Politics

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

Sunday

Hamish Macdonell

Local hero fears complacency as Labour disintegrates

The SNP have this morning been put a whopping 13 points above Labour in the Scottish Parliament race: on 45 percent and 46 percent of the vote in two separate polls. Given that they went into this election campaign somewhere around 35 percent, this represents a huge leap giving them a near-impregnable lead in the Holyrood race. And that’s what’s worrying them in SNP headquarters. Salmond’s strategists, packed into a third-floor office suite behind the Scottish Parliament fear that – in the words of one senior Nationalist – “we have gone too early”. That Labour may now plausibly play the underdog card, and SNP votes may be inclined to stay

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The coalition is shaken to its foundations as the Liberal Democrats rage at Cameron, Osborne and the Conservative party

The Liberal Democrats are mad as hell at their coalition partners—and don’t seem to care who knows it. Their fury has been caused by what they see as the roughhouse tactics of the No campaign and the Tories’ complicity in them. Chris Huhne’s letter to George Osborne has been written to make clear just how betrayed the Liberal Democrats’ feel by the actions of their coalition partners. Huhne writes, “I explicitly warned you that the manner of the AV campaign would be as important as the result, in terms of the effect on the coalition.” Then, he moves onto a particular Lib Dem bugbear—the claim that AV would cost £250

Saturday

The Spectator

Leader: No alternative

‘It’s not the voting that’s democracy,’ says Dotty in Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers, ‘It’s the counting.’ Dotty is right, of course. ‘It’s not the voting that’s democracy,’ says Dotty in Tom Stoppard’s play Jumpers, ‘It’s the counting.’ Dotty is right, of course. Counting may be boring, but it is crucial. Nick Clegg knows this well. If on 5 May Britain decides to count votes the AV way, it will be a triumph for his party. According to a recent academic analysis, the alternative vote would give the Lib Dems 43 more MPs — almost doubling the number they have now. But it would be a victory not just for Lib

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg bites back

Judging from the front page of tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday, the coalition’s relationship troubles are escalating. The paper’s front page blares, “Clegg rages against Cameron ‘lies’”. Even accounting for the license headline writers takes, this shows just how fraught things are inside the coalition at the moment. The Liberal Democrats feel that the Tories have let the No campaign go too far in its’ attack on Clegg and so feel they are no longer bound to be respectful about their coalition partners. Vince Cable’s message in today’s Guardian sums up the sense of many Lib Dems that they’d rather be in coalition with Labour than the Tories. There is a

David Blackburn

Dave doesn’t agree with Nick and he’s “very relaxed” about it

A row over internships has upset this unfeasibly perfect spring day. The Prime Minister has given an interview to the Telegraph in which he contradicts Nick Clegg’s view that internships should be open to more than “the Old Boys”. He says: “I’ve got my neighbour coming in for an internship. In the modern world, of course you’re always going to have internships and interns — people who come and help in your office who come through all sorts of contacts, friendly, political, whatever. I do that and I’ll go on doing that. I feel very relaxed about it.” There is a split, but I suspect it’s a calculated one. Tim Montgomerie

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics: This referendum will destroy a party leader. But which one?

The next general election may seem a long way away. The next general election may seem a long way away. But for all three parties, the run-up to the local elections this month offers a chance to test their campaign strategies for 2015. The Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are using this period to remind voters of their achievements in office and reassure supporters that they remain distinct parties. But it is Labour that has by far the simplest and most effective message for 5 May: if you don’t like what the coalition is doing, vote for us. After 13 years in government, Labour is relishing opposition. MPs who once

Interconnect

The Spectator’s over-80 power list

It is hard to think of a time when the over-80s have held such sway over British public life. Shirley Williams has the government at her mercy as she decides what to do about its NHS reform bill. If many are unaware that P.D. James is woman, then even fewer will know (or care) how old she is. This is a list of people who are still filling theatres, selling books and inspiring millions in their ninth (and, in some cases, tenth) decade. Their artistic, political or scientific brilliance has only been cast into sharper relief by the passage of time. This far-from-comprehensive list of Britain’s great octogenarians (with a

