All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Well, Michael Gove’s wife, Sarah Vine, has made her views clear: tweeting that the reshuffle was ‘a shabby day’s work which Cameron will live to regret’. Crikey. Talk about ‘stand by your man’: A shabby day’s work which Cameron will live to regret http://t.co/M9SN100PE1 via @MailOnline — Sarah Vine (@SarahVine) July 16, 2014 Should Vine be
Is Israel drifting away from the West? That was Hugo Rifkind’s claim in his column in the magazine last week. Hugo wrote: ‘Israel drifting away. Never mind whose fault it is; that’s a whole other point. But it’s happening. It’s off. No longer does it exist in the popular imagination as our sort of place.
Once again, a feeble desire to be democratic and appeal to potential church-goers has led the C of E into muddy waters. No, I’m not talking about women bishops, but the Church of England’s much more significant — and damaging – decision, rubber stamped last Sunday, to remove the Devil from the liturgy of Baptism.
Earlier today, Andrew Lansley was just very cross. He wasn’t Leader of the House anymore, and he wasn’t the UK’s nomination for European Commissioner. But in a few hours, the former Health Secretary has gone from just being grumpy to being an international man of mystery. Read his exchange of letters with David Cameron on
This must be the worst reshuffle since Mrs Thatcher demoted Geoffrey Howe in 1989. Unlike that one, its errors are unforced. This year, David Cameron had established a surprisingly strong position as the leader whose unpopular but necessary policies were starting to work. He and his team seemed steadier and more able than their opponents.
Today’s reshuffle has been largely about cosmetic improvements to the Conservative party — not just through the promotion of female MPs, but also by neutralising certain policy areas such as education and planning reform that had antagonised some groups. But an important element in any changing of the guard is party management, and not just
Jean-Claude Juncker delivered a speech to the European Parliament this morning. Its content was, from the British government’s perspective, provocative. Juncker had one watchword: integration: and a clear idea of how to achieve it. He expressed belief in: Tax harmonisation (especially on corporate tax rates) Integration of capital markets Energy integration and the diversification of
Michael Gove‘s departure from the Department for Education is the biggest shock of this reshuffle. Tory MPs have been even more surprised by it than they were William Hague’s leaving the Foreign Office. Downing Street is keen to stress that the education reform agenda doesn’t leave the DfE with Gove. The changes to the junior
I can confirm that Liam Fox was offered Minister of State at the Foreign Office with responsibility for India, China and Latin America. He politely declined the Prime Minister’s idea, even when it was later sweetened with the offer of a place in the National Security Council. Fox, a former party chairman and defence secretary,
After today’s hiring and firings, the women ratio in the Cabinet rises from 14 per cent to 24 per cent. There is something horribly tokenistic, and faintly misogynistic, about boasting about what percentage of women you have in the Cabinet – as if this is a sign of how ‘progressive’ you are. It’s not clear that
Some big egos are set to join David Cameron’s rubber-stamping Cabinet meetings, which will make life interesting. There is a physical problem, too. Mr S makes it 11 ministers awarded the right to attend (in addition to the 22 full Cabinet ministers) — and the reshuffle is not even complete yet. Sue Cameron reported during
18.59 The reshuffle is over and the dust is settling in Westminster. Catch up on all today’s events in our Evening Blend email, which has just gone out. if you don’t yet subscribe to this free daily update of all the key political events, you can read it in full here and subscribe here. Thanks for following
After a night of firing, we should start to see a round of hiring in David Cameron’s government from around 8.30 this morning. Only one post has been filled – Philip Hammond moving to the Foreign Office – and yet some observers are already trying to pin down the new centre of gravity in the
In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman round up some of the key stories from the reshuffle, including Gove’s shock demotion, the increased number of women in the Cabinet and whether the government has become more Eurosceptic and less green. listen to ‘Reshuffle special – with Fraser Nelson,
Zero-hours contracts: refuse to work with one, and you might lose your benefits. To the Left, it’s preeminent proof of the Coalition’s malevolence, a brightly blazoned slave contract clutched in a cold Tory fist. So it’s no wonder that the lefty press has seized upon Beyond Caring, Alexander Zeldin’s new play about the invisible working poor, as
Everybody knows that obesity is a massive problem. According to the World Health Organisation, it is now linked to more deaths than malnutrition and starvation. And thanks to a remarkable lobbying effort in recent years, we all know the culprit – sugar. The science against sugar stacks up pretty well. The American endocrinologist Dr Robert
