There is mixed opinion in today's papers about the remarks of a US State Department advisor that the 'special relationship' gave the junior partner little or nothing.

The Telegraph gives the remarks full coverage - surprising perhaps given their traditional Atlantacist predilections in terms of the UK's foreign policy - however it avoids commenting on the remarks directly. 

The Times is less bashful and devotes its main leader to the issue.  Looking to the future it notes:

The man who is the favourite to succeed Mr Bush — John McCain — is a committed Anglophile, much as Mr Blair’s near- certain replacement — Gordon Brown — is an Atlanticist to his core. The title of the seminar at which Dr Myers spoke was “How special is the US-UK relationship after Iraq?” The correct answer to the question remains “very special”.

The Times - 30th November 2006

The debate will roll on and on.  Generally those that go gooey over the strength and power of the US say that the special relationship is strong and valuable.  Those that seek to challenge that power emphasise the neglected aspects of positive European links could bring.

This places David Cameron in a delicate position.  The State Department official said that he had been playing a canny game - but as previously mentioned here - he is surrounded by neo cons and Atlantacists - especially on his foreign affairs team.

Judging from that team -  Cameron's populist frosty approach to the special relationship with will be one of the greatest areas of tension in the Conservative shadow cabinet.

Although not everyone follows the delicacies of media ownership, yesterday's news of Michael Grade's defection were hardly delicate.  Instead, the haste of his departure was as rushed as the cancellation of Celebrity Wrestling, and from the tone of BBC reports on the night, achieved nearly as much grace.

There's lots of coverage in the papers today.  The FT have no fewer than 7 stories on the issue, including a leader column in which it describes the move as a "serious setback" for the beeb.

The Times takes a different line:

Michael Grade’s “defection” from the BBC to ITV has been treated in some quarters (not least sections of the BBC itself) as if it were the moral equivalent of Sir Alex Ferguson abandoning Manchester United for Chelsea. If there is an analogy with football here, it would be a switch to Everton — a club that was highly successful two decades ago, but which, with all due respect, cannot be compared with Manchester United now.

The Times - 29th November 2006

However, with News International only last week acquiring a 20% stake in ITV, making it the largest shareholder, and with the Times also being owned by News International, how certain should we be to trust their judgement on this matter?

Also in today's news

• Sarah Ludford and other MEPs condemn Britain's role in torture flights in The Guardian.
  
• Don Foster MP comments on the hurried departure of Michael Grade to ITV in The Guardian.
• Tania Branigan has written a piece, also in The Guardian on the latest party funding figures from the Electoral Commission which reveal that Labour have £23.4m of loans - of which they must repay £11 in 12 months time.  The Conservatives have £35.3m of loans and need to repay £20m by July (though the Conservative figures are somewhat distorted by their purchase of their famous Smith Square premises) and the Lib Dems owe £1.1m.

Women are in the in the papers today.  Whether its Polly Toynbee being more of an inspiration to Cameron than Churchill (The Guardian); Tories selecting some female A-listers (The Telegraph); women drivers obeying the rules of the road (The Times); or this piece in the Guardian about what women want from their politics.  As Indra Adnan explains:

As a feminist, I want to see more women in positions of power. But in order to create the conditions for more feminine politics, in which more women can feel free to express their difference rather than be pressured to compete on masculine terms, I consider the "soft" new politics to be crucial.

Indra Adnan, The Guardian

David Cameron is doing well in the polls and disproportionately well with women (see poll below). Gordon Brown will undoubtedly struggle to project a soft image.  One doesn't have to agree with Adnan's conclusion, that Hilary Benn has the perfect soft skills, to agree with her that Labour shouldn't be looking for John Prescott II as their next deputy leader.

Also in today's news

• Guardian/ICM poll Lab 32% (+3); Con 37% (-2); Lib Dem 22 (no change).  Report here and comment here
  
• Don Foster hits out at the soaring Olympic costs in The Telegraph.

