Politics Archives

Tuesday

6 Oct 2009

Gotcha!

When David Cameron turned up to The Spectator’s party last night, I thought it only decent to ply him with a glass of fizz. After all, a magazine whose motto is “champagne for the brain” can hardly begrudge champagne for the guests. And what’s the harm, I thought – there were no photographers at the party. Right? Wrong. The picture is now on the front page of the Evening Standard – with yours truly beside Cameron having just plonked it in his hand a few seconds earlier. I promise, it wasn’t a set-up: we thought we’d cleared the place of photographers. We heard that someone a photo and my colleague

Peter Hoskin

Nothing exceptional, but a job well done by Osborne

They stopped letting people into the conference hall for George Osborne’s speech long before the Shadow Chancellor took to the platform – it was packed, not even standing room. There was certainly an anticipatory buzz among Tory supporters, particularly after some of the policy announcements trailed in the papers this morning. One delegate assured me that “this is the speech when George will convince the nation that he’s the man to deal with Brown’s mess.” Everyone seemed pretty breathless. So did he pull it off? Well, my immediate response is “yes and no”. Probably more “yes” than “no”. There was much that was impressive in the speech. Osborne touched on

Peter Hoskin

How are the Tories responding to Labour’s pay freeze?

So what do the Tories make of Alistair Darling’s limelight-grabbing decision to freeze public sector pay? The ones I’ve spoken to seem perfectly relaxed with it. A little bit annoyed perhaps: wouldn’t you be, if your opponents appeared to cynically delay an announcement that they could have made during their own party conference last week? But they’re confident that the public will see through the stunt, and that it will actually reflect badly on Brown & Co. On top of that, the Tories are sure that Labour will make little headway in a news agenda that will be dominated by Tory announcements for the next few days. It’s hard to

Peter Hoskin

Will the civil service block Tory Euroscepticism?

Of all the countless leaflets, pamphlets and circulars being handed out in Manchester, one of the most interesting is a glossy collection of essays entitled Cameron’s Britain. It has been put together by the folk at Portland PR – who recently hosted that “war game” which James reported back on – and has entries on everything from the NHS to tackling global poverty. As it doesn’t seem to be online, I figured it’s worth quoting from one of the most insightful essays of the bunch: that by Steve Morris, a former Downing St adviser, on the Whitehall machinery that the next government will have to get to grips with. Norris

David Blackburn

Further, stronger, faster

Later today, George Osborne will elaborate on the Conservatives’ plan to raise the state pension age to 66. The rise will be enacted by 2016 at the earliest and will save an estimated £13bn per year. The Tories will review how they can accelerate the original planned pension age rise, dated for 2026, that would link the state pension with earnings. There’s much to elaborate upon, notably how the rise will affect female retirement age and exactly how much money would be saved overall. But essentially, this move should be welcomed. It is realistic and proves that there’s substance to the Conservatives’ cuts agenda beyond ‘trimming bureaucracy’ and burning quangos. George Osborne describes the proposal “one of those

Monday

5 Oct 2009

Fraser Nelson

The Tories in the stocks

Here’s something new for party conference season: real people. About 200 of them. Firemen. Unemployed. And, yes, workers. They are brought to you courtesy of Victoria Derbyshire’s Five Live show, where I am sitting at the back listening to this mass focus group session. It has become (for me, anyway) an unmissable feature of the party conference season – a welcome injection of real life into the all-too-myopic conferences. Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet members turn up knowing that this session will be about all the normal, disinterested person will hear about the conference. Now and again, she asks them to clap or boo depending if they agree or disagree. It’s

James Forsyth

The Europe question won’t dominate conference but it hasn’t gone away

There is a reluctant acceptance here that Lisbon will have been ratified by next May and that the Tories won’t hold a post-ratification referendum. But it is important to understand why the leadership is getting away with a position that is so unpopular with the grassroots. Partly it is a reflection of the fact that the party has rediscovered its discipline, it wants to win again and is prepared to swallow quite a lot on the way. But more important is that the party believes the leadership is Euro-sceptic; that Cameron is–to use Bruce Anderson’s phrase—not tainted by ‘federasty’. The view here is that if Cameron doesn’t have the time

David Blackburn

Labour isn’t working. Have a drink

Thanks to Guido for snapping this arresting political slogan. The Conservatives will now sweep the country; of that I have now doubt. But as ever, there is a complication. In what is clearly an indication of the Tories’ target audience and political intent, lashings of Scotch and Newcastle Brown Ale are readily available, but Eric Pickles has banned Champagne. Is this the precursor of a hardening Eurosceptic line…?

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 5 October 2009

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says the times they are a changing, and thinks that now is the time to start banging on about Europe. James Forsyth wonders which of the speakers at this Tory conference will make it into Cameron’s cabinet, and watches the Tories trying to hold the line on Europe. David Blackburn discusses the implications of Brown agreeing to appear in a TV debate, in principle, and argues that Cameron’s radical agenda is best for Britain. Martin Bright ponders Cameron’s strange European bedfellows. Rod Liddle notes that the bankers were contrite but resistant to change. And Alex Massie

David Blackburn

The Tories look evasive on Europe, but now is not the time to clarify

The phrase “we will not let matters rest” sounds slightly menacing, but it’s completely opaque. Is it time for the Tories to define what they mean by it? The leading article in the Times argues that perhaps it is. ‘Now that the Irish have ratified the Lisbon treaty at the second attempt, the Conservative Party needs to listen to Robert Peel. In 1834 Peel issued a manifesto in Tamworth in which he said the Conservative Party should now accept the Great Reform Act which it had vigorously opposed. Now that David Cameron finds himself struggling to clarify the circumstances in which he will offer the nation a referendum on the

Alex Massie

Ignore the Party, You should Vote for the Best Candidate

For some time since I came of voting age I took the view that it was more important to vote (when I bothered to vote) for the party, not the man (or woman). A lot of people, perhaps even a majority of the electorate, think this way. But I now think I was wrong and they are wrong too. Voting for the party, regardless of the inadequacies of your local candidate, is easy. Taking the time to learn which of your local constituency candidates most deserves your support takes, well, effort. But I think that effort is worthwhile. The expenses scandal may have brought some welcome clarity to this view.