Good morning. We’ve just had the night of the long knives – for middle-aged Tory ministers at least. Now for the promotions, and you can expect a disproportionate number of them to be younger and female. Will Britain join the list of countries with female defence secretaries? Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become
Philip Hammond’s promotion to Foreign Secretary means that we now have a Foreign Secretary who is on the record as saying he would vote to leave the EU unless substantial powers are returned. This is a major challenge to Foreign Office orthodoxy. listen to ‘Hammond: Britain should leave the EU if powers aren’t returned’ on
listen to ‘Fraser Nelson and James Forsyth discuss William Hague stepping down as Foreign Secretary’ on Audioboo
But for Europe, eh? It is a mark of how thoroughly the European issue has poisoned Tory waters that many party activists – and MPs – will be celebrating the end of Ken Clarke’s ministerial career tonight. Not before time, many of them will doubtless froth. Well, maybe. But it bears remembering that the Tories
The Speaker’s House hosted the launch of ‘Women in Parliament’, a cross-party initiative to get more women into parliament, today. Fittingly, there was barely a man in sight — besides wee John Bercow, obviously. ‘Women in Parliament’ is led from by Mary MacLeod — former PPS to ex-Culture Secretary Maria Miller, who is also closely
Number 10 has a lot on its mind with the looming Cabinet reshuffle, but I suspect that there’ll be a sigh of relief there if the General Synod of the Church of England votes in favour of allowing women bishops. For if proposals for women bishops are defeated again, the problem could well end up
Politicians tend to get all the blame for immigration policies not working. But politicians are often doomed to fail on migration questions because there are deep-rooted problems with the way we all debate immigration and with what we expect of immigration policy. Following UKIP’s success in the European elections, and given the likely failure of
Now that Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has stood down as head of the inquiry into historic sex abuse, I’d like to nominate myself as Britain’s new paedofinder-general. If I got the job, I would use the latest scientific techniques to track down every single sexual wrongdoer in Britain, alive or dead. Firstly I would type into Google
For all of today’s reshuffle updates, including the new appointments and podcast reactions, follow our liveblog here. 23.44 That’s it for tonight. We’ll be back at 6am tomorrow, with more news of the reshuffle. Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become the new faces of David Cameron’s government? And will any of them much welcome
In our latest View from 22 podcast, Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip. Has Israel become too good at protecting its citizens? And is there an inequality of conflict? listen to ‘Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip’ on Audioboo
Taking sides in the Middle East causes rows over many a Sunday lunch table; but one imagines that things are even tenser when you’re a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in history and you’ve converted to Islam. This is the world in which Jemima Khan lives. Ben Goldsmith expressed a few
What does David Cameron need his reshuffle to do? As has been the case with every reshuffle in this Parliament, the changing of the guard, which is expected to start later today (Coffee House will have a liveblog full of the action and gossip when it all kicks off), is being billed as a ‘reshuffle
From the moment the General Synod voted for women priests in 1992, it was inevitable that it would also vote for women bishops. Conservative evangelicals and Anglo-Catholics engineered a delay of 21 years, but I doubt they’ll be shocked by today’s decision. Some traditionalists have even been arguing that, although they were still opposed to
It is not a surprise that Lady Butler-Sloss has stepped down as chair of the independent inquiry panel into child abuse: a critical mass of stories had built up against her which meant it was impossible for her to continue leading an inquiry that is partly about conspiracy theories without herself becoming the target of
In our latest View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the possible outcomes when Cameron reshuffles his Cabinet. listen to ‘James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Fraser Nelson discuss the Cabinet reshuffle’ on Audioboo
The best team won, and the best two teams reached the final. This is a comparatively rare event at a world cup. And it was a fine world cup in general, with plenty of things to gladden the heart – the hammering of Spain by the Netherlands, the hammering of Brazil by Germany, the eviction
David Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists if the Conservatives continue to struggle to recruit female MPs, senior Tory sources have said. The Prime Minister has also set party chairman Grant Shapps ‘on the case’ to remedy the current situation, whereby women are less likely to be selected for safe seats. But he is also
