Someone wise, or at least successful, once said: “The secret of success is sincerity. Once you can fake that, you’ve got it made.”
That immortal advice has been variously attributed to the great Groucho Marx, to the 1940s US comedian George Burns, to the French diplomat and writer Jean Giraudoux but never – ever – to the Labour MP and leadership contender Jess Phillips.
Speaking to me on my BBC 5 live programme Pienaar’s Politics, the Birmingham Yardley MP seemed wholly unscripted.
She seemed wary of upsetting party members, but still managed, I’m guessing, to upset and perhaps infuriate thousands of them.
In an age of cynicism and spin, Jess Phillips was authentic and frank in a way which illustrated perfectly why she seems to have little or no chance of becoming Labour’s next leader.
Jess Phillips answered my first question, “Should a party leader tell members what they don’t want to hear?”, with a rapid and sincere “absolutely”.
For a moment, conventional political judgement seemed to kick in. She became a little hesitant and evasive about which policies she’d like to erase from Labour’s failed election manifesto.
A moment later, she was in full flow. The promise of free broadband was “rubbish,” mass renationalisation of utilities, including water, should not be a priority “while there are still homeless people on the street and still, you know, young lads getting murdered on most streets in most cities.”
In other words, she was saying, forget about these totemic ideologically driven pledges. There are many, much more important things to do.
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It’s safe to say this is the sort of thinking which wholly alienates the pure-blood socialists who flocked to Jeremy Corbyn’s banner.
It is also the very last thing you can expect to hear from Sir Keir Starmer, the frontrunner who’s considered not just a Labour centrist, but one who’d be completely at home in any past Blair or Brown cabinet.
Sir Keir is most unlikely to describe himself in that way at any point in the contest. He also has a very good chance of being elected. The two things are related.
Rebecca Long-Bailey may well endorse Labour’s last manifesto, and she could win too, which says a lot about the party membership, and helps to explains Sir Keir’s caution.
We like authenticity and lack of guile in our politicians – or say we do. Except when they’re honestly saying things we don’t want to hear, or seem artless.
Honesty may have become a dwindling asset in politics. In any event, too much of it can be a liability.
By contrast, International Development Secretary Alok Sharma, who also joined me on air, managed to speak at considerable length about his sensitive and vitally important role without saying anything very controversial at all.
As the UK carves out a new role in the world, Boris Johnson has spoken about the need for “smarter” use of overseas aid.
Priti Patel, the former international development secretary – now promoted to the Home Office – said the UK needed to target aid spending in a way which better served the UK’s economic needs and global influence.
So did this mean less money for purely humanitarian help? Was this a significant change of policy? Not at all, according to the minister.
“We are…I mean, we just want to be clear that there’s not been a change,” he told me.
“We have been doing this. Economic development has been something that the department has been doing for a long time.”
I was left none the wiser. Which, I couldn’t help feeling, was the point.
Mr Sharma joined me to talk about the Africa summit which the UK is hosting, and we did.
He also put on a convincing display of why he is one of the few ministers sufficiently trusted by Downing Street to pop up to be interviewed in radio and television studios on a Sunday.
Of course, the prime minister sometimes manages things in his own unique way. He says what he likes, or what best serves his purpose at any given moment.
If a statement or pledge turns out to be problematic or wrong, Mr Johnson seems perfectly comfortable saying something else.
Take the example of the PM’s talk of making Big Ben bong to mark the UK’s exit from the EU, or past promises on the conduct of Brexit. Can anyone say today a prime ministerial pronouncement should always be considered wholly trustworthy?
Can anyone say it’s a question which has done the PM or his government any political harm?
Judging by the latest opinion poll which gives the Conservatives a whopping 17-point lead, the answer is surely no. Well, not yet, anyway.
Opinion: Brad West been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization
Published Apr 22, 2024 • Last updated 2 hours ago • 4 minute read
VICTORIA — Port Coquitlam Mayor Brad West fired off a letter to Premier David Eby last week about Allan Schoenborn, the child killer who changed his name in a bid for anonymity.
“It is completely beyond the pale that individuals like Schoenborn have the ability to legally change their name in an attempt to disassociate themselves from their horrific crimes and to evade the public,” wrote West.
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The Alberta government has legislated against dangerous, long-term and high risk offenders who seek to change their names to escape public scrutiny.
