Politics Archives

Monday

21 Jul 2014

Steerpike

It’s Evan Davis for Newsnight

With the BBC set to make a formal announcement about Jeremy Paxman’s replacement at Newsnight imminently, tweets from BBC staff revealing the news were hurriedly deleted. Not quite all of them, though. Evan Davis to join #newsnight following the departure of Jeremy Paxman. — Lucy Walker (@lucybellewalker) July 21, 2014 It’s Evan Davis, apparently. Hardly a controversial choice for the increasingly lefty show, under the stewardship of former Guardian man Ian Katz. Incidentally, hipster Katz has taken to signing off his emails ‘iKatz’. Enough said. Update: Talking of email signatures, journalist Neil Midgley tweets Mr S to say ‘apparently James Harding uses ‘Allbest, James’. Which one BBC wag said ‘makes

David Blackburn

George Osborne’s grey-haired gamble

George Osborne has been in retail mode this morning, selling his pension reforms and explaining how pensioners can unlock their life’s savings. The Chancellor has said that the Treasury will work with the Citizen’s Advice Bureau, Age UK and other organisations to provide pensioners with the best possible impartial guidance to transform their retirement. Interested parties can consult the Treasury for more details. listen to ‘Osborne: Russia sanctions would be an ‘economic hit’ for the UK’ on Audioboo Osborne went on to add that this was what the pension reforms are ‘all about’. More cynical voices might, however, refer to Allister Heath’s article in this morning’s Telegraph, which says: ‘Despite

Sunday

20 Jul 2014

James Forsyth

The carnival is over for the Notting Hill set

It is the Sunday after the reshuffle before. Today’s papers are brimming with post reshuffle stories; and not of the kind that Downing Street will like. The Mail on Sunday reveals that Philip Hammond demanded an assurance that he wouldn’t just be keeping the seat warm for George Osborne at the Foreign Office. While the Sunday Times reports on how Owen Paterson and Liam Fox plan to ‘rough up’ the Prime Minister over Europe. The animosity of the right towards Cameron is, perhaps, to be expected. But one of the most striking things about the reshuffle is that it has severed the emotional bonds between Cameron and the modernisers who

Saturday

19 Jul 2014

James Forsyth

Miliband’s message: I’m neither New Labour nor Old Labour

On the hottest weekend of the year, few people would want to be stuck inside in Milton Keynes. But that is where the Labour hierarchy finds itself. For this weekend is the party’s national policy forum. Ed Miliband’s speech today is meant to try and show that while he has moved on from New Labour he is not old Labour. There will be much talk of how fiscal restraint will have to continue and how Miliband knows there can be no return to the free spending ways of the past. One aide sums the message up as, ‘We know there is no money to spend.’ But it’ll be fascinating to

Steerpike

Sorry Dave, it’s Boris and Farage for Charlie Brooks

The other darling of the CLA Game Fair — alongside former Environment Secretary Owen Paterson — was Charlie Brooks (aka Mr Rebekah Wade), who appears to be back on the country scene in a big way. ‘I’m a big fan of Boris Johnson and Nigel Farage’, the former litigant tells me. ‘I’ve always been a convert to be honest, which tells you what I make of politicians these days’. Curiously, it turns out Farage’s pub landlord was a juror in the Brooks’ recent trial, a fact that only came to light when the Ukip leader met Brooks for the first time on Friday. ‘You talked all sorts of nonsense, but you seem

Friday

18 Jul 2014

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: Senior Tory backbenchers to push Cameron further on Europe

Key eurosceptic MPs are planning to push David Cameron further on his plans for European reform next week, Coffee House has learned. Leading members of a powerful group of right-wing Conservative MPs, who meet regularly to discuss strategy, will call on the Prime Minister to set out more detail on giving power back to Parliament and his plans for reform. ‘The ECHR isn’t enough,’ says one source. ‘We need to hear more detail from the Prime Minister and we will ask for that as soon as next week.’ The precise wording of the demand – and how it will be delivered – are still being discussed, but the rebels are

