Politics

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

Saturday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Obama Curve

Charles Murray on Obama:   I understand how naïve it is to read a presidential candidate’s speech as if it were anything except political positioning, but that leads me to my final point: It’s about time that people who disagree with Obama’s politics recognize that he is genuinely different. When he talks, he sounds like a real human being, not a politician. I’m not referring to the speechifying, but to the way he comes across all the time. We’ve had lots of charming politicians. I cannot think of another politician in my lifetime who conveys so much sense of talking to individuals, and talking to them in ways that he

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The funding muddle

The issue of party funding is going to run and run with the parties still nowhere near an agreement on it. In an interview with the Telegraph today, Francis Maude makes an astonishing charge about the opaqueness of trade union funding for Labour: “It’s a racket, there are two unions which declare more members paying the political levy than they have members.” If Maude is right, then this is a huge scandal. The Tories, however, will never be on firm political ground on party funding while Lord Ashcroft’s tax status remains unclear. Maude tells the Telegraph he has “no idea” whether Ashcroft does pay tax in the UK and that

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories should not let their caution on tax conceal the radicalism of their other policies

James Forsyth reviews the week in politics What a difference a poll lead makes. If Philip Hammond, the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury, had given an interview appearing to rule out tax cuts in a Conservative first term, when the Tories were behind in the polls or only marginally ahead, there would have been a full-scale revolt. To add fuel to the fire, Hammond talked about government storing up money in a ‘pot’ before giving it back — language which suggests that Hammond has forgotten whose money it is in the first place. But a YouGov poll showing the Tories with a 16-point lead which appeared on the same

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The miners’ strike and the fight against Islamism

The huge defeat of the Conservative party in the election of 1997 drove the party back into its rural and suburban redoubts and so cut it off from many things which were happening in Britain. It did not want to think about the rise of political Islam. This opting out was part of a wider demoralisation in conservative culture in recent years. In the time of the Millennium, the death of Diana and all that, many conservative-minded people started to say things like, ‘I don’t recognise my own country.’ They felt so alienated, particularly from their own cities, that they wanted to avoid thinking about problems of multiculturalism, and of

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Westminster and Whitehall dishonour Britain again

Need it be said that the treatment of the Gurkhas – by successive governments – is disgraceful and a harrowing indictment of the civil service and politicians alike? Have these fools no shame? Apparently not. They came in their Sunday best — a sea of tweeds, brogues and blazers with gold buttons — and mingled politely opposite the Houses of Parliament. There was a lot of hip-hooraying and handshaking. It was the most British of protests. But while the thousand retired Gurkhas who gathered in London yesterday were certainly British in heart and mind, theirs was a campaign to become British by law. Last March, the Government said that all

Alex Massie Alex Massie

New Labour’s Bankruptcy

If you doubted that Gordon Brown’s government is already exhausted, consider the nonsense being peddled by Stephen Carter, the former PR supremo brought in to salvage something – anything! – for Gordon. From Iain Martin’s column today: A couple of takes on Carter’s actions are being briefed: either a justified clear-out of the team that brought you the election-that-never-was, or another example of outside experts misunderstanding tribal Labour. Probably, it is a bit both. What is clear is that on Tuesday, in scenes redolent of The Office and David Brent, Carter divided up the Cabinet into “break-away” groups of six or seven, where they were given problems to solve –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How McCain can help Cameron

It is a definite coup for David Cameron that John McCain saw him as well as Gordon Brown today. It was a significant statement that a President McCain expects to have to deal with both men when in office; he clearly expects Cameron to be PM before 2012. But McCain can help Cameron in policy terms too. Cameron has struggled to come up with an inspiring way to talk about his greenery, it can sound rather too doom and gloomy. McCain offers a solution to this problem. He talks inspiringly about how tackling climate change is going to create jobs not cost them, spur economic growth not constrict it and

Peter Hoskin

Poetry Corner

For some reason, MPs have been struck by the poetry bug recently.  First there was the anonymously-penned verse attacking the Prime Minister.  And now Theresa May’s got in on the act, reading out her poem on Brown’s staffing problems in the Commons today.  Here it is: “At Downing Street the other day, I met a man sent on his way. Close to Gordon for many years, the PM’s rants brought him to tears. But for all this he didn’t care. He was pleased to see his minister there. He’d been important once, you know. Now Carter told him: ‘You must go.'” I doubt she’ll be winning the T.S. Eliot prize any time soon.  Can CoffeeHousers do

Peter Hoskin

Reforming the Lords

As today’s FT reports, Jack Straw is leading the charge to reform the House of Lords.  Under his plans, most of the existing members would be ejected from their red leather seats and replaced with around 400 elected “senators”. The theoretical benefits of an elected second chamber are plain to see – greater accountability, no more cash-for-honours worries etc. etc.  But it’s hard to imagine the existing crop of Lords going down without a fight.  And if they want to throw their weight around, there’s always those votes on the Lisbon Treaty…

Peter Hoskin

Backing Boris

Mike Smithson makes a good observation over at Political Betting.  The detailed results from that recent YouGov poll show that some 41 percent of Brian Paddick’s supporters would choose Boris as their second preference.  Only 34 percent would pick Ken.  It’s a finding which goes completely against previous assumptions about where Lib Dem voters would gravitate towards.

