Frank Field - an odd fish but perhaps a great one?

So, whilst I can be thankful that Mr Field has resigned from Labour and kept the anti-Semitism stories in the papers, it does not stop him being a strange man indeed.


There is a common thing in the House of Parliament that anyone who has served a long-time is judged to be an elder statesman, no matter what there record. Even Dennis Skinner and Bill Cash get treated as living saints - god forbid even Jeremy Corbyn.


Mr Field has had as his cause for many a year the welfare state and needs of those who use it. It is truly an honourable endeavour - one that he shares with Iain Duncan-Smith.


Yet Mr Field, for a Labour politician has some odd views indeed. he is anti-immigration and pro-brexit. He admitted to admiring Margaret Thatcher. In this way he is perhaps a glorious, champion of the real working class - which is why he stands out so badly now in the Islington middle-classs communist phase that Labour is going through.


Even more interesting for Mr Field, is that Blair challenged him to think the unthinkable. So unthinkable were his recommendations on welfare that Blair fired him with no intention of listening to him anymore. David Cameron, in his Blair copying ways, hired Field to show he was inclusive. With the same result, his ideas got him fired by Cameron too.


So whilst Field will be celebrated as this great thinker, the truth is he is a man unable to persuade the Government to enact his reforms - so perhaps a failure. But here are his main 5 ideas:


- Scrap means testing for benefits as it does not stack up on a cost/benefit analysis
- Use non-state Friendly societies to get people to work together to improve their lot and reduce the role of the state
- Reduce non-contributory benefits that encourage idleness
- Use different measures to assess life chances to channel funding support to the most underprivileged families
- Increase sure start centre support to help the worst of families bring up their kids


When you look at that, no wonder Brown hated him as Brown wanted everyone on the teat of the state to generate the welfare vote and Cameron was non-plused with ideas about increasing spending during the austerity years.


However, all of those ideas are good ones and better that what we have now - damn shame his career will be remembered only for it ineffectiveness and for the fact he himself nominated Jeremy Corbyn!

DUP agree simple deal for Government

So, time to reflect on the DUP-Tory negotiations.


Much harder this time round than 2010 when Clegg and Cameron were clearly such bossom buddies (with hindsight, easily could have swapped roles with one another, so close were they politically).


This time the DUP sensed their chance against a weakened Prime Minister and came up with a very long list of demands, for a party that is not strictly needed to keep the Government in power.


This then drew 2 weeks of avid criticism of May (remember, I was not a fan originally and have sadly seen my view of her come to pass) and her inability to negotiate even this.


The first rule of negotiation though, is to negotiate, to stay at the table. Not to strop off like a child or say 'no deal' like the yanks do all the time. This achieves little. What actually works is patiently sitting there, hearing the otherside out, whilst making it clear you can't give them much but still want a deal.


This takes time, in this case 2 weeks, eventually if your position is sound and a deal makes sense for both parties, then it is done on reasonable terms. Even when one side started out with a hard bargaining position.


So to today, where the DUP have won basically a tiny pork barrel and concession of some policies the Tory's did not want to implement anyway (again, good negotiation tactic to offer the easy giveaways up).


So on balance I would give this deal a good 7/10 - the main drawback being the awkward handling a the beginning causing a longer delay than necessary - but the right answer in the end.


It does not bode too badly for Brexit then, not that you will read that in the mainstream media currently.

The EU non-negotiation?

The Great Leader, Mr Cameron, so recently the beneficiary of a fluke, but complete, victory takes centre stage in Europe today.

By a hilarious co-incidence he has chosen yet another Grexit deal-or-no-deal day to launch into his list of 'demands' that need sating to keep Britain in the EU.

The list will no doubt be short with plenty of uncontroversial bits on it like simplification of regulations and a better single market. No EU ministers will be voting against that.

Nor on an opt out from joining the Euro which we already have.

But there remain two issues still to give us 'Outers' some hope. One is that on immigration and freedom of movement the EU stance is very solid. Polish people in the UK should be treated like English people in Poland - fair's fair. The fact our benefits system is out of control is really an expression of our own dysfunctional Government and not an EU problem.

Of course, were Poland suffering from huge net immigration rather than emigration with its attendant remittance benefits perhaps the song would be different.

On this issue, I see little room for compromise and so the Government will be forced to sell a fudge at best to the UK public in a referendum. Given this is also UKIP's strongest and best criticism of the EU then there is some hope.

Then there is Greece. With no deal it will be a calamity and how this shows the EU's strength is beyond me. The mess is awful and largely self-made but it reflects badly on German Leadership to allow the EU to show it is not one for all and all for one. The question is Greek exits is who next? When is it our turn? Will the Germans turn on us?

Again, that could be powerful re a UK referendum. The hopes are very small but the seeds are there and we will see if they can grow. Cameron is at his highest point politically; hubris normally hits at this point.

Tory Fuel Tax Plan

The new announcement by the Tories of a fuel tax plan is at least travel in the right direction. The Tories can see the madness of extra taxes at a time of crisis and of adding to the inflation level by making fuel even more expensive that it has to be.

However, there are 2 awkward holes in the pitch as I see it:

1 - In order for this to work, it means that the Tories will have to 'pick' a 'right' price for oil. As the price of oil has increased 9x over in 10 years, this is quite a feat - beyond the best market participants. How the government is meant to know this is quite hard.
If they get this wrong this policy will seal high prices for everyone - a 40% drop in oil price will not feed through to the paying public.

2- It is playing a game with the public finances, so Labour and the Lib Dems are right to point this out. To make this a safe play, £3 billion odd of savings should be outlined - thus making this a complete win win. With current government spending far out of control, finding £3 billion should be a doddle. Perhaps start by looking here.

Iain Dale thinks it is a great idea; well, at least it is populist and not haranguing us to eat less food by the Prime Minister...