Politics

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

Saturday

Jonathan Mirsky

Mao’s girl and me

In 1997 in Hong Kong one of Mao Zedong’s numerous sexual partners — in this case an underage one — told me her life story. Mao the monster was already notorious: his lunatic policies had caused the world’s worst famine (1959–1961), in which 40 to 50 million Chinese starved to death; he inspired the Cultural Revolution (1966–1976), when a few million more died. And before he came to power in 1949, Mao often ordered the murder of those who ­challenged his ambitions within the Chinese Communist Party. But a paedophile? Yes indeed. Ms Chen, the young woman with whom Mao began sleeping in 1962, was 14. The Chairman was born

Johnnie Kerr

A broad church

The protesters outside St Paul’s are united in polite disagreement It’s really not clear why the doors to St Paul’s had to be closed. Perhaps the church will have concocted a reasonable explanation by the time it’s all over, but after an afternoon walking around the protesters’ camp, it’s hard to imagine that they pose any sort of threat. Already the site has the peaceful air of a hippy festival. Groups sit in circles, talking and picking at the piles of crisps and chocolates donated by supporters of the cause. Others are gathered on the steps, listening quietly to a man giving a speech through a hastily assembled speaker system.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

From the archives: Cut off in Brussels

Let’s end the working week how it began: with talk of a European referendum. The talk, in this case, is provided by Daniel Hannan, who wrote an article for us in 2008 about his efforts to promote a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty from within the European Parliament. Here it is, our latest excavation from the Spectator archives: For MEPs, public opinion is merely an inconvenience, Daniel Hannan, The Spectator, 22 November 2008 I’ve just done the most pointless thing an MEP can do: I’ve delivered a speech to the European Parliament. Actually, ‘speech’ is rather a grand word for my little soliloquy which, under the rules, had to be

The Spectator

The week that was | 28 October 2011

Here is a selection of a posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Fraser Nelson asks if Brits are more likely to riot than the foreign born, and wonders when MPs will wake up to Shale. Sam Gyimah MP says that now is not the time for an EU referendum. James Forsyth says that the Europe debate has revealed that Cameron needs a new management society, and argues that the coalition’s commitment to growth is being tested. Peter Hoskin is concerned by Libya’s deflated revolution, and notes that the coalition has barred its tensions over Europe. Jonathan Jones finds that Labour is not capitalizing on the government’s weakness, and

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Ireland picks its President

Well, the oldie got it. Michael D. Higgins — commonly known as Michael D — has all but won the Irish presidential election. The little man who resembles a bard or a leprechaun, depending on your point of view, appears to have beaten off six undistinguished competitors to succeed the formidable Mary McAleese. At 70, he was the oldest in the field and looks, in fact, rather older. You could say it’s a victory for non-partisan, non-party politics. Mr Higgins was the Labour candidate but he stood aloof from the fray during the campaign, declining to criticise his opponents. That presidential stance went down well — it set him apart,

Peter Hoskin

Daylight scrapping time

Aha, the Spectator’s cover story is gathering pace. If you were tuned into The BBC’s Daily Politics just now, then you will have enjoyed a preview of the terrific scrap this time-shifting proposal could provoke. They had on both Rebecca Harris MP, who is pushing for us to move to Central European Time (CET), and Peter Hitchens, who revealed in his article for us that the government is minded to back the idea (as well as describing Harris as “one of those homogenised, UHT female Tory MPs”). The pair were, of course, mediated by Andrew Neil. We shall try to secure video of the discussion, if possible. But, in the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Europe’s new battlefield

The long flight from Australia should give David Cameron plenty time to think about Europe, and how it just won’t go away. He didn’t want this battle — not now, not ever. But in the Daily Telegraph today, the first in what will be a weekly column, I lay out the battlefield that awaits him on his return. First, this bailout is not the end. A trillion Euros needs to come from somewhere, and today the Chinese are being tapped up — God knows what we’ll agree to in return. But that doesn’t address what is, as Mervyn King has said, a solvency issue rather than a liquidity issue. And

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s Euro-migraine

The picture of Nicolas Sarkozy not even turning around to shake David Cameron’s hand rather neatly sums up the Prime Minister’s problems right now. The danger for him is that the 17 Eurozone countries start writing a new set of rules and riding roughshod over the interests of those countries that are outside. This would be bad enough at anytime but with the Conservative party on the warpath over Europe it is a clear and present danger to the Prime Minister. As one ally of the Prime Minister said to me today the PM’s predicament is made even harder by the fact that many of the 10 countries outside the

Jonathan Jones

The American Milibands

If you thought the Labour leadership election last year was tough on the Milbands’ mother, spare a thought for the Krumnow family of Elmore, Ohio. Brothers Lowell and James are engaged in what could be an even bigger electoral contest. They’re fighting not over the leadership of the Labour party, but instead to be mayor of a 1,500-strong town. And, as with the David-Ed battle, this campaign hasn’t taken a particularly fraternal course. 54-year-old Lowell — the incumbent mayor — has taken a swipe at his older brother’s record on the council: “He has probably missed more meetings in the two years he’s been a councilmember than I have missed

Peter Hoskin

Osborne’s response to Europe’s gappy deal

Our Submarine Chancellor has bobbed to the surface today, and to perform a fairly important function: explain Britain’s position in relation to the sinking eurozone. Here, harvested from his appearances on the Today Programme and in the House, is my five-point guide to what that position is: 1) Yesterday was only a start. Not for Osborne the “new day” hyperbole of the Greek Prime Minister, George Papandreou. No, the Chancellor has been more cautious about the Eurodeal struck last night — and rightly so. Although he did say in the Commons that “The deal put together is much better than was expected yesterday afternoon,” he did hasten to add that

