David Cameron's Big Idea
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Politico's Bookshop Bulletin
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1. New: David Cameron's 'Social Responsibility: The Big Idea'
2. Segolene Royal's Presidential Pact
3 'The Great Man' - a new biography of Sir Robert Walpole
4. Channel 4 News Political Book of the Year 2007
5. Items of interest from the Hansard Society
6. New: Geoffrey Wheatcroft's 'Yo Blair'
7. And Something Different: 'The Backwards Bush' Keyring
This week we bring you the future of Britain as depicted in the speeches of David Cameron in the new Conservative Party book 'Social Responsibility: The Big Idea', and (paving the way for the new biography by Robert Harneis publishing next month) the future of France as foreseen by Segolene Royal in her "Presidential Pact" announced earlier this week.
We also bring you new books on Prime Ministers past (Sir Robert Walpole) and present (Tony Blair), although the latter is scarcely qualifies as a eulogy.
We congratulate Sir Simon Jenkins - winner of the Channel 4 News Political Book of the Year 2007 for his 'Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts'. The award is made in conjunction with The Hansard Society whose recent publications are also highlighted.
And finally an interesting oddity in the shape of a digital timer/keyring whose sole purpose is to count down the days, hours, minutes and seconds to the end of George W Bush's presidency.
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1. New: David Cameron's Social Responsibility: The Big Idea
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With introductory essays by Jonathan Freedland of The Guardian and Ruth Lea of the Centre for Policy Studies, this new book from the Conservative Party comprises 33 speeches made by David Cameron between June 2005 and December 2006. Taken together the speeches form an agenda which covers everything from the environment to the NHS, family welfare to global poverty. In his introduction David Cameron emphasises that "whatever the issue ... there is one central belief that guides all we do, and that is the conviction that we're all in this together: that social responsibility - not state control - is the way to make life better in our country".
"David Cameron's speeches make fascinating and refreshing reading... [He] has managed through his speeches, as well as his other political appearances, to reach out to a wider audience and make those who have tended to dismiss the Conservative Party as hard and old-fashioned listen to him." - Ruth Lea, Director of the Centre for Policy Studies
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2. Segolene Royal's Presidential Pact
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On Sunday, 11 February 2007, Segolene Royal unveiled the policy platform in her campaign to become President of France.
In, what she calls "The Presidential Pact", she says: "Today, I put before you the Presidential Pact: a hundred propositions so that France can rediscover a shared ambition, pride and fraternity."
The 100 propositions include:
-- Citizens juries to monitor government performance.
-- A target of 20% for renewable energy by 2020, reducing France's dependency on nuclear energy.
-- Promoting mass trade unionism.
-- Sending juvenile delinquents to military-style boot camps.
-- Providing free contraceptives to women younger than 25.
Here's the full English translation of The Presidential Pact
A new biography, Segolene Royal: The New Face of France by Robert Harneis is due for publication at the end of March and can be ordered now at a special pre-publication saving.
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3.'The Great Man' - a new biography of Sir Robert Walpole
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The subtitle of Edward Pearce's elegant new biography is 'Sir Robert Walpole - Scoundrel, Genius and Britain's First Prime Minister', and this is a pretty apt description of a man who is described as "coarse, corrupt and cynical, (he) sits on the Treasury Bench munching little Norfolk apples sent from the estate he is enlarging with political profit. This is Mr Worldlywiseman, keeping England out of war for twenty years and setting up a stable and growing economy".
"Admirable ... Any young fans of Downing Street history would be wiser to read this elegant and insightful account of the failures, frustrations and addictions of power by a seasoned political observer. And older, less idealistic armchair politicians will enjoy this guide through the slimy labyrinth of politics at its lowest and most cut-throat" - Ben Wilson, Spectator
Buy The Great Man from Politicos and save 35%
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4. Channel 4 News Political Book of the Year 2007
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We congratulate Sir Simon Jenkins whose Thatcher and Sons: A Revolution in Three Acts has been named this year's Channel 4 News Political Book of the Year, beating off challenges from David Blunkett (The Blunkett Tapes: My Life in the Bearpit), David Profumo (Bringing the House Down), and Peter Hennessy (Having It So Good: Britain in the Fifties).
