Politics

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

Wednesday

Stuart Reid

Did I watch the same speech?

What planet am I from? What have I been smoking? Matt and Fraser understand politics far better than I can ever hope to, but after reading their blogs I can scarcely believe we all witnessed the same event this afternoon. What I saw was a car crash, or at any rate an accident in a school playground. On Monday, with George Osborne’s pledge on inheritance tax, the Tories had the metropolitan Guardian vote more or less in the bag, and for 24 hours they looked like possible winners. Today they look like losers again. David Cameron’s speech was a feat of memory but of nothing else. It was the same

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Labour spin on the speech

Hilariously, Labour is briefing that Gordon Brown did not watch Cameron’s speech. I suspect they wouldn’t be saying that if Dave had bombed. The more people I speak to, the greater the reception seems to be. George Osborne was joking that he should photograph and frame yesterday’s papers, the best he’d see in a while. Tomorrow’s may be just as good for Cameron. PS Cameron now sitting a few seats down from me on the train in goat class. Letwin in first. Correction: Though Letwin told me he was going to First (“It is a business trip”) he ended up sitting behind Cameron when the leader took his place in

Matthew Dancona

Cameron passes the test

Bookended by the soothing techno of Moby and a (perhaps unintended) reference to Jimmy Cliff’s “You Can Get It If You Really Want It”, David Cameron today gave a speech that – if nothing else – stretched the boundaries of virtuosity in political performance. To speak with grace and confidence, for more than an hour, with only a few notes was an astonishing feat of memory and endurance. This, of course, is an important part of the Tories’ election message, starting today. They want to present Dave as gutsy and up for it, in contrast to Gordon the Ditherer, Bottler Brown. The final passage of the speech was as close to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How did Cam do?

My initial reaction is that it was good but not a home run. The ending was very strong but there was a bit towards the end when it ran out of steam a little bit. If I was Gordon, I’d be feeling a lot less confident of increasing Tony Blair’s majority in an election this year. The question is, has Brown put his neck out too far to pull back now?

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s speech

2:15pm Cameron comes out to a rapturous reception. He tells the audience this might be a messy as he’s got no autocue, Cameron unspun. Fraser emails in: I notice all the shadow cabinet on stage. This is part of their strategy to show the Tories are a team, where Labour is a one man Brown band. Cameron announces to us that he has no notes “so it might be a bit messy but it will be me”. Subtext ‘unlike that control freak brown, imagine him doing this eh?’ And I love the reference to Thatcher’s long march to freedom, a reference to the Nelson Mandela biography of the same name.

The Spectator

Coffee House on your phone

If you want to follow Coffee House’s coverage of and reaction to David Cameron’s speech on your mobile phone just text SPECTATOR to 88010 *Normal operator data charges apply.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Dare Cameron do it without notes?

Word is that Cameron will attempt the speech of his life without notes or autocue. Critics said his 2005 noteless speech was no better than many stage actors could do – but that was a short one. This will be an hour long. Dare he? We’ll see soon enough….  PS: His aides say he will be carrying cards, to jog his memory if needed. But otherwise, flying solo. An incredibly, almost recklessly bold move.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tax and the Tories

You wait ages for a Tory tax pledge then a whole slew come along at once. Following his speech on Monday which pledged to raise the threshold for inheritance tax and cut stamp tax for first time buyers, George Osborne has given an interview to The Times announcing that there are both personal and corporate tax cuts to come, all of which will be funded by green tax rises. Now, the Evening Standard is going big on the story that spouses will be able to transfer over any unused portion of their personal allowances—potentially saving families £1,000 a year. There does, though, seem to be some confusion about whether this

George Osborne

Waiting for Dave

Waiting for David Cameron’s speech, which is going to be a great end to a great conference. General buzz here amongst those who were at Labour’s Conference last week is that contrast has been striking: their Conference was all very hollow, lots of election speculation covering up the lack of no real substance; while ours has been full of new, exciting ideas. The Party has been really united and determined. We are up for the fight! On my brief there’s a story that is quite interesting – which the Mail and Guardian covered this morning. It concerns Labour’s misleading use of Treasury figures to attack our tax proposals. Yesterday lunchtime I

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Speech Countdown

Samantha Cameron has risen even further in my estimation by declining to spend the week in Blackpool. She showed up on Sunday, to provide the main photo-shoot, then worked Monday and Tuesday in London arriving late last night and turning up at Les Hinton’s packed reception. Her husband, as far as I can work out, hasn’t attended one reception. There was a late rewrite of a major section of his speech last night, and an exhausted Danny Kruger (main speechwriter) turned up for breakfast as I was leaving at 10am looking like he hadn’t been to bed. Mind you, I look that way too and I slept a whole five

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Back to the future | 3 October 2007

Today’s speech really is as important as the hype says it is. If David Cameron delivers a barnstormer and Gordon Brown pulls out of calling an election it will be a major coup for Cameron, giving him a level of personal authority as leader that he hasn’t had to date. Equally if Brown does go for it, this speech will frame whether the election is seen as a foregone conclusion or a genuine contest. There is, though, another way in which the speech is important. If there is an election before the end of the year, Labour would almost certainly win it. The question then is, as Adam Boulton points

Matthew Dancona

Will Gordon ask the Commons before heading to the Palace?

