David cameron

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Score draw at PMQs as leaders bicker about energy bills

Perhaps David Cameron got up super-early to open his birthday presents today, or perhaps he’s a bit tired after his fortnight of party conference and reshuffle mayhem, but the Prime Minister wasn’t on top form today at PMQs. Neither was Ed Miliband, for that matter. Both men bickered about who had the best energy policy, like two kids comparing birthday presents in a playground. Neither really got in a deadly shot, with both seeming a little halting. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron v Miliband on energy prices’ on Audioboo

Monday

The Spectator

As it happened: Government and shadow cabinet reshuffle

The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats undertook reshuffles today. As it happened, here is how Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Sebastian Payne reported the day’s events. You can see a list of who’s in and out here. 1839:  So in the end three reshuffles that could have toiled on all week are pretty much wrapped up by the end of play. Here are our top lines from tonight’s Evening Blend: All three parties reshuffled their frontbench ranks, with a cull of the Blairites in Labour and jobs for rising stars and allies of George Osborne for the Tories. …while Nick Clegg showed his brutal side by sacking popular Home

Sunday

James Forsyth

Female and northern MPs charge your phone, the reshuffle is on

There are two more government resignations ahead of tonight’s reshuffle. John Randall, the deputy chief whip, has gone as has Chloe Smith, the Cabinet Office minister. Randall’s retirement has been overdue for a while now in the opinion of many in Downing Street. There is irritation at the way he put pressure on David Cameron to get rid of Andrew Mitchell during the plebgate affair. His departure and the expected elevation of several whips—Nicky Morgan and Karen Bradley are both in line for promotion—paves the way for a freshening up of the whips’ office. Chloe Smith quitting is going to tempt everyone to dust off the footage of that Paxman

Friday

James Forsyth

Bercow baiter Simon Burns to run for deputy speaker

We’re about to find out what Tory MPs really think of John Bercow. Simon Burns, Bercow’s biggest Tory critic–and that’s says something, has resigned his ministerial post to run for deputy speaker. If he wins, the Speaker will be forced to work day in, day out with someone who, as Tim Shipman who broke the story points out, once called him a ‘stupid, sanctimonious dwarf’. David Cameron’s very warm letter accepting Burns’ resignation suggests that the Prime Minister is rather amused by the prospect. I also suspect that he’s grateful for Burns freeing up a ministerial post ahead of the reshuffle next week. The vote for deputy speaker is a

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 podcast: Tory conference review

Peter Oborne thought David Cameron’s speech was well delivered with a new sense maturity, while James Forsyth believes the blandness will reignite the Tories. Isabel Hardman reckons it was less exciting than last year and Iain Martin thinks the Tories are now perplexed by Ed Miliband. Guido Fawkes thought Cameron outshone his rivals and Dan Hodges thinks the Tories have held their nerve On this week’s View from 22 podcast, our panel of commentators review this week’s Tory conference in Manchester, what it means for the party’s standing and debate who ‘won’ the conference season. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the

John O'Neill

Will David Cameron be sticking his finger up at Ed Balls after the latest service sector figures?

Yesterday David Cameron told the Tory conference that he had a new gesture for Ed Balls – a finger pointing upwards to indicate a stream of positive figures on the economy. You can almost imagine him doing it today at his desk in Downing Street after reading the latest figures on the service sector. Markit/CIPS’ Purchasing Managers Index of activity recorded a level of 60.3, a slight decrease from August’s seven-year high of 60.5, but enough to give the UK’s best quarter for the services sector since 1997. Any number above 50 indicates growth. The level of growth, according to research from Citi’s Michael Saunders, could be consistent with an

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The ravelling and unravelling of the only policy in David Cameron’s speech

David Cameron’s speech to Tory conference yesterday was supposed to be policy-free so that the media would pick up his list of achievements because it had no other choice. The problem with this, though, was that the papers found a policy in the speech anyway, and if they did splash on the speech, they chose this policy, not the ‘finish the job’ line or any other (although the Mail used the ‘Land of Hope is Tory’ line). It was on housing benefits for the under-25s, but it wasn’t exactly ready to be a set-piece conference announcement, more a fleeting reference to gain more applause in the hall. Because the policy

Peter Oborne

In it together? Matthew d’Ancona’s book on the coalition is a huge letdown, says Peter Oborne

There are two ways of being a political journalist. One is to stay on the outside and try to avoid being compromised by too much contact with politicians. This approach comes at what many regard as an impossible cost. After all, the job of a journalist is to get stories and gain insight. Story-getting can only come through access, but this too creates a problem. The politicians who supply information, atmosphere, gossip and revelation tend to demand loyalty — and protection — in return. There is no right answer. Matthew d’Ancona has always sought the status of an insider. His Sunday Telegraph column is valuable because it provides an accurate

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Tory conference 2013: five things we learned

1. Labour set the agenda for this conference. Ed Miliband might be preoccupied by his row with the Daily Mail about his father, but he can take heart that his shift to the left in Brighton last week had a huge influence over this Conservative party conference. This wasn’t just the cost of living agenda, which Tory ministers felt the need to rebut and respond to in their own speeches, but, as James explains in his politics column this week (get a sneak preview on Coffee House here), Ed Miliband has energised the Tories into being more determined than ever to beat Labour. David Cameron’s own speech contained 25 references to Labour, and

