Politics

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

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

42-days dominates PMQs

It was a 42 days special, with Brown referring five times to the advice of the “security services.” On Monday a CoffeeHouser named “Smiley”, claiming to be from MI5, said the Service has never offered any advice in public or private, and added that the phrase “security services” was devised by Blair to obscure this point. A hoax comment, I thought, but intriguingly the head of MI5 issued a statement later in strikingly similar language. My point: MI5 doesn’t arrest or detain anyone, is stridently neutral on this, and it is disingenuous of Brown to hint otherwise. But Cameron was on simply superb form, deriding Brown for quoting comments on ConservativeHome website. Yes

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The love affair of some on the left with Cuba illustrates their moral depravity

That Gordon Brown can buy off potential Labour rebels by proposing a softer line on Cuba illustrates just how much of a special place the Castro despotism still has in the heart of some Labour MPs. These people are just like those on the reactionary right who used to cheerlead for apartheid South Africa. They are blinded to the hideous nature of the regime they’re supporting by the fact that’s its enemy is their enemy. It is supremely ironic that these MPs have to be bought off to support 42 days detention. In their favourite hereditary-run despotism, the authorities lock people up indefinitely whenever they feel like it. Some say

Ruth Dudley Edwards

The ‘No’s are sneaking it in Ireland

[Many thanks to Ruth Dudley Edwards, who’ll be covering the Irish referendum for Coffee House over the next few days.  Here’s her first post – Pete Hoskin]  I haven’t seen so many confusing posters since Beirut in the early 1990s.  They are layered on every lamppost in Dublin.  The Yes lobby’s contributions are pious and vacuous and unwisely have photographs of politicians – an unpopular group at the moment.  ‘Europe.  Let’s be at the heart of it’ urges the Fine Gael offering, which features the EPP-ED cute little logo of stars inside a heart.  ‘Good for Ireland  Good for Europe’ say Fianna Fail. ‘Vote Yes for jobs, the economy and Ireland’s future’ beg the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brogan: The vote looks won

Over at his invaluable blog, Ben Brogan reports that: The DUP are on board, Diane Abbott has been spoken to by Gordon Brown for the first time in 20 years, cash for sick miners and help for Cuba has been whistled out of nowhere, and so the vote is won. I spoke to David Davis earlier, who knows a thing or two about whipping and numbers. The 54 Labour rebels he knew about on Friday were down to 44 last night, and the DUP will support Mr Brown. At that rate the game is up.

Peter Hoskin

MPs to vote on 42-day detention

After all the talk, exhortations and hand-wringing, today’s the day that MPs finally vote on the Government’s 42-day detention plan. That will happen at 7pm, and we can expect a result shortly afterwards. So what to look out for? Obviously, the key question is whether there are enough rebels for the Government to be defeated. At the moment, it’s too close to call. Over the past few days, Team Brown has been desperately trying to buy the votes of the 9 Democratic Unionist MPs in the House, which could be sufficient to swing things in favour of 42-day detention. The latest news is that the Government’s offer of £200 million extra

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Blairites are making a comeback — at Conservative HQ

David Cameron really must do something about the quality of the Conservatives’ leaked documents. Once they offered delicious details of the infighting and reprisals which occupied the party for more than a decade. Yet the leaked memo which emerged last Friday simply warned that the party cannot ‘sit back and let Gordon Brown self-destruct’ and must be ‘as radical in social reform as Mrs Thatcher was in economic reform’. On first glance, utterly unnewsworthy. But on a wider level, it suggests a significant shift in ambition. Radicalism is a relatively new idea for Mr Cameron. His initial strategy was to minimise the difference with Labour, making the leap as small

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

42 Days: The View from Scotland

A heartening, very interesting – and highly unusual – intervention by the Lord Advocate: Scotland’s top prosecutor has said the case has not been made for extending the length of time terror suspects can be detained without charge to 42 days. BBC Scotland has learnt that Lord Advocate Elish Angiolini gave her opinion in a letter to the Liberal Democrat MP Alistair Carmichael. She said the change from the current 28 days was not supported by “prosecution experience to date”… “While there has been a limited number of cases in Scotland which were investigated in terms of the Terrorism Act 2000, I am not aware of any case where an

Peter Hoskin

What’s the reason behind Miliband’s Israel snub?

So why has David Miliband cut his trip to the Middle East short? The plan was for him to be in Israel today, meeting with luminaries including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, before hopping on a plane tonight to be back in time for tomorrow’s 42-day detention vote. Ben Brogan charts what actually happened: “Instead Geoff Hoon told him to come back early, ostensibly because of difficult votes today. Mr Miliband and the rest of us duly got on a dawn flight in Jerusalem. Yet there is no sign of trouble at Westminster this afternoon, prompting some jolly speculation about the reason for the rushed return.” Miliband

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Should Britain join the Euro?

