extreme politics.

Angle ran, by any standards, a disreputable campaign. She showed a poor grasp of the subject matter which was exposed by the simplest of media questioning. Her response was to no longer engage with the media except at arms length photo-ops. Perhaps that lost her the final momentum. In an ideal world her loss would have been caused by a backlash from her endorsement of somewhat racist camapign ads where Latinos were pictured busting through border fences to terrorise white communities. Nevada has no border with Mexico.

But some other Tea Party favourites are to be elevated and their mysterious view of modern America will have a greater voice. It is odd from this side of the Atlantic to see middle and lower income voters rush to support candidates like Rand Paul (Kentucky) and Joe Miller (Alaska) who argue about withdrawing the provision of medicare and even the minimum wage.

Paul in his victory speech said, "We've come to take our Government back," which implies a presumption to govern and a certain contempt for democracy. Many millions of dollars poured in anonymously from a small group of corporate heads to fund the Tea Party campaigns eventhough one of their few uniting principles is fighting against these powerful and hidden elites.

We are now at the phase where both sides make futile gestures toward bi-partisanship then retreat to plot bloody murder. The test will be whether the strengthened Republicans still wish to make good their commitment to continue with Bush's colossal tax cut for the top two percent of earners. To do so would mean abandoning from the outset any ambition to significantly reduce the deficit let alone balance the budget.

There is a battle going for the soul of the Republican Party and the old guard will have to ensure Sarah Palin does not make it as their candidate in 2012. Esteemed journalist and speechwriter to Bush Jnr, David Frum, warned fellow Republicans there was no future in simply portraying President Obama as "some kind of Kenyan interloper," if they wanted to see a more substantial support for conservatism.

But Boehner has already said he wants to "reverse" Obama's healthcare reforms. The system of voting in the Senate may be obscure but if they try and dismantale his achievements at least the Constitution gives Obama the biggest of all trump cards: the veto.