Politics

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

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s speech shows he wants a re-run of 1992

David Cameron’s Chequers speech writing session was held hours after Ed Miliband had finished speaking at Labour conference, and it showed today. This was Cameron’s passionate, sometimes angry, response to the Labour leader. He wanted to make the case that Miliband’s move to the left would endanger the British economy. His message was give me the time and I will finish the job. What’s the job, building a ‘land of opportunity’. This seems to mean an enterprise economy with an education system good enough to enable social mobility. It is a very Tory message. But Cameron was keen to show that he’s still a compassionate Conservative. As he discussed his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour set the test for this Conservative conference – but Cameron passed

David Cameron is an essay crisis Prime Minister. He works best when his back is against the wall. And this conference he had a last-minute test set for him which he had to step up to. That test was set by the Labour party last week, with its focus on the cost of living, and Cameron passed it. His speech was written with clever flourishes and turns of phrase – ‘the land of despair was Labour, but the land of hope is Tory’, ‘Abu Qatada had his very own May Day this year’ and ‘I’ve got a gesture of my own for Ed Balls’ – but it was also dominated

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron skips conference announcements to boast about Tory record

Normally when a Prime Minister gives a speech to a party conference, the ‘line’ for the next day’s newspapers is pretty clear. A policy announcement means it’s easy to write the introduction to the story, which is supposed to sum up what happened in under 25 words. But David Cameron’s speech today could only really be summed up as ‘Today the Prime Minister gave a speech on all the things he’s done and asked for time to finish the job’. His speech had no policy announcements in it, other than a hint that under-25s could lose their benefits unless they were ‘earning or learning’. This is an impressive bet by

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Why didn’t the Daily Mail stick to the ‘red angle’ when it came to Ralph Miliband?

For those of us of a certain age, Ed Miliband’s speech last week was exhilaratingly nostalgic. His promise to freeze energy prices reminded us of happy times when Labour policies were patently, shamelessly idiotic. At last, after a generation of loss, we began to hope to find reds under the bed again. In its understandable excitement, the Daily Mail made the mistake of finding only a dead red — Mr Miliband’s late father, Ralph. It then compounded its error by saying that Miliband senior ‘hated Britain’, on the basis of some angry remarks he made when aged 17. So the Mail managed to offend against taste and decency on multiple

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What will Cameron say about the Lib Dems?

The Tories are naturally the most worked up about Ukip – while trying to publicly pretend that it doesn’t exist, of course – but when David Cameron gives his speech to conference shortly, what will he say about the Lib Dems? He faces two yellow challenges: the first is to try to stop the Lib Dems claiming credit as the party of the moral high ground without which the Tories would be a rabidly unfair party unconcerned with the needs of the vulnerable. The second is giving the impression that while the Coalition may conduct itself with greater serenity than anyone could have imagined when it formed in 2010, he

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory take over

No corner of Manchester is safe from the Tories’ attempt to plaster their conference slogan anywhere and everywhere.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Don’t be seduced by Labour’s quick fixes, let us finish the job

One of the striking things about the extracts of David Cameron’s speech that have been briefed so far is that the Conservative Prime Minister is having to respond to a number of key themes of Ed Miliband’s conference last week. Labour should be pleased that it has set the agenda for this conference season, not just spooking ministers on the cost of living, but also forcing a defence of business and profit from the Prime Minister. Ed Miliband’s row with the Mail has also overshadowed the conference. The Prime Minister will say: ‘We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise… these are not dirty, elitist words – they’re not

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Eric Pickles pictures the horrors of a Labour government

Eric Pickles has a vivid imagination. He set out to remind the Conservative faithful today the dangers of letting Labour back into office, and why they, not the Tories, are the real nasty party. He painted a picture of where Britain might be if we were living under a Labour coalition: ‘Labour would have quickly lost the confidence of the markets for failing to tackle the deficit. Mortgage rates would have soared, and after that, taxes too. The Chancellor, Ed Balls, would be extending his so-called “mansion tax” to ordinary family homes…the Business Secretary – Unite’s Baron McCluskey of Mersey Docks – would be abolishing Margaret Thatcher’s trade union reforms

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove’s evangelical education afternoon

Michael Gove has only just started speaking to his party conference, but already he has made a powerful, emotive case for the moral value of his education reforms. The education section of the afternoon programme has resembled an evangelical Christian outreach event where people give their ‘testimonies’ about how they came to faith. It had a former US teaching union leader, George Parker, explaining how he was ‘born again’ as a reformer, and how he repented of the days he spent time and money defending bad teachers and opposing performance-related pay. He was followed by Mark Lehain from the Bedford Free School, and a parent of a pupil at the