Should Britain join the Euro after all? Patrick Hennessy, political editor of the Sunday Telegraph, bravely asks the question over at Three Line Whip, arguing that one can no longer claim the British economy is doing better than the Eurozone’s. A provocative point, certainly, and one we’re likely to hear much more often as the consequences of Gordon Brown’s reign of error at the Treasury hit mortgage owners and shoppers. My answer is pretty simple. One cannot conceive of a way that the Euro would help us. The arguments used ten years ago by the pro Euro campaign – more jobs, lower prices, increased trade – have been proven to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Red Ken to run again

Martin Bright, whose Dispatches programme on Ken Livingstone moved a lot of the allegations against him to the forefront of the mayoral debate, reports that Ken is not done yet and plans to be the Labour candidate in 2012. Presumably, Livingstone’s thinking is that Boris will find it more difficult to get re-elected during the mid-term of a Tory government than elected during the mid-term of a Labour government. Yet judging from how things have gone so far, Boris is settling into the job rather well. Indeed, I suspect he’ll win re-election by a larger margin than he defeated Livingstone by.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

If you don’t understand it, why vote for it?

In his Irish Independent column today, Kevin Myers brilliantly nails one of the most infuriating pro-European arguments: The final argument from the ‘Yes’ camp is that the ‘No’ side really doesn’t understand Lisbon. And, for once, they’re right. So why should I say ‘Yes’ to a legal document I don’t understand? My lawyer would never urge me to buy a house under such conditions. Why would we follow different rules when voting for the future of our country?

Peter Hoskin

The public want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Conservative Home have an exclusive sneak peek of a Daily Politics / ComRes poll on the Lisbon Treaty.  Here are some of the numbers, which – to my mind – serve to further highlight how the Government has betrayed the British public on this: The ComRes survey of 1,010 UK voters finds that 64% of UK voters believe that the UK should hold a referendum and 26% think Parliament should decide. 33% say that they would vote to accept the Treaty if given the opportunity.  40% say that they would reject it.   27% don’t know.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tory poll leads widens dramatically

A new Populus poll for The Times shows the Tories surging yet further ahead of Labour. The Tories are now on 45, Labour on 25 and the Lib Dems on 20. Since this poll last month, the Tories have gained five percent while Labour has dropped 4 and the Tory lead has gone from 11 to 20 points.  As Anthony Wells points out at UK Polling Report, this means that two pollsters are now reporting 20 point leads for the Tories.  In more good news for the party, the poll was carried out as several of these expenses stories were breaking—suggesting that they have done no immediate electoral damage. 25

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

An Afghanistan progress report

Channel Four says it feels “dutybound” to examine on what ground Gordon Brown says of the 100 servicemen who died in Afghanistan that “they have paid the ultimate price but they have achieved something of lasting value.” On its always welcome Snowmail email, Ch4 lists its own yardsticks to decide if things of lasting value have been achieved and declares that “reliable measures of these things are scarce”. Not too scarce, actually. Here are my thoughts on their seven tests …. 1. Territory safely held – all of Helmand is safe, apart from three districts near the border (pictured). The main areas, including the Pashtun capital Kandahar, have been made

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron is just doing what Thatcher did

Watching Michael Cockrell’s documentary on Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power last night, I was struck by how many times she was interviewed with her family. Just after her maiden speech she was interviewed on the family sofa with her son Mark, then 6, climbing all over her. As she was running for the Tory leadership, Carole and Mark—then 21—were interviewed for World in Action about how they felt about their mum’s political career. It all put David Cameron’s decision to allow ITN to film his family eating breakfast into perspective. My point is not that it makes Cameron’s actions any better or worse, but that it shows that he was

Peter Hoskin

Has Clarke found the answer to the West Lothian question?

There’s an interesting debate fizzing between Iain Dale’s Diary and Three Line Whip at the moment. It’s all about the West Lothian question or, rather, Ken Clarke’s proposed solution to it. As the Telegraph reported this morning, Clarke’s plying this notion, which Cameron’s alleged to have signed up to: “…allowing all MPs to vote on English legislation at the initial second reading stage of parliamentary scrutiny. But only English MPs would get to vote during the detailed committee stage of the legislative process, where real changes can be effected.” At the third and final reading, all MPs could once again vote, but a new parliamentary undertaking would prevent any party using Scottish