Politics

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

Saturday

John Laughland

A right mess

Observing French politics in the run-up to next spring’s presidential elections is like watching one of those slow-motion films of controlled car crashes in which a dummy and its vehicle are rammed into a wall. Nicolas Sarkozy is the dummy, who will make one last ungainly gesticulation as he lurches into catastrophe, and the coalition of liberals, centrists, free-marketeers, pro-Americans and careerists that carried him to power in 2007 is splintering as the laws of political aerodynamics wrench it apart. Two words explain this outcome: Le Pen. In 2002, the now governing party, the UMP, was created between the two rounds of the presidential election to support Jacques Chirac against

Rachel Ward

Where there’s a will …

Why haven’t ladies challenged male primogeniture? When the Labour MP Keith Vaz introduced a private member’s bill in January ‘to remove any distinction between the sexes in determining the succession to the Crown’, he mentioned that, although not one of those in line for the throne, he did need to declare an interest. Vaz is a fervent monarchist who believes that in order to save itself, the monarchy must change; that it must fall in line with modern Britain’s values on gender or die. You wonder why, in the face of a thousand and one more pressing social issues, anyone would want to bugger with the Act of Settlement, which

James Delingpole James Delingpole

Blogging’s not a job – it’s an expensive addiction

It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this. It’s about two years since my old friend Damian Thompson approached me with a couple of yellowish rocks and a pipe and said: ‘Have a puff on this. I think it might really suit you.’ No, of course not. What Damian actually introduced me to was something far more addictive, expensive, energy-sapping and injurious to health than crack cocaine. He asked me to join his elite team of bloggers at the Daily Telegraph. And now I’m having to go cold turkey and

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The government should recall parliament

Today’s declaration (£) by Barack Obama, David Cameron and Nicolas Sarkozy that Nato’s operation in Libya will continue until Gaddafi leaves power marks a shift in their rhetoric and makes explicit that regime change is the war aim. This has led to calls to recall parliament, most notably from David Davis on the World at One, to debate this change. Parliament merely voted to enforce the UN resolution which was not a mandate for regime change. The government would be well advised to heed these requests. It would be the best way of maintaining the necessary political support for the mission. Now that regime change is the explicit war aim,

David Blackburn

Charting Labour’s future

The Labour Party is still ambling in the wilderness – sure of its destination, but uncertain of the route. Its response to last year’s general election defeat has been silence, publicly at least. In the privacy of debating chambers however, the party is charting its potential renewal. These circles murmur that ‘the state has reached its limits’; or, in other words, that Fabianism, the dominant force in the post-war Labour movement, has been tested to destruction. Philip Collins touches on this in his must-read column for the Times today (£): ‘Since the general election defeat, the only intellectual life in the party has come from blue Labour, an intriguing set

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The coalition can’t go on together with suspicious minds

Vince Cable’s attack on the PM’s speech today is just the latest elbow to be thrown in what has been a fractious few weeks for the coalition. The immediate cause of these rows has been the need for the Lib Dems to assert their distinctiveness before the May elections and tensions over the AV referendum. The Lib Dems, who feel that their leader is being ‘swiftboated’ by the Tory-funded No campaign, have been increasingly assertive in the last month or so. But there are dangers to this strategy. For one thing, it has eroded trust within the coalition. Ministers are now not being frank with each other because they don’t

David Blackburn

Pickles’ many enemies

Eric Pickles was on Newsnight last night, in what looked suspiciously like an attempted ambush. Pickles repelled boarders, illustrating why he is one of the government’s star performers. He was clear, answered questions directly and has total mastery of his brief. However, the clip gives a sense of the manifold political forces arraigned against Pickles: from Neolithic obscurantists to crazed localists to wary conservatives. The Communities Secretary needs all of his renowned pugilism to overcome these very diverse foes, but some of his supporters in town halls doubt he can last the course, such is the weight of opposition. Anyway, Pickles arrives on the scene at 8:40, after Iain Watson’s

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s other speech

There is no rest for the Prime Minster. After delivering his speech on immigration in Romsey this morning, there was another to deliver, 62 miles away in Woking, this afternoon. This second CamSpeech of the day was billed as a scene-setter for the local elections — and so it proved. Rather than dwelling on a single policy area, the main purpose was to rattle through 101 reasons to vote Tory on 5 May. If there is anything to be taken from the text, it is just how upfront and unapologetic it is. There is little room for nuance, but plenty of room for sweeping, and forceful attacks, on Labour. This

