And this is a surprise?

So the caring, sharing Tories are a thing of the past. That presumes that there was any substance in the Conservative claims that they would match Labour spending (such as it is) or that 'one nation Conservatism' was back in vogue) . Did anyone ever believe such nonsense? Ex-PR man David Cameron knows how to spin a story and whilst Labour's ratings may have been in free fall the Tories knew that the bulk of the UK electorate would not wear a return to the Party's default mode of service-cutting and attacks on working people. A crisis and division within the Tories own ranks has sent Cameron and co scuttling for their political comfort zone and towards an appeal to their real base: big business and sections of the upper middle class. There is one area, of course, where government could start saving - the £3.3 billion per annum spent on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. What are the odds on that being high up the list?

The passing of a great American

Studs Terkell, one of the great radical voices of post-war America has died. The story here.

The nightmare ticket

I often find myself agreeing within Lenin (Richard not Vladimir) and this piece on the nightmare ticket of McCain and Palin is no exception. Far more rarely (if ever) do I agree (even partially) with Martin Kettle. Kettle is right, however, to argue that the US media is completely overplaying the Palin factor and have lost their judgement and sense of proportion. Kettle was talking about the US media but much the same could be said regarding the UK's commentariat. Putting a candidate up in front of a stage managed crowd is one thing, winning over the wider public is another. It certainly is the case that in the calculus of the 'culture wars' Palin may consolidate the conservative base but even that is far less homogeneous that commentators like Jonathan Friedland like to suggest. Palin's personal story is likely to play quite differently around the country and the it remains to be seen how the artificial synthesis that is the Republican programme will stand up when tested against the priorities of the US public. Today's New York times contained an interesting graphic depicting the rhetoric deployed by the two candidates. Now one can make far too much of all this, particularly as Obama's policies and promise have been similarly overstated. For the Left both have to be seen as tribunes of big business and US imperialism. However, it is significant that where the Democrats lead on the economy, business is the most important term in the Republican lexicon, similarly jobs loom large for the Democrats, taxes and God for the Republicans. As much as McCain wishes to portray himself as the maverick, the reality is that he has tacked right to please the conservatives in his party and that places him in much the same mould as his predecessors.

Despite having read David Harvey's book I wasn't aware of this. Thanks to Socialist Unity for this particular discovery.

The flip side....

..... of hegemony.