Steerpike

No love for Liz Truss at country day out

Sacked Environment Secretary Owen Paterson was the darling of the CLA Game Fair at Blenheim Palace today. A steady trickle of well wishers queued, as if at a wake, to shake the right-winger’s hand. Even Nigel Farage publicly endorsed O-Patz, and was almost upstaged by the grey man. Country folk are sharpening their pitchforks in support of their displaced defender. ‘He’s the only one of them that actually got it’ lamented one attendee. ‘Bring back the badger slotter’, added another. Paterson is, in rural eyes, a tough act for his replacement Liz Truss to follow, and she has her work cut out to earn the respect of countrysiders. ‘I have

Sean Worth

Reshuffle 2014: Beware the revenge of the ‘Uglies’

There are two reasons why David Cameron’s cull of the ‘Uglies’ – the Conservative ministers who don’t perform well on camera – had to be so vast. The first is that the Tories need an unprecedented increase in support in order to secure an outright majority – but they have a weak brand that doesn’t appeal to the electorate. With the exception of David Cameron, Tories don’t appeal to the public – because they don’t look like them. That’s something that couldn’t have be fixed with a little light pruning, lopping off just one or two grey-haired junior ministers. The second is that Cameron needed new, different faces to take

Douglas Murray

Why won’t suspected terrorist John Downey be tried?

The Hallett Review was published yesterday. This is the review ordered by the Prime Minister in February after the collapse of the trial of John Downey. Readers will remember that Downey was about to face trial over the 1982 Hyde Park bombing – in which four British soldiers were murdered – when his lawyers produced a letter from the Police Service of Northern Ireland saying that Downey was not being sought for any offences. This opened up the remarkable discovery that unbeknown to most people involved in the political process in Northern Ireland: that such ‘amnesty letters’ had been sent to almost 200 ‘on-the-runs’ (people being sought for terrorism offences

Thursday

17 Jul 2014

The Spectator

Have David Cameron’s Etonians just given up on state school reform?

During his time as Education Secretary, Michael Gove would often have occasion to quote a passage of Machiavelli: ‘There is nothing more difficult, more doubtful of success or more dangerous than to initiate a new order of things. For the reformer has enemies in all those who profit by the old order, and only lukewarm defenders in all those who would profit by the new order.’ In the end, it seems, Gove’s enemies triumphed. They shouted more loudly than those who benefited from the new schools, and persuaded the Prime Minister that his Education Secretary was losing an argument — so he should walk the plank. The teachers’ unions succeeded

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: where is the radicalism?

One of the more dispiriting things about this reshuffle has been the way in which important policy areas appear to have been downgraded. This week’s leading article in The Spectator lambasts the decision to move Michael Gove from Education, arguing that it means his reforms will slow and future politicians will still be able to criticise the number of Old Etonians in the Cabinet: The Prime Minister and his coterie embody the problem. Gove was out to fix it, fighting a battle on behalf of the state school pupils -a battle that even Thatcher shied away from. Cameron has now decided that he’d rather this battle was not fought. His

Steerpike

LBC coy on ‘Grill Gove’

Talk radio station LBC are coy about the prospect of a Michael Gove phone-in show, mooted by Mr S yesterday. When asked if such a show is on the cards, a spokesman said: ‘We enjoy Michael Gove appearing on LBC, as we do the many other politicians who also enjoy getting the opportunity to talk to LBC’s listeners.‘ That’s diplomatic. But, when it comes to election season LBC will be bound by Ofcom rules on impartiality to balance out coverage. We already have Call Clegg and Phone Farage. Someone call for the Minister for Broadcasting…

Isabel Hardman

Tories to keep Gove on tight leash

Why is Michael Gove a minister for the Today programme when he was removed as Education Secretary because of his poor poll ratings? This paradox has amused some in Westminster, but it’s not quite as confusing as it seems. I hear that the new chief whip and enhanced Conservative campaigner will not be given quite such a free rein as it might seem. Indeed, those at the centre of the party are acutely aware of the dangers of sending out a man who already likes to have his say on many things that had nothing to do with education. They think that by bringing him into the centre, they can

Steerpike

Labour shadow minister attacks reshuffle women

There’s something wonderfully ironic about a Labour party that boasts about decency in politics yet has a frontbencher who tweets things like this: Bravo to Helen Goodman, Labour’s Shadow Culture, Media and Sport Minister, who would be furiously demanding an apology from the Conservatives for a similar tweet.

