Politics

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

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Nick Clegg is so keen to talk to the media

Liberal Democrat leaders are used to having to do more to get noticed than the other party leaders. But it is still striking just how much the Deputy Prime Minister is doing to try and inject himself into the national conversation. Joining Nick Clegg’s weekly phone-in on LBC is a monthly press conference. One of the reasons Clegg is doing all this is to try and drain away the anger created by the compromises of coalition and, specifically, the broken promise on student fees. After 23 press conferences, even the lobby will tire — or so the Lib Dems hope – of asking Clegg about the U-turn on tuition fees,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cross-party EU referendum campaign aims to counter partisan problems

The Tory campaign on James Wharton’s EU referendum bill has been very slick but very partisan – I examined some of the problems with this last week when eurosceptic Labour MP John Cryer announced he had been put off by the Let Britain Decide campaign and would abstain on the bill. So today campaigners in favour of a vote launched a cross-party campaign called I Support a Referendum. They hope that their emphasis on the referendum itself rather than the party politics will help bring MPs from other parties into the fold where previously they felt excluded. Wharton was present at the launch, and he insisted that he was keen

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Do MPs deserve a pay rise?

A small group of MPs have put their heads above the parapet in a brave and commendable fashion by demanding that they and their colleagues should not receive large pay rises. My own view is that MPs should be paid substantially more than what they currently receive, not least because it might improve the intake a little. The Guardian quotes Lib Dem Jo Swinson, Conservative Tim Loughton and Labour’s Keith Vaz as being opposed to a large pay increase. Mr Vaz supplements his income by writing for newspapers, fairly frequently. Ms Swinson is married to another Lib Dem, Duncan Hames, and so has the benefit of being a young double

Douglas Murray

Kenneth Minogue RIP

The weekend brought the sad news of the death of Kenneth Minogue. Intellectually and physically active to the last, he died on Friday at the age of 82, while returning from a conference on the Galapagos Islands. Spectator readers will remember his essays and reviews for the magazine stretching over many decades. Some may have been fortunate enough to have been taught by him at the London School of Economics. Ken was, needless to say, one of the most brilliant conservative political thinkers of his generation. He was also the most wonderful man. He had that rare mixture of great intelligence and twinkly, irrepressible good-humour. Spotting him across a room

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Tory party calm survive MP pay row?

Coffee House readers will be unsurprised by the interest taken by the newspapers and the Today programme in MPs’ pay: this blog predicted that it could be the next big row in the Conservative party at the start of June. It is politically sensible for the Prime Minister to say that he disagrees with a pay rise recommended by Ipsa if it raises overall costs, even if he has no formal veto over a raise. All he can do is send a formal response to the pay consultation. But he will need to work hard to keep his party behind him, and so will the other party leaders. This is not

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Gove guide to composition

Michael Gove is not the only minister to be frustrated by the poor quality of letters drafted for his signature. One minister was horrified to find his reply to the Prime Minister starting ‘Good to here from you’. Another complains that his name is still spelt wrong, three years after he started in the job. But Gove is, probably, the only one who would send a memo to his ministers and civil servants urging them to read ‘George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens’ to improve their prose.’ The memo contains, what he dubs, Gove’s Golden Rules for writing a letter which

James Forsyth James Forsyth

‘What’s more important obeying a Brussels directive or keeping the lights on?’

Andrew Neil’s interview of Michael Fallon on The Sunday Politics was a reminder of just how much of UK energy policy is determined by EU rules. When pressed on why there’s such a capacity crunch that there’s a risk of blackouts in the winter of 2015-16, Fallon explained that this was because a whole series of ‘dirtier’ plants are coming off-stream because of EU rules. If this wasn’t happening, there wouldn’t be a problem. Intriguingly, when asked ‘what’s more important obeying a Brussels directive or keeping the lights on?’ Fallon responded that ‘Keeping the lights on is the job of the government’. But he stressed that the government was ‘not

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband’s EU referendum dilemma

Friday’s vote on James Wharton’s EU referendum bill is going to push the whole Europe question right back up the political agenda. The Tories will try and use it to highlight their support for a vote and the opposition of the other major parliamentary parties. It will be very hard for Ed Miliband to go into the next election opposed to a referendum. It would look like he was opposed to giving the public a say. I also suspect that it will become almost politically impossible to oppose a referendum after the European Elections in 2014. Patrick Wintour reports today that Labour is toying with the idea of either amending

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is George Osborne’s ‘Help to Buy’ the equivalent of Bush’s sub-prime loans?

