Politics

Ministers will be taking heart today that they seem to be finally breaking into buoyant markets outside the European Union. Figures from the Centre for Economics and Business Research show that for the first time the UK is exporting more to non-EU countries than it has been to its traditional main export market within Europe. Over the past three months, 51 per cent of British exports went outside the EU. Exports outside the EU have risen 13.2 per cent, while exports within the EU have fallen by 7.3 per cent. It is the first time since the 1970s, according to the CEBR, that non-EU exports have overtaken those inside the

The coalition’s infrastructure shopping spree to cheer itself up after a miserable few weeks continues today. George Osborne and Danny Alexander are offering guarantees on up to £40 billion of ‘ready or nearly ready’ projects such as transport, communications and energy. They are also announcing a £6 billion temporary lending programme and a £5 billion export guarantee facility, which will give long-term support for British exporters. Today’s announcements are clever because they don’t commit any extra money, using the government’s balance sheet purely to guarantee the projects and get them off the ground. Osborne and Alexander have written a joint comment piece for PoliticsHome, in which they point out that their efforts

What’s the best way to deal with a full onslaught against your industry? A damn good party of course. ‘Despite the dismal financial outlook, Square Mile magazine held their annual Summer Party on Friday 13th for 1,000 City bankers,’ proclaims one of the most gloriously offensive press releases that Mr Steerpike has seen in long time. There were apparently ‘no signs of the dismal economy’ as bankers ‘quaffed free Iceberg Vodka and Louis Roederer champagne and were entertained by fire-breathing strippers and snake charmers’. And, as if that was not enough, ’ex-city trader Anton Kreil, set to become the first person to execute a financial trade in space, was the

The row over Jeremy Hunt’s dealings with the Murdoch empire during its takeover bid for BSkyB seems rather a long time ago, even though only a month has passed since it peaked. But even though other rows have eclipsed this one, MPs are debating a very interesting backbench motion in the Commons this afternoon which criticises some of the decisions that the Prime Minister took around the Hunt affair. The motion is being led by Bernard Jenkin, chair of the Public Administration Select Committee, and runs as follows: ‘That this House calls on the Government to implement the recommendation made by the Public Administration Select Committee in paragraph 44 of

Nick Cohen’s Spectator cover story on Olympic censorship has been a smash hit, and is still being tweeted all over the world. It was followed up this morning by BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on its 8.10am slot, and CoffeeHousers who missed it can listen again here. Freddy Gray, assistant editor of The Spectator, is quoted at the beginning on the appalling heavy-handedness of it all. Even the Cubans didn’t copyright the now-famous Che Guevara image (which was drawn by an Irishman in any case). A liberal society like Britain should let people do what they want with words and images of major people and events. Including words like ‘Olympics’ and those rings. The Radio Four

G4S chief Nick Buckles will face MPs on the Home Affairs Select Committee today. Here are some key questions they will want to ask him about the security firm’s handling of staffing for the Olympics: 1. When did you start processing applications from potential staff? G4S launched its recruitment drive at the end of January, and just days later told the press it had been swamped by 20,000 applications. Ministers say they were repeatedly assured that the firm would overshoot its targets. So why did it take so long to realise that those 20,000 applications were not going to translate into 10,000 staff? 2. When did you realise that you

David Cameron and Nick Clegg’s railways announcement wasn’t the only attempt today by the coalition to bounce back from the strife of the past few weeks. Iain Duncan Smith also chose to point to another area where the Government is delivering on voters’ demands: welfare. In an op-ed in the Daily Mail, the Work and Pensions Secretary said the £26,000 benefit cap for workless families, which is one of the government’s most popular policies, is already effecting the behavioural change ministers hoped it would, with a third of claimants saying they are going to look for a job in order to avoid the cap, which comes into effect in 2013. In

The row over G4S’ failure to provide sufficient security cover for the Olympics is starting to feel a little awkward for Labour. This afternoon in the Commons, Yvette Cooper managed to rouse a sardonic chuckle from not just the benches opposite but also the hacks perched in the press gallery when she said that everyone wanted the Olympics to be a success. Why the laughs? Well, the danger for Labour is that in slamming the government’s handling of G4S, the party gets too carried away and appears to be branding the Olympics a shambles too. That would be fine if we had six months before the games, but the opening

So the IMF has revised its forecasts for the UK’s GDP growth downwards — to 0.2 in 2012 and 1.4 in 2013 from the 0.8 per cent and 2.0 respectively it predicted in April. It’s bad news, certainly — not least because we’ve been downgraded more than most other countries, and we’re now forecast to grow more slowly than Germany and (this year) France. But it’s worth bearing in mind that the IMF — for all its ability to drive headlines — is just one of many organisations playing the forecasting game, and these downgrades actually just bring them into line with the average. What’s worrying for George Osborne — and his fiscal