Afternoon summary
- Owen Smith has challenged three Tory cabinet ministers to support his call for people to be allowed to vote on the final Brexit proposal in a second referendum, saying they backed the idea in the past. He was referring to David Davis, the Brexit secretary, Jeremy Hunt, the health secretary, and Boris Johnson, the foreign secretary. Smith said:
Theresa May is running scared of a parliamentary vote on Article 50 because she is afraid of the scrutiny on the final Tory Brexit deal. David Davis, Boris Johnson and Jeremy Hunt should have the courage of their previous convictions and argue in Cabinet for the second referendum they used to believe in.
Davis proposed a second referendum in 2005 in an interview with the Sun, when he was running for Tory leader. Hunt said in June that any final Brexit deal should be put to the people, either in a second referendum or in an election. And a Sunday Times story last year quoted a “friend” of Johnson saying Johnson could see the case for voting to leave the EU because that could be followed by a second referendum.
- The Labour MP Chris Bryant has revealed that he is one of more than 24 MPs who have received an identical death threat this weekend. He told LBC:
This weekend we have had, more than two dozen of us have now had, an identical email which says: ‘Warning, I am going to kill you and kill all of your family’. With a very unpleasant photo attached. And part of you hopes that is just somebody being stupid but it may be somebody being more than stupid.
The picture was of someone who had been beheaded, he said.
- Members of BECTU, the union representing people working in broadcasting and the arts, have voted by 83% to 17% in favour of a merger with the Prospect union. The merger will come into effect in January next year.
That’s all from me for today.
Thanks for the comments.
WebRoots Democracy, a group campaigning for online voting, has welcomed Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto. Areeq Chowdhury, its chief executive, said:
Online voting is forward-thinking and will help drag our democracy into the 21st century, and we call on all political parties and the prime minister to back the reform. Action on voter engagement is necessary in this day and age, with millions not turning out to vote in elections in the UK. Almost 13 million people did not vote in the recent referendum on EU membership, and some police and crime commissioner elections have seen turnouts as low as 10%.
The manifesto does not explicitly talk about online voting but it says: “We will utilise information technologies to make popular participation in the democratic process easy and inclusive.”
Here are two more articles analysing Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto - both more critical than Amelia Tait’s (see 3.03pm.)
The biggest problem with Mr Corbyn’s digital push is that he believes Labour is going to win the next election online. The internet is an important part of the British economy but it is not necessarily where and how you gain power. In the 2015 general election, Labour’s hubristic reliance on the social media echo chamber was one of the reasons it believed it was on course to win. It was wrong — and the team of Ed Miliband, Mr Corbyn’s predecessor, was humiliated.
There is no evidence that this has changed in the past year, and Mr Corbyn’s promise to run “the most visible general election campaign ever” confirms he does not have a strategy to counter the party’s electioneering failures. As Mr Cameron once remarked: “Britain and Twitter are not the same thing.”
- John Rentoul at the Independent is scathing about the launch. (Rentoul is a diehard Blairite, and not a Corbyn fan.)
At the event, the candidate himself boisterously took the fight to his those of his critics who say that he sometimes comes across as lacking a sense of humour. One of the proposals in his Digital Democracy Manifesto would be to end “unjustified surveillance by CCTV”, he said. Those of us who got the reference to Richard Branson’s use of footage from CCTV on a Virgin train to attack the Labour leader could only applaud inwardly. Or would have done if the live video stream from the event hadn’t gone down.
I, for one, admire Jeremy Corbyn’s attempt to restore the glory days of Windows 95, when the internet was swashbuckling and free and people spelled online with a hyphen. I share his vision of the information superhighway, based on high-speed dial-up for all. In particular, I like his idea for an Open Knowledge Library: if only someone could think of a catchy name for millions of computers all over the world, all connected to each other and sharing information without charge.
Hope Not Hate, the anti-racism campaign, is organising dozens of “More in Common” community events around the UK this weekend to honour the values of the Labour MP Jo Cox who was killed in June. Nick Lowles, Hope Not Hate’s chief executive, said: “As Jo Cox famously said, we have far more in common and there is much more that unites us than divides. We truly believe this is the case and over the coming weekend we want everyone to celebrate what is best about their local community.”
