Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
…here are some of the posts made over the weekend: Fraser Nelson is amazed at how quickly the public are turning against Gordon Brown, and highlights the Blairites’ coordinated effort to undermine the Prime Minister. James Forsyth wonders how the Blairs will fit into the next general election campaign. And, over at Americano, James also discusses the battle to define Barack Obama.
It’s not a great start to the week for Gordon Brown, as he prepares for relaunch no.29. After the pummelling he received from John Prescott, Cherie Blair and Stephen Byers over the weekend, more (former) Blairites have entered the fray. Foremost among them is Lord Levy, who’s conducted a series of interviews to hawk his new book. Here’s what he had to tell the Telegraph, when asked whether Brown should resign: “You don’t really need to ask me that question … you need to look at the polls and see what the public believes and feels. I am actually stunned at what the polls are showing. That’s a question that
More and more, it seems that Gordon Brown’s government becomes eerily reminiscent of John Major’s hapless ministry. Each day brings a fresh wave of damaging stories that sink the government further into the mire, providing material for fresh bouts of recrimination and acres of still more devastating coverage. Major, of course, was more unfortunate in having a smaller majority and a more awkward squad of unhappy, self-centred backbenchers. In fact just about the last people to realise the extent to which the Tories were doomed was the New Labour leadership itself. Still, the parallels remain strong. Exhausted? Check. Bereft of ideas? Check. A Prime Minister who becomes a figure of
Just after Christmas, Stephen Byers declared Tony Blair to be history and that Labour needed to unite behind Gordon Brown if it was to win the next election. Byers was asking that the policy ideas that he and fellow Blairites put forward be seen not as mere mischief-making but as genuine contributions to the debate. One suspects, though, that Brown sees Byers’ article in The Sunday Times as the former rather than the later. This is Brown’s loss as the reforms that Byers is proposing to the tax system—raising the personal allowance to take more people out of tax, hypothecating more and coordinating the tax and benefits systems to lower
From Prescott’s interview in Sunday Times news review, this description of his home jumps out. “Here is not a working-class hero… but an Englishman in his castle, complete with turrets, eight bedrooms, servants’ staircases and electric gates”. This recalls what Littlejohn said a while ago: “There have been times I’ve regretted ever inventing the nickname Two Jags. It helped turn Prescott into a figure of fun, disguising the fact that he is in reality a loathsome, Soviet-style political thug on the make. The satirical version of The Red Flag — ‘The working-class can kiss my arse, I’ve got the foreman’s job at last’ — could have been written for him.”
The Portcullis column in The Sunday Telegraph has a quite astonishing tale of how the Department for International Development uses its money: “Diligent Tory researchers have established that the ministry spent £8,500 on a survey to find out what sort of gifts British couples buy each other on February 14.” When you think about the Department’s responsibilities this kind of wastage is really quite obscene. One wonders who on earth signed off on it.
There is a housing development in Brockley, south east London, with an extraordinary piece of graffiti. “Thanks to Gordon Brown, I will never buy a house,” it says, and in super-large lettering no less. It is not without economic rationale. Brown’s easy-money policy at the Treasury led the Bank of England to chase a dodgy inflation measure – therefore, making credit too cheap, and, therefore, inflating an asset bubble. Also Brown’s failure to reform planning laws put an artificial restriction on supply of UK housing in the face of ever-rising demand. But is Brown entirely to blame for housing boom? Not even I would go that far. But this isn’t
On Saturday it was Cherie talking about what went on behind the scenes during the Blair / Brown era, today it is John Prescott. The result: more bad headlines for Brown. Interestingly, Prescott comes down heavily on Brown’s side–“I have no doubt that Tony was most to blame. He broke his agreement with Gordon, not once but several times”—but with Blair having left the scene, the criticisms of Brown for being moody and difficult to work with receive top billing. The Sunday Times splashes with the headline, “I told Tony to sack Gordon, says Prescott.”
