Human nature leads most of us to search for logic and reasoning in a series of seemingly connected events. That has surely led many to try and uncover the strategic genius behind Sarah Palin’s recent maneuvers that will catapult her to the Republican nomination in 2012. You can stop, there is no strategy.
Palin is unquestionably a phenomenon with an instinctual ability to capture America’s attention. But even though she has influence, she is not a leader. There is no plan to manipulate the anger and paranoia on the American right to advance her political fortunes; she merely reflects the hysteria because she believes it. She is irresponsible, but not cynical. While even her limited success is a sad commentary on the state of the American polity, Sarah Palin is not going to be president.
Whether it’s because she is picking a fight with David Letterman, resigning as governor of Alaska, pushing for higher carbon emissions, or claiming Obama wants to kill her Down’s syndrome baby, Palin has spent the summer in the headlines. Any politician would love to get her level of media attention and it’s natural to think there has to be some kind of plan or purpose for the media onslaught. But if you look at it closely, it’s more luck than strategy, intuition rather than evil genius.
Palin couldn’t have picked a better time to capture days worth of headlines when she made her resignation announcement on a Friday afternoon of the three-day Fourth of July weekend. Not much else was happening – and if there was a ‘plan’, it would have been the perfect time for her to announce she was leaving the governor’s job to pursue another political office or to build a political movement. She would have been marked as the frontrunner for the Republican nod in 2012.
But there is no plan because she simply abandoned her post because she didn’t want to do it any more. She stumbled into all the coverage by happenstance after delivering an incoherent statement that led to days of negative analysis and headlines and even George Will [a controversial conservative commentator] labeled her a quitter. The criticism may have endeared her further to the fringe on the right, but she is finished as a viable national politician.
But she can still command attention. It is easier to think that Palin doesn’t actually believe that Obama’s push for healthcare reform is masking a secret plot to exterminate unproductive members of society because to think that she does is terrifying. But that’s how you have to understand Sarah Palin – she’s not using the wing-nuts, she’s one of them. What do you have to believe about your political opponents to actually think their objective is to kill old people and children with learning difficulties?
Palin is fascinating, but not in a ‘look at the silly Americans’ kind of way. Her predominance represents the chickens coming home to roost for a Republican party that has embraced an anti-intellectualism and anti-elitism run amok. If Barack Obama’s life story says that in America, anyone can be president, Palin’s story would have been everyone can be president. Fortunately, this summer has proved that’s not true.
Ken Gude is the associate director of the International Rights and Responsibility Program at American Progress
St Albans Conservative association to decide whether Anne Main should be able to stand as their MP at next election.
The Tories face further embarrassment over expenses today as a backbencher fights a deselection bid.
The St Albans Conservative association's 300 members are to decide whether Anne Main should be able to stand as their MP at the forthcoming general election.
This evening's meeting follows allegations that Main's daughter lived rent-free at a flat paid for by the taxpayer.
The row is another headache for David Cameron, with Alan Duncan, the shadow leader of the Commons, battling to hang on to his job after complaining that MPs were being forced to "live on rations".
The Tories have a majority of just 1,361 over Labour in the St Albans constituency, with the Liberal Democrats close behind in third place.
It is understood that Main, who won the seat from Labour in 2005, will address the meeting before an association spokesman does likewise. Members will then be asked to vote on whether to deselect her.
If the bid to remove her is successful, the 52-year-old backbencher will remain a Conservative MP but will not stand as the party's candidate at the next general election – though she could stand as an independent.
A Conservative party spokesman said simply that the issue was a "matter for the local association".
The claims against Main are being investigated by parliamentary sleaze watchdog John Lyon. The Conservative party's scrutiny panel has deferred ruling on Main's expenses while the probe is ongoing.
A number of MPs have announced their intention to stand down following the expenses scandal, while Labour barred five of its MPs from seeking re-election.
Scores have also been ordered to repay money they claimed, while a new independent body has been established to govern MPs' pay and perks.
"These attacks have no place in our workplaces - immigration raids should not be accepted by anyone, particularly because of the fear that raids cause among workers, frightening them, terrorising them," says RMT union activist Clara Osagiede.
