Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Never one to miss a dig, hats off to the PM at the final PMQs of this parliament for managing to shoehorn a gag about Ed Miliband into a spurious point about the Battle of Bosworth. Responding to a question regarding Richard III from self-noted historian Chris Skidmore, Cameron couldn’t help himself: ‘Of course, this is the last time someone did in one of their relatives to take the top job and the country ended up in chaos.’ The old ones are the best…
As the current parliament draws to a close, we’ve reached the final PMQs fixture. It seemed the perfect opportunity to reflect on some of the highlights from recent PMQs. Here’s Coffee House’s pick of the best moments from both David Cameron and Ed Miliband. It’s been one hell of a ride. David Cameron: ‘Calm Down, Dear’ listen to ‘Best of PMQs: David Cameron – Calm Down Dear’ on audioBoom
“Would you like a glass of pink champagne?” asks Alex Salmond at 3.30pm, sounding very much like a man settling down for the afternoon. It’s Monday and Scotland’s former First Minister has cause to celebrate. He spent the previous day musing on television about the price he’d demand for the SNP supporting Ed Miliband in the House of Commons, and his thoughts dominate the front pages of the newspapers. There’s plenty of outrage at the idea of the SNP toying with England, and outrage is exactly what Salmond wanted. So champagne it is. Salmond has found himself an unlikely star of the Tory election campaign; the party this week released
I preferred Grant Shapps when, as Michael Green, he was just another loathsome internet huckster peddling obviously quackish get-rich-quick schemes. He did less damage then. That is, he played a smaller number of people for fools back then. This morning Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, made the remarkable claim that “Alex Salmond is threatening to undermine a government chosen by the British people”. (Note to Mr Shapps: the Scottish people are British too. We had, as you may recall, a vote on this. Quite recently.) I assume Shapps is the member for Codswallop-on-Stilts because this is nonsense. Worse than that, it is dangerous nonsense. Which in turn means it is hard to
PMQs at midday today essentially marks the end of this Parliament. Although Parliament won’t formally dissolve until Monday, very little of consequence will happen in the next few days.The main topics for debate at today’s PMQs not hard to predict: the PM’s gaffe about not serving a third term, the booming economy under this government, the NHS and, if we are lucky, ‘two kitchens’ all are going to come up. For the first time in recent weeks, Miliband has the opportunity to put Cameron on the back foot. As one Labour insider told me yesterday, the talk of a Tory leadership contest has presented Labour with the opportunity to show that the Prime Minister is
Next week will see the dissolution of Parliament and the official start of the election campaign. With some MPs destined never to return to the House of Commons, offices are shut down and the keys to the country are handed over to the civil service for six or so weeks. So from 00:01 on Monday 30 March, there are no Members of Parliament and consequently they have to give up the title ‘Member of Parliament’ or ‘MP’. Nothing can convey the impression they are MPs, causing a major headache for the hundreds of members who have the initials in their Twitter name. Techno savvy Tory whips have been forced to
After Boris Johnson got his dates muddled while discussing his biography of Winston Churchill on LBC yesterday, it has come to Mr S’s attention that a selective memory could run in the family. Speaking at an Oldie literary lunch earlier this month, Boris’s father Stanley Johnson revealed to Steerpike that there is an embarrassing mistake in his second autobiography Stanley, I Resume regarding his wife Jenny: ‘If you get to page 21 of this book you will see it says “and Jenny and I were married October the 27th 1982 and we lived happily ever after”. Now, that’s 33 years ago but Jenny pointed out when she came to read it that I got the year wrong, and it
What is Tristram Hunt trying to say in the Times today? He seems to say that the teaching of British values is an important thing, except when Michael Gove or another Tory says so. When they advocate the teaching of British values, the concept becomes reactionary tosh, because Tories are restructuring the schools system in a Bad way. He doesn’t actually argue with Michael Gove’s four-part definition (‘the values of democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty, and mutual respect and tolerance of those with different faiths and beliefs’). He just implies that these things are spun by Tories in an evil right-wing way, without quite producing evidence. I think
Another day, another senior Liberal Democrat takes a pop at Tim Farron. After Farron publicly marked the party’s leadership ‘two out of ten’ for its handling of the coalition, the knives have been out for him. Vince Cable is the latest senior figure to attack the former party president. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, the Business Secretary said this remark by Farron ‘wasn’t at all helpful’: ‘I mean, he’s a very good campaigning MP, but he’s never been in government and has never had to make difficult decisions and I think his credibility isn’t great. You know, he’s an entertaining speaker and has a bit of a fanclub. But I suspect he would not be
Boris was waxing lyrical about Winston Churchill during his weekly LBC phone-in earlier when it all went a little wrong. Discussing the ‘many different phases Churchill’ went through ‘in his life’, Boris recalled that ‘in 1908 I think you’ll remember, he was in favour of cutting defence spending when he was going around with Lloyd George campaigning on social affairs.’ So far, so good. However, he then said this: ‘So indeed, in 1922 when he was, sorry, 1920, in the twenties when he was Chancellor, he was accused later on by his enemies of having been a great cutter of defence expenditure and there was a certain amount of truth in that.’
