Politics

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

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hoey’s status uncertain

This morning, Boris Johnson announced that Kate Hoey would be his advisor on sport and the Olympics, making Hoey’s attempt to pass off her planned appearance with Boris at a ballet school in her constituency as nothing unusual appear distinctly disingenuous. Hoey’s status in the Labour party is now uncertain. Boulton and Co reports that when its Niall Paterson asked Geoff Hoon if he would take the whip away from her, Hoon responded “We’ll see”. Hoey’s Vauxhall seat is safe Labour; she received more than 50 percent of the vote at the last election.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Physician heal thyself

After Nick Clegg yesterday, it was David Cameron’s turn to do The Today Programme pre-local election interview this morning. John Humphrys was in particularly combative form, interrupting at every opportunity. But the whole technique descended into farce when Humprhys asked Cameron if he had failed to meet his promise to end Punch and Judy politics. Cameron, whose PMQs performances are pure Punch and Judy, admitted that he hadn’t. But Humphrys harried him so much that Cameron could not get out his explanation for why he had not been able to keep this promise. The irony of this seemed lost on Humphrys.  Admittedly, Cameron is a master at turning the tables on

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Iraq in comparative perspective

Fred Kagan, one of the architects of the surge, sets out how he thinks we should measure progress in Iraq in the latest Weekly Standard. The whole piece is worth reading but this point jumped out at me: “Much has been made of the inadequacy of the Iraqi Security Forces’ performance in Basra. If the Pakistani army had performed half as well in its efforts to clear al Qaeda out of the tribal areas, we would be cheering. Instead, Pakistani soldiers surrendered to al Qaeda by the hundreds, and Islamabad shut the operation down; it is now apparently on the verge of a deal with the terrorist leader who killed

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron tries to break free from Labour’s poverty of thought

I doubt many headlines will come from David Cameron’s poverty speech in Euston today, but for those looking to see him wrestle his way out of Labour’s way of thinking and towards a Tory solution there was plenty to see. Here’s the problem as I see it. Brown has long understood that metrics are power. He who chooses the yardstick wins the battle – and if he defined “poverty” as the number of people below the 60% median income, he can fake progress. For ten years, instead of tackling poverty, he has used the tax credit system to manipulate the results of this very specific target. And for ten years,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What does Gordon do on May 2nd?

At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, an occupational hazard of punditry, there are some interesting thoughts out there about what Gordon will do on May 2nd if the polls are right. Ben Brogan argues that what the Prime Minister needs is a “political henchman”, someone who can both give him political advice and tell him when he’s wrong. One senior Whitehall source even suggested to Ben that Alastair Campbell would relish the opportunity to return to the fray. Meanwhile over at Three Line Whip, Andy Porter outlines the bold reshuffle that Gordon is probably too cautious to carry out but that is being whispered about: Alistair Darling from

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

We’re just showing the government how to do it, says Cameron

Team Osborne get in touch in relation to my last post. Yes it is an old idea, they say, but Labour is pussyfooting around. They would implement it properly. Cameron has just walked into the room… Let’s see how he does. Update: At his speech in Euston, Cameron has just sought to make a virtue of this. Labour has only now given details about the funding and timetable of their financial advice centres. We have made the government’s decision for them, says Cameron. Show them how it can be done.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Tory answer to the credit crunch should be less tax not pinching more Brown ideas

The other day I blogged how the Tories are engaging in a “fool’s game” of trying to work out what the government will announce, beating them to it, and then claiming they were the first mover, They appear to be at it again today with a proposal for independent financial advice centres. Downing Street is already pointing out that the Tory idea looks walks, talks, sounds and smells pretty much like the National Money Guidance Service proposed by Otto Thoresen in a Treasury review a few weeks back. He suggested the cost should be split between the banks and the government – the Tories say the banks should fund the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris leads by 11 in final YouGov poll

The last Monday YouGov poll for the Evening Standard has Boris on 46 percent to Ken’s 35. Once the second preferences are factored in, Boris leads Ken 55 to 45. If you still haven’t decided who to vote for, do read Matt’s piece in the magazine on why Boris is the right man for London.  

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jump-starting social mobility

Gary Duncan has an important piece in this morning’s Times keying off Reform’s report on social mobility. As Gary writes, “The realities behind Mr Brown’s rhetoric on poverty are a lot less impressive than his boasts of being the best friend of the disadvantaged imply. The stark truth is that after a decade of Labour Government, Britain is a nation of greater income inequality, in which the plight of the very poor has worsened. True, Labour has succeeded in lifting half a million children out of poverty since 1998. Yet the Government’s figures are based on a poverty line drawn at 60 per cent of average incomes. If it is

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 28 April 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the weekend: Matthew d’Ancona reflects on how the Carole Capln story could so easily have been about Tony not Cherie. Boris Johnson should urge his supporters to give their second preferences to Brian Paddick argues James Forsyth. A new poll of battleground seats has the Tories on course for a comfortable majority reports Fraser Nelson. And on The Spectator’s 180th anniversary blog, Pete Hoskin fishes an article by Siôn Simon, now a Labour MP, out of the archive which calls on Tony Blair to sack Gordon Brown. 

