Uk politics

Monday

David Blackburn

Salmond rules out move for Megrahi

Alex Salmond has just been on Sky News and he ruled out extraditing the Lockerbie bomber. He said that the Scottish government has no intention of asking for al-Megrahi to be extradited and the Libyan National Transitional Council appears to have no intention of granting extradition. He also added that there was no scope for further interviews with al-Megrahi, such was the prisoner’s condition. Although he reiterated that the Lockerbie case would be re-opened should further evidence emerge. He also defended the Scottish government’s decision to transfer al-Megrahi to Libya, saying that the original medical judgement of three months life expectancy was never definitive and therefore it had been impossible

David Blackburn

More questions for UKBA

The Home Office and the UK Border Agency (UKBA) completed the review into the asylum seekers legacy backlog ahead of schedule at the end of last month. 450,000 case files have now been closed and the government is as pleased as punch. Earlier in the summer, Damian Green heralded the achievement as one of “three fundamental changes to the asylum system.” Not everyone shares his enthusiasm and serious concerns about UKBA remain. First, the review is incomplete. An as yet unidentified number of cases have been granted ‘temporary leave to remain’ for up to 3 years, which merely defers the decision to grant asylum or deport. The Home Office concedes

David Blackburn

The government turns its attention to the Fletcher case

The Lockerbie bomber, Abdel Basset al-Megrahi, is at death’s door. His relatives told journalists that he is ‘comatose’ at a family house in Tripoli. There have been calls to extradite Megrahi in recent days; last week, the ubiquitous William Hague said that he hoped the Scottish authorities were considering the matter. The Libyan National Transitional has since indicated that Megrahi will remain in the country to die. Mohammed al-Alagi, the NTC justice minister, said: “We will not give any Libyan citizen to the West. Al-Megrahi has already been judged once and he will not be judged again … We do not hand over Libyan citizens, (Muammar) Gaddafi does.” Andrew Mitchell,

Sunday

James Forsyth

The Lib Dem conference advantage

Traditionally the fact that the Liberal Democrats hold their conference first and still vote on party policy at it has been regarded as a disadvantage. But this year, I suspect that these two things will be in their favour. By going first, they will get to set the terms of debate for conference season. They’ll be able to spike their coalition partners’ guns on a whole variety of post-riots issues. They can make clear that they won’t accept any changes to the human rights act or any government push to encourage marriage. Even better, they can pass motions to this effect. They also will have first crack at setting out

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

British jobs for whom? | 28 August 2011

“More than 400,000 people have been out of work for more than two years, according to analysis of the latest Government data by think tank IPPR.” So runs its press release today, trailed in the Sunday press and the wires. I hope the IPPR didn’t spend too much of their donors’ money on this research, as the figure is updated quarterly and freely available from the DWP website (click here). Add up only three categories: lone parents, jobseekers allowance and incapacity benefit the figure stands at 2.4 million, certainly “more than 400,000”. Worse, at the peak of the boom (Feb07), this figure was even higher at 2.5 million. And yes, it’s

David Blackburn

Labour’s new attack strategy: Cameron’s a right-winger

The Observer has a cracking scoop: a brief document detailing a new Labour plan to attack Cameron. The memo has been written by Shaun Woodward, the former Tory MP and Labour cabinet minister who now heads Labour’s anti-Tory unit. He will report to the shadow cabinet in the next few weeks. He says: ‘At the last election we faced a Conservative party (and a Conservative leader in David Cameron) whose strategic goal was to decontaminate their brand, intending to present themselves as reformed, modern, centrist and pragmatic. Cameron was effective in promoting a perception [that] his party had changed. But here is the paradox: whilst the Tories made changes before

David Blackburn

Osborne’s crusade

‘Tax evasion is morally repugnant. It’s stealing from law-abiding people who face higher taxes to make good the lost revenue. Those who evade taxes, like benefit cheats, are leeches on society. And my message to those who try to hide their incomes from the Revenue in offshore bank accounts and false declarations is simple: we will find you and your money.’ That was written by George Osborne in today’s Observer. He promises that the deal with Switzerland is “just the start” of his campaign to close tax havens. The rest of the article then relates the coalition’s achievements at reducing tax avoidance by increasing charges on capital gains and non-domiciled

Saturday

James Forsyth

Why energy bills will be one of the big issues of the autumn

One of the big political issues of the autumn is going to be energy bills. Among Tory MPs, there’s mounting concern that the coalition’s green policies are driving up the price of energy rather than helping to bring it down. They fear that this is both acting as a drag on the economy and adding to the squeeze on family budgets. So, today’s story in The Times about how a carbon trading scheme—started under the last government—has led to households being charged, on average, £120 more than they should have been in utility bills is going to turn up the political heat on this subject. The paper alleges that: “Energy

Ed Howker

Boris’s last chance to show imagination

Back in 2008, one Mayoral candidate explained that it would require imagination to solve London’s housing problems. The candidate developed a manifesto that suggested a new form of “democratic” home ownership, which which would “help build stronger communities”, and which would allow houses to “remain affordable for future generations”. He said he would “create a network of Community Land Trusts, managed by cooperatives to give homes to people who are indispensable to this city.” His name was Boris Johnson and since he was elected not a single Community Land Trust has materialised in the capital. This is a quiet tragedy. Just like Ken Livingstone, Boris has spent huge amounts of

David Blackburn

Willetts’ musings

Coffee House has already touched on David Willetts’ interview with the Times (£), highlighting his view that the 50p tax rate is important to prove that “we’re all in this together”. Willetts does not limit his words to the top rate of tax. In addition to his universities brief, he discusses equal pay issues, social reform and the recent riots. Willetts confesses to being a “muser”, never happier than when applying his renowned brain to the broad sweep of government policy. “I wouldn’t be able to function properly as a politician unless I was able to range across some of these wider issues. It just wouldn’t be worth it,” he says.

