Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: George Osborne’s 2015 budget, the jobs miracle and shooting squirrels

Has George Osborne produced a successful Budget? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the last major act of this Parliament and what it means for the impending election campaign. Did the Chancellor announce anything of particular interest? Is this a Budget targeted purely at savers and pensioners? How influential were the Liberal Democrats in creating this budget? And on which points will Labour attack the government? Jonathan Portes and Fraser also discuss this week’s Spectator cover feature on the jobs miracle and why the government isn’t extolling its excellent record on employment. Is the coalition still embarrassed over immigration record and therefore reluctant to mention any of the upsides? Is the boom

Steerpike Steerpike

Currency wars: John Major vs Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith recently wrote in the Spectator that it was his father – not the Labour party – who had stopped Britain from joining the euro. The Conservative MP claimed his dad Sir James Goldsmith was to thank, after his Referendum party battled to ‘ensure that Britain would never join the euro without the consent of the people’. One man who appears to disagree, however, is former Prime Minister Sir John Major. Major has written a letter in this week’s Spectator arguing that Goldsmith did not have any effect on government policy: ‘Much as I admire filial loyalty, I cannot allow Zac Goldsmith’s article about his father to go uncorrected. Sir James Goldsmith was a formidable

Steerpike Steerpike

Labour’s election chief in campaign struggle to hold onto his seat

Douglas Alexander claimed this week that Facebook has made it difficult for politicians to campaign successfully. He said that Labour were struggling to win back voters in Scotland as a result of conspiracy theories being posted on social media. Perhaps Labour’s campaign chief  was simply trying to make early excuses for his own performance in the upcoming election. Alexander is predicted to lose his Paisley and Renfrewshire South seat to a 20-year-old SNP candidate. In a bid to turn the tide, Alexander has been desperately tapping up friends for much-needed campaign cash. Mr S can reveal that the former lawyer has taken £28,000 since January. His donors include David Miliband’s former adviser David Claydon as well as solicitor Fraser Oliver. Surely,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A typical coalition Budget – designed to put the Tories back in power

George Osborne usually tells his aides to prepare for each Budget as if it were his last. This time round, the Chancellor and those around him needed no reminding of what is at stake. They knew that this statement had to boost the Tory election campaign and define the choice facing voters in May, otherwise it really will be the last Budget he gives. As one Tory MP put it, ‘The Budget’s got to deliver some political momentum or we’re done for.’ Osborne has long been aware of the importance of this Budget for his career. If David Cameron returns to No. 10 after the election, Osborne will take the

Quentin Letts

I know just the vicar for my parish church. Pity he’s fictional

For cheap laughs you should look at the situations vacant column of the Church Times — pages of jobs for Anglican clergy. The language, with its dreary emphasis on compliance and its neglect of individualism, may help to explain why the Church of England has become the Labour party at prayer. Number one word in these adverts is ‘team’. Applicants need to be ‘team players’. Other hot words: ‘passionate’, ‘change’, ‘management’ and ‘skills’. A couple of weeks ago the Diocese of Lichfield needed a ‘team rector’ near Tamworth — ‘a visionary, imaginative and inspirational team leader, passionate for evangelism and discipleship, with experience of managing change and able to enjoy

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

The real threat to Britain (and it’s not the SNP)

What a load of mendacious balls everybody talks about Scotland. It’s like a disease. It’s like, you know how they say Ebola probably started in some festering bat cave in Guinea? Well, the referendum campaign was that cave. We had secret oilfields and fantasies about the NHS and endless guff about austerity being done for evil Tory fun, and the VOW the VOW and, dear God, the relief when it ended. Only it didn’t end. Instead it spread. And it set the tone. People talk now, for example, about an SNP/Labour coalition. As though this would make sense, when they must know it wouldn’t at all. As though Ed Miliband

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Osborne gets the post-Budget front pages he hoped for

