Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip aren’t so jubilant anymore

Nigel Farage has now arrived at the Ukip conference. He strode through the bar area, followed by an entourage larger than the one that accompanies the Prime Minister. Delegates clapped as he passed them. He will be speaking shortly, and it does feel as though he’s got rather a task. The mood of the conference so far has not been anywhere near as jubilant as the mood at the party’s autumn conference, which was consistently ecstatic, even before Mark Reckless appeared on stage right at the end to announce he was defecting. The speeches so far have not been any better or worse than last year, and the election is

James Tooley

E.G. West showed a way for ‘free schools’ to be truly free

Nicky Morgan, Secretary of State for Education, has announced the closure of the Durham Free School, following scandalously one-sided Ofsted reporting about the school.  Closure would lead to less choice for parents in disadvantaged ex-mining villages here in the north-east. Local Labour MP, Mrs Blackman-Woods, says that there are surplus places available, so no free schools are required. There are surplus places, but only in schools that are perceived by poor parents as undesirable, low in academic standards and rife with bullying. There are great schools in Durham too, but these are oversubscribed. ‘Distance-based’ admissions criteria mean they’re accessible mainly to the sons and daughters of those in the best postcodes,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Steven Woolfe tells us what Ukip doesn’t believe about immigration

You might think that Ukip’s immigration spokesman Steven Woolfe had the easiest portfolio in the party. After all, as the ComRes/ITV poll showed yesterday, Ukip is already the most trusted party on immigration. It doesn’t sound like much hard work, does it? But Woolfe sees his job as being to articulate what the party doesn’t believe, explaining that it isn’t a party that dislikes immigrants per se, but one that wants to clamp down on mass immigration. He has just finished his speech to the conference, which he broke up with two speeches from Harjit Singh Gill, former Mayor of Gloucester, and Edward Fila. Both spoke about their experiences as

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage now polling first place in South Thanet

Is Nigel Farage having any more luck in South Thanet? According to a new poll from Survation on the eve of Ukip’s spring conference, Farage has pulled ahead of the Tories and Labour in his target constituency. The poll has Ukip on 39 per cent, Labour on 28 per cent and the Conservatives on 27, giving Farage a clear 11-point lead over the other parties. As the chart above shows, it’s a significant rise from the party’s 2010 vote share and up significantly from Lord Ashcroft’s most recent constituency poll in November. If Farage managed to achieve a similar result on May 7, it would be a significant boost for the party

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

England’s university tuition fees are working – to prove it, look at Wales

I’ve just seen a poster from the NASUWT teaching union at a stall they have taken at this year’s Welsh Tory conference in Cardiff (where I am today). It suggests that the poor have it easier getting to university in Wales than in England because of the wicked ‘Westminster Coalition Government.’ This is an utterly dishonest poster. The poor, in Wales, have it worse – precisely because they rejected the redistributive policy of tuition fees. The poster espouses the facile logic that Ed Miliband has regurgitated today – that tuition fees somehow make the poor less likely to apply. The experience of another Celtic nation, Ireland, disproves that – they abolished fees in 1996 and a

Steerpike Steerpike

Senior Farage aide misses flight back to Britain

Nigel Farage’s gallivanting around in America has resulted in a casualty. Mr Steerpike hears that Raheem Kassam, senior adviser to Farage, missed the flight back home last night. Farage’s right-hand man therefore won’t make it back in time for the leader’s big speech in Margate this afternoon. As the founding editor of Brietbart London, Kassam was key in arranging the speaking slot at CPAC, a conference that just happens to be sponsored by Breitbart. With Farage due on stage in just a few hours, the timing of the trip to Maryland has been questioned by several kippers — especially after the Ukip leader spoke to a nearly half empty room. Some wonder whether he might have better spent his time preparing

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip backs Osborne’s deficit plans – but how would Farage cut spending?

