Politics

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

Thursday

Sebastian Payne

Hodge’s new nemesis: Sir Jeremy Heywood

Margaret Hodge subjected senior civil servants to a fierce ear-boxing this morning. She accused them of trying to avoid the scrutiny of her Public Accounts Committee, and declared the current doctrine of ministerial responsibility unfit for the 21st century: ‘The senior civil service needs to acknowledge that we live in a different world from the world in which ancient conventions could prevail. Everybody wants greater transparency and accountability.’ Hodge also said she ‘has been rattling the cage too much for some’ and detailed some of the resistance she’s encountered. In particular, she highlighted a disagreement with Gus O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary, who berated her for the handling of an

Jonathan Jones

Cameron dines with Obama… and Clooney

The Camerons weren’t the Obamas’ only big-name guests at the State Dinner last night. They were joined by a host of stars including Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and George Clooney, who’s just returned from war-torn Sudan. In their speeches (above), the two leaders had very warm words for each other. Of Cameron, Obama said: ‘In good times and in bad, he’s just the kind of partner that you want at your side. I trust him. He says what he does and he does what he says.’ And the PM returned the compliments: ‘There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority and wisdom.’ Obama

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The significance of Clegg’s PMQs win

Nick Clegg’s assertive performance at PMQs today was a demonstration of the fact that he now feels more confident than he has since his failure in the AV referendum. The deputy Prime Minister doesn’t crouch defensively at the despatch box anymore, and he brushed off some rather good one-liners from Harriet Harman. She joked that the only thing the deputy Prime Minister stands up for these days is the PM entering the room.   Clegg and his team feel that things are looking up for them, that they are setting the agenda. Even the Lib Dem’s lowly poll rating isn’t dampening their mood.   So, what does this change mean

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What’s Happened to Free Speech in Britain?

It’s not just Scotland, however. Speech-restricting madness exists across the United Kingdom. Here’s an extraordinary tale from West Yorkshire where a teenager has been arrested and “charged with a racially aggravated public order offence” for comments published on Facebook. According to Sunny Hundal, these are the remarks in question: These are not sentiments likely to command widespread support or earn Azhar Ahmed much sympathy. Nevertheless, it is hard to see how they really constitute a threat to public order or, for that matter, a threat that’s “racially aggravated”. Stupid or ugly as they may be, they are less revolting than the thought you can be arrested for writing this sort

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Nick rises to Harriet’s limp challenge

Basketball in America. Netball at PMQs. Harriet Harman, Labour’s venerable form-prefect, took her leader’s place today and lobbed a few rubbery missiles at the PM’s under-study, Nick Clegg.  It came down to arithmetic. Even if Hattie had stormed it at PMQs she had no hope of reviving her extinct career. But Clegg has it all to play for. He was ready for it too. Assured, combative and well-briefed, he filled his replies with fresh, punchy rhetoric. (Mind you, his match-fit performance should be credited to his party activists. Clegg must have spent the last 22 months fielding nasty questions from chippy wonks at Lib Dem constituency meetings.)  Hattie tried to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scottish Sectarianism: No Evidence Required for a Conviction

The question to be asked of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communication (Scotland) Act 2012 is whether it is iniquitous, merely pointless or, perhaps paradoxically, both. I vote for both. Here’s why: Two Hibernian fans caught chanting offensive songs on the train back from a cup quarter-final have become the first people convicted under controversial new anti-bigotry laws. […] The pair were travelling home after watching Hibs beat Ayr United on Saturday, to progress to the Scottish Cup semi-finals*, when the incident happened. They had boarded the 6:13pm train from Ayr to Glasgow Central when they were seen by British Transport Police officers chanting and singing songs that

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Song of the South

Consider these three propositions: 1. A Mormon, moderate conservative from Massachusetts won 30% of the vote in Alabama and Mississippi in Republican primaries in which 80% of voters were evangelical Christians. Not bad! 2. The Republican front-runner, armed with a massive advantages in cash, organisation and “establishment” support, was rejected by 70% of conservative voters in two of the most conservative states in the Union. Plainly he is weak, weak, weak. Not good! 3. Mitt Romney is still liable to be the Republican nominee. Each of these propositions benefits from being true. Rick Santorum’s narrow victories in the Deep South are a credit to his dogged stickability and the suspicion

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Bond Bubble’s getting bigger

George Osborne is planning to launch a 100-year bond, says the FT — a sure sign that the Bond Bubble is getting even bigger. These devices are usually used by American universities: the California Institute of Technology issued one at 4.7 per cent, MIT did one at 5.6 per cent, and a few American companies have tried at 6 per cent. The Mexcians sold a billion bucks’ worth of century bonds a while ago at 6.1 per cent, so it would only be a matter of time before HM Treasury — a world leader in, ahem, novel debt vehicles — was going to do the same. The US Treasury Borrowing

Peter Hoskin

Cameron and Obama, sans yellow mustard

Above is what they call the ‘raw video’ of David Cameron’s and Barack Obama’s trip to a basketball game last night. It’s the unrefined version of what Downing St hopes will be refined, packaged and sent to your television screen at hyperspeed: images of the PM and the President dressed casually and chatting away as the game goes on. Like I said yesterday, it’s political theatre — designed to benefit both men. They were then both interviewed at halftime, which you can watch here. This was more about sports than about the political intricacies of the special relationship (Cameron: ‘It’s hard to follow,  sometimes, who’s done exactly what wrong’) —

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron lands in America

David Cameron’s plane has just landed in Washington. The next few days should provide him with a set of images that will portray him as a significant figure on the global stage. The Obama administration is giving Cameron the full works: a huge event on the White House lawn and the kind of banquet that is normally reserved for heads of state. This is an arrangement that benefits both sides. The Obama re-election campaign wants to foster the sense that the President is friends with a Conservative British Prime Minister given that their Republican opponent in the fall will accuse him of being a left-wing radical. I suspect, though, that

Peter Hoskin

Will Obama and Cameron discuss a faster pullout from Afghanistan?

