Politics

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

Thursday

28 Mar 2013

Peter Jones

Quintilian on Michael Gove

One hundred professors have complained that Michael Gove’s new curriculum will stifle children’s ‘creativity’ because they will have to learn things. How very true! The Roman educationist Quintilian (c. AD 35–100) argued that memory was the surest sign of a child’s ability. So when Cicero said that the purpose of education was to ‘exercise the brain, sharpen the wits and give quick intuition’, he must have been having a laugh. How could an education dependent on memory possibly do that? Anyway, the baleful results can be seen all round the ancient world, from the consul Lucius Scipio, who knew the name of every Roman citizen, to Mithradates, who addressed his subjects

Sarah Vine

Sarah Vine on Leveson, Michael Gove’s Question Time, and Westfield

After £4 million of taxpayer’s money and eight months of celebrity hand-wringing (bar a few notable and worthy exceptions), democracy has finally triumphed: Leveson has got the press where many MPs have long wanted it, i.e. strapped to a chair having its teeth pulled, without anaesthetic. What was it that Laurence Olivier wanted to know? Oh yes: ‘Is it safe?’ Only if you’re a close personal friend of Hugh Grant, it seems. God help the rest of us. We’re waiting to hear Fleet Street’s response but so far, at least one publication has refused to submit to its punishment: this one. Last week’s NO cover was such an overdue display

Jonathan Jones

Poll: Boris could save 50 Tory MPs

YouGov have once again tested how a Boris-led Tory party would compare to a Cameron-led one in the polls. When they last did so in October, they found that Boris was worth a seven-point bump: with Cameron as leader, the Tories were nine points behind Labour; Boris narrowed the gap to just two. The results this time — reported by Joe Murphy in the Evening Standard — are very similar: the Tories do six points better under Boris than under Cameron. That’s enough to eliminate Labour’s lead entirely. With Cameron, it’s Labour 37, Tories 31. With Boris, it’s 37 all. As I said last time, switching to Boris probably would

James Forsyth

David Cameron mini-shuffle done to move John Hayes from DECC

Downing Street’s mini-shuffle announced this morning to coincide with a joint Cameron Fallon visit to a green car plant is intriguing. Having made some inquiries, it seems that the aim was to move John Hayes out of DECC, where he was still clashing spectacularly with the Secretary of State Ed Davey and alarming some in the industry, and Michael Fallon in. Everything else followed from that. Fallon’s additional responsibilities are yet another sign of the high regard Number 10 holds him in. Fallon might be culturally, and politically, quite different from most of those in Number 10 but they have come to see him as their safest pair of hands.

David Blackburn

Mini reshuffle shows Cameron trying to get a grip

The mini reshuffle earlier this morning is significant. David Cameron has moved Tory ‘greybeards’ to address problem areas. Cameron’s twitter feed has announced: ‘Delighted John Hayes joining me as a Senior Parliamentary adviser – and Michael Fallon adding a key energy role to his brief.’ Benedict Brogan and Tim Montgomerie have good analyses of what this means. In summary it appears that Hayes, a self-confessed ‘blue collar’ Tory and popular MP, is going briefless to the Cabinet Office to help the PM communicate government policy to the backbenches and the working classes. Hayes speaks in plain language. He has been pushing the energy bill through parliament, and has clashed openly

Fraser Nelson

Budgets, cuts and sacred cows

Today’s newspapers disclose that Cabinet members have received letters telling them to expect 10 per cent cuts to their budget in the next spending round. This will have been a letter designed to be leaked, and to establish a negotiating position. The Times says that the real figure is closer to 8 per cent, as I disclosed in my Daily Telegraph column three weeks ago. It was the 8 per cent figure which set off the chain of events which led to Theresa May’s leadership-style speech. To recap, here’s what happened first time around. The problem came when Osborne asked ministers to make further cuts of 8 per cent in

James Forsyth

Would Ukip win a battle for Portsmouth South?