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The politicisation of poppies

Dave Wooding rightly upbraids one Labour MP, Alex Cunningham, for trying to make political capital out of the fact that MPs on the government benches were not wearing poppies at PMQs yesterday. In another sign of how politicised our symbol of rememberance has become, the Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has written to his Cabinet colleagues providing guidance on when it is appropriate to start wearing a poppy. The note informed ministers that while there was no definitive view on when it was appropriate to start wearing one, that Thursday from noon would be a good time as that would coincide with the launch of the Royal British Legion’s campaign. Obviously,

Jonathan Jones

Labour aren’t capitalising on the government’s woes

Ipsos MORI’s latest monthly political monitor is just out, and it doesn’t bring much good news for either the government or the opposition. 63 per cent of respondents are dissatisfied with the government and 54 dissatisfied with David Cameron — both the highest proportions since the election. On the public’s number one issue — the economy — just 36 per cent say the government’s done a good job. And even wose, a whopping 77 per cent say they’ve done a bad job of keeping unemployment down — hardly surprising considering unemployment has risen by 100,000 since the election. But while all this presents a great opportunity for Labour, other numbers show how

Peter Hoskin

The government’s European tribulations continue

It has been a fraught and ill-tempered week in Westminster. And — whether it is the rumour that Tory backbencher Andrea Leadsom told George Osborne to “f**k off”, or David Cameron’s dismissal of Ed Miliband as a “complete mug” — most of it has had Europe at its root.  So it is, too, with the latest news of government strife. Iain Duncan Smith, it’s reported, had a ferocious row with the Tory chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin, over the EU referendum . Apparently, he warned that, “If you ever put me in this position again, that’s it”. As it happens, there is more on IDS’s disgruntlement in Charles Moore’s column for

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ellwood returns as PPS to the Minister for Europe

Tobias Ellwood has been appointed as PPS to the Europe Minister David Lidington. The vacancy had been created when Adam Holloway decided to resign from the job so that he could vote for the EU referendum motion. This appointment is a nifty piece of party management. Ellwood was Liam Fox’s PPS but when Fox resigned, the new Defence Secretary Philip Hammond decided, to the resentment of some Tory backbenchers, not to keep him on. Instead, Hammond chose to appoint Clare Perry, a member of the 2010 intake who had worked for George Osborne and Hammond in opposition. Some Tory MPs, and particularly those who felt passed over, saw this as evidence that

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Lord Ashcroft’s Common Sense

Good stuff from Lord Ashcroft this morning. Good because, obviously, he agrees with me that the Tory obsession with Europe and, just as importantly, the style in which that obsession is paraded before the public damages the party. As the noble lord puts it: [W]e know that for many people, the main barrier to voting Conservative is that they do not think we share the concerns of people like them.  But which issue has the last week shown still seems to exercise our party above all others? Some will be inclined to blame the media for the back-to-the-nineties coverage of Tory turmoil over Europe.  But the fact that we know

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband fails to connect

Easy-peasy at PMQs today. All Ed Miliband had to do was slice open the Coalition’s wounds on Europe and dibble his claws in the spouts of blood. But his attack had no sense of bite or surprise. And his phraseology was lumpen. He used all six questions gently stroking the issue of Europe rather than driving a nail through it.  He asked about growth. He asked about the ’22 committee. He asked about Nick Clegg’s “smash-and-grab” phrase to describe the repatriation of powers. He asked about the social chapter. He asked about everything he could think of, and it was clear he couldn’t think of the right thing to ask.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron battles it out

David Cameron came out swinging today at PMQs. Knowing that Ed Miliband would try and exploit the Tory rebellion over Europe on Monday night, Cameron went for the Labour leader. He called him a “complete mug” and mocked him as being detached from reality. At the end of the exchange, Osborne gripped Cameron’s shoulder in congratulation – a sign that the pair knew that they needed a strong performance today to calm their backbenches. The other notable aspect of PMQs was its emphasis on the new political battleground: women. The Labour MP Gloria Del Piero asked the PM why the government was more unpopular with women than men, which gave

Peter Hoskin

Cable’s latest embarrassment

“None of this will stop me talking out against tax avoidance.” So says Vince Cable, rather hilariously, in response to being fined £500 for failing to pay £25,000 of VAT on his media work. You’ve got to hand it to the Business Secretary: it is an ingenious, if convoluted, way to top up the public finances. Although there are questions about whether other people would have got off quite so lightly.    You might say, as Vince’s people are this morning, that this is the sort of mistake that can befall anyone — particularly someone so busy as a Cabinet minister. But this isn’t just anyone. This is Vince Cable,

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

How Good is Barack Obama at Politics?

Not as good as you might think, argues Ramesh Ponnuru: Last year, President Barack Obama issued a warning to Republicans. They had been “politicking” instead of “governing,” he said. “Well, we can politick for three months,” he said. “They forgot I’m pretty good at politicking.” That was in August 2010. At the end of those three months, Republicans controlled the most seats in the U.S. House since the 1940s. Republicans did well for a lot of reasons. One of them was that the president is wrong: He isn’t all that good at politics. […] But take a closer look at Obama’s rise and a hole in his resume quickly becomes