Politics

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

Friday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Left-wing revolt underway in Ukip

What voters want is a renationalisation of the railways, policies that hit the rich harder, a mansion tax and definitely not an abolition of inheritance tax. This isn’t a belated write-up of one of the further left fringes of the Labour conference in Manchester: it’s the ideas of a group of Ukippers who gathered this lunchtime in Doncaster to discuss how to attract Labour voters. Led by Ian Dexter, a party member who has no formal role in writing the manifesto but who was given the official ‘How to win the crucial Labour Vote’ lunchtime slot, the fringe sounded at times more like a Socialist Workers’ Party meeting than an

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The by-election battles have begun over Clacton and Heywood

Douglas Carswell has just finished speaking at the Ukip conference and his fellow by-election contender John Bickley, who is standing in Heywood and Middleton on the same day, has just given a short address too. He told the hall that ‘the dam is ready to burst’ and asked for members to pop in before they went to Clacton. Labour sources were last week claiming that their chance of holding onto the seat was looking shaky, which was read by many as an attempt to get their activists and MPs to take the fight seriously. But I hear that there is a fierce debate going on in Ukip between those who

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip conference: Louise Bours’ shouty sermon on the NHS

Politicians always speak about the NHS with passion. It is our national religion. So today Louise Bours, Ukip’s health spokeswoman, adopted the demeanour of a Pentecostal preacher, addressing her party conference at such a high volume that MPs gathered in the House of Commons chamber could probably hear her as she pledged to work with Unite to oppose the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership. She said she had received a letter from Len McCluskey outlining his concerns about the agreement, and replied: ‘UKIP WILL FIGHT ALONGSIDE YOU TO ENSURE THE NHS IS EXCLUDED FROM TTIP.’ This was an explicit attempt to quash Labour attacks on Ukip as a party that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip is trying to move beyond Nigel Farage

Quite naturally, the mood in the hall at the Ukip conference in Doncaster is far more upbeat than anything Labour could muster. This is an insurgent party on the brink of getting its own MP and that is spooking the Conservatives no end. So the party with a realistic chance of taking power next May seems depressed, while this party is full of beans. A series of speeches from policy spokespeople was intended to show that Ukip doesn’t just have one face representing it. This year’s conference is intended to show that Nigel Farage’s party really has grown up and has grown far beyond just his leadership. So those policy

Alex Massie Alex Massie

ISIS are a scourge on humanity; the UK must play its part in confronting this horror

Doing nothing is always an option. Sometimes it can even be a sensible policy. There is much to be said for modesty and restraint and an awareness that unforeseen consequences lurk around every corner. Even so, doing nothing has consequences too. But the United Kingdom is not going to war in Iraq again. It is not going to war in Syria either. There are two parts to the battles against ISIS: an on-the-ground war and an in-the-air police action. We are, today’s vote in the Commons permitting, taking part in the latter element of the battle. A punitive action designed to make it easier for those doing the real fighting – the Kurds and others

Thursday

Peter Jones

The ancient roots of Alex’s Salmond’s demagoguery

Alex Salmond spent two years campaigning for independence for Scotland on the grounds of ‘social justice’. Now, claiming that the vote was lost because of the ‘old’ (subtext: the rich), he says he might declare independence anyway. His unprincipled demagoguery puts one in mind of Athenian society, as described by the ‘Old Oligarch’ (whoever he was). The O.O. saw Athens as a society in which the poor lorded it over the rich. His central point was that, because the poor were ignorant, ill-disciplined and evil, while the wealthy cared for what was good and just, the interests of the poor were not served by allowing the rich to hold power. So

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will two more Tory MPs defect to Ukip?

