Politics Archives

Wednesday

13 Jun 2012

The titans clashed over Leveson, and nobody cared

I got lost about two minutes into PMQs today. Or maybe sooner. Jeremy Hunt’s in trouble over that old business again. And Baroness Warsi has breached the ministerial code but hasn’t resigned. So Ed Miliband wanted to know why Warsi has been referred to someone or other and Hunt hasn’t. And David Cameron said it was because of the Leveson inquiry. And Miliband said no, it can’t be because of Leveson because Leveson has nothing do with it. And Leveson has said that Leveson has nothing do with it. And that’s when I lost track of who had, or hadn’t, been reported to this person, or that inquiry, about this

James Forsyth

The coalition’s ties are weakening

The government won’t fall over the Lib Dems abstaining on an opposition motion attacking Jeremy Hunt. But Nick Clegg’s decision to order his MPs to sit out today’s vote is another sign of how the ties that bind the coalition are weakening. Those close to Clegg argue that because Cameron did not consult Clegg when referring Hunt to the independent adviser on the ministerial code, the deputy PM can’t be expected to defend it as a collective decision. This line has some merit. But there’s no getting away from the fact that Tory ministers and MPs feel that the Lib Dems have chosen to kick a Cabinet colleague when he’s

James Forsyth

Hunting season at PMQs

A slightly absurd PMQs today, dominated by Leveson and Jeremy Hunt. I suspect that history will not look kindly on the fact that there were no questions on what is happening in the Eurozone until 28 minutes into this half hour session. The Cameron Miliband exchanges were rather laboured, neither man was on particularly good form. Cameron brandished a letter from the independent adviser on the ministerial code Sir Alex Allan. But it later transpired that the letters had been exchanged with undignified rapidity this morning. The perception created by this rather undercuts Allan’s reputation for independence. Towards the end of the session, the Labour MP Steve Rotheram asked

The Spectator

Tory minister: HS2 is ‘effectively dead’

Why was David Cameron so lukewarm in his endorsement of HS2 at PMQs today? (In response to a question about the project’s future, he offered, ‘I believe we should go ahead with HS2’, which is rather than different to asserting that it will go ahead.) The project is – as one Tory minister has told The Spectator – ‘effectively dead’. Ross Clark has investigated why in the cover story of tomorrow’s issue. Here’s what he found: 1). George Osborne has turned against it. The chancellor and Tories’ strategic brain was once HS2’s biggest cheerleader, but experience of office has made him realise that Britain’s limited airport capacity is a bigger threat

Tuesday

12 Jun 2012

John Kampfner

A day for celebration, but more must be done to protect free speech

It’s not often that three relatively small NGOs can change politics. So today’s parliamentary debate on the Defamation Bill is cause for considerable pride, among my former colleagues at Index on Censorship and their partners at English PEN and Sense about Science. In November 2009, we began a campaign to reform England’s unfair libel laws. The claimant cabal, those law firms who encourage the rich and famous, particularly those from abroad, to use London’s indulgent courts, assumed that the campaign would fizzle out. It didn’t, picking up steam as it went along. So today’s events should be a cause for celebration. They are, but only in part. The legislative process

Blair Gibbs

Winsor — the outsider

In nominating the lawyer and former rail regulator Tom Winsor as her choice to be the next chief inspector of constabulary, the home secretary has stoked more discontent among the ranks of the Police Federation. Not only is he the first non-police officer ever to be nominated to the role, but he is also the author of a bold review of pay and conditions that made long-overdue recommendations to modernise the police workforce. For this reason alone, the Police Federation is dismayed by the nomination, and MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee (meeting today) may yet try to block him. But the appointment is likely to be approved, and

