Politics

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

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ed Miliband has done politics a favour. The election will finally see philosophies compete

The next election is going to be the big, post-crash debate that the country didn’t have in 2010. Ed Miliband, as his speech yesterday demonstrated, believes that radical state intervention is needed to deal with the ‘living standards crisis’. His answer to the fact that there’s no money left is to get companies to pick up the tab for redistribution. There’ll now be clear red water between Labour and the two other main parties at the next election. This raises the question of how the Lib Dems fit into all this. Miliband barely mentioned them in his speech yesterday and has steered clear of attacks on them this conference season.

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Where Red Ed goes, the Tories will follow

That wrenching sound you can hear is the noise of the Tory columnists slamming their gears into reverse. Until yesterday, they had assured their readers that Ed Miliband was a useless, limp-wristed bleeding heart without the machismo to hack it as prime minister. He was weak. He was hopeless. He was toast. But that was then. This morning conservative journalists have been issuing their versions of “Ed Miliband: An apology” – as Private Eye likes to say. Far from being a whey-faced wonk, he is now a red-in-tooth-and-claw, “socialist” (Toby Young in the Telegraph). Far from being a wimp, he is a terrifying “demagogue [who] wants to fuel tensions and

Sebastian Payne

Ed warns energy firms: don’t reinforce perception you are the problem

Following the announcement of his plan to tackle rising energy prices — and the accompanying backlash — Ed Miliband has fired a warning shot at energy providers this morning, suggesting unless they get on board with his proposals, they will be seen as part of the problem, not the solution, by their customers. Here is the full text of his letter: ‘In recent years we have discussed the need to rebuild public trust in the energy market many times. I think we all agree on the importance of that objective if we are to build a market that both delivers for consumers and underpins the investment in future clean energy

Sebastian Payne

Labour conference: Wednesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. It’s the last day of Labour’s conference (but don’t worry, gabfest-fans, only four days to go until the Tories’ starts off in Manchester). You know the drill by now: here’s the definitive list of the day’s can’t-miss fringe events. See you there. Title Key speaker(s) Time Location A new localism – the future for world-class schools Stephen Twigg 12:30 Preston, Hilton Metropole Britain’s populist movement? Stella Creasy, Peter Kellner, Owen Jones 12:30 Lancaster, Hilton Metropole BAME Labour – 50 years from Martin Luther King Chuka Umunna, Sadiq Khan 12:30 Edinburgh, Hilton Metropole

Tuesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Ed Miliband’s speech: the backlash begins

In his Guardian column tomorrow, Jonathan Freedland writes that Ed Miliband reckons he’ll “get a kicking from the Daily Telegraph” for his lurch to the left, but his ‘gamble’ is that he’ll survive it. The Times and the Daily Mail have not given his remarkable speech much of a better reception (above). All three newspapers can see what’s at stake here: a very dangerous principle, dug out of its 1970s grave and held up for applause at the Labour Party conference. It is now okay for a PM to govern by issuing edicts to private companies and having them do what he wants. Today, Miliband has said his government would issue

Steerpike Steerpike

Tessa Jowell: Ed should expose himself to many people

The Labour party recently reached a stage where the only person in the entire country not giving Ed Miliband advice about how to lead was Ed Miliband himself. That has died down now, especially after another crowd-pleasing conference speech. But this evening Tessa Jowell offered a little bit more in the way of help. She told a fringe after her leader’s speech that the party’s job was now to take today’s policy announcements to the country, saying: ‘I think Ed should just go on travelling around the country, exposing himself to many people.’ Crikey! But didn’t the leader vow to keep his kit firmly on if he became Prime Minister

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Jack Dromey: Labour let Thatcher become the champion of aspiration

When Margaret Thatcher passed away and the broadcasters, newspapers, and casual drinkers in pubs picked over what her legacy really was, one of the key policies mentioned – and praised – time and time again by those from all sides of the political spectrum was the Right to Buy. It was an iconic housing policy that helped people who would never have had a chance of making it onto the housing ladder realise the dream of owning their own property. It was an empowering policy (the detail, of course, is slightly more complicated: the way the policy was designed led to a reduction in the overall size of the social

Sebastian Payne

The confessions of Damian McBride

The first copies of Damian McBride’s book dropped in Brighton today, and the former spinner has been explaining not just his actions in government but why on earth he decided to write about them. Here are the highlights of his confessions: Nearly everything the former spin doctor has said so far suggests he is quite contrite about his actions. On Newsnight last night, McBride said of his ‘victims’: ‘I do feel ashamed, I do feel sorry to those individuals whose careers I affected and even more so to the sort of innocent bystanders who were caught in the way’ listen to ‘Damian McBride defends his memoirs on Newsnight’ on Audioboo

John O'Neill

Labour conference: Tuesday day, in audio

It may have happened last night, but Damian McBride’s interview on Newsnight was responsible for a lot of talk today, not least because it led Jeremy Paxman to say ‘McPrickface’ live on air. listen to ‘Damian McBride defends his memoirs on Newsnight’ on Audioboo

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ed Miliband: You Are The Quiet Bat People And I Am On Your Side

Ronald Reagan once quipped that  “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help.” As was so often the case the Great Communicator was only half-joking. He knew government had important jobs to do, jobs only government could do. What was needed was a rebalancing. Government had become too invasive. It needed pruning. (Never mind that not much pruning took place; the rhetoric and the positioning was what mattered.) I didn’t watch Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon but no-one, I think, would say he possesses a Reaganesque delivery. But he was in Brighton to tell

