Politics

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

Monday

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

The government’s plans to embrace technology in the classroom

How can technology help British students to acquire the skills they need to succeed? This is the question that Matthew Hancock, Minister for Skills & Enterprise, addressed this morning at a Spectator forum on the importance of addressing Britain’s skills deficit. On the same day, the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills released their response to a report they commissioned in a bid to embrace technological advances in further education. Modern technology has the ability to break down so many educational barriers, as Molly Guinness discovered in her interview with the scientist Sugata Mitra in May, who used a computer installed in a public wall to develop the Sole method of

Steerpike Steerpike

Carpet-bagging MP confuses Yorkshire and Durham

Helen Goodman, the Labour MP for Bishop Auckland in Durham, was born in Nottinghamshire and brought up in Derbyshire, so you would have thought that she might take extra care to brush up on her local knowledge of Durham to avoid accusations of ‘carpet-bagging’. The Northern Echo gleefully reports: ‘The village of Ingleton is so famous for its beautiful waterfalls and deep caves that MP Helen Goodman waxed lyrical about them as she opened a County Durham fair. Unfortunately for the Bishop Auckland MP she was talking about Ingleton, in North Yorkshire – which lies 70 miles away.’ The reaction from the local population has been blistering. Take Durham resident

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How will Gove deal with Dominic Cummings’ attack on Number 10?

One of these days, former Gove adviser Dominic Cummings is going to tell us what he really thinks. He’s followed up his interview with the Times (£) in which he describes David Cameron as ‘bumbling’ and attacks the team around the Prime Minister with a blog examining the gap between politicians and the electorate and the failure of successive governments to learn from mistakes. The main problem for Number 10 in Cummings’ analysis of the way it works is that he’s not the only one who holds that opinion. He argues that Number 10, like MPs, has ‘no real knowledge of how to function other than via gimmick and briefings’ and

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

A small town in Yorkshire turns racist

A small Yorkshire town has been hugely enriched this year by the arrival of 500 Roma people. The village of Hexthorpe was once boringly, stultifyingly, monocultural – and you would think that locals might have welcomed this influx of vibrant diversity. Not a bit of it – they called a public meeting and complained long and loud in a manner which, frankly, can only be called racist. They warned, too, that there would be violence in the streets. Is it too much to hope that one day these uneducated and bigoted Yorkshire folk will understand that claiming benefits, fly-tipping, littering the streets, threatening people and playing loud music all night

Alex Massie Alex Massie

David Cameron is a Tory, not a radical. Which is both a strength and a problem.

There is much to enjoy in Dominic Cummings’ glorious attack on the ghastliness of Britain’s political system. It is a cri-de-coeur from a man who, whatever else may be said of him (and his enemies have plenty to say), has given the matter some thought. Westminster will swoon at the criticisms of Cameron (‘a sphinx without a riddle’), Ed Llewellyn (‘a classic third-rate suck-up-kick-down sycophant presiding over a shambolic court’) and Craig Oliver (‘just clueless’)  but that’s just the gags, really. The substance is elsewhere. As in: “MPs have no real knowledge of how to function other than via gimmick and briefings. That’s also how No 10 works. It’s how

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg is setting out what the Lib Dems stand for

What is Nick Clegg up to? He held a press conference today to tell us that his party’s manifesto will be a Lib Dem manifesto, not a manifesto aimed at a partnership with Labour or the Tories. And he announced that his party will ring-fence education spending for two-to-19-year-olds in the next Parliament. The Liberal Democrat leader told the assembled hacks that Britain needed to move from ‘austerity to ambition’, another fortune cookie phrase presumably cooked up by whoever thought ‘Alarm Clock Britain’ made sense. Clegg said: ‘As we look towards 2015, it’s clear to me that Britain doesn’t want or need simply more of the same. The Conservative party