Details of the #MoreInCommon events are here.
Here is the full text of the statement issued after Amber Rudd’s meeting with Bernard Cazeneuve. (See 2.53pm.) Essentially, they are just promising to carry on with Anglo-French security cooperation.
Amelia Tait has written a good analysis of Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto for the New Statesman. Some of his ideas are good, she says, some are already in place or are being implemented, some are bad and are meaningless.
Here’s an extract.
Corbyn hopes to “foster the cooperative ownership of digital platforms for distributing labour and selling services”, which essentially means he wants services like Airbnb, Deliveroo, and Uber to be community-run (or, if you want to go there, nationalised). The National Investment Bank would fund these websites and apps, which in turn would allow greater regulations of employment contracts. It’s quite a utopian vision and it’s easy to be cynical about how this could work in practice, but were it to work, it could arguably transform the entire economy.
Amber Rudd, the home secretary, and Bernard Cazeneuve, her French counterpart, have issued a joint statement after their meeting in Paris. They have both confirmed that they are committed to maintaining the current arrangements allowing British officials to carry out border control checks in Calais (the Le Touquet treaty).
Statement following 'Rudd-Cazeneuve' meeting on #calais pic.twitter.com/2FJwIGWmY3
— Neil Henderson (@hendopolis) August 30, 2016
Lunchtime summary
- Jeremy Corbyn has been accused of hypocrisy after publishing a digital democracy manifesto including proposals for a “digital bill of rights”. The manifesto (pdf) says “the human right of personal privacy should give legal protection for British citizens from not only unwarranted snooping on their on-line activities by the security services, but also unjustified surveillance by CCTV and other hi-tech methods within the workplace”. But the Lib Dems said that Corbyn was being “hypocritical” and that his words were “empty” because Labour did not oppose the investigatory powers bill when it was going through the Commons. The Lib Dem MP Alistair Carmichael said:
I am glad to see that Jeremy Corbyn has caught up with the Liberal Democrats and is finally backing our proposal for a Digital Bill of Rights. However, actions speak far louder than words and when it actually came down to standing up for people’s privacy online by voting against the Investigatory Powers Bill Labour swung behind the Tories supporting an expansion of the state’s surveillance powers. Corbyn himself didn’t even bother to vote.
Corbyn might profess to want to stop the ‘unwarranted snooping’ on people’s online activities but apparently his party are fine with the government retaining all of our web histories for 12 months. It doesn’t add up.
Labour abstained on the bill’s second reading, but voted in favour of it at third reading after securing some changes to its contents.
- Francois Hollande, the French president, has said the EU will not conclude its free trade deal with the US (TTIP - the transatlantic trade and investment partnership) until after President Obama leaves office in January. Hollande said:
France prefers to look things in the face. These discussions cannot result in an agreement by the end of the year. The negotiations have bogged down, the positions have not been respected, the imbalance is obvious.
- Downing Street has defended David Cameron’s decision to give some of his special advisers pay rises worth up to 24% after the 2015 general election. Asked about the story, a Number 10 spokesman said:
A decision was taken by the then prime minister that these reflected the changes in the scope and range of their responsibility in going from a coalition government to a single-party government on their reappointment in 2015. Decisions about pay take into account the various factors of level of responsibility across government.
The Internet Services Providers’ Association has given a qualified welcome to Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto. But it says Corbyn should accept that some deregulation is necessary to ensure everyone has access to high-speed broadband. This is from James Blessing, the ISPA’s chair.
ISPA is pleased that the leader of the opposition recognises the incredible power of the Internet and the important and positive role it can play throughout our economy and society.
There are a number of interesting policy suggestions in the manifesto, including a proposed digital bill of rights to protect civil liberties and the promotion of digital skills, but more information is required over a high speed broadband universal service network. ISPA members are already rolling out superfast broadband nationally and locally across the UK that covers over 95% of the country using a range of technologies.
