Red Box - Friday October 4 2019

PLUS: Best of Peter Brookes

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Friday October 4 2019

By Matt Chorley

Good morning,

Huge congratulations to Katarina Johnson-Thompson, who won gold in the heptathlon at the World Athletic Championships last night.

Clearing hurdles and triumphing in the final dash to the finish line? Maybe she could have a word with the prime minister.

Have a good weekend.

Matt Chorley

Red Box Editor

@MattChorley

10 October London SOLD OUT
22 October, Taunton Find tickets >
25 October, Cambridge Find tickets >
2 November, Maidenhead SOLD OUT
5 November, Leeds Find tickets >
9 November, Farnham Find tickets >
14 November, Exeter Find tickets >

The briefing

David Frost, the PM's Brexit adviser, is in Brussels to face questions from EU leaders on the UK's proposed alternative to the original version of the Irish backstop.
Victims of Scotland Yard’s botched inquiry into a fictitious Westminster paedophile ring have called on Tom Watson to resign as deputy Labour leader before the publication of a damning report.
More than 20,000 Extinction Rebellion campaigners are threatening to paralyse central London next week in a fortnight of disruption.
That sound you couldn't hear yesterday was John Bercow: the Speaker couldn't speak, having all-but lost his voice, presumably from shouting at the telly while watching the Tory conference. More bad news for the big man: the Mail says he has withdrawn an application to join the All England Croquet And Lawn Tennis club after a backlash.
Esther Webber's trivia question: There are 11 MPs who voted in the motion of no confidence in Theresa May this year whose fathers voted in the motion of no confidence against Jim Callaghan. Who are they? For a bonus point, name the MP whose father-in-law did. Answer at the bottom of today's email

RED BOX: COMMENT

Whisper it, but have we passed peak populism?

John Kampfner – commentator

On the buses

You wait ages for a politician to talk about buses and three turn up at once.

Boris Johnson won’t stop going on about them, declaring in several interviews this week and in his conference speech,that he is “a bit of a bus nut”.

He certainly has history with buses: ordering expensive, impractical Routemasters for London, writing questionable claims about £350 million down the side of a luxury coach and throwing his old mate Dave under a bus when it suited him.

Then there is his weird hobby of making model buses, as he revealed during the leadership contest and wheeled out again this week: “I like to make and paint inexact models of buses with happy passengers inside.” Why all this interest in buses all of a sudden?

In part, it has become the latest politician’s shorthand for talking about “normal people”, “ordinary people”, “hard-working people” or what most people would call “people”.

In recent months we have had people gushing about towns. “Left-behind” towns are especially in vogue. Nick Clegg used to talk about “alarm-clock Britain”, as if the need to get up in the morning was linked to one section of society. Ed Miliband had the “squeezed middle”. George Osborne was obsessed with hard-working people looking at non-working people’s closed curtains when they went out for the morning.

Perhaps most memorable was Grant Shapps hailing bingo and beer “to help hard-working people do more of the things they enjoy”. They.

So now to buses. The new shorthand.

“A good bus service can make all the difference to your job,” Johnson said. “To your life, to your ability to get to the doctor, to the liveability of your town or your village, and to your ability to stay there and have a family there and start a business there.” As someone whose choice of sixth-form college was dictated more by the limited bus routes from the Somerset Levels than by the courses on offer, I know exactly what he means.

When more recently I’ve been carless and tried to get a bus from my town to our nearest hospital, it was indirect, expensive, infrequent and hugely time-consuming. I’m lucky I don’t have to rely on them every day.

Sajid Javid, the son of a bus driver in case you hadn’t heard, used his first conference speech as chancellor to say buses “haven’t been given the attention they deserve from politicians. But they are still the backbone of our public transport in most of the country”.

He’s not wrong. Last year there were 4.85 billion bus trips in Britain, more than the trains and underground combined, and accounting for 60 per cent of all public transport journeys.

Jeremy Corbyn was mocked in some quarters when he raised buses at PMQs in July last year, although this was more about it being an attempt to avoid talking about his Brexit non-policy than finding public transport amusing. That mood is changing too, though.

National news is more likely to cover the saga of London Bridge station upgrades or South Eastern Trains troubling the capital’s commuters. So for a special episode of the Red Box podcast I boarded the 142 Magic Bus from Manchester city centre to Didsbury with Jen Williams, politics editor of the Manchester Evening News.

She writes about buses. A lot. About how they don’t turn up. And how they are full when they do. She explains that while trains might make headlines, the buses (or lack of them) can have a huge impact on people's lives.