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s poll position

Jackie Ashley’s column this morning makes the good point that by this time next week the commentariat could be praising Gordon Brown’s resilience and fighting qualities. The silver lining to the current spate of bad news stories for the Prime Minister is that expectations for Labour’s performance in the elections this week are now so low that if Labour just holds the London Mayoralty and the Tories fail to cross the 40 percent threshold, Brown will be boosted. Like Hillary Clinton in the Democratic primaries, mere survival will be enough to win Brown good headlines.  He will be able to reassure Labour backbenchers that the polls are not all knowing

Peter Hoskin

60 years of Israeli independence

I’ve just touched down in Jerusalem, ahead of the sixtieth anniversary of Israeli independence next week.  Over the next three days, I and a few other journos will be ferried around Ramallah, Tel Aviv and Sderot – meeting with various political and military types along the way.   It’s a timely visit.  Quite aside from the anniversary celebrations, a number of issues are reaching boiling point – the impact of the Annapolis summit; how prime minister Olmert will deal with Syria and Iran; the humanitarian situation in Gaza, etc. etc.  I’ll be looking to get the lowdown on these, and will blog as much as my itinerary and connectivity allow.  If there’s anything else you’d like to hear about – maybe what

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Postcard from Scotland

I’ve just arrived back from a visit to Scotland (stag party in Feshiebridge) and in my sober moments picked up these few observations…. 1. No Tolls: On my drive there and back I whizzed past the Forth Road Bridge with no tolls – better for traffic and my pocket. Motorists (including one driving G Brown) do this 12 million times a year, and many will be thinking “Thank-you Alex Salmond.” It is a fairly powerful propaganda tool. A unionist administration in Edinburgh would not have done this, as the idea had been to be discreet about the English subsidy. Those days are gone, supplanted by the new era of stirring things

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Has anyone endorsed Ken enthusiastically?

The three press endorsements of Ken Livingstone that have appeared in recent days have one overarching theme in common:  a complete lack of enthusiasm for Livingstone. The Observer even urges its readers to withhold their first preference votes from Ken to send him a message. Its backing comes with heavy caveats. Indeed, one would not expect to read this kind of paragraph in an endorsement editorial: “But Ken’s able choice of words is matched by an appalling choice in friends. He has let himself be wooed – and in one case bankrolled – by property developers with much to gain from access to City Hall. When faced with allegations of corruption

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A sharpened Tory message

David Cameron’s appearance on Andrew Marr has not made much news but it was, to my mind, one of Cameron’s most impressive performances to date. Two of the most common criticisms you hear of Cameron in Tory circles is that he doesn’t show enough passion and that he doesn’t offer voters enough concrete reasons to vote for the party. This morning, Cameron passed both of these tests—just take a look at this part of the transcript:  I think something did change last week which is I think people on low pay, families who struggle often to make ends meet, who are seeing the cost of living rising and they’re seeing

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Levy guns for Brown

Reading the extracts from Lord Levy’s book in The Mail on Sunday one is struck by just how determined Levy appears to cause maximum damage to Brown. We’re told that Blair thought that Brown couldn’t beat Cameron, was a liar and was responsible for stoking up the cash for honours affair. On top of this, Levy stresses just how much Brown knew about Labour’s fundraising arrangements. There is also a bizarre, rather below the belt anecdote about a lunch Levy had with Brown which seems purely designed to embarrass the Prime Minister. The Prime Minister’s staff must be dusting off, the ‘we don’t do book reviews’ line.

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 26 April 2008

Charles Moore’s reflections on the week Actually, there never was much sense in a ten pence rate of income tax. It added complication, and Gordon Brown is right to get rid of it, though wrong to charge income tax on people so low on the income scale. But you cannot help laughing when you look at the history. Chancellor Brown himself introduced the ten pence rate in 1999. In a coup de théâtre, he said then that it was such a pressing thing that he would ensure that it came in at once, rather than waiting a year, as would have been normal: ‘nearly two million people will see their income

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

New poll of battleground seats shows the Tories on course for a big majority

If David Cameron liked the YouGov poll in the Telegraph last Thursday, he will love tomorrow’s News of the World. For the first time since the bottled election it has commissioned ICM to poll the marginals. You rarely see this – it’s difficult and very expensive to do. The result? That the boy Ashcroft done well. It suggests Cameron would make net gains of 131 seats, a 64-seat majority (Brown has 65 today). The last time the NOTW did this poll, Brown called off the election – then (story, pdf), it suggested Labour would lose almost 50 seats. The damage has more than doubled since. As you would expect from

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris should ask his voters to make Paddick their second choice

All the opinion polls show that neither Boris nor Ken have much chance of winning the London Mayoralty on purely first preference votes so the race is going to be determined by second preference votes from people whose candidate failed to make the run-off. The largest of these groups will be Lib Dem supporters. No one is quite sure which way they will jump but if Boris was to announce that his second preference, which will be meaningless as he will be one of the top two candidates, will be for Paddick he might lure some of them over to his side. It would also send the message that he