David Blackburn

Gay marriage, the CofE and the Tories

There was, as Freddy has said, something inevitable about the Church of England’s response to the imminent prospect of gay marriage. A convinced Anglican, who also has intimate knowledge of constitutional law and decoding legislation, recently told me in no uncertain terms that the government’s plan could force the church to schismatic ends because, for it, the division between religious and civil marriage is not clear. Marriage may be a sacrament before God, but it is most certainly a legal institution, defined and licensed by the State. This places the established church and its clerics in an exposed position should parliament chose to redefine marriage under English law. (See points

Sebastian Payne

Lord Leveson’s generation game

It was back to the future at the Leveson inquiry today, as Sir John Major suggested how the press might be regulated. He was calm and confident, launching the odd softly-spoken salvo at former enemies, among them Rupert Murdoch. He said: “Certainly he [Murdoch] never asked for anything directly from me but he was not averse to pressing for policy changes. In the run up to the 1997 general election in my third and last meeting with him on 2 February 1997 he made it clear that he disliked my European policies which he wished me to change….If not, his papers could not and would not support the Conservative government.’

Rod Liddle

Happy days with Gordon Brown

The great thing about the Leveson inquiry is that every so often it offers us the opportunity for that most lovely and undervalued of sensations, nostalgia. I hope that you, like me, revelled in that strange Scottish man’s performance yesterday — the man who, incredibly, used to be in charge of us all. It took me back on a wave of nostalgia to the damp summer of 2009, when we were governed by the closest this country ever gets to one of those dictators from the ‘stans. Not so much in the lack of democracy and political prisoners being tortured — Brown’s shadowy cabal stuck the knife in to those

Monday

11 Jun 2012

Alex Massie

Make them drink mineral water

Perhaps the only thing odder than the enthusiasm — found only in some small part of the Tory party — for Prime Minister Osborne is the Conservative belief in Prime Minister Boris. Where this odd faith comes from, no man can quite say. But it exists and I suppose, like other quackery, is good fun until someone gets hurt. The London Mayor has been in New York and likes what he sees there. Mike Bloomberg, he suggests, should run for President! If nothing else this should remind you that Boris’s political judgment is, well, eccentric. Boris, you see, is much impressed by Bloomberg’s determination to outlaw the selling and purchasing

Alex Massie

Miliband plays the national identity game

Ed Miliband’s speech last week, in which he grappled with questions of Britishness, identity and Unionism, was a worthy effort. By which you will grasp that it was also, in the end, not quite good enough. The Labour leader spoke as though he had only recently appreciated — or had brought to his attention — that national identity on these islands is often a matter of choice and that — insert obligatory Whitman reference here, please — many people have multiple, layered identities that may, at times, even seem to contradict one another. Gosh, you think? And, alas, he foundered in the Q&A when he told one inquisitor: ‘People

David Blackburn

Osborne at Leveson

George Osborne was relaxed as he gave evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. He was succinct and focused, in contrast to Gordon Brown in the morning session. He was affable, joking about his ‘difficulties in Corfu’ — a reference to the infamous Deripaska affair. His confidence was such that he even said the inquiry was walking up a ‘blind alley’ in adjudicating on the fusion of news and comment in newspapers. This is not a new problem, he said, eighteenth century freesheets presented opinion as fact according to their view of the world. Mr Osborne defended the conduct of Rupert Harrison, his special advisor, who was contacted by Fred Michel, a

Fraser Nelson

The parable of Cameron’s kids

Will The Sun’s story about David Cameron leaving his daughter in a pub be politically damaging? Not in the least, I suspect. These stories only hurt if they seem to fit a trend of behaviour, or confirm what everyone suspects. But no one, even the prime minister’s harshest critic, could accuse him of neglecting his family or failing to prioritise his children. Those who have seen him around his kids usually come away feeling amazed, and envious, by the way he can just flick a switch, no matter how tough things are politically, and go into ‘family mode’: baking cakes, playing Star Wars games, being the model father. This is

