Politics

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

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics: Cameron’s season of sorrows is not over yet

The black dog has descended on Whitehall. Tory ministers are, as a group, at their lowest ebb since they entered government. When I saw one secretary of state this week, he stopped halfway through our meeting to say, ‘I’m sorry this is such a depressing conversation’. He then continued in the same vein. Even the normally Tiggerish Prime Minister is in a bit of an Eeyoreish mood. I’m told that he seems more tired and down than at any point since he took on the job. This funk is a result of a difficult few weeks for the government. Granny tax was followed by pastygate, which compounded the damage done

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

It has to be Boris

The government’s failings have hampered his campaign but he must prevail A few weeks ago, Mich­ael Gove addressed a crowd of Tory activists in the basement of a London hotel. He wanted to disabuse them of what he regarded as a dangerous notion. The London mayoral election, he said, was not about Boris Johnson vs Ken Livingstone; the stakes were far higher than one man for one city. They had nationwide implications. This is a critical moment in the lifetime of parliament, he said, which will set the trajectory for the next few years — for good or for ill. The London election was one of these very rare ‘watershed

Tanya Gold Tanya Gold

Handshake fatigue

On the campaign trail with London’s would-be mayors The mayoral election is, to my eyes, two pantomime dames bickering about who gets to eat the scenery. I join it at the church hustings, St James’s Piccadilly. Boris Johnson enters, hands deep in hair, five points ahead in the polls. He sits down and gives the audience that swift, forensic look. Ken is at the other end of the table — he is tanned in a tan suit, a man who might walk into a desert and be lost. Brian Paddick and Jenny Jones separate them; it’s safer that way. The chair, George Pitcher, is a Richard Curtis-themed vicar, with glowing

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The meaning of Nadine Dorries

I was in the back of a cab with Nadine Dorries once. It was after some event where politicians and the press meet up to propagate their unhealthy relationships with one another at someone else’s expense, probably yours. I can’t remember exactly what it was. All I remember is this apparently perpetually furious woman ranting at me, a whirling bleached-blonde cloud of vituperation and contumely, with the vestigial tail of a scouse accent — like the bastard offspring of a semi-articulate Tasmanian Devil and the late Bessie Braddock MP. Simon Hoggart was with us too and he just sort of merged imperceptibly with the taxi seat and became invisible. He

Tom Bower

Dangerous liaisons | 28 April 2012

Ever since Andy Coulson was forced to resign as Downing Street’s media supremo, Westminster’s malcontents have gossiped about the prospect of Rupert Murdoch wreaking revenge for Cameron’s impulsive creation of an inquiry into press ethics. More recently, cynics whispered that the Sunday Times exposure of Peter Cruddas, the Conservative treasurer offering access to the Camerons in exchange for donations, was the gypsy’s warning of horrors to come. And now we have the revelations about the Murdochs’ secret negotiations with the government to take full control of BSkyB. The Murdochs’ appearance this week at the Leveson inquiry fatally threatens the Cameron project and probably destroys Tory hopes of recovering their reputation

Mark Mason

Get a grip, chaps

There’s too much male blubbing in public life Last Sunday’s London Marathon had me in tears. Not as I battled agonisingly through the wall at 20 miles. No, I was at home on the sofa, with the digestives. And yet again — it happens every year — I blubbed softly at the inspirational tales, the people running in memory of friends who’d died, the sheer personal achievement of everyone involved. This year, though, another thought entered my reckoning. It was the memory of another male who confessed to crying at the television: Ed Balls. A couple of months ago he told how he often cries at the Antiques Roadshow, when

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 27 April 2012

Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk… Most read: James Forsyth on Jeremy Hunt’s troubles. Most discussed: Fraser Nelson on whether Ed Balls caused the recession.  Most shared: Jonathan Jones on Ed Miliband’s increasing popularity. And the best of the rest… Fraser Nelson thinks Ed Balls’s economic argument is detached from reality. James Forsyth thinks the economy is adding to Cameron’s woes, reports on Tories rallying around Jeremy Hunt and looks at Liam Fox’s shot across the aid budget. Peter Hoskin reports on Nadine Dorries’ Cameron and Osborne comments, asks what good a National Strategy would do and examines our fall back into recession. Jonathan Jones examines the

Clarissa Tan

Boris has the greatest global clout

Ni hao. In recent days, Boris, Ken and Brian have all leapt headlong onto Weibo, China’s highly popular version of Twitter. It’s an obvious effort to win the votes of Chinese-speakers living in London. Boris was the first — which, I suppose, says all you want to know about his sense of initiative, brio, élan, and whatever the Chinese word is for ‘mojo’. Ken and Brian both jumped in about two weeks later, around April 21.   Inevitably, because the vast majority of Weibo users live in China, our three London mandarins have ended up attracting followers based in the Middle Kingdom. A look at the mayoral candidates’ individual Weibo

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Does Ed Miliband Have A Clue About Scotland?

