Society

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories must prove they’re still committed to the reform agenda

One of the real puzzles of this reshuffle is why Nick Herbert, one of the best policy brains in the shadow Cabinet, has been moved to shadow DEFRA. The decision to hive off a Department of the Climate Change and Energy from it has taken away its most politically important and intellectually challenging responsibilities. A more obvious place for Herbert would have been in Eric Pickles’ old job at the Department of Communities and Local Government or at the Department of Work and Pensions. The decision not to send him to either of those spots has created concern that the Tories are backtracking on the welfare reform and localism agendas.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Coming to a screen near you, the battle of the returning big beasts

Since Peter Mandelson’s return to British politics, the press has hung on his every word. The man is box office; if you’re a TV or radio booker he is the best get in the government. Mandelson has quite brilliantly exploited this media obsession with him. But by appointing Clarke to shadow him, the Tories have provided the press with another even better story: the clash of the returning big beasts, Clarke v. Mandelson. If you’re a booker, a studio debate between Clarke and Mandelson is now the ultimate get—its attractiveness is only heightened by the fact that the two will never actually go head to head in Parliament. The Mandelson

Peter Hoskin

Does the Government think we’re all doomed?

There’s a doom-laden air around Westminster today, neatly captured by Fraser’s post earlier.  Will the fresh injection of £billions of taxpayers’ cash do anything to help?  Few have any hope, let alone certainty, that it will – and that includes the Government.  Gone is the “we’ve saved the banking system” bravado of a few weeks ago, to be replaced today by statements on rising unemployment and – as the Standard’s Paul Waugh blogged earlier – warnings that “global economic downturn [has been] intensifying in the past two months”.  Sadly, green shoots are there none. Perhaps Brown & Co. are starting to wake up to the lose-lose situation they’re in during

The Spectator

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 19 January – 25 January

Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively. There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in your local

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A setback for Tory radicalism

Radical reform of Britain’s public services must be a priority for the next Tory government. But today’s reshuffle was a blow to the reform agenda. This morning, two of the three key public service jobs—education, welfare and health—were in the hands of committed reformers. Now, only education is. The reformers have long given up on making progress on health until, at the earliest, Cameron’s second term. A political decision was made right at the beginning of Cameron’s leadership to simply try and shut down the debate on health. Consequently, Tory health policy has been subcontracted out to the British Medical Association. But on education and welfare there were signs of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron corrects an error

David Cameron’s decision to move Dominic Grieve from Home to Justice shows that he is capable of rectifying his own mistakes, an important quality for leader. Grieve was appointed in a panic, in an effort to shut down the story when David Davis resigned over 42 days. It was apparent at the time that Grieve was not the man for the job; Nick Herbert would have been a far better pick. Chris Grayling will bring his phenomenal work-rate to the job. The Home Office is still not fit for purpose and one can be certain that Grayling will be terrier-like in uncovering scandals. However, Grayling will have to avoid acting

Peter Hoskin

Is this how the Tories should respond to the “Tory cuts” attack?

As a respite from all the reshuffle talk (don’t worry: There Will Be More), it’s worth flagging up this passage in Peter Oborne’s Mail article today.  “To give one example of RBS’s suicidal carelessness among many, it is owed some £2.5billion by the Russian oligarch Leonid Blavatnik which will never be seen again. Next month, when the bank announces its results, it is expected to unveil a truly terrifying loss of approximately £30billion. These losses – and new ones are emerging every day – are all met by the British taxpayer. Indeed, RBS’s asset value merely needs to fall by 10 per cent, and twice the annual cost of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tory reshuffle is recognition that Purnell has shot the Tory fox on welfare reform

James Purnell can take great satisfaction from the Tory reshuffle today. The decision to replace Chris Grayling as shadow DWP with Theresa May shows that the Tories do not think that there is much political advantage to be gained on welfare reform now. If the Tories were planning to make this a major dividing line in the election they would have appointed a policy heavyweight like Nick Herbert or an energetic media performer like Jeremy Hunt.

Peter Hoskin

CCHQ confirms all shadow cabinet changes

And here they are, courtesy of ConservativeHome: New to the Shadow Cabinet The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Mark Francois MP Shadow Minister for Europe New Shadow Cabinet responsibilities Alan Duncan MP Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling MP Shadow Home Secretary The Rt Hon Dominic Grieve QC MP Shadow Secretary of State for Justice Nick Herbert MP Shadow Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs The Rt Hon Theresa May MP Shadow Secretary of State for Work and Pensions and Shadow Minister for Women Eric Pickles MP Chairman of the Conservative Party Caroline

Peter Hoskin

More reshuffle news

The reshuffle rumours keep flooding in.  Iain Dale’s list has Theresa May going to shadow work and pensions; Caroline Spelman to Local Government, Nick Herbert to Environment; Dominic Grieve to Justice; Chris Grayling to Home; and Alan Duncan as shadow leader of the Commons.  So far, May, Grayling, Herbert and Duncan have been confirmed.  Spelman and Grieve match with what we’re hearing in Coffee House Towers. To my mind, it’s mixture of good and bad.  Grayling’s one of the Tories’ best attacks dogs and should bring a bit of Davis-style punchiness to the shadow Home Secretary role.  But Nick Herbert’s paticular talents seem wasted on the Environment brief – he’s great on police, prisons, that kind of thing – although he’ll

