Politics Archives

Friday

4 Oct 2013

Sketch: Question Time is no longer an honest debating chamber

A good honest debating chamber. That’s how Question Time is billed. In fact it’s an unseemly gold-rush for applause. The panelists are a set of needy egos with semi-fictionalised hairdos. And the audience is composed of wonks and party activists posing as disinterested voters. Last night’s episode was particularly fractious. The crowd was keen to hear about the Daily Mail’s attack on Ralph Miliband ‘as the man who hated Britain.’ But the first question concerned benefit reductions for the under-25s. Quentin Letts, of the Mail, seemed uncharacteristically nervous. He said his ‘prejudice’ would be to target cuts on the young rather than the elderly. He meant ‘preference’. Rather a shaky

Fraser Nelson

Vultures are circling Britain’s free press. Again.

My first job in journalism was with the Glasgow Herald, which then had a bar built in to the complex. I was taken under the wing of the legendary James Freeman, who taught me the ways of the jungle. ‘You see that journalists always drink in groups of three?’ he told me in the bar one lunchtime. ‘That’s so, when one goes to the toilet, the other two can slag him off.’ And it’s true: my profession is notoriously bitchy. I was reminded of this when switching on the BBC news to find, yet again, that the transgressions of the Daily Mail and its spat with Ed Miliband is deemed

Isabel Hardman

Miliband vs Mail reveals Labour leader’s belief about the role of politicians

It’s hardly a surprise that Ed Miliband has called for another inquiry following the row about the Daily Mail’s treatment of his father. The Labour leader is always calling for one inquiry or another. But normally these inquiries are led by someone outside the organisation that Miliband is taking issue with: his latest call is in fact for Lord Rothermere to investigate the culture and practices of his own newspapers. Now, there is nothing wrong with the Labour leader wanting to defend his father: that is quite natural and few would disagree with such an instinctive reaction. And there is nothing wrong with him objecting to a reporter turning up

Alex Massie

The Daily Mail is disreputable, twisted, tendentious and malignant. Thank heavens for that

For the want of a question mark, the empire was defeated. Something like that anyway. Changing The Man Who Hated Britain to A Man Who Hated Britain? would have saved the Daily Mail an awful lot of bother. Too late for that now. And, of course, there are many people savouring the Mail’s distress. Many more, too, who appreciate the irony of the Mail being the object of this week’s Two Minute Hate. What goes around comes around. Sauce for geese and ganders and all that. I thought the problem with the Mail’s hatchet job on Ralph Miliband was that it used a very small, rather blunt hatchet. A couple of diary entries, a few quotations from his books

Thursday

3 Oct 2013

Isabel Hardman

The ravelling and unravelling of the only policy in David Cameron’s speech

David Cameron’s speech to Tory conference yesterday was supposed to be policy-free so that the media would pick up his list of achievements because it had no other choice. The problem with this, though, was that the papers found a policy in the speech anyway, and if they did splash on the speech, they chose this policy, not the ‘finish the job’ line or any other (although the Mail used the ‘Land of Hope is Tory’ line). It was on housing benefits for the under-25s, but it wasn’t exactly ready to be a set-piece conference announcement, more a fleeting reference to gain more applause in the hall. Because the policy

Melanie McDonagh

Our rulers don’t seem to care that the National Lottery fleeces the poor

Now the latest on the Politicians Keeping In Touch front. It’s funny how it’s the wives who take the brunt of the endeavour. It was Samantha Cameron yesterday who had to parade at the Tory party conference in a teal £42 polyester dress from Asos.com…no question, then, of Mr Cameron being asked to take a turn in an M&S suit. Alas, Mrs C did what every sensible person does who has to wear something from Asos or Florence and Fred (and may I say, given their modest cut when it comes to fabric only skinnies can carry this off) and replaced their belt with one of her own. It was a