But there are also the politics of who runs the buses: Andy Burnham, mayor of Greater Manchester, wants to take back control with a London-style franchise system. Inevitably we also talked about Brexit, and the way that politicians clambering to insist that they are on the side of the great unheard might actually play out in the end.

"It is only by delivering Brexit that we can address that feeling in so many parts of the country that they were being left behind, ignored,” Johnson said. “And that their towns were not only suffering from a lack of love and investment but their views had somehow become unfashionable or unmentionable.”

The issue with this is that leaving the EU will do nothing in itself for towns which have lacked love and investment. It was a totally understandable reaction to years of decline in once-loved towns to give the establishment two fingers by voting Leave.

But on October 31 (or January 31, or whenever Britain does leave) people will not suddenly see their factories or department stores reopen, the graffiti won’t disappear, someone won’t suddenly start playing the piano in a long-abandoned local. Or, frankly, see a load more buses.

Privatisation by Margaret Thatcher's Transport Act 1985 led to bus firms choosing to scrap unprofitable routes, with councils limited in what they could do to step in.

Austerity has also hit councils hard: 3,000 bus routes in England and Wales have been reduced or scrapped since 2010-11.

Johnson may have had his greatest political moment splashed down the side of a bus, but he will get more thanks if he makes sure the 142 turns up.

LISTEN AND SUBSCRIBE TO THE RED BOX PODCAST
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RED BOX: COMMENT

A national strategy could put Britain’s buses on the road to a brighter future

Darren Shirley – Campaign for Better Transport

Best of Brookes

Peter Brookes, The Times's award-winning cartoonist, has a new book out: Critical Times.

Red Box asked him to pick ten of his favourite cartoons and explain how they came about.

The Tory Family 2 - New Cast: "Johnson puts his cabinet together....an opportunity for me to depict the ghouls and ogres which make up this latter-day Addams Family. This is my first Dominic Cummings; I now draw him much more Machiavellian."
Under the bus: "Johnson, in a leadership debate, refuses to condemn Trump’s abusive tweets about Sir Kim Darroch, our man in Washington. I have him throwing our ambo under one of the buses he claims to make as a hobby."
Public display of affection: "The day after their infamous late-night ‘domestic’, to which the police were called, Johnson and his girlfriend Carrie Symonds staged an intimate photo-shoot intended to declare all was love and harmony. But for Johnson it’s always been self-love, hasn’t it?"
Not his finest hour: "After announcing he was standing for the Tory leadership it became apparent that Boris Johnson felt his non-appearance in TV debates would serve him better than laying himself open to cock-ups and the attacks of his opponents. So they ‘empty chaired’ him."
The tiger who came to tea: "One of those fortuitous (if sad) instances where a cartoonist will leap at the chance to combine two news stories to make a point. Theresa May was trounced in the European elections by Nigel Farage’s Brexit Party and the death of Judith Kerr, the bestselling children’s author, was announced. So here we have Farage as the tiger who came to tea, and in the next frame we don’t have Theresa May (who announces her resignation date)."
Downton Shabby: "The movie of Downton Abbey is released and David Cameron’s mea culpa of a book, For the Record, is serialised in The Times. Entitled toffs shouldn’t think they can get away with burning the house down by issuing a non-apology apology."
Even got my lies: "I was struggling with how to show that Johnson seemed to be ever more Trumpian in his behaviour: his aggressive language, his misleading of everyone (including the Queen, as the Supreme Court found). Then eureka! The simple device of punning ‘lies’ with ‘eyes’ solved it."
Not our fault: "Jeremy Corbyn apologised for defending an antisemitic mural in east London. I reversed the imagery, having the Labour leadership replacing Jewish bankers, steeped in their enabling antisemites to prevail in the party."
Prove it: "This one, drawn when Boris Johnson separated from his wife, resonates again given the stories about Jennifer Arcuri, Charlotte Edwardes et al."
Anarchy in the UK: "Finally, after a week of hate-fuelled parliamentary turmoil, I wanted to show the Tory hierarchy for what it was. Rotten and Vicious to the core."

I asked what effect Brexit has had on your mental health, and a third of you said it was very significant. Full result here.

Have your say

Yesterday I asked what the EU's response to Boris Johnson's proposal should be.

Susan Malcolm said: "The EU only needs one word for their response to our Brexit plan: Fumisterie. (Humbug in French.)"

Enda Cullen said: "The EU should send Boris a case of red wine, he spills a lot and after a bottle or three he may see things differently!"

Patricia Judson said: "Grudgingly and with few small agreed compromises, agree, at last, to get the job done."