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Authentic Ed Miliband is left-wing and passionate

Today we saw why Ed Miliband ran for the Labour leadership. This was not a speech that his brother could have delivered. It was the most left-wing speech I’ve heard from the leader of a British political party. It was, without a doubt, authentic Miliband and delivered with passion. Politically, I suspect the speech now turns on the freeze on energy prices that Miliband announced a Labour government would introduce. The Tories are out to ‘kill it’ rather than ‘adopt it’, warning of the lights going out if it is introduced. The energy companies, whose profits would be hit hard by it, are also up in arms. The issue for

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed’s tough message to the unions?

If Ed Miliband wanted to use this speech – rather than the one he gave two weeks ago to the Trades Union Congress – to set up a confrontation with the trade union barons, then he’s got a funny way of doing confrontation. His section on party reform, which he rather built up by joking ‘here’s the bit you’ve all been looking forward to – party reform’. Everyone laughed, expecting a lengthy section on why the union link needed to change. But it wasn’t particularly lengthy or enlightening. He said: ‘Now let me say to you – change is difficult and uncomfortable. Let me explain to you why it’s so

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Dr Miliband finally trusts his instincts and prescribes socialism to make Britain better

For three years, though we’ve been told all about who Ed Miliband is, we’ve often wondered whether we’re getting his real thoughts when he speaks. The Labour leader has often given the impression that he doesn’t trust his instincts, that he thinks that he should be speaking from the centre ground rather than as ‘Red Ed’, and that his forays into tougher welfare and immigration policies are things he’d rather not do. But today the Labour leader decided to embrace what he truly believes in: big government. Big socialist government. He announced price controls – ‘if we win the election in 2015 the next Labour government will freeze gas and

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: our verdict on Ed Miliband’s speech

James Forsyth says it’s the most left-wing speech he has heard from a political leader. Fraser Nelson thinks that socialism has now returned to British politics. Isabel Hardman thinks the plans for 200,000 new houses could be based on an error.  Our verdict of Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour Party conference is now in, with a special edition of our weekly podcast the View from 22 (below). 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 conference special: Red Ed is back’ on Audioboo

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Red Ed is bringing back populist socialism

‘Red Ed is back,’ said the Daily Mirror’s Kevin Mcguire, and it’s a fair summary of today’s speech. He has pledged to use state power to force the hand of property companies: “use it or lose it” he said, reviving the idea of compulsory purchases. His new flagship policy is imposing a 20-month price freeze on domestic energy prices, ordering private companies around. He won a standing ovation when he pledged to reverse the Conservative (and Tony Blair) liberal reforms of the NHS. Now, you can say a lot about Ed Miliband’s shortcomings but you can’t call him vacuous. He now has an identifiable mission: to bring back ‘socialism’, as

Sebastian Payne

Video: Ed Miliband’s plans to freeze energy prices

Labour have released an audio trailer which reveals the big announcement of Ed Miliband’s conference speech — energy prices will be frozen to 2017 under Labour plans: ‘How do you feel when you see your energy bill sitting at the front door? And you know its going to be even higher than the last one? And how do you feel when you read in the newspaper that your energy providers profits are up? Yet again. ‘Millions of ordinary families are struggling to keep up with bills. Bills that are rising faster than wages. Since David Cameron became Prime Minister, he’s allowed gas and electricity bills to rise by an average

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How the Tories made it easy for Labour on OBR announcement

Naturally, the leader’s speech is the most important part of the Labour conference, but the general feeling behind the scenes is that things are going pretty well. Sunday was a bit of a messy day, although strategists think the childcare announcements are still an overall win. But yesterday went extremely well – good speeches from Ed Balls and Chuka Umunna and only a little bit of chuntering from Len McCluskey. And the reason a lot of MPs feel it went particularly well is that the Tories played into their hands on Ed Balls’ announcement on the OBR. The Shadow Chancellor wasn’t just trying to improve trust in politics, as he

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The uncertainty about Labour’s uncertainty on HS2

So now there isn’t just uncertainty over Labour’s support for HS2, but also uncertainty over the uncertainty after Maria Eagle tried her best to deliver as upbeat a speech as possible about the high speed rail link. The Shadow Transport Secretary did deal with the issue, and she made clear that Labour’s support is now conditional. But what she didn’t do was suggest that Labour was questioning the value of the whole project. Eagle told the conference hall: ‘That’s why we support High Speed 2. And, unlike the Tories, no blank cheque for any government project. So, as Ed Balls rightly says: we support the idea of a new north-south

Nick De Bois

The ghost of Gordon Brown stalks Ed Miliband’s dangerous business tax plans

Gordon Brown was notorious for complicating our already over-complicated tax system, and it seems that his former aide, Ed Miliband, wants to emulate the master. The danger is that Ed Miliband would do so against the backdrop of a vulnerable economy in a very mobile global market place. His latest idea is to put up corporation tax, arguing that this will “pay” for a freeze in business rates on small firms. In fact, the net burden on business will remain unchanged, so his tinkering would be little help to the small businesses that he allegedly wants to help. There are more devils in Miliband’s detail: the freeze would only apply