Politics Archives

Thursday

17 Jul 2014

Ed West

Weak David Cameron is more ‘Borgen’ than ‘Game of Thrones’

I don’t know if David Cameron was trying to tell us something about Michael Gove’s prospects as chief whip by comparing him to the Hand of the King in Game of Thrones. Things don’t really turn out very well for the hands, generally; Jon Arryn was poisoned, Ned Stark was beheaded, Tyrion ended up in prison and Tywin, well, I wouldn’t want to spoil anything for people still catching up. Neither can we know if the prime minister is really a fan of the show or referencing it was simply another focus group-led thing, like moving Michael Gove out of education and bringing in lots of women. Most heavyweight commentators

Sean Kemp

The Lib Dems can’t win on reforming the ‘bedroom tax’

In 2010, shortly after going into coalition, Lib Dem MPs and peers were addressed by various liberal politicians keen to share their experiences of being the smallest party in a coalition. It was a fascinating, if mildly depressing occasion, with the advice ranging from ‘it’s hell’ to ‘no really, it’s absolute hell.’ The most striking quote came from the Dutch politician Lousewies van der Laan who warned us not to act like ‘the mayor in wartime’: a reference to people who became mayors of towns occupied by the Nazis, and then justified the decision by admitting that things were horrific but would be mildly less dreadful due to their decision

Melissa Kite

David Cameron’s misogynistic reshuffle

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_17_July_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Louise Mensch and Martha Gill discuss the reshuffle” startat=54] Listen [/audioplayer]Ask anyone who really knows David Cameron and they will tell you he likes a certain kind of woman. He has a very specific type, the Prime Minister. It is almost spooky the way all his women conform to it. They are all attractive, accomplished, articulate and well-dressed. But there is something else that makes certain women irresistible to Mr Cameron. While giving the appearance of being feisty and uncompromising, his sort of woman usually seems to know when to fall into line. I am not speaking of romantic conquests, but of the type of woman the Prime

James Forsyth

Gove, gone

‘There’s no shame in a cabinet to win the next election,’ declared an exasperated senior No. 10 figure on Tuesday night. This week’s reshuffle was not one for the purists: it was designed with campaigning, not governing, in mind. With less than ten months to go to polling day, politics trumps policy. This is why Michael Gove is moving from the Department for Education to become Chief Whip. The test of this shake-up will be whether the Tories win the next election or not. This reshuffle demonstrated that Tory modernisation is not about measures anymore but men — and women. The party has spent most of David Cameron’s leadership trying

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

The vote on women bishops is a triumph for our diplomatic Archbishop

The result of Monday’s vote on women bishops, the Archbishop of York stipulated, must be greeted in silence, as is the convention at the General Synod. This, perhaps, was a misjudgment: it would have been more natural, surely, to allow an instantaneous mass-whooping for joy and an outbreak of uninhibited Anglican hugging, rather than to force everyone to sit tight through two or three tedious extra amendments and then to make them all stand up and start singing and swaying to ‘We Are Marching in the Light of God’, which was what happened. But, say those who are delighted with the outcome of the vote, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury

Martin Vander Weyer

Any other business: trouble spots in European banking

‘1914: Day by Day’, the Radio 4 series by the historian Margaret MacMillan, is a gripping reminder that significant global events often arrive not in a single eruption but in a series of lesser happenings that only afterwards form an obvious pattern. Let’s hope that’s not what we’re watching in the banking sector as anticipation builds towards the results, due in October, of the European Banking Authority’s current round of ‘stress testing’. Last month’s trouble spot — with a certain resonance for the current centenary — was Austria, whose government forced losses on bondholders in the troubled Hypo Alpe-Adria-Bank by overriding a guarantee from the province of Carinthia. A clutch

Wednesday

16 Jul 2014

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: the fallout

New ministers are marching through the corridors of power today with the special ‘I mean business’ walk that denotes an MP who finally has a job they consider important. Meanwhile in Portcullis House, old ministers are trundling about with the sort of gait that denotes a newly sacked, bewildered MP hoping that at the very least they’ll get a decent office with a good view of the Thames as compensation. As the dust settles from this reshuffle, all sorts of rumours are flying around about who is angry and humiliated after losing their job (e.g. Andrew Lansley and Owen Paterson) or after not being offered the plum promotion they’d wanted

