Politics

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

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

More trouble for Ken

Over the past few months, the Evening Standard has been a particularly sharp thorn in Ken’s side.  And tonight they reveal that the current Mayor has mislead the public over donations.  Here’s the Standard’s scoop: “The Mayor received … £30,000 knowing it was from multi-millionaire Sharad Patel who wants to build a £120 million theme park and leisure complex in north-west London, then claimed he knew nothing of who his donors were. He saw the cheque, from Mr Patel’s wife made out to the Labour Party, and agreed to meet him for dinner, once his 2004 election campaign was over. The revelation means the Mayor misled the public when he repeatedly denied

Peter Hoskin

Who to believe?

Which polling company’s getting it right in the run-up to the mayoral elections?  YouGov reckons Boris is miles ahead.  ICM have it as neck-and-neck.  And today Ipsos-MORI records a slender lead for Ken.  According to their poll, the incumbent snares 41 percent of first preference votes, compared to 40 percent for Boris.  When second preferences are allocated, Ken leads by 51 percent to 49 percent (although Political Betting suggests some creative rounding may lie behind that result). As Conservative Home points out, this latest poll may actually be a boon for Boris.  The closer the race appears, the more Tory voters will hit the polling stations come 1st May.  Or at least that’s the hope. 

Peter Hoskin

Amnesty London

As the Independent reports this morning, Boris has united with the other mayoral candidates in support of an amnesty for illegal immigrants – a move which goes against official Tory policy.  ConservativeHome have the low-down from Team Boris on their man’s decision.  Their view is that if illegal immigrants have been here for a long time, then we should get them enrolled in the system so they can contribute taxes etc. Makes sense, non?   However, ConservativeHome contrasts this with David Cameron’s view on the issue.  According to the Tory leader, amnesties just build up expectation for another in the future.  In other words, it smacks of a softly-softly approach to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Five steps to denial

Here is Gordon Brown’s five-step plan to escape blame for the credit crunch. 1) Blame America for the credit crunch, present Britain as the innocent victim of a global storm. 2) With a straight face, claim the economy is well-placed to withstand the crunch, even though the UK household debt/income ratio is the highest in the G7. 3) Present a fake narrative of the early 1990s, and compare it with equally fake stats about how good things are now. 4) Point to Bank of England rate cut as proof you are helping (even though, by making the BoE independent, no honest politician can claim credit/blame for its decisions). 5) Encourage journalists

Gerald Warner

Shame on Scottish Tories for their Vichy sell-out

Gerald Warner says that Scotland’s Conservatives, far from standing their ground on devolution, have jumped with relish on the gravy train of the Holyrood parliament The Scottish Play has degenerated into a farce and the indigenous Tories have lost the plot. When the constitutional future of the United Kingdom moved centre-stage in late 2007, Unionists were heartened by the deftness of touch David Cameron brought to this issue. It contrasted with the directionless drift of his supposed allies in the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Scottish separatist tendency. The Scottish Tories have gone native. In the run-up to the devolution referendum on

Frank Field

If Labour is to beat Cameron, Brown must forge a new tax contract with the voters

Is David Cameron feeling his way to a winning political narrative? In a number of recent speeches he has begun to spell out a new debate about the size of the state. It is definitively post-Thatcherite. The battle lines are not the traditional ones of cutting public provision and leaving the private sector to fill the gaps. Cameron is instead seeking ways of offering collective provision which is not run and dominated by a central state. The public appears cautiously interested. But, given the weakness of those bodies that once provided collective provision, say in welfare — poleaxed by good old Mr Attlee — provision of collective services by voluntary

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s Toast: Or Why Gordon Brown Will Never Win An Election

A delicious column by Rachel Sylvester in today’s Telegraph. Some choice highlights: There is a “sulphurous mood” on the Labour benches. Disillusioned Left-wingers, who campaigned for Mr Brown to become leader, are joining forces with triumphant Blairites who say: “I told you so.” Even Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the PLP, warned yesterday that the Government needed to “clarify what it’s there for”. Ministers are losing the habit of discipline too. Last week, Ivan Lewis, a health minister, warned that Labour was “losing touch” with hard-working families, then Gerry Sutcliffe, the licensing minister, attacked the tax rises on booze. Behind the scenes, things are even worse. With no clear direction

Peter Hoskin

Rudd gets it right

Iain Martin is spot-on over at Three Line Whip. Kevin Rudd has shown Gordon Brown exactly how he should have handled the recent Olympic torch relay in London. Here’s what the Australian Prime Minster had to say yesterday on the security goons the Chinese brought with them: “We will not be having Chinese security forces or the Chinese security services providing security for the torch when it is in Australia. We, Australia, will be providing that security. What Olympic officials the Chinese bring to Canberra is a matter for them, but on the security front we will be providing that security.” I can’t figure out who came out of the London fiasco

Peter Hoskin

What inflation? What debt?

Ok, so Fraser’s already mentioned Brown’s denial over the state of the economy.  But this whopper that our Prime Minister just issued in an interview with Nick Robinson can’t go unmentioned: “Because we’ve got low inflation we can cut interest rates, because we have had low debt, we can afford to keep our public spending programme in line.” Low inflation?  Low debt?  I’ll leave the response to CoffeeHouser RW: “As for Brown, if he really believes the rubbish he’s currently spouting then he’s seriously deluded, and if he doesn’t but keeps on saying it anyway he’s not just incompetent but malevolent.”

