Politics

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

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Who’s lobbying for Blair?

Isn’t it funny how things change?  A few years ago, Brown could barely stand to talk to Blair.  But now, according to the Guardian, he’s got civil servants lobbying on the former Prime Minister’s behalf in Europe: “Gordon Brown has asked two of his most senior civil servants to lobby discreetly within Europe for Tony Blair to become its new president amid warnings from allies in government that the former prime minister will lose his chance unless he launches a dynamic campaign. John Cunliffe, the prime minister’s most senior Europe adviser, and Kim Darroch, Britain’s EU ambassador, are taking soundings at senior levels. David Miliband, meanwhile, has also intensified Britain’s

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lessons from Reagan’s Generosity of Spirit

I’ve often written that the modern Republican party’s obsession with Ronald Reagan obscures as much as it illuminates. The deification of the Gipper isn’t a great substitute for addressing the particular problems the party – and the United States – faces today. Asking “What would Reagan do?” can’t provide the answers to every issue. Nevertheless, there’s at least one aspect of Reagan’s career that all political parties might bear in mind: his generosity of spirit and, correspondingly, the empathy he felt, genuinely I believe, for people whose circumstances were very different from his own. Among those people, whose dreams and aspirations and needs he understood, so my thanks to Kerry

Peter Hoskin

The Neather clarification

Plenty of CoffeeHousers are mentioning the Andrew Neather revelations in various comment sections.  If you haven’t seen them yourself, the story is that Neather, a former government adviser, wrote a comment piece claiming that New Labour’s immigration policy was “intended – even if this wasn’t its main purpose – to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.”  Many reports since have taken this as confirmation that Labour’s policy was exclusively politically-motivated.    In which case, it’s worth highlighting Neather’s latest column for the Evening Standard, in which he claims his comments have been exaggerated and misinterpreted.  Here’s the key point it makes: “As a

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The roots of the EDL

A few notes and observations on the English Defence League, which has gained a bit of prominence recently and is mentioned in Mel’s latest article in The Spectator. This is the organisation which turns up to Muslim demonstrations and does a bit of vigorous counter-demonstrating for itself; they then are in turn picketed by the witless, bedraggled red fascists of the UAF. (Perhaps we should form another group which pickets meetings and demos of the UAF). The EDL is in alliance with, or is comprised of, or perhaps actually is, two previously formed predominantly anti-Muslim groups, The United British Alliance and Casuals United. Both of these groups are noteworthy in

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 26 October 2009

…here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: James Forsyth reports on Iran’s secret nuclear plant, and says that a second round of voting won’t solve all of Afghanistan’s election problems. Peter Hoskin says that there’s still no room for complacency about the BNP, and claims that the Tories now have a monopoly on the language of optimism. David Blackburn reports on the latest news about Tony Blair and the EU Presidency, and analyses a poll on Afghanistan. Daniel Korski wonders whether Richard Holbrooke is on his way out. Martin Bright looks into secrecy. Susan Hill reveals the other face of hunting. And Alex Massie talks

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Still no room for complacency about the BNP

It’s an odd one is today’s ICM poll in the News of the World.  Most of it makes for sobering reading for the political class: it finds that two-thirds of voters think the mainstream parties have no “credible policies” on immigration, and that one-third agree with a core BNP policy on removing state benefits from ethnic minorities.  The Tories will be disappointed to see that only 20 percent of respondents think that their plan to cap immigrant numbers will work. But there are also some findings which support Alex’s thesis that we shouldn’t be unduly troubled by the levels of support for the BNP.  For instance – and despite all

Peter Hoskin

Get ready to feel worse about our political class

If you want an idea of how resistant MPs might be to the proposals of the forthcoming Kelly review into expenses, then I’d suggest you wander through to page 13 of today’s Sunday Times.  There you’ll find a story about how MPs are planning to counter Kelly’s expected ban on employing relatives.  Their ideas stretch from employing each others’ relatives (“a giant wife swap”) to taking legal action. In this particular case, I think there’s something attractive about the compromise revealed by James on Wednesday: that MPs be allowed to employ one relative each.  But, even if that compromise is made, it still only defuses one sub-section of Kelly’s review. 