There is a strange disconnect between George Osborne’s enthusiasm that young people should buy homes, and the reluctance of young people to do so. The Telegraph has reported that fewer young people own homes than ever – and it fears, perhaps as the Chancellor does, that this has political implications because owners tend to vote Tory and renters Labour. The Chancellor stands in the tradition of a long line of conservatives being enthusiastic about promoting home-ownership in hope of turning people into right-wingers.  In her seminal book The Anatomy of Thatcherism, Shirley Letwin famously argued that home ownership released the ‘vigorous virtues’ and made someone more inclined to see the

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

The ‘conservative wing of the coalition’ toast Maggie and roast Dave

Margaret Thatcher’s death has reinvigorated her devout following in the Conservative Party. The current Prime Minister was wise to give the House of Lord’s terrace a wide berth last night. It was packed out for the summer party of Conservative Way Forward. This is the pressure group that was established to preserve ‘the lady’s legacy’. Young Dave was not the most popular person in the room. This became clear after the minute’s silence for the group’s deceased honorary president, when former defence minister Gerald Howarth took to the podium to greet ‘the conservative wing of the coalition’. He went on to slam the PM for ‘slashing defence spending while protecting

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Lock, load and prepare for ambush – David Cameron’s very British approach to Brussels summits

Many Prime Ministers go native when they head to Brussels. But David Cameron’s hostility to the whole racket is hardening with every trip. At his post-summit press conference today, he was remarkably frank about what had just happened. “I have defeated this latest attempt to cut the rebate,” he said. “I am frustrated I have to go through that battle all over again. But in this town you have to be ready for an ambush at any time, and that means lock and load and have one up the spout, and be ready for it. And that is exactly what I did… It is, and I won’t lie, it is immensely

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Gay divorce

It has already been announced that there will be no provision for adultery as grounds for single-sex divorce, for the obvious reason (though it was only belatedly obvious to the legislators) that same-sex intercourse, having no procreative purpose, cannot have any definition of consummation, and therefore cannot be adulterated. Now it turns out, however, that if someone in a single-sex marriage has intercourse with a member of the opposite sex, this will be grounds for divorce. Since such intercourse will presumably be unwelcome to most homosexuals, and yet useful in divorce proceedings, one can foresee a return to the pre-war system, satirised by A.P. Herbert in Holy Deadlock. A husband seeking divorce on grounds

Dominic Raab

My six-point plan to save Britain

As Britain gets fit for what David Cameron calls the ‘global economic race’, figures out this morning confirm Britain remains hamstrung by poor productivity. UK productivity per hour has remained stagnant over the last year (having fallen by 1.76 per cent since 2008). When he eyed the competition at last week’s G8 summit, the Prime Minister will have clocked that only sclerotic Russia and stagnant Japan have worse productivity than the UK. According to a recent Office of National Statistics (ONS) review, Britain lags 16 percentage points behind the G7 average, 27 behind the US. Ageing infrastructure and under-investment has blighted the oil and gas sector.  Manufacturing productivity last year fell

Douglas Murray

Keith Vaz and Salman Rushdie

As an addendum to yesterday’s post I thought I might remind readers of something about Keith Vaz. The chairman of the Home Affairs Select Committee has of course just applauded the banning of two American authors from Britain because of their criticism of Islam. So I turn to Joseph Anton – the illuminating fatwa-memoir released last year by Salman Rushdie. It contains a remarkable anecdote of the moment immediately after the news arrives of Ayatollah Khomeini’s order of murder. Rushdie (incidentally writing of himself in the third person) describes walking into his literary agent’s office in London. His agent gives him an astonished look. ‘He was on the phone with

Robert Halfon MP

Spending review – a response from a Tory marginal

If there was one thing the spending review has proved, it is that the Conservative-led coalition is a compassionate government. In fact, I would go further and argue that it is a government that has given true meaning to ‘cradle to grave’ conservatism. From the beginning of the life-cycle to the end, the coalition is investing in ways that are profoundly Conservative, while also passing known socialist yardsticks, such as the redistribution of wealth from the rich to the poor, by ensuring that the wealthiest bear the greatest burden of taxation and that resources are targeted at to those most in need. Take nursery education, the spending round confirmed that

Alison Mcgovern

Spending review – a response from a Labour marginal

The Spending Review was a political device that the chancellor clearly hoped would get him through to the end of this parliament. But if the spin doesn’t match the realities of life, I don’t think the public will buy it. A big risk for both governing parties is that high increases in the cost of living define the next election. The Liberal Democrats cling to their £10k personal tax allowance as the policy that will get them through the general election in 2015, and the dry-run coming in next year’s local elections. 10k’s a natty round number that’s easy to remember, and I would be the first to admit that

Sebastian Payne

Boris Johnson: an eminently likeable politician who poses little threat to David Cameron

Even Boris can’t help the toxic Tories. That’s the upshot of Lord Ashcroft’s latest polling, which asked 8,000 people (including several focus groups outside of London) about what they think of the mayor. Although Boris Johnson is the country’s most loved politician, he is not the voters’, or even Conservatives’, top choice as prime minister. David Cameron remains the favourite at 33 per cent to Boris’ 29: Half of those polled said that if Johnson was leader of the Conservative party, it would ‘make no difference’ as to whether they were more or less likely to vote Conservative. This is a blow to the Cameron dissenters, who have always believed that Boris

Thursday

Pippa Middleton

Pippa Middleton’s diary: What are you scared of, Boris?

Ah, good old Wimbledon: a fortnight of rhythmic ball thumping, ooh-ing at Federer’s forehand, aah-ing at Djoko the elastic athlete, and praying against common sense for good weather and British success. Some foreigners can be sniffy about Wimbledon’s particular charms — all that Union Jack patriotism, excitement over strawberries and cream and English eccentricity. ‘Grass is for cows,’ said the Argentinian Guillermo Vilas, famously, a line still repeated by some Latin players who can’t handle the low bounce and quick pace of the green stuff. Well, moo to them. Wimbers is tennis at its best, the grandest of all slams, which is why I like to go every year, at least