Politics

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

Monday

Ed West Ed West

I’d like to nominate myself as Britain’s Paedofinder-General

Now that Elizabeth Butler-Sloss has stood down as head of the inquiry into historic sex abuse, I’d like to nominate myself as Britain’s new paedofinder-general. If I got the job, I would use the latest scientific techniques to track down every single sexual wrongdoer in Britain, alive or dead. Firstly I would type into Google the names of every person involved in the entertainment industry or politics between 1965 and 1990, followed by a ‘p’; if the word ‘paedophile’, ‘paedo’ or ‘pedo’ comes up in the top ten suggestions then the chances are that the person in question probably is one, so the CSI crime squads can turn up at

The Spectator

The 2014 government sackings – as they happened

For all of today’s reshuffle updates, including the new appointments and podcast reactions, follow our liveblog here. 23.44 That’s it for tonight. We’ll be back at 6am tomorrow, with more news of the reshuffle. Will Esther McVey, Liz Truss and Priti Patel become the new faces of David Cameron’s government? And will any of them much welcome the idea that this is a mission to bring more women into Westminster? Join us tomorrow to find out. 23.22 Dear John letters: The Prime Minister has written to the seven ministers who resigned. His hand will be rather sore after all of this sacking. Here’s what he wrote to each of them: 1) To

The Spectator

Podcast: Douglas Murray analyses the Israel-Gaza conflict

In our latest View from 22 podcast, Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip. Has Israel become too good at protecting its citizens? And is there an inequality of conflict? listen to ‘Douglas Murray, Mary Wakefield and Fraser Nelson discuss the conflict in the Gaza strip’ on Audioboo

Steerpike Steerpike

Wrath of Khan

Taking sides in the Middle East causes rows over many a Sunday lunch table; but one imagines that things are even tenser when you’re a member of one of the most prominent Jewish families in history and you’ve converted to Islam. This is the world in which Jemima Khan lives. Ben Goldsmith expressed a few critical words on Twitter about Israel’s enemies for using civilians as human shields. And Jemima was off: @BJGoldsmith Ben, your tweets on this subject are really ignorant and offensive — Jemima Khan (@Jemima_Khan) July 12, 2014 Ben responded, not entirely unreasonably, to a third party’s suggestion that he needed to be bombed. And his sister

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Reshuffle 2014: Cameron’s key challenges

What does David Cameron need his reshuffle to do? As has been the case with every reshuffle in this Parliament, the changing of the guard, which is expected to start later today (Coffee House will have a liveblog full of the action and gossip when it all kicks off), is being billed as a ‘reshuffle of the women’. But as I explained in my post last night about the Prime Minister considering voluntary all-women shortlists, even the incredibly talented crop of female Conservative MPs can’t stop Labour billing any shuffle as a disappointment for women, which it is ready doing before any jobs have changed hands. Cameron also needs to

Sunday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists

David Cameron could introduce ‘voluntary’ all-women shortlists if the Conservatives continue to struggle to recruit female MPs, senior Tory sources have said. The Prime Minister has also set party chairman Grant Shapps ‘on the case’ to remedy the current situation, whereby women are less likely to be selected for safe seats. But he is also interested in local associations using all-women shortlists on a voluntary basis after the next election if his party fails to make sufficient advances. Cameron does not want to impose shortlists on constituency parties, although of course ‘voluntary’ can cover a multitude of sins: many people ‘voluntarily’ work longer hours than those stipulated on their contract,

Hamish Macdonell

Today’s poll shows Alex Salmond running out of time

There really isn’t much time left. From today, there are just nine and a half weeks until we go to the polls in the independence referendum. Also today, we have the latest ICM poll for Scotland on Sunday. The main figures are: Yes 34 per cent (down two points), No 45 per cent (up two) and don’t know 21 per cent (unchanged). If the don’t knows are excluded, the figures are Yes 43 per cent (down two), No 57 per cent (up two). [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/Z2duc/index.html”] Suddenly, that nine-and-a-half week window looks pretty small for the Yes camp. It means that Alex Salmond and his colleagues have just 66 days to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Nigel Farage hints at how a Tory / Ukip electoral pact might work

