Politics

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

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: where is the new centre of gravity in the Tory party ?

After a night of firing, we should start to see a round of hiring in David Cameron’s government from around 8.30 this morning. Only one post has been filled – Philip Hammond moving to the Foreign Office – and yet some observers are already trying to pin down the new centre of gravity in the Tory party. Labour seems to have given its MPs a line to take that the is a lurch to the right and the end of moderate Tory governing. Without wishing to begrudge the Opposition a decent, disciplined line on a day when it’s very difficult to attract attention away from the other party doing the

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Philip Hammond: a very Eurosceptic Foreign Secretary

Philip Hammond’s promotion to Foreign Secretary means that we now have a Foreign Secretary who is on the record as saying he would vote to leave the EU unless substantial powers are returned. This is a major challenge to Foreign Office orthodoxy. listen to ‘Hammond: Britain should leave the EU if powers aren’t returned’ on Audioboo

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Farewell Ken Clarke, last of the Tory Big Beasts

But for Europe, eh? It is a mark of how thoroughly the European issue has poisoned Tory waters that many party activists – and MPs – will be celebrating the end of Ken Clarke’s ministerial career tonight. Not before time, many of them will doubtless froth. Well, maybe. But it bears remembering that the Tories who hated Clarke the most tend, more often than not, to be the Tories the public hates most. The kind of Conservatives good at losing elections and rather less good at winning them. That does not mean Clarke was always right or that his judgement was necessarily routinely sound. Nevertheless it is something to be

Steerpike Steerpike

Women in Parliament group serve ‘Eton Mess’ at Speaker’s House lunch

The Speaker’s House hosted the launch of ‘Women in Parliament’, a cross-party initiative to get more women into parliament, today. Fittingly, there was barely a man in sight — besides wee John Bercow, obviously. ‘Women in Parliament’ is led from by Mary MacLeod — former PPS to ex-Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who is also closely involved in the project. The group has received a lukewarm reaction from Downing Street. The ambition to get more women onto the Tory benches is welcomed by No 10; but the timing of the launch has clashed with the upcoming female-focussed reshuffle. Tongues wagged at this afternoon’s event when the waiter described the menu. Were MacLeod and Miller

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron will breathe a sigh of relief if the Church of England vote for women bishops

Number 10 has a lot on its mind with the looming Cabinet reshuffle, but I suspect that there’ll be a sigh of relief there if the General Synod of the Church of England votes in favour of allowing women bishops. For if proposals for women bishops are defeated again, the problem could well end up in parliament’s court. There are those in the Church of England who believe that if this measure fails again then parliament should simply legislate to allow them. Given the status of the Church of England, parliament has the power to do that and there are some influential MPs who privately favour this course. But the

Martin Ruhs

Britain’s immigration debate must address three key issues

Politicians tend to get all the blame for immigration policies not working. But politicians are often doomed to fail on migration questions because there are deep-rooted problems with the way we all debate immigration and with what we expect of immigration policy. Following UKIP’s success in the European elections, and given the likely failure of the government to meet its net migration target by 2015, immigration is guaranteed to be a key focal point of public debate in the run-up to the general election next year. There is widespread agreement that Britain needs a ‘better’ immigration debate – but how can that be achieved? Over the past year I have

Ed West Ed West

I’d like to nominate myself as Britain’s Paedofinder-General

Now that Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has stood down as head of the inquiry into historic sex abuse, I’d like to nominate myself as Britain’s new paedofinder-general. If I got the job, I would use the latest scientific techniques to track down every single sexual wrongdoer in Britain, alive or dead. Firstly I would type into Google the names of every person involved in the entertainment industry or politics between 1965 and 1990, followed by a ‘p’; if the word ‘paedophile’, ‘paedo’ or ‘pedo’ comes up in the top ten suggestions then the chances are that the person in question probably is one, so the CSI crime squads can turn up at

The Spectator

The 2014 government sackings – as they happened

For all of today’s reshuffle updates, including the new appointments and podcast reactions, follow our liveblog here. 23.44 That’s it for tonight. We’ll be back at 6am tomorrow, with more news of the reshuffle. Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become the new faces of David Cameron’s government? And will any of them much welcome the idea that this is a mission to bring more women into Westminster? Join us tomorrow to find out. 23.22 Dear John letters: The Prime Minister has written to the seven ministers who resigned. His hand will be rather sore after all of this sacking. Here’s what he wrote to each of them: 1) To

The Spectator

Podcast: Douglas Murray analyses the Israel-Gaza conflict

In our latest View from 22 podcast, Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip. Has Israel become too good at protecting its citizens? And is there an inequality of conflict? listen to ‘Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip’ on Audioboo

Steerpike Steerpike

Wrath of Khan

Taking sides in the Middle East causes rows over many a Sunday lunch table; but one imagines that things are even tenser when you’re a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in history and you’ve converted to Islam. This is the world in which Jemima Khan lives. Ben Goldsmith expressed a few critical words on Twitter about Israel’s enemies for using civilians as human shields. And Jemima was off: @BJGoldsmith Ben, your tweets on this subject are really ignorant and offensive — Jemima Khan (@Jemima_Khan) July 12, 2014 Ben responded, not entirely unreasonably, to a third party’s suggestion that he needed to be bombed. And his sister

