Politics

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

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Gearing up for another European drama

Away from the amateur dramatics in parliament this afternoon, the government is fighting yet another battle with the European Commission over banking reform. European leaders will vote later today on proposals to introduce the rubric of Basel III across European financial institutions. Led by EU Finance Commissioner Michel Barnier and ECB Vice-President Jean-Claude Trichet, these proposals would insist that minimal and maximum capital requirements are imposed on banks. The terms dictate that banks hold 7 per cent of their top-class assets in reserve. Britain opposes the scheme, not because the requirements are too steep: the UK’s Banking Commission has suggested that banks hold 10 per cent of their assets in reserve.

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Brooks comes to Cameron’s aid, perhaps unintentionally

Rebekah Brooks’s  appearance before the Culture Media and Sport Committee was largely uneventful. Most of the questions addressed her editorship of the News of the World, a period about which she cannot openly speak at present because of the criminal proceedings brought against her. However, Brooks was very keen to distance herself from David Cameron. Towards the end of the session, Tory MP Philip Davies asked of the stories circulating about her relationship with Cameron. She took the opportunity to deny them and set the record straight. “I have not visited David Cameron at Downing Street since he has become Prime Minister,” she said and then added that she had visited Tony Blair and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The crisis gets closer to the Tories

The news that Neil Wallis was informally advising Andy Coulson without the knowledge of any of the other senior figures in the Tory party is a reminder of just how dysfunctional the Tory party machine was pre-election. It is also an indication of the license that Coulson was afforded. The Tories cannot say if anyone else offered Coulson this kind of ‘informal advice’. The Tories are stressing that they did not pay Wallis or his company. But it is a massive embarrassment for the Tory party that two people who did work for it in its preparations for the election have now been arrested by the police. I expect Cameron

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Kinnock’s Return!

Given how roughly he was treated by the press it’s not a surprise that Neil Kinnock still thirsts for revenge against tormentors. On the other hand, his appearance on the Today programme this morning when he called for the free press to be suppressed or otherwise outlawed demonstrated that, actually, the press was right to monster him all thos eyears ago. Bagehot says all that needs to be said about Kinnock’s ideas which can best be categorised as looopy when they’re not sinister and vice versa. This, however, was a truly remarkable statement: What [the rules] require is balance and I think that is all that anyone would possibly ask

Blair Gibbs

Only police reform can keep politics out of policing

We expect and openly tolerate close, even cosy, relations between politicians and the media – each relies on the other for survival in a society that is less deferential and where politicians find it difficult to be heard, let alone trusted. The police need to tell their side of the story. But the police are not politicians. When senior police officers begin to behave like politicians – and 18 dinners with one media group looks like a politician’s diary – they damage the wider reputation of the service. First, officers who meet with the press are still public servants with a duty of discretion, and yet insight and understanding can

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Blue Labour’s Blood-Red Rivers

Guido – or Harry Cole, actually – asks Where’s the Outrage? about Maurice Glasman’s declaration that all immigration to these fair islands should cease forthwith. Ed Miliband’s advisor or intellectual guru or whatever he’s termed these days believes immigration makes Britain little more than “an outpost of the UN” and we should cease being so generous to beastly foreigners and concentrate on oor ain folk. Of course Harry is right in one respect: if a Tory thinker had come out with this stuff the BBC and Guardian and the Labour machine would have denounced him and called for his defenstration or permanent exile and so on. So, yes, there’s a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tonight’s developments

The untimely death of Sean Hoare is dominating tomorrow’s front pages. But on The Guardian front page there’s also a report on another development in this scandal: Detectives are examining a computer, paperwork and a phone found in a bin near the riverside London home of Rebekah Brooks, the former chief executive of News International. The Guardian has learned that a bag containing the items was found in an underground car park in the Design Centre at the exclusive Chelsea Harbour development on Monday afternoon. The car park, under a shopping centre, is yards from the gated apartment block where Brooks lives with her husband, a former racehorse trainer and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cameron’s Problem is Propriety Not Illegality

Tim Montgomerie suggests that we all at least try and keep the News of the World scandal in some degree of perspective. This is a worthy thought but not one that’s likely to fly very far given the febrile mood at Westminster. Moreover, Tim’s reasons for calling for calm are not, perhaps, quite as persuasive as they might be. For instance, pointing out that all these abuses occurred while Labour was in power is, while true, not terribly relevant. Ed Miliband may have been a member of that government but he wasn’t involved in courting News International. Besides, it’s the Tories who are in power now and, reasonably enough, their

David Blackburn

From the archives – Yates had previous

As Theresa May put it in an impressive statement to the House earlier, “These allegations are not, unfortunately, the only recent example of alleged corruption and nepotism in the police.” She then vowed to open an inquiry into these matters, which will stand in addition to the two already announced by the government. The panel will have plenty to look at, as Michael White explained in the Spectator a few years back. John Yates has previous, by Michael White, 10 March 2007 When I was a young reporter on the London Evening Standard nearly 40 years ago I spent a lot of time in the press room at Scotland Yard,

