The week in politics: By-elections and bonuses
Oldham dominated political events, but the row over bank bonuses cast a long shadow over all three parties.
This week was really about the by-election in Oldham East and Saddleworth, which Labour comfortably won. The Lib Dems managed to escape humiliation, albeit with the support of Tory voters. The Conservative vote collapsed.
The recriminations over that collapse are ongoing, but starting to centre around a tough Today programme interview with Baroness Warsi, in which she attacked the right of the party for not campaigning.
All in all, Miliband had a good showing, with a solid 3K majority boosting his position as leader. Nick Clegg will have been secretly relieved that his multiple trips to the constituency did not end as badly as some predicted. David Cameron is just getting used to the human shield role Clegg’s been playing for the last few months.
If the by-election provided a backbone to the week, the row over bank bonuses provided the blood. By Monday it was clear the government was going to back down on the issue – a significant U-turn on both parties’ robust rhetoric before the election.
Miliband responded to the issue by demanding a renewal of the bonus tax at his well-received monthly press conference. Cameron announced that employers would now find it easier to sack workers, in a bid to boost the job market. It didn’t go down well.
The next day, Barclay’s boss Bob Diamond made matters much worse with a profoundly unapologetic appearance at the Treasury committee. MPs treated him like a Nazi war criminal, as the select committee’s secondary role as public humiliation chamber took over. Utterly unflappable and morally certain, he was like the bad guy in a film about bank bonuses.
The remarkable thing about the row was how united in condemnation all three parties were – and also by inaction. That’s a form of consensus, except that it looked like an awful lot of glass houses and rather a few stones as well.
Eric Illsley, who has sat as an independent since Labour gave him the boot over his expenses, pleaded guilty over the same issue in court this week. Party leaders demanded he resign (a jail sentence of less than 12 months means an Mp can stay on, technically). He did.
The growing rebellion from eurosceptic Conservative MPs dribbled away on Tuesday evening after a debate on amending the referendum lock law saw the government win an overwhelming victory.
Meanwhile, the Iraq Inquiry announced that Tony Blair would be attending next Friday, setting up another day of theatre for political hacks in London. His BFF, David Miliband, was linked with a new job almost every day this week, but in the end he settled with a handsomely rewarded non-exec role at Sunderland Football Club. It’s not even his club.