Tom Switzer

Australia’s Tony Abbott has made history by abolishing the hated carbon tax

A few years ago, the conventional wisdom down under held that Tony Abbott and his centre-right Liberal Party were crazy to oppose the notion of carbon pricing. The view was so commonplace among Canberra press gallery pundits that it seemed reckless to contradict it. Those were the days, remember, when global warming alarmism was all the rage around the western world. From Sydney to Southampton, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth was a blockbuster. An Australian prime minister, Kevin Rudd, had declared that climate change was the world’s ‘greatest moral challenge.’ Nigel Lawson’s book, An Appeal to Reason, was rejected by every British publisher, to whom it was submitted. As one

Ed West

Weak David Cameron is more ‘Borgen’ than ‘Game of Thrones’

I don’t know if David Cameron was trying to tell us something about Michael Gove’s prospects as chief whip by comparing him to the Hand of the King in Game of Thrones. Things don’t really turn out very well for the hands, generally; Jon Arryn was poisoned, Ned Stark was beheaded, Tyrion ended up in prison and Tywin, well, I wouldn’t want to spoil anything for people still catching up. Neither can we know if the prime minister is really a fan of the show or referencing it was simply another focus group-led thing, like moving Michael Gove out of education and bringing in lots of women. Most heavyweight commentators

Sean Kemp

The Lib Dems can’t win on reforming the ‘bedroom tax’

In 2010, shortly after going into coalition, Lib Dem MPs and peers were addressed by various liberal politicians keen to share their experiences of being the smallest party in a coalition. It was a fascinating, if mildly depressing occasion, with the advice ranging from ‘it’s hell’ to ‘no really, it’s absolute hell.’ The most striking quote came from the Dutch politician Lousewies van der Laan who warned us not to act like ‘the mayor in wartime’: a reference to people who became mayors of towns occupied by the Nazis, and then justified the decision by admitting that things were horrific but would be mildly less dreadful due to their decision

Melissa Kite

David Cameron’s misogynistic reshuffle

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_17_July_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Louise Mensch and Martha Gill discuss the reshuffle” startat=54] Listen [/audioplayer]Ask anyone who really knows David Cameron and they will tell you he likes a certain kind of woman. He has a very specific type, the Prime Minister. It is almost spooky the way all his women conform to it. They are all attractive, accomplished, articulate and well-dressed. But there is something else that makes certain women irresistible to Mr Cameron. While giving the appearance of being feisty and uncompromising, his sort of woman usually seems to know when to fall into line. I am not speaking of romantic conquests, but of the type of woman the Prime

James Forsyth

Gove, gone

‘There’s no shame in a cabinet to win the next election,’ declared an exasperated senior No. 10 figure on Tuesday night. This week’s reshuffle was not one for the purists: it was designed with campaigning, not governing, in mind. With less than ten months to go to polling day, politics trumps policy. This is why Michael Gove is moving from the Department for Education to become Chief Whip. The test of this shake-up will be whether the Tories win the next election or not. This reshuffle demonstrated that Tory modernisation is not about measures anymore but men — and women. The party has spent most of David Cameron’s leadership trying

Ysenda Maxtone Graham

The vote on women bishops is a triumph for our diplomatic Archbishop

The result of Monday’s vote on women bishops, the Archbishop of York stipulated, must be greeted in silence, as is the convention at the General Synod. This, perhaps, was a misjudgment: it would have been more natural, surely, to allow an instantaneous mass-whooping for joy and an outbreak of uninhibited Anglican hugging, rather than to force everyone to sit tight through two or three tedious extra amendments and then to make them all stand up and start singing and swaying to ‘We Are Marching in the Light of God’, which was what happened. But, say those who are delighted with the outcome of the vote, the Archbishops of York and Canterbury