Politics Archives

Thursday

21 May 2015

Let’s set the cops on barbaric fox-hunters

Among those deeply disappointed with the Conservative party’s victory on 7 May was Britain’s diverse and vibrant community of wild animals. They have not yet daubed anti-Tory slogans on war memorials or marched through city centres screaming that they are not going to take it any more — and still less written vacuous and hyperbolic tirades for the Guardian. But they are deeply worried and consider themselves vulnerable to the assaults from a Conservative government untrammelled by the moderating influence of those sentimentalists the Lib Dems. And so badgers are stocking up on gas masks and the foxes are doing their callisthenics, so as to outpace some psychopathic fat toff

Stuart Wheeler

Making plans for Nigel

When I was asked to write this article I intended to start by saying that Nigel Farage had to choose whether he preferred that Britain should leave the EU or that he should remain Ukip’s leader, because the two were incompatible. I hope I was wrong about that, but there is some truth in it, and Nigel stated his own view a couple of months ago. ‘It is frankly just not credible for me to continue to lead the party without a Westminster seat. What credibility would Ukip have in the Commons if others had to enunciate party policy in Parliament and the party leader was only allowed in as

Martin Vander Weyer

Can the new Northern Powerhouse supremo make Leeds and Manchester work together?

A doff of my flat cap to Jim O’Neill, the former Goldman Sachs economist who has been made a peer, a Treasury minister and George Osborne’s ‘Northern Powerhouse’ supremo. The metro-politan media is busy trying to find reasons why this project for improved links between northern cities plus elements of devolution is a bad idea, or has ulterior motives behind it. The Guardian, for example, reports that ‘critics of’ Manchester’s Labour leader Sir Richard Leese think he has been ‘lured’ into championing Osborne’s plan ‘by the prospect of a bigger empire’; and that while Leese and his chief executive Sir Howard Bernstein have pulled off ‘breathtaking property deals’ (there’s a

Wednesday

20 May 2015

Isabel Hardman

Labour should now define itself as in favour of both a referendum and the EU

The three main Labour leadership candidates have now all said that they want a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU. But the party’s ‘official’ position – that is, the policy it went into the last election with that everyone seems quite keen to disown – is that there should not be a referendum. The party will not have chosen its leader by the time of next week’s Queen’s Speech, even if MPs seem to be making their minds up pretty quickly, and so when the EU referendum bill is published in that speech, the party will need to respond. It would perhaps make sense if that response wasn’t a

James Forsyth

Germans propose linking the British renegotiation to Eurozone reform

Wolfgang Schäuble’s decision to link the British renegotiation to changes to the governance of the Eurozone is highly significant. In an interview the German Finance Minister told the Wall Street Journal that he has discussed George Osborne ‘coming to Berlin so that we can think together about how we can combine the British position with the urgent need for a strengthened governance of the eurozone’. Schäuble went on to say that ‘the structure of this currency union will stay fragile as long as its governance isn’t substantially reinforced. Maybe there is a chance to combine both goals’. Schäuble’s comments are the most encouragement that the government has had on the

Douglas Murray

Secularists need to prioritise their targets

I was on the BBC on Sunday morning discussing the government’s new counter-extremism legislation. Unusually for a discussion on this area the debate seemed to me to be constructive and engaging. Perhaps this is a reflection of the changed political weather. But there was one strange thing – which is why I mention it here – and that is my disagreement with the former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris who was on this occasion representing the National Secular Society (NSS). I like Evan, share many of his views and rather like his ever so slightly other-planetary manner (something he shares with that other former Liberal Democrat MP, Julian Huppert). Anyhow, it

Ed West

The free market is still the greatest force for reducing prejudice

I suppose if you’d told someone in Northern Ireland 25 years ago that the most contentious issue come May 2015 would be a gay cake they would have taken that future. If you’d gone back another 300 years and told John Locke he might not be so pleased, however, to find that his principle of conscience had been so abused by the people who claimed to follow his philosophy. The Ashers refused to bake a cake that proclaimed a message in support of same-sex marriage, which they do not support, and therefore have been found to have discriminated. Yet no one would object to a baker who refused to bake a