Vote Farage, get Miliband might not have quite as much resonance with voters as the Tories would like. But it is certainly effective with donors. If Ukip is seen as Ed Miliband’s passport to Number 10, it will be far harder for it to raise the money it needs to fight a successful general election campaign. So when Nigel Farage spoke to the Midlands Industrial Council—a group of right-wing business people who have in the past donated substantial sums to the Tories—after the European Elections, most of the questions were about how to avoid a split on the right letting Labour back into government. As I report in the Mail

Saturday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

By supporting assisted dying, Lord Carey has united Christians against it

He didn’t mean to, but Lord Carey, the outspoken and unpopular former Archbishop of Canterbury, may just have carried out a minor miracle. By coming out in the Daily Mail in favour of assisted suicide, he has succeeded in bringing together Christians of all denominations and political persuasions to oppose him. Trendy evangelicals, Catholics, Anglo-Catholics, and the Orthodox may have profound differences, but one thing they know is that disagree with Lord Carey, especially when he makes out that the truly Christian position is to support this first step towards legal euthanasia in Britain, which will be debated in the House of Lords this week. Carey is not exactly well

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Lord Carey undermines his successor, again

The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, has changed his mind about ‘assisted dying’ and intends to vote for Lord Falconer’s Bill, which will be debated in Parliament next week. His article in today’s Daily Mail is a tremendous coup for the Dignity in Dying lobby. When Carey was in office, no one paid much attention to his views. He lumbered from one gaffe to another; we religious correspondents were too amused by his self-importance to notice that he tended to get his way – for example, over women priests in 1992. Since retirement, his stature has grown. He has become more right-wing. He is contemptuous of the bishops’ fear

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Uxbridge set to be destination Boris?

Mr S likes a flutter. His eyes were drawn to the latest speculation about Boris’s return to the Commons. Ladbrokes are offering 3-1 that the Blond Bombshell will be selected in Uxbridge, which is to be vacated by John Randall at the next election. Uxbridge is hardly K&C (Mrs S is agin it); but, it is a safe Tory seat in the capital: Ladbrokes have it 1/50 on for the Tories. Perfect for Boris, you might think… Here are the latest odds on Boris, courtesy of Ladbrokes: Where will Boris stand in 2015? 6/4 Does not stand for parliament 3/1 Uxbridge & South Ruislip 7/2 Hertsmere 6/1 South Cambridgeshire 7/1

David Blackburn

Jean-Claude Juncker’s biggest challenge: energy

‘Energy is the single biggest issue facing Jean-Claude Juncker,’ remarked a seasoned Eurocrat to me earlier this week. Europe’s energy infrastructure is decrepit and insular. Rates of cross-border interconnection, for example, remain very low – at just 8 per cent of their production capacity on average across the union according to the FT. The Commission’s 2030 energy package aims to raise the average rate of interconnection to 15 per cent — part of a string of targets designed to complete the single market in energy. Alas, it’s going to take more than a target or two. The level of investment required is enormous (more than 1 trillion euros by the Commission’s

Steerpike Steerpike

Ed Miliband’s road to nowhere

Ed Miliband’s negotiations with the White House to meet his hero Barack Obama aren’t going well, Nick Robinson reported on the Today programme this morning: ‘Ed Miliband’s team are desperate not to ruin their man’s chances of a visit to the White House by talking them up… The Labour leader’s aides point out that he has already met Barack Obama, though not at the White House. Some even say that Michael Howard never got to go when he was leader of the opposition – before remembering, perhaps, that that’s not the best parallel to draw. Don’t be fooled though, in Washington DC they’re in no doubt this is a meeting

