El País editor, Javier Moreno, has published an editorial setting out the reasons why his newspaper published the Wikileaks cables. It is a superb statement of justification and worth repeating in full, but further analysis is provided here.
Cynics will argue that none of what we have learned from WikiLeaks differs from the usual way in which high-level international politics is conducted, and that without diplomatic secrets, the world would be even less manageable and more dangerous for everyone. Political classes on both sides of the Atlantic convey a simple message that is tailored to their advantage: trust us, don’t try to reveal our secrets; in exchange, we offer you security. Continue reading →
Saturday 15 Jan 2011, 10am to 4:30pm 
Hate the Conservative Party by all means, abhor everything they stand for – but take a moment to look in awe at their endurance and resilience. There is no more successful political party on Earth. Although founded as a modern party in 1834, the Tories can trace their history as a political tradition back to the 17th century. In the early 1900s, many reformist left-wingers thought that the advent of mass democracy made the Parliamentary road to socialism almost inevitable. They would have been horrified if they had known that the Conservatives would end up occupying Downing Street for two-thirds of the 20th century. 
It is extraordinary that Britain is being held hostage in an enormous laboratory experiment, the hypothesis of which is laughable. Osborne claims eliminating the deficit of £110bn within 5 years was not just necessary, but the best way to restore growth quickly. The argument is that if the budget deficit were reduced substantially and rapidly, consumers would buy more because they had been relieved of funding, through taxes, a larger budget deficit, and businessmen would be more likely to invest because interest rates would be lower with a smaller deficit. Does anyone seriously believe this? If not, why is nobody challenging it like the little boy who exclaimed that the king had no clothes? 
I was highly amused to read of the 
The latest figures (from the Joseph Rowntree Foundation) now show there are 3.7 million children in Britain today living in poverty. This is conventionally defined as living in households with a total income of less than 60% of the national median income, in other words with less than £230 a week to cover all their needs. If the adults are also included, the total rises to 13 million persons or 22% of the entire British population. These numbers are incredibly high in a society where the top 1% today get £150,000 a year (£2,885 a week) and chief executives in the top FTSE 100 companies take home an average £71,000 a week. So why isn’t this a huge issue? 
The reason Labour is not already ten points ahead in the polls is that the Tories have propagated three fundamental myths – that the country’s in the state it’s in because of Labour over-spending, that the only way to redress this disastrous legacy was to cut the deficit, and that the focus had to be on spending cuts rather than raising taxes. All three seemingly plausible propositions are profoundly wrong. But the public believes them, and until Labour can thoroughly discredit these canards,they’ll continue to give the Tories the benefit of the doubt on the grounds that it’s not the Tories’ fault and there’s no alternative but to endure the pain to get things better. 
Thanks in large part to 
Vince Cable certainly got more than he bargained for when he spoke to two 