The Ukip spring conference is underway in Margate today, with the party starting the two days of speeches and fringes with a pledge that it will match the Tory plan to eliminate the deficit by 2017/18. Nigel Farage has said that this support is conditional on the Tories keeping their promises, but it will be interesting, once he has arrived at the conference from the US, to see how he articulates a Ukip vision for cutting the deficit.  Given the party has spent a fair while talking about what it wouldn’t cut, for example the ‘Bedroom Tax’, it may find it less enjoyable to talk about what it would cut.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What Ukip needs from its spring conference

Ukip has put all the journalists in a special balcony above the main auditorium at its spring conference. It’s quite thoughtful of the party, as the gallery is right next to the press room where hacks can file, but it also means that they’re a little apart from the delegates. Sitting on the floor of the hall, I overheard a party official talking to a delegate. ‘Those people over there,’ he said, pointing to the gallery. ‘Are here to take the piss.’ To be fair, one of the jobs that the press in this country does very well is to take the mick out of politicians whose bloated egos could

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Pimp my Ukip conference

As the devoted Ukip followers arrive at this weekend’s party spring conference in Margate, they can now show their support in a variety of ways. Rather than a basic rosette, Ukip HQ are also selling branded jewellery. Surely the perfect gift for that special lady in your life?

Ed West Ed West

Nobody will dare satirise the multiculturalism that allows Islamism to flourish

So, ‘Jihadi John’ is Mohammed Emwazi, a young Kuwaiti immigrant from Queen’s Park in north-west London, another first-rate product of the British education system. Queen’s Park is one of those very mixed areas of London; the expensive Victorian properties are filled with people who 10 years ago might have lived in Notting Hill and 10 years before that Kensington. There are also lots of scary housing estates too. It’s also part of the greatest Arabian Diaspora that extends out of Edgware Road and into the districts of Westminster and Brent; previous Jihadi John suspect Abdel Bary was an aspiring rapper from nearby Maida Vale who was last seen tweeting a picture of himself

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage tells Republicans to ‘reach out to the grassroots’. But should have stayed at home?

Nigel Farage is becoming a jet setter. Yesterday evening, he addressed the annual Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) of Republicans in Maryland. Later today, he is delivering the final speech at Ukip’s spring conference in Margate. It’s a tough life, but why did he bother going 3,000 miles for a 20 minute speech? His friendly style appeared to go down well with the Americans, far more customised to his style of politics, but it he did not draw a huge crowd: I’d estimate 250 people listening to Farage in a vast room that can seat 5,500. But those here are loving him. pic.twitter.com/0TRkieUGxo — Raf Sanchez (@rafsanchez) February 27, 2015 The topics were

Steerpike Steerpike

Alastair Campbell threatens a political comeback

It’s probably not the news everyone wanted to hear, but Mr S feels a duty to let readers know that Alastair Campbell is considering a return to politics. Furthermore, this could involve the former Labour spinner standing as an MP. Speaking to India Knight for the April issue of Red magazine, he comments that a friend recently suggested he join parliament. His reply was: ‘I’ll regret not doing it, but I know I’ll regret it if I do it as well… The size of the regrets will be big either way.’ Campbell goes on to discuss the inner struggle that took hold of him when a woman asked him how he has managed to walk away

Thursday

Peter Jones

Today’s TV debates are pointless – here’s the real thing

Ancients would have been astonished that parties never debate against each other in open, public forum except on the telly before general elections — and even then they do their best to resist. The reason is that politicians understand ‘debate’ only in terms of internal parliamentary procedures where the outcomes are entirely predictable. The result is usually one long exercise in freedom of screech. Look at PMQs. In democratic Athens, the subjects for debate were determined by a people’s Council of 500. These were appointed by lot, 50 from each of the ten tribes, from among the male citizens of Athens over 30. They served for one year, never more than