Downing Street aides nervously run through the symptoms: a flat economy, poor press, leadership mutterings. Then they say, ‘It’s just mid-term blues, isn’t it?’ A second later, they add nervously, ‘It’s nothing more serious than that, is it?’ The truth is, nobody can be certain. There’s no reliable way of distinguishing mid-term blues from something politically fatal. Part of the problem is that few Tories have anything to compare their current mood with. After 13 years in opposition, only a handful of them have been in government before, let alone in the mid-term doldrums. When I put this argument to one veteran of the Thatcher years, he delighted in pointing

Rod Liddle

Yes, Boris Johnson has fibbed and philandered. But what has he actually done wrong?

I’m trying to imagine the BBC’s Eddie Mair interviewing Nelson Mandela, the elderly African squirming uncomfortably in his seat as Mair, like one of the late Eugene Terre’Blanche’s famous Dobermans, snarls ever more menacingly, foam dripping from his bared gums. ‘So, in 1961, with several others, you founded a vicious terrorist movement, Spear of the Nation, carried out bombing after bombing and pledged that if these tactics failed you would resort to guerrilla warfare and terrorism…’ Mandela looks askance: ‘Excuse me, I thought this was that programme where you choose records and a book…’ Mair shakes his head, face wreathed in disgust. ‘Pretty nasty piece of work, aren’t you?’ Mandela,

Harry Mount

The Russian desecration of London

Now that his old arch-enemy, Boris Berezovsky, has bitten the dust, Roman Abramovich can devote his full attention to another bête noire — London’s terraced houses. In his £10 million plan to knock together three houses, worth £100 million, in Chelsea’s Cheyne Walk, the oligarch is raising the roof, ripping out internal floors and walls, and burrowing two floors down into the courtyard. He is also ripping out two staircases. Russian expats may hanker after the steppes but they don’t like British stairs. The cement mixers will whirr for three years in one of London’s loveliest streets. That won’t bother Abramovich and his girlfriend Dasha Zhukova; with his generous property

James Delingpole

UKIP is patriotic, fiscally conservative and socially libertarian – what’s not to like?

‘A conduit for pissed-off protest voters.’ ‘Farage’s Falange.’ ‘Fascists in blazers.’ These are some of the things friends have said about Ukip recently and I don’t want to embarrass them by naming names, for the last thing I’d wish on a mate is the queasy feeling I had this morning after a particularly bizarre anxiety dream. I dreamt that I’d agreed to let a (male) autograph hunter photograph my penis and that, rather than keep it to himself — as I’d trusted him to do — he sold it to all the newspapers. No, I don’t understand the dream either. But still less do I understand those criticisms of Ukip,

Trenton Oldfield

The boat race protester’s prison notebook

If the weather had been this foul at the time of the last Oxford-Cambridge boat race, I might not have found myself in the middle of the River Thames, or served a six-month prison sentence in HMP Wormwood Scrubs. My plan, then, was to make a protest against inequalities in British society, government cuts, reductions in civil liberties and a culture of elitism. Not all of it, I admit, I had time to articulate in the water. At first, I was charged under the Public Order Act, which meant that the maximum penalty would have been a fine, but after various exhortations — including from a Tory MP, Michael Ellis

Wednesday

27 Mar 2013

Douglas Murray

The British Prime Minister’s insignificance

Here is David Cameron’s problem in a nutshell. During his immigration speech on Monday he said: ‘Put simply when it comes to illegal migrants, we’re rolling up that red carpet and showing them the door.’ Just two days later it was once again made clear that the red carpet is firmly in place and no such door in sight. Abu Qatada came to the UK illegally on a forged passport in 1993. He is wanted in Jordan to face terrorism charges. Abu Qatada is an illegal migrant. Yet he ‘cannot’ be shown the door. The government needs to realise one thing: that as long as we remain a signatory of

Sebastian Payne

Fifty years on from Beeching and Britain’s railways are better than ever

On 27 March 1963, ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ was published. Better known as the Beeching Report, the paper was a seminal moment for Britain in the twentieth century. Dr Beeching’s report (and subsequent axe) recommended the closure of 5,000 miles of tracks and 2,363 stations, with 67,000 jobs lost. Most of Beeching’s initial suggestions were eventually implemented and our railways were changed forever. Beeching is still a controversial figure. The trade unions, then and now, paint him as a mad axeman who destroyed a noble institution and the livelihoods of thousands of railway men. No wonder one ‘Dr B. Ching’ is still lampooned in Private Eye every week. But