Steerpike

Geordie Greig was in Manchester during Miliband memorial

Just as the Miliband/Mail row was dying down, along comes the next tranche of fury — and more justified this time. Mail on Sunday editor Geordie Greig has gone into full damage-control mode (suspending two journalists and issuing a grovelling apology) after Ed Miliband complained that a MoS reporter had infiltrated a family memorial service yesterday to ask guests what they thought of the row with the Mail. Grieg was one of the many editors pressing flesh at Tory conference while the dirty deed was being done, wining and dining cabinet ministers. He may now wish that he stayed at home to keep an eye on his hacks. Greig is rumoured

The Spectator

Ed Miliband’s letter to Lord Rothermere – and the Mail on Sunday’s apology

Dear Lord Rothermere, Yesterday I spoke at a memorial event held at Guy’s Hospital in London for my uncle, Professor Harry Keen, a distinguished doctor who died earlier this year. It was an event in a room on the 29th floor of Guy’s Hospital which was attended only by family members, close friends and colleagues. I was told by one of my relatives late yesterday evening that a reporter from the Mail on Sunday had found her way into the event uninvited. I also discovered that, once there, she approached members of my family seeking comments on the controversy over the Daily Mail’s description of my late father as someone

Charles Moore

Boris Johnson’s party conference performance showed how formidable the Mayor is

It has been left to Boris Johnson to identify the most significant future opportunity in this country — population increase. I was very impressed by his speech on Tuesday because he did a dangerous thing: he tried to reason his party audience out of its instinctive position. London has had more live births in 2012, he told us, than at any time since the 1966 World Cup. He attributed it to time spent on the sofa during the Olympics. Conservative supporters always favour economic growth but usually balk at any linkage with having more babies. Being predominantly old, they find large numbers of the young irritating. Yet, as Boris hinted, without specifically

James Forsyth

James Forsyth: Two men have united the Tories – Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage

Manchester The Tory party has been at peace with itself this week. Eurosceptic backbenchers have given Nigel Farage a verbal kicking on the fringe, Cabinet ministers have stuck resolutely to the ‘hardworking’ conference script, and even Boris Johnson has behaved himself. Gay marriage, which so divided the leadership from the grassroots, has barely been mentioned, and you’d never know that just a month ago David Cameron lost a Commons vote on Syria. The new harmonious mood has come about in part because the leadership has moved towards the rest of the party. Tory conference was once decorated with poster extolling the benefits of ‘the big society’. Now, there is

Matthew Parris

Matthew Parris: The Tories mustn’t cuddle up to Ukip — just imagine if it happened on the left

Such is my respect for Spectator readers that I offer you a column whose subtext is in Latin. Ours is one of the last mainstream magazines among whose readership the phrase mutatis mutandis will be very widely understood. But the little test you and I are going to try concerns a live issue, not a dead language. For the purposes of this test I am going to paint you a scenario, and you’re going to give me the broad thrust of the advice you’d give in such circumstances. Imagine that the Labour party has been trying for some time to position itself firmly on the centre ground. The strategy (you

Freddy Gray

The Speculator: Put a tenner on Osborne as next Tory leader

When you hear the words ‘economic recovery’, do you think: ‘Great! Britain is on the mend’? Or ‘Damn! I should have bet on the Tories to win an outright majority’? If your reaction is the latter, this column is for you. Back in March, when economists were talking about a triple dip and Chancellor Osborne looked like a miserable failure, you could have found odds of 5/1 on a Tory majority in 2015. Today things look rosier, and William Hill is offering 11/4. The Ukip treasurer and spread-betting tycoon Stuart Wheeler didn’t miss the trick. Given his position in politics, he can hardly be praying for a runaway Cameron victory. But Wheeler

Elliot Wilson

If you think British banks are bad, you’ve never tried China’s

It’s hard to think of anything more badly run than a Chinese bank. Somalia perhaps, or the BBC’s remuneration committee. Certainly, Beijing’s embattled lenders make ours look like paragons of financial rectitude. We may dislike RBS et al for bringing our economy to its knees, but at least we’re not saddled with a cabal of banks inextricably linked to whoever resides in Downing Street. Let’s start with good old-fashioned service. We may complain about our banks, how they all look the same and bombard us with adverts that would patronise a two-year-old. But at least they pretend to care. China’s banks don’t. Service is dire wherever you go. Internet or

