Politics

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

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Gordon Brown writes to David Davis

Benedict Brogan has a copy of a letter sent by Brown to David Davis.  It challenges David Cameron over his relative silence on civil liberty issues.  Here’s the text: Dear David As you know, Prime Ministers are available once a week at Question Time to debate all the issues of the day, and I was disappointed that you chose to step down as a Member of Parliament in advance of Question Time on Wednesday, 11 June rather than coming to the House to debate with me the issues around the use of CCTV and DNA evidence, and the measures we have taken to protect our national security. Nevertheless, the leader of your party

Peter Hoskin

And the winner is… | 30 June 2008

Congratulations to ‘Patrick, London’ for making the best contribution to last week’s CoffeeHousers’ Wall, and for winning a bottle of champagne in the process. Patrick both kickstarted and contributed to a debate on energy policy that I recommend you take the time to read – some great insights from TGF UKIP, Elizabeth and Puncheon, among others. Patrick: if you’d like to claim your bubbly, you can fire me an e-mail on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk, with your address details.  Or leave a comment on this post, with the same info (we won’t publish it).

Peter Hoskin

Brown poisons Labour’s health reform message

It’s the week of the 60th Anniversary of the NHS.  And, to mark the occasion, the Government is today releasing the final report in Lord Darzi’s review of the health service. It’s set to be reform-minded and geared towards ending the “postcode lottery”. Early signs, though, suggest Brown’s reputation has poisoned the operation from the outset.  A YouGov poll for the Telegraph finds that only 23 percent of voters think Labour will improve the NHS over the next ten years.  That contrasts with 31 percent who think the Tories will. The poll also records an important public shift away from spending towards value and reform.  Only 24 percent of respondents

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The ECHR rules supreme

Sometimes you really do wonder if Labour’s wide-eyed Euro supporters realise just how tightly they have tied their own hands. Take Jack Straw, proposing new “emergency legislation” to allow anonymous witnesses in trials. No one seems to have mentioned the European Convention on Human Rights, which is senior to English law since our gullible MPs incorporated it in the 1998 Human Rights Act. In doing so, they handed to Strasbourg the right to decide what was a “fair trial”. Straw is understandably furious about the £6m murder case collapsing when the Law Lords said anonymous witnesses were inadmissible. As The Times pointed out, dozens more cases are now at risk.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

1066 votes, and all that

John Major’s mistake was to believe time would be a healer. It was not for him, nor will it be for Gordon Brown. Instead of nursing his wounds from the English locals, Crewe and Henley, he is facing a meltdown in his own back yard, as the Scottish Labour Party faces a by-election in Glasgow East next month without a leader, a mission or a discernable purpose. But that’s not quite right. Wendy Alexander was leader of the Labour MSP group. The leader of the Scottish Labour Party is one G. Brown. This is his mess to fix, no one else’s. This is his stronghold which is melting, his home turf

Saturday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Dreary Downfall of Wendy Alexander

Briefly*: So, Wendy Alexander is resigning as leader of the Scottish Labour party. In the brave new Scotland even our political scandals are pygmy-sized and fourth-rate. In normal circumstances scandal and disgrace should provide fine entertainment for the public who from time to time like, after all, to see one of their tribunes tossed to the lions. But there was no mirth, no schadenfreude to be enjoyed in this instance. After all, Wendy is leaving because she forgot, or couldn’t be bothered, to register donations to her office worth a few thousand quid. Well, colour me un-enraged. The complexity of the registration details and all the other stuff is head-melting

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Could the SNP win out?

With a 13,500 Labour majority, Glasgow East is as unwinnable for the SNP as Crewe was for the Tories. Expectation here in Edinburgh is that the election will take place next month, and will be a test as to whether Salmond can take a big a chunk out of Brown in the north as Cameron can in the south. Glasgow East is one of these places where life expectancy is closer to Bagdad than Kent. It is perhaps the most deprived and socialised constituency in Britain and probably Western Europe.  For Labour to lose this would be truly totemic. And there’s more. You may remember reading in Ben Brogan’s blog

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The referendum pantomine

I’ve been catching up with some old friends here in Edinburgh and in between speculation about what will happen next – the Glasgow East by election would be miles worse than Crewe to lose – I have assembled the rather hilarious story of Wee Wendy and her call for a referendum on independence. You may remember Brown claiming at PMQs, implausibly, that she hadn’t said it. As I said at the time, this was no surprise to Brown. She had been discussing this lunatic idea with him for ages and got frustrated with his indecision. They had a conference call on the Friday before this all kicked off, when he

Peter Hoskin

Where it all went wrong for Brown – your verdict

As of midnight, the voting on where it all went wrong for Brown stood as follows: The election that wasn’t  —  24.4% His addiction to Brownies  —  17.1% The 10p tax debacle  —  16.5% His uncontested rise to power  —  16.5% His inability to say sorry  —  13.4% Other  —  12.2% Many thanks to all the CoffeeHousers who registered their votes.  