Ian Orlebar said: "Politely, firmly and publicly explain to him in Janet and John speak why it is unworkable."

Peter Cooper said: "I think you will find that they will say 'Excellent, good thinking. Just what we had in mind all along.'"

Naveed Moeed said: "In the words of the Steve Miller Band [the third and highly underrated brother of Ed and David]: Take. The. Money. And. Run!"

TODAY: What would you write on the side of a bus? Email redbox@thetimes.co.uk and we'll use some of the best tomorrow.

The best comment

If you don't like the limelight, stay out of it

Philip Collins – The Times

Working-class votes could keep Johnson in No 10

Iain Martin – The Times

I'm on the Sussexes' side - keep annoying Piers Morgan

Caitlin Moran – The Times

Boris' backstop plan is all pain and no gain

Owen Polley - CapX

The toll of Me Too

Rebecca Traister - The Cut

The cartoon

Today's cartoon from The Times is by Peter Brookes.

One week to save Brexit

It is still not a "no" but is quite a long way from a "yes". Brussels has given Boris Johnson one week to make his Brexit plan acceptable, otherwise EU leaders will refuse to discuss it at a crucial summit this month.

The noises are not good. European leaders are focusing on the things they don't like about the PM's plan, which nobody is still calling the "final offer".

Back home the response was better: Johnson has clearly been told to dial it down in the Commons, irritating opponents by being overly polite and consensual. He is even thinking about having a vote on his plan before the EU summit to demonstrate that he could get it through the Commons.

The Times's Steven Swinford has crunched the numbers and thinks that with the DUP on board — plus 23 of the 35 independent MPs, nine Labour MPs and 15 Tory Spartans — he will have 340 MPs, a majority of 20.

RED BOX: COMMENT

No-deal is still on the table — and both sides are getting it wrong

Dominic Walsh – Open Europe

Need to know

MODEL'S OWN: The former model Jennifer Arcuri joined Boris Johnson on foreign trade missions and received public money for her business after developing a close friendship with a boss at an investment agency he controlled. (The Times)

'THOUGHT POLICE': Lord Singh of Wimbledon is quitting Thought for the Day after 35 years in protest at the BBC saying that some of his talks “might offend Muslims”. (The Times)

ROYAL MESS: Boris Johnson is embarrassing the Queen again by making her give a “Conservative Party political broadcast” on the eve of an election, a constitutional expert has said. (The Times)

RETIREMENT RAGE: Millions of women are up to £50,000 out of pocket after the High Court rejected their appeal against ministers' handling of the rise in the women's state pension age. (Daily Mail)

WILD THOUGHTS: Populations of the UK’s most important wildlife have plummeted by an average of 60 per cent since 1970, according to the most comprehensive analysis to date. (The Guardian)

FACE OFF: The home secretary Priti Patel has sent an open letter to Facebook calling on the firm to rethink its plans to encrypt all messages on its platforms. (BBC)

RED BOX: COMMENT

When women speak out on domestic abuse we become more powerful

Diana Johnson – Labour MP

Profile pic of the day

Boris Johnson has joined Snapchat so he can keep his finger on the pulse of youth. Although as Martin Delaney pointed out on Twitter, his profile pic looks more like US chat-show host Ellen DeGeneres.

Tweet of the day

Now read this

According to one of the more outrageous legends about Catherine the Great, the Russian Empress died while copulating with a horse. A harness holding the stallion collapsed as it was lowered on to her. Or so the fable goes, writes Orlando Figes.

Sky Atlantic’s splendid four-part drama refrains from indulging in such barnyard myths. It gives a mostly accurate account of Catherine’s reign, even offering some plausible ideas to explain how such absurd myths about the “nymphomaniac empress” were invented by her misogynist enemies. With Helen Mirren as wonderful as ever in the title role, its portrait of this extraordinary woman is as rounded as one would expect.

Read the full story

TMS

From the diary

By Patrick Kidd

Diana dialled 'P' for paparazzi

Prince Harry may blame the press for harassing his mother but she often invited attention. Nicholas Coleridge, maestro of magazines, writes in his autobiography of a Vogue lunch that Princess Diana was due to attend on a day when the Mirror had published a topless photo of her. Coleridge rang Diana’s office to check if she would still come and was told that she would but no one must breathe a word. Coleridge then rang the other guests and swore them to secrecy. After the lunch, Diana left the building and four paparazzi pounced. Furious, Coleridge rang the papers to find out who had blabbed. He was told that Diana had rung the picture desks on the way over.