Ukip’s party conference is underway in Doncaster. The party is hoping for an event that runs more smoothly than last year, where Nigel Farage sacked Godfrey Bloom for hitting a journalist and calling women ‘sluts’. It certainly has more in its favour this time around, with Tory defector Douglas Carswell to address the conference ahead of what looks like a victory in the Clacton by-election. But there are also rumours that two more Conservative MPs are about to defect. Adam Holloway’s name was winging round the lobby today, but he says he won’t be going anywhere because he is terrified of the prospect of a Labour government. He said: ‘I’d much

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How long will Tory unity on EVEL last?

The 1922 Committee meets at 2pm today, and William Hague will address it. The meeting was originally arranged to discuss the post-referendum settlement for Scotland and England, and English votes for English laws, but Iraq may well dominate the session given tomorrow’s recall. Those MPs who weren’t sufficiently fortunate or troublesome to have been invited to the Chequers summit on the English settlement on Monday will get an update and a chance to pitch their view in. The party seems, by and large, pretty happy with the way Number 10 has handled this matter so quickly, and the amount of contact they have had from the whips. But the peace may yet

Ed West Ed West

Can the Game of Thrones option save the UK?

I’ve been in Turkey the past week, which as anyone will tell you is the friendliest and most beautiful of countries, and a kinder and more welcoming people you will not meet. But I’d be lying if I didn’t add that a major bonus of being there was that I missed the finale of the interminable Scottish debate. As expected the Nos had it, but as Lord Ashcroft’s poll suggests the long-term future for the United Kingdom is still bleak; the union was saved by older voters, while only a small minority who voted No did so for emotional rather than pragmatic reasons. Worst of all, David Cameron and Ed

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Beware: Scottish Labour is a zombie party and the undead still walk

David Mundell, MP for Dumfriesshire, Clydesdale and Tweeddale, is not often granted much respect. He is not a natural television performer, which does not help. He is a Scottish Conservative, which does not help either. But give him this: he predicted that the Scottish National Party would enjoy a surge of new members if Scotland voted No to independence. But what a surge it has been. The SNP has doubled its membership in a week. More than doubled it, in fact. The party now claims more than 60,000 paid-up members. To put this into some perspective, that’s akin to a UK-wide party having 600,000 members. The combined membership of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron must reunite the Tories or lose the next election

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_25_Sept_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Freddy Gray, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth on Cameron’s radicalism” startat=70] Listen [/audioplayer]No one goes to Birmingham to revive a marriage. But that is what David Cameron and the Conservative party must do next week at conference. They must find a way to put the passion back into their relationship, to learn to trust each other again ahead of the general election. For neither can win without the other next May. That election is there to be won. The Labour gathering in Manchester this week was not one of a party convinced that it is going to surge to victory in a few months. The atmosphere was subdued,

Adrian Wooldridge

Cameron signals left, but turns right. Can he please now choose a direction?

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_25_Sept_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Freddy Gray, Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth on Cameron’s radicalism” startat=70] Listen [/audioplayer]It is not mere hyperbole to say that the period between the Conservative party conference and the general election will be momentous. The next election will decide whether we have a chance to vote on Britain’s relationship with the European Union. Both Labour and the Conservative party will try to tackle ‘the English question’ — together with other great issues raised by the Scottish referendum. It is vital that the right David Cameron turns up to these debates. Even more than most politicians, Cameron is a man of two halves: steady-as-she-goes pragmatist and radical reformer. On

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

How an Oxford degree – PPE – created a robotic governing class

If graduates from an architecture school designed buildings that were unfit for human habitation or doctors from a university’s medical faculty left death in their wake, their teachers would worry. The graduates of Oxford’s Politics, Philosophy and Economics course form the largest single component of the most despised generation of politicians since the Great Reform Act. Yet their old university does not show a twinge of concern. Alex Salmond spat out ‘Westminster’ as if he meant ‘Babylon’, and every time he did, thousands of Scots decided to leave Britain. Ukip, a vehicle for another cynical demagogue, convinces its growing band of supporters that all politicians are liars (apart from Mr

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Anything Bill can do, Ed can do too