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5. Items of Interest from The Hansard Society
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Co--sponsors of the Channel 4 News Awards (see above), The Hansard Society is an independent and non-partisan educational charity which has active support from all political parties for work in promoting effective parliamentary democracy. They also produce some interesting publications and Politico's is pleased to be able to supply copies of the following:
Friend or Foe?
Lobbying in British Democracy
Charities are more effective at lobbying than either interest groups or business shows new research from the Hansard Society just published in this slim booklet.
An exclusive survey for the Hansard Society’s new publication, Friend or Foe? Lobbying in British Democracy reveals that 62% of MPs claim that they are more persuaded by arguments put forward by charities and interest groups than businesses. The survey suggests that lobbyists working in the corporate sector are not as good at communicating with MPs as they think they are – only 20% of MPs believed that ‘companies are generally more adept at lobbying than charities/pressure groups’. Lobbyists taking part in the survey expressed an exasperation with MPs who, they feel, do not give businesses the ‘benefit of the doubt’ in the way that they might to NGOs or charities working in the same policy area.
Friend or Foe? also reveals that the two most important factors for MPs when dealing with lobbying organisations are the impact of the issue on their constituents and the accountability of the lobbying organisation.
A Year in the Life
From Member of Public to Member of Parliament by Gemma Rosenblatt
Published with the support of Accenture, A Year in the Life tells the story of what happens when members of the public become Members of Parliament. It gives a rare insight into what actually takes place after the votes are counted, the acceptance speeches have been made and the champagne drunk. In other words, once the real work begins
The Hansard Society spent twelve months monitoring the 2005 intake of first-time MPs. The result published here details their experiences, ambitions, how they operate and their views on Parliament.
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6. New: Geoffrey Wheatcroft's Yo Blair
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Geoffrey Wheatcroft does not approve of the Prime Minister. Blair supporters in turn will not approve of this new book.
In a manner that some might deem disrespectful, his timely and coruscating polemic argues that Tony Blair has signally failed in his principal responsibility to defend the interests of his country. Instead, by taking us to war on America's coattails, by reducing British foreign policy to the level of self-righteous soundbites and expensive foreign travel, and by chasing his childish infatuation with his own image as an international statesman, Mr Blair has doggedly pursued the interests of the United States whilst blatantly disregarding the warnings from his own experts and the demands and needs of his own people.
Yo, Blair, the childish and slightly disdainful aside from Bush to Blair caught embarrassingly on microphone at the St. Petersburg summit served to underline the Prime Minister's pathetic subservience to the President. From the beginning Blair was 'a Prime Minister without a party', now he is in office but not in power, a lame duck Prime Minister, ineffectual, unloved and perceived by all, at home and abroad, as slightly sinister. Geoffrey Wheatcroft's extraordinary and immaculately structured attack picks apart the legacy and the unstoppable ego of the man who led Labour to three successive election victories, and shows how, through his relentless assaults on individual freedom and his eagerness to involve us in a needless, illegal and unpopular war on flagrantly false pretences, he has devalued Britain in the eyes of the world and reduced us to a client state of Washington.
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7. And Something Different: The Backwards Bush Keyring
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Across the world people are "counting down" to the end of George W Bush's presidency on 20th January 2009. The Backwards Bush keyring is a working digital timer on a keyring which counts down the days - hours - minutes - seconds to the precise moment. It comes with battery included.
In recent months Backwards Bush keyrings have been seen throughout the USA. Bill Clinton was given one for Christmas. They've been handed out during sessions of Congress. The President uses one as a "Motivational Device" (how sad).
Now you can own one for yourself
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-- Endquote --
"Nothing is so admirable in politics as a short memory."
J.K. Galbraith
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