Politics

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

Monday

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Israeli elections: the IDF goes to the polls

Israel’s election is tomorrow, yet voting started here yesterday. At Kirya Defense Headquarters in Tel Aviv, serving Israel Defence Force troops have cast their ballots, and today more polling stations will open for soldiers. There is not much solid information as to suggest how the troops will vote. In recent elections, however, they appear to have backed the parties of the Right. So it is a fairly sure bet that a large number – especially among the rising proportion of Zionist-religious young men in the Force (NOT ultra-orthodox) – will be drawn to Naftali Bennett and his very right-wing Jewish Home party. Bennett seems to be the liveliest story of the election, both abroad and here. The Israelis

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Labour MPs who could make trouble for Ed Miliband on Europe

So the Prime Minister’s speech is, as James hinted yesterday, going to be on Wednesday, and in London to avoid any further strikes of the Curse of Tutancameron’s Europe speech. His official spokesman confirmed the date this morning. Thanks to briefed extracts and further briefings over the weekend, we now have a rough outline of what’s going to be in it, which will mean it’s impressive if anything the David Cameron says causes anyone in the audience to gasp with surprise. What is more exciting is what the response will be from the other benches in the Commons. Labour spokesmen on the broadcast rounds yesterday were squirming rather when asked

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Hague fleshes out Britain’s role in the decades-long response to terrorism

The Prime Minister’s two statements on the Algerian hostage crisis on Friday and Sunday set some tongues wagging about what sort of a role he saw Britain playing in the ‘global response’ that was ‘about years, even decades’ to the terror threat in North Africa. William Hague fleshed that out a little bit more in his Today programme interview, arguing that the West couldn’t resolve all the world’s problems: ‘It is a complete illusion to think that we are omnipotent in all of these respects. Of course there are many, many factors at play. I’m describing to you what the United Nations have been doing, what Western countries have been

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why the Tory leadership thinks it can push gay marriage and boost its support among ethnic minority voters

If the Tory party doesn’t improve its performance with ethnic minority voters, it’ll be nigh-on-impossible for it to win a general election in a generation’s time. The single biggest driver of not voting Tory is not being white and more than one in four under fives in Britain are non-white. This is the background to the Tories’ big push to increase their support among ethnic minority voters and David Cameron’s decision to devote Wednesday’s political Cabinet to the subject. Now, I’m always wary of parties talking about appealing to specific groups rather than individuals. But there is something complex going on here in that even those ethnic minority voters who

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The BBC: ‘It’s professional to cheat’

In this morning’s Observer I write about the collapse of the old notions of honour and fair play in sport, banking, politics, journalism, the law and much else. As I acknowledge right away, hard evidence is hard to find. Football’s rules change: what was a manly tackle in the 1960s is a foul today. Yesterday’s ‘Spanish practice’ in the workplace becomes today’s criminal offence. The danger of false nostalgia is great. But you should not let the difficulties of comparing the present with the past unnerve you, and I hope I provide evidence that backs up our gut belief that standards have fallen. If anyone doubts my conclusion, listen to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Liam Fox: I’d vote to leave the EU

Not that it’s a great surprise, but Liam Fox has come out as an out-er – i.e., he’d vote to leave the European Union if it cannot be reformed. He has hinted at this before, writing that the idea of leaving the EU “holds no terror” for him but on Sunday Politics he explicitly told Andrew Neil that he’d prefer independence to the status quo. Once, that would made Fox a minority voice but now it’s the mainstream position – and one shared, I suspect, by at least a dozen of his Cabinet colleagues who have no yet gone on the record. If you’re happy with Britain’s EU membership, you

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Curse of Tutancameron’s Europe speech

David Cameron’s Europe speech already had a Tutankhamun-style curse on it before events forced him to postpone it, with the much longer delay from its original date of mid-autumn causing a feeding frenzy in the media, in his own party, his coalition partners, and in the opposition. By the end of last week, it was difficult to find an opposition MP or columnist who hadn’t written a whimsical piece imagining they were Cameron giving the speech (or indeed twisting readers into an even greater willing suspension of disbelief by imagining they were John Major talking to Cameron about the as-yet undelivered speech as David Miliband managed to do). James reports

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Terrorism in North Africa requires global response

In his latest statement on the Algerian hostage crisis this morning, the Prime Minister built on the interventionist language that James spotted in his Commons address on Friday. Cameron said: ‘This is a global threat and it will require a global response; it will require a response that is about years, even decades, rather than months, and it requires a response that is patient, that is painstaking, that is tough but also intelligent, but above all has an absolutely iron resolve and that is what we deliver over these coming years.’ listen to ‘David Cameron on the Algerian hostage crisis’ on Audioboo

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

Andrew Mitchell and Morgen Schmorgen

Another week, another former Tory cabinet minister working a room. Last week I brought you news of Liam Fox entertaining the great and good of the Tory party. Now I hear that Andrew Mitchell has been making an extra special effort to be nice to absolutely everyone. The former chief whip was being very friendly to the commentariat at a drinks party at a recently opened hotel in Westminster. He shunned sceptical news journalists, but made determined passes at those with influential column inches. Whatever could he want them to say? George Osborne was at the same private party, pressing flesh like a coiffured madam in a brothel. There was no sign, though, of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron seems more and more committed to interventionism

A visibly tired David Cameron has just completed his statement to the House of Commons on the hostage situation in Algeria. What was striking about it was the starkness of the language that the Prime Minister used. He talked about Al Qaeda in the Maghreb and other North African terrorists groups posing a ‘large and existential threat’, warned that they ‘thrive in ungoverned spaces’ and that ‘parts of Mali have become a safe haven for Al Qaeda’ and declared that if it is not confronted ‘the threat there will grow and we’ll face it as well’. Now, to be sure Cameron made clear that he wasn’t thinking about combat troops

