Good point from the FT’s Stephen Bush:
“But one problem with Truss’s conference speech is that the most powerful single part of the UK’s anti-growth coalition is inside the Conservative party.
When Suella Braverman says her “ultimate aspiration” is to get immigration to the UK down to the tens of thousands, she is part of the anti-growth coalition. When Brendan Clarke-Smith, a junior minister, celebrates preventing the establishment of a solar farm in his constituency, he is part of the anti-growth coalition. When Grant Shapps, then the secretary of state, blocks plans to redevelop the area around Cockfosters Underground – he is part of the anti-growth coalition.”
The New Statesman’s political editor, Stephen Bush, has announced he’s leaving the magazine to join the FT as a weekly staff columnist and associate editor. He’ll take up his new post in early 2022, having worked at the New Statesman for over six years. Commenting on the move, Bush says:
“I’m thrilled to be joining the FT, a newspaper I’ve read and admired since my student days. It’s the best newspaper in the country bar none. From its peerless Africa coverage, Lex, Sarah O’Connor’s columns or the work of its fantastic Westminster team, I always start my day with the FT and am incredibly excited to be joining.”
Only yesterday his soon-to-be ex-editor said of Andrew Marr’s hiring that he’s finally bringing “in some big hitters and more experience”. Presumably Stephen had secured his next gig before Jason Cowley’s comments…
On tonight’s LIVE with LITTLEWOOD:
- Boris Johnson’s conference speech – Will his wind farms turbocharge Britain? Or is it just hot air?
- The Chancellor’s Choices – how Rishi Sunak could avoid tax rises and boost the UK economy
- The Covid fiasco – how were 16,000 C-19 cases lost on Excel? And can central planning ever work?
Host Mark Littlewood will be joined by the Spectator’s Kate Andrews; Conservative MP Philip Davies; the DUP’s Sammy Wilson MP; the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush; John O’Connell from the Taxpayers’ Alliance; the Adam Smith Institute’s Matt Kilcoyne and president-elect of the Oxford Union, James Price.
Join us LIVE for the issues that matter – TONIGHT at 6PM – HERE or on YouTube.
Today is a tough day for journalists and columnists who will never be as successful as Boris, particularly the ones that wrote him off.
Incredible to think of Gove’s rear view mirror in last 7 days: instrumental in #Brexit, ending Cameron’s career and now finishing Boris’s.
— Tom Newton Dunn (@tnewtondunn) June 30, 2016
And what happened to Gove?
I suddenly think Boris isn’t going to be Prime Minister anymore.
— Hugo Rifkind (@hugorifkind) August 12, 2012
Of course it’s not just the pundits who wrote Boris off:
As Brexiteers celebrate tonight, spare a thought for the principled haters and even the mere detesters of Boris, Rafael Behr, Matthew d’Ancona, Philip Collins, Polly Toynbee, Owen Jones and not forgetting, of course, Mathew Parris. It can’t be easy for them…
The New Statesman’s editor Jason Cowley has made George Eaton joint deputy editor with Tom Gatti. Congratulations to Stephen Bush who is promoted to political editor. Cowley says: “These appointments are to prepare for a planned expansion of the New Statesman in 2019. We have had another successful year…” Losses last year were £477,271.
Stephen Bush writing in the New Statesman‘s morning briefing…
“The terrifying truth is that the Opposition is too divided – within the parliamentary party, within the trades unions, within the Shadow Cabinet and even within the leader’s office – to be anything other than a veto player as far as Brexit goes, and the party’s whole gambit is really about trying to make that weakness look like a strength. Keir Starmer saying that Labour is “increasingly likely” to vote down the deal is simply a reflection of the fact that the one thing the Labour party will be able to agree on as far as Brexit goes is that Theresa May’s deal is no good.”
