Politics Archives

Tuesday

12 Apr 2016

Steerpike

Spice Girls get cold feet about Brexit

When Simon Sebag Montefiore interviewed the Spice Girls for The Spectator, the five pop starlets surprised a lot of fans when they revealed their views on UK politics, the monarchy and Europe. Posh Spice, now known better as Victoria Beckham, emphasised the importance of the single currency: ‘The Euro- bureaucrats are destroying every bit of national identity and individuality. Let me give you an example — those new passports are revolting, an insult to our kingdom, our independence. We must keep our national individuality.’ Meanwhile Ginger Spice, also known as Geri Halliwell, declared that the Spice Girls as a collective were Eurosceptic: ‘All those countries look the same. Only England looks different. That is why

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn to give ‘Corbyn the Musical’ a miss

Tonight marks the first preview performance of the much-anticipated Corbyn the Musical: the Motorcycle Diaries. The ‘no-holds barred political satire’ musical — written by Rupert Myers and Bobby Friedman — imagines Jeremy Corbyn facing a nuclear crisis. It will also offers a take on what may have gone on when Corbyn and Diane Abbott are said to have gone on a motorcycle holiday in the 1970s. Alas Mr S hears that the Labour leader is less than amused with the idea; he is yet to respond to an invitation to attend. So, to give Corbyn — and those who failed to get tickets in time — a taste for the musical, here are the lyrics

Steerpike

Ed Miliband makes a comeback on The Agenda

One of Ed Miliband’s most embarrassing television moments from his time as Labour leader came when he appeared on The Agenda in 2014. Red Ed was lost for words when former pop star Myleene Klass turned on him on the ITV show as she berated him over Labour’s proposed mansion tax. The former Hear-Say star criticised Miliband’s approach to tax: ‘Ed’s getting isolated because no one thinks it is going to work. You may as well just tax me on this glass of water. You can’t just point at things and tax them.’ So it was a bold move for Miliband to return to the scene of the crime last night

Peter Oborne

Revealed: UK government blocks foreign journalists from press freedom conference

On its website the Foreign and Commonwealth Office claims that ‘we’re strengthening the Commonwealth as a focus for democratic practice and development. We’re working with the Commonwealth Secretariat to strengthen its institutions so it promotes human rights, democratic values and the rule of law.’ It continues: ‘we’re engaging with civil society across the Commonwealth.’ In the light of this declaration one would expect the FCO to welcome this week’s conference in London by the Commonwealth Journalists Association. The would-be participants spend their lives, often at high personal risk, to bring the truth to their followers in their own countries. They include many of the best and bravest editors and reporters.

Isabel Hardman

Parliament is becoming an easy place for ministers to calm rows

The government has had a messy few weeks: that much is clear. And the latest mess, which is the row following the Panama Papers leaks, is still all over the press a week after the story broke. There are apparently more revelations to come. But the government has also settled into a pattern of having multiple damaging rows which are played out in the media over days, with a series of ill-judged responses making matters worse, followed by an attempt to calm things down in the House of Commons on a Monday afternoon. Before recess, there was the medley of statements on the resignation of Iain Duncan Smith and the

Monday

11 Apr 2016

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: PM branded ‘dodgy Dave’ as tax row rumbles on

David Cameron has been defending himself in the Commons following the publication of his tax return. He said he found some of the comments about his father ‘deeply hurtful’. He also held his hands up for not responding to criticism sooner following last week’s Panama papers controversy: One of the more personal jibes thrown at him in the chamber came from Dennis Skinner, who branded the PM ‘dodgy Dave’ in a remark which got him booted out of the Commons: Jeremy Corbyn was more measured in his response to David Cameron, but he still used the debate to say there was ‘one rule for the super-rich and another for the

James Forsyth

Has David Cameron’s tax debacle united the Tories?

