Politics

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

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The succession chatter just got a lot louder

If you haven’t already, do read John Rentoul’s column in today’s Independent on Sunday. It is the first time that a major commentator sympathetic to New Labour has seriously suggested that Gordon Brown won’t make it to the next election.  Rentoul predicts that Brown will recover and then fizzle again. Here’s what happens next in his scenario: “This time next year, therefore, after Brown’s second bounce has dribbled away, the party is likely to turn to David Miliband. Fittingly, he foretold Brown’s woes. Nine months ago he said on BBC1’s Question Time: “I predict that when I come back on this programme in six months’ time or a year, people

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Abrahams causes more damage to Labour

David Abrahams has plunged the hierarchy of the Labour party further into crisis with an article in the Independent on Sunday describing how he donated to the party. Here’s the passage that is generating headlines this morning, My political friends in the party’s northern region were unaware of any donations whatsoever that I was making; only a very few officials and party figures in higher echelons of the national party structure were aware. Perhaps as a result I was received warmly at functions and was occasionally contacted to make further donations. On 25 April of this year at a British Board of Deputies dinner in London at which Gordon Brown

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Tories must say no to more state funding

Hazel Blears’s appearance on Marr provides yet another example of how Team Brown likes putting up women on TV when it’s in real trouble; perhaps, it is because the women have more guts. Anyway, she was making the case for state funding. “Politics does cost money” she says, and if the public will not supply it voluntarily it evidently follows that it will be taken from them under pain of imprisonment under the tax system. It’s an appalling proposal, which the Tories should reject outright. I hope there is consensus under the £50k cap.

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 1 December 2007

It is undeniably enjoyable to see Gordon Brown squirming about the £600,000 his party will have to pay back to David Abrahams, the man of many aliases. If Peter Watt, the resigning general secretary of the Labour party, really, as he claims, saw something devious about the practice of taking money under other names only when the letter of the law was pointed out to him, that shows how our culture has replaced conscience with compliance. And what is the point, by the way, of the treasurer of the party, Jack Dromey, who, despite his title, seems to be too grand to know anything about money, including the £5,000 which

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Kicking a Man When He’s Brown

I used to think that the feebleness of the scandals that occasionally brought down a minister or two in Edinburgh was matched only by the embarrassment one felt watching the Scottish press corps work itself into a frenzy in anticipation of feeding upon cheap cuts that properly corrupt countries would never consider feeding their dogs with. There’s something similar in the air about the fund-raising scandal that is destroying Gordon Brown’s government. Except, of course, that after a decade of mendacity, he deserves it. Still, the scandal itself – laundered campaign contributions and a ridiculous scramble in which everyone does their best to implicate everyone else – is scarcely of

Matthew Dancona

Spot the spoiled ones

Amanda Platell, a must-read columnist as well as a hugely experienced former editor and political adviser, hits the nail on the head today with her piece on New Labour’s ‘trustafarians’. She applies the term to the privileged younger generation of Government ministers who have never had to struggle in Opposition or fight for the privilege of office. It’s spot on: a label that deserves to enter the political lexicon.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What Gordon Brown should have done

As this scandal drags on it is becoming clearer that Gordon Brown made a huge political mistake on Wednesday morning.  When Jon Mendelsohn confirmed Nick Robinson’s report that he was aware of the arrangements by which David Abrahams was funding the Labour party, Brown should have sacked him.  Brown could have issued a statement saying that he had requested the resignation of anyone in the party who was aware of what was going on with Abrahams. His failure to do so means that Brown has effectively endorsed Mendelsohn’s actions and anything that damages Mendelsohn damages him. There is now a row going on between Mendelsohn and Abrahams about who knew

The Spectator

Brown’s fatal flaws

As prophecies go, it had none of the ritual majesty of the Sybil of Cumae’s pronouncements, none of the blood-chilling qualities of Cassandra. But it has, in its own way, come to pass nonetheless. Jonathan Powell, the chief of staff to Tony Blair, once told our former editor that Gordon Brown’s political career would be a ‘Shakespearean tragedy’. And with every day that passes the tragic quality of Mr Brown’s premiership is underlined. A politician of formidable gifts, powerful intellect and great passions is, nevertheless, finding that he simply doesn’t have what it takes to make a success of the most demanding job in politics — as the events of

Peter Oborne

At the heart of the Labour funding scandal is the moral collapse of a once-great party

‘Get me a Bishop. Get me a f—ing Bishop!’ Peter Mandelson, then Labour’s political strategist, yelled these words across the floor of Labour campaign headquarters at a rare moment of crisis before the 1997 general election. Inquiries were made, soundings taken in ecclesiastical and other circles. With surprising speed, lo and behold! there emerged out of pontifical obscurity the austere figure of Richard Harries, Bishop of Oxford. The ecclesiastical potentate obligingly anathemised John Major and his works. Ever since then the Rt Revd Harries has been reliably on hand with spiritual solace for Labour party politicians in times of trouble. When Michael Howard accused Tony Blair of bad faith over

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Blair may be about to convert, but will that make him a Catholic?