James Forsyth James Forsyth

At least two shadow cabinet members are going to be sacked today

Caroline Spelman and Alan Duncan have both been moved from their current jobs but are staying in the Shadow Cabinet. This suggests that at least two of the current members of the Shadow Cabinet will be leaving. Other rumours doing the rounds at the moment are that Dominic Grieve will be moved to Justice and Nick Herbert to a frontline job, either Work and Pensions or DCLG. There’s also speculation that Andrew Mitchell will move back to domestic portfolio. Update: To no one’s great surprise, Peter Ainsworth has been sacked. He was Shadow Environment but faield to get much press or gain policy traction in the brief much to the

Peter Hoskin

With delicate management, Clarke can be a powerful asset for Cameron

What’s my take on the return of Ken Clarke? Hm. I guess it’s summed up by four-and-a-bit words: let’s wait and see. A wishy-washy response, I know, but so much depends on whether Cameron’s got himself Clarke the Angel or Clarke the Devil that it’s hard to talk about success or failure in advance. Apparently, Clarke’s assured the Dave they he’ll be angelic – that he won’t stir up a storm over Europe, that he won’t deal out economic prescriptions that contradict the party line – but will the most rebellious Tory MP in the Commons be able to change his spots? Possibly. But it’s going to require some delicate

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Speech

More than any other modern politician, Barack Obama’s political career has been made and punctuated by his speeches. He became a figure on the national political stage while still a State Senator in Illinois because of his speech to the Democratic National Convention in 2004. His Jefferson-Jackson speech in Iowa in late 2007 was the moment when it became clear he could take Hillary Clinton on head to head and win. His defiant concession speech after his shock loss in the New Hampshire primary showed that he could take a punch and his speech on race carried him through the Jeremiah Wright scandal. But Obama’s speech in Grant Park after

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The three messages the Tories need to get across on the economy

The Tories need to do three things when talking about the economy. First, give the public some straight talk about how bad the situation is. Second, pin sufficient blame on Gordon Brown and the government for the current problem. Finally they need to show the electorate that life would be better under the Conservatives, that after four years of Tory government the economy would be growing again and Britain would once more have a bright future. In strategic terms, the challenge the Tories face is similar to the one that the Reagan campaign faced in 1980. The Tories could learn a lot from Reagan’s economic rhetoric in that election. This

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The New Year brings bigger, better poll leads for the Tories

Before Christmas, the Tories were acutely aware of the need to start the New Year strongly. This morning’s polls suggest that they have done so. The Tories are now back above 40 percent with ComRes and on course for an overall majority with the pollster that has returned the worst Tory scores in recent months. In the YouGov poll for The Sunday Times, the Tories are on 45 percent, 13 points ahead—their biggest lead since October and a seven point increase in their advantage with the polster since last month. The Tories will be particularly pleased to see that the Cameron and Osborne edge over Brown and Darling on who will

Saturday

Tamzin Lightwater

The Diary of a Notting Hill Nobody

Sunday Totally shattered. Up at dawn doing Dave’s bookshelves for Marr with Wonky Tom. He brought a heap of boring stuff and wouldn’t let me put Katie Price’s Perfect Ponies out. Insisted on some weird sci-fi books that only he would read. After bit of negotiation I managed to get Black Beauty on the bottom shelf. But when I watched the tapes later you couldn’t see it. I know Dave doesn’t want to look too horsey but surely it would have been better than the phonebook? Tom claims not. Says addition of Thompson Local was genius and made it look like Dave nips out to pick up pizza. Whatever. Monday

The Spectator

Letters | 17 January 2009

Selective facts Sir: Matt Ridley’s article on Darwin’s vision (‘Natural selection explains everything’, 10 January) omits one simple but very important fact, namely that Darwin did not originate natural selection. How do we know? Simple — both he and Alfred Russel Wallace gave the credit to Patrick Matthew and Charles Wells. Darwin even described Matthew’s version of natural selection as ‘precisely’ the same as his own, which appeared some 20 years later. These facts will doubtless be conveniently lost in this year’s Darwinfest of hype. Dr Milton Wainwright University of Sheffield Sir: Matt Ridley’s remark that ‘technology also experiences progress and “arms races” through the world’ does not support his

Melissa Kite

Real Life | 17 January 2009

Another night without sleep because of the upstairs neighbours’ remarkable capacity for impromptu nocturnal romance. What I don’t understand is, why do these people always end up living in the flat above mine? Everywhere we read about the declining libido of the human species, the fact that fertility is down, that people are too tired to perform, that couples are struggling to find time for romance. Not in the flat above mine they are not. Oh, no, they are bucking the national trend quite nicely, thank you. In my little corner of Balham you would think they had just invented it. The problem is made worse by the fact that