Thursday

Steerpike Steerpike

Three cheers for all those who avoid the UK’s huge taxes

‘Hypocrisy of the stars who shielded cash from taxman’, cries a headline in today’s Daily Mail. But are we sure that it’s really hypocrisy? Among those ‘outed’ as hypocrites is the actor Michael Caine. But Mr Steerpike seems to recall that the cockney lad has been a vocal campaigner against our tax system, which seem to be one of his pet peeves. In fact, in the late 1970s Caine moved to the States to avoid them. A country that charges 82 per cent tax on its highest earners isn’t a democracy – rather ‘a communist country without a dictator’, he has been quoted as saying. Another tax ‘hypocrite’ is TV’s Anne

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Great Brussels Steeplechase: runners and riders to be Britain’s next European Commissioner

Next week, EU leaders will meet to parcel out the top jobs in the next European Commission. So David Cameron doesn’t have long to decide who he is going to nominate—and Berlin is already bugging him for his pick. Here’s The Spectator‘s run down of the runners and riders. Andrew Lansley: Until recently the firm favourite. But in recent weeks support for him has fallen away. No. 10 has been irritated by the hints he has dropped about having been offered the job. It has also grasped that nominating someone as compensation for dropping them from the Cabinet is a recipe for getting a second-tier job. David Willetts: The science

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is cross-party agreement on surveillance legislation a good thing?

So all three party leaders agree that it’s worth rushing through emergency surveillance legislation. While David Cameron and Nick Clegg were holding their rare joint press conference, Ed Miliband released a joint letter with Yvette Cooper in which he said ‘we have been guided by our firm conviction that it is essential to maintain the security of our citizens and also ensure people’s privacy is protected’. The Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister both needed to make the case for the emergency legislation today but Nick Clegg also needed to make the case for his support for it, given he had rejected the full Communications Data Bill. He supports the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Michael Gove’s ‘personal crusade’

Michael Gove’s speech to today’s education reform conference is a robust defence of his reforms. He calls closing the attainment gap between rich and poor a ‘personal crusade for me’. But I suspect that the headlines will be grabbed by his claim that the teaching unions aren’t standing up for education but for their ‘own pay and pensions’. He says that the status quo isn’t good enough and ‘we mustn’t keep going backwards – and failing the poorest above all.’ What I found most striking, though, was Gove’s praise for how academy chains are turning round failing schools such as Downhills. Indeed, Gove clearly envisages a far greater role for

Damian Thompson Damian Thompson

Chris Patten keeps failing upwards – now he’s advising the Pope. Poor Pope.

There is a wearying inevitability to the announcement that Pope Francis’s reforms of the Vatican media will be overseen by Lord Patten of Barnes. Of course it was going to be him. It always is. The man defies the laws of political gravity. As Margaret Thatcher’s environment secretary he was responsible for the poll tax. He walked away from the disaster unscathed, explaining that it was nothing to do with him, guv, it was Thatch. As Tory chairman he presided over Major’s 1992 victory but lost his own seat. He was made governor of Hong Kong, where he stood up to China. But he went native with a vengeance as

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Could Michael Howard be the next EU Commissioner?

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_10_July_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the EU Commissioner role” startat=732] Listen [/audioplayer]In recent weeks British government visitors to Berlin have been confronted with a persistent question: when will David Cameron make up his mind about who he’ll send to Brussels? Picking a European commissioner is a big decision: Tony Blair sent Peter Mandelson, who went on to become the EU trade commissioner. Gordon Brown nominated Cathy Ashton, who picked up the foreign affairs post. There is a tradition of Brits landing relatively big jobs — and, ergo, power and influence. But prime ministers need to send someone with enough heft and zest. Angela Merkel is not racked

Michael Ware

Wave power is a really, really stupid idea. That’s why it’s getting so much taxpayer subsidy

The surface of the sea is a hostile and unforgiving place. Although it covers 71 per cent of the planet, nothing much bigger than a speck lives there. Obviously, lots of slimy and scaly things swim around beneath the surface — but on the very top, pretty much zilch. Mother Nature has found niches for life in the desert, the Arctic and deep underground but, after 4.5 billion years of trying, she is passing on the surface of the sea, thanks all the same. Now you would think that this very long experiment in trying to evolve life in a hostile environment would act as some kind of hint to