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Happy Anniversary Gordon…

The Henley by-election result is striking: John Howell (Cons) 19,796Stephen Kearney’s (Lib Dem) 9,680Mark Stevenson (Green) 1,321Timothy Rait (BNP) 1,243Richard McKenzie (Lab) 1,066Chris Adams (UKIP) 843 Admittedly, Labour didn’t run much of a campaign (and would like to have avoided even contesting the seat if they’d been able to) while the Lib Dems pressed them hard. But still… 3% of the vote? If John Major’s Tories had endured such a result, even in a Labour stronghold, you can imagine that the BBC would be full of chatter about how much longer Major could last and whether, in fact, the game wasn’t already up. Today? not so much… And of course,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Debating Issues

Julian “heterodox and hard to label” Sanchez (David Brooks, today) asks a terrifying question. Looking back to undergraduate debating days, he wonders: How many of us are unwittingly broadcasting our membership in that weird fraternity?

The Spectator

The week that was | 27 June 2008

Some highlights of the week on Spectator.co.uk The new CoffeeHousers’ Wall feature has been launched. David Davis answers CoffeeHousers’ questions. We ask CoffeeHousers to vote on where it all went wrong for Gordon Brown. Maurice Gerard reports from inside Zimbabwe. Matthew d’Ancona thinks Brown’s uncontested rise to power is a major factor in his poor first year as Prime Minister. Fraser Nelson argues that one shouldn’t shoot the critic, and suggests that Brown is addicted to Brownies. James Forsyth reflects on a positive aspect to Brown’s legacy, and asks what Cameron should say in his Queen’s speech if the Tories win the next general election. Peter Hoskin outlines the 10p tax

Peter Hoskin

McDonnell: Brown’s leading Labour to extinction

The Labour MP John McDonnell has written a piece for Comment is Free.  I’d recommend you read it – it’s one of the most significant displays of Brown-bashing so far. Like Matt, McDonnell argues that Brown’s uncontested ascension to the party leadership has harmed both his premiership and the Labour party as a whole.  But twelve words in the article will get – and deserve? – all of the attention.  Here they are: “Brown is relentlessly leading the Labour party to the edge of extinction…” Of course, Brown and McDonnell are hardly the strongest of allies.  And McDonnell isn’t a front-bencher.  But this is still astonishing dissent, wherever it comes from in Labour.  If

Peter Hoskin

Blair at 33/1 to be next Labour leader

After Labour’s disastrous showing in Henley, William Hill have re-calibrated their odds for when Brown will leave office and for who will succeed him. Miliband’s favourite to be the next party leader (at 3/1), but Tony Blair’s odds have suddenly been cut from 100/1 to 33/1, after a flurry of punter interest.  Maybe it’s just one for the silly season, but I’m sure quite a few Labour MPs would be more than happy to have Brown’s predecessor back in No.10. Hat-tip: Politics Home

Peter Hoskin

Vote now: where did it all go wrong for Brown?

Over the past week, we’ve been running a series of articles analysing where it all went wrong for Gordon Brown over the past year.  Here are the relevant links: Peter Hoskin on the 10p tax debacle; James Forsyth on Brown’s inability to say sorry; Fraser Nelson on Brown’s addiction to Brownies; And Matthew d’Ancona on Brown’s uncontested rise to power. But now it’s the anniversary day of his first year as Prime Minister, we’d like to hear CoffeeHousers’ views on the matter.  So we’re asking: what do you think most contributed to Brown’s annus horribilis?  Register your vote in the box-out below (if you select ‘Other’, it would be great if you’d specify what in the comments

Peter Hoskin

Ashdown on Brown’s chances

Lord Ashdown is interviewed by Andrew Neil on BBC News’ Straight Talk this weekend.  And Coffee House has been forwarded a few advance quotes.  I think this, from Ashdown, is minor classic: “I have made some mistakes in my life but viewed out from a year ago, it does not seem to me that my decision to decline Mr Brown’s kind invitation to join his Government was one of them.” And he continues:  “Can [Brown] survive?  Well, Margaret Thatcher was more unpopular than him but does he, you know – she had the personality, the opportunity and the luck.  He’s an unlucky Prime Minister, he hasn’t got a great personality and I can’t see

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Don’t shoot the critic

Tom Harris says I was “predictably cruel” to Khalid Mahmood who (perhaps deliberately) died on his feet at PMQs. How hard is it to ask a question, I said. “Well, you’ll never know the answer to that, Fraser, but believe me, it’s a lot harder than it looks, and certainly a lot harder than sitting in your office criticising the efforts of others,” replies Tom. This may surprise Harris, but I actually agree with him in that I have no doubt that I’d be a dismal MP. I don’t think many political journalists believe they could do better than the ones whom we, from time to time, lay into. Criticism

Matthew Dancona

Where it all went wrong for Brown: an uncontested rise to power

This is the fourth in our series of posts looking at where it all went wrong for Gordon Brown.  The first, second and third are here, here and here, respectively. When did it all go wrong for Gordon? Before he even began, I now think: on the evening of 16 May, 2007, to be precise. It was then that Brown finally secured the backing of 308 Labour MPs – accounts differ as to whether it was Andrew Mackinlay or Tony Wright who pushed him over the finishing line – thus ensuring that he could not be beaten in a leadership contest. Mr Brown was not to become Prime Minister until June 27, but his