Peter Oborne puts the boot in to MPs trying to gain the moral high ground on the riots

[marty21]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/p...r-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/

He's the Telegraph Political commentator -

But there was also something very phony and hypocritical about all the shock and outrage expressed in parliament. MPs spoke about the week’s dreadful events as if they were nothing to do with them.
I cannot accept that this is the case. Indeed, I believe that the criminality in our streets cannot be dissociated from the moral disintegration in the highest ranks of modern British society. The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite. It has become acceptable for our politicians to lie and to cheat. An almost universal culture of selfishness and greed has grown up

refreshing to see a Tory Commentator rising above the knee-jerkism of MPs

 

[Pickman's model]

yeh. but it will remain A tory commentator and i doubt you'll see anything as decent from a labour commentator.

 

[marty21]

yeh. but it will remain A tory commentator and i doubt you'll see anything as decent from a labour commentator.

very sad that -

 

[treelover]

Oborne does seem to cut through the political hypocrisy, etc..

his book about the elites is quite good..

 

[Brixton Hatter]

cost of the riots damage - about £100m

cost of the banking crisis - about £800 BILLION

(the look on the faces of the establishment - priceless )

 

[vogonity]

Terrific article; do like Mr. Oborne.

 

[Nylock]

yeh. but it will remain A tory commentator and i doubt you'll see anything as decent from a labour commentator.

...and that's fucking tragic

The article was a good read though (the only thing i've read thus far from the torygraph that hasn't made me want to punt my computer out of the window)...

 

[caroline1973]

well, i'm not all that impressed really. it's pretty impossible NOT to acknowledge the hypocrisy of MPs, particularly overpriviliged tory boys, bleating on about inner city youths 'endless sense of entitlement' (Boris.... gak....). but i'm bored of reading so much about MPs expenses and so little in the mainstream media about the elusive ultra-rich, a small tax on whose surging wealth would wipe out the entire deficit. greedy mps left themselves open to this, but i always felt the expenses crisis was really a convenient distraction by the torygraph, away from the surge of real anger (and threats of meaningful parliamentary action) that was mounting at the bankers and indeed police in the weeks leading up to the expenses scandal. and i'd rather see MPs and bankers criticised for being tax avoiding, benefit slashing arseholes than for a few poxy duckhouses. Lastly I think conflating bankers with footballers is ridiculous and trivialises structural and worsening financial inequalities.

 

[editor]

I think it is a terrific article, even more so considering who will get to read it.

 

[T & P]

I think it is a terrific article, even more so considering who will get to read it.

Indeed. Telegraph readers will choking on their poached egg and smoked salmon breakfasts in their tens of thousands this morning

 

[jusali]

Finally a bit of joined up thinking. How refreshing.

 

[ElizabethofYork]

A very intelligent piece of writing.

 

[killer b]

Oborne's righteous fury recently has resulted in a few interesting (and unexpected) articles.

blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/peteroborne/100095686/david-cameron-is-in-the-sewer-because-of-his-news-international-friends/

 

[editor]

I'm warming to this Oborne fella.

 

[agricola]

Oborne comes up with these spot-on articles on a fairly regular basis (edit: especially his writing on Pakistan, Islam and the West and the Israeli / Palestinian thing), and as stated above his books on politics are very worthwhile reading indeed.

 

[Streathamite]

what an apt and sad commentary on our times, that it takes a high tory columnist to point out something blindingly obvious that no politician could bring themselves to say

 

[Idris2002]

A fish rots from its head.

 

[Streathamite]

well, i'm not all that impressed really. it's pretty impossible NOT to acknowledge the hypocrisy of MPs, particularly overpriviliged tory boys, bleating on about inner city youths 'endless sense of entitlement' (

whether it is or not, the fact remains that this is the only journalist in mainstream media to have done so, and the only other person to have even hinted at it is Ed Miliband

 

[Dandred]

whether it is or not, the fact remains that this is the only journalist in mainstream media to have done so, and the only other person to have even hinted at it is Ed Miliband

At prime minister's questions he wasn't bothering with any tough questions.

