Politics

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

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Michael Dugher names Tory rival as greatest living Yorkshireman

Professional Yorkshireman and Labour attack dog Michael Dugher was quick to jump on the Prime Minister’s claim that William Hague was the greatest living Yorkshireman. Telling the BBC yesterday that Alan Bennett, and Ian McMillan are still alive, Dugher also claimed that one James Hockney was a contender for title. But who is James Hockney? Only Dugher’s Tory opponent in Barnsley in the 2010 election.  A gracious compliment to pay your defeated rival.  

Thursday

The Spectator

Britain doesn’t need hateful laws to defeat hate preachers

If the Labour party conference in Manchester felt like a funeral, the Conservatives’ gathering in Birmingham had the air of a wedding. It had jazz bands, champagne bars and a near-universal mood of celebration — which is odd, given that every opinion poll and bookmaker reckons the Tories are on course to lose power next year. Almost every speech delivered from the floor was more substantial, forceful and credible than any delivered at the Labour party conference. And one of the highlights was the tour de force delivered by Theresa May. For almost two decades the job of Home Secretary has been a political graveyard. Theresa May has made it into

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Grayling unveils Tory plan for human rights reform

One of the biggest pledges of the Conservative party conference wasn’t actually made at the Tory conference. It’s being set out today by Chris Grayling and is the Tory plan to strip European judges of their powers over British laws. The Conservatives will scrap the Human Rights Act and introduce a British Bill of Rights which will leave the European Court of Human Rights as an advisory body to the UK. It will continue to use the same basic text of the European convention on human rights, as Grayling says ‘it’s never that document and those principles that is the problem’, but alongside it will be a number of caveats

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Lib Dems are the winners of conference season (and they haven’t even held theirs yet)

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_2_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the conference season” startat=604] Listen [/audioplayer]Normally, the last party conference season before an election clarifies matters. But, so far, this one has not. Instead, it has merely compounded the factors  that make the next election so difficult to call. The reason why people are reluctant to predict a Labour majority despite its current poll lead and the structural factors in its favour, is that it trails on the economy and leadership by margins that would usually be considered terminal. Its conference didn’t address these problems successfully. Indeed, with Ed Miliband forgetting the section on the deficit it has compounded them. But the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Get ready for an election where everyone loses (except maybe the Lib Dems)

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_2_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the conference season” startat=604] Listen [/audioplayer]Two things have been puzzling Tory high-ups in Birmingham this week: does Nigel Farage have another defector in his back pocket, and why is the Tory party in such a good mood? Many expected that a second MP defecting to Ukip would have plunged the party into the slough of despond. One influential Tory, though, has an explanation for what’s going on. ‘The mood here is so upbeat because people think we’ve got Labour beat.’ He is, however, quick to add, ‘It is Ukip that is the problem.’ This is the paradox of British politics at the

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Must MPs always vote before we go to war?

Jesse Norman was permitted three minutes for his speech to the Commons in last Friday’s debate. But the contribution from the Conservative MP for Hereford & South Herefordshire was one of the more important backbench interventions — and no less important for being wide of the debate’s focus. The House was being invited to support British intervention against the Islamic State. Mr Norman’s speech was about whether the invitation was even appropriate. As he put it, ‘A convention has started to develop that, except in an emergency, major foreign policy interventions must be pre-approved by a vote in Parliament.’ The MP thought this unwise. I disagree. Or half-disagree. But ­Norman’s case

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Why the real winner from George Osborne’s ‘Google tax’ could be Nigel Farage

George Osborne’s promise to crack down on multinational companies’ avoidance of UK taxes by the use of impenetrable devices such as the ‘Double Irish’ and the ‘Dutch Sandwich’ certainly has the support of this column. I have long argued that the ‘fiduciary duty’ (identified by Google chairman Eric Schmidt) to minimise tax bills within the law for the benefit of shareholders has to be balanced against a moral duty to pay at least a modicum of tax in every profitable territory. Google, Apple, Amazon and eBay, as well as Starbucks and big names of the pharmaceutical sector, are among those known to use smart schemes which variously involve sales bookings

Wednesday

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Will Guardian readers hold their noses and vote Tory?

Well! Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian was impressed by David Cameron’s conference speech and no mistake. The campaign for 2015 has begun. On Wednesday, in what may well have been his sharpest, most effective speech since becoming prime minister, David Cameron fired the starting gun. In the process, he lodged at least a couple of deadly bullets into the flesh of his Labour opponents. The result – whatever the polls might say – is that after a fortnight of duelling party conferences, Cameron’s Conservative troops believe they are marching towards a contest in which they now hold the advantage. That’s partly down to what the prime minister did in Birmingham.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip’s attempt to sabotage the end of the Tory conference has backfired

When press officers from Ukip enticed journalists along to a press conference at the end of the summer by promising that it would definitely be worth their while, they showed they weren’t exaggerating. That press conference was where Douglas Carswell defected. So today when Ukip told hacks that it would definitely be worth their while travelling from the final day of the Tory conference to a Gloucestershire country home for a 5pm press conference, everyone assumed there would be another defection. 5pm came, and up popped Nigel Farage and Arron Banks, a Tory donor who defected to Ukip earlier this week. Banks was increasing his donation to the party from

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s shield and spear

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_2_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the conference season” startat=604] Listen [/audioplayer]Today’s speech was all about equipping the Tories with the weapons they’ll need to fight the next election. The Cameroons have always been convinced, with justification, that the Tories can only hope to win elections if they neutralise the NHS as an issue. So, we saw Cameron giving the party a shield on that issue—a promise to increase spending on the NHS every year. This was combined with Cameron’s most personal—and angriest—response yet to Labour efforts to suggest that he’s privatising or running down the NHS. If Labour continue to make this charge, Cameron is prepared to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why are the Tory party in such a good mood?

