Politics

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

Isabel Hardman

Philip Hammond: Britain can do better than a blank sheet of paper or the Lib Dems

listen to ‘Hammond: ‘A Conservative government will never send our forces in to battle without the right kit’’ on Audioboo Philip Hammond’s speech to the Conservative conference was accompanied by the set of circumstances that most ministers have bad dreams about after eating too much cheese. First he was interrupted by two men in military clothing, shouting about defence cuts and fusiliers. ‘I’ll come and talk to you later, let me finish my speech,’ the Defence Secretary said, hopefully. The man didn’t stop, and was escorted from the floor, followed by a cloud of journalists scribbling away and enthusiastic photographers. Then the giant screens behind Hammond that were beaming two

Isabel Hardman

Grant Shapps: Britain can do better than a Labour government

Manchester Central is a beautiful, cavernous conference venue. But it also seems to be acting as a bit of an atmosphere sink today. When Grant Shapps bounded onto the conference stage after the party’s tribute to Baroness Thatcher, he might have expected that his speech, which was full of the sort of fare that Tory grassroots love – attacks on Labour and the trade unions and a reminder that Abu Qatada no longer haunts these shores – would have gone down to uproarious applause. But though delegates clearly liked his speech, they never really warmed up. If this continues through the week, it won’t help diminish the impression that political

Isabel Hardman

How strong can the Tory tax attack be?

One of the key dividing lines in 2015 will be over what sort of action each of the parties proposes to take over filling the financial black hole. The choice is between tax rises and spending cuts, and the Tories were first out of the blocks to make clear that they want to focus on spending cuts, specifically shaving more money from the welfare bill, as part of their election offer. James first revealed this in his Mail on Sunday column in June, and then George Osborne ruled out tax rises at a press gallery lunch the following month. At the time, he said: ‘I think this can be delivered

James Forsyth

Look who’s back: Steve Hilton returns to help with Cameron’s conference speech

When Steve Hilton left Downing Street he regarded his friend David Cameron’s premiership as a disappointment. As Matt d’Ancona reports, Hilton regarded Cameron as ‘reactive not transformative’. When he didn’t return at the end of his sabbatical, it was thought that was that. But for the last few days, Hilton has been back. When Cameron asked him to come and help on his conference speech, their old friendship kicked in and Hilton flew back from California. He was one of five people who hunkered down with Cameron at Chequers from Tuesday to Wednesday evening to work out how the Tory leader should respond to Miliband. With Hilton, Cameron and Michael

Fraser Nelson

Tax cuts R us! Ten points from David Cameron’s Marr interview

Here’s what jumped out at me from David Cameron’s interview with Andrew Marr in Manchester this morning: Tax cuts: the Tory weapon ‘As this economy has started to recover, it’s very difficult for people to make ends meet. Their wages are relatively fixed, and the prices are going up. That’s why cutting people’s taxes is so important. That’s why lifting people out of the first £10,000 of income tax is so vital. That’s why freezing the council tax matters.’ So Cameron acknowledges Miliband’s premise, that the cost of living is an issue, then presents tax cuts as the solution. Precisely the right strategy, as tax cuts are bankable and Miliband’s

James Forsyth

Could Britain quitting the ECHR persuade the Tories to stay in the EU?

David Cameron’s willingness to talk about Britain pulling out of the European Court of Human Rights while refusing to give details of what he wants back in an EU renegotiation is telling. All Cameron would say on Marr this morning about the EU renegotiation, is that he wants Britain to be exempted from ‘ever closer union’—a largely linguistic ask that, I suspect, the rest of the EU will be prepared to agree to. By contrast, he was prepared to go into far more detail about how he might change Britain’s relationship with the Strasbourg Court. listen to ‘Cameron: ‘Ever closer union is not what I want’’ on Audioboo

Thatcher’s legacy is alive and well. Don’t let Labour unravel it

Today the conference hall in Manchester paid our respects, once again, to Britain’s greatest peacetime leader, Margaret Thatcher. listen to ‘The Conseratives’ tribute to Margaret Thatcher’ on Audioboo It is a source of never-ending pride for every Conservative MP that we represent a party which was led by the country’s first female Prime Minister. Baroness Thatcher did more to extend wealth and ownership across the country than any other politician. We are all better off because of what she did. But it’s not only in the conference hall in Manchester that Baroness Thatcher’s legacy is alive and well. Across the country we see the change in the transferring of wealth

Steerpike

Tory pale ale fail

Are the Tories a little bitter about Ed’s conference speech last week? Well, if their annual conference stunt is anything to go by they’re up for a bar fight. The Red Ed Lion Pub has opened in Manchester serving up such comedy capers as ‘Miliband Brown Ale’, ‘Extra Strong Union Ale’ and ‘David’s Bitter’. Party fund-raisers will be hoping that the delegates tuck in, and they’ll be on hand on to take donations, like modern day versions of Napoleonic era army recruiters conscripting drunks in pubs. Mr Steerpike will report back on how they taste when he arrives at the conference; but he suspects that they might be a little flat.