Isabel Hardman

Tories vs Labour tax row continues

Labour has now reviewed the Harriet Harman interview on LBC in which she said ‘I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes’ and concluded that she wasn’t calling for the squeezed middle to pay more in tax than it currently is. Very few people can honestly say they are able to make crystal clear assertions in every broadcast appearance they make, but Harman, had she had any idea that CCHQ was listening to her interview, hoping for something juicy, could have clarified what she meant by adding ‘than those on low incomes’ to ‘I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes’ so

James Forsyth

PMQs: David Cameron jumps on Harriet Harman’s ‘tax bombshell’

David Cameron cut his political teeth on the 1992 election campaign. He has long told colleagues that he think 2015 will be a very similar election to 1992. Today he seized on what the Tories see as this cycle’s Labour ‘tax bombshell’. He gleefully read out this quote from Harriet Harman: ‘I think people on middle incomes should contribute more through their taxes’. Now, the quote in context is far less damaging than it initially appears. Harman appears to be defending progressive taxation as a concept rather than proposing any new taxes. But Ed Miliband appeared blindsided by the quote and the result was Cameron strolling through the session. listen

Matthew Elliott

The reshuffle responded to the lessons of the European elections

The talk before the reshuffle was all about the march of women into the cabinet, but the other story from yesterday’s developments is the positioning of Eurosceptic voices in the Cabinet. Rather than focusing on the demographic composition of the Cabinet, it’s worth considering the beliefs of those in key positions. In the run up to the election next year, and maybe a 2017 In/Out referendum, those who believe that fundamental reform of the EU is necessary and aren’t afraid to consider the alternative if it fails, will occupy key seats at the top table. No wonder Michael Fallon said ‘it’s certainly a Eurosceptic cabinet’ on the Today programme this

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: How will Labour attack?

How will Ed Miliband deploy the reshuffle at Prime Minister’s Questions today? The Labour leader may not use it as his main theme, but he has plenty of elements from yesterday’s surprisingly big shake-up to work with. He could probe on just how good a reshuffle this has been for equality. Most of the focus is on gender equality, but some appointments yesterday were about more than just the ladies in waiting for a Cabinet post. Stephen Crabb, for instance, was raised by a single parent in a council house, although there seems to be more interest in his minority status as a bearded Cabinet minister. But though the advance

Tuesday

15 Jul 2014

Isabel Hardman

Andrew Lansley, international man of mystery

Earlier today, Andrew Lansley was just very cross. He wasn’t Leader of the House anymore, and he wasn’t the UK’s nomination for European Commissioner. But in a few hours, the former Health Secretary has gone from just being grumpy to being an international man of mystery. Read his exchange of letters with David Cameron on his departure from the government – and the end of his parliamentary career. I have emphasised a particular point of interest in each. FROM ANDREW LANSLEY: Dear Prime Minister, For nearly nine years, I have been a member of your Shadow Cabinet and Cabinet. This has been a great privilege and I am grateful to

Charles Moore

Video: Charles Moore – we’ve just seen the worst reshuffle in 25 years

This must be the worst reshuffle since Mrs Thatcher demoted Geoffrey Howe in 1989. Unlike that one, its errors are unforced. This year, David Cameron had established a surprisingly strong position as the leader whose unpopular but necessary policies were starting to work. He and his team seemed steadier and more able than their opponents. Now he has thrown that away with changes so large that he looks as if he disrespects what he has achieved. He has singled out for punishment those ministers who were brave and active — most notably Michael Gove and Owen Paterson, demoting the first and sacking the second. Thus he emboldens all those pressure

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s cosmetic exercise bemuses the Tories

