David cameron

In February, David Cameron managed to rally of group of likeminded countries to agree a historic cut to the EU’s long-term budget. However, due to the maddening complexities involved in the EU politics, a cut isn’t always a cut (just as an opt-out isn’t always an opt-out).  Which is why, while all eyes in Westminster were on the scrap between George Osborne and Ed Balls over the Comprehensive Spending Review, the European Commission’s presentation today of its draft budget for 2014 – the first under the new deal – is politically significant. For Cameron, there is both good and bad news. The good is that the 2014 budget does indeed

Do you understand what David Cameron’s Europe policy is supposed to achieve? If so, you’re way ahead of me. I’ve said before that I think Europe will cripple Cameron unless Ed Miliband gets there first and nothing has happened since to change my mind. Isabel’s scoop published today, revealing the results of the Tory party’s internal consultation help make the folly of Cameron’s policy even clearer. With some understatement Isabel concludes that the results “underline how big the expectations are on Cameron to bring about big change in Europe”. Indeed they do. Tory members are telling the Prime Minister that the European parliament should be abolished. This may not be

This was a card-shredder of a performance by Ed Miliband. He’s had some difficult outings lately but he barely even showed up at PMQs today. His team of phrase-makers and sloganeers have abandoned him too. Either they’re in the Priory, taking emergency anti-depressants, or they’ve quit the party altogether. And those in Labour’s heartlands watching their leader floundering today are probably composting their membership cards right now. Ed’s central attack looked like an attempt to give Cameron a relaxing massage. He accused the government of offering tax-breaks to the rich. Yet Labour’s top tax-rate was lower for most of their 13 years than it is today. Cameron took the opportunity

Is there not something odd about a Prime Minister talking of getting involved in the Syrian civil war on the very day that another 4,500 British service personnel had their redundancy notices handed to them? It has always been my belief that you should never even tinker in a conflict unless you are prepared to go all the way should circumstances change (as they tend to). Britain no longer has the capability to get fully involved in Syria. So I suppose that we will all have to hope that Mr Cameron and Mr Hague possess an uncanny ability for identifying moderates, arm them nicely and just hope that everything goes

David Cameron and Vladimir Putin have just concluded their pre G8 talks, the main topic of which was Syria. Cameron wants to use the next few days to try and persuade the Russians to stop backing Assad; the weapons they’ve been sending him have enabled him to gain the upper hand on the rebels militarily. Cameron instinctively wants to do something about the slaughter in the Levant for both strategic and moral reasons. As one figure intimately involved in British policy making on Syria told me earlier, ‘The one certainty is that, if nothing is done, not only will lives be lost, not only will Assad not negotiate, but we

There is a terrific piece in today’s Telegraph by Charles Moore which I very much recommend. It is titled ‘Woolwich outrage: we are too weak to face up to the extremism in our midst’. In the piece Moore rightly criticises our societal inability to deal with Islamism. In particular he criticises the switch of attention which took place immediately after the murder of Drummer Rigby thanks to bogus claims of an ‘anti-Muslim backlash’. Moore also addresses the follow-up fib that a threat equal to the jihadis – or even the primary threat to our society – comes from the English Defence League. Incidentally, I saw that, whilst over for the

David Cameron was pressed on Barack Obama’s decision to give assistance to the Syrian rebels when he spoke to journalists in the Downing Street garden this afternoon. He gave a long answer, the transcript of which you can read at the bottom of this post, along with the audio. But here are the key points on the Prime Minister’s current thinking on Syria. 1. He agrees with the American stance. He told the press conference: ‘I think it is right that the Americans have said what they have said and I wanted to back that up with the information and the involvement that we’ve had in that assessment.’ That included

There was plenty for David Cameron to sing about at today’s PMQs when it came to the ONS’ latest labour market figures, and sing he did. He said: ‘First, it is worth announcing to the House what today’s unemployment figures show. They show that employment – the number of people in work in this country – is going up, that unemployment is going down, and that – I know the Labour party does not want to hear good news, but I think it is important that we hear it. The claimant count – the number of people claiming unemployment benefit – has fallen for the seventh month in a row.