I’m not sure Ed Miliband’s people will be altogether happy that James McIntyre’s Prospect interview with the Labour leader devotes quite so much time to Miliband’s leadership credentials. This is not, I think, generally considered helpful. Mr Miliband says he is “Labour’s biggest critic” to which the obvious rejoinder is “Not while so many of us remain alive, you ain’t“. There’s plenty to chew on in the interview but, as McIntyre suggests, it’s worth paying attention to Miliband’s comments on the Scottish Question: [W]hen I ask Miliband if he will help Cameron save the Union in what should be a cross-party campaign for the UK as we know it, he

Peter Hoskin

The Lib Dems start to pile on Hunt

One of the key factors in this Jeremy Hunt business was always going to be the ferocity of the political maelstrom around him. After a slow start, the Tories have sought to calm it down, offering fulsome support for the embattled Culture Secretary. For their part, Labour have been calling for his resignation from the very moment the news broke, with Ed Miliband today accusing David Cameron of ‘organising a cover-up’ to protect his colleague. So far, so party lines. But what about the Lib Dems? It’s noteworthy that one of their number — Simon Hughes, natch — last night called for an independent investigation into the matter (see the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Is Sir Simon Jenkins the Worst Columnist in Britain?

I know that this must seem a large claim while so many other rotters still breathe but at least, as questions go, it makes more sense than the one bold Sir Simon asks today: Now everyone is connected, is this the death of conversation? Good grief but, being the charitable sort, you may suppose that since Mr Jenkins doesnae write his ain headlines his article may have been mischaracterised by some Guardian sub-editor. Such hopes will not survive for long. Mr Jenkins, you see, has been in the United States and he has noticed, as veteran foreign correspondents are wont to do, that the young people are spending quite a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Fox fires a shot across the aid budget’s bows

As Pete says, Liam Fox’s piece this morning calling for more supply-side reform is broadly helpful to the Chancellor and has been written with his approval. Strikingly, the former defence secretary — who still has a constituency on the right of the party — goes out of his way to back one of the most contentious Osborne decisions, increasing the British contribution to the IMF. But there is one line in the article that carries with it not the air of helpful advice but menace: ‘It must be understood that further reductions in budgets for security, leaving overseas aid untouched, would be met with fury by most Conservatives.’ This is

Peter Hoskin

Osborne’s turning point

As Paul Goodman suggests, there is something significant about Liam Fox’s article for the Daily Telegraph this morning. It’s not that we haven’t heard similar from the former Defence Secretary before — we have. It’s more that his economic prescriptions are being made, we learn from the Sun, with the ‘explicit approval’ of his buddy George Osborne. And what are those prescriptions? Well, the main one is for further spending cuts, and Fox also waxes enthusastic about greater deregulation and about protecting the defence budget (at the expense of international aid). He also has some firm advice for the Lib Dems. ‘They make up only one sixth — not one

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 — Boris on the stump

As promised, here’s our exclusive podcast interview with Boris Johnson. He kindly took some time away from running around Marylebone to answer a few questions from CoffeeHousers on collapsing Tube tunnels, boats on the Thames, religion in London, Tube unions, future career plans and his continued love of the Spectator. We hope you enjoy the results. The View from 22 — Boris on the stump. Length 5:55 Download audio file (MP3) Subscribe with iTunesSubscribe with RSS Listen now: Photograph © Alan Davidson/The Picture LIbrary Ltd

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Austerity Myth

On the global scale of hackish irritation, the American left’s persistent determination to misdiagnose the reasons behind Britain’s faltering economy cannot be considered the most grievous pundit-crime. Nevertheless, it remains annoying. Here, for instance, is Joe Klein: Word now comes that Great Britain has slipped back into recession after several years of David Cameron’s austerity experiment. It seems, yet again, that John Maynard Keynes has been proven right. Real Keynesianism–government deficit spending–is essential when economies go bottom up. This can mean more government programs or lower taxes, or a combination of the two. That would seem to be plain vanilla logic, right? But you’d be amazed how many otherwise intelligent people

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 — 26 April 2012

Here, CoffeeHousers, is this week’s episode of The View From 22 podcast. Thank you for the continued feedback, we’ve tried to take as much as possible into account. In this episode, Fraser looks at the London Mayoral race and whether Boris can still bag it (0:26), given the downturn in the government’s fortunes. Tanya Gold, our restaurant critic, reports on how Ken and Boris have been faring on the stump. James Forsyth discusses (8:07) the fall of Jeremy Hunt and the Murdoch appearances at Leveson, as well as the trouble brewing for Cameron over Lords reform (15:30). You can listen below with the embedded player or — even better —

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Any Questions for Boris?

The Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, has kindly agreed to take some questions from CoffeeHousers tomorrow. Sebastian Payne, presenter of our new podcast The View from 22, will pick the best questions, put them to the Mayor and post the audio of his responses on the website later. So, what would you like to put to Boris?

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Balls’s argument is detached from reality

So who killed the recovery? Ed Balls points to a ‘recession made in Downing St,’ and has gone on a victory tour today. ‘I have consistently warned David Cameron and George Osborne for over a year that going too far and too fast on spending cuts would backfire,’ he says. ‘Arrogantly and complacently they ignored those warnings, and the country is paying a heavy price.’ Facts are always the remedy to an outbreak of Balls. The government releases monthly spending figures, which show an increase overall. That’s due to the rising cost of debt and dole, you might say, but strip those two out and you have what the ONS

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Rupert Murdoch and the revival of the Labour Party

Last year I wrote that the Leveson inquiry would suit Jeremy Hunt rather well. He had appointed Lord Justice Leveson, a judge with little previous experience of media law to sit alongside a remarkably undistinguished panel of assessors. They would inflict more blows on the battered cause of freedom of speech, I thought. But they would steer well clear of the corrupt relationship between Rupert Murdoch and successive governments, which had allowed his hacks to believe that the law of the land did not apply to them. I underestimated Murdoch’s titanic self-pity. The old American definition of an honest politician is that ‘once he’s bought, he stays bought’. The same