James Forsyth

Quietly, Cameron is preparing for his next big fight: the battle for Portsmouth

From tomorrow’s Spectator. Downing Street aides nervously run through the symptoms: a flat economy, poor press, leadership mutterings. Then they say, ‘It’s just mid-term blues, isn’t it?’ A second later, they add nervously, ‘It’s nothing more serious than that, is it?’ The truth is, nobody can be certain. There’s no reliable way of distinguishing mid-term blues from something politically fatal. Part of the problem is that few Tories have anything to compare their current mood with. After 13 years in opposition, only a handful of them have been in government before, let alone in the mid-term doldrums. When I put this argument to one veteran of the Thatcher years, he

David Blackburn

Allegations of cunning play over final passage of Justice and Security bill

There have been angry mutterings from the backbenches today about the passage of the Justice and Security Bill last night, with allegations of cunning play by the whips. It appears that the start of yesterday evening’s discussions was mysteriously delayed until 6.15pm and Closed Material Proceedings (secret courts) were debated at around 7pm. The first vote took place at 9.20, several hours after it was originally expected and very late in the day. The whips were enormously active in the face of last minute amendments to derail ‘secret couts’: several peers were bussed in to bolster the government and at least one ermine-clad creature was plucked from abroad to answer the division

Steerpike

Liberal Democrat spinners spin away the past

A conundrum for ambitious Liberal Democrats who have seen their CVs blighted by the scandal surrounding former party Chief Executive Lord Rennard. Though the portly peer denies all allegations of sexual impropriety with a stream of female staff, that has not stopped party hacks and flacks, both past and present, tinkering with their résumés. With his all-encompassing role as Chief Executive and general overlord of the party for nearly two decades, a reference from Rennard must have seemed like a golden ticket on CVs in the endless revolving door between politics and lobbying. One doyen of spin giggled over lunch this week that he has faced a large surge in

Darius Guppy

Who points the finger? Darius Guppy offers a defence of Boris Johnson

Eddie Mair has more front than Harrods. Consider this: a member of the British Media, Mr Mair, berates another former such member, Boris Johnson, for making up quotes! What planet are you living on, Mr Mair? Making things up is what people in your profession do for a living! The Leveson Inquiry focuses on one particular scandal – but hacking into voicemails is among the least of the crimes committed by a metier which is almost single-handedly responsible for the cultural degradation of an entire nation. Next, Mr Johnson, a politician, is criticised for lying to another politician, Michael Howard, all the while his interviewer feigning horror and surprise. Again, Mr

Fraser Nelson

David Miliband bows out of British politics – to a roar of Thunderbirds jokes

David Miliband rather grandly told Sky News last night that the public’s “legitimate fascination” with the tension between him and his brother Ed had “obscured the real choice for the country” – that between Labour and the Tories. As if. The truth is that people had just stopped thinking about David Miliband. For all the hopes once pinned on the former Foreign Secretary, he had become an irrelevance. A Puck-like figure who’d pop up on the political stage now and again, to general mirth, then disappear. As Iain Martin says, his departure from Westminster is of almost no significance. Most Blairites bolted at the last election, and those who didn’t chose to sulk

David Blackburn

David Miliband resignation: political and press reaction

Here is a selection of what various Labour big wigs, political commentators and media figures have made of Miliband’s decision and his parliamentary career. And we’re interested to hear your thoughts on Miliband’s career and departure. Please leave a comment in the box below. Ed Miliband: Having spoken to him a lot over the past few months, I know how long and hard he thought about this before deciding to take up the offer. I also know how enthusiastic he is about the potential this job provides… As for us, we went through a difficult leadership contest but time has helped to heal that. I will miss him. But although

David Blackburn

David Miliband’s careful resignation letter reveals some of his frustration

David Miliband has confirmed that he is resigning as an MP to become President and Chief Executive of the International Rescue Committee in New York. A copy of his resignation letter can be read here. Those expecting a Geoffrey Howe-style confession will be disappointed; Miliband is restrained, except when describing his enthusiasm for his new job and his pride in having served South Shields, the Labour Party and the country. He does, however, say that he is leaving politics to give ‘full vent to my ideas and ideals’, which reveals a degree of frustration hitherto only assumed to exist. He believes that a Labour victory in 2015 is ‘achievable’. This