Matthew Lynn

Why Britain’s economy will overtake Germany’s

What’s the most surprising thing that could come out of the current economic upturn? A rapid revival in northern manufacturing? The City really getting behind small British businesses? Ed Balls admitting higher public spending wasn’t always the best way to promote growth? Any of these eventualities would be fairly amazing. But the biggest surprise would perhaps be this: a gradual realisation that the UK is on track to become the largest economy in Europe. In the 19th century, at the height of the industrial revolution, the UK outproduced all of its European competitors. It steadily lost that position, however, ceding industrial leadership to the Germans and the French. In the

Martin Vander Weyer

Martin Vander Weyer: Freeze gas bills, freeze fuel duty – and one day we’ll all freeze in the dark

‘We need successful energy companies in Britain, we need them to invest for the future,’ said Ed Miliband in his conference speech, as though channelling my thoughts at the very moment I was writing last week’s item on the lack of a national energy strategy. Then he ruined it: ‘If we win the election, the next Labour government will freeze gas and electricity prices until the start of 2017. That’s what I mean by a government that fights for you.’ And that’s what we all mean by politicians making ill-conceived promises for short-term gain. George Osborne’s response? ‘Any politician would love to tell you that they can wave a magic

Wednesday

2 Oct 2013

Isabel Hardman

Tory conference 2013: five things we learned

1. Labour set the agenda for this conference. Ed Miliband might be preoccupied by his row with the Daily Mail about his father, but he can take heart that his shift to the left in Brighton last week had a huge influence over this Conservative party conference. This wasn’t just the cost of living agenda, which Tory ministers felt the need to rebut and respond to in their own speeches, but, as James explains in his politics column this week (get a sneak preview on Coffee House here), Ed Miliband has energised the Tories into being more determined than ever to beat Labour. David Cameron’s own speech contained 25 references to Labour, and

Douglas Murray

Why are Marxists and Soviet apologists regarded as harmless jokers?

I rather like Ed Miliband, and for what it’s worth I don’t think he has inherited much, if any, of his father’s rancid political views. Nevertheless the fact that Ed Miliband has often referred to his father’s thought makes Miliband Snr fair game in a way that other politicians’ parents might not be. But in the row over the Daily Mail / Ralph Miliband affair two things remain to be pointed out. The first relates to war service. Contra Emily Maitlis (among others) on last night’s Newsnight, it is perfectly possible to fight for a country in a world war and still hold values (then or subsequently) inimical to the country you fought

Sebastian Payne

View from 22 podcast special: Cameron’s land of hope and Tory

Isabel Hardman thinks David Cameron’s speech was very well delivered but lacking in any actual news, while James Forsyth believes it was given to draw a clear dividing lines between the Tories and Labour. In this special View from 22 podcast, we analyse whether the Prime Minister’s speech achieved what it needed too, struck the right tone and matched up to Labour’s challenge. You can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the embedded player below: listen to ‘View from 22 podcast special: Cameron’s land of hope and Tory’ on Audioboo

James Forsyth

Who’s united the Tories? Ed Miliband and Nigel Farage

The Tory party has been at peace with itself this week. Eurosceptic backbenchers have given Nigel Farage a verbal kicking on the fringe, Cabinet ministers have stuck resolutely to the ‘hard- working’ conference script, and even Boris Johnson has behaved himself. Gay marriage, which so divided the leadership from the grassroots, has barely been mentioned, and you’d never know that just a month ago David Cameron lost a Commons vote on Syria. The new harmonious mood has come about in part because the leadership has moved towards the rest of the party. Tory conference was once decorated with posters extolling the benefits of ‘the big society’. Now, there is a

Isabel Hardman

Tories shift their plans on benefits for under-25s

Although David Cameron’s speech was deliberately light on policy, it did contain one hint about a manifesto commitment for the 2015 general election. The Prime Minister told the conference that ‘we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.’ The party is clear this afternoon that this will be a fully fleshed-out pledge in the Conservative manifesto, and that it is linked to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood’s review of training and education for under-25s. The benefits that could be docked for young people