Tag: John Major

He is also a lousy leader, and at a time when Britain needs a leader of presence, courage, intellect and vision. The 2016 referendum result was indeed the outcome of a class society increasingly riven by inequality. Jeff Wallace Cardiff • John Harris is too kind to the Labour leadership. If a new vote changed the outcome of the last one, it would not put to sleep the issue of the relationship between the UK and the EU. Leadership is not just about charging in regardless. Corbyn has to think about how to make the best out of the situation we are in and how to reconcile irreconcilable demands and expectations: to be a statesman, not a demagogue. John Harris is more up to date – Brexit is indeed a “class issue” and Labour should challenge it by supporting a people’s vote. John Chowcat Hythe, Kent • John Harris’s use of the word “colluding” seems ill-judged, not in its use but in its scope. But it was not just a failure of the Conservatives to listen, it was Labour as well, in power from 1997 to 2010. He is also right that Jeremy Corbyn, the invisible man of politics, is barely interested in halting the damage Brexit will wreak on these downtrodden communities (which a mainly middle class membership does not represent) by calling for a people’s vote, because he is a thinly disguised closet Brexiter.

A new study in the British Journal of Criminology indicates that the different political periods in which people 'came of age' has an important influence on their perception of crime, even decades later. For over forty years, researchers have sought to understand the causes and implications of people's fear of crime. But to date, no studies have been able to take into account whether the political period in which a cohort grew up had a meaningful effect on their emotional responses to crime. Researchers from the University of Sheffield, University of Southampton and Sciences Po, Paris, analyzed data on fear of crime and antisocial behavior from the British Crime Survey in England and Wales spanning 30 years. The researchers found a strong relationship between a respondent's current crime fears and their political generation. Meanwhile, the Wilson/ Callaghan generation expressed the highest levels of worry about robbery and mugging, which was a key concern for politicians, policy makers and journalists at the time. Responses to antisocial behaviours tell a similar story. Political and popular debates about crime that are prevalent in one's youth appear to impact the fears those individuals report through adulthood and into middle age," said one of the paper's authors, Stephen Farrall. s.farrall@sheffield.ac.uk 07906 716 590 To request a copy of the study, please contact: Daniel Luzer daniel.luzer@oup.com Disclaimer: AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert!

Tory hopes of uniting the party behind Theresa May’s latest vision for Brexit faded as former deputy prime minister Michael Heseltine dismissed her latest speech as just more “phrases, generalisations and platitudes” which had done nothing to make a deal more likely. We've gone from the fastest growing to the slowest growing economy in Europe and made a Horlicks of the Irish border A lifelong europhile, Heseltine conceded that the prime minister was in a difficult position, as rightwing Tory MPs held “a knife to her throat”. But neither the prime minister nor her cabinet had made any progress on the central Brexit problems, including the Irish border, because such issues were essentially not solvable unless the UK stayed in the EU. The only way forward, he said, was for the issues to be put back to parliament, and then to an election or referendum. “The downsides are becoming more evident as time passes. Play Video 2:01 “It is good to hear that the UK wants to stay in regulatory alignment but that doesn’t really solve any problems,” said one diplomat involved in drafting the EU’s position. Talks have continued between Labour MPs and Conservatives about how to push forward amendments on the customs union, single market, and the date of Brexit, on which May could well be defeated. There are also signs that worries about Brexit could hit the Tories in May’s local elections. Tory council leaders across the UK are among those who believe Brexit will damage their local economies, putting them under greater pressure to push up council taxes and cut yet more services, according to a new survey of local authority leaders and chief executives. The survey by the New Local Government Network (NLGN) showed only 12% of 185 respondents believed it would have a positive effect on their economies, while 26% felt the impact of leaving the EU would be neutral.