If George Osborne’s Budget is going to end up in a mess, it hasn’t done so yet. The worst criticism that the front pages of even hostile newspapers can come up with is that the Chancellor has produced a very political Budget which is hardly a surprise. Most splash on the retail offers in the Budget and the good economic news.    Some of the front pages have rather creative approaches to the Budget. Even front pages such as the i, which foregrounds the politics behind the Budget, still refer to the tax cuts for first-time buyers and savers. And the most critical front pages, from the Guardian and the Mirror,

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Budget Sketch: Penny-pinchers like me can rejoice

That was a motto-blaster of a budget. George Osborne deployed half a dozen chewy new Tory slogans during this afternoon’s statement. ‘Britain walking tall again. … a country built on savings not debt … ten pounds off a tank under the Tories … Britain – the comeback country …’ It’s unclear whether: a) Lynton Crosby feeds him these soundbites b) Osborne auditions them on a freelance basis hoping to catch the great auteur’s ear. He repeatedly called the country ‘one United Kingdom’ as well, bolstering Conservative claims that Labour is ready to sell Great Britain for dog-meat in a traitor’s deal with the SNP. He doled out good news on

Steerpike Steerpike

Royal baby due at height of general election campaign

Two of the biggest media circuses are set to collide. The 2013 press storm that greeted the arrival of Prince George looks likely to return when the Duchess of Cambridge gives birth to her second child. Today Catherine revealed that the baby is due next month. ‘I’m due in mid-April, to the end of April,’ the young royal told a crowd of wellwishers. This is of course right in the middle of the general election campaign. With broadcasters and newspapers spread out over the country covering an already testing five party election, Mr S suspects political coverage will grind to a halt for at least 24 hours as all media eyes turn once again to the Lindo Wing

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s aggressive election campaign was evident in Miliband’s Budget response

Ed Miliband didn’t produce a spectacular response to the Budget, but neither did he have a bad outing at the despatch box. It was certainly better than his performance last year, and Labour MPs seem – in public at least – quite cheered by the whole thing. The Labour leader did have to contend with a wall of noise from heckling Tory MPs. The Treasury Support Group has got rather carried away with itself at the past couple of economic statements, producing a boorish roar that requires frequent interruptions from the Speaker rather than under-the-radar witty cricket sledging which works in unsettling the Opposition. You don’t want the public or indeed even

The Spectator

Budget 2015: Full text of Ed Miliband’s response

Mr Deputy Speaker, never has the gap between the Chancellor’s rhetoric and the reality of people’s lives been greater than it was today. This is a Budget people won’t believe from a government that’s not on their side. Because of their record. Because of their instincts. Because of their plans for the future. And because of a Budget, most extraordinarily, that had no mention of investment in our National Health Service and our vital public services. It is a budget people won’t believe from a government they don’t trust and this chancellor has failed the working families of Britain. For the first time since the 1920s people are earning less

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A typical coalition Budget – designed to put the Tories back in power | 18 March 2015

Here is a preview of James Forsyth’s political column from this week’s Spectator, out tomorrow George Osborne usually tells his aides to prepare for each Budget as if it were his last. This time round, the Chancellor and those around him needed no reminding of what is at stake. They knew that this statement had to boost the Tory election campaign and define the choice facing voters in May, otherwise it really will be the last Budget he gives. As one Tory MP put it, ‘The Budget’s got to deliver some political momentum or we’re done for.’ Osborne has long been aware of the importance of this Budget for his

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Budget 2015, explained in ten graphs

As ever, the story of the Budget was hidden in the small print. There are no hidden tax rises, but the story isn’t really in the tax. It’s about the cuts to come, the incredible jobs recovery and the games already being played for the general election campaign. Here’s my take:- 1. The rollercoaster of cuts to come:- The OBR has rather huffily pointed out the weirdness of the cuts planned for the next four years: a ‘rollercoaster,’ it says, devoid of logic. After the election, cuts will be four times sharper than those implemented in this (election) year. Then most weirdly of all, right at the end, spending soars. The OBR says:- ‘A much sharper squeeze on