Steerpike

Introducing David ‘London’ Lammy and John ‘Flashy’ Whittingdale

Given that a horde of new MPs have recently descended on Parliament, it’s understandable that staff may have some difficulty remembering everyone’s name. Still, Mr S would have thought that any confusion could have been cleared up by simply looking to Hansard, which provides a report of proceedings of both the House of Commons and the House of Lords. However, even Hansard appears to be struggling to keep up. According to Hansard, David Lammy’s middle name is London, while the new culture secretary is called John Flashy Whittingdale: In reality, their middle names are Lindon and Flasby. Happily, these names were at least used for the Votes and Proceedings document: Perhaps Lammy should consider changing his middle name

Isabel Hardman

Tristram Hunt bows out of Labour leadership race and backs Liz Kendall

Tristram Hunt is not standing as Labour leader and will instead back Liz Kendall, he finally confirmed at the end of a long speech this morning. The party’s Shadow Education Secretary had some fun forcing hacks to listen to his assessment of Labour’s failure, which took a while, before he announced this, saying: ‘It is clear to me that I do not have sufficient support to be certain that I could run for the leadership myself.. there is a real risk that I might help restrict the choice for the party and that is not a risk that I am prepared to accept.’ He complained that other candidates had been

Sebastian Payne

Nigel Farage insists he has future plans for Suzanne Evans

Peace appears to have broken out across Ukip, albeit after Nigel Farage has stamped down on those who criticised him. Suzanne Evans is the latest casualty of the Ukip wars, with her job as Head of Policy coming to an end. While Mark Reckless is rumoured to have been offered the role, Evans is stepping aside gracefully: ‘It has been a great privilege to work with UKIP for the past four months to produce the 2015 General Election manifesto. I was delighted with the way it was received, especially by party members and supporters. While my contract for that work comes to an end next week, I remain in my voluntary post

Steerpike

Steve Hilton talks Cameron, Crosby and Vincecablefreude at book launch

David Cameron’s former director of strategy Steve Hilton is in town this week to promote his new book More Human. Mr S was a guest at the book launch in East London where Cameron was serenaded by a violinist while George Osborne and Ed Vaizey raised a glass in celebration of the tome. In his speech, Hilton couldn’t help but offer his own verdict on the election, making sure to pay tribute to his former boss: ‘I am very happy to say welcome Prime Minister. I think the real reason this book is helpful to the Prime Minister is that he can actually say “see, see what I had to put up with all those

Tuesday

19 May 2015

Sebastian Payne

Is Mark Reckless set to become Ukip’s Head of Policy?

Mark Reckless has been rather quiet during the recent Ukip wars. After losing Rochester & Strood to the Conservatives, it has been expected he would return to the party in some role or another. Now, it is rumoured that he will become the party’s new Head of Policy – replacing Suzanne Evans, who wrote the 2015 manifesto. Given that he temporarily gave the party its second seat, it would be cruel not to give Reckless something after a defeat many in the party expected. I understand that Reckless was offered the job during the contentious NEC meeting last week, where Nigel Farage unresigned as leader. It’s unknown whether he will

Steerpike

Jeremy Paxman: BBC licence fee can’t last

Although Jeremy Paxman spent several decades working for the BBC, the presenter took an opportunity at a Royal Television Society talk today to cast doubt over its future. With the BBC’s charter renewal looming, the former Newsnight presenter said that the TV licence ‘can’t last’: ‘As platforms become interchangeable, as computers and televisions become indistinguishable, a tax on the ownership of a particular piece of technology becomes very, very hard to justify, I would say almost impossible.’ Paxman even went so far as to suggest that the new culture secretary – and BBC enemy number one – John Whittingdale could be ‘terribly good’ for the Beeb. Given that Whittingdale previously described the licence fee as ‘worse

Steerpike

Karen Danczuk comes out in defence of Sally Bercow

Of all the MPs’ wives, Karen Danczuk and Sally Bercow may have amassed the most column inches. So perhaps it’s not surprising that in the wake of Sally’s latest news, Danczuk has come to her defence. Writing in this week’s issue of the women’s magazine Closer, Danczuk, who says she has been described as ‘the new Sally Bercow’, argues that onlookers should refrain from criticising Bercow over her alleged affair with her husband’s cousin. She says that unless you yourself have been a politician’s wife you cannot understand what it is like: ‘Life as a politician’s wife is a pressure cooker. And you can never switch off – you have a bath