The political theatre of David Cameron’s trip to America will have Downing Street drooling. The PM is, today, not only going to become the first world leader to fly aboard Air Force One with Barack Obama, but then they’re also going to take in a game of basketball together. It’s a carefully calibrated blend of statesmanship and down-to-earth-ship that will suit both men. Obama, because it might appeal, in some way, to conservative voters ahead of this year’s presidential election. Cameron, because, well… does Ed Miliband do this sort of thing? The theatre carries over into print too, with a joint article by Cameron and Obama in today’s Washington Post.

Jonathan Jones

A Lib Dem alternative to Beecroft

When the Beecroft report’s recommendation of ‘Compensated No Fault Dismissal’ was first leaked back in October, Norman Lamb was one of the strongest Lib Dem voices to speak out against it, describing it as ‘madness’. Back then, he was Nick Clegg’s chief of staff. Now, thanks to Chris Huhne’s resignation and Ed Davey’s promotion, he’s in an even better position to prevent this ‘madness’: Employment Minister in the Department for Business. As James has said, the Lib Dem MPs are unanimous in their opposition to Beecroft’s proposals, and until recently it didn’t look like they would be translated into policy at all. But last week, George Osborne threw his weight

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cameron & Obama Play Winston Churchill Bingo

If you thought Winston Churchill wouldn’t be mentioned until the second sentence of today’s “Obama-Cameron” op-ed in the Washington Post then, by gum, you’re a mug. Of course the old boy makes it into the first line. What else would you expect from a puff piece published on DC’s leading propaganda page? But the White House staffer responsible for this piece might still have done better: Seven decades ago, as our forces began to turn the tide of World War II, Prime Minister Winston Churchill traveled to Washington to coordinate our joint efforts. Our victories on the battlefield proved “what can be achieved by British and Americans working together heart

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Shocker! Cameron Snubs Republicans!

Nile Gardiner is always good for a laugh and his latest contribution to the Telegraph is no exception. Apparently David Cameron, visiting the US this week, will rue the day he “snubbed” American conservatives. It is a short-sighted approach with significant long-term risks. David Cameron’s visit to the United States this week is a lost opportunity. In addition to meeting with the President, Cameron should be reaching out to Republican leaders and the American conservative movement. OK. So who should the Prime Minister meet? It is disappointing that the prime minister is not meeting this week with influential conservative officials in Congress such as Speaker of the House of Representatives John Boehner,  House Budget

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s Human Rights quandry

The combination of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights is, I predict, going to give David Cameron an increasing number of headaches in the coming months. As Fraser wrote yesterday, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky’s principled resignation from the coalition’s Commission on the British Bill of Rights has revealed that this body was never really serious about dealing with the problem. The exposure of this Commission as merely a holding device will add to the pressure on the Prime Minister to clarify what he actually intends to do about the problem. The fact that the Cameroon’s favoured think tank, Policy Exchange, have today hired Pinto-Duschinsky shows

Alex Massie Alex Massie

First, Liquidate the Teaching Unions

There are few sights more pitiful, more vexing or more predictable than the sight of teaching unions on the whinge. This time it is the EIS and the other unions representing teachers in Scotland. They are unhappy that the new Curriculum for Excellence – of which, for what little it may be worth I have, albeit anecdotally, heard some encouraging things – is being rushed into service too quickly. It has only been in development since 2004. Just as bad, apparently, the new National exams designed to replace the unfit Standard Grade are coming along too soon. Teachers are confused and unhappy and overworked and all the rest of it.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s sub-prime thinking

You’d think the American sub-prime crisis would have taught politicians the world over not to try to rig the housing market. But no, David Cameron is back on it today — about how to ‘unblock’ the system so the debt geyser starts to gush again. ‘The problem today is that you have lenders who aren’t lending, so builders can’t build and buyers can’t buy,’ says the Prime Minister. ‘It needs the government to step in, and help unblock the market.’ The idea that lenders may not lend because they feel the housing market may fall, and people may be unable to repay, is instantly dismissed. He speaks as if debt

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Say goodbye to the Lib Dems

It’s lasted a lot longer than I had thought, this coalition. I gave it a year, assuming that either the AV referendum would do for it entirely or the Lib Dems would tire of playing grown-ups and revert to type. There is certainly plenty of evidence of the latter. Almost every time Lynne Featherstone opens her mouth you get the waft of a student sit-in at a not very good university. The ‘University’ of Bedfordshire, say. It seemed to me both cruel and ironic that the Lib Dems were elevated to their first position of power in eighty years (save for the war) on the back of the party’s most