Tony Blair’s coming conversion to the Catholic faith will not be welcomed by all Catholics. There are many in the Vatican, and the Catholic church in this country, who wonder how a politician with his voting record can be admitted to the church. ‘My First Confession’ would be a great title for Tony Blair’s memoirs. At any rate, though the book may be years away, Tony Blair will soon confess his sins to Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor, and later (no one is sure, but the Vatican has heard it will be after Christmas) Mr Blair will be received into the Roman Catholic Church. And in true Blair style, his decision to

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Freedom of speech is a foggy issue with no absolutes — and that’s sort of the point

It is a weird business when stories combine, even if they only do so in the mind of the commentator. On our screens, Tony Blair is about to fret about Jesus, making him look like a loony again. In Oxford, David Irving and Nick Griffin are cast, preposterously, as defenders of free speech. And in Sudan, that poor schoolteacher is banged up for allowing toddlers to call a teddy bear ‘Mohammed’. There is a link here, somewhere, although it’s foggy, and it bothers me. Does freedom of speech entail the right to call a teddy bear ‘Mohammed’? If not, do we have a problem? Oxford first. Ridiculous situation. What little

Simon Nixon

The Liberal Democrats’ sound money man

I met Vincent Cable recently at a dinner party with a mixture of City and business bigwigs: a few FTSE-100 bosses, a smattering of hedge-fund tycoons, the odd private-equity baron. The Liberal Democrat Treasury spokesman was the only politician at the table and the debate inevitably focused on financial worries: the credit crunch, Northern Rock, the soaring oil price, foreign takeovers of British companies. There was quite a bit of hand-wringing by the business chiefs, but the shy, mild-mannered Cable gave as lucid and articulate a defence of open markets and free trade as I have heard from any political leader. It was impressive stuff — and afterwards I noticed

Edie G-Lush

Free at last: the next web revolution

Edie G. Lush explains why we’re rarely asked to pay for online news and entertainment these days Amid the shockwaves caused by Rupert Murdoch’s acquisition of Dow Jones, publisher of the Wall Street Journal, one significant policy shift attracted relatively little attention. When the ink finally dries on the deal, one of Murdoch’s first moves will be to remove the ‘pay wall’ from the Journal’s website. The news that WSJ.com will henceforth be free may come as a pleasant surprise to its many loyal users, but it isn’t so great for other entrepreneurs who are trying to make money via online subscriptions. Whether web-based or not, businesses like subscription models

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Northern Rock’s blonde knight?

Is it time for a reassessment of Sir Richard Branson? Chosen by the Treasury as the ‘preferred bidder’ for Northern Rock, he’s back where he craves to be and so often manages to put himself: in the headlines. And like every time he grabs the nation’s attention, two quite different caricatures of him have been projected.   On the one hand, there is the tirelessly creative, totally unconventional adventurer-entrepreneur whose brand image can sell anything and whose two-fingers-to-stuffy-old-corporate-capitalism has such powerful appeal to consumers even after many of them have had rotten experiences of his trains and his mobile phone service. The brand power of Virgin Money is clearly a

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A note of caution

Any Tory feeling almost light-headed about the speed with which things are collapsing around Gordon Brown, should read this typically intelligent posting from John Rentoul on the danger of the Tories thinking they can just coast to victory. Another sobering thought comes from Martin Bright, who writes “In terms of the loss of trust in the political class I really don’t think it could get any worse. But then I thought that last week too.” If the Tories do win the next election, as looks increasingly likely, restoring people’s faith in politics will be one of the biggest challenges that faces them.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Another poll with a big Tory lead

The latest IPSOS-MORI poll has the Tories nine ahead, with Labour down three to 32. Although, the Tory lead is considerable this poll will not send Labour into a tailspin. As long as the party is above 30 and the Tory lead is less than 15, Labour MPs will not start thinking the unthinkable.  Hat Tip: Conservative Home

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The limit to Alan Johnson’s ambition

If–and this is still phenomenally unlikely–this current sleaze scandal either topples Gordon Brown or brings about a challenge to him, Alan Johnson is being tipped as the man to watch. He is certainly the opposite of Brown—charming, comfortable in his own skin and English—and is, as Nick Boles wrote in The Spectator during the Blair era, the Labour figure the Cameroons fear most. But Johnson suffers from a self-inflicted wound that makes it very hard for him to consider running even if Gordon had been forced out. When Johnson appeared on Desert Island Discs, Kirsty Young asked him about why he didn’t rune for leader. Here’s what he said: “I don’t

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Huhne turns donor-gate to his advantage

A big winner of donor-gate is Chris Huhne. He’s been the face of the Lib Dems on this, as Vince Cable continues to hound Northern Rock. The ability to jump on a news issue is a key skill required for a Lib Dem leader, and he’s demonstrating his credentials here. Where on earth is Nick Clegg? Where is his campaign? If he’s not careful, winning the Spectator/Threadneedle newcomer of the year awards really will be the highlight of his year. Ps This is good news for Cameron. If Clegg pulled his finger out, he could be a very dangerous foe. But this looks like being a very big “if”. Huhne

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Things can only get worse | 30 November 2007

There was a moment of unintentional humour during Jack Straw’s interview on the Today Programme when he was asked if Labour had changed the culture as well as the law around fundraising and replied, “We have changed the culture quite considerably”. You can say that again, Jack.  The problem for Labour is that this scandal is now damaging more and more of the party. So The Guardian front-page headline this morning screams, “Harman implicates Brown”.  While David Abrahams is clearly not going to go quietly; when the Telegraph asked him how many times he’d met Gordon Brown he responded, “You don’t remember how many times you’ve eaten porridge for breakfast.”

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories with biggest ever YouGov lead

The new YouGov poll for the Telegraph puts the Tories 11 points ahead, which is the first time the pollsters have found the Tories to have a double digit advantage. Add to this the fact that Labour’s funding practises are now to be investigated by the police (again) and the worsening economic conditions and it is clear that Gordon Brown faces a long, hard winter. If there was a credible Labour challenger Westminster would be buzzing with leadership speculation right now—but there’s not, so it’s all quiet on that front. Meanwhile, Tony Blair carries on trying to solve the problems of the Middle East. How Labour MPs must miss him