Today’s reshuffle has been largely about cosmetic improvements to the Conservative party — not just through the promotion of female MPs, but also by neutralising certain policy areas such as education and planning reform that had antagonised some groups. But an important element in any changing of the guard is party management, and not just managing cross sacked ministers. So how has the Conservative party reacted to today’s events? Naturally, all Tory MPs are as startled as everyone else by Michael Gove’s departure. But it does make sense to them. Ministerial colleagues had grown increasingly frustrated that Gove, who polls very badly with the general public, was having fights and

David Blackburn

Janus-faced Juncker sets out his stall

Jean-Claude Juncker delivered a speech to the European Parliament this morning. Its content was, from the British government’s perspective, provocative. Juncker had one watchword: integration: and a clear idea of how to achieve it. He expressed belief in: Tax harmonisation (especially on corporate tax rates) Integration of capital markets Energy integration and the diversification of energy supply 300bn euros extra spending and a commitment to the ‘social market’ A financial transaction tax No new member states for 5 years (how about that, Mr Salmond?) The euro as a unifying force across Europe Freedom of movement In some respects it was a slightly strange speech for Juncker, a man of the

James Forsyth

Video: the assassination of Michael Gove

Michael Gove‘s departure from the Department for Education is the biggest shock of this reshuffle. Tory MPs have been even more surprised by it than they were William Hague’s leaving the Foreign Office. Downing Street is keen to stress that the education reform agenda doesn’t leave the DfE with Gove. The changes to the junior ministerial line-up at the department bolsters this argument, Nick Gibb—no friend of the teaching unions—returns as Minister of State for schools and Nick Boles, a close ally of Gove and a man brave enough to take on vested interests wherever he finds them, takes over the Skills Brief. listen to ‘Gove: I could have stayed on as

Fraser Nelson

Exclusive – Liam Fox turns down job as Foreign Office minister

I can confirm that Liam Fox was offered Minister of State at the Foreign Office with responsibility for India, China and Latin America. He politely declined the Prime Minister’s idea, even when it was later sweetened with the offer of a place in the National Security Council. Fox, a former party chairman and defence secretary, had been tipped for a comeback and foreign policy is one his great loves (he recently wrote a book, Rising Tides, about the various risks the world faces). So why turn it down? My guess is that he saw Cameron’s offer as a means of plonking him on a slow boat to China in the

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s reshuffle is promoting women, yes – but risks patronising them too

After today’s hiring and firings, the women ratio in the Cabinet rises from 14 per cent to 24 per cent. There is something horribly tokenistic, and faintly misogynistic, about boasting about what percentage of women you have in the Cabinet – as if this is a sign of how ‘progressive’ you are. It’s not clear that the brains of these women have been taken into account. Liz Truss, a committed (and award-winning) education reformer, is miscast as Environment Secretary. Gove’s replaced by Nicky Morgan, who is being introduced as ‘a working mother’ by the BBC as if this was, in itself, qualification for Education Secretary. She is a bright, accomplished minister

Steerpike

Cabinet finally feels the squeeze

Some big egos are set to join David Cameron’s rubber-stamping Cabinet meetings, which will make life interesting. There is a physical problem, too. Mr S makes it 11 ministers awarded the right to attend (in addition to the 22 full Cabinet ministers) — and the reshuffle is not even complete yet. Sue Cameron reported during last year’s minor ministerial tinkering: ‘A 4ft-long section has been made to fit perfectly on to the coffin-shaped Cabinet table, originally commissioned by Harold Macmillan more than half a century ago. It makes the table look “more coffin-like than ever”, according to one minister.’ Mr S hears that even with the extension, it was still

The Spectator

As it happened: the 2014 government reshuffle

18.59 The reshuffle is over and the dust is settling in Westminster. Catch up on all today’s events in our Evening Blend email, which has just gone out. if you don’t yet subscribe to this free daily update of all the key political events, you can read it in full here and subscribe here. Thanks for following the biggest reshuffle of this Parliament. This live blog is now closing. 18.10 David Cameron has announced the appointment of Tobias Ellwood as Parliamentary Under Secretary of State at the Foreign Office and, with an invitation to look at the list of all today’s ministerial announcements on the GOV.UK website, the end of today’s appointments. Tobias

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