Fraser Nelson

Straight talk on Lisbon?

I have just been on a phone-in with Five Live, and heard Greg Clark getting into a fix over Europe. “Are you going to do some straight talking with us tonight?” asked Steven Nolan. Yes, he replied. What will the Tories say if Lisbon is ratified, then? Wriggle wriggle wriggle. “We don’t deal in hypotheticals” Clark said – the worst possible answer in my view. Any question starting in the word “if” is a hypothetical, and politicians answer them all the time. To claim otherwise insults the intelligence of listeners. But what other option did Clark have? I can’t understand why the Cameroons don’t say that there is no point

Fraser Nelson

A festival for the political class

When you get on a train on a Sunday and find First Class is more full than the cheap seats, it can only mean one thing: a political party conference is starting. The Tories starts tomorrow – but still, folk travel up today. Why a Monday start? And why Manchester? The seaside resorts were chosen when party conferences were rallies of the grassroot members, and venues were chosen for their supply of cheap (usually B&B) accommodation. Now, most people who attend are the new breed of political professionals who are not paying their own hotel bills. Lobbyists, quangocrats, NGO advisers, journalists, the whole lot. And they come to meet each

Sunday

4 Oct 2009

Alex Massie

Gordon Brown & The Thick of It

A lovely catch and telling observation from Iain Martin* on how the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour party conference was put together and how this exhausted government is, essentially, a real-life satire: My favourite [part of The Thick of It] is the episode in which, after a Prime Ministerial resignation, increasingly frantic meetings go on all night around Whitehall as various spin-doctors try to find a suitable replacement leader. Well, over to that exasperated Labour aide: “Do you know when the decision was finally taken by Gordon to drop the commitment to debate Cameron from the speech? At 1:30 in the morning on the day of his speech, that’s

James Forsyth

Who won’t make it into Cameron’s Cabinet?

There are 29 members of the Commons and the Lords speaking from the podium at conference. Four shadow cabinet members are not — Lord Strathcylde, Lady Anelay, Patrick McLoughlin and Mark Francois. We shouldn’t read too much into who is not speaking. The Leader of the Lords and the Chief Whips in the Lords and the Commons are not regular conference turns and there is an obvious reason why the Tories don’t walk to talk about Europe. What might be more significant is that one person who is on the front bench but not in the Shadow Cabinet has got a slot, Maria Miller — suggesting that the party hierarchy

James Forsyth

Someone didn’t tell the printers

The official conference guide announces that at 2pm tomorrow “Alan Duncan, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons” will be speaking in a session entitled “Reforming politics: Transparency”. Of course, he won’t be. He is no longer shadow leader of the House. Ironically, it was this appointment that sealed his fate. It was thought that it would be a PR disaster to have someone who had complained that MPs were living on rations speaking on this topic and so Duncan was demoted to be shadow Prisons Minister and Sir George Young moved into his job and speaking slot. I suspect that a proof reader somewhere will be getting an earful

James Forsyth

We await the beef

The Tories have been briefing heavily that this would be a policy heavy conference. Indeed, I’m told that every shadow Cabinet member will have at least one substantive announcement to make. But there is relatively little that is genuinely new in the Sunday newspapers. One explanation for this is that the Tories accept that Lisbon is going to crowd out any other story. One senior source told me on Friday that CCHQ thought that nothing other than Europe would have cut through until Sunday afternoon. So far, the Tory containment operation on Europe appears to be just about holding. There is, though, grumbling about Boris’s comments in the Sunday Times

David Blackburn

Cameron’s radicalism is best for Britain

The Observer’s leading article asks the question: will David Cameron’s modernism serve Britain’s interests? The article’s conclusion is a firm ‘no’; its key is that the ‘Conservatives’ apparent relish in tackling the budget deficit is not entirely economic in motivation. It expresses a broader ideological commitment to a smaller state.’ A smaller state is better for Britain. The consistent growth of the state over more than a decade has demolished Britain’s financial strength. In changed economic circumstances, its continued growth is unsustainable. July is a month that should produce a revenue surplus, as tax receipts outweigh borrowing. This year saw a £8.1bn deficit. Nothing expresses the nation’s parlous financial position and the

Alex Massie

What is Tory policy on Europe?

Fraser says there’s plenty to fight for on the Great European Question and, in many ways, I’m sure he’s right. But what is Tory policy in the event that Lisbon is ratified before the election? That may be a hypothetical, but it’s not an unreasonable one. It deserves a clear answer. I’m struck too by what Cameron said in his interview with Fraser in this week’s edition of the magazine: The whole Conservative party has had the benefit of learning the mistake Blair made – having a mandate and not using it. Not actually using your early months to demonstrate how you can transform a country… There are some things

David Blackburn

The European issue gets the Tory conference underway

The Conservative conference is just hours old, but already Cameron faces a battle to hold the line over Europe and the Lisbon treaty. He produced his standard response on the Andrew Marr show: that he wanted a referendum if the Czechs refuse to ratify the treaty. And he added: “I don’t want say anything or do anything that would undermine what was being decided and debated in other countries”. Meanwhile, rent-a-quote Europhiles and Eurosceptic Tories exchange blows in Manchester. Leon Brittan described a possible referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as “ludicrous” and Dan Hannan has just told Sky News: “This is not the Conservative party of the past. This is

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