Yet again, David Cameron has reason to be grateful for the quality of the opposition facing him. First of all, Jeremy Corbyn took until Cameron’s statement to release his own tax return, meaning that journalists were studying that as much as his response in the House of Commons. Second, Corbyn’s own response was long on verbiage but failed to ask any difficult questions of Cameron. Finally, Dennis Skinner had John Bercow order him from the chamber for refusing to withdraw his use of the word ‘dodgy’ about Cameron, which rather reinforced the point that the case against Cameron is long on name-calling and short on specifics. Cameron himself came armed

Douglas Murray

Trevor Phillips is finally discovering the pitfalls of the term ‘Islamophobia’

The former head of the UK Equality and Human Rights Commission has once again said the ‘unsayable’. In a piece for the Sunday Times (ahead of a Channel 4 documentary to go out on Wednesday) Trevor Phillips unveils an in-depth new poll carried out by ICM (which can be viewed here). The findings include the facts that: 23 percent of British Muslims polled support the idea of there being areas of the UK where sharia law is introduced instead of British law. 39 percent believe wives should always obey their husbands. 31 percent believe it is acceptable for British Muslims to keep more than one wife. 52 percent think homosexuality

Steerpike

Watch: Dennis Skinner ejected from Commons over ‘dodgy Dave’ insult

This afternoon David Cameron has had to face the music in the Commons over his shares in his father’s offshore fund. While he received a lukewarm response from his own party, the most hostile response came from the Beast of Bolsover. After Cameron gave an address on his tax affairs, Dennis Skinner angrily responded by calling the Prime Minister ‘dodgy Dave’: ‘At the time when he was dividing the nation between striders and scroungers, I asked him a very important question about the windfall he received when he wrote off the mortgage of the premises in Notting Hill, and I said he didn’t write off the mortgage of the one the taxpayers were helping to

Tom Goodenough

Osborne and Corbyn publish their tax returns – but are they any more interesting than the PMs?

George Osborne and Jeremy Corbyn have now both followed in the Prime Minister’s footsteps by publishing details of their tax returns. As James Forsyth said on our Spectator podcast earlier today, it was just a matter of time before the Chancellor and Labour leader bowed down to pressure. But what do the two documents actually tell us? The simple answer is that Osborne and Corbyn’s tax returns make for even less interesting reading than David Cameron’s. Properly speaking, Osborne’s isn’t even a tax return at all but rather a summary of the main bits. It shows his earnings as Chancellor; it also appears to show that he isn’t putting any

Tom Goodenough

The Coffee House podcast: David Cameron’s tax headache

David Cameron has bowed down to pressure by publishing his tax return and now the Chancellor has done the same. But where will the calls for financial transparency end? And how did this issue blow up into such a big political row? Spectator editor Fraser Nelson joins Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth to talk about the Prime Minister’s tax headache. Speaking on the podcast, James Forsyth says the whole topic shows Downing Street is so fixated on Europe that it has taken an eye off the ball. He tells Fraser: ‘I think what is going on is this: Europe is totally and utterly distracting Downing Street from everything else. This

Steerpike

Has Jeremy Corbyn lost his tax return?

Oh dear. Although Jeremy Corbyn spent the best part of last week calling on David Cameron to publish his tax return, the Labour leader appears to be struggling to follow his own advice. Despite Corbyn promising to publish his tax return last Tuesday, the document is yet to see the light of day. Rather than a tax evasion conspiracy, it’s thought that Corbyn simply can’t find it; with some outlets reporting that he has had to ask HMRC to send him a copy. However, the Leader’s Office dispute this — they insist that it will be published soon. So as things stand, we have a Prime Minister for whom the Panama Papers have turned into

Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s handling of the tax row means it won’t go away any time soon

David Cameron will give a statement in the Commons addressing the row about his tax arrangements, with George Osborne expected to publish his own tax return in the coming days too. That the Prime Minister has had to prepare a statement for MPs so that he can avoid being hauled to the Commons by Labour with an urgent question shows both how serious this row is for Cameron, but also how he is trying to compensate for being unprepared last week. He had clearly underestimated how potent the revelations in the Panama Papers would be, thinking that they could be dismissed with a mere line about this being a ‘private

