David cameron

Thursday

Alex Massie

What enemy within? Britain is not losing the battle against Jihadism.

To read Douglas Murray’s cover story from this week’s edition of the magazine (subscribe!) you might think the British government is not only losing the battle against Islamist extremism and Jihadism in this country but that it wants to lose that struggle. I think this is weak but pretty pernicious sauce. But it is the sort of thing that will appeal to some. Especially those with a mania for betrayal. Only the strong and the vigilant and the this-is-how-it-is-chum brigade are tough enough to see the pathetic and craven weaklings currently staffing the government, the legal profession and the civil service for what they really are: the next worst thing to

Marcus Berkmann

The Wit and Wisdom of Boris Johnson, edited by Harry Mount – review

It’s just a guess, but I suspect that the mere sight of this book would make David Cameron gnash his tiny, perfect dolphin teeth until his gums began to bleed. What on earth can he do about Boris Johnson? What can any of us do? There’s something inexorable — irresistible even — about his progress,  and this slender volume of drolleries represents another small step on the increasingly well-lit path to ultimate power: what may come to be known as the ‘Boris Years,’ or even the ‘Boris Hegemony’. This book thus becomes more than merely amusing and entertaining (it’s both, needless to say); it becomes potentially significant. Future generations may

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson is ‘absolutely increasingly confident’ of Cameron 2015 win. How reassuring.

Boris Johnson is ‘absolutely increasingly confident’ that David Cameron will win in 2015. This was the Mayor’s attempt at responding to Andy Coulson’s suggestion that he’s desperate for the PM to fail so he can cycle in and save the party, a blond messiah. Attempt is perhaps the wrong word, as it suggests Boris made those remarks off the cuff when the Mayor gives every impression that he scripts each remark with as much care as he puts into his newspaper columns. He told 5 News’ Andy Bell: ‘I’m always grateful to Andy Coulson for his career advice but I’m backing David Cameron who I am absolutely increasingly confident is

Tuesday

Steerpike

David Dimbleby should read his Evelyn Waugh

It is a badly kept secret that David Dimbleby was in the Bullingdon Club and he has finally spoken about it, telling the Radio Times that he ‘loved being elected’ to the notorious Oxford dining society and that he is ‘very proud of the uniform’ that he still fits into. Refreshing honesty, especially after years of hearing politicians profess their deep shame at their involvement. Dimbleby goes on: ‘We never did these disgusting disgraceful things that Boris did. We never broke windows or got wildly drunk. It was a completely different organisation from what it became when Boris Johnson, David Cameron, and George Osborne joined, who seemed to be ashamed of it,

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Rupert Murdoch: Cameron’s in trouble – I read it in The Spectator

From his base in New York, Rupert Murdoch knows where to get the best analysis of British politics: The Spectator. He has just Tweeted that David Cameron is in trouble, after reading James Forsyth’s brilliant political column. It’s easy to see why he was so struck. As so often, James’ tells you more about what’s really going on in SW1 than most newspapers put together. As you’d expect from the single best-informed journalist in Westminster. And he’s right, even by James’ standards, this week’s column is outstanding. Read the full thing here. Of course, Rupe is not the only New York-based journalist who has worked out how to get the

Friday

David Blackburn

Revive the Snooper’s Charter? It’s already obsolete

The political response to the Woolwich murder is following two broad patterns. On the one hand, the party leaders make dignified, calm statements, tending almost to the banal. There was, for example, very little difference between the comments of Ed Miliband and those of Nigel Farage. Both condemned the murder, offered support to Drummer Rigby’s family and urged calm from all. Unity is not surprising: there is not much one can reasonably say about such events without jerking a knee and making oneself hostage to fortune. The beheading of an off-duty soldier is no more representative of Islam than the reaction of the English Defence League is representative of patriotism.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Why it’s not the 1990s all over again for the Tories