Two things have been puzzling Tory high-ups in Birmingham this week: does Nigel Farage have another defector in his back pocket, and why is the Tory party in such a good mood? Many expected that a second MP defecting to Ukip would have plunged the party into the slough of despond. One influential Tory, though, has an explanation for what’s going on. ‘The mood here is so upbeat because people think we’ve got Labour beat.’ He is, however, quick to add, ‘It is Ukip that is the problem.’ This is the paradox of British politics at the moment: it is easier to explain why either main party shouldn’t win the

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory faithful send the PM a clear message on Gove

Many Tories had begun to wonder where Michael Gove had got to. The Chief Whip’s move from the Department for Education was heralded with a briefing that he would be doing far more broadcasting, representing the government front and centre on the airwaves. However, there was only silence. Though he has been dealing with defections and whipping up the air strike vote, the darling of Tory conferences past was mysteriously missing from the official platform schedule in Birmingham. Until this afternoon. Taking to the stage to introduce the Prime Minister, Gove received the warmest applause yet from the crowd. The left loathe Michael Gove, something that only bolsters his credentials

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron’s speech had classically Tory messages – but it shows he hasn’t given up on modernisation

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_2_Oct_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the conference season” startat=604] Listen [/audioplayer]The Tories leave Birmingham in far better heart than when they arrived. They feel that they have succeeded in setting the terms of debate this week. On tax and spending, their baseline is now what Labour will be judged against. listen to ‘Podcast special: David Cameron’s speech’ on audioBoom

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s speech show us why he is still the Tories’ greatest single asset

David Cameron has yet again delivered a belter of a party conference speech, peppered with announcements. His performance is a reminder of why, even now, he remains the Tory Party’s greatest single asset. His speech was a powerful invocation of the strengths of Conservatism, perhaps the clearest he has given from a conference stage. It was passionate, eloquent and, overall, the speech of a Prime Minister. What a contrast with the Ed Miliband’s attempt last week. There were promises galore. The advantage of holding a party conference before the Liberal Democrats is that you can scoop their policies – in his case, announcing another increase to the tax-free income tax threshold from £10,500 to £12,500. And

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s bid for the moral high ground

When he saw colleagues in the tearoom on Friday as the Commons debated air strikes against Isis in Iraq, David Cameron told them that he’d actually been rather nervous about Ed Miliband’s Labour conference speech. The Labour leader has delivered two fantastic ones that set the agenda for the past two autumns, the Prime Minister acknowledged to the MPs he was talking to. But this year, he was pretty relieved as the speech Miliband ended up delivering was a mess. listen to ‘Podcast special: David Cameron’s speech’ on audioBoom

Alex Massie Alex Massie

David Cameron’s message to Britain: winter is here but spring is coming

Better than Miliband is as fine a demonstration of the soft bigotry of low expectations as you possibly hope to find. Nevertheless, David Cameron’s speech to the Tory conference today was better than Miliband’s chat in Manchester last week. Quite a lot better, in fact. It was almost, gosh, good. listen to ‘Podcast special: David Cameron’s speech’ on audioBoom True, it’s not altogether clear how the promised tax cuts – for ordinary and less ordinary hard workers alike – will actually be paid for and, in the context of speech that promised no unfunded tax cuts, this might ordinarily be seen as a small problem. Presumably they will be back-loaded

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Once upon a time David Cameron had a story to tell; he needs to remember it and tell it again

It is easy to inflate the importance of speeches made at party conferences. Particularly when those speeches are the last such set piece events before a general election. But they are still, in the end and at bottom, a distillation of what matters most to a leader. A guide to his priorities; a demonstration of his faith. Somewhere along the line David Cameron has lost that faith. He was elected leader of the Tory party in desperate times and became Prime Minister in dismal times. In both instances he triumphed, at least in part, because he persuaded his audience that though he might look like a traditional Tory he was

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Without Michael Gove the Tories have no moral mission on education

Why is Nicky Morgan the Education Secretary? She’s long been billed as a rising star in the government and has put in some very passionate and impressive performances on the conference fringe this year. But her speech to the Conservative conference hall this afternoon didn’t really answer that question. It was workmanlike, and its main mission seemed to be to tick boxes such as ‘must be nice to teachers’, rather than give us any sense of Morgan’s personal mission. Of course there was a difficult contrast between the minister apparently given the departmental responsibility because she’s not Michael Gove and Michael Gove himself, who appeared emotional as delegates applauded him

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory nerves over Osborne welfare gamble

Will George Osborne get away with his conference gamble that hits working families? The Chancellor’s speech would have received a far worse reception on the front pages of today’s newspapers had it not been for the announcement on GPs offering a seven-day service. But it remains a topic of debate in the party. Today at a lunchtime fringe, the Chancellor tried to defend his two-year freeze on working-age benefits by arguing that he had taken uncomfortable decisions for a Conservative, such as raising corporation tax. He also was careful not to appear to be gleeful about cutting welfare, an impression he has given in the past. Instead, he told the