Dominic Raab

Oxfam’s Vanity Fair

Today, dozens of campaign groups rushed to defend Oxfam’s advert attacking government austerity for ‘forcing more and more people into poverty’, claiming complaints about politicisation were an attempt to ‘silence legitimate debate’. In a free country, pressure groups are part of the fabric of our democracy. But, if they choose to be charities for ‘public benefit’, they must remain independent to justify extensive tax breaks.  Oxfam sounds like an echo chamber for the Labour Party – and taxpayers aren’t there to subsidise that. Like the Hollywood blockbuster it was mimicking, Oxfam’s ad mixes fact and fiction. It conjurs a tempestuous image of The Perfect Storm of ‘austerity Britain’, ‘starring: zero-hours

Sunday

Steerpike Steerpike

Exclusive: Nigel Evans: I’ll be back

Mr Steerpike can exclusively reveal that former Deputy Speaker Nigel Evans is to run for a senior position on the 1922 Committee executive. The recently vindicated Tory MP remains popular on the backbenches, and has been keeping a deliberately high profile since being cleared on nine counts of sexual abuse. The all-powerful committee is the repository of backbench opinion and sets the agenda when it comes to internal Tory politicking. Sources familiar with the Evans bid are quietly confident that their friend will become a significant player in Tory circles again, come decision day. Jason McCartney, the former Liberal Democrat candidate and journalist-turned Tory MP, is also running for a top

Hamish Macdonell

If a men-only referendum was held, Salmond would win comfortably

Another day another poll or, rather, another day and we have another two polls on independence. Scotland on Sunday today published an ICM poll which found support for Yes on 45 per cent and support for No on 55 per cent, a gap of ten points (once don’t knows had been excluded). But, most importantly what this means is that the gap between the two sides has narrowed by six points in the last month. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/mG0gU/index.html​”] According to ICM, the Yes side has gone up by three points since mid May while the No camp has gone down by three points. ICM has always maintained a good reputation for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Labour’s machine up to fighting a general election campaign?

Judging by the tone of the commentary at the moment, you would think that Labour were badly behind in the polls. In fact, they are ahead by a few points—a margin that would still give Miliband a majority. But what should worry the Labour leader most is that every time the Labour machine is put under scrutiny it is found wanting. Tom Watson, in an intervention that will further worry leadership loyalists, has been out and about making this point this morning. Last month’s election campaign when Miliband didn’t know the name of the candidate he was campaigning for in Swindon was all too typical of Labour’s failings. The left

Saturday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ex-Tory minister: free schools will let extremists in

The row about extremism in schools has over the past week widened out to the role of faith in education in general. This morning I interviewed Crispin Blunt, a former Conservative Justice Minister and Duncan Hames, a Lib Dem MP, for Radio 4’s The Week in Westminster. Blunt told me he fears that the Coalition’s own flagship free schools programme will sow division in England and allow extremist sects to educate children at the taxpayer’s expense. He went so far as to suggest that free schools would move England towards the situation in Northern Ireland: listen to ‘Crispin Blunt and Duncan Hames on faith in schools’ on Audioboo

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The British jobs miracle, in six graphs.

No one quite expected it, and even now ministers struggle to explain it. But the British jobs miracle has become the single biggest fact of economic life – proving that sometimes, things go badly right as well as badly wrong. Cameron has now overseen more job creation than his last six predecessors did at this stage (above). The excellent Michael Saunders from CitiGroup has produced an excellent report about it (pdf) and some of his charts are below. 1Jobs growth is beating every single forecast (see chart of total jobs, above), even the optimistic forecasts that George Osborne was publishing when he was talking about abolishing the deficit in five

Sebastian Payne

Ed Miliband apologises for endorsing The Sun

Ed Miliband’s love affair with The Sun has ended almost as soon as it had begun. Following reports that he was ‘very very sorry’ for endorsing the newspaper, the Labour leader appears to have u-turned under pressure from his own party. A Labour spokesperson said this afternoon: ‘Ed Miliband was promoting England’s bid to win the World Cup and is proud to do so. But he understands the anger that is felt towards The Sun over Hillsborough by many people in Merseyside and he is sorry to those who feel offended.’ As I wrote yesterday, Miliband’s pro-Sun position was at odds with many of of his own MPs (as well as his

