Could everyone please calm down? Over the past week, a series of explosive news stories have demanded a cooling bucket of water. This, as mission statements go, is precisely where The Independent's opinion section comes in.
Andrew Grice tried to temper speculation about draconian tax measures in the autumn Budget. "There won't be a wealth tax," he insisted, to the relief of Britain's one-percenters and the ire of many ordinary workers. It would be "complex, take years to introduce and probably not be worth the candle." For a rundown of why Rachel Reeves can't rule it out, read his piece in full here.
Meanwhile, John Rentoul swiftly doused the launch of Jeremy Corbyn's unnamed political party. After giving it the faintest praise – saying the "not-Your-Party could be a force to be reckoned with" and that it "could siphon votes from Labour and the Green Party" – Rentoul noted that the hard left would soon realise that support for Gaza and anti-capitalism, though broad, isn't deep.
To anyone who thought the UK's trade deal with the US was a "Brexit bonus," Sean O'Grady delivered an ice-bucket challenge: "Emmanuel Macron has called the US-EU trade deal a 'dark day' for Europe – and you can understand why. But as a rare Brexit benefit, it's a hollow victory. Concessions to Britain are so minor they can't make up for the losses since Brexit – a GDP hit exceeding 5%. We're not out of the rough."
If there were awards for the most over-the-top comparison, technology secretary Peter Kyle would be a contender for likening Nigel Farage's opposition to the Online Safety Act to something Jimmy Savile would approve of. Rentoul responded: "Nothing could better distract from the real issue: is Farage's pledge to repeal the Act sensible? This is a terrible way to conduct a public debate."
Meanwhile, Victoria Richards was furious with Donald Trump's golf trip to Scotland, where Lady Starmer was wheeled out to endure some 18th-hole banter: "We see you making a rare public appearance, trotted out like a secret weapon in the wake of a US-EU trade deal, ahead of a talk on Gaza; we see you being mentioned by the US president in an impromptu press conference, alongside jokes about whisky. We are all Victoria Starmer."
Chris Blackhurst took a beating in the comments after his warm welcome for Starmer's appointment of ex-Sun editor David Dinsmore to Downing Street. Dinsmore, "a hardened red-top bruiser," brings discipline, rigour, and leadership to a government PR effort that has been lacking so far. He also adds media experience, knowing what works and what doesn't. When the going gets tough – as it will – he has the scars of daily battle.
But the biggest firestarter of the week was Keir Starmer's pledge to join France in recognising a state of Palestine. The PM's plan – announced after a Cabinet recall and delivered at a Downing Street podium – would be remembered as "a historic moment triggered by tragedy, coming at a time when the Palestinian people's very future is threatened by what the UN calls the 'worst-case scenario of famine in Gaza'."
In his brilliant historical analysis, Donald Macintyre questioned why it has taken over a century since the 1917 Balfour Declaration to recognise a state of Palestine: "The declaration, along with the UN's decision to divide the territory into two states, would be pivotal in creating a conflict that still scars the Middle East." Read his piece in full here.
For Ahmed Najar, born in Gaza with family still there, the conditions tied to Starmer's proposal are humiliating: "This 'recognition' isn't rooted in justice or principle. It's a policy so morally upside down, it sounds almost satirical. What kind of justice operates on those terms? This is not diplomacy. It is moral blackmail. Britain is saying to Palestinians: your right to exist depends entirely on your occupier's behaviour."
After Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt demanded Hamas lay down arms, Mark Almond looked to recent history to predict what might become of the terrorists in control of Gaza, suggesting exile to other parts of the Middle East might not end well: "In 1984, the war in Lebanon, sparked by Israel's invasion to stop raids by the Palestine Liberation Organisation, ended when Israel allowed the PLO to be exiled in Tunisia. But that's far from a failsafe blueprint for peace."
And if your blood pressure isn't sky high after all that, I have just the thing: Sean O'Grady's modest proposal that this week, Donald Trump became the very model of a modern liberal leader. I'll leave him to explain...
Until next week.
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