Politics

Although Nick Clegg is under increasing pressure in some quarters to write a tell-all book about his time in coalition, the closest he has got to this so far is by signing up to an agency that has advertised his services for up to $55,000 per speech. Happily, Clegg’s former speechwriter comes at no such cost. Phil Reilly has started a blog detailing his time working for the former deputy Prime Minister. In this, Reilly recalls a phone hacking joke he wrote for Clegg back in 2010: ‘For days, Nick Clegg had been toing and froing over whether he could tell a joke about Andy Coulson. It was September 2010 and

So here we go again. Alex Salmond, popping up on the Andrew Marr show while Nicola Sturgeon is in China, makes news without saying anything new about the circumstances in which the SNP might – or might not! – press for a second referendum on Scottish independence. David Cameron, also overseas, responds saying there’s no need for any such plebiscite at any point in this parliament. Calm down, Jock. This will, I am sure, be well-received. All of which should surprise precisely no-one. Seventy percent of SNP supporters want another referendum before the end of this parliament; 90 percent want one within ten years. In such circumstances, you can understand why Salmond thinks another

Lord Sewel has announced he has resigned from the House of Lords this morning. 48 hours after the first stories and videos about his alleged use of drugs and prostitutes appeared in the Sun, the former deputy speaker has released this statement: ‘I have today written to the Clerk of the Parliaments terminating my membership of the House of Lords. The question of whether my behaviour breached the Code of Conduct is important, but essentially technical. The bigger questions are whether my behaviour is compatible with membership of the House of Lords and whether my continued membership would damage and undermine public confidence in the House of Lords. ‘I believe the

The Lord Sewel scandal makes me feel proud to be British. For here, thanks to some glorious John Wilkes-style dirt-digging by the Sun — in your face, Leveson! — we have a proper political scandal. This ain’t no yawn-fest about MPs claiming the cost of a Kit-Kat or accidentally favouriting a gay-porn tweet: sad little pseudo-scandals which in recent years have tainted the good name of ignominy. No, the fall of Sewel is a full-on, drugged-up, peer-and-prostitutes scandal, of the kind Britain used to be pretty good at before the square Blairites and cautious Cameroons took over. The disgracing of Sewel is a reminder of British politics at its saucy

Keeping Labour grounded to the centre is proving a tough battle for the moderates. Labour First, a pressure group of the old right within the party, has penned a public letter urging the Progress think tank, a voice from the new right, to put aside ideological purity and do whatever it takes to beat Jeremy Corbyn. Progress, which hosted Tony Blair last week, has naturally endorsed Liz Kendall for leader — but it has not instructed moderate voices to put Andy Burnham and Yvette Cooper into second and third preferences to stop Corbyn. Labour First thinks this is a folly and urges Progress to take the necessary steps to beat Corbyn: ‘Within

Lord Sewel’s career is well and truly over. His alleged participation in illicit activities involving drugs and prostitutes, as reported by The Sun, has caused fatal damage to his little-known reputation. It’s hard to see how he could excuse the behaviour caught on camera, but Sewel will be all too aware that his actions have damaged public perceptions about the House of Lords and Westminster generally. In an age where elected politicians are highly scrutinised, the public has little understanding of the House of Lords, who ends up in there and what it does. When a scandal such as this breaks, it only confirms their worst fears about politicians and peers. As

Which factions have the most influence in the Labour leadership and deputy leadership contest? The biggest split in the party is between the pressure group Progress and those with links to trade unions. Their respective outlooks are often perceived as being mutually exclusive, and the way the leadership contest is shaping up seems to suggest that this is true. Here is how the party breaks down between those two political poles, both in the 2010 contest and the one taking place currently. Around 80 of the 232 MPs in the Parliamentary Labour Party have taken part in Progress events over the last five years according to its website. Such MPs

The government is upping its attacks on Labour’s railways legacy, as the war of words over electrification continues. Coffee House has seen a letter from the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin to Michael Dugher, his opposite number in Labour, which hits back at claims that the government mislead the public over its delayed plans to electrify railways. In the letter, McLoughlin directly pointing the finger of blame at Labour: ‘I am grateful for your sudden interest in our program of rail enhancement: in the many months between your appoint by Ed Miliband and the General Election you did not ask a single question about electrification, so allow me to set out the

Barack Obama has given his perennial reminder that Britain should stay in the European Union. In an interview with the BBC, the President of the United States has said it is important for both Britain’s prosperity and influence around the world to remain ‘In’: ‘Having the United Kingdom in the European Union gives us much greater confidence about the strength of the transatlantic union and is part of the cornerstone of institution built after World War II that has made the world safer and more prosperous. ‘And we want to make sure that United Kingdom continues to have that influence. Because we believe that the values that we share are the