1. Matthew d'Ancona in The Guardian
on Boris Johnson
Boris Johnson’s pitch is all about his character. That’s why the row in his flat matters“The person who, so to speak, led us to the door of Symonds’ flat in Camberwell is none other than Johnson himself. His repeated insistence in Birmingham that people didn’t ‘want to hear about that kind of thing’ rang hollow precisely because – more than any other contemporary British politician – he has tried to turn public life into a game of personality, in which wit, confidence, charm and personal presence eclipse policy and substance. This is the proposition upon which his bid for the top job is based: that character is all. It is hardly surprising, then, that his character is now being examined as never before.”
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2. Outgoing New Statesman associate editor Helen Lewis
on the failures of political journalism
Why political journalism keeps getting it wrong“The seductive power of the conventional narrative is one of the most distorting forces in political journalism. Jeremy Corbyn is useless, Donald Trump is a joke, Theresa May is the Iron Lady, Remain will win, the Liberal Democrats are finished, Nigel Farage has retired from politics. All of these seem true, until – suddenly – they are not.”
3. Kate Maltby for CNN
on the demonisation of Meghan Markle
The problem isn't Meghan Markle. It's the British monarchy“While racism clearly plays a strong role in the demonization of Meghan by parts of the British press, there's more going on here. Meghan has married Prince Harry because she loves him -- anyone who watched them listen to ‘Stand By Me’ at that beautiful wedding can see that -- but that means marrying a man whose life and political responsibilities are defined from birth. It means joining a world where having a personality is a liability, expressing a political opinion in public is forbidden and the maintenance of public loyalty depends on a mythos of likeability and mystical aloofness. The problem isn’t Meghan Markle. It’s that royalty is an unsustainable institution in the 21st century.”
4. Clare Foges in The Times
on how race is used as a shield to protect the lifestyles of some Gypsy, Roma and Traveller people from legitimate criticism
Travellers can’t always play the racism card“Though politicians will not dare say it, many in this country have negative perceptions of these groups because of their experience of illegal encampments on their local playing field: the littering, disruption and what might politely be termed ‘antisocial behaviour’. They see a group of people refusing to live by the laws the rest of us abide by: trespassing on land with the police seemingly powerless to stop them; breaking locks with no one prepared to arrest them; parking on private property and not being towed away. It’s not racism driving this anti-Traveller sentiment, it is fury that one community seems to live apart from the rules that govern the rest of us.”
5. Satbir Singh and Omar Khan in The Independent
on the real lessons of the Windrush scandal
On national Windrush day, this is the history of British immigration policy and how we can change it “As May prepares to leaves office, it’s time to also retire the belief that there can ever be such a tidy distinction between tackling racism and building fair and just policies on race, migration and citizenship.”