She is referring to the increasing trend of bosses colluding with the UK Border Agency and calling in immigration agents on their own workers.
Osagiede points out that "migration is not a crime when companies want to exploit workers, but it becomes a crime when workers start to organise and demand a union."
"This exploitation is based on the fact that people will keep quiet. But despite my employers' threats of calling the police, it was important not to be afraid"
Jose Stalin Bermudez is a UNISON rep who was victimised and sacked by bosses at the School of Oriental and African Studies after leading a campaign to end poverty wages among cleaners. He confirms that companies are stepping up deportation threats against "foreign workers who stand up for their rights.
"When I first came to Britain I worked as a kitchen porter and in other such jobs in restaurants that migrant workers do. I didn't speak English and no-one cared who I was because migrant workers are invisible workers," he says.
But Bermudez insists that "more and more migrant workers are refusing to remain invisible."
Unite shop steward Edwin Pazmino, who was sacked by Mitie after organising his colleagues as part of the union's Justice for Cleaners campaign, emphasises that, as migrant workers fight back, "the bosses are retaliating more and more.
"After we won the London living wage, the company changed our shifts to make us work at night, but workers with children couldn't do that, so the bosses used this as a reason to sack us," he explains.
The company's management then called in an immigration raid against the remaining workers soon after, shattering what remained of union organisation among the cleaners.
Osagiede insists that the testimonies of migrant workers on this page highlight how crucial it is for unions to develop a strategy "to resist this racist offensive.
"Unions must fight back against the companies that collude with immigration agents to systematically arrest and deport black workers, Asians and Latin Americans," she says.
The names of the three migrant workers who have given their stories to the Morning Star have been changed to protect their identities.
Last month, Mitie managers in Willis sent a letter of invitation to the two shifts of workers for a chemical training course, and some had to go in at 5am.
Workers from the night shift were receiving the training when immigration officers raided the room and detained the undocumented workers.
At 8.30, other police detained more cleaners as they arrived at the building from Liverpool Street station.
I had had an ominous feeling about the timing of these meetings. When we went in, everyone was looking around at each other, some asking each other what was happening.
Not even 15 minutes had passed when police started to enter from doors on either side of the room, saying they were from immigration. No-one moved.
One of the police had a file, which only had the names of the illegal workers and photocopies of their documents, but not the names of the legal workers.
They called the workers' names one by one and interrogated them, asking where they had got the documents and where they lived.
Many workers were scared and some were crying. Some were told to sign papers that they hadn't even read, but they didn't know what they were signing.
The legal workers were allowed to leave, but the others were left behind until they were taken away and put in two vans.
As a result of this raid one Ecuadorian, five Bolivians and one Brazilian were arrested, taken to a detention centre and deported on July 15.
Cristina
I had lived in London for two years, working as a cleaner in a hotel and as a factory worker - usually several shifts a day.
But my visa expired so I became 'illegal.'
In the hotel I was paid in cash and the supervisor took a cut of the wages, so I left and I took a new cleaning job where the company deliberately took on staff without papers.
I worked for three months, but received no wages.
The supervisor was Latin American too, so he talked with the workers in Spanish and told us: 'You have no right to work, so no right to be paid,' but I complained and was sacked.
The company threatened to call immigration, but I said to them that I wasn't going to walk away and would get my wages. They were surprised because they thought they were big and they thought I was nothing.
I became involved with the union and the Latin American Workers Association and won this fight for the wages I was owed. Then I found out that other workers were experiencing the same problem as me and I tried to tell them about the union.
But those who I spoke to were afraid to speak out and told me they'd rather keep quiet. This exploitation is based on the fact that people will keep quiet. But despite my employers' threats of calling the police, it was important not to be afraid.
But the management of this company did tell the police about me and I was arrested.
The only certainty from all this is that we should not be afraid to denounce those who exploit immigrants.
Having courage is essential and we must unite and defend our rights, even if sometimes we are scared.
Cristina was deported to Chile at the beginning of August.
Joana
School of Oriental and African Studies managers carried out a raid on the very day that people were protesting about the sacking of union rep Jose Stalin Bermudez.