“I urge your government to pass similar legislation as a high priority to ensure the safety of British Columbians,” West wrote the premier.
The B.C. Review Board has granted Schoenborn overnight, unescorted leave for up to 28 days, and he spent some of that time in Port Coquitlam, according to West.
This despite the board being notified that “in the last two years there have been 15 reported incidents where Schoenborn demonstrated aggressive behaviour.”
“It is absolutely unacceptable that an individual who has committed such heinous crimes, and continues to demonstrate this type of behaviour, is able to roam the community unescorted.”
Understandably, those details alarmed PoCo residents.
But the letter is also an example of the outspoken mayor’s penchant for to-the-point pronouncements on provincewide concerns.
He’s been one of the sharpest critics of decriminalization.
His most recent blast followed the news that the New Democrats were appointing a task force to advise on ways to curb the use of illicit drugs and the spread of weapons in provincial hospitals.
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“Where the hell is the common sense here?” West told Mike Smyth on CKNW recently. “This has just gone way too far. And to have a task force to figure out what to do — it’s obvious what we need to do.
“In a hospital, there’s no weapons and you can’t smoke crack or fentanyl or any other drugs. There you go. Just saved God knows how much money and probably at least six months of dithering.”
He had a pithy comment on the government’s excessive reliance on outside consultants like MNP to process grants for clean energy and other programs.
“If ever there was a place to find savings that could be redirected to actually delivering core public services, it is government contracts to consultants like MNP,” wrote West.
He’s also broken with the Eby government on the carbon tax.
“The NDP once opposed the carbon tax because, by its very design, it is punishing to working people,” wrote West in a social media posting.
“The whole point of the tax is to make gas MORE expensive so people don’t use it. But instead of being honest about that, advocates rely on flimsy rebate BS. It is hard to find someone who thinks they are getting more dollars back in rebates than they are paying in carbon tax on gas, home heat, etc.”
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West has a history with the NDP. He was a political staffer and campaign worker with Mike Farnworth, the longtime NDP MLA for Port Coquitlam and now minister of public safety.
When West showed up at the legislature recently, Farnworth introduced him to the house as “the best mayor in Canada” and endorsed him as his successor: “I hope at some time he follows in my footsteps and takes over when I decide to retire — which is not just yet,” added Farnworth who is running this year for what would be his eighth term.
Other political players have their eye on West as a future prospect as well.
Several parties have invited him to run in the next federal election. He turned them all down.
Lately there has also been an effort to recruit him to lead a unified Opposition party against Premier David Eby in this year’s provincial election.
I gather the advocates have some opinion polling to back them up and a scenario that would see B.C. United and the Conservatives make way (!) for a party to be named later.
Such flights of fancy are commonplace in B.C. when the NDP is poised to win against a divided Opposition.
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By going after West, the advocates pay a compliment to his record as mayor (low property taxes and a fix-every-pothole work ethic) and his populist stands on public safety, carbon taxation and other provincial issues.
The outreach to a small city mayor who has never run provincially also says something about the perceived weaknesses of the alternatives to Eby.
“It is humbling,” West said Monday when I asked his reaction to the overtures.
But he is a young father with two boys, aged three and seven. The mayor was 10 when he lost his own dad and he believes that if he sought provincial political leadership now, “I would not be the type of dad I want to be.”
When West ran for re-election — unopposed — in 2022, he promised to serve out the full four years as mayor.
He is poised to keep his word, confident that if the overtures to run provincially are serious, they will still be there when his term is up.
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LIVE Q&A WITH B.C. PREMIER DAVID EBY: Join us April 23 at 3:30 p.m. when we will sit down with B.C. Premier David Eby for a special edition of Conversations Live. The premier will answer our questions — and yours — about a range of topics, including housing, drug decriminalization, transportation, the economy, crime and carbon taxes. Click HERE to get a link to the livestream emailed to your inbox.
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Fareed’s take: There’s been an unprecedented wave of migration to the West
On GPS with CNN’s Fareed Zakaria, he shares his take on how the 2024 election will be defined by abortion and immigration.
New York Times reporter and CNN senior political analyst Maggie Haberman explains the significance of David Pecker, the ex-publisher of the National Enquirer, taking the stand in the hush money case against former President Donald Trump.
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