Lord (Maurice) Saatchi has let out a cry for more ideology in his pamphlet launched today called "In Praise of Ideology".  There are (currently) scant details on the Centre for Policy Studies website, but the Telegraph have clearly been given a copy.  They quote a section about the centre ground:

"The myth grew and grew until it achieved the level of a dinner party platitude in London and New York, as in the popular injunction: You can only win elections from the Centre-ground. Even the Conservative Party succumbed. Hurt by long years of condemnation for ice-cold brutishness, and anxious to avoid contamination with the 'Spectre of Thatcherism', it attempted to shed its 'nasty' image with a simple move from Right to Left,"

In Praise of Ideology, quoted in The Telegraph

CentreForum has never sought to be a centre-ground think tank, instead boasting its liberal roots. However, its always interesting to read the work of other think tanks, especially when they talk about what is perceived as your own area.

Unfortunately, though we'll have to wait for the official launch before we see the full picture.

Also in today's news

• The child protection debate has broadened following the comments from the Chief Constable for Dyfed-Powys.  Lib Dem Roger Williams considers his comments as "unhelpful".  "The law is quite clear that having sex with somebody under 16 is an offence. By bringing doubt into the issue, I don't think he has helped the issue and he has made it less clear," he goes on to say in The Telegraph.
• The Times suggests that Sir Michael Lyons' report on the future of local government finances are to be delayed making it "the fourth time that ministers have ducked the issue since the first review into town hall finances was set up in 2003"

• The Telegraph is one of several that have been reviewing the impact of so-called 24 hour drinking a year after it was introduced.  A pleasing change in policy that seems to have contributed to a 14% drop in Grevious bodily harm and 11% in Actual bodily harm.
• Maybe another policy initiative reported in The Financial Times, to promote the use of bio-fuels by reforming the way they are taxed, could have an equally benign effect on behaviour.
  

'Tis the season for the new James Bond film.  Unlike other seasons that have become divisive (see the Christians getting upset with Winterville etc etc) the release of another dose of rather silly, chauvinistic, shaken-not-stirred entertainment can unite all Brits, or all British men; at least according to Ben Macintyre in today's Times.

"...the appeal of Bond is global, but in order to be both shaken and stirred by Bond (OK, that’s the last of the catchphrases) it helps to be British, male and slightly naff: interested in gizmos, sex without commitment, saving the world, clunking double-entendres, fast cars, drink, ironic self-mockery and, above all, embracing a particular sort of loneliness."

Ben Macintyre - The Times

On FreeThink we've been following many stories about British identity - a process that started with last year's Keynes Forum.  This analogy is quite entertaining, and whilst lacking the intellectual rigour that some would seek, does speak to some truths about British men.  He goes on to say:

Bond is the opposite of most British men. Where most of us are tongue-tied, sexually timid, ill-dressed, unfit, gentle, defined by friendships and family and generally anxious, he is violent, smooth, empty and supremely fatalistic. Nothing that happens surprises him; British men are, on the whole, allergic to surprises.

British males love him not because we really want to be like him, but because we know we never will be: the Bond model fulfils a sense of irony that is far more British, and fits us much better, than any Savile Row suit. British men and their sons will enjoy Bond together, forever, because he is not really British at all.

What a dissapointment.  We come together not to see ourselves reflected in the movies, but to laugh at the idea that we ever could.  I suppose we can live with it, but no doubt we will be hoping on this one that the world doesn't share our over developed sense of irony and conspires not quite to get the joke.

Jamie Whyte in the Times today makes a provocative case for political apathy. 

Democracy is required to defend our liberty and prosperity. When the people cannot remove a government, it is sure to descend into despotism, corruption and inefficiency. But we should not confuse our love of democracy with a love of voting and other forms of political engagement. Political engagement is worthwhile only when there are political problems.

Jamie Whyte - The Times

Also in today's news...

• Ultra-low turnouts in recent NHS trust elections have been put under the spotlight by Lib Dem health spokesperson, Steve Webb.