Industry has led this transformation, and alongside public funding in harder-to-reach areas, speeds have risen significantly from 3.8 Mbps in 2006 to 28 Mbps today. We call on policymakers to focus on reforming regulations and barriers to rollout to make it easier for companies to deliver broadband.
As well as giving an interview to Today (see 10.34am), Joseph Stiglitz gave an interview to BBC Radio Scotland. The Nobel Prize-winning economist sits on Nicola Sturgeon’s council of economic advisers and he said that Scotland should consider having its own currency if it opts for independence. Before the 2014 referendum the Scottish government’s fiscal commission working group (part of the council of economic advisers) proposed an independent Scotland having a currency union with the rest of the UK. But this may have been a mistake, Stiglitz said:
They wanted the smoothest transition possible. They wanted to say that we could move from the current economic arrangement to another one while keeping our currency and keeping other forms of institutions. I think, in hindsight, that may have been a mistake.
It would be a mistake to join the euro, by the way, so what they would have needed to do, perhaps, was resurrect the Scottish pound and let it float.
Small countries can have their own currency. The reason that Iceland, which had one of the deepest downturns in 2008, had one of the strongest recoveries was because it had its own currency.
If there was a Scottish pound floating, you could help stimulate the Scottish economy. The deficit would come down to make it acceptable to joining the EU.
Countries that join the EU - as an SNP-led independent Scotland would want to do, if by then the UK had left - are meant to commit to joining the euro. But Stiglitz said he thought the EU could make an exception to this rule for Scotland.
I think there’s going to be, going forward, a greater willingness - I hope there is a greater willingness - within Europe for countries to be a member of the EU but not have the euro. Sweden doesn’t have the euro, obviously the UK did not have the euro before, so they have shown some willingness - a concerned willingness - to accept countries into the EU without joining the euro.
Meanwhile Owen Smith, who is challenging Jeremy Corbyn for the Labour leadership, has launched a campaign bus today.
The Owen Smith campaign bus launched today in Pontypridd for a tour of every nation and region of Britain. #Owen2016 pic.twitter.com/rTL6XNyz1i
— Owen Smith 2016 (@owensmith2016) August 30, 2016
First stop of the day: Bristol! 🚌 #Owen2016 pic.twitter.com/nQYTu1jir6
— Owen Smith 2016 (@owensmith2016) August 30, 2016
Here is some Twitter comment from journalists on Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto.
From BuzzFeed’s James Ball
Corbyn's digital manifesto contains nothing about online harrassment . Missed opportunity.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) August 30, 2016
Plenty can be done without creating endless new offences: best practices for companies, better education in schools, etc.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) August 30, 2016
Aside: this is the second Corbyn policy release to include costings, though only for 1 of 7 policies therein. pic.twitter.com/THs1PcJRPv
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) August 30, 2016
The "costings" also ends up being "we will pay for it through the £500bn investment fund we've promised", which is just new borrowing.
— James Ball (@jamesrbuk) August 30, 2016
From the Financial Times’s Sebastian Payne
As a former Linux coder and contributor, I can attest that Corbyn's proposal to make all publc funded software open source is unworkable
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) August 30, 2016
Anyway, Corbyn's open source software proposal is nicked from George Osborne policy - he proposed it in 2007 https://t.co/XiHIlk36ll
— Sebastian Payne (@SebastianEPayne) August 30, 2016
From Emily Bell, head of the Tow Centre for Digital Journalism at Columbia University’s School of Journalism
Digital manifesto essentially promotes civic tech over Silicon Valley, it revisits ideas like Open ID and a digital commons, ..huge Q - how?
— emily bell (@emilybell) August 30, 2016
@frabcus @jamesrbuk this is why at heart I agree with the direction - lack faith in implementation ability right now. Serious subject though
— emily bell (@emilybell) August 30, 2016
From the Herald’s Iain Macwhirter
Would've liked to hear about Labour's #DigitalDemocracy but the feed was unwatchable. And there's the problem right there.