The last twenty four hours have been a reminder of David Cameron’s poise as a national leader. He has the ability to project a sense of resolve and calm. Before this vile attack in Woolwich, all the talk in Westminster was of Cameron’s difficult relationship with his own party. Despite a fortnight of good economic news, the headlines were all about Tory tensions over Europe and splits over gay marriage. To many Tories, including some Cabinet ministers, it feels horribly like the 1990s all over again. But there are two crucial differences with then. First, there’s been no Black Wednesday. However far off his deficit reduction plan he may be,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PM avoids knee-jerk response to Woolwich attack

It goes without saying that when it comes to serious national tragedies, David Cameron is the right man to give a statement from Downing Street. His response today to the Woolwich killing underlined how good he is at producing sensitive and thoughtful speeches which, though written swiftly, avoid any knee-jerk reaction. He should be commended for taking special care to insist that yesterday’s attack ‘was also a betrayal of Islam an of the Muslim communities who give so much to our country’ and that the fault for the killing ‘lies solely and purely with the sickening individuals who carried out this appalling attack’. His statement contained a long section on

The Spectator

David Cameron’s statement on the Woolwich attack

What happened yesterday in Woolwich has sickened us all. On our televisions last night, and in our newspapers this morning, we have all seen images that are deeply shocking. The people who did this were trying to divide us. They should know something like this will only bring us together and make us stronger. Today our thoughts are with the victim and with his family. They are grieving for their loved one and we have lost a brave soldier. This morning I have chaired a meeting of Cobra and I want to thank the police and the security services for the incredible work they do to keep our country safe.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron leaves the goal open for Clegg and Miliband on tax avoidance

It’s fashionable to say Downing Street isn’t very good at strategy. So fashionable, in fact, that sometimes journalists worry they’re being unfair to the Tory leadership. But today we saw yet another example of the Prime Minister leaving an open goal for not just the opposition party but also his own Coalition partners to score. On Monday, Google’s Eric Schmidt visited Downing Street for the regular Business Advisory Group meeting. He was allowed to leave by the back door, and the Prime Minister’s aides were adamant that David Cameron wouldn’t ‘confront’ the Google boss on his company’s tax arrangements. All he planned to do was to take the group through

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg: I’m the grown-up in this Coalition

Ever the helpful friend in times of strife, Nick Clegg is giving a speech today in which he will soar above the troubles the Tories currently find themselves in to tell everyone that the two parties will remain manacled together until the 2015 general election. There has been plenty of speculation that this won’t be the case, with Benedict Brogan reporting yesterday that Downing Street has been mulling contingency plans for an early split prompted by Clegg being ousted in a Lib Dem coup. So the Deputy Prime Minister is attempting to put those rumours to bed, while positioning the Lib Dems as the mature party of government. He will

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Gay marriage easily passes third reading vote in the Commons

After all the parliamentary back and forth yesterday, gay marriage passed third reading by the comfortable margin of 366 to 161. Tory sources are briefing that fewer of their MPs voted against at third reading than second reading, though we’ll have to wait for the division lists to confirm that. We probably now have only a couple more Commons votes left on this; there’ll be on any amendments made to the bill by the House of Lords. The atmosphere in the House as the result was read out did not seem particularly historic. There was some clapping from the Labour front bench, but the Treasury bench didn’t join in and

Miles Windsor

David Cameron has caused a crisis in conservatism

David Cameron’s letter to party members added insult to injury after a week of headlines about ‘Loongate’ and the Tory leadership’s decision to bulldoze through the Same Sex Marriage Bill with the help of Labour. He suggested that ‘you change things not be criticising from your armchair but by getting out and doing’. Who does he think is knocking on doors week after week, taking the flak for his unpopular lurch from ill-conceived policy to ill-conceived policy? Many of us have been involved in the fight for conservatism all our lives. But under Cameron’s watch we are seeing a crisis in conservatism and polling results which would have been unthinkable