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Brown reinforces his presence on the world stage

I’m sorry to do this to you, CoffeeHousers, at the start of a bank holiday weekend — but I thought you might have a morbid sort of interest in Gordon Brown’s latest role. Turns out that, as expected, our former PM is to join the World Economic Forum in an advisory capacity. He won’t be paid for his work, although the Forum will cover his staffing costs. One of his spokespeople has told ITV’s Alex Forrest that his task is to “stop the next financial crisis.” Which is to say, he’ll be saving the world. Again. If nothing else, it’s yet another demonstration of Brown’s peculiar resilience. Our former PM

Peter Hoskin

Miliband’s pre-election surgery

Miliband-o-rama on this Good Friday, with the Labour leader spread all across the papers. The Mirror reports that he is to have an operation to have his adenoids removed this summer, in a rather extreme bid to “improve his voice”. The Guardian says that he’s to deliver a speech next week — presumably with adenoids still intact — that will engage with the “Blue Labour” thinking of Maurice Glasman. And, if that’s not enough, there’s a curious interview with Miliband in the Sun. I say “curious,” because there aren’t too many interviews where a party leader goes through the (less than flattering) nicknames that have been bestowed upon him —

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Cameron and Clegg pay tribute to their elders

As you’ve no doubt deduced from the cover image on the left-hand side of this page, the latest Spectator is out today — and it’s a soaraway double issue for Easter. By way of peddling it to CoffeeHousers (buy it here, etc.), I thought I’d mention one article among many. It’s a celebratory list of some of the country’s “most inspiring and influential over-80s,” and it includes tributes to them from some rather notable under-80-year-olds. So we have Matt Ridley on David Attenborough, Alex Salmond on Sean Connery, Ian Rankin on P.D James, and plenty more besides. Anyway, there are two entries that CoffeeHousers might care to see in particular,

David Blackburn

Much ado about Brussels, bailouts and budgets

The news that the European Union has decreed that its Budget be increased by 4.9 percent in 2012 ties a knot in the stomach, as I ponder an Easter weekend spent in Margate rather than Majorca due to austerity. As Tim Montgomerie notes, the government is taking this opportunity to assert its euroscepticism. Stern communiqués are being worded; stark warnings are being issued. Behind the scenes, the government has joined with the Dutch, its closest ally on the Continent, to confront the avaricious Commission. Patrick Wintour reports that the French will also oppose the proposed Budget, and the Austrians, Danes, Swedes, Finns and Belgians are expected to lend their weight

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A question of leadership

This morning’s speech on AV by Nick Clegg has prompted another round of Lib-Lab backbiting over whom is to blame for the troubles of the Yes campaign. In its leader column today, The Times (£) joins in on the Lib-Dem side, criticising Miliband for not having done more for AV. It even suggests that he’d be prepared to vote down a Yes vote in the Commons, something he specifically rules out in his interview with the paper today (£).   Unlike Clegg, Miliband can be relaxed about the result of the AV referendum. If AV is defeated, few in the Labour party will mind and the blame won’t attach to

Peter Hoskin

Clegg reaffirms the coalition’s wedding vows

It’s a funny thing, reading the speech on AV that Nick Clegg delivered to the IPPR this morning. It starts off as you might expect: putting some distance between his party and the Tories. Everything is Liberal-this and Liberal-that, while “conservatives” are cited as the opponents of change and choice. But then, from nowhere, comes one of the most brutal attacks on Labour that Clegg has delivered in some time. “For every £8 we are cutting they would cut £7,” he quivers. “To deny that reality is to treat the British people like fools.” The New Statesman’s George Eaton has sifted through the numbers here, but the main point is

