Politics Archives

Saturday

13 Oct 2012

Nick clegg debt

Britain’s national debt is rising faster than any of the basket-case Eurozone countries that George Osborne is so fond of disparaging but here’s the thing: only 16pc of voters realise that debt is going up. Why? Are they all thick? Or could it be that our political class is systematically misleading them? I’m inclined towards the latter. The odd debt vs deficit slip is forgivable. But ministers do seem to trying to exaggerate – even lie about – what they are doing to the national debt. And I’m afraid that Nick Clegg is my Exhibit A. The Deputy Prime Minister was recently caught out telling Essex factory workers that his

Friday

12 Oct 2012

Fraser Nelson

David Cameron is the leader battling inequality

The great paradox of British politics is that the left moan about inequality, but it’s the right who will remedy it. Ed Miliband is proposing the restoration of the old order, where the poor get the worst schools and the rich get the best (and the opportunities that flow from it). Labour plans to tax the rich more, and give money to the poor as if by way of compensation. The Tories want to revolutionise the system, so the poor have the same choice of schools that today only the rich can afford. Labour wants to make sure the unemployed are well looked-after. The Tories want to make sure the

Jonathan Jones

David Cameron reverses Ed Miliband’s conference bounce

Just as Ed Miliband seemed to get a poll bounce from his conference speech last week, so David Cameron seems to have got one from his on Wednesday. On YouGov’s question of who would make the best Prime Minister, Cameron has extended his lead to 14 points. That more than reverses the bump Miliband got on that question from his conference (he had closed the gap from 12 points before the conferences to just four last week). In fact, it’s the best result for Cameron on that crucial question since the Budget in March. On voting intention, the Tories’ conference does seem to have helped them close the gap to

David Blackburn

The gate beckons for Andrew Mitchell

The papers are unanimous: Andrew Mitchell is a dead man walking, and like most pantomime ghouls he’s become a laughing stock. Fraser’s Telegraph column tells of MPs and cabinet colleagues ridiculing the chief whip. The joke deepens because Mitchell, perhaps due to his insistence that he did not use the word ‘pleb’, apparently does not recognise the gravity of those offences to which he has confessed. He is the still the merry cyclist, by all accounts. As Fraser points out, the joke becomes more serious at this stage because it shrouds the Tories’ attempt to tackle inequality with welfare and education reform. In that sense, Mitchell is an impediment to David Cameron’s desire to ‘spread’

Thursday

11 Oct 2012

Steerpike

Blair’s babes are still braying

Under the alias ‘Director General of the Russell Group’, a certain Dr Wendy Piatt has slammed the government’s policy on student visas. In a quote to the Independent, she warns: ‘as ministers crack down on abuse of the system, they must be careful about the messages they send to the world’s best and brightest students.’ Surely this cannot be the same Dr Piatt who rose through the ranks of Tony Blair’s favourite think tank, IPPR, before being seconded to the Labour team at the Department of Education in 2002? The same Dr Piatt who later became a senior Downing Street aide under the Labour government? We should be told! Her Labour links do not

James Forsyth

David Cameron and the long election campaign

Number 10 will be pleased with the press coverage this morning of David Cameron’s conference speech. It has received a good write-up in nearly every centre-right newspaper. Cameron will today return to normal Number 10 work, addressing how to commemorate the centenary of World War One. Over the next few months, it’ll be intriguing to see how he strikes the balance between his party duties and his Prime Ministerial ones. Since the reshuffle in September, Cameron has been more political and his conference speech brought together his governing strategy and political strategy. This conference speech has, in many ways, fired the gun on a two and a half year election

James Forsyth

Will there be cracks over cuts? It all depends on Cable

In Birmingham this week all the talk is of two dates. There’s 2015 of course, but also 5 December this year, because that is when George Osborne will have to spell out (in the autumn statement) how the coalition is planning to respond to our continuing lack of growth. Since Osborne delivered the Budget in March, Britain has slipped back into recession and the Conservatives have undergone their most difficult period in government, and this has only added to the importance of the autumn statement. Both sides are acutely aware that within weeks, the Office for Budget Responsibility will present the coalition with its economic forecasts. These will reveal how

