Politics Archives

Thursday

11 Jun 2015

Ed’s campaign was fine. The problem is his party

Patrick Wintour is one of the best political editors around. For the Guardian he’s been for decades a cool and well-sourced voice: even-handed, informed, interesting but in the best sense dry. So when I heard he’d written the most comprehensive behind-the-scenes account yet of Labour’s failed general election campaign I hurried to read it. I was not disappointed. ‘The undoing of Ed Miliband, and how Labour lost the election’ is an insider account of a chapter of accidents, starting with Mr Miliband’s memory lapse about the deficit during Labour’s last party conference. Apparently he shut himself in his hotel room afterwards and wouldn’t come out. The story takes us through to

Wednesday

10 Jun 2015

Christopher Snowdon

Vapers deserve to be angry – they are under attack

There is a perception – on Twitter at least – that vapers are angry and abusive. Ben Goldacre recently described ‘e-cigarette campaigners’ as ‘vile… obsessive, vindictive, abusive, and to an extent that is clearly dubious’. This inevitably led to a string of replies from bewildered vapers that may have confirmed his view, although the vast majority were polite. From what I’ve seen, vapers are no more likely to be offensive than any other punter on social media, which is admittedly a low bar. After the referendum on Scottish independence and the general election, not to mention the periodic bursts of outrage for which Twitter is notorious, I have seen much worse

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Dave gloats in front of Saint Hattie

Poor old Labour. They’re still so crushed by the election result that they put up dead-parrot Harriet Harman against Cameron every Wednesday. Why not let the leadership candidates use him for target practice instead? PMQs is sometimes a contest of ideas and sometimes a contest of insults. Today it was a contest of moral registers. Harman asked about the EU referendum and Cameron scoffed at her colleagues for voting en bloc for a referendum they’ve opposed for five long years. ‘The biggest mass conversion since that Chinese general baptised his troops with a hose pipe.’ Harman was off. She scrambled to the top of Sanctimony Hill and delivered a sermon on the

Sebastian Payne

How Jeremy Corbyn could still make it onto the Labour leadership ballot

Nominations for the Labour leadership contest may have only been open for 24 hours but Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Liz Kendall already have enough to support to make it onto the ballot paper. There are, though, still around 70 MPs who have yet to declare their intensions — see who they are here. All of the leadership campaigns are predicting that the contest is set to be either a two or three horse race, with most of these undecided backing Burnham, Cooper or Kendall. But let us not forget Mary Creagh and Jeremy Corbyn, who are still in the race and there are enough undecideds to put both of them

Sebastian Payne

Five things we’ve learnt from The Times’ Ed Miliband investigation

The dissection of Labour’s election defeat continues with a very thorough series of pieces in today’s Times by Rachel Sylvester and Michael Savage. Describing Ed Miliband’s tenure as leader as a ‘five-year suicide note’, the articles look at the countless errors of judgment and mistakes made by both Ed Miliband and those around him over the last five years. Here are five interesting things we’ve found out. 1. Philip Gould warned Miliband not to turn away from New Labour New Labour’s renowned strategist and pollster Philip Gould warned Team Miliband early on that they were defending the wrong points of the last Labour government, including the economy: ‘Philip Gould was close to death and painfully weak with cancer but

Fraser Nelson

Osborne’s welcome conversion to the advantages of a budget surplus

There should always be celebration when a sinner repents, and so it’s great to see George Osborne’s belated conversion to the cause of budget surpluses. As the above graph shows, he has not seemed in a rush to hit surplus himself – giving him many more years of increasing the national debt. James Forsyth summed it up brilliantly: Osborne is the St Augustine Chancellor: give me fiscal responsibility, but not yet! And today, he will add something: when I get there, let’s make it illegal for anyone not to balance the budget again! In economics, as in much else, converts are always the most zealous. Osborne’s new plan—to have surpluses

Steerpike

Lord Ashcroft opens bidding for the #EdStone

With the Labour party under increasing scrutiny for taking donations from the trade unions, they may have to start to rely more heavily on private donors. So it’s good news that Lord Ashcroft, the former Tory deputy chairman, is willing to help the party out financially. Ashcroft says that if Labour wish to sell the now infamous #EdStone, the 8ft high ‘policy cenotaph‘ Miliband had made to honour Labour’s election promises, he will dig deep: Should the party decide to accept, this would make Ashcroft one of the party’s biggest new donors. Given that Lakshmi Mittal, the non-dom steel tycoon who has donated £5.1 million to the party, stayed silent over Miliband’s plan to abolish non-dom status, Mr