Sebastian Payne

View from 22 podcast special: Cameron’s land of hope and Tory

Isabel Hardman thinks David Cameron’s speech was very well delivered but lacking in any actual news, while James Forsyth believes it was given to draw a clear dividing lines between the Tories and Labour. In this special View from 22 podcast, we analyse whether the Prime Minister’s speech achieved what it needed too, struck the right tone and matched up to Labour’s challenge. You can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the embedded player below: listen to ‘View from 22 podcast special: Cameron’s land of hope and Tory’ on Audioboo

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Who’s united the Tories? Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage

The Tory party has been at peace with itself this week. Eurosceptic backbenchers have given Nigel Farage a verbal kicking on the fringe, Cabinet ministers have stuck resolutely to the ‘hard- working’ conference script, and even Boris Johnson has behaved himself. Gay marriage, which so divided the leadership from the grassroots, has barely been mentioned, and you’d never know that just a month ago David Cameron lost a Commons vote on Syria. The new harmonious mood has come about in part because the leadership has moved towards the rest of the party. Tory conference was once decorated with posters extolling the benefits of ‘the big society’. Now, there is a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories shift their plans on benefits for under-25s

Although David Cameron’s speech was deliberately light on policy, it did contain one hint about a manifesto commitment for the 2015 general election. The Prime Minister told the conference that ‘we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.’ The party is clear this afternoon that this will be a fully fleshed-out pledge in the Conservative manifesto, and that it is linked to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood’s review of training and education for under-25s. The benefits that could be docked for young people

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s speech shows he wants a re-run of 1992

David Cameron’s Chequers speech writing session was held hours after Ed Miliband had finished speaking at Labour conference, and it showed today. This was Cameron’s passionate, sometimes angry, response to the Labour leader. He wanted to make the case that Miliband’s move to the left would endanger the British economy. His message was give me the time and I will finish the job. What’s the job, building a ‘land of opportunity’. This seems to mean an enterprise economy with an education system good enough to enable social mobility. It is a very Tory message. But Cameron was keen to show that he’s still a compassionate Conservative. As he discussed his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour set the test for this Conservative conference – but Cameron passed

David Cameron is an essay crisis Prime Minister. He works best when his back is against the wall. And this conference he had a last-minute test set for him which he had to step up to. That test was set by the Labour party last week, with its focus on the cost of living, and Cameron passed it. His speech was written with clever flourishes and turns of phrase – ‘the land of despair was Labour, but the land of hope is Tory’, ‘Abu Qatada had his very own May Day this year’ and ‘I’ve got a gesture of my own for Ed Balls’ – but it was also dominated

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron skips conference announcements to boast about Tory record

Normally when a Prime Minister gives a speech to a party conference, the ‘line’ for the next day’s newspapers is pretty clear. A policy announcement means it’s easy to write the introduction to the story, which is supposed to sum up what happened in under 25 words. But David Cameron’s speech today could only really be summed up as ‘Today the Prime Minister gave a speech on all the things he’s done and asked for time to finish the job’. His speech had no policy announcements in it, other than a hint that under-25s could lose their benefits unless they were ‘earning or learning’. This is an impressive bet by

Ed West Ed West

Opponents of marriage tax breaks need to ‘check their privilege’

What with the flap about Ed Miliband’s dad, the legion of the outraged have forgotten what they were planning to get angry about this week – the marriage tax break, which is social engineering and a blatant Tory attempt to punish single mothers in favour of the patriarchy. As a paid-up member of the patriarchy it always sounds more fun coming from people complaining about it than it actually is. Marriage, for men, is a form of domestication and many would rather spend their 30s and 40s playing computer games, if possible with a live-in girlfriend to whom they have made no commitments. Many end up getting married partly because

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What will Cameron say about the Lib Dems?

The Tories are naturally the most worked up about Ukip – while trying to publicly pretend that it doesn’t exist, of course – but when David Cameron gives his speech to conference shortly, what will he say about the Lib Dems? He faces two yellow challenges: the first is to try to stop the Lib Dems claiming credit as the party of the moral high ground without which the Tories would be a rabidly unfair party unconcerned with the needs of the vulnerable. The second is giving the impression that while the Coalition may conduct itself with greater serenity than anyone could have imagined when it formed in 2010, he

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Don’t be seduced by Labour’s quick fixes, let us finish the job

One of the striking things about the extracts of David Cameron’s speech that have been briefed so far is that the Conservative Prime Minister is having to respond to a number of key themes of Ed Miliband’s conference last week. Labour should be pleased that it has set the agenda for this conference season, not just spooking ministers on the cost of living, but also forcing a defence of business and profit from the Prime Minister. Ed Miliband’s row with the Mail has also overshadowed the conference. The Prime Minister will say: ‘We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise… these are not dirty, elitist words – they’re not

Tuesday

Melanie McDonagh

Women think that David Cameron is out of touch for good reason

Well, the great breadmaking debate hots up. David Cameron neatly sidestepped the heffalump trap that Nick Ferrari put in his path in an interview on LBC when he asked him the price of a Value Loaf in Tesco or Sainsbury. As you and I know, dear reader, Mr Cameron would no more eat that stuff than his own fingernails, and I for one applaud his good sense. If you can afford not to, don’t. But his elegant solution to the problem of not knowing that loaf-shaped carbohydrate costs 47p (he thought bread costs ‘north of a pound’, which is true of the kind he eats, only double that) was to