Hugo Rifkind

How nice to hear Tories called stupid, not evil

The most significant bit of Ed Miliband’s speech last week (which I bet you watched in the office, from beginning to end, like I did, because that’s not weird in most jobs at all) was the bit where he called David Cameron an idiot. Did you catch it? Very stirring. ‘Have you ever seen a more incompetent, hopeless, out-of-touch, U-turning, pledge-breaking, make-it-up-as-you-go-along, back-of-the-envelope, miserable shower?’ he said. As he said it his spine straightened out of that frowning crouch he goes into sometimes, which can make him look as though he’s about to drop a poo on the stage, and he soared up onto his tiptoes. ‘Good on you, Ed

Wednesday

10 Oct 2012

Isabel Hardman

Ten lessons from the Conservative party conference

The Conservative party conference has been short and sweet, and delegates are winding their ways back to constituencies and Westminster. Here are five important lessons to take away from Birmingham: 1. The government will pursue a further cuts to the welfare budget, but there’s a fight ahead on how much money can be cut, with the Liberal Democrats rejecting the George Osborne and Iain Duncan Smith’s plan for £10 billion of cuts. James examines how the relationship between Osborne and Vince Cable will be key to the negotiations over further cuts in his political column in tomorrow’s Spectator. 2. David Cameron is keen to keep both compassionate Conservatism and the Big

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Cameron writes the Liberal Democrats out of his speech

The only mention that the Liberal Democrats received in David Cameron’s speech was a reference to the fact that they, unlike the Tories, had not been committed to real-terms increases in the NHS budget. Combine this with the fact that the speech saw Cameron pit the Tory view of the world against Labour’s and one could see an attempt to write the Liberal Democrats out of the script. The absence of the Liberal Democrats from the speech was, I’m informed, quite deliberate. Cameron’s implicit message was that the really big things the coalition is doing — education and welfare reform and the structural changes to the economy — are Conservative

Steerpike

Danny Alexander finally finds some friends

The press officer for the Cairngorms National Park turned Chief Secretary to the Treasury faces constant accusations that he has gone ‘native’, owing to the relish with which he has taken to his job of slashing the state. He did himself few favours in that regard by speaking at a fringe event at the Tory conference last night. He was mobbed in the lobby of the Hyatt hotel when he arrived. And perhaps he should have expected the cries of ‘are you joining Danny?’ that greeted him. The episode greatly amused the Tories, especially one minister who cruelly whispered to me: ‘He’s more popular with us than he is in

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Clear blue water

The next election is going to be a clash of ideological visions. There is now clear blue water between the Tories and Labour. Last week, Miliband set out his view of ‘one nation’. Its power came from its authenticity but it was also a distinctly left-wing vision of the world. Today, Cameron responded with one of the most Tory speeches I’ve ever heard him make. Too often, Cameron has tried to portray himself simply as a competent steward of national affairs, shying away from ideological definition. But this speech was different. It had a central argument, about the need for Britain to become more competitive. His answer was right-wing: boost

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: How David Cameron fought back against Ed Miliband

As the audience filed out of the Manchester Central conference hall after Ed Miliband’s speech last week, the question repeated over and over again was ‘well, what’s David Cameron going to do now?’ Though the Prime Minister’s aides were dismissive of suggestions that he should try to beat Miliband by memorising his speech and walking around the stage while delivering it (Paul Waugh notes in his email memo this morning that one spinner said ‘He’s Prime Minister, he doesn’t have days and days to practice and memorise a speech – like you do in Opposition’), the PM was clearly rattled enough to produce a speech which contained large sections of