— Iain Macwhirter (@iainmacwhirter) August 30, 2016
From the New Statesman’s Stephen Bush
Digital bill of rights is a good idea. If you haven't already, read this @ChiOnwurah long piece on same: https://t.co/UD1w1QdF2W
— Stephen Bush (@stephenkb) August 30, 2016
From the Daily Mirror’s Mikey Smith
The venue where Jeremy Corbyn’s digital manifesto was launched pic.twitter.com/vZU8B9MNPN
— Mikey Smith (@mikeysmith) August 30, 2016
Here is Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto in full (pdf).
It is one of three entries on the “policy updates” page on Corbyn’s campaign website.
My colleague Anushka Asthana was at the Number 10 lobby briefing this morning. It went on for ages. This is what she tweeted when she came out.
The PM spokesman says that parliament "will have a say" on Article 50 & Brexit negotiations. We know they not planning vote ahead of Art 50
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) August 30, 2016
But presumably there could well be the necessity of votes along the way through the negotiations. May ruling out 2nd referendum, however.
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) August 30, 2016
PM spokesman was stressing that MPs voted 6:1 in favour of a ref in first place. But of course, the actual form Brexit takes cd vary a lot
— Anushka Asthana (@GuardianAnushka) August 30, 2016
In the comments trenchfeet has said this about Jeremy Corbyn’s open source proposal.
This did come up in the Q&A. Someone asked to what extent Corbyn would extend the principle of open source. Richard Barbrook said in response to that question that “where possible” the government should use open source software. But he also said that the digital democracy manifesto was a work in progress. (See 11.24am.) Corbyn himself also stressed that his ideas were not finalised. (See 11.32am.)
Corbyn says online abuse is appalling. Labour has a code of conduct on this. People should realise that putting material online is the same as publishing it.
He says people treat Twitter like a pub conversation. But these comments then stay there forever, he says.
He says Labour is chasing this material down and objecting to it.
It can be particularly harmful to young people, he says.
And that’s it. The Q&A is over.
Corbyn says many people are frightened of new technology. He says it is claimed some MPs do not turn on their computers because they do not know how to.
Downloading music for free sounds fine, he says. But this means musicians do not get paid. That is why digital rights are so important. He says he has not produced the last word on policy on this yet.
Richard Barbrook says there have been various experiments around the world in “liquid democracy” (using the internet to develop policy ideas). This manifesto is an example, he says. Obviously it is just a first draft.
Corbyn says most of his campaign event are public ones.
Having a public, open-air event changes the dynamic, he says.
He says he publicises events online. In Liverpool between 5,000 and 10,000 people attended a rally publicised online. He is bringing new people into politics, he says.
He did an event in Redruth in Cornwall. It is a poor town, he says, Around 1,000 people attended. But, when he asked, he found out that less than half were Labour members.
Corbyn's Q&A
Jeremy Corbyn is now taking questions.
Q: Would you nationalise the existing broadband network?
Corbyn says he wants to ensure BT still has a duty to provide a universal access. He has an “open mind” about the ownership issue, he says.
- Corbyn says he has an “open mind” about nationalising the broadband network.
Corbyn says, as someone who travels a lot on trains, he is also in favour of having broadband access on trains. But this is not a press conference about trains, he says.
Q: What is your view on the French call for refugees to be allowed to claim asylum in the UK while they are still in France?
Corbyn says he has “seldom seen anything as disgusting” as the refugee camps at Calais. Conditions there are “disgusting”, he says. He says the refugee crisis has to be shared across the EU. Germany is taking most of the refugees coming to the EU. But other EU countries have a “human and moral duty” to take their fair share of refugees, he says.
Corbyn also criticises Calais "jungle" - "I've seldom seem anything so disgusting as this fetid camp in a land of plenty."
— Peter Walker (@peterwalker99) August 30, 2016
He says Europe dealt with the humanitarian problems after the second world war. It has to do the same again.
Q: How would you build on what Bernie Sanders did in terms of digital campaigning?