Not long before, the ISS cleaning company had signed a union recognition agreement for the cleaners at SOAS.
At 6.30am on June 12, ISS called a meeting for all cleaners. After we arrived, a manager was calling out names and checking certain people and within minutes the meeting was raided by 50 immigration agents, even wearing riot gear, who entered through the fire doors and detained everyone.
The police surrounded us - the ones on the list - with two or three to each person. I knew what was happening, but it was a big shock.
Following the raid, the cleaners were locked in the room and one by one they were led into another room, where their immigration status was checked.
No-one was allowed representation or a translator. A union representative was also refused access to the room.
ISS requested this police action. I know because two SOAS managers were present during the raid and talking and laughing with the police.
Those detained had been working at SOAS for many years - they had settled in London. Deportation will be devastating not only for them but also for their families.
They wanted to show that they are more powerful than the union because the union had been pushing very strongly for our rights.
The union has been making noise and they want to silence this.
If you have no papers you are always afraid, but the union had been organising anyway and we had won the living wage when this happened.
Three Colombians, two Bolivians, a six-months pregnant Brazilian, a Nicaraguan and a Venezuelan were deported on June 13.
David Cameron today refused to axe Alan Duncan after he was caught complaining that MPs are forced to live on 'rations'.
But the Tory leader publicly slapped down the multi-millionaire MP and said Mr Duncan had made a 'bad mistake' in moaning about how MPs have been treated following the expenses scandal.
Mr Cameron told reporters in his Oxfordshire constituency: 'I spoke to Alan Duncan yesterday and made it clear in no uncertain terms that when it comes to the mess of expenses, the words we use, just as the actions we take, have got to demonstrate completely that we share the public's real fury at what went on in parliament.
'Alan made a bad mistake and he has acknowledged that, he has apologised and withdrawn the remarks.'
Mr Cameron went on: 'He's withdrawn those remarks he shouldn't have made, and I think we should leave it at that.'
Mr Duncan, who is thought to be worth £2.1million, had been secretly filmed claiming no 'capable' person would want to enter Parliament when MPs are treated 'like s***'.
Mr Duncan is the face of the Tory Party on issues of MPs' expenses, making his outburst all the more embarrassing for David Cameron.
Mr Cameron arrived back in his Oxfordshire constituency today after a ‑10-day break in Brittany.
His holiday was disrupted yesterday when he authorised a damage-limitation exercise by aides over the affair.
Although Mr Duncan initially claimed his remarks were a joke, Mr Cameron treats the subject of MPs expenses 'very seriously', one ally said, and took a 'dim view' of the shadow minister’s secretly-filmed comments.
Mr Duncan is one of only two Conservatives on the House of Commons Commission, the body which oversees the expenses regime - and has the task of cleaning up the failed system.
But there are suspicions Mr Duncan's comments simply reflect the attitudes held privately by many MPs.
While they have appeared apologetic on the surface, it is feared many feel aggrieved by the public backlash against what they believe were reasonable expenses claims.
As Alan Duncan’s future hangs in the balance, another Tory MP, backbencher Anne Main, was preparing for a deselection vote by her constituency party tonight.
Ms Main, the MP for St Albans, was exposed earlier this year for allowing
her grown-up daughter to live rent-free at her taxpayer-funded second home.
Her case is being investigated by the Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards but some local Tories believe her 1,361 majority could be wiped out by the allegations.
A meeting of St Albans Conservative Association’s ‑‑ members has been called to decide whether Ms Main should be able to stand as their MP at the forthcoming general election.
It is understood that the 52-year-old MP, who won the seat from Labour in 2005, will address the meeting before an association spokesman does likewise.
Members will then be asked to vote on whether to deselect her.
A Conservative Party spokesman said that the issue was a 'matter for the local association'.
Mr Duncan's remarks were recorded by Heydon Prowse, an activist who dug a pound sign in Mr Duncan's lawn earlier this year in protest at his £4,000 expense claims for gardening - which he was forced to repay.
Mr Duncan invited Mr Prowse to Parliament in July as a goodwill gesture but did not know he was being filmed.