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 24 October 2009

When I was asked to write the foreword for the document which launched the Nothing British campaign this week, I hesitated. The campaign draws attention to the BNP’s abuse of military symbols and its attempts to recruit servicemen and their families. It is a good cause, but I am slightly suspicious of the easiness with which middle-class people parade their ‘courage’ in standing up to the BNP — ‘yielding to no one’ in their detestation of its ‘loathsome’ attitudes — when it actually requires no courage at all. If there is an establishment conspiracy to suppress the BNP, that can only feed the myth upon which it thrives. But I eventually

David Blackburn

The Tories’ support for the war in Afghanistan owes nothing to neo-conservatism

In his column in the Mail, Peter Oborne writes that Cameron’s stance on Afghanistan represents the same mistake made by IDS in his unstinting support for the Iraq war. Oborne fears that neo-conservatism has gripped the Tory leadership. ‘The ‘Neocons’, despite being discredited by the Iraq war, have furtively regained their position at the heart of the Tory party. Almost without exception, Cameron’s senior team are passionate Atlanticists who seem committed to the policy of ‘reinforcement of failure’ in Afghanistan. Both the Shadow Foreign Secretary William Hague and the Shadow Defence Secretary Liam Fox are ‘Neocons’. As are Cameron’s two most trusted Shadow Cabinet colleagues, Michael Gove and George Osborne.’

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What BNP Bounce?

Contra good Brother Hoskin, I’m not terribly troubled by this YouGov poll: The survey found that 22 per cent of voters would ‘seriously consider’ voting for the BNP in a future local, general or European election. This included four per cent who said they would ‘definitely’ consider voting for the party, three per cent who would ‘probably’ consider it, and 15 per cent who said they were ‘possible’ BNP voters.” The poll, at least as reported by the Telegraph, does not find one in five voters considering the BNP. It finds that 15% of voters might, hypothetically speaking, consider casting a hypothetical vote for the BNP. In other words: they

Peter Hoskin

One in five would consider voting for the BNP

Here are the stand-out findings from today’s YouGov poll, conducted after this week’s Question Time, for the Telegraph: “The survey found that 22 per cent of voters would ‘seriously consider’ voting for the BNP in a future local, general or European election. This included four per cent who said they would ‘definitely’ consider voting for the party, three per cent who would ‘probably’ consider it, and 15 per cent who said they were ‘possible’ BNP voters.” This just reinforces my qualms about Thursday night’s show.  Yes, Griffin embarrassed himself in front of a hostile audience and panel, but that may not have mattered.  He had already reached out to any

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Setting the Clocks Free

Hardy Perennial Watch: Daylight Savings Time Edition. Yup, some things are certain and among them is the fuss over the ending of British Summer Time tonight. For years the North has handily Defeated the South but I suspect that, just as Dave Cameron’s southern chums may be about to supplant Gordon Brown’s North Britons, so too will the South, er, rise again and eventually prevail in the Great Clock Battle of Britain. The case for change – that is, for not changing the clocks –  is not a bad one even if it has always been defeated by the Scottish lobby. (No surprise there, eh, Spectator readers?) The Times makes

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How David Cameron plans to tame the unions

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics. There is a reason why Tory excitement about returning to government is so tempered: it could be war. The simple, grim mission awaiting them is to impose the sharpest cuts attempted by any postwar government while radically reforming many public services. The trade unions can be expected to respond aggressively, thinking they can turn Cameron just as they did Heath. A bloody collision of the type the Cameroons for so long hoped to avoid now seems inevitable. Unsurprisingly, the Tories have little appetite for a Thatcher-style showdown with the brothers. And, quietly, they believe they have developed a strategy that will avert one.

