Politics

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

Thursday

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Ukip is in the middle of the most cynical political repositioning ever

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_16_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Lord Pearson and Damian Green discuss Ukip and the Tories” startat=81] Listen [/audioplayer]I think I’ve cracked it. If you want to springboard your minor political party into the mainstream and take British politics by storm, then all you need to do is go on and on about helping the poor. You don’t need to do much else. You certainly don’t need to modify your policies so that they actually help the poor. This would be overkill. Nor, frankly, do you even need to be 100 per cent up to speed on who the poor are. Feel free to conflate them with the elderly or the skilled working class

Malcolm Pearson

Why it won’t be Ukip’s fault if Cameron loses

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_16_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Lord Pearson and Damian Green discuss Ukip and the Tories” startat=81] Listen [/audioplayer]How odd that David Cameron is still threatening us with ‘Vote Ukip, get Labour’, even after the Heywood and Middleton by-election, which Ukip nearly won with thousands of Labour defections. But if the Conservatives do lose the next election by a Ukip-sized margin then Cameron has only himself to blame — for the second time in a row. I know because I tried to stop it happening in 2010 when I was leading Ukip. Soon after Ukip came second in the 2009 EU elections, David Willoughby de Broke and I went to see Tom Strathclyde, then Tory

Wednesday

Owen Paterson

Owen Paterson’s speech on abandoning the 2050 climate change targets – full text

Tonight former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson gave the Global Warming Policy Foundation’s annual lecture. Here’s how he said we should go about ‘Keeping the Lights On’: I would like to thank Lord Lawson and the Global Warming Policy Foundation for inviting me to deliver the annual lecture – an important event in the calendar. As a member of the Cabinet for four years I supported Coalition energy policy. However I have become increasingly aware from my own constituency and from widespread travel around the UK of intense public dissatisfaction with heavily subsidized renewable technologies in particular onshore wind. I have used the last three months since leaving the Cabinet to learn

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Cameron hints at points-based immigration system in meeting with Tory Right

Whatever David Cameron’s promised ‘big bang’ announcement on immigration in the EU is, it has certainly excited Conservative backbenchers. A group of them confronted him this afternoon to ask whether Britain would be moving to a points-based system for EU migration along the lines of Australia (something Ukip advocates), and they say that he did not reject it. This has made them even more excited. The Prime Minister was speaking to the ‘No Turning Back’ group of Tory MPs, which some of those present at the meeting described as ‘a little uncomfortable’, mainly because these are the MPs who tend to cause him the most trouble. Others felt the meeting

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Miliband targets Tory turpitude

It was like the last night of the Proms at PMQs. Miliband stood up to hearty roars—Tory roars—that seemed to go on for minutes. This was the longest and most humiliating ovation of his life. But his throat had been hit by a lurgy and his voice was rasping like a misfiring chainsaw. This impairment made him a less tasty target. It took the fun out of the fight. Still, Cameron had a pop. ‘If he gets a doctor’s appointment we do hope he doesn’t forget it.’ Miliband flashed back. ‘He noticed that I lost a couple of paragraphs in my speech. Since we last met he’s lost a couple

Sam Bowman

Lord Freud was right and Miliband shameful

Markets are amoral. If a severely disabled person cannot produce more than the minimum wage’s worth of work, no employer will be able to profitably employ them. Some generous ones might do so at a loss, but we cannot assume that there will be enough of them. Many severely disabled people who would like to work thus cannot do so. Lord Freud, a businessman turned welfare advisor to Tony Blair turned Tory minister, made this point at a fringe event at the recent Tory conference. He suggested that we could allow firms to employ severely disabled people at below the minimum wage. He also said we should use something like

James Frayne

The Tories can do anti-politics too. Here’s how

November marks ten years since the North East voted overwhelmingly to reject Government proposals for a Regional Assembly. While there were signs that the electorate was becoming increasingly disillusioned – Hartlepool voting for a man dressed as a monkey as Mayor in 2002 – the 2004 referendum was decisive proof that the electorate was entering a period of anti-politics. The North East Says No Campaign (NESNO) was the ultimate anti-politics campaign, tearing into the establishment and turning around the polls from 3-1 in favour of an Assembly, to 4-1 against. NESNO’s business spokespeople stuck to the message that a yes vote just meant higher taxes and more politicians. The campaign

