Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Barack Obama offers a reason to vote for Hillary Clinton: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama said today that rival Hillary Clinton’s past record shows she’s anti-ethanol. The Des Moines Register has the details. [Hat tip: The Stump]
Don’t miss a very important piece in tomorrow’s magazine by James and the distinguished US journalist Claudia Rosett on the star of Gordon’s “ministry of all the talents”, Mark Malloch Brown. Although plenty of people expressed concern about Lord Malloch Brown’s appointment to a senior ministerial post at the Foreign Office and his early remarks, myself included, this article is the first major investigation of His Lordship, around whom all sorts of rumours have been swirling in the past few weeks. It reveals some remarkable things. Amongst them: The extent of Malloch Brown’s connection with George Soros when he was at the UN How, with the encouragement of friends, he
The Met have been convicted of breaching of Health and Safety Laws, the London Assembly has passed a vote of no confidence in him but still Sir Ian Blair clings onto power. At some point, actually a long time ago, Blair should have done the decent thing and resigned. Arguing, as Livingstone does, that all this fuss over Blair’s position is some kind of boon for the terrorists is tripe. By that logic for the rest of this struggle, which will go on for a generation at least, we won’t be able to hold any public figure to account for their actions. If we were to do that, we really
Today is a big day in the race for the Republican nomination with both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain (pictured) rolling out major endorsements from influential Christian conservatives. Giuliani wheeled out Pat Robertson, the one time presidential candidate and a hugely powerful figure in the movement. Robertson’s backing should help reassure those who fear that Giuliani’s pro-choice stance could split the Republican Party. Although, one wonders how someone running on their leadership on 9/11 can cosy up to someone who allowed his radio programme to be used as a platform for those who blamed 9/11 on “pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians” and
I don’t mean to sound like a kill-joy but doesn’t it suggest a rather warped set of priorities for a minister in the Ministry of Defence to quit his post to prepare for a car race at a time when British forces are engaged in two wars?
The reaction of three of the most influential commentators on the left to the Queen’s speech is instructive. Michael White in The Guardian suggests that it was less important than people think as Gordon Brown will probably go until 2010 before calling an election meaning that there will be time for one more full legislative programme before the government goes to the country. Jonathan Freedland is far from enthused by the speech but argues that there could be merit in aiming to do a few things on a certain theme and then getting them done. But as Freedland acknowledges if government is purely managerial it leaves itself uniquely exposed to
Michael White’s diary for Guardian Unlimited is always worth reading and today it has a fascinating little tit-bit that I hadn’t heard before. Apparently, it was Sarah Brown who persuaded Admiral Sir Alan West to become the security minister in Gordon Brown’s so-called gvernment of all the talents by phoning up his wife.
Walking into the press gallery, I saw something I haven’t seen for ages. Labour MPs animated, laughing, roaring, unfrozen. David Cameron was making the light-hearted speech which follows opening of parliament, and making everyone laugh. “We welcome the climate change bill, and when it comes around next year we will welcome it again”. Labour MPs were allowing themselves to be entertained; Showing that it can be done. Sadly for them, Gordon Brown can’t seem to do it. When we moved to the combat phase, Cameron was on great form speaking with immense confidence. Taking interventions, he was asked about the “black hole” in his plans – Brown’s favourite theme. “I
Ben Brogan flags up a hilarious, and worrying, stat from the FT this morning. Only 71 people responded to the government’s online consultation on the Queen’s speech. The FT also reveals that a government paid for regional road-show event cost more than £50,000. If Gordon Brown really wanted to know what the public thought of his plans wouldn’t it be simpler just to hold an election?
It has long been a joke in Westminster that you don’t need to put your finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing, you just watch Jack Straw. So the fact that Jack Straw has revived the tradition of walking backwards once the Gracious Speech has been handed to the monarch should reassure the Queen. If Bray is looking for a vicar, they have the perfect candidate.
A Populus poll for tomorrow’s Times has Labour on 37, the Tories on 36 and the Lib Dems on 16. The Lib Dems are the big gainers, up four, while the two main parties have both lost votes. The Lib Dems are clearly benefitting form the extra attention they are getting thanks to their leadership election. While the poll, as Anthony Wells points out, doesn’t actually mark a change in the lead when it comes to Populus polls it is still a nice psychological boost for Gordon Brown ahead of the Queen’s speech.