 

[Streathamite]

At prime minister's questions he wasn't bothering with any tough questions.

Really? can't say I'm surprised.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Oborne does seem to cut through the political hypocrisy, etc..

his book about the elites is quite good..

He's one of the best commentators of our time.

 

[Barking_Mad]

secret lefty bringing them down from the inside

 

[stavros]

The last two decades have seen a terrifying decline in standards among the British governing elite.

This would absolve the Thatcher governments, but not Major's - is this significant?

 

[Tankus]

banksters made more money out of labour than they did the tories .. doesn't quite fit the plot here for some though ..does it

 

[friedaweed]

Well said that man.

 

[T & P]

Never paid close attention to him but I believe it's not unfair to describe him as a right of centre commentator. Having said that he does seem to have a moral compass and comes across as a decent human being, even if one you would find yourself disagreeing with on many a point.

Given the amount of nauseating shite regularly peddled in the Torygraph, it is refreshing to see a view that must be diametrically opposed to 95% of their readership published from time to time. Particularly refreshing is seeing a rant against tax avoidance published in the paper, seeing what ardent supporters of the practive the owners of the paper (not to mention its core readership) are.

 

[Dr Dolittle]

It's interesting the way people have been queueing up to blame the riots on all that corruption we've seen over the last twenty years or so. Ed Milliband said the same on the Today programme this morning, and he's not particularly left wing. In fact, of all the politicians, David Cameron seems to be the most out of touch on this. OK, he's only saying what you expect any PM to say. But he seems to the one most blatently peddling that idea that there is one set of ethics for the ruling elite, and another for the rest of us. All this outrage could lead to popular calls for genuine reform.

 

[Kid_Eternity]

Never paid close attention to him but I believe it's not unfair to describe him as a right of centre commentator. Having said that he does seem to have a moral compass and comes across as a decent human being, even if one you would find yourself disagreeing with on many a point.

Given the amount of nauseating shite regularly peddled in the Torygraph, it is refreshing to see a view that must be diametrically opposed to 95% of their readership published from time to time. Particularly refreshing is seeing a rant against tax avoidance published in the paper, seeing what ardent supporters of the practive the owners of the paper (not to mention its core readership) are.

He is right of centre but is interested in actual journalism, that is using the position of access to the political class to reveal how it works and critically comment on it.

 

[cantsin]

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/p...r-society-is-as-bad-at-the-top-as-the-bottom/

He's the Telegraph Political commentator -

refreshing to see a Tory Commentator rising above the knee-jerkism of MPs

Oborne keeps popping up in unlikely political/social positions of late...wonder if he's on the turn .

On a similar point, his former employer the Evening Standar seems to have shifted politcally since I left full time London, obviously cos of the the change of ownership, but still good to read some sense in there occasionally ( columnists etc ) .

 

[newharper]

This would absolve the Thatcher governments, but not Major's - is this significant?

Given this,

In the autumn of 1990, in the immediate aftermath of Saddam Hussein’s invasion of Kuwait, British intelligence sought a special kind of permission from Downing Street. They wanted the prime minister to make it clear that they could, in defiance of international law, make use of information which they knew to have been acquired as a result of torture.
Margaret Thatcher, then in the last few weeks of her magnificent premiership, carefully considered this request. She consulted her conscience and pondered what was the right thing to do. Within a very short space of time, a clear and magisterial instruction was issued from Downing Street and dispatched around Whitehall: Mrs Thatcher wanted it known that the British state was not, in any circumstances, to make use of intelligence that might have come from victims of torture.

I'd say he has an idolatrous attitude to Thatch.

http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/p...involvement-in-torture-now-we-must-expose-it/

Though you have to pay respect to the decision, one Blair did not even appear to consider pertinent.

But significant to what?