Tim Stanley

Brighton has become an object lesson in why it is a disaster to vote Green | 15 October 2014

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_16_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Tim Stanley and Jason Kitcat discuss Brighton” startat=1510] Listen [/audioplayer]I have just moved back to Brighton, and I am happy to report that it remains as shambolic as ever. The estate agent said before opening the door to a prospective flat, ‘I’m obliged by law to tell you that the previous tenant was an alcoholic and died here.’ I replied, ‘I am not surprised and that is not a problem.’ No one who knows Brighton expects puritanism. Unfortunately, we have grown to expect dreadful politics. Since 2010, both the MP and the council have gone Green, turning the town into a laboratory for their kooky ideas. Given that

Fleur Macdonald

It’s about time a man won the Booker again

I bet fifty quid on Howard Jacobson winning the Man Booker. My original bet was actually on a ‘Yes’ vote below 40 per cent in the Scottish referendum and Bet365 then gave me £100 to bet on something else. I spent half of it on Jacobson and the other half on the Conservatives winning the last by-election. The less said on that the better. My reasoning for plumping for Jacobson made more sense. Anti-semitism is in fashion at the moment, so a novel about a mysterious holocaust seems timely; he’s a tried and tested literary heavyweight, so there’d be no accusations of dumbing down; and he’s a man – and after wins from Hilary Mantel and Eleanor

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How the Greens are spooking Labour and the Lib Dems

Being excluded from the TV debates has been the best thing that could possibly happen to the Greens, it seems. Already over 100,000 people have signed a petition calling for the party to be included, and their membership in England reached 21,000 this week. Natalie Bennett and Caroline Lucas have enjoyed more media exposure than they have done for a good long while. The idea that the Establishment is trying to silence the Greens is also really helpful for their insurgent party credentials, as nothing enthuses supporters more than the sense that they are pushing against a Westminster conspiracy. But in spite of having an MP in the House of

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs promised ‘big bang’ announcement on EU migration

The Tories will announce a big new policy on freedom of movement in the European Union, David Cameron told his MPs tonight. At a meeting of the Parliamentary party, the Tory leader promised what one Eurosceptic attendee described as a ‘big bang’ announcement on freedom of movement. Apparently this pleased those there no end, even those usually critical of the Prime Minister. MPs were also told they are expected to visit Rochester to campaign at least three times, and the cabinet five times, which is clearly an intervention from Lynton Crosby as the whips had decided at the end of last week that they wouldn’t bother. This was what one

Harry Cole

Add to Miliband’s worries: Can Ukip go after Labour in Scotland?

Scottish Ukip MEP David Coburn has been shouting off, as his way, about his party’s prospects north of the border in 2015. Mr Coburn is a curious character – and there is a certainly an element of bluster here: ‘We’re looking at the Scottish rust belt. Seats where there were serious industries that were ­allowed to run down, with no replacement. These are seats that Labour has treated like a feudal system. It’s the Central Belt of Scotland, where people have just been abandoned or given sops to keep them happy.’ Whilst it should not be forgotten that Ukip gained 10 per cent of the Scottish vote in European elections

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The debate over English votes for English laws heats up

As the Commons debate on devolution gets underway, the three parties have set out their positions on English votes for English laws. The Tories are adamant that this principle needs to be solved, but have accepted that they cannot link it to greater devolution to Scotland. The Lib Dems agree that parliament must address the issue, but want a Grand Committee to allow English MPs to ‘vet’ laws that will apply only in England. Labour doesn’t want to do anything about this ‘stitch-up’ and will not attend the Cabinet committee discussing the change – although the Leader of the House did invite John Denham, who seems rather aerated today, to

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Why hasn’t Labour sacked Ed Miliband?

