Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
Why, in the final few days of campaigning, are both sides in the Scottish independence referendum becoming obsessed with bullying and media bias? Shouldn’t they use their valuable airtime making the case for the Union, or for independence, or rebutting claims by the other side about the NHS? Today Alistair Darling said that ‘Scotland will
Just a few days now until it’s all over, and those against Scottish independence are trying every option. David Beckham has written of the ‘common bond’ between English and Scottish sportsmen, the Queen has offered as much of an intervention as is possible when she is remaining officially neutral, while David Cameron is going from
Who will be relieved and reassured when they read this weekend’s polls on how Thursday’s independence referendum will go? Well, it looks like neither camp has much to celebrate as the polls are all over the place – which means that anything could happen in just a few days’ time. So here’s what we know
Unsurprisingly, Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservatives picked Boris Johnson last night as their parliamentary candidate for the 2015 election. Boris has a 11,216 majority to defend, but that’s only the start of the work he needs to do. His supporters are well aware that before the Mayor can ever throw his hat into that leadership
Anyone who thinks that the latest YouGov poll on Scottish independence, which shows the ‘No’ camp with a six-point lead over ‘Yes’ at 52 per cent to 48 per cent (once don’t-knows are excluded) is getting a little ahead of themselves. It is significant that this is the same pollster who sent Westminster into panic
Even when it is at peace, the Conservative party deals in hypotheticals all of which involve David Cameron being ousted in one way or another. That’s why backbenchers have been wargaming what will happen to David Cameron if Scotland votes ‘Yes’ next week. It’s why 1922 Committee executive members have been calling fellow MPs, or
Alex Salmond gave a very good speech earlier today about why Scots should vote for independence. It was full of the sort of emotion and rhetoric that the ‘No’ campaign is only now beginning to summon in the final few days of campaigning. He said: ‘A ‘Yes’ vote is about building something better. It is
It is very difficult to see how David Cameron would survive a ‘Yes’ vote in the Scottish referendum. There are certainly Conservatives who are making detailed plans to oust the Prime Minister if Scotland does vote to leave. But it is also worth noting that a ‘No’ vote would not ensure an easy ride for
A little later today, MPs will move from discussing ‘Ukraine, Middle East, North Africa and Security’, a debate title that shows how dreadful the international scene is at the moment, to discussing the governance of the House of Commons. This, for those who had been distracted from the issue by other less important matters, is
While Westminster sent its own plea to Scottish voters, David Cameron and Ed Miliband were both making fine, impassioned speeches that both tried to scotch the SNP line that a ‘Yes’ vote was the only way to achieve a fairer Scotland. David Cameron had to address to specific – and quite beguiling – argument that
PMQs was an odd affair today, and not just because there was no PM. It was more that William Hague and Harriet Harman, left in charge while their respective leaders try to save the Union, didn’t really do a question time at all. Their entire exchange was one speech pleading with the Scots to stay,
Jean-Claude Juncker clearly appreciated that high-five David Cameron gave him in Brussels recently: he’s appointed Lord Hill to a sizeable economic portfolio as the UK’s European Commissioner. The full list of jobs, published here, is being billed as a ‘strong and experienced team standing for change’, and Hill, who Juncker reportedly had to google, takes the
There’s nothing wrong with a bit of last minute pressure to concentrate the mind, if it produces the right sort of results. The problem is that the pressure of the last few days of the Scottish independence referendum seems to be getting to a lot of the coolest Westminster politicians. Alistair Darling sounded genuinely unsettled
Here are a number of things that the Westminster parties’ response to the narrowing Scottish independence polls have definitely not been. Absolutely definitely not. 1. A cobbled-together response The three parties deciding to announce the new powers for Scotland and timetable for the handover of those powers in the event of a ‘No’ vote may,
The Nationalists are of course right: this is a desperate last-minute tactic that the anti-independence camp never thought they’d have to dig out before 18 September. But with polls continually showing that the result is now too close to call, further powers on taxation and welfare, revealed by Gordon Brown last night, are an essential
Is Gordon Brown going on a freelancing operation with his timetable for new powers for a Scotland that votes ‘No’? The former Prime Minister has this afternoon released the timetable for further devolution, with the formal process beginning the day after the result, leading to a draft Scotland Bill being published by Burns Night in
After the panic in Westminster over the weekend about the Sunday Times‘ poll putting ‘Yes’ in the lead came the something-must-be-dones. David Cameron said he would ‘strain every sinew’ to fight for a ‘No’ vote. But today his official spokesman was quizzed on the suggestion that he might have pulled out of a planned visit
Alistair Darling continues to insist that he’s confident of victory in the Scottish independence campaign, telling the Today programme this morning that ‘I am confident that we will win, because we do have a very strong positive vision of what Scotland can be’. But he didn’t strengthen that vision either with further promises about powers
Tomorrow’s Sunday Times poll by YouGov puts the Yes campaign ahead at 51 per cent, with No on 49 per cent when undecided voters are excluded (even when they’re included, ‘yes’ are still ahead by two points: 47-45). In the space of four weeks, ‘No’ has blown a 22-point lead. It was only recently that the
The government has just lost a vote in the House of Commons on the ‘bedroom tax’/removal of the spare-room subsidy/underoccupancy penalty/Size Criteria for People Renting in the Social Rented Sector (the correct, if rather clunky, name). There was a three-line whip from the Tories on the vote, but the Lib Dems had decided they would
