The commentators                    07-11-14

...on UK politics

The time for false praise and flattery, prevarication and procrastination, is long past. Ed Miliband should resign his leadership of the Labour Party, voluntarily if possible, forcibly if necessary. Within days, preferably, within weeks if not, but certainly before Christmas. Otherwise, with the collapse of the party’s Scottish vote, defeat for Labour at next year’s general election has moved from the probable to the almost inevitable.
- Joe Haines, Daily Telegraph
Labour’s problem is not so much its individual policies as the lack of an overall vision and a sense of direction for the country. This is combined with the problem that it is not clear where the responsibility for leadership in the leader’s office lies. Who is in control, who is directing the strategy and ensuring that everyone (including Ed Miliband) follows it? The media leadership is crucial and those in charge of it need to put up front our best communicators – that is vital.
- Clive Soley, The Guardian
Labour MPs need to hold their nerve. When the problem is the content, as with Labour in the Eighties, nothing can be done. When it’s messaging, it’s hard work but can be sorted. Anonymous briefings are not the answer to anything. Disunity is death. The party hates it and the public turn away from it. As the saying goes, the party must hang together or they will soon hang separately.
 John McTernan, The Times
Chris Blackhurst
On it goes, the great battle over Europe. But increasingly it resembles a fight being fought in a pub with two rooms. In the rear, in the snug, all hell is breaking loose, chairs and glasses are being thrown, tables overturned. Meanwhile, in the bigger, main bar, drinkers are quietly supping their ale and getting on with their lives. Unfortunately, it’s the mob in the back that will get the entire pub closed down.
- Chris Blackhurst, The Independent
In a land where predatory gangs of Pakistani men can abuse vulnerable white girls with impunity and where a serving soldier can be beaded in a London street by home-grown jihadists, the very concepts of Britishness and social solidarity are disappearing. With many Britons now feeling like aliens in their own land, the true tale of open borders is one of national destruction, not the hollow fantasy of economic progress.
- Leo McKinstrey, Daily Express
Oh how editors must love UCL. It has come up with a batch of statistics on the hottest topic on the news agenda - and it can be interpreted in countless different ways.  It's not so much a case of comparing apples and oranges as comparing apples with oranges, bananas, papaya, strawberries, grapes and pomegranates. Every paper swirls its spoon around this fruit salad to scoop up the bits it likes and avoid those that aren't to its taste. 
SubScribe This week's papers
Thursday 25 September Judges for the Editorial Intelligence comment awards announced their shortlists today, with ten nominations for the FT, nine for the Times, five for the Guardian, four for the Independent - and two for SubScribe. 
The Times and Sunday Times scored a clean sweep in nominations for the main award of commentariat of the year, which will be decided between David Aaronovitch, Camilla Cavendish, Daniel Finkelstein and last year's winner Caitlin Moran.
Guardian's Jay Rayner was shortlisted in the food writer category, but said that he did not wish to be considered as that award is sponsored by Tesco. 
The awards will be presented on November 25. 
See the full shortlists here
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