Peter Hoskin

Keeping shtum

Iain Martin’s article for the Telegraph today is well worth a read. In it he’s praiseful of Project Cameron, but throws in a substantial caveat – that the Tories aren’t saying much on the economy. The silence on matters fiscal was typified by Cameron’s performance in PMQs yesterday. Brown accused him then of not having answers for “the problems of this country”. But – says Martin – top Tories suggest instead that it’s all part of the grand plan: “A member of the shadow cabinet denies that he and his colleagues simply do not have a clue about what to do: ‘The economy is going to turn into a fight

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Meeting McCain

John McCain is doing Europe tomorrow: Brown for breakfast, Cameron for afters and Sarkozy in Paris in the afternoon. It’s significant that he’s setting aside as much time for Cameron as Brown. In Bournmouth 06, Cameron hailed McCain as the next president of America – not a claim he (or anyone) would have repeated in Blackpool last October. But Cameron was right first time, and his initial bet has paid dividends.  Normally, American presidential candidates resist being photographed with Opposition leaders, but I understand McCain is happy to pose with DC. Let’s see if footage of them together makes the news tomorrow. UPDATE: McCain arrived a little early (I wonder

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cabinet’s green split

There’s a fun but revealing story in the FT today about a row within the Cabinet about what kind of cars they should all be driven round in. The split is between those who favour Ministers travelling in the eco-friendly Toyota Prius and those who think it is important that they use a car made in Britain. John Hutton, the business secretary, is in the British camp along with two of Gordon’s closest allies, Ed Balls and Jack Straw. While on the green side of the fence are Ruth Kelly, the Transport Secretary, David Miliband and Hilary Benn—the past and present environment secretaries.  On the one hand, this can be

Peter Hoskin

“The sun is rising on our borrowing bacchanalia…”

Iain Martin highlights it over at Three Line Whip, and rightly so – Jeff Randall’s hatchet job on Alan Greenspan is essential reading.  Not only does it flag up Greenspan’s role in our current financial difficulties, but it also contains this great quote from Michael Bloomberg: “The economic uncertainty our two countries [America and Britain] face today is beginning to feel similar to the economic downturn we experienced six years ago… …But this time the stakes are higher because more people owe more debt and so do our governments. It’s time for us all to get our houses in order because the sun is rising on our borrowing bacchanalia.” I still can’t believe that

Peter Hoskin

National security letdown?

4 months overdue, Gordon Brown today outlined a new national security strategy. Was it worth the wait? Not particularly. It’s little more than a collection of proposals that we knew about already, combined with some loose “direction of travel”-type thinking (e.g. that Britain will “seek agreement on tougher controls aimed at reducing weapons and preventing proliferation”). All-in-all, the Tory criticism is pretty-much spot-on: it’s more a “list than a strategy”. And one component of that list is particularly underwhelming. Brown talks about maintaining “strong, balanced, flexible and deployable armed forces”. But what are his new ideas for doing so? In answer: “There will be increased commitment bonuses of up to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brownies, Balls and the Barnett Formula in PMQs

There are two PMQs: the one seen from galleries in the Commons chamber, and the one on television. The more I go to the former, the more convinced I am the best view is in the latter. Pretty much the whole press gallery jumped to its feet to see what Ed Balls was doing when Cameron teased him (he sat underneath us all). And I couldn’t see – but I imagined – Labour MPs squinting as they read out their planted questions, as if wondering at the brazenness of the text. Anyway, from my perch, it seemed a clear win for Cameron. Not because any of his questions were knock-outs.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Throwing the book at Gordon Brown

An intriguing item in the Ephraim Hardcastle diary in The Daily Mail this morning suggests that cash for honours will soon come back to haunt Gordon Brown: “LORD Levy’s book about being Tony Blair’s Middle East envoy-chief party fundraiser – and the ‘cash for coronets’ police inquiry in which he was twice cautioned and questioned – is about to see the light of day. What does it say about Blair? Forget Blair, say friends of Michael Levy. The former pop music promoter blames Gordon Brown for stirring up the honours row as part of a campaign to destabilise Blair and replace him as prime minister. Even though it was a

Peter Hoskin

Charm offensive

Gordon Brown’s got an article in today’s Sun.  Its message?  That we shouldn’t worry about the economy, because he’s got his hand on the fiscal tiller.  Again, then, our Prime Minister is peddling the untruth that his Government – and, prior to that, his Chancellorship – have done nothing to expose us to the credit crunch.  That’s the big porkie, but the whole piece is dotted with little Brownies: boasts of unique growth, low inflation etc. etc.  There’s even the new one that “we can now allow the Government’s borrowing to rise at exactly the time when the economy needs support”, as though that’s a good thing.  Here’s how Brown

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Obama’s speech

Barack Obama’s speech today on race and America should, if there’s any justice, seal the Democratic party’s presidential nomination. It is a remarkable, subtle, nuanced discussion of how and why America remains so polarised on race. No other candidate could have delivered this address (and certainly none of them could have written it). It is – by a distance – the best, most important speech of the year and, in many ways, perhaps even the most significant speech given by any politician in years. Politically it seems to me that Hillary Clinton is a big loser today. Her hope must surely now rest upon the idea that conservatives will destroy