Sebastian Payne

Patrick O’Flynn issues humiliating apology and resigns as economics spokesman

Patrick O’Flynn has apologised for starting last week’s Ukip wars. I understand that O’Flynn met with Farage in Strasbourg this morning — the first time the pair had sat down since his comments in the Times last week. In a slightly bizarre turn of events, the party has released the following statement from O’Flynn: ‘I would like to express to colleagues my sincere regret at going public with my frustrations about the turn of events following polling day. And more than that, I would like to apologise directly to Nigel for the phrase ‘snarling, thin-skinned and aggressive’. This was a fragment of a wider passage about perceptions and is not

Isabel Hardman

The Labour leadership checklist

There seems to be a checklist for Labour leadership hopefuls which all of them are very keen to tick off. When launching a campaign, a candidate must say that their party has just suffered a terrible defeat from which a number of profound lessons must be learned. These lessons all seem to be rather similar, and have led the candidates to say the following things: ‘We didn’t speak enough to aspirational voters’ Mary Creagh: ‘People felt that Labour didn’t understand their aspiration to earn money and provide a better life for their family.’ Chuka Umunna (when he was standing): ‘We need to… focus on what is the new agenda that

Steerpike

Don’t Labour tax advisers pop up in the funniest places?

Remember Jolyon Maugham, the QC who had fifteen minutes of fame during the General Election campaign when he ‘advised Labour on its non-dom tax crackdown’? As the Telegraph reported at the time: ‘Ed Balls, the shadow chancellor, cited Jolyon Maugham as an independent expert who had backed the policy and had forecast that it would raise £1billion. The Telegraph has established that Mr Maugham, a Labour supporter, has been in discussions with Labour about the policy for six weeks and played a role in designing it.’ Well next month Jolyon is off on a jolly to that well-known bastion of progressive taxation: Geneva. He has just been unveiled as a star speaker at

Steerpike

Ed Miliband returns from Ibiza to face the music

Ed Miliband’s last-minute holiday to Ibiza was hardly the way in which the former Labour leader had envisaged spending the week after the election. Still, a week on the party island with his wife Justine is hardly a bad way to commiserate his failure at the polls. Now he is on his way back to the UK to face Labour’s comedown. The Morning Star have published a photo of Miliband on a flight back to the UK. One Jack Forrester spotted Miliband and claims that Ed and Justine had some of the worst seats on the plane: With all the wannabe Labour leaders taking it in turns over the past week to stick

Sebastian Payne

Liz Kendall’s campaign still confident of getting 35 MPs

Despite her early entry, Liz Kendall’s leadership campaign is failing to keep up with rivals when it comes to noise and backers. Yvette Cooper and Andy Burnham have emerged as the early favourites, while some are wondering if Kendall can persuade the necessary 35 MPs to back her — particularly if Tristram Hunt runs and splits the moderate vote. But I understand her campaign remains confident they will make the cut. ‘The current direction of travel is that the final ballot will be Burnham, Kendall and Cooper,’ says a Labour source. ‘But, in the PLP nothing is set in stone — not even Ed stone’. The official nominating process does

Brendan O’Neill

Ireland’s ‘tolerant’ elite now demonise anyone who opposes gay marriage

If you think it’s tough being a Tory voter in 21st-century Britain, try being a ‘No’ voter in this week’s Irish referendum on gay marriage. Sure, Twitterati sneering at all things right-wing might have turned some Conservatives into Shy Tories, hiding their political leanings from pollsters. But in Ireland, to be a naysayer in relation to gay marriage is basically to make yourself a moral leper, unfit for polite society, ripe for exclusion from respectable circles. Irish opponents of gay marriage aren’t only encouraged to feel shy — they’re encouraged to feel shame. On Friday, the Irish electorate will be asked to vote on the redefinition of marriage as a