James Forsyth

PMQs: Harman puts Cameron in his place

Harriet Harman has 16 years on David Cameron and she used that advantage very effectively today. After Cameron replied to her first question on the EU referendum with a string of mocking quips about Labour’s mass conversion on the subject, Harman scolded him for gloating and told him to ‘show a bit more class’. This dressing down took Cameron aback. For the rest of the session he wasn’t sure whether to tone it down or mock Harman for complaining. With Harman refusing to play along with the usual Punch and Judy show, Cameron turned to the SNP. He took advantage of Angus Robertson’s questions to mock the Nationalists for saying

Steerpike

David Cameron’s intricate knowledge of Chinese Warlords

The Prime Minister was on boisterous from at PMQs today, welcoming the Labour Party’s new found support for an EU referendum in the division lobbies last night. Cameron described it as ‘the biggest mass conversion since that Chinese general baptised his troops with a hosepipe’. The green benches were left baffled to what on earth he was talking about. Mr S, as ever, can shed some light on the matter. General Feng Yu Xiang was a Chinese warlord, known as the ‘Christian General’, who dominated parts of Northern China in the twenties. Born an illiterate peasant in 1882 he converted to Christianity in 1914. Having conquered Beijing in 1928, Feng

Steerpike

Nicola Sturgeon puts (lung free) haggis on the menu in America

Steerpike has long been a champion of the fight to get America to lift the ban on Scottish haggis being imported into their country. So Mr S was cheered to hear that Nicola Sturgeon has been doing her bit to fly the flag for the national dish on her trip to America. The New York Post reports that Sturgeon’s team made some last minute menu requests ahead of a work lunch at Incognito Italian bistro in New York, following her appearance on Jon Stewart’s Daily Show. The Scottish-Italian proprietors Paolo Montana and Adriana Moretti reportedly proposed an all-Italian menu, but Sturgeon’s team asked them to also include Scottish classics ‘like highland haggis and smoked Scottish salmon’. Alas

Sebastian Payne

David Miliband is the gift that keeps on giving for the Tories

David Miliband just can’t leave his brother’s election defeat alone. After several brutally honest post-election interviews, Miliband Sr. popped up again on CNN last night to offer his harshest analysis yet on his brother’s leadership. Under Ed, David said, Labour actually went backwards: ‘What I think is important for all the candidates [to replace Ed Miliband] is to reflect on the very clear lessons of two devastating electoral defeats for the Labour party in the last five years, which have come for a very clear reason. ‘And the reason is that the public have concluded that instead of building on the strengths and remedying the weaknesses of the Blair years, the

Sebastian Payne

George Osborne puts Labour ‘on the spot’ with law to enshrine budget surpluses

George Osborne is making his first big move as Chancellor in this Parliament. In his Mansion House speech tonight, he will announce a ‘new settlement’ for the economy: a permanent commitment to running budget surpluses in normal times. Osborne will point to the Tories’ election victory as the mandate to enshrine this commitment in law: ‘The result of this recent British election – and the comprehensive rejection of those who argued for more borrowing and more spending – gives our nation the chance to entrench a new settlement. ‘In the budget we will bring forward this strong new fiscal framework to entrench this permanent commitment to that surplus, and the budget responsibility it

Tuesday

9 Jun 2015

Nigel Dodds

The government is already getting the EU Referendum Bill wrong

The EU Referendum Bill has been accompanied by almost unprecedented flip-flopping and ‘reverse ferreting’. I think we have to accept that it is quite right for the Liberals and Labour to have changed their minds. Or at any rate, for the voters to have changed their minds for them. Speaking, as I do at Westminster, for the only party in parliament that has been consistent on this matter, I am very glad that the referendum is finally almost upon us. As Bill Cash said earlier today in the Commons, this is the culmination of a twenty-year fight that started with Maastricht, and involved betrayals and evasions by both main parties. It’s

