THERE has been a small rush of Tory-linked appointments by the Labour government, showing Starmer’s ministers are pretty comfortable working with Conservatives. It all looks like a uniform, centrist “political class” are settling back in power, however we voted.

In March, Science Secretary Peter Kyle made former Tory science minister David Willetts chair of the Regulatory Innovation Office. A Labour science minister giving a government job to a former Tory science minister looks like “one hand washing another,” a political system where the “insiders” just give each other jobs.

At election time, the winning party promises “change,” and claims big ideological differences with the losers for the purpose of the election. After the votes, we get more of the same.

The Regulatory Innovation Office is supposed to stop regulators from getting in the way of new business innovations. Willetts is a veteran Thatcherite, who worked for Thatcher in her policy unit in the 1980s, so trying to reduce regulation is right up his street.

Willetts is an “intellectual” Tory nicknamed “two brains,” although both of these brains have backed policies like the Poll Tax, which are now viewed as disastrous.

Willetts was a firm backer of Thatcher’s policies during the miners’ strike, and as a minister upped students’ university tuition fees to £9,000 a year. If Labour members — or voters — were asked if they wanted Willetts, they would surely say “no.” Which is why they weren’t asked.

Culture Secretary Chris Bryant also appointed two Tories to prestigious cultural positions, showing more enthusiasm in Starmer’s government for hiring Conservatives. At the end of March, Bryant announced 16 “immensely talented individuals” were joining the boards of the Victoria and Albert (V&A), British Museum and Tate Gallery.

They included Akshata Murty for the V&A. Murty is better described as the “immensely rich” Indian wife of Rishi Sunak. It is a perfect gift for a woman who has everything: it’s not a paid job but Murty is already an heiress to billions. It is a glamorous role for somebody interested in design.

Murty studied at a fashion college in LA. In the 2020s, Murty and her investment company put money into New & Lingwood, the clothing company that produces the uniforms for Eton College and sells silk pyjamas for £545.

Murty also invested in upmarket furniture firm the New Craftsmen, which went bust in 2022, leaving staff and suppliers out of pocket, despite receiving nearly £300,000 of the taxpayer-supported “Covid bounce back” loans her husband introduced. So a prestigious post at the world’s leading fashion and design museum will suit her to the ground.

The V&A is a Tory-friendly board: V&A chairman Nicholas Coleridge has given the Tories £100,000 in regular £10,000 a year donations since 2014. In 2022, to the disgust of many staff, the V&A hosted the Tory Party’s “summer ball.”

Bryant also put Tory Lord Daniel Finkelstein onto the British Museum board. Times columnist Finkelstein is a former adviser to Tory leaders John Major and William Hague. Finkelstein recently wrote: “I often disagree with Starmer but I like him,” so could be viewed as a “centrist” Tory — but he hasn’t always been so “moderate.”

From 2014-18 Finkelstein sat on the board of the US Gatestone Institute. Gatestone published articles claiming Europe’s “white population” could “face extinction” because of the “fertility” of “Muslim migrants.” When attacked over this role, Finkelstein resigned from Gatestone, accepting his position was “worthy of criticism.”

Former Tory chancellor George Osborne chairs the British Museum, so Labour seems to be indulging his favoured appointments. Other British Museum board appointments included Claudia Winkleman, a “celebrity” Osborne wanted to befriend when he ran the Evening Standard.

There were no Labour supporters among the 11 new trustees of the V&A and British Museum, but Jack Kirkland, boss of construction firm Bowmer & Kirkland and a recent £150,000 donor to Labour, and Labour-supporting TV presenter June Sarpong joined the Tate board.

The “sophisticated” explanation for Labour giving Tories jobs is a “hegemony” plan to blunt the opposition by giving key members jobs, dominating the centre ground. It’s a “big tent” policy, where the opposition is swallowed up in Labour’s tent.

Unsophisticated explanations include Labour being comfortable with Conservatives as Rachel Reeves becomes more George-Osborne-y, and encouraging the Tories to return the favour when an election turns the tables. In 2017 Tory PM Theresa May made ex-Labour minister Tristram Hunt director of the V&A so there is precedent for this “return the favour” approach.

Guardian ‘changes its story’ on IDF lies

This week the Guardian included an analysis by their senior international reporter Peter Beaumont on how the Israel Defence Forces (IDF) has a history of “changing its story” over “civilian killings,” shown most recently in the flurry of false explanations the IDF gave for why it killed 15 Palestinian ambulance workers in Gaza in May, burying the paramedics in a mass grave.

Beaumont noted: “Often, at first, the IDF denies involvement. Sometimes — in the context of Gaza — it suggests one of Hamas’s own rockets fell short, causing the casualties. Otherwise, it might allege that those killed were either combatants themselves, or collateral damage from the targeting of combatants.”

He’s right of course. But it is very striking that the Guardian now admits fake IDF claims to cover up their massacres include saying “one of Hamas’s own rockets fell short, causing the casualties.” Because in October 2023, in the first major attack on a hospital in the Gaza war, hundreds were killed at the al-Ahli Arab Hospital.

Only the Guardian published a long, wrong-headed “investigation” which claimed the explosion was actually the result of a misfiring rocket launched by the Palestinian Islamic Jihad group at Israel — the story Beaumont now recognises is typically a weak IDF cover story.

There are many issues with this supposed “investigation,” but the fact that the IDF has since systematically attacked many other hospitals makes it look even less convincing. This “investigation,” which undoubtedly held back criticism and protest against Israel’s targeting of civilians, still sits on the Guardian website.