Alex Massie

British politics returns to normal: Blue vs Red with Yellow on the touchline – Spectator Blogs

British politics is returning to normal. The two-party system is back. That, it seems to me, is the chief conclusion to be drawn from this year’s conference season*. The opposition have been supplanted by Labour and we’re back to the familiar sight of watching the Conservatives and Labour knock lumps out of one another. It is not just that the Lib Dem conference seems to have taken place months ago (though it’s partly that) but that the guest list for the next general election has been agreed and Nick Clegg’s party isn’t on it. The Liberal Democrats? Who they? For a long time now, the government has been weakened by the

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: David Cameron gives a clear explanation for the first time of what the government is doing

The Cameroons are leaving Birmingham with a spring in their step. David Cameron’s conference speech was the best he has delivered in years. He finally got off the mat and took on Labour’s argument about 50p and him being out of touch. His willingness to engage Ed Miliuband on his claim that he is writing cheques to millionaires was a refreshing sign of confidence in the power of Tory arguments about the relationship between the state and the individual. Crucially, Cameron — for the first time — gave a really clear explanation of what his government is doing. He linked together education reform, welfare reform and his economic measures as

Fraser Nelson

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s rally-style speech

This was one of David Cameron’s optimism speeches, a recession-era variant of his ‘let sunshine win the day’. It was pretty short of announcements, which is understandable given the lack of any good news. Instead he focused on essential optimism of the Conservative message: that this is a party which places faith in people, not in governments. And he wanted to spell out what that means, confronting Labour’s criticism of his party (and himself) head-on. His speech was full of praise for ‘buccaneering’ Britain, a nation whose ability to take on the world was reflected in the Olympic medals table. That there is no problem we can’t solve, if we

Alex Massie

David Cameron to Ed Miliband: Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough – Spectator Blogs

For months now, David Cameron and his government have been pursued around the ring. Chased by Labour and harassed by events they have often been caught on the ropes. Off-balance and out of position Cameron has struggled to respond to Labour’s jabs. No wonder he’s behind on points. The Prime Minister’s speech to the Conservative party conference this morning was a counter-attack. Cameron has had enough of running; now he means to stand in the centre of the ring and trade blows with the opposition. It will be a rare old tear-up. Those who say this was a speech delivered to his party, not his country are, I think, mistaken.

The Spectator

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s speech, full text

In May 2010, this party stood on the threshold of power for the first time in more than a decade. We knew then that it was not just the ordinary duties of office that we were assuming. We were entering into Government at a grave moment in the modern history of Britain. At a time when people felt uncertainty, even fear. Here was the challenge: To make an insolvent nation solvent again. To set our country back on the path to prosperity that all can share in. To bring home our troops from danger while keeping our citizens safe from terror. To mend a broken society. Two and a half

Alex Massie

Dr Liam Fox on what voters want: anything but the truth?

Dr Liam Fox is no dummie so I’m not sure quite what he means when, as reported by Isabel, he told Tories gathered at a Carlton Club fringe event: What I want is to see us keeping faith with the British people and I want to see us having a slogan at the next election which says ‘Back to a Common Market’, back to an economic and trading relationship with Europe that parks all the political interference in the running of our economy, our workplace, our legal system and all the other things that we don’t like.’ How, pray, is this going to work? Dr Fox surely knows that much

Sebastian Payne

Conservative conference: Owen Paterson says yes to shale gas and no to wind farms subsidies

‘We will only improve the environment if we improve the economy.’ Owen Paterson demonstrated the government’s new environmental mantra at a Policy Exchange fringe event this evening, discussing how we can build a sustainable green economy. The new Environment Secretary said that he will only pursue technologies that will make a positive contribution to the economy: ‘We should not be frightened of major projects brought in to improve the economy, because by improving the economy, we generate the funds to improve the environment. And if we are imaginative we can also bring the two together. The two are, empathically,not mutual exclusive. ‘It’s got to be sustainable…which means it has to