If a bus driver were heading towards the edge of a cliff, the passengers would try to seize control of the wheel in all cases except one. Members of the Parliamentary Labour Party would sit back in their seats, put on their most confident smiles, and tell each other they were going full-speed ahead in the right direction. Ed Miliband is leading the Labour Party to disaster. His latest approval ratings are almost as bad as Nick Clegg’s  – which is not company any of us want to keep. Voters see him as an insipid waffler, too weak to stand up to foreign rulers or the trade unions. Yet barring

Steerpike Steerpike

What’s the opposite of a champagne socialist? Phillip Blond

Phillip Blond, sporting tinted specs for this morning’s devolution debate, is famed in the wonkier side of Westminster for his unique style. The self-styled ‘Red Tory’, who split with the Cameroons in favour of ‘a new Tory economics that distributed property, market access and educational excellence to all’, has his shirts and jackets handmade, adding a splash of colour to the somewhat drab think-tank world. There is even a musical tribute to the ‘intellectual curio of the Conservative Party’ and his clothes: Though Mr S thought it only kind to point out that you’re meant to give those glasses back at the end of the film, Phillip.

Mark Davies

Why is it ok to publish Brooks Newmark’s naked selfies but not Jennifer Lawrence’s?

Revenge porn is about to become a criminal offence, punishable by up to two years in prison. As the Guardian reports, ‘there has been mounting political pressure to outlaw the practice of humiliating former lovers by posting intimate pictures of them online.’ But the front page of the Sun on Sunday is fine, presumably? Because what is the difference between revenge porn between private individuals, and selling the media a selfie that you exchanged with some MP? On what basis are photos of Brooks Newmark fair game for the front page of a newspaper, in a world where posting embarrassing private pictures of your former lover on Facebook is about

Steerpike Steerpike

Mrs Neil Hamilton for Ukip MP?

Like a bad smell, Neil Hamilton continues to linger around Westminster. The disgraced MP, who came to embody Tory sleaze by the time he lost his seat in 1997, has reinvented himself as Mr Ukip, with first a seat on the party’s powerful National Executive Committee before scaling the dizzy heights of Deputy Chairman. Despite numerous controversies, the Hamiltons have weathered on with their media appearances, but Mr S hears it is Christine Hamilton that might have the more sustainable career in politics. Neil Hamilton was shunned for a MEP seat when the selections were made earlier in the year, and informed party sources pour water on the prospects of him being awarded

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The shadow of EVEL will still hover over the Commons

Alex Salmond was on Today this morning, muttering darkly about a new betrayal of Scottish voters from Westminster leaders. He was looking ahead to this afternoon’s debate on Scotland, where MPs will among other things, discuss the new plans for further devolution promised by leaders in their ‘vow’. Chances are though that the debate will look more like different factions in the Commons talking about slightly different things: the Tories will want to talk about English votes for English laws and why it’s necessary, the SNP will want to talk about EVEL and why it’s a Westminster stitch-up to distract from the solemn promises made on the Daily Record front

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nigel Farage admits Ukip’s leftward drift would hobble Tory pact

The Tories may have watched Douglas Carswell’s re-entry into the House of Commons in silence, but he seems to be getting a reasonably warm reception from his old colleagues behind the scenes. He has already exchanged jokes and arranged to dine and drink with a number of them. For a few weeks this will send the whips into a spin, as they try to work out whether it really is just lunch, or a brewing defection. But it wasn’t just Carswell who was nattering with Conservatives this afternoon. Nigel Farage, who watched his first elected MP re-join the Commons from a gallery, has also been talking to some of them.

Douglas Murray

Recognising a Palestinian ‘state’ in Parliament is not only pointless, it’s dangerous

Today in Parliament, MPs are voting on a backbench motion (supported by a one-line whip from the Labour party) proposing that Britain recognises Palestine as a state. The motion attempts push a new status quo on Israel-Palestine, without the agreement of the partners on the ground. This is not just an arrogant move, it is a pointless one – not least because the Cameron government has already said it will ignore the vote.  What is of concern, however, is that the whole move displays a startling degree of naivety in Westminster. At the same time as the West has declared war on Isis, it is odd for British MPs to be publicising