The Spectator

Listen: key points of Budget 2015

George Osborne delivered his final Budget of this Parliament today. Here is what you need to listen to: Full speeches George Osborne’s speech, in full: listen to ‘Budget 2015: George Osborne’s full speech’ on audioBoom

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Was Ken Clarke snoozing? If so, he missed nothing

The PMQs before the Budget is always pretty pointless, and David Cameron turned up clearly determined to trivialise his exchanges with Ed Miliband as much as possible. He came armed with a plethora of jokes about second kitchens, chuckling about throwing two kitchen sinks at problems, that if the Leader of the Opposition couldn’t stand the heat, he should get out of the kitchen, and that the Shadow Chancellor wouldn’t be able to tell which kitchen he could find his leader in. It was partly a device to blunt the attacks that Ed Miliband made, which predictably were on the NHS, on his promise not to reorganise the health service,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg is preparing to boast about which Osborne ideas he quashed

Nick Clegg is turning up to the Budget today, which is an improvement on the Autumn Statement, which he bunked off in order to hang out in Cornwall with Lib Dems trying to get re-elected. He’s even got his own Lib Dem alternative Budget tomorrow. This may mean his party doesn’t get much of a hearing until 24 hours after the main event, though inevitably various Cabinet ministers will be out and about trying to take credit for various measures. The Lib Dems want to persuade people to vote for them on the basis that they would stop either party indulging in its worst excesses: the Tories wouldn’t create a fair

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Budget 2015: The challenges for Labour

Ed Miliband will respond to the Budget today (the Shadow Chancellor responds to the Autumn Statement, and has a Budget speech the day after the main event). In the past couple of years the Labour response hasn’t been fantastic, partly because the Tories have got a very well-organised (and at times just rather brutish and silly) heckling squad ready to create a wall of noise, and partly because it is difficult to respond to a Budget that contains good figures. But Labour thinks the Autumn Statement gave it the opportunity to attack the Tories on something other than the cost-of-living. The party can now say that George Osborne is planning

Sebastian Payne

Are the Conservatives really running the most ‘positive possible campaign’?

While the nation is on tenterhooks for the 2015 Budget, the Tories have filled the news gap this morning with a new attack video. As you can watch above, Conservative HQ has dug up 18 year old TV footage from the Treasury, featuring Messrs Miliband, Balls and Brown promising to spend money wisely and keep unemployment down. As we now know, this didn’t quite go to plan so the Tories are keen to remind voters: ‘don’t let them do it again.’ This ad has been viewed just under 10,000 times, which is pretty good for a political video. The tone is one of an attack ad, crafted to scare voters away from Labour and the two Eds. The

The Spectator

Budget 2015: key announcements and figures

George Osborne delivered his final Budget of this Parliament today. Here is what you need to know. Key announcements Personal Savings Allowance: From April next year, the first £1,000 of the interest on all savings will be tax-free. Tax free allowance up to £11,000: The personal tax-free allowance will rise to £10,800 next year and to £11,000 the year after. Osborne said it will means the typical working taxpayer will be over £900 a year better off. Help to Buy ISA: From the autumn, for every £200 put into a deposit, the government will top it up with £50 more. ‘Fully flexible’ ISAs will be introduced to allow savers to withdraw money without

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How will the Tories sell today’s Budget?

It’s Budget Day, possibly George Osborne’s last Budget and certainly the last big event in the House of Commons that anyone outside it will notice. The Chancellor will, within the limits set by the Coalition, try to give voters a vision of what life after the cuts will be like, with glimpses of sunlit uplands in the form of further rises to the personal tax allowance, freedom for pensioners who already have annuities to sell them for a lump sum, whizzy online tax returns, as well as the sort of spending that helps voters feel more secure, with the Sun predicting more cash for the intelligence services. He will describe