Mr Duncan said: 'No one who has done anything in the outside world, or is capable of doing such a thing, will ever come into this place ever again, the way we are going. Basically, it's being nationalised, you have to live on rations and are treated like ****.'
The comments threaten to undermine the hardline stance taken by Mr Cameron, who has ordered his MPs to pay back thousands of pounds in expenses and barred some from standing again as Tory candidates.
One senior insider said: 'Nobody knows what the future holds. But David is taking a very dim view of this.'
Labour MP Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the ruling Commons Members Estimate Committee with Mr Duncan, later lambasted him as 'arrogant and out of touch'.
'Not only has Alan Duncan been a roadblock to reform, he has now shown how arrogant and out of touch he is,' he said.
'How can David Cameron keep him in a job so closely involved with MPs' pay and allowances?
'Cameron talks a tough game on expenses but it is clear there's one rule for the Tory backwoodsmen and another for his friends in the Shadow Cabinet.
'I will be writing to the Speaker of the House pointing out the difficulty of Alan Duncan remaining in his position as chair of the Audit Committee when his personal views are contrary to those of the majority of MPs who want to see the system cleaned up.'
Mr Duncan - who is on holiday - yesterday issued a swift apology. In a statement, he said: 'The last thing people want to hear is an MP whingeing about his pay and conditions.
'It is a huge honour to be an MP and my remarks, although meant in jest, were completely uncalled for. I apologise for them unreservedly.'
But it was not the first time he has been forced to grovel over the expenses scandal - leaving him open to charges of hypocrisy.
The MP for Rutland and Melton, who made his fortune as an oil trader, has claimed close to the maximum allowed under his second home allowance - despite once owning his home outright.
He was also ordered by Mr Cameron to pay back more than £4,000 in gardening expenses after it emerged that he tried to claim for expenses such as repairs to his ride-on lawnmower.
But Mr Duncan also appeared unrepentant about those claims during the short video published yesterday on the website of Mr Prowse's magazine, Don't Panic.
He said: 'I spend my money on my garden and claim a tiny fraction based on what is proper. And I could claim the whole bloody lot, but I don't.'
Asked how much he spent on the garden, Mr Duncan replied: 'About £2,000 a year and this was £1,000 a year on expenses, you know. It's just, I'm afraid the world has gone mad.'
Fellow Conservative MP Nigel Evans was also caught joking that he couldn't survive on the MPs annual salary of £64,000.
Commenting on sandwiches which he was eating, Mr Evans said: 'I made these myself. It's my second job! Got to have a second income mate, couldn't survive on 64.'
Mr Duncan, who is in a civil partnership with his partner James Dunseath, is fast turning into a political liability for the Conservative Party.
Earlier this year, he caused uproar after he joked that he would like to murder Miss California for making homophobic remarks on the BBC show Have I got News for You.
Business Secretary Lord Mandelson last night seized on the comments as proof that the Tories were privately opposed to reforms of the expenses system.
He said: 'I don't know what sort of joke he is trying to make in private.
'I think, rather more seriously, he, as the Shadow Leader of the House, has not exactly been helpful - and I say this frankly about him - in bringing about the reforms that the Government has tried to introduce.
'I must say, Alan Duncan is very fond of speaking a good game publicly, but in private talking and acting quite differently. So I'm not surprised he has been found out.'
Mr Prowse, 28, filmed Mr Duncan on a secret buttonhole camera which he had activated in the House of Commons' toilets.
He said: 'What we captured was the general prevailing attitude in the Commons that he didn't take the whole expenses scandal particularly seriously. For a man who is leading the Tory charge on expenses, he didn't seem bothered about the whole thing.
'He seemed to think that MPs have been persecuted and have done nothing wrong.'
Labour MP John Mann said: 'The idea that MPs are somehow paupers is frankly laughable and it shows the rather deluded grandeur of some MPs that still continues.'
Liberal Democrat MP Norman Baker said that Mr Duncan's comments had exposed the 'hypocrisy' of the Tories over the expenses scandal.
'While they claim in public that they want to clean up politics, they let their true feelings show as soon as they - mistakenly - believe the cameras have been switched off,' he said.
