Politics

Amid the attention given to the ‘Three Brexiteers’ in their efforts to establish post-Brexit trade with the rest of the world, the work of business secretary Greg Clark often gets overlooked. But in conversation with James Forsyth at the Conservative party conference in Manchester, this is what we learned about the government’s business strategy. The event was sponsored by the Nuclear Industry Association. With unemployment at a 40-year low, Britain can claim to be the ‘jobs capital of the world’, but we can’t claim to be the earnings capital of the world. The productivity gap has been puzzling economists for years, with little improvement since the economic crisis of 2008/09.

The Spectator, in association with Sky, brought together the Home Secretary, Amber Rudd, David Anderson QC, the former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, Michael Beckerman of the Internet Association, which represents the internet giants, and Andrew Griffith of Sky for a panel event at Conservative party conference. This is a summary of the discussion which took place. How do you tackle the Isis propaganda machine as it pumps out 2000 items a week? Notionally, the power lies with the West to stop the ceaseless incitement to violence. The internet and social media are, after all, largely under the control of large corporations. Yet the internet is also a powerful tool of freedom with which few

The Westminster sleaze row shows no signs of dying down with today’s papers filled with more tales of MPs behaving badly. The Telegraph warns that the Parliament sex scandal ‘could be worse than expenses’ – reporting that two female staff stopped working for a minister over claims of inappropriate behaviour. Meanwhile the Sun leads on Michael Fallon’s admission that he once touched a female journalist’s leg. That journalist – Julia Hartley-Brewer – has since come forward to say that she does not count the incident as harassment. At the time, she told the Defence Secretary she would punch him if he touched her leg again, and he duly refrained from doing

Last week I wrote a column elsewhere arguing, among other things, that it is time for the government to look beyond its (almost impossible-to-meet) commitment to a budget surplus at some point in the 2020s and think about a looser target that might allow more public spending, seeking perhaps a primary but not overall surplus. (IE tax receipts equal spending on everything except debt interest.) I mention this not to advertise that column but because I think some of the reactions to it are worth sharing. As expected, one hawkish Cabinet friend was quick to scold me for advocating ‘yet more borrowing’. But another, well-acquainted with Treasury thinking, simply described

Westminster is agog with whispers about who the Tory MPs are on a list of men and women alleged to be guilty of inappropriate sexual behaviour, sexual harassment and worse. Some names have been circulating for years, with many women across the Parliamentary Estate saying they have their own story about this MP or that minister. So why is it only now that there’s a threat to make the list public? The Harvey Weinstein allegations have prompted women – and men – in every industry to realise that they don’t have to just grin and bear bad behaviour as though it’s just an unfortunate side-effect to having your dream job.

There are a couple of predictable elements to the reporting of sex scandals involving a public figure, and both were in evidence when it was revealed that Stephen Crabb, MP, had sent ‘pretty outrageous’ messages to  a woman he’d turned down for a job in his parliamentary office. When it came to the reporting, Mr Crabb was duly described as a ‘married father of two’, then as a ‘devout Christian’, which instantly raises the suggestion: ‘hypocrite’. So, you establish the individual’s respectability before proceeding with a story that suggests the contrary. Quite what a devout Christian means in this context is hard to establish: it may mean clean-living or it

Diane Abbott – Labour will have ‘zero tolerance’ of sexual harassment The Shadow Home Secretary joined Andrew Marr to discuss, among other things, the allegations that have been surfacing about sexual harassment in the House of Commons. Marr bought up the recent case of Jared O’Mara, the Labour MP for Sheffield Hallam who appears to have disgraced himself after several online comments were unearthed: AM: Jared O’Mara – when did the Labour party know about what he’d said? DA: When I heard about it was last Monday. He came to the PLP, he apologised, a lot of people took his apology quite seriously. But then on Tuesday we had more

With the Sunday papers filled with tales of male politicians behaving badly, it’s a report in the Mail on Sunday involving a Brexit minister which is provoking the most outrage. The paper alleges that in 2010, Tory MP Mark Garnier – who now serves as an International Trade Minister – called a former aide ‘sugar t-ts’ and sent her to buy two vibrators for him at a sex shop in Soho. Garnier doesn’t deny the claims made by Caroline Edmondson – but he does insists it was ‘good-humoured high jinks’ which ‘absolutely does not constitute harassment’. Good-humoured or not, Mr S was impressed to see Sky News’ Jon Craig prove the picture

Theresa May’s style of negotiating with the European Union is coming spookily to resemble David Cameron’s. She is in the mindset where the important thing is to get a deal, rather than working out what sort of a deal is worth getting. The EU understands this, and therefore delays, making Cameron/May more desperate to settle, even on bad terms. Eventually, there is an inadequate deal which the British government then has to sell to a doubting electorate. Mr Cameron was punished for this at the referendum he had called. Mrs May is inviting punishment at a general election. This is an extract from Charles Moore’s Notes, which appears in this

Politicians’ determination to dissemble is getting worse. Are they sent on courses teaching obfuscation? Since returning to daily TV I’ve discovered that MPs are more skilled at dodging questions than ever before. Infuriating to listen to at home — but if you’re the questioner being shamelessly blanked or blocked, the response (in my case, at least) is visceral anger. I try not to interrupt someone if they’re actually attempting, however ineptly, to answer a question, but I won’t tolerate duck-diving. I call offenders out on it as soon as I realise they’re trying it on. So far on GMB, I’ve had ill-tempered exchanges with, among others, Nigel Farage and Sir

“Look on the bright side…Brexit no longer seems so serious” Chappatte in Le Temps, Switzerland The events in Catalonia dominate Europe’s press this morning, seen as the biggest political crisis to hit the country since the attempted coup d’état of 1981. The Madrid-based El País says the invocation of Article 155 was done so ‘legally and transparently’ and does not constitute an act of aggression against Catalan self-government or the rights of Catalans. Rather, El País views Madrid’s response to the crisis as ‘legitimate and necessary’ in the face of the challenge posed by Catalonia’s ‘irresponsible and reckless’ political leaders. It calls a ‘quick, legal and legitimate’ return to self-government

Political Cabinet on Tuesday was a fascinating occasion, as I say in The Sun, and not just because Andrea Leadsom took the opportunity to tell Theresa May she had a wonderful smile.  The Cabinet were given a detailed presentation on the state of public opinion—and bits of it made for grim reading for them. David Mundell, the Scottish Secretary, summed up the mood of the meeting when he told Theresa May, to chuckles, that his first impression from all the data was that she shouldn’t call an election anytime soon. The problem for the Tories is that the voters are wary of their values and fed up with austerity. A