Reading through the Cherie interviews in the papers today I was struck by this part of her reply when she was asked if she took any pleasure in Brown’s difficulties: “I would be delighted to campaign for them.” One of the key strategic decisions that Brown will have to take about the general election campaign is how the Labour party uses the Blairs. The Cabinet has very few big beats and there’s no doubt that out on the stump, Tony Blair could drive the news agenda in a way that none of the current cabinet could. But equally, sending Blair out there would remind people both of just how long
Peter Hyman’s piece in The Times today is well worth reading if only for this anecdote about one of the Blair reshuffles. On another occasion an MP was sacked for doing nothing wrong. It was merely that when she was replaced in her current job, someone forgot to pencil her in for a new one. The mistake was only realised once the reshuffle had been completed. Mr Blair had to come out with the implausible sounding football manager’s response, telling the shell-shocked MP that he “was playing a rotation system, and she would soon return to government”. Hyman’s serious point—that David Miliband should be made Chancellor—is revealing of the mindset
Turns out the mystery story is a Cherie Blair interview being run jointly by The Sun and The Times. The Sun promises to run the “bomshell” interview on its website at midnight. Andrew Pierce (an expert at nicking rivals’ scoops) has the lowdown in the Telegraph – Tony Blair censored his wife’s book, he says, so she’s letting rip in an interview instead. But the extracts suggest even this is far from bilious. Knowing Cherie, all will have all come at a price – hence the expectation and secrecy. You might say: so what, we all know Cherie hates Gordon. But to my mind, there is greater significance of this
In September 2006, as Tony Blair was forced to bring forward his departure date by backbench rebellion, The Spectator predicted a Labour civil war. It was not clear when this conflict would erupt, only that its coming was inexorable. This week, battle commenced. In the wake of disastrous local election results and the loss of London to Boris Johnson, Gordon Brown faces revolt on many fronts. In Scotland, Labour’s leader, Wendy Alexander, has called for a referendum on the future of the United Kingdom. In Westminster, Charles Clarke, the former Home Secretary, has demanded that the PM drop his plans to extend the pre-charge detention period for terror suspects to
Theo Hobson meets Gene Robinson, the only openly gay Anglican bishop, who says that homosexuals are more open to the Christian ‘message of radical change’ I am sitting in St Mary’s church, Putney, home of right-on Anglicanism. Bishop Gene Robinson — the gay American whose election nearly split the Anglican church — is seeking reassurance from his fans. He’s had a grilling from our nasty press, he says, and is relieved to be among friends. I get out my pen and prepare to dip it in poison. I feel deeply ambivalent about Gene — not hostile, but very much in two minds. And I think he may hold the future
Stanley Johnson is adjusting to his new constitutional position in the life of London: not least deciding which clubs to avoid at lunchtime in order to dodge Boris’s journalist foes Last July, soon after Boris had announced he would be a candidate for the post of mayor of London, the editor of The Spectator very kindly invited me to give my reaction in the columns of this magazine. In the article I wrote then, I described the circumstances of Boris’s arrival in this world, in a hospital on New York’s East Side, around 70th Street. I recalled that, as a modern man, I was perfectly ready to be present at
Clear blue skies and shiny shopping malls, but Mao’s corpulent corpse still presides I went to visit Mao Tse-tung the other day. The embalmed body of the Father of communist China lies in a mausoleum in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square. There he rests in his trademark grey suit — the same grey as Beijing’s toxic 21st-century skies. I expected to find a long queue of people waiting to see the still corpulent but very pasty-faced Mao, who lies mostly hidden under a red flag, but there were only a few. Mao is no longer Tiananmen Square’s star attraction. Instead, a giant digital clock counting down the days to the Beijing Olympics
In the dark early hours of 12 November 1970 a tropical cyclone swung in from the Indian Ocean and made its way, to devastating effect, up the course of the world’s largest delta — the confluence of two huge river courses, the Ganges and the Brahmaputra — in what was then East Pakistan. The delta was heavily populated with subsistence farmers and, further, the overwhelming majority of East Pakistan lay on land less than 20 metres above sea level and was thus vulnerable to even a gentle breeze lapping the waters of the Indian Ocean. If you were asked to design the perfect country to be all but wiped out
Voting continues in our exciting quest to determine the most over-rated and under-rated Presidents in American history. But don’t fret, it’s not too late to cast your ballot before the polls close late on Sunday. Simply let me know who you consider the three most over-rated and the three most under-rated US presidents. You can submit votes by emailing me here or in the comments section below. Full details here.
David Cameron answers your questions Matthew d’Ancona wonders whether Brown has broken the New Labour pact. Fraser Nelson serves up ‘Brownie No.3 – Gordon Brown’s “transitional” 10p tax rate’, and gives the word from Scotland on Wendy Alexander’s call for a referendum. James Forsyth suggests that Gordon Brown should embrace the fight over the Union, and points out that more than half of Labour voters want the Prime Minister to step down. And Peter Hoskin tracks Brown’s charm offensive, and asks whether Cameron has started to tackle Brownies.
A good political story is about to break. Have no idea what, but Westminster’s nervous system is twitching. My only information is that it is “big, followable and with us by midnight”. Stay tuned. UPDATE: The story is “good, but not an earthquake” I am told. That’s good news for the Tories. They don’t want the earth moving under No.10 before election day. P.S. Iain Dale has a fantasy list of what the story could be (“Clegg says it was 130, not 30”). Not long to go now.
The champagne was flowing freely at this week’s party in celebration of the The Spectator’s 180th anniversary. We’ve just put up exclusive footage of the bash on a special corner of the website – new.spectator.co.uk/party. Check it out for red carpet access, celebrity interviews and all the happenings from behind-the-scenes.