The Spectator

Five more MPs making Malcolm Rifkind’s day rate

Golden league Some MPs who earn Sir Malcolm Rifkind’s rate of £5,000 a day: — Sir Tony Baldry (Banbury): £3,333 for four hours work as deputy chairman of Woburn Energy. — Greg Barker (Bexhill and Battle): £20,000 for 30 hours providing advice to Ras Al Khaimah Development LLC. — Henry Bellingham (NW Norfolk): £7,500 for 12 hours’ work as non-executive director, Developing Markets Association. — Tim Loughton (East Worthing and Shoreham): £15–£20,000 for ‘about 20 hours a year’ as adviser to National Fostering Agency. — John Redwood (Wokingham): £27,941 for 40 hours’ work as chairman of Investment Committee of CS Pan Asset Capital Management Ltd. Source: Commons Register of Members’

The Spectator

The real problem with our MPs: they’re obsessed with the super-rich

Had the public been asked, before Monday morning, to identify two MPs who stood for honesty and decency, the names Jack Straw and Sir Malcolm Rifkind would have been prominent among their replies. Both have served as foreign secretary, Straw also as home secretary and justice secretary. Neither seemed unduly driven by personal ambition, nor were they the worst offenders in the expenses scandal. Both are probably right in saying that they have not broken any rules when discussing work opportunities with employees of a Chinese company who turned out to be undercover Daily Telegraph reporters. But it is astonishing that both seemed to believe this sufficient to let them

Steerpike Steerpike

George Osborne’s ex-dominatrix friend plans a sequel

Oh dear. The Chancellor of the Exchequer is not going to be pleased. Natalie Rowe, the former dominatrix who enjoyed a friendship with George Osborne in the early nineties, is planning a book to follow her autobiography. Further still, judging by the fact she is toying with the idea of calling it ‘Budge it’ – a phrase that bares a close resemblance to ‘budget’ – it could well feature Osborne again. Mr S has blanked out one of the words to spare blushes. For those who missed her initial book Chief Whip: Memoirs of a Dominatrix, which was released in 2013, Rowe gave a colourful account of her friendship with Osborne,

Sebastian Payne

Ukip is the most trusted party on controlling immigration

Which party does the public trust the most to control immigration? ComRes/ITV News have released a new poll revealing it’s not the Conservatives — unsurprisingly given today’s figures. 36 per cent trust Ukip the most to tackle immigration, compared to 19 per cent for the Tories: [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/isCLx/index.html”] The poll also reveals that over half of the public think the impact of immigration on the NHS has been bad. As the chart below shows, perceptions on immigration are mixed. Just over half also think it has had no impact on ‘me personally’ while more than people than not think immigration has had a bad impact on British culture and society and the economy — the latter

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tory trouble to come on defence spending

There are still some unhappy mutterings about the possibility that the Tories won’t commit to spending 2 per cent of GDP on defence in the next Strategic Defence and Security Review. Treasury sources have been pouring cold water on the suggestion that George Osborne has told David Cameron that spending will fall below that target, but that’s because no-one’s making any decisions until they have to, and they only have to make a decision after the election. In any case, we’ve probably seen the full extent of the unhappy mutterings in the past few days anyway – at least, until the election is over. Monday’s Defence Questions saw an unprecedented

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: the SNP threat to Westminster and the myth of a house building crisis

Are the SNP poised to become Westminster’s kingmakers? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Alex Massie discusses this week’s cover feature on the role the Scottish nationalists could play after the next general election. If the SNP wipe out Labour north of the border, will questions about the future of the union be back on the table? How is propping up a Labour government second prize for the SNP? And are the Scottish elections in 2016 more important to Scottish labour than this year’s battle? James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman also discuss why the upcoming election will not be very general. Are any of the parties planning to fight a national

Mary Barber

A cruise around Cleopatra’s wedding present

Legend has it that Mark Antony considered Turkey’s Turquoise Coast so beautiful that, in about 32 bc, he gave it to Cleopatra as a wedding present. The country’s southernmost shore stretches for nearly a thousand miles and combined incredible scenery, clear azure waters and a warm Mediterranean climate. Its strategic location means it has been occupied by various empires over the course of its history, including the Lycians and Ottomans. Two thousand years on, it is still breathtaking. The Taurus mountains provide a dramatic backdrop to the ancient ruins and beautiful beaches. With no road access to many of these hidden gems, the best way to explore them is by