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Archive for April, 2016

How long can the SNP own Scottish politics? – video

Friday, April 29th, 2016

The Scottish National party wiped Labour off the map in 2015, and is expected to seal its dominance at the Scottish parliament elections on 5 May. As the country moves even further way from the Westminster model of politics, John Harris goes to Glasgow to watch the SNP’s impressive campaigning in full effect – and also samples the first rumblings of dissent from new faces on the political scene

WARNING: Strong language

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Anywhere but Westminster: the new politics – video

Monday, April 25th, 2016

For six years, John Harris and John Domokos have travelled the UK to get a sense of British politics away from the Westminster bubble. Meanwhile, old-fashioned two-party politics has crumbled amid a rising sense of discontent with the status quo. For their new series, the pair are back on the road, hunting down radical new politics in some unlikely places

Where should we go? Send us your suggestions

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We have put autism on TV but can’t accept it in real life | John Harris

Sunday, April 24th, 2016

The BBC’s The A Word drama is a step forward, but the struggle against ignorance has light years to go

Not that long ago, autism seemed to be a subject largely confined to the fringes of the media; now, all of a sudden, it seems to be absolutely everywhere. On BBC1 there is The A Word, a kind of high-end soap opera built around the travails of a family trying to help their autistic son. Last week’s issue of the Economist had autism as its cover story, with the headline “Beautiful minds, wasted”.

In bookshops there are still prominent displays devoted to the text that triggered some of the current upsurge of interest: Steve Silberman’s Neurotribes, the elegant history of the scientific and cultural understanding of autism that won last year’s Samuel Johnson prize for nonfiction. Meanwhile, the news wires buzz with autism stories – from sobering research about autistic people’s apparently low life expectancies, through wildly contrasting claims that they are less likely to develop life-threatening diseases (“Can AUTISM protect you from cancer?” is surely a Daily Mail classic) to serious concerns about the implications for lots of autistic people of continuing council cuts.

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Inside Momentum: ‘The idea that we’re all rulebook-thumping Trotskyites is silly’

Sunday, April 17th, 2016

It is a breakaway group intent on dragging Labour left and getting Jeremy Corbyn elected. But who are Momentum’s members, and will they achieve their aims – or tear the party apart?

It’s a Wednesday night on Whitechapel Road in east London, and outside the London Muslim Centre they are queueing round the block. Hundreds, mostly under 30, have come to spend two hours listening to a few people talking about politics.

If the rumours turn out to be true and Corbyn’s opponents try to topple him, Momentum will be at the heart of that drama

Watching a room full of people trade ideas about how to improve where they live is, in its own modest way, inspiring

We do have to restrain people. That’s why we’ve got a very clear code of conduct, about what is and isn’t acceptable

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Jeremy Corbyn ‘would increase mandate if he faced leadership contest’

Sunday, April 17th, 2016

Veteran activist Jon Lansman said Momentum group would land those who voted for him last time ‘and a lot more’

Jeremy Corbyn will secure an even greater mandate from Labour members if his opponents, who are motivated by “deep malice”, succeed in triggering a fresh leadership contest, the founder of the grassroots movement Momentum has said.

Jon Lansman, the veteran activist behind the Campaign for Labour Party Democracy and a key figure in the founding of Momentum, predicted that he would recruit even more supporters in the event of a contest.

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