David Blackburn

Clegg at odds with many Lib Dems over 50p rate

The future of the 50 per cent tax rate is growing issue within the coalition. Unlike most government wrangles, this one doesn’t split on partisan lines, with the yellows on one hand and the blues on the other. The debate is largely being forged by personalities. George Osborne is well entrenched; Eric Pickles weighed-in for the race last weekend, saying that he wanted people “to keep more money in their pockets”, indicating that he hopes the rate is temporary. (He went take a swipe at Vince Cable’s mansions tax, which he described as a “big mistake”.)   It’s David Willetts’ turn this weekend. The Times reports (£) that Willetts believes

Friday

Danielle Lazarus

The danger of disproportionate sentences

It’s great that hundreds of looters are being punished properly, and the police are to be congratulated for working hard to find the thugs responsible for damage during the riots. But whilst it’s important to be tough, let’s also beware of completely  ludicrous, perhaps counterproductive sentencing. Today it was reported that a young man called Anderson Fernandes has been jailed for 16 months for stealing an ice cream. He walked into an open ice cream store, prepared two scoops on a cone, took one lick, then passed it on to a nearby woman because, he said, he didn’t like the coffee flavour. Is this really a crime that deserves a

David Blackburn

Clegg paints the world yellow

Nick Clegg laughed-off the dousing of blue paint he received in Glasgow yesterday, like one of Noel Edmonds’ unwitting victims. Today, Clegg has turned into the grinning douser: drenching his coalition partners in yellow paint by saying that the European Convention on Human Rights will not be watered down. Writing in the Guardian, Clegg says that the Conservatives are right to seek operational reform of the European Court of Human Rights, but the common ground ends there. He says that “the Human Rights Act and the European convention on human rights have been instrumental” in preventing injustices from council snooping to the misuse of DNA records and that the incorporation

Thursday

James Forsyth

Beating Labour’s education legacy

If it is GCSE results day, there must be a row about government education policy. True to form, the NASUWT — a union whose role often appears to be to make the NUT look moderate by comparison — has come out with a comically hyperbolic statement accusing the coalition of a ‘betrayal of young people’ because of its decision to reform the educational maintenance allowance. What the NASUWT statement ignores is that the real betrayal of young people has been pushing them into doing courses and qualifications that condemn them to a life of low-skilled labour at best. Last year, only 16 per cent of pupils achieved a C or

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Defining the government through argument

Every government spin doctor knows that one of the ways you can get media attention is by picking a fight. So, when the Cabinet all return to their desks in September, expect to see the coalition getting into some scraps to try and define itself in the public mind. Greg Clark, the newly appointed minister for cities and one of the most highly thought-of members of the government, has already spent much of the summer skirmishing with the National Trust and The Campaign to Protect Rural England over the government’s planned changes to the planning system. The aim is not only to push these very necessary changes through, but to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s immigration problem

Poor David Cameron. He pledged to reduce annual net migration from the current 240,000 to the “tens of thousands” and what happens? Net migration in 2010 was up by 21 per cent from 2009. In a way, he deserves the flak he’ll get because this was a daft target that could only have been set by someone poorly-advised about the nature of immigration. And the target allows success to be presented as failure. The inflow to Britain has stayed steady (see graph below), but the number emigrating from Britain has fallen. This is a compliment to Cameron: the most sincere vote people can make is with their feet. And in

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The schools revolution in action

Harris Academies, one of the best-known new chains of state secondaries, have today posted an  extraordinary set of results. It’s worth studying because it shows how a change of management can transform education for pupils in deprived areas. Pour in money if you like, but the way a school is run is the key determinant. This is the idea behind City Academies, perhaps Labour’s single best (and most rapidly-vindicated) policy. The notion is rejected by teaching unions, who loathe the idea that some teachers are better than others. Bad schools are kept bad by the idea that their performance is due to deeply-ingrained social problems, etc. Harris has produced a table showing

David Blackburn

New immigration figures

The Conservative wing of this government is on a quest to reduce net migration to, in the words of David Cameron, the “tens of thousands from the hundreds of thousands”. Liberal Democrat ministers may have dragged their feet on the issue, but there are serious doubts about whether Cameron’s policies will have any real effect. As Fraser revealed last week, the coalition is struggling to secure a substantial reduction in immigration, with foreign born workers continuing to fill many jobs in Britain. This poses a threat to IDS’ welfare reform plans, as well as an electoral quandary for the Tories.  New migration figures for the period from 2009 to the present have been published today. Coffee House is examining them at the moment

David Blackburn

Treasury agrees Swiss bank tax

First came the Germans and then came the Brits. The UK Treasury has secured an agreement with authorities in Zurich to tax the assets of UK citizens held in Swiss banks to reduce on tax avoidance and stamp out evasion. The deal will follow the lines of that which Switzerland made with Germany last month. The FT has details: ‘Taxes on future income will be withheld at a rate of 48 per cent, corresponding to the top 50 per cent rate that now applies to Britain’s highest earners. A one-off levy of between 19 and 34 per cent will be applied to all Swiss accounts held by UK residents, with the

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Cameron winning over the Libya doubters

“They’ll like us when we win,” the West Wing’s Toby Ziegler said of the Arab world. David Cameron might have said the same when public opinion was turning against the intervention in Libya. And, judging by today’s YouGov poll, he’d have been right. Public support for military intervention has mirrored the public’s view of how well the action is going. In the first two weeks, when optimism prevailed, the public were largely in favour. However, as that optimism wore off and people increasingly doubted that the rebels could succeed, more and more began to oppose our involvement. Before the weekend, just 26 per cent thought the intervention was going well,