Steerpike

Labour’s October putsch against Hodges

Comrades! There is a traitor in our midst. Word reaches Mr Steerpike that the phones are red hot in Labour circles as party hacks consider expelling a vocal enemy of the leadership. Dan Hodges — Labour insider turned Telegraph writer — has been a vociferous critic of Ed Miliband. He also hated Ken Livingstone so much that he urged his readers to vote for Boris. Now delegates to this year’s Labour Party Conference are being sounded out on whether they would support a motion to have the fiery scribe banished from the party. The motion will appeal to the Labour National Constitutional Committee to expel Hodges on grounds

James Forsyth

Vintage Brown

Gordon Brown’s appearance at Leveson is yet another reminder of his stubborn refusal to ever admit error. The contrast between his and Tony Blair’s testimony is striking. One is left wondering how Brown ever became Prime Minister. Brown is maintaining that he didn’t get too close to the Murdochs, and that he never knew or encouraged his special advisers to brief against Tony Blair or other colleagues. Taking Brown at his word, the latter suggests that his operation was even more dysfunctional than we thought. One thing worth noting is that Brown has denied wholesale Rupert Murdoch’s claim, made on oath, that Brown called him after The Sun withdrew its

Sunday

10 Jun 2012

David Blackburn

The politics of sport

Football dominates the newspapers this morning, with England due to begin their European Championship campaign tomorrow. But the issue of racism in Ukraine, and to a lesser extent Poland, is a major feature of the coverage, with some commentators suggesting that players should refuse to play if their teammates are subjected to abuse. Ruud Gullit, of sexy football fame, is the latest retired star to back unilateral walk-offs. UEFA, the European football governing body, has already said that its on-pitch officials will book any player who leaves the field, which has outraged numerous players, including the frenetic Manchester City and Italy striker Mario Balotelli. I imagine that lawyers will also

David Blackburn

Theresa May and the right to family life

Theresa May has been in the news recently, as she introduces plans to stop spouses coming to Britain unless they have savings of £18,000 and an additional £2,400 for each foreign born child they bring with them. The Home Secretary told Andrew Marr earlier this morning: ‘It is important that we say you should be able to support yourselves and not be reliant on the state.’ She also reiterated her intention to stop foreign prisoners, whose family live in Britain, from using article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which includes the right to ‘private and family life’, to resist deportation. She is going call a

James Forsyth

No. 10’s response to its difficulties

Two issues are dominating Number 10’s thinking at the moment: Europe and the cost of living. How to deal with Europe is the biggest strategic challenge facing David Cameron. Cameron has to work out how to use this moment to advance the British national interest. But he also knows that Europe is an issue that could split the coalition and the Tory party. Inside Number 10, it seems that it is becoming a question of when to announce a referendum not whether to call one. As I say in the Mail on Sunday today, senior figures there are pushing for the Tory commitment to a future referendum on the

David Blackburn

Labour’s education dilemma

The Labour Party has a problem with education. On the one hand, it recognises that the academies programme which it inaugurated is very popular with parents. But on the other hand, it knows that the unions, upon which it depends financially, are opposed to reform. This creates tension where policy is concerned: how can the party satisfy voters and the unions? This tension is embodied by the reform-minded shadow education secretary Stephen Twigg (a driving force behind the original adoption of academies), who appeared on Andrew Neil’s Sunday Politics earlier this morning. His words (and there were a lot of them) speak volumes about the party’s difficulty with the word

Saturday

9 Jun 2012

The Spectator

The week that was

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Fraser Nelson gives Gary Barlow 8 out 10 for lifting the nation’s spirits with the Jubilee concert, explains the dangers inherent in Osborne’s latest trick, and exclusively reveals the substance of David Cameron’s offer to the Scots. James Forsyth explains how the government is approaching the proposed European banking union, delineates Cameron’s reshuffle dilemmas, and forecasts some of the storms that are louring over the continent. David Blackburn notes that Lord Owen hasn’t always been so clear-minded on the European Union, thinks that Ed Miliband’s EU policy is canny, and wonders if the Tories’ army policy will