The Mirror Crack'd

In Mao's China the Neighbourhood Committees (Juweihui) were a mechanism for keeping tabs on community activities, countering crime and stifling political dissent. The Gao Ma (grandmas) or Dama (aunties) were elderly women empowered by the Chinese Communist Party to maintain order on behalf of the Juweihui and report back on any infringements. As such, rather like the historic concierges in post-Revolutionary France, they were the frontline of state surveillance, commanding fear and affection in equal (or perhaps unequal) measure. In light of recent well-publicised events in Middlesbrough, I find myself pondering the advantages of such social management at the  grassroots level. I realise that this is potentially a busybodies' charter or, as in the cases cited above, something even more sinister. Where even existing Neighbourhood Watch schemes in this country are often sneered at as "curtain-twitchers" (having been a Neighbourhood Watch Co-ordinator myself in the past...

Andy Burnham's marathon session in the House of Commons yesterday, and his performance at PMQs today, are a good start, but now he has to deliver. Talk is cheap, as we all know, and there was certainly plenty of that yesterday as the new Prime Minister set out his stall to a packed House. In a prequel to today's PMQs Burnham gave his Statement, to which Kemi Badenoch, as Leader of the Opposition, responded. Try as she might - which wasn't very hard - she failed to land a blow on her new opponent, appearing to succumb to his irresistible charm and patent sincerity, ending up laughing along with him at her own expense. An exhausting three-and-a-half hours later (and, yes, for the record, I watched the entire session on Parliament.tv) a tired and emotional (in the literal rather than Private Eye sense) Burnham left the Chamber. He must have been feeling shattered but quietly satisfied as he headed for a well-deserved cuppa - or maybe something a little stronger. He acquitted h...

Andy Burnham has spent the summer making a string of policy announcements - this week he will find out how it's gone down. With the summer recess and August Bank Holiday out of the way, schools and Parliament return for the autumn today and, rather like teachers having an inset day, so MPs will take the day to settle in before the first Prime Minister's Questions (PMQs) kicks business off in earnest tomorrow. Burnham may choose to make a statement to the House today but the PMQs set-piece at the despatch box tomorrow will be his first major performance in the Chamber of the House of Commons since becoming Prime Minister on 20th July. To describe it as eagerly-awaited would be an understatement and it will be closely scrutinised and analysed. Therefore, it is essential that Burnham gets the tone right since it will define the rest of his premiership. No pressure there, then. His many pledges over the summer, variously described as a flurry, slew or spate, will certainly provide ...

The UK Government Resilence Action Plan (RAP) 2026 was published on 14th July so why are we only hearing about it now? I consider myself fairly switched-on and tuned-in but I don't recall hearing about this before and yet, today, the press and media are full of advice on stocking-up at least 72 hours'-worth of basic essentials such as bottled water, tinned food, a first-ai d kit, candles and battery powered torches and radios in case of a national emergency. Could it be that the month's delay has been due to the changeover of Prime Ministers? I think the game is given away by the strap-line on the Cabinet Office report to be found on the UK.Gov website: "This was published under the 2024 to 2026 Starmer Labour government". So during the past month, while parliament has been in recess and Labour has been rearranging the deckchairs on the Titanic, we, the British people, have been kept in the dark, effectively left to fend for ourselves as potentially existential in...

After a long, hot summer of urban noise and disturbance I recently sought refuge in the country - it didn't go exactly according to plan... After no-mow May (and - coincidentally, surely? - the local elections) the grass on my East London estate has not been cut by the council. As a consequence, long, tinder-dry grass is now at the mercy of any disposable barbecue (believe me, it happens even on inner-city estates) or thoughtlessly discarded cigarette butt so I expect a conflagration at any moment - just as well we currently have fire wardens - but that's another story, for another time... We have also been plagued recently by late-night/early-morning fireworks exploding noisily and shattering the already fragile nighttime 'calm'. Suffice to say, between heatwaves and antisocial behaviour we have had little sleep these past few months..  So, while news that Prime Minister Burnham (appropriately so-named in this context) has temporarily banned the use of disposable barbe...

Writing my previous piece, Hard truths, shocked me even as I was writing it. I don't know what my small but loyal cohort of readers will have made of it - and, as I haven't enabled comments, I may never find out - but, while thinking the previously unthinkable was an uncomfortable experience, publishing my conclusions was agonising. If my writing goes down to posterity at all (which I very much doubt) I wouldn't want it to be as the ravings of a crypto-fascist. Nevertheless, I stand by what I wrote and was interested, therefore, to read a piece in Engelsberg Ideas by Jack Dickens entitled Europe's Lost Reason of State. This came as a revelation to me and I admit I was initially somewhat alarmed to learn that the concept derives from the writings of Machiavelli. (If one is judged by the company one keeps, what does quoting the godfather of the dark arts of Renaissance political philosophy say about one's moral compass?) To quote Dickens: "Reason of State was for...