Steerpike

Liz Kendall hits out at ‘old-fashioned misogyny’ on the hard left

Although Liz Kendall insists that she gets on well with her former Labour leadership rival Jeremy Corbyn on a personal level, she is less fond of some of his supporters. While it’s well known that Kendall is on the opposite end of the spectrum to Corbyn when it comes to their political views within Labour, the Blairite says that it is the ‘old-fashioned misogyny’ of the hard left that she takes issue with. In an interview with the Sunday Times, Kendall says that many members of the hard left targeted her with misogynistic abuse just because she held opposing political views: ‘There’s a lot of old-fashioned misogyny on the hard left; you’ve only got

Sunday

10 Apr 2016

Steerpike

Polly Toynbee forgets to check her privilege on Marr

With the Sunday papers filled with the details of David Cameron’s past tax returns, the subject of his family’s wealth remains high on the news agenda. Happily Guardian heavyweight Polly Toynbee was on hand to offer her take on the row during the Andrew Marr show paper review. Toynbee argued that the real story was not any supposed wrongdoing on Cameron’s part when it comes to paying tax, but instead his personal wealth is the problem. She went on to muse that the Prime Minister was ‘phenomenally rich’ and that this would not sit well with the public given the ‘extraordinary growth of inequality in this country’: ‘That’s the real story, it’s not really about

Melanie McDonagh

There’s a right way – and a wrong way – to hold a referendum

Personally, I love referendums. It’s the notion that the people really can have things their way which is so pleasing, unlike the normal state of affairs when every issue of importance is bundled up in a party political package in a general election which makes it effectively impossible to unpick, say, your candidate’s approach to assisted dying from their party’s approach to income tax. My favourites are the ones when, as with the Swiss vote on banning minarets, the people listen carefully to the considered opinion of big business, the churches and the major parties…and then go and vote exactly the opposite way. I do, however, take a dim view

Fraser Nelson

David Cameron’s tax returns tell us nothing. So why did he publish them?

It’s just as well that David Cameron abandoned his career in public relations because he seems to be comically (or, if you’re a journalist, deliciously) bad at crisis management. He has done absolutely nothing wrong, but is carrying on as if he’s Ken Dodd in 1989 – except Dodd handled it all more deftly. The Prime Minister has now released six years of his tax returns, which is odd because no one is asking questions about his income over the last six years. But still, he wants to tell us about the £100k annual rent he’s getting form his Notting Hill flat and the £3,052 of bank interest (which suggests a balance of

Friday

8 Apr 2016

Steerpike

Labour’s war on the media rumbles on: Corbyn tells off hacks outside his home

As David Cameron finds himself in hot water over his admission that he once owned shares in an offshore fund, today ought to be a walk in the park for Labour. In fact, all Jeremy Corbyn need do is give the press a few soundbites on the Tories’ troubles and then sit back and relax. Alas this is Corbyn we’re talking about so things were never going to be that simple. Instead the Labour leader has managed to become the story after he was filmed scolding an LBC journalist outside his home after she attempted to ask for his thoughts on Cameron’s admission. Rather than answer, Corbyn told her that he

Fraser Nelson

David Cameron is guilty of bad spin – and nothing more

At last! We can now see why David Cameron tried to keep this quiet. He sold his shares in January 2010 – just as the recovery was starting. What a dunce! His £31,500 would be worth a lot more by now if he’d held, and diversified his portfolio. So can you trust him with the nation’s finances? And this, as far as I can make out, is the limit of the scandal. All else is spin and smear. The spin, of course, matters. The Prime Minister has behaved as if he had something to hide when he didn’t. His carefully-worded highly-specific non-denial denials (‘In terms of my own financial affairs,

Isabel Hardman

The government has returned to a period of omnishambles

You can tell a lot about how a party’s press operation thinks things are going from who it sends out to do its dirty work on the airwaves. Yesterday the Conservatives sent Michael Fallon out to defend the Government’s £9m pro-EU leaflet, which suggested that they knew it was going to be controversial and would need defending by someone skilled at sticking to the line, even when the line is totally untenable and difficult to defend. Today, Nick Boles popped up on Radio 4 to defend David Cameron’s eventual admission that he had indeed made money from the offshore fund set up by his father. The Skills Minister had been