David Blackburn

Phone hacking tempest forces Cameron to shorten trip again

David Cameron’s long-planned trip to Africa has been foreshortened again. He will now return on Tuesday evening, as opposed to Wednesday morning. This, we are led to believe, is so that he can finalise the terms and membership of the Leveson inquiry ahead of Wednesday’s emergency parliamentary session. The scramble for Africa has become the scramble from Africa.  As this crisis deepens, the forthcoming public inquiries grow ever more important for the Prime Minister. Lord Justice Leveson will examine the alleged misdoings between members of the police and the media; Leveson will not convene until the conclusion of the criminal investigation. Cameron is also preparing another inquiry to investigate media regulation, now that the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Where are Cameron’s praetorians?

One of the striking things about the wall to wall hackgate coverage on the 24 hours news channels is the absence of Tory voices defending the Prime Minister. It is coming to something when the leader of another political party, Nick Clegg, is doing more to defend the PM than most of the Tory members of the Cabinet. One minister told me earlier that Number 10 was having trouble getting people to go on TV to bat for the PM. While many Tories are wondering where their party chairman is, in these circumstances you would expect her to be touring the TV studios. Cameron’s political spokeswoman Gabby Bertin is doing

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Yates goes as Boris stands by

Yates of the Yard has gone as the phone hacking scandal claims yet another scalp. Yates walked after being told he would be suspended. Yates’ departure was necessary given the appalling mistake of hiring Neil Wallis, a former editor at the News of the World, while the Met was investigating — or supposed to be investigating — phone hacking at the paper. There will, though, be particular pleasure in Blairite circles at Yates’ departure. They remain furious with Yates for his behaviour and tactics during the cash for honours investigation. The talk is of appointing a new Met Commissioner by the autumn. But given that Bernard Hogan-Howe was a finalist

David Blackburn

Yates quits

John Yates has offered his resignation, which appears to have been accepted. There are reports that he will make a full statement later this afternoon. More to follow as we get it.

David Blackburn

Cameron joins the scramble for Africa

As James has said, David Cameron is in South Africa for the start of a two day trip to Africa to promote free trade and foster trade links. He projects his vision in an article for South African Business Day: ‘In the past, there were marches in the west to drop the debt. There were concerts to increase aid. And it was right that the world responded. But they have never once had a march or a concert to call for what will in the long term save far more lives and do far more good — an African free trade area. The key to Africa’s progress is not just

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tory Defence Meltdown

How many Tory MPs came into parliament  – even this parliament – thinking they’d be asked to support a Tory-led plan to cut the army by 20%? How many Tory voters think this is where the public spending axe should fall? Precious few, I reckon. And yet, remarkably, this is what Liam Fox is planning. As I’ve noted before Fox is hoist upon his own petard having rashly promised 25% savings without (of course!) there being any impact on “frontline troops”. Now there will be rather fewer frontline troops and Liam Fox appears to have been kippered by the Treasury. Boosting the Reserve capability is a worthy goal, for sure,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How Cameron can regain some initiative

The phone hacking scandal has now been leading the news for a fortnight straight. When a story has been on the front pages for this long, it develops its own momentum. If we were on day two of the story, I very much doubt that Sir Paul Stephenson would have resigned as quickly as he did or if David Cameron would have agreed so readily to extending the parliamentary session. Cameron is now out of the country, allowing Ed Miliband to stay on the front foot. The danger for Cameron is that Miliband constantly appears to be half a step ahead of the PM. Miliband’s line that Cameron is ‘hamstrung’

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 18 July 2011

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. James Forsyth says that the phone hacking spotlight is turning onto the police, reacts to Sir Paul Stephenson’s resignation, and notes how much ammunition Stephenson has given Labour. David Blackburn watches European financial institutions attack the EU’s latest answer to the Eurozone crisis, considers Andrew Mitchell’s long-term goals in giving aid to Somalia, and points out that Ed Miliband’s new moral order is tough on the press but lax on the police. Alex Massie responds to the arrest of Rebekah Brooks. The Arts Blog reviews the new biography of Ed Miliband. And the Books Blog has collected a

David Blackburn

Quizzical eyes turn on Yates

The phone hacking saga is now moving at such pace it threatens to engulf the political establishment (whether it is a sufficiently serious story to do so is another matter). After Sir Paul Stephenson’s theatrical resignation, timed to upset newspaper deadlines and plotted to embarrass the Prime Minister, attention has now turned to John Yates. Boris Johnson has said that Yates has ‘questions to answer’; and Brian Paddick argues that Yates should fall on his sword too. The Metropolitan Police Standards Committee meets this morning, and, as Laura Kuenssberg notes, it may discuss John Yates’ conduct. Yates’ defence (that he was overseeing 20 terror cases at the same time as