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

A late conversion

Lord Carlile has attacked unelected Strasbourg judges for making too narrow an interpretation of the European Convention on Human Rights and thus coming into conflict with the British parliament. His main area of concern has been the way in which the Euro judges prevent us from chucking out illegal asylum seekers, foreign criminals and potential terrorists. His comments come in a pamphlet produced by the ever excellent think tank Civitas. That’s Lord Carlile, then. Or Alex Carlile, as he was once more crudely known, the Liberal and then Liberal Democrat MP for Montgomeryshire from 1983 to 1997. Has any British party been more fervent in its insistence that British law

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ed Miliband will hire tails for the Royal Wedding

If you’re fed up with stories about what politicians will wear to the Royal nuptials, look away now — for I can confirm that Ed Miliband will wear a morning suit on the 29th of April. Miliband takes the view that a Royal Wedding is no time for gesture politics.   A Labour spokesman told me this morning that, “This wedding should be all about William and Kate. This is their big day. It is now clear that the appropriate thing is to wear a morning suit and that is what Ed will do.”   But Miliband doesn’t actually own a morning suit. He will now be heading down to

Sam Bowman

The profit motive would boost Gove’s Free Schools agenda

The promise of Michael Gove’s Free Schools programme — as distinct from his Academies programme — is slow to materialise. What seemed like the government’s most radical and important reform has stalled as expected take-up has fallen far short of expectations. 350,000 new school places are required to meet increasing demand by 2015 — to address this, the Conservatives had set their sights on setting up 3,000 new Free Schools in nine years. But, so far, there have been just 323 applications, with only a handful due to open in September 2011, and the DfE capital budget is set to fall by 60 per cent to £3.4 billion by 2014-15.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The AV Game is Lost

I despair. Or, if it makes any of us happier, I give up. When even a chap as intelligent as my friend Daniel Korski completely misunderstands everything about the Alternative Vote I can only conclude that the game’s a bogey. It’s done and First Past the Post will be with us for at least another generation. That’s fine. Elections have consequences and all that. Nor is AV especially brilliant. Then again, nor is FPTP or any other system. They each have their strengths and weaknesses. I take a fairly disinterested view of it all. The Yes campaign, however, has been utterly inept. All that need be said in favour of

Wednesday

Jonathan Jones

Obama’s budget: faster, but not further, than Osborne’s

Barack Obama’s budget plan has become a political debating point on this side of the Atlantic. Ed Balls set the ball a-rolling in an article for the Guardian this morning, which effectively claimed that the President isn’t planning to cut the deficit as quickly as George Osborne is. “The truth is that it is Osborne himself who is isolated,” is how he pugnaciously put it. But the Tories’ Matthew Hancock has since responded — on Coffee House, as it happens — arguing that, actually, the Obama Plan is simpatico with what Osborne is doing. By way of hovering above the red-on-blue scrap, we thought we’d put together a comparison of

Daniel Korski

The systematised madness of AV

This morning on BBC Breakfast Nick Clegg made his key argument for AV: it will make politicians work harder for the vote, he said. The point is that politicians will have to court the votes not only of their natural supporters, but reach out to people who would not traditionally back them. This, however, is an argument for a poorer kind of politics. It will force politicians not to take principled positions but try to triangulate, Blair-style, in order to get as many different kind of factions to vote for them. What should I give the Lib Dem voters? How can I get the BNP voter’s second, or even third,

Peter Hoskin

Ed Miliband by numbers, April edition

It’s just a single poll, sure — but Ipsos MORI’s latest is still fairly eye-catching stuff. And this is why: it has the Tories level with Labour for the first time since October. Anthony Wells serves up a pinch of salt over at UK Polling Report, saying that this “unusual” result is most likely down to the weightings that are used. But, technicalities aside, any poll that puts the Tories close to Labour, at this stage in the political cycle, is going to be greeted cheerily by Cameron & Co. – and less so by Team Miliband. It’s not all bad news for Ed Miliband, though. His personal ratings have