Martin Bright

Cameron has reached the tipping point

The combination of complacency and incompetence that seems to have afflicted the Conservative Party is a wonder to behold. Janet Daley wrote at the weekend of her frustration at David Cameron saying he is ‘relaxed’ about the situation. She is right that welfare, education and the criminal justice system are in need of reform, although I am not convinced this government is going about it in the right way or with the right personnel. The competence factor is becoming a huge issue for this government, across individual departments, in the management of the parliamentary party and the wider membership (swivel-eyed or staring straight into the headlights). The Labour Party managers

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tory grassroots were feeling neglected long before ‘swivel-eyed loons’ claims

Whether or not Lord Feldman made his ‘mad, swivel-eyed loons’ comments, the story has given the Conservative grassroots the perfect opportunity to tell David Cameron, via the media, how unhappy they are with the way they’re treated. On the World at One, Conservative Grassroots chair Robert Woollard complained about ‘some very derogatory comments from some of [Cameron’s] Praetorian Guard’. He said: ‘I’m not going to repeat them here. You’ve heard about the ‘mad, swivel-eyed loonies’ – it doesn’t surprise me at all because some of us, not just us in Conservative Grassroots but some in constituencies that we talk to are quite used to this treatment and, frankly, there is

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Swivel-eyed loons are a feature of British democracy

I’d just like to point out, having been a journalist for many years and having met these people, and also having been a member of the Labour Party for more than thirty years, that the constituency activists of every party are, in the main, swivel-eyed loons. They are endlessly busy, busy, busy, little monkeys, obsessive and shrill. This is the problem with democracy; the people who involve themselves in it most actively are the very people you would never wish to see near the levers of power. I’m an irregular attender at meetings these days, but back in the 1980s I went every week or so to my local ward

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s tax tightrope

David Cameron didn’t spend yesterday wringing his hands in Downing Street about the progress of his gay marriage bill: he was meeting his business advisory group. He allowed Google CEO Eric Schmidt to sneak out via the No 10 back door, a rather awkward metaphor for the company’s tax arrangements. The Prime Minister is well aware of rising public anger about tax avoidance, and the rise of Margaret Hodge, who has a Calvinist preacher tendency in her role as chair of the Public Accounts Committee. His spokesman yesterday explained that ‘we don’t talk about individual companies’ tax affairs’ (forgetting perhaps that Cameron managed to irritate Starbucks when he told multinationals

Monday

Isabel Hardman

MPs defeat ‘wrecking amendment’ as Cameron tries to patch things up with grassroots

MPs have just defeated Tim Loughton’s ‘wrecking amendment’ to the Same Sex Marriage Bill by 375 votes to 70, after approving the Government and Labour amendment (more on how that works here) which will introduce a consultation on heterosexual civil partnerships. Those in favour of gay marriage will, if this Bill does make it out of Parliament and into law (and we still have all the stages in the Lords to go through) give David Cameron credit for continuing to push when many faces were set against him. But Labour has played a very impressive game today, appearing to save the legislation by making a tweak to an existing government

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron should be out there making the case for gay marriage

David Cameron’s approach to the gay marriage debate inside his own party has been to take a low profile. The passion and eloquence he displayed on the subject in his first conference speech as leader, has been replaced by a strategy of keeping his contributions on the matter to a minimum. This is, I think, a pity. There is no better Conservative advocate of the case for it than the Prime Minister. The crucial point about Cameron’s position, and why he might have been able to carry some more socially conservative minded people with him, is that he starts from the position that marriage is one of the most important,

Alex Massie Alex Massie

UKIP, Pierre Poujade and a political class that’s seen to be “out-of-touch”.

Parliament is a “brothel”. The state is an enterprise of “thieves” engaged in a conspiracy against “the good little people” and the “humble housewife”. Time, then, for a party that will stand up for “the little man, the downtrodden, the trashed, the ripped off, the humiliated”. Not, as you might suspect, the most recent UKIP manifesto but, rather, the sentiments expressed by Pierre Poujade during the run-in to the 1954 elections to the French National Assembly. Poujade’s party, the Union to Defend Shopkeepers and Artisans,  shocked France’s political elite by winning 2.5 million votes and sending 55 deputies to Paris. Charles de Gaulle sniffed that “In my day, grocers voted for