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: Cameron’s key challenges

What does David Cameron need his reshuffle to do? As has been the case with every reshuffle in this Parliament, the changing of the guard, which is expected to start later today (Coffee House will have a liveblog full of the action and gossip when it all kicks off), is being billed as a ‘reshuffle of the women’. But as I explained in my post last night about the Prime Minister considering voluntary all-women shortlists, even the incredibly talented crop of female Conservative MPs can’t stop Labour billing any shuffle as a disappointment for women, which it is ready doing before any jobs have changed hands. Cameron also needs to

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists

David Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists if the Conservatives continue to struggle to recruit female MPs, senior Tory sources have said. The Prime Minister has also set party chairman Grant Shapps ‘on the case’ to remedy the current situation, whereby women are less likely to be selected for safe seats. But he is also interested in local associations using all-women shortlists on a voluntary basis after the next election if his party fails to make sufficient advances. Cameron does not want to impose shortlists on constituency parties, although of course ‘voluntary’ can cover a multitude of sins: many people ‘voluntarily’ work longer hours than those stipulated on their contract,

Hamish Macdonell

Today’s poll shows Alex Salmond running out of time

There really isn’t much time left. From today, there are just nine and a half weeks until we go to the polls in the independence referendum. Also today, we have the latest ICM poll for Scotland on Sunday. The main figures are: Yes 34 per cent (down two points), No 45 per cent (up two) and don’t know 21 per cent (unchanged). If the don’t knows are excluded, the figures are Yes 43 per cent (down two), No 57 per cent (up two). [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/Z2duc/index.html”] Suddenly, that nine-and-a-half week window looks pretty small for the Yes camp. It means that Alex Salmond and his colleagues have just 66 days to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Nigel Farage hints at how a Tory / Ukip electoral pact might work

Vote Farage, get Miliband might not have quite as much resonance with voters as the Tories would like. But it is certainly effective with donors. If Ukip is seen as Ed Miliband’s passport to Number 10, it will be far harder for it to raise the money it needs to fight a successful general election campaign. So when Nigel Farage spoke to the Midlands Industrial Council—a group of right-wing business people who have in the past donated substantial sums to the Tories—after the European Elections, most of the questions were about how to avoid a split on the right letting Labour back into government. As I report in the Mail

Saturday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

By supporting assisted dying, Lord Carey has united Christians against it

He didn’t mean to, but Lord Carey, the outspoken and unpopular former Archbishop of Canterbury, may just have carried out a minor miracle. By coming out in the Daily Mail in favour of assisted suicide, he has succeeded in bringing together Christians of all denominations and political persuasions to oppose him. Trendy evangelicals, Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, and the Orthodox may have profound differences, but one thing they know is that disagree with Lord Carey, especially when he makes out that the truly Christian position is to support this first step towards legal euthanasia in Britain, which will be debated in the House of Lords this week. Carey is not exactly well

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Lord Carey undermines his successor, again

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has changed his mind about ‘assisted dying’ and intends to vote for Lord Falconer’s Bill, which will be debated in Parliament next week. His article in today’s Daily Mail is a tremendous coup for the Dignity in Dying lobby. When Carey was in office, no one paid much attention to his views. He lumbered from one gaffe to another; we religious correspondents were too amused by his self-importance to notice that he tended to get his way – for example, over women priests in 1992. Since retirement, his stature has grown. He has become more right-wing. He is contemptuous of the bishops’ fear

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Uxbridge set to be destination Boris?

Mr S likes a flutter. His eyes were drawn to the latest speculation about Boris’s return to the Commons. Ladbrokes are offering 3-1 that the Blond Bombshell will be selected in Uxbridge, which is to be vacated by John Randall at the next election. Uxbridge is hardly K&C (Mrs S is agin it); but, it is a safe Tory seat in the capital: Ladbrokes have it 1/50 on for the Tories. Perfect for Boris, you might think… Here are the latest odds on Boris, courtesy of Ladbrokes: Where will Boris stand in 2015? 6/4 Does not stand for parliament 3/1 Uxbridge & South Ruislip 7/2 Hertsmere 6/1 South Cambridgeshire 7/1

David Blackburn

Jean-Claude Juncker’s biggest challenge: energy

‘Energy is the single biggest issue facing Jean-Claude Juncker,’ remarked a seasoned Eurocrat to me earlier this week. Europe’s energy infrastructure is decrepit and insular. Rates of cross-border interconnection, for example, remain very low – at just 8 per cent of their production capacity on average across the union according to the FT. The Commission’s 2030 energy package aims to raise the average rate of interconnection to 15 per cent — part of a string of targets designed to complete the single market in energy. Alas, it’s going to take more than a target or two. The level of investment required is enormous (more than 1 trillion euros by the Commission’s