Francis Maude

Tory modernisers can’t rest on their laurels – the job’s never done

Where next for Tory modernisation? The first point is that it never ends. The Conservative party could not have survived and thrived as the longest standing and most successful political party in history without continually updating ourselves. Modernisation is one of our most important traditions. The second point is that modernising is not ideological. Still less is it about making ourselves less conservative or tacking to the left. Indeed, in the 1970s and ’80s modernisation was about detaching ourselves from an outdated corporatist consensus from which particularly younger people felt increasingly alienated. The third point is that it isn’t superficial or about appearances. It is about showing that we understand

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson, Cameron loyalist

During his speech, Boris Johnson frequently looked down at his notes and then looked a little surprised, as though he hadn’t expected half the content to be there. This wasn’t his strongest speech, but it was clear that among all the jokes about large boring machines, the murder rate in Brussels and other quips that he’s used before, there were two serious messages that the Mayor wanted to convey to the conference. listen to ‘Boris: ‘It’s time to cut the yellow Lib Dem albatross from around our necks’’ on Audioboo The first was a very serious policy-focused message, and therefore delegates got a little bit bored when Boris was delivering

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Sorry, Ed Miliband, your dad hated Britain

It doesn’t matter how much Ed Miliband’s lip quivers, his dad was, as The Daily Mail suggested, a far left wing intellectual whose gratitude to the country which took him in extended only to wishing it might be dismantled, root and branch. That Ralph Miliband was also an urbane north London émigré does not alter, either, the fact that he was, like so many academics, seduced by Marxism. Our universities are virtually the only places in the civilised world where this absurd and discredited creed continues to prosper; much of it today is simply attitudinalising nonsense; when Miliband began his work, under the tutelage of the horrible Harold Laski, it

Steerpike Steerpike

Tory conference: for hardworking shoppers

Normally party conference exhibitions are made up of stalls from special interest groups on high-speed rail, trade unions, campaigns for responsible drinking or real ale, and some confusing stands advertising big companies with a large TV in the middle. But every year at the Conservative party conference, delegates enjoy a shopping spree, as well as being chased down by someone with a petition clipboard. There’s the Harvey Nichols stand: A nice rugged country Tory shirt stall: And a jumper stall: As well as evening wear, should you find yourself without something to wear at tonight’s receptions in the Midland Hotel: As for Tory attack dogs, well, they’ve got an entire

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s class war: only snobs dislike my Help to Buy

David Cameron has just been interviewed by Sarah Montague on Radio Four, who rather put him through his paces. She teased out an interesting position he is adopting to the growing concern about his Help to Buy mortgage subsidies. He defends himself by saying he will liberate those ‘trapped’ in rented accommodation and casts his critics as cold-hearted rich kids. listen to ‘Cameron: ‘Spending should bare the brunt of deficit reduction’’ on Audioboo

Sebastian Payne

Conservative conference: Tuesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. It’s the third day of the annual Tory conference in Manchester and like yesterday, today is jam packed with tens of  fringes with interesting party members, MPs and the like. Here’s the best, ignore the rest: Title Key speaker(s) Time Location Renegotiate and Referendum: How to make the strategy work Tim Loughton, David Lidington, Andrea Leadsom, Mats Persson 08:00 Midland Hotel : Trafford Room Killing the zombies and raising the innovators Andrew Tyrie, Will Hutton 08:15 Manchester Central: Exchange 6 & 7 Internet Matters: Digital policy to accelerate the economy Adam Afriyie

Monday

Sebastian Payne

William Hague’s plan to reunite the right

William Hague is the man with a plan to deal with Ukip at next year’s European elections. At a fringe event hosted by the Conservatives in the European Parliament group this evening, Hague urged the assembled MEPs to take a tough message to the country, making sure they know what the Tories have done to reform and enhance our relationship with the EU. As James Forsyth suggested in the Spectator last week, the message the Tories need to adopt is part carrot, part stick, to unite the right. The Foreign Secretary seems to have listened to his advice. On the the electoral carrot, Hague suggested a pact was needed with the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson, Tory counsellor-in-chief

Boris Johnson is difficult to pigeonhole, but at Tory conferences he seems to be taking the role of counsellor-in-chief, cheering up party activists with a slew of jokes and slights on other ambitious colleagues or indeed his party leader. As ever, there were two huge queues outside the auditorium this evening for his event on London, and some of the only truly sincere and excited-sounding applause when he (eventually) arrived. And there were jokes – ‘Ukip if you want to – David Cameron’s not for kipping. Not unless, obviously, he’s at his sister-in-law’s wedding’ and the definition of ‘Milipede’ being some sort of left wing insect – that left them