Friday

Martin Bright

How Question Time Became Important

I can’t expect anyone to bother reading another piece about Question Time, but bear with me here. In the build-up to Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, I was convinced it was a fuss about nothing. I still can’t quite understand Peter Hain’s objection to allowing an unpleasant fascist hang himself live on TV. Good box office, sure, but surely a spectacle worth paying good money to see. My only concern was the quality of the panel. But when it came to it,  I was pleasantly surprised. I thought Huhne, Warsi, Straw and Greer were really rather good. I have my doubts about Sayeeda Warsi’s record on radical Islam and

Peter Hoskin

Worse than the Major era?

Here’s one for Coffee Housers: is this government sleazier than John Major’s?  Asked that question on the BBC News channel’s Straight Talk with Andrew Neil this weekend, Martin Bell has no doubts.  “I think this one is worse,” he says. But that’s not the end of it.  The former independent MP thinks that the parties need to start looking towards their front benches if they’re to properly cleanse the taint left from the expenses scandal: “But I do think it is going to require the assisted departure of all frontbenchers of both parties who have claimed unreasonable and disproportionate expenses.  And if you look back over the dramas of the last four

The Spectator

The week that was | 23 October 2009

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week. Fraser Nelson says that the BNP defines itself by race – that distinguishes it from every other party, and asks whether it is legitimate to discuss the strength of the link between HIV and Aids. James Forsyth wonders why the BBC allowed Question Time to become Griffin time, and thinks that MPs should be allowed to employ their relatives. Peter Hoskin argues that Brown’s lose-lose position will prevent our broken politics being fixed, and tries to unravel those strange post-conference polls. David Blackburn sees the same old mistakes being repeated in Afghanistan, and says that the BNP’s

David Blackburn

There is no need to go out this Saturday

The Thick of It returns tomorrow night and by all accounts its as cynical, savage, sweary and uniformly contemptuous as ever. The subject matter of this series is, apparently, over promoted female Cabinet ministers – very topical in view of the government reshuffle and the Conservatives’ perverse all-female candidate lists. It goes without saying that the show’s producers have a sense of humour, but to make the fact plain they invited Jacqui Smith, Hazel Blears and Caroline Flint to the premier on Tuesday. I’m told they didn’t like it. Anyway, The Thick of It is the sharpest and most well attuned political satire since Yes Minister; it’s essential viewing. Here’s

David Blackburn

Griffin to complain about “lynch mob” Question Time

Nick Griffin has just made the following statement: “It was not a genuine Question Time, it was a lynch mob… People wanted to see me and hear me taking about things like the postal strike. Let’s do it again and do it properly this time.” He added that he would lodge a “formal complaint to the BBC over the way it twisted Question Time”. As James wrote last night, the debate was an extended navel gaze into whether it was right that Griffin appeared on the programme. Whilst Griffin unquestionably came off worse by babbling about a rather enigmatic, non-colour specific group called British aborigines, the panel missed the opportunity

James Forsyth James Forsyth

If anti-Semitism is the problem, then the Tories shouldn’t sit with the EPP either

No one has done more to make the Tories’ new European allies an issue than Jonathan Freedland. He has written about the subject with real passion and, so sources in the Jewish community tell me, played a crucial role in persuading the president of the Board of Deputies to write to David Cameron expressing concern about them.    This week, his column on the subject contained this point: ‘Just this month Oszkar Molnar, an MP from Hungary’s main opposition party – on course to form the country’s next government – told a TV interviewer that “global capital – Jewish capital, if you like – wants to devour the entire world,

Peter Hoskin

So where does this leave Brown?

Most people expected this morning’s official GDP statistics to show that the economy has come out of recession.  But they didn’t.  In fact, they had the economy shrinking by 0.4 percent in the third quarter of this year.  So the downturn continues – and it’s the longest on record. We’ve always maintained on Coffee House that coming out of recession won’t do much good for Brown.  But, obviously, staying stuck in one has far more dangerous implications for him (not to mention the country).  Obviously, the government won’t be able to deploy the green shoots strategy now.  But with other major economies already out of recession, they’ll struggle to deploy