Pawel Swidlicki

The Conservatives may have damaged their chances of reforming Europe

Although many MEPs believe that the European Parliament is the centre of the known political universe, in truth the goings on in Brussels and Strasbourg rarely trouble the attention of anyone who is not a dedicated EU geek. That said, the decision by the Conservatives’ ECR group to admit the anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland party could have wider repercussions for Anglo-German relations, and therefore the prospects for Cameron’s EU reform agenda. For those who are not familiar with AfD here is a potted history: the party was founded by German academics opposed to Merkel’s Eurozone policies, specifically the bailouts. As it has grown, AfD has combined a more socially conservative

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron: I speak for disillusioned European voters

David Cameron is today pleading with European leaders to drop their support for Jean-Claude Juncker as president of the European Commission. In an article published in a series of newspapers across Europe, the Prime Minister argues that the EU needs ‘bold leadership – people ready to heed voters’ concerns and to confront the challenges Europe faces’. While claiming that his critique of the way spitzenkandidaten are chosen is ‘not an attack on Mr Juncker, an experienced European politician’, his article is quite clear that Juncker does not meet the job description as Cameron sees it. Cameron wants to set himself up as one of the few European leaders who is

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shot: Ed Miliband on the risk of Ed Miliband

Ed Miliband’s change of mind over The Sun took Mr Steerpike by surprise, brandishing the newspaper that so many of his colleagues have spent today condemning. This has, of course, inspired various spoofs on Twitter. But Mr S can assure readers that the image below is 120 per cent genuine – and bears a message that deserves the widest circulation:

Sebastian Payne

Labour MPs disagree with Ed Miliband over The Sun

Ed Miliband appears to have had a sudden change of heart about The Sun. After calling for Rupert Murdoch’s empire to be dismantled, the Labour leader has endorsed The Sun’s World Cup special today. Not all of his colleagues feel the same way — many of them have been tweeting critical remarks about the paper. Here’s a selection: The shadow environment secretary Maria Eagle: Bill Esterson, the Labour MP for Blundellsands: Chi Onwurah, the Labour MP for Newcastle Central: Madeleine Moon, the Labour MP for Bridgend: Tom Watson, the Labour MP for West Bromwich East and ardent anti-Murdoch campaigner: Watson at least had a sense of humour about the situation: And

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour #won’tletbritaindecide: but are they bothered?

Westminster has felt pretty dull recently, what with very little legislation and that. But now that, thanks to the bravery of Tory MP Bob Neill, could change. #LetBritainDecide fever could be back after Neill was the top Tory (not the top MP) in the Private Member’s Bill ballot. And funnily enough, Neill chose to take up the baton from James Wharton and introduce an EU referendum bill, which could lead to the Prime Minister invoking the Parliament Act to get it into law – if it passes the Commons in the same way as the previous bill. This appears to be useful for the Conservatives on many levels. If Labour

Steerpike Steerpike

Coffee Shot: Ed Miliband endorses The Sun… and looks incredibly weird

In celebration of their special ’This Is Our England’ World Cup paper (which has 22 million free copies being distributed for free), The Sun has managed to persuade senior politicians to pose with today’s edition. Boris Johnson, David Cameron and Nick Clegg all managed to look normal. But Ed Miliband on the other hand… This Is Our England: Labour leader @Ed_Miliband backs today’s special edition. #DoUsProud pic.twitter.com/hk4ROIyLOH — The Sun (@TheSunNewspaper) June 12, 2014 Folks on Twitter have remarked how similar Ed’s pose is to a hostage photo. Unsurprisingly, parodies are beginning to circulate… Miliband hostage crisis worsens as photos of captive discovered. pic.twitter.com/HMiWiPETQz — James O’Malley (@Psythor) June 12,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The UK will have constitutional change – and it must address the English question

If Scotland votes No on September 18th, it won’t be the end of the matter. The Unionist campaign and all three Westminster parties have all promised that more powers will pass to Holyrood if Scotland rejects independence. Cameron himself has endorsed a radical extension of the tax varying powers of the Scottish parliament. This will exacerbate the West Lothian Question, the unfairness by which Scots MPs can still vote on devolved matters at Westminster. Traditionally, the view has been that the answer to the West Lothian question is to stop asking it. But, as I say in the column this week, this position isn’t tenable with Ukip on the march.