"These figures show Tony Blair's pledge to put local people in charge of his new foundation hospitals is just another New Labour sham," he said. "How can the Government claim that the health concerns of millions of people are being properly represented when only a tiny handful of people vote in these elections?"

The Telegraph

• The Arch-Bishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, gets wide coverage for his interview where he complains about BBC bias - something our friends at 18 Doughty Street will be interested. 

• The 'big beasts' of contemporary politics lock horns over terror in most papers - but the FT do quite a good job of outlining the contenders.  Morland's cartoon in The Times sums up the issue most succinctly.
  

After tax, and the Green Switch, the Lib Dems open up a new policy/campaign front - this time the enemy is legislature itself. The Independent gives the story some coverage.  BBC online previewed it yesterday.

Also in today's news

• Ed Davey is preparing for an Autumn 07 election, according to a leaked report obtained by the BBC.
  
• Curious piece in The Daily Telegraph today (they so often are) from Annunziata Rees-Mogg who was recently selected to fight Somerton and Frome.  From her article its difficult to discern the fact that the seat is currently held by David Heath,  a Lib Dem - but that may be deliberate. 
  
• The FT takes a look backwards at the seven times since the second world war when the American electorate has voted out a President's majority in Congress - and whether we can expect greater participation or greater hostility.
  

The passage of the Marshall Plan in 1948, President Reagan’s dialogue with Mikhail Gorbachev in the last two years of his term, and President Clinton’s co-operation with congressional leaders to extend financial support to Mexico after the 1994 elections, provide examples of where the long view prevailed over short-term advantage.

The Financial Times

The Democrats took the house and might even take the Senate.  Coverage everywhere.  But who are the new Democrats who have won, and what sort of philosophy do they draw on?

There are some interesting 'Conservative Democrat' blogs (here and here) worth investigating, and the New York Times previewed the profile of many Conservative Democrat candidates on 30th October:

Collectively, [conservative democrats] could tilt the balance of power within the party, which has been struggling to define itself in recent elections. The candidates cover the spectrum on political issues; some are fiscally conservative and moderate or liberal on social issues, some are the reverse. They could influence negotiations with Republicans on a variety of issues, including Social Security and stem cell research.

New York Times (requires free subscription)

Also in today's news

• Sacked or resigned?  The Tories have troubles with non-white, non-middle class candidates as reported in The Guardian and The Telegraph.
• John Reid has addressed shortcomings in the probation service in The Independent.  Not much detail - but offers vague hope for those wanting to see much greater reform in our penal system.
  

Arch right-winger, Danniel Hannan is often regarded as a rabid neo-con outrider. His piece in today's Telegraph gives ample justification for this.  Along with his rather lazy attitude to basing his arguments on facts – much of his opinion is equally misplaced.

However, in the same article, he raises some more interesting points apposite to the CentreForum Middle East conference on Saturday. 

He then states that:

"The 1979 Iranian Revolution will one day be seen as an epochal event, on a par with the 1789 French Revolution and the 1917 Russian Revolution. Like them, it immediately burst out from behind its borders, seeking to replicate itself across the world. Before 1979, it would not have occurred to most Muslims that there might be a tension between their religious devotion and their civic loyalty. Today, that notion is becoming commonplace."

Danniel Hannan – The Telegraph

This intriguing interpretation is attractive – and one that he believes explains why some first and second generation Muslim men are less patriotic than their parents.  He also suggests that the fracturing of ‘British’ identity into ‘the four constituent nations’ leaves people who can’t identify Scottish or English routes rootless.

Mr Hannan’s remedies are as predictable as they are un-interesting (pulling out of the EU and ending ‘squalor of welfare dependency’.)  But that’s not to say that his initial observations are necessarily misguided.  

Also in the news today:

• http://www.electoral-vote.com/ – Dem 50, Rep 50 – New Jersey is looking safer for the Democrats again despite the massive media-buy the Republicans have lavished on the state.  Tennessee is looking more distant for them.