As Fraser Nelson says on this morning’s Spectator podcast, David Cameron will likely be regretting yesterday’s announcement for the rest of his premiership. He’s not a ripe watermelon; highlighting that he has a best before date won’t encourage anyone to eat him now, before he grows mould. Worse, he’s announced a shortlist of three possible successors: ‘the Theresa Mays, and the George Osbornes, and the Boris Johnsons’. We all know the troubles a similar announcement caused Tony Blair, but even if Dave managed to sleep through the Blair-Brown years (from the opposite green benches), dipping into the biography of any pre-modern English monarch should have taught him of the dangers of
One of the most notable features of Alex Salmond’s account of the closing stages of last year’s referendum campaign is his hatred of the press and, indeed, the media more generally. Newspapers which run inconvenient stories are ‘anti-Scottish’ and journalists who ask awkward questions are accused of ‘impersonating Alistair Darling’. Salmond cannot quite decide whether the press are an obsolete irrelevance or the primary reason the Yes campaign fell short. His greatest vitriol is reserved for the BBC which is accused of being a fully-owned part of the No campaign. Of course Salmond was so convinced Yes were going to win that it comes as some surprise to discover that Scotland actually voted
Faragephobia reached dizzy new heights on Sunday afternoon, when a bunch of thespians and circus freaks invaded Nigel Farage’s local pub and hounded him and his family out. Behaving with grating and probably knowing irony like small-minded Little Englanders, though dolled up as punkish outsiders, the protesters were basically saying to Nige: ‘Your sort aren’t welcome here — you’re barred!’ And so was a public figure humiliated while doing that utterly non-public thing of lunching with his wife and young daughters — turfed out of his own local hangout by people who don’t like his policies on immigration, the NHS, and other stuff. But this was more that Faragephobia, more than
Some voters may be rather puzzled by David Cameron’s comments that Prime Ministerial terms ‘are like shredded wheat: two are wonderful but three might just be too many’. The most popular Shredded Wheat today is the bitesize variety (above). But Mr S is informed that the original, monster-sized Shredded Wheat was a staple of the breakfast halls of Eton in the late 1970s. When the Prime Minister was 16 years old, a popular advertising campaign was running about how you could eat two of these things but not three. One of these adverts in particular would have resonated in Eton’s dining room:- And here’s exhibit B:- And exhibit C, a ‘down the caff’ version:-
Did the Prime Minister mean to say it or not? That question will be on the lips of pundits and politicos over the next few days as everyone attempts to figure out what was on David Cameron’s mind when he spoke to the BBC’s James Landale. This morning’s papers suggest he has committed the first major gaffe of the 2015 campaign — before the campaign has even officially begun. Today’s Guardian, Times, Telegraph, Daily Mail and Financial Times have splashed on Cameron’s remarks and the start of the next Tory leadership contest: Today’s front pages via @suttonnick While the papers have worked themselves into a frenzy at the gaffe, the mood on the backbenches is calmer. The Tory party has been remarkably united behind Cameron
Who needs the Comedy Channel when you have Newsnight? The best part last night was watching Michael Gove who has been dispatched to try to make sense of David Cameron’s tragicomic pre-resignation. You can’t, of course, there is no logic that justifies starting a leadership race on the week you’re supposed to launch a general election campaign. Gove could not keep a straight face when coming up with his ‘he just gave an honest answer’ line and attempts to make a serious discussion about this farce collapsed. Oh, and Cameron was right to mention Boris, Theresa May and Osborne as his three most likely successors – he must be keeping an eye on the bookmakers, who have them
Next Tory leader: Code without iframe <div id=”highcharts-ejazuna”><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/ejazuna’ defer=’defer’></script></div> Code with iframe <iframe class=”highcharts-iframe” style=”border: 0; width: 100%; height: 400px;” src=”//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/ejazuna” width=”300″ height=”150″></iframe> Next PM: Code without iframe: <div id=’highcharts-itamiqu’><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/itamiqu’ defer=’defer’></script></div> Code with iframe: <iframe class=’highcharts-iframe’ src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/itamiqu’ style=’border: 0; width: 100%; height: 400px’></iframe> Next Labour leader https://cloud.highcharts.com/charts/acumut <div id=’highcharts-acumut’><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/acumut’ defer=’defer’></script></div> <iframe class=’highcharts-iframe’ src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/acumut’ style=’border: 0; width: 100%; height: 400px’></iframe> Next Labour leader https://cloud.highcharts.com/charts/uzumih
Two polls out today have the Conservatives and Labour neck and neck, while another has Labour ahead by two points. Lord Ashcroft’s national poll has the two main parties at 33 per cent — both up on last week — while Ukip is on 12 per cent, the Lib Dems on eight and Greens on five. Tonight’s YouGov /Sun poll has a similar outlook, with the Tories and Labour tied on 34 per cent, Ukip on 12, the Lib Dems eight and Greens six. Populus, however, has Labour two points ahead on 33 per cent, putting the Conservatives on 31 per cent, Ukip on 16, the Lib Dems on nine and Greens on five. The polls have moved around a
With just days to go until the general election campaign, David Cameron has declared that this is last time he’s leading his party into battle. It’s not clear why he felt the need to make this announcement, a tactic normally used by unpopular and besieged leaders to buy time. He says he will stand for a ‘full second term’ but won’t serve a third. His party has lots of talent, he said – a comment that all party leaders make from time to time. But what’s unusual is that Cameron actually picked out three potential successors: Theresa May, George Osborne or Boris Johnson (in that order). Which will set all kinds of hares running.
It is always useful to remember Robert Conquest’s suggestion that The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. No, I don’t know why David Cameron would amputate his authority before he runs for re-election either. But that’s what he has done today by ruling out running for a third term in office. I dare say it was an honest – and spontaneous – answer to a simple question. But still: what a bizarre thing to do, not least because no-one expected him to run again in 2020 even if, by some good fortune, he returns to