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Parent power

Steve Richards’s column in The Independent is, as ever, worth reading. Richards is surely right that education is fast becoming the main dividing line between the two parties. But I’m puzzled by this question that he poses about the Tory plans for independent, state-funded schools: “And if these schools are “independent” of political control, as Mr Gove envisages, to whom will they be accountable?”  The answer is that the schools will be answerable to the parents of its pupils. Once Gove’s supply-side reforms have been enacted, parents will be able to pick schools for their children rather than having the schools pick the pupils. Any school that isn’t up to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Out of touch | 8 April 2008

Is Gordon Brown on a mission to prove he is out of touch with what’s happening in the economy? First he tells us inflation is at a record low. Today he offers a £1,500 incentive for certain groups of people to enter a shared equity scheme to buy a house. But today the Halifax shows (Word doc) that the average house price fell by £4,870 last month alone – that’s 2.5%, the worst drop since 1992. Who on a low income and in their right mind would buy into such a market? Events are overtaking Brown at a bewildering speed. For more on matters financial and economic, head over to Trading Floor.

Peter Hoskin

Video head-to-head

Both Boris and Ken have now released their first election broadcasts – you can watch them both below.  Boris’s effort is more pared down, and for me that makes it more engaging and effective.  What do CoffeeHousers think? Boris Ken

Peter Hoskin

Coming to blows

As always, Rachel Sylvester’s column in the Telegraph is essential reading. Today she writes of how divide, doubt and mistrust have permeated every level of the Government. In particular, this revelation jumped out at me: “Behind the scenes, things are even worse. With no clear direction from above, Cabinet ministers are at each other’s throats. I am reliably informed that, after one recent Cabinet meeting, Jack Straw threatened to punch Ed Balls during a row about who was responsible for youth crime. The Justice Secretary came back to his department fuming that he had never been spoken to so rudely by a colleague in public and that he was not

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

More bad poll news for Brown

Politics Home, which is becoming an indispensable resource, flags up tomorrow’s poll in The Times which shows the Tories ahead 39 to 33. The Tories will be disappointed not to be above the psychologically important 40 percent mark but the guts of the poll contain much encouragement for them. Seven in ten voters say that Britain is heading in the wrong direction, Gordon Brown’s leader rating is down to 4.50 among all voters and 6.26 among Labour voters—a drop among Labour voters of almost half a point, and the Tories now have a clear lead on which party is competent and capable. Blairites still bitter at the way that the

Peter Hoskin

Non-essential viewing

If you feel like an afternoon nap, then Labour’s first local election TV spot (see below) might help you drop off.  If you stick through to the end, there are details of how to send questions through to Gordon Brown – a selection of which he’ll answer tonight.  What will CoffeeHousers be asking our Dear Leader?

Peter Hoskin

Past posters

A few sites across the political blogosphere have already flagged up the newly-digitised Conservative Party Archive Poster Collection, but it deserves a Coffee House mention as well.  I’d recommend you take the time to browse through all the 600-or-so posters they’ve got there.   Here are a couple of golden-oldies that grabbed my eye – Team Cameron might want to bring them out of retirement:

Peter Hoskin

Boris’s biggest lead yet

More great news for Boris today.  Our Man notches up his biggest lead yet in the latest Evening Standard / YouGov poll; claiming 49 percent of first preference votes – whilst Ken languishes on 36 percent.  That’s a hefty advantage of 13 percent, then.  When second preference votes are allocated, Boris is on 56 percent, with Ken on 44 percent. These results tally with recent Evening Standard / YouGov polls, which have given Boris 10 and 12-point leads.  But they’re out of line with last week’s Guardian / ICM poll, which had the two leading candidates neck-and-neck.  Already Team Livingstone is whining that YouGov employs “flawed methodology”.  I wonder whether that’s more out of hope than conviction.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

An urgent need for change

We hear phrase “market failure” often enough – but (as Michael Prowse once said) government failure is far more common. The most egregious example is education – and David Cameron says in his press conference today with Michael Gove. Here are a few facts they highlight today in their document (read it here): 1) Some 140,000 pupils were suspended from secondary schools for violence or persistent disruption in 2005/06. Many end up in the cells – almost 100,000 under-18s are given custodial sentences. 2) Suspensions for physical assault (in primary schools) is about twelve times higher in deprived areas than in the least-deprived ones. The scourge of school violence is focused

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ming offers lukewarm support for Nick Clegg

It is hard to imagine that this week could be as disastrous as last week for Nick Clegg, but Ming Campbell’s interview in the Independent this morning won’t have put a spring in Clegg’s step. Ming’s praise for his successor is hardly gushing. Take his response to this question:  Would an experienced parliamentarian like yourself have led his party out of the Commons? Cid Evans by email  I have been punctilious in not second guessing the new leader. It is for him to decide strategy and tactics. This is politician-speak for, ‘it was a really stupid thing to do but I’m not going to say that’. To add insult to

Peter Hoskin

The chickens come home to roost

There’s more trouble for Gordon Brown this morning over his decision to scrap the 10p tax rate for low-income earners. The Treasury Select committee – lead by the Labour MP John McFall – has the following to say: “The group of main losers from the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax – those below the age of 65 with an income under £18,500 who are in childless households – seem an unreasonable target for raising additional tax revenues to fund the benefits of tax simplification and meeting the needs of children in poverty.” It looks increasingly like this issue will drive a wedge between Brown and his party.