Corbyn says the Sanders campaign was amazing. Unlike normal US campaigns, it did not just mobilise Sanders’ base. It appealed to other groups; Sanders “broadened the base”. Sanders did not win, but he has widened the coalition supporting Hillary Clinton. He has had many conversations with members of the Sanders team, he says.
Updated
Richard Barbrook from Cybersalon is speaking now. Cybersalon is a digital futures thinktank. He says Jeremy Corbyn’s team contacted them some weeks ago to ask them to help prepare the digital democracy manifesto.
Barbrook says he works for a university. That is one reason why he is so keen on the idea that academic material produced with public funding should be available for free when it is published in academic journals.
Corbyn says Labour will not win elections by fighting them in the way it has fought them in the past.
Under his leadership, Labour will utilise new technology and fight the most visible campaign in history.
But some people are not connected to the internet, he says. He says he will make sure that his campaign does not exclude these people.
And that’s the end of his speech.
Corbyn says it is not fair that people living in London can get 4G connectivity wherever they are, while people in places like Cornwall and Wales struggle to get an internet connection.
He says his plan to connect every home to high-speed broadband would cost £25bn. This could be funded by his proposed National Investment Bank, he says.
This is what the Labour briefing on the speech says about this.
The maximum cost for nationwide FTTP [fibre-to-the-home] coverage is £25bn, spread over a number of years, which fits easily inside the £500bn investment commitment already announced. £13bn would provide 80% coverage (Analysis Mason, “The costs of deploying next-generation fibre-optic infrastructure”, 2008). This investment could be funded at minimal cost to the taxpayer and with the most rapid deployment possible, using the National Investment Bank and relying on all-time low government borrowing costs. The provision of a valuable national asset would produce significant returns over time, both in economic growth and additional tax revenues arising from growth, far outweighing the initial investment. Building on existing fibre-optic roll-out schemes would reduce the total costs below this headline figure, and building on current practice we would look to schedule installations where the demand was urgent, such as to existing tech clusters.
Jeremy Corbyn's digital democracy speech
Jeremy Corbyn is speaking now.
He says 20 years ago this speech would have been prepared at a desktop, at best. The research for it would have been conducted using paper sources. And any transmission would have relied upon live TV.
Today technology is completely different, he says.
Britain has led the world in technological innovation, he says.
He says we can access information like never before.
And this affects politics. The issues have not changed much, he says.
But the terrain on which opinions are formed is changing very, very fast.
The Corbyn event is due to start shortly.
There should be a live feed on Corbyn’s Facebook page. We will also have a live feed at the top of the blog once it starts.
Stiglitz says UK could do 'very well' outside EU
Joseph Stiglitz, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, was on the Today programme this morning. He was talking about his new book, a critique of the euro, but he was also asked about Brexit. He said that, provided the EU were “rational” about it, Britain could do “very well” on its own.
If you can negotiate a reasonable deal, and what that means is if Europe is rational and says ‘Okay, the people of the UK have spoken, we believe in economic integration, political integration, let’s do the best we can within the constraints of what has been reflected by the people in the UK’ - that would mean close trade ties, closer than the WTO, other forms of economic arrangement - I think it could do very well. And that’s a little bit reflected on where the markets are today.
He said that the US and Canada enjoyed “real shared prosperity” even though they had different currencies and no shared migration. The UK and the EU could develop a similar relationship, he suggested.
Stiglitz also said he backed the European commission’s expected decision to rule against Apple’s low-tax deal with the Irish government. It was “great” that the EU was showing that big multinationals could not evade their tax responsibilities, he said.
To me this is a real example of a moral depravity, if you want to think about it that way. These companies often talk about corporate responsibility. To my mind, the first corporate responsibility is paying your fair share of taxes. Unfortunately, the mindset of a lot of corporate CEOs is how do I minimise my taxes, no matter what benefits I get from the countries in which I operate.
And Stiglitz also said that Labour’s economic advisory committee, which he sits on, has been “put into suspension” until the leadership contest is over. Two other prominent members of the committee, David Blanchflower and Thomas Piketty have left (Blanchflower for policy reasons, Piketty because he could not spare the time) but Stiglitz said he would be happy to carry on serving on the committee if it gets reactivated.