Sebastian Payne

Civil service neutrality during the EU referendum poses a problem for the Tories

The second reading of the EU referendum bill today was dominated by questions about the voting franchise and the neutrality of Whitehall. On the first topic, the SNP, Liberal Democrats and Greens expressed concerns that 16 and 17 year olds won’t be allowed to vote. The SNP’s foreign affairs spokesman Alex Salmond said it was ‘deeply insulting’ not to include under 18s in the referendum, while shadow foreign secretary Hilary Benn said there was a ‘ring of familiarity’ to denying younger ‘uns the vote — a reference to similar arguments used in the past to deny women the vote. Whereas the voting franchise is unlikely to stop the bill from moving forward, the lack of purdah is looking

Steerpike

Is this the reason Miliband forgot to mention the deficit in his conference speech?

Earlier this month Patrick Wintour wrote an in-depth profile of Ed Miliband’s failed election campaign for the Guardian. In it, he went through the different things which had gone wrong for the Labour Party in the lead up to the election. He began the piece by focussing on Miliband’s speech in September at the Labour Conference where he forgot to mention the deficit – a mistake that cost him later in the campaign. Wintour says that according to a Labour source, a late change to his speech to include Isis meant he was ‘off his game’: ‘He was not quite sure in his head where he was, so when he got to the

Steerpike

Another day, another Ukip ‘unresignation’

After Nigel Farage stepped down as leader of the Ukip party following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. The move led to a Ukip civil war which saw Patrick O’Flynn rebel against the party leader, leading to both of Farage’s senior aides standing down. Now one of his advisors has had their resignation rejected and their contract renewed. After Mr S revealed last month that Matthew Richardson, the party secretary, was expected to ‘unresign’, the Times’ Red Box reports today that Richardson’s contract has been extended with the party refusing to accept his resignation. A Ukip party spokesman confirms the reappointment to Steerpike: ‘The post of Party secretary is a two year

Sebastian Payne

The Conservatives’ Heathrow conundrum

The Tories are facing a Heathrow problem. With Zac Goldsmith joining the race for the London mayoral nomination today, the idea of the Conservatives supporting a Heathrow expansion is becoming harder to envisage. The final recommendation from Howard Davies’ Airport Commission is due this summer and the Tories are expected to put it to a vote in the Commons. But what if Davies proposes an expansion of Heathrow — either in the form of a third runway or the Heathrow Hub? Although the Airport Commission’s new review into air quality has been interpreted as a sign that Davies is edging towards Gatwick, Heathrow is still on the cards. If the party leadership is

Steerpike

Coming soon: Ivan Massow vs Iain Dale

When Ivan Massow appeared on LBC last month, the London mayoral hopeful had a car crash interview. He was outed on air for advertising for a campaign assistant for his mayoral bid at a rate of £6.50 per hour, below the London living wage, despite preaching about how expensive it is to live in London. What’s more, the fact that he was employing someone on a wage below the living wage appeared to come as something of a surprise to the businessman, which can be viewed from the 7.40 mark on the video: ‘We don’t actually have anyone on that… oh God.’ The incident provoked the ire of LBC presenter Iain Dale who was quick

Sebastian Payne

Boris Johnson: ministers should be allowed to campaign for Brexit

Boris Johnson is back to his old tricks, causing headaches for David Cameron. After the Prime Minister’s confused position on whether ministers should be allowed to take part in the ‘Out’ campaign, the Mayor of London thrown a grenade at the idea that collective responsibility will hold. On his LBC phone-in this morning, Johnson said it would be ‘safer and more harmonious’ to allow ministers to campaign with their conscience: ‘I think in 1975, from memory, I think cabinet ministers were allowed to campaign against staying in and to keep their positions. It seemed to work last time … ‘Just thinking about it out loud, on the spur, of the moment, let

Isabel Hardman

Zac Goldsmith to run for Mayor of London

Finally the Conservatives could have a decent and recognisable candidate for Mayor of London. Zac Goldsmith has told the Standard that he wants to put himself forward for the Tory nomination – after a string of senior Conservatives tried to persuade him to do it. So far those interested were either known only within the Tory hierarchy, or keen not to mention that they were Conservatives. Goldsmith has a similar independent brand as Boris Johnson: he has rebelled enough times in the last Parliament to suggest that he would be someone prepared to stand up to the Tory leadership in Westminster to get a good deal for London, which is