Fraser Nelson

Come on ladies, cheap cheap debt! George Osborne opens Tory conference hawking loans

Come and have a look – cheap, cheap debt! Very, very good – cheap, cheap debt! The £1 fish singer may have been deported, but his spirit lives on in George Osborne’s launch announcement today. The Tory response to Ed Miliband’s cost-of-living pledge seems to be more adventures into sub-prime. The Chancellor will press ahead with a second phase of his deeply controversial Help To Buy scheme – and three months earlier then he planned. Recent history has taught us to worry when vote-hungry politicians try to manipulate the housing market to provide loans to people who otherwise could not afford them. This is why so many economists are amazed

Conservative conference: Sunday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. The Tories’ annual bash kicks off today in Manchester with plenty of cabinet ministers and interesting figures popping up, mostly later in the day. Here’s our selection of the must-attend fringes: Title Key speaker(s) Time Location How To Win The Next Election Owen Paterson, Andrew Mitchell, Tim Montgomerie 14:00 Midland Hotel, Alexandra A Boot Camp: Designing a truly digital government Francis Maude 17:00 Rylands Room, Novotel Centre The Big Transport Interview Patrick McLoughlin, Stephen Hammond 17:00 Manchester Central, Central 4 The Implications Of Independence For The Energy Sector Michael Fallon, Lord Strathclyde 17:30 Midland Hotel, Stanley Suite

James Forsyth

We haven’t heard the last of the mansion tax

In Manchester this week, there’ll be much talk from the Tories about how they are gunning for a majority. But in private, many senior Tories will admit that being the largest party in another hung parliament is a more realistic aim. As Matthew d’Ancona reveals in the Telegraph this morning, there has been talk—albeit brief– between the principals about a second coalition. Matt also reminds us how, if it had not been for Cameron’s intervention, a mansion tax would have been imposed by the coalition. I suspect that if there is to be another coalition, the Liberal Democrats would insist on some kind of mansion tax. It has come for

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron unveils £1,000 marriage tax allowance

That the Conservatives were going to announce a marriage tax allowance at their party conference had to be one of the worst kept secrets in Westminster since the date of the last general election. So they’ve managed to go one better than the £750 allowance proposed by their 2010 manifesto with David Cameron announcing in the Daily Mail tomorrow that people will be able to transfer £1,000 of their personal tax allowance to their spouse or civil partner. Cameron has written in the Mail about his personal belief in marriage, adding: ‘When I ran for the leadership of my party back in 2005, I said that I wanted to do

The Boris Johnson guide to making headlines

Boris Johnson sure knows how to make the front pages. His interview in the latest FT Weekend Magazine — with the cover quote ‘for the first time in years, I wished I was in Westminster’ — is a prime example of his strategy. He wants to remain in the public consciousness without revealing anything new. He’s done it several times before, often in similar ways: 1. After a period of inactivity, give an interview which appears revelatory Boris flits in and out of the spotlight, particularly when he’s busy trying to run London. Then suddenly, he appears front and centre with ‘news’. In the FT’s interview, he says ‘during the

Ed Miliband needs to get out more

They say travel broadens the mind, and Ed Miliband needs to travel more. To China, India and Brazil, but also to South Korea, Mexico, Turkey and Indonesia. If he did he would see the evidence before his eyes of a global revolution taking place. This revolution, and how Britain can best be a contender in the global race, is the biggest fact of life in politics today. To dismiss this phenomenon as a ‘race to the bottom’ is so breathtakingly arrogant, parochial and ignorant that it demonstrates Ed Miliband’s lack of seriousness and suitability as a national leader. The whole world order, that has existed since at least the Industrial

Why a Tory/Ukip alliance would benefit Labour

In YouGov’s poll this morning for the Sun the Conservatives had 33 percent support, Labour 40 percent, the Liberal Democrats 9 percent and Ukip 11 percent. While it would be a gross exaggeration to say all of Ukip’s support comes from the Conservative party, they do gain a disproportionate amount of support from ex-Tories and it’s natural for people to add together that Conservative 33 percent and that Ukip 11 percent and think what might be. The reality though may not be as simple as adding the two together. In yesterday’s poll we also asked people to imagine that Ukip and the Conservatives agreed a pact at the next general

Ed West

Ed Miliband ducks the question. If squaddies are victims, who or what is threatening them?

A country’s laws say much about its people’s character, though not in the way its lawmakers intend. Perhaps the oldest written law in English history, dating back to King Ethelbert of Kent, decreed strict punishments for anyone who attacked Church property, which suggested that either they were very pious folk or, more likely, quite a few people were stealing from churches. The idea of sacrilege predates Christianity; in ancient Rome violence against some officials was punished more severely because their positions were sacred. The modern advent of hate crimes has reinvented this idea, with certain people granted protection because of group victim status, victimhood being the closest thing we now

Carola Binney

Take it from a teenager: 16-year olds shouldn’t be able to vote

Like Charles Moore in this week’s Spectator, I am inclined to wonder whether there is ‘any conceivable good reason’ why 16-year-olds should have the vote. As a teenager interested in politics, I found not being eligible to cast a ballot until this year frustrating but reasonable. The idea that, at 18, I would become an adult, and as an adult I would be able to vote, made perfect sense. Departing from this principle by picking an arbitrary voting age is, as Moore points out, a slippery slope: what about all those politically oppressed 8 year olds? It is never argued that 16-year-olds should have the vote as part of a

Fraser Nelson

To see off Ed Miliband, the Tories need to do better than an Alan B’stard stimulus

A banker of my acquaintance went to Switzerland skiing this winter. A luxury he normally could not afford, but he’d just remortgaged thanks to George Osborne’s Funding For Lending scheme and saved a packet. To his amazement, he was being bailed out by the Chancellor – he didn’t need the money but thought he’d take it if it was going. The cash certainly tricked down – to the après-ski champagne bars of Verbier. The Chancellor’s stimulus makes the cheapest loans only available to the rich (ie, those with at least 40 per cent equity in their house) and like all of the Treasury’s cheap debt wheezes it was just another