Following on from King Abdullah’s claim that the British were warned about 7/7, Prince Bandar—formerly the Saudi ambassador to the US who is extremely close to the Bush family—has said that if the Americans had cooperated with the Saudi properly, 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. Here’s how ABC’s The Blotter reports the Prince’s remarks: “Saudi security was actively following the movements of most of the terrorists with precision,” Bandar, the national security advisor to Saudi King told the Arabic satellite network, Al-Arabiya, Thursday. “If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened,” Bandar said. These comments
The Guardian reports this morning that neither David Miliband nor Condi Rice can get General Musharraf to return their calls. This suggests that Musharraf might be preparing to renege on his pledge to go ahead with elections in January. It is crucial that Britain and America do not end up appearing to endorse any postponement of elections. At the moment, the chance of Musharraf surviving are less than 50-50 and it makes no sense for Britain and America to further alienate whoever succeeds him.
Nigel Hastilow, the Tory candidate who said Enoch was right, has resigned rather than an issue an apology for his remarks. The speed with which he has gone has minimised the damage that has been done but Hastilow’s comments illustrate just how dangerous the immigration issue can be for the Conservatives; Peter Hain got in a shot at the ‘racist underbelly of the Tory party’ on Sunday AM this morning. The real problem for David Cameron will come if someone who is an MP, and therefore can’t be got rid of quickly, expresses similar sentiments. The leadership’s irritation with Hastilow can only have been increased by the fact that the
The immigration statistics saga takes another turn today, as the News of the World produces figures showing that immigrants from the 25 EU countries account for just 32% of the total. Ergo, ministers have been able to control immigration all along – and its repeated suggestions to the contrary are untrue. It fingers Liam Byrne, who attacked Cameron’s proposals last week with a very different statistic. “His small print seems not to touch European Economic Area nationals, overseas students and dependents who made up 80 per cent of British incomers last year,” said Byrne. Now, Byrne is one of the good guys in this government, but his occupational
Cameron enters the immigration debate The government’s failure to count up the number of foreign workers in this country rightly reinforces the public’s fear that control of the borders has been lost, that an unstoppable tide of migrants is flowing into the country. It is in these circumstances that unsavoury politics flourish. To Gordon Brown’s immense discredit, he has expended more energy trying to capitalise on public disquiet over immigration than on trying to fix the problem. So Mr Brown talks of ‘British jobs for British workers’ and promises to deport migrants who peddle drugs to ‘our children’. Short of promising to deport those who rape our daughters, he could
Rail delays are a daily fact of life, but Grand Central’s ghost train has set new records. Due to depart from Sunderland last December, it has yet to pass York en route to King’s Cross. I’ve read the timetable — three services a day north and south. I’ve read the BBC travel website, which reports that as far as ‘current disruption and engineering works’ go, Grand Central has ‘no incidents to report’. I’ve heard about the simplified, value-for-money fare structure — including a 50 per cent refund if no seat is available — and the personalised park ’n’ ride service. I’ve received the latest email bulletin from Grand Central managing
There is something about impending doom which focuses the mind. That is why the Tory conference in Blackpool was perhaps the most effective brainstorming session in the party’s history — albeit inadvertently. David Cameron arrived facing an election. He left the northern seaside resort having scared Gordon Brown away from going to the polls — and, in the process, launched a policy strategy more radical than he had ever dreamt he would be pursuing. The proposal to raise the inheritance-tax threshold to £1 million grabbed all the headlines and seems to have struck a chord in the Labour marginals that worried the PM very much. Much less attention was paid,
I suppose there must be someone left in Britain who is surprised or shocked that a minor member of the royal family has alleged homosexual tendencies and is partial to the odd snort of cocaine. Lord Charteris of Amisfield, for example — formerly the Queen’s private secretary — would at least have pretended to be appalled, but he’s been dead for seven long years. Frankly, I suspect most British people would shrug their shoulders with resignation and boredom even if it were reported that a fairly important royal had been photographed mainlining anthrax spores while fellating a pine marten. The newspapers, denied the right to inform their readers of the
The press this morning are almost unanimous in calling for Sir Ian Blair to resign. While we should not forget that the Met was operating under incredible pressure that day in almost panic conditions, the verdict does reveal a devastating set of failures. It is hard to see how Sir Ian Blair can restore the public’s confidence in the police. Yet judging from Ken Livingstone’s combative defence of him on The Today Programme this morning, Blair won’t be forced out. The Livingstone interview is well worth listening to in full. It is quite incredible to hear Red Ken defending the police chief over the killing of an innocent foreigner, one