The Spectator

David Cameron’s delayed EU speech: extracts

By the time the Prime Minister cancelled his Europe speech yesterday evening, extracts had already been briefed to journalists. A new date has yet to be announced, but here are the extracts that have been released: Britain should play an active part in Europe: ‘I want to speak to you today with urgency and frankness about the European Union and how it must change – both to deliver prosperity and to retain the support of its peoples. ‘I come here as British Prime Minister with a positive vision for the future of the European Union. A future in which Britain wants, and should want, to play a committed and active

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron to give Commons statement on Algeria

David Cameron had no choice but to postpone today’s speech: while it would have been a relief to get the darned thing over and done with, a navel-gazing address on Conservative Europe policy would have done him no favours in the long-term when the Algerian hostage crisis is still going on. The Prime Minister will be briefed at 9am with another COBRA meeting and will then give a Commons statement at 11am. He was horrified yesterday to discover that Algeria had launched its rescue mission without consulting the UK, when he had already asked to be informed. The Mail quotes one official saying ‘We asked them not to go in

Thursday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 17 January 2013

David Cameron’s long-awaited speech on Europe this week falls 50 years to the day after the death of Hugh Gaitskell. Gaitskell, who died in harness, was the last leader of either main party to oppose entry to what people then called the Common Market. In his last party conference speech as Labour leader, in October 1962, he set five conditions for British entry to the EEC (for which the Tory government was then negotiating). These included retaining national economic freedom and an independent foreign policy. Joining would mean ‘the end of Britain as an independent nation state, the end of 1,000 years of history’, he declared. Unusually for that era,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Cameron postpones Europe speech

David Cameron has postponed his speech on the European Union because of the hostage situation in Algeria where a standoff has been taking place in a gas plant in the Sahara Desert. There are conflicting reports, but it seems about 300 Algerian and 40 international hostages were taken and several have been killed in a rescue attempt. The PM has suggested that worse news will follow saying:- ‘We should be prepared for the possibility of further bad news in this very dangerous fluid situation.’ No10 said earlier that Cameron had not been informed about the Algerian rescue attempt before it began and has told his Algerian counterpart that he wishes

The Spectator

Grill the Housing Minister: Mark Prisk answers Coffee House readers’ questions

Housing Minister Mark Prisk’s brave request for a grilling from Coffee House readers generated a very enthusiastic response. Here are the minister’s answers to your questions. House Prices Q: What will the Government be doing to rebalance things back towards private buyers and away from the BTL speculators that have driven the market up to such an extent that private buyers are priced out? (Specifically, get the Treasury to end the tax breaks introduced under Labour that drive this, and level the playing field for ordinary buyers). A: It’s important not to overstate this problem.  In 2011, buy to let accounted for just 12 % of all mortgages.  And of course

J P O'Malley

Interview: Kofi Annan

Kofi Annan is discussing his extraordinary career with William Shawcross this evening, but for those Spectator readers who weren’t able to get tickets, he has also spoken to JP O’Malley about about growing up in Ghana, why he believes governments have to recognise terrorists, and why talking to tyrants sometimes actually saves lives. How did growing up in Ghana in the 1950s— the decade it gained Independence from Britain— shape your political outlook for the rest of your career? As a teenager, to see this struggle for independence taking place in Ghana was very powerful. I grew up with a sense that fundamental change was possible. For example, to watch the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

101 questions about tax

As well as confusing Hansard with talk of ‘big fairies’, Labour’s Jim Sheridan has no fewer than 101 written questions for answer today on how many contracts a number of government departments have awarded to a series of companies known to be taking part in tax avoidance schemes. He also asks for details of how many meetings the departments have held with those companies. The questions are for the Business department, Cabinet Office, the Treasury, the Culture, Media and Sport department, Ministry of Defence, Energy department, Education department, Home Office, Scotland Office and the Work and Pensions department. They ask about ministers’ and officials’ dealings with Amazon, Google, Symantec, Dell

Pippa Kelly

Big Fairies and M&S suits: a Hansard reporter reveals all

It’s all very well everyone having fun at the expense of the hapless Hansard reporter who sent a note to a Scottish MP querying whether he’d called the SNP ‘big fairies’. He might well have done. Stranger things have been uttered in the Chamber of the House of Commons. ‘Big fearties’ for a start. I should know. I was a Hansard reporter for 12 years and pretty terrifying it could be. Believe me, turning 10 minutes of a John Prescott speech into intelligible English in under an hour takes some nerve even with a minimum shorthand speed of 180wpm (compulsory for all Official Reporters). My former colleague, Hansard editor Lorraine

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

More helpful advice for David Cameron on Europe

By this stage in the run-up to his Europe speech, the Prime Minister must be tempted to sit in a darkened room with his fingers in his ears shouting loudly if anyone else tries to give him more advice on Britain’s relationship with the EU. Today brings another wave of advice: some from friendly faces, most from foes. When Ed Miliband got to the point in his Today programme interview, after debating when it was that the Prime Minister might call a referendum, he outlined his central problem with the whole debate: ‘Imagine an investor, thinking now, should I be investing in Britain, or Germany, or Denmark, or a whole

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s European moment has come – a year late

David Cameron should have given his big Europe speech a year ago. Having just threatened to veto a new EU treaty, he had proved that he was prepared to aggressively defend Britain’s interests, and he had reassured those in his party who worried he wasn’t really serious about Euroscepticism. An address delivered at that point, which was clear about his vision for Britain’s role in Europe but vague about how he intended to achieve it, would have received a fair wind. But there was no follow-up. The veto was left to stand on its own, unconnected to a broader European policy. There were several reasons for this. The first is