Corbyn's digital democracy manifesto - Details
Here are more proposals from Jeremy Corbyn’s digital democracy manifesto. This summary is taken from the news release from Corbyn’s team released overnight.
The Digital Democracy manifesto includes plans for a:
- Universal Service Network - We will deliver high speed broadband and mobile connectivity for every household, company and organisation in Britain from the inner city neighbourhoods to the remotest rural community.
- Open Knowledge Library - We will create a free-to-use on-line hub of learning resources for the National Education Service.
- Platform Cooperatives - We will foster the cooperative ownership of digital platforms for distributing labour and selling services. The National Investment Bank and regional banks will help to finance social enterprises whose websites and apps are designed to minimise the costs of connecting producers with consumers in the transport, accommodation, cultural, catering and other important sectors of the British economy.
- Digital Citizen Passport - We will develop a voluntary scheme that provides British citizens with a secure and portable identity for their on-line activities. The Digital Citizen Passport will be used when interacting with public services like health, welfare, education and housing.
- Programming For Everyone - We will require that all publicly funded software and hardware is released under an Open Source licence.
- A People’s Charter of Digital Liberty Rights - We will launch a public consultation with people and parties across the political spectrum to draw up a digital bill of rights.
- Massive Multi-Person On-line Deliberation - We will utilise information technologies to make popular participation in the democratic process easy and inclusive. We will aim to organise both online and offline meetings for individuals and communities to deliberate about pressing political issues and participate in devising new legislation.
Jeremy Corbyn is launching a digital democracy manifesto this morning. As my colleague Peter Walker reports, he is going to say that if he gets re-elected as Labour leader, the party will use digital technology to fight “the most visible general election campaign ever”, using techniques inspired by Bernie Sanders’ campaign in the US and roadtested by his own campaign in the UK.
This morning we're launching our #DigitalDemocracy manifesto. Join us live at https://t.co/FlVc8rb2Ec at 10.45am pic.twitter.com/auBjV9Mo3C
— Jeremy Corbyn MP (@jeremycorbyn) August 30, 2016
Here is Peter’s preview story.
But the manifesto is not just about campaigning. Corbyn is also promising to “democratise the internet in order to rebuild and transform Britain”. Here is an extract from his speech released in advance.
My leadership campaign is leading the way in harnessing the advances of new technology to organise political campaigning like we’ve never seen before.
The creativity of the networked young generation is phenomenal. We have thousands of young volunteers on our campaign taking part in this digital revolution.
We will channel this new energy and creativity into Labour’s general election campaign whenever it comes, it’s in this way that Labour can get back into government.
Labour under my leadership will utilise the advances of digital technology to mobilise the most visible general election campaign ever.
There is also a clear need for more online democracy and our manifesto today sets out how Labour would democratise the internet in order to rebuild and transform Britain, so that no one and no community is left behind.
I will post more details from this shortly.
Here is the agenda for the day.
10.30am: Corbyn publishes a digital democracy manifesto.
11am: Number 10 lobby briefing.
And Amber Rudd, the home secretary, is visiting Paris today for talks with her French counterpart. As Heather Stewart reports, she is expected to say that Britain is determined to retain the Le Touquet agreement that allows border checks to take place in Calais, despite growing controversy in France.
As usual, I will be covering the breaking political news as it happens, as well as bringing you the best reaction, comment and analysis from the web. I will post a summary at lunchtime and another in the afternoon.
If you want to follow me or contact me on Twitter, I’m @AndrewSparrow.
I try to monitor the comments BTL but normally I find it impossible to read them all. If you have a direct question, do include “Andrew” in it somewhere and I’m more likely to find it. I do try to answer direct questions, although sometimes I miss them or don’t have time. Alternatively you could post a question to me on Twitter.
Updated
Andrew - have you thought through the consequences of this innocuous looking sentence: "We will require that all publicly funded software and hardware is released under an Open Source licence."
Most IT projects use proprietary software, that is then tweaked for purpose. That will pretty much stop any IT company working on a public sector project. It's huge.