Peter Ridell makes an excellent point in The Times today. Three months ago, in a Green Paper Gordon proposed a new convention that the PM should be ‘required to seek the approval of the House of Commons before asking the monarch for a dissolution.’ So: if he goes for an election announcement next week, will he honour the principle behind his own proposal and ask MPs first?

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Hold the Front Page: Morals Uncorrupted by Sensible, Liberal Policy

Credit where credit’s due, Labour’s attitude towards gambling has been vastly more sensible than one had any right to expect. The Economist reports: New laws which came into force in Britain at the beginning of September allow the creation of licensed internet casinos where people can gamble on games such as poker and blackjack. Until now, gamblers could try their luck at them only on servers located offshore. The change is aimed squarely at encouraging the development of an internationally competitive internet gambling industry in Britain. The government reckons that online casino operators will be willing to come under the watchful eye of its regulators (and tax collectors) in exchange

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Gordon Brown spins his web little too obviously

David Cameron gives his crucial speech to the Tory party conference tomorrow – a speech that will go some way towards deciding whether he has a real shot at becoming the next British Prime Minister. Despite the rotten polls and the talk of a snap election next month I’m unconvinced (albeit from a distance) that the Tories are toast yet. Still, it’s good to see that Gordon Brown’s commitment to a “new politics” remains rock-solid. Matt d’Ancona explains: So Gordon Brown, having brought forward his trip to Iraq, says that more than 1,000 troops will be home by Christmas. Is this the same Gordon Brown who said at Camp David

Matthew Dancona

How many minutes are left on the election countdown clock?

I am on a Today Programme panel this week playing a prediction game modelled on the famous Doomsday Clock. The idea is for Michael Portillo, Jackie Ashley, John Curtice, Peter Kilfoyle and myself to guess how close we are to midnight—if 11:45 is the furthest away we can be, and midnight is the calling of an election. This morning, I thought the positive headlines for the Tories would nudge Gordon in the direction of caution, and opted for 11:53. Michael went boldly for 11:57, only three minutes away from blast-off, on the grounds that the PM has made his mind up but is just waiting for Cameron’s speech as a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s biggest mistake to date

Gordon Brown’s trip to Baghdad is the biggest political misjudgement of his leadership so far. It would have looked very different if the Tories were tearing themselves apart in Blackpool—Gordon could have posed as a statesman above such petty squabbles—but with conference going better than expected it looks like a cheap stunt; especially as Brown had pledged to announce any change in Iraq policy to the House of Commons first.  The Tories now have a huge opening to ram home to the public what everyone in Westminster knows: Brown is just as keen on spin as Blair. The line of attacks should be, if  Brown will play politics with the

Matthew Dancona

Why did Gordon change his Iraq timetable?

So Gordon Brown, having brought forward his trip to Iraq, says that more than 1,000 troops will be home by Christmas. Is this the same Gordon Brown who said at Camp David that no announcement on troop drawdown would be made until he delivered his Commons statement, set for next week? What encouraged the PM to break this promise and make the declaration now? Surely not the Tories’ strong showing in Blackpool?

Rachel Johnson

George puts me in my place

By the way I know that last post was very self-centred of me so I want to reassure Coffee House that lots of people up here are putting me in my place including fellow blogger G. Osborne. At the hammam-temperature Telegraph party last night (bacon butties, warm white wine) I kissed the shadow chancellor and asked him where Frances (his lady wife and a friend of mine) was. The sweat was dripping from his brow and his face glowed like a Halloween ghoul mask through the throng of dark suits. “Back in London,” he snapped, “Where you should be.”

Matthew Dancona

Good signs for the Tories

Politicians like to talk about ‘non-electoral milestones’—the big symbols, endorsements and Clause 4 moments that pave the way for a party’s return to power. But what about the much smaller signs—let’s call them ‘micro-runes’ –that might or might not reflect political recovery? Here are three: 1. The Sun is depicting David Cameron this week as a Tom Cruise-style agent on a Mission Impossible – thus making glamorous his apparently insuperable task. Remember: this is the newspaper that pictured Neil Kinnock with his head inside a lightbulb, inviting the last person to leave Britain to turn the lights out, and William Hague as a dead parrot. 2. Labour ministers long ago