The hall may have been half empty during his speech, but New York Mayor Bill de Blasio said lots of nice things about Ed Miliband during the closing session of Labour Party conference in Manchester. And the similarities between the two politicians are copious. They’re both metropolitan lefties who are far more ideologically radical than they let on. Both face hostile media and talk about the rising cost of living. But that’s mainly because Ed’s strategist are ripping off large parts of the winning Democrat’s playbook: Ed even recreated de Blasio’s widely mocked campaign gaffe of being photographed eating awkwardly. At least he didn’t take a fork to his bacon sandwich (eating

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Parliament recalled to discuss airstrikes on Isis in Iraq

Number 10 has just confirmed that Parliament will be recalled on Friday to vote on a motion authorising British involvement in air strikes against Isis in Iraq. A spokesman said: ‘The Speaker has agreed to the Prime Minister’s request to recall Parliament this Friday to debate the UK’s response to the request from the Iraqi government for air strikes to support operations against Isil in Iraq. ‘The Commons will meet on Friday for a debate on a substantive motion. The Prime Minister will open the debate and the Deputy Prime Minister will close the debate. The Prime Minister has called a meeting of the Cabinet tomorrow at 1pm.’ All three

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Four reasons why this year’s Labour party conference felt so weak

There are many reasons why Labour conference felt flat this year, and many of them are out of the party’s control. It cannot help that its MPs and a number of its delegates are tired after an energetic Scottish campaign. It cannot help that the Scottish campaign saw a level of engagement in politics that cannot be replicated, save by another vote with a clear question and clear implications, and that would always have contrasted badly with the Labour conference. It cannot help that the referendum took place just days before the conference began, and that therefore it was impossible to get the same sort of coverage you’d expect in

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘It just wasn’t a speech that you would say if you were Prime Minister.’

Labour conference has now finished. Today was better than the others, but the delegates still struggled to show their enthusiasm when Ed Miliband reappeared on the stage this afternoon. Three people gave him a standing ovation. The mood at this conference really has been flat. At a fringe run by the Fabian Society last night, I was mildly perturbed as a Spectator journalist to be told by one member that I and other members of the panel were probably being too optimistic about the party’s prospects of getting into government. There have been a few notable moments when delegates seemed quite emotional, including during the powerful speech from 91-year old

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Yvette Cooper’s excellent speech shows that the Labour party has saved the best till last

Yvette Cooper today reiterated her pledge to scrap the Tories’ net migration target as she addressed the Labour conference. Her speech contained the obligatory admission about their party’s past mistakes that Cooper and her colleagues must repeat whenever they talk about immigration, but the Shadow Home Secretary also suggested that the current government is still getting things wrong. She said: ‘Yes, Labour got things wrong on immigration – on transitional controls for Eastern Europe, on the impact of jobs, but look at what this government is doing now. David Cameron promised “no ifs no buts” he would meet his net migration target. Theresa May boasted last year that her progress on

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Who is the rogue person asking MPs about attacks on Syria?

MPs are still waiting to hear confirmation that Parliament is being recalled on Friday, although many have been told to expect a sitting to discuss military intervention against Isis. The chances are that it won’t be announced until the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has made a formal appeal for British involvement, and the Labour conference has finished, so that this cannot in any way be interpreted as a bit of politicking from a Conservative party keen to sabotage the Opposition’s gathering. The whips have been phoning MPs this morning asking about their support for strikes on Isis in Iraq. But some have also been asking about attacks in Syria,

Steerpike Steerpike

Gareth, Ed, Hampstead Heath. What are you trying to tell us Newsnight?

Yesterday ‘Gareth’ was just the bloke from a software company, but Ed Miliband helped transform him into an internet sensation and telly star in a matter of hours after mentioning him in his lamentable conference speech. Normally politicians prefer to keep quiet about their encounters on Hampstead Heath. Hats off to Newsnight for this one…