David Blackburn

Cameron can make common cause to solve Europe’s immigration concerns

Vince, it seems, is Vince. But Britain is not alone in struggling to arrest immigration. A mass of displaced North Africans is descending on Malta and Italy. The United Nations estimate that more than 20,000 people have already landed this year and many more expected. Neither Malta nor Italy can cope alone. On Monday, Malta called for the EU to invoke a 2001 directive that grants migrants temporary protection in cases of ‘mass influx’. Italy also petitioned Brussels to spread the physical burden. The EU did not acquiesce in either case, which especially outraged the Italian government: both Berlusconi and immigration minister Maroni said that the European Union stands and

Peter Hoskin

Brown to the IMF? Not with CoffeeHousers’ blessings…

What to do when you’ve already saved the world? Save it all over again, judging by Gordon Brown’s latest reported manoeuvrings. Today’s Mail claims that our former PM is “clear favourite” to be succeed Dominique Strauss-Kahn as head of the International Monetary Fund. Although, as the paper says, it’s likely that the Coalition would operate against any such appointment. To remind the suits what they might be imposing on themselves, I thought I’d return to this post that we put up on Monday. It asked CoffeeHousers what Brown’s biggest mistake in government was. And we received more than enough responses to vote on a Top Ten, as below. We’ll keep

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Pickles takes it to the Lib Dems

Vince Cable’s remarkable criticisms of David Cameron’s speech on immigration are dominating the news. But in the papers today there’s a development in another intra-coalition dispute, Eric Pickles hitting back at all the Lib Dem talk of higher property taxes. The Telegraph reports on figures released by Eric Pickles’ department which show that prosperous areas pay far more in council tax than they receive back in services. His point is that the council tax burden already falls disproportionately on the well off and so layering another band on top or doing a revaluation that would push houses into higher band would be unfair. Pickles’ reading of the politics of this

Peter Hoskin

Cable lashes out at Cameron

I wrote earlier that the immigration debate can bite back — and it’s already done just that. Speaking this morning, Vince Cable has labeled the Prime Minister’s speech as “very unwise,” and at risk of “inflaming extremism.” That, lest it need saying, is the same Vince Cable who’s a member of Cameron’s government. In theoretical terms, what this clarifies is the parameters of the Coalition Agreement. While almost every policy that Cameron highlights in his speech is part of that document, it seems that the Lib Dems don’t have to agree with the way he sells them. The point is being made, this morning, that the idea of reducing net

Peter Hoskin

Nothing new, but much to ponder, in Cameron’s immigration speech

There is, really, little that is new in David Cameron’s speech on immigration today. Besides one or two grace notes, almost all of its policy suggestions appeared in the Coalition Agreement: you know, all the stuff about a cap on immigration and a Border Police Force. Its rhetoric is strikingly similar to Cameron’s last big speech on immigration in October 2007. So if he’s not saying anything particularly groundbreaking, what is he saying? With the local elections only three weeks away — and on the back of the Lib Dems’ newfound assertiveness — it’s hard not to see this as an outreach exercise. This is one for core Tory voters,

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron needs to tread with care

David Cameron’s Oxford gaffe is refusing to die down. Whenever I’ve called Tory MPs or other members of the Conservative family in the last few days, it has been the first subject they have wanted to raise. People are genuinely perplexed — and worried — as to why Cameron said what he said. As Pete pointed out earlier, Bruce Anderson — the commentator who is David Cameron’s longest standing media supporter — warns that the Prime Minister is fuelling fears of government encouraged discrimination against the middle classes. Another long standing Cameroon loyalist said to me earlier, that he now worried that Cameron just felt too guilty about his own

Peter Hoskin

The Tories’ middle-class problem?

Back in July 2003, Bruce Anderson wrote a piece on David Cameron for The Spectator. Its tone was summed up by its headline — “My hero” — and that tone has suffused through much of Bruce’s writing about the Tory leader since. Which is why his piece for the FT today is striking by virtue of its differentness. Its headline is that, “Cameron is losing touch with core Tories.” Its argument is that the Tory party is ignoring the hopes, fears and aspirations of the white middle classes. Admittedly, Bruce doesn’t put all this down to Cameron. On his account, there are demographic factors at play — not least that

David Blackburn

Two defining coalition reforms clash

The big society is crossing swords with the localism agenda in Brent, north London. You may recall the Friends of Kensal Rise Library, a voluntary group that was being frustrated by Labour-led Brent Council. They are one of six community organisations in the borough who are unsuccessfully resisting the council’s decision to close 6 libraries. The council is adamant that the campaigners cannot succeed unless they raise sufficient funds independent of the council; the council leader, Labour’s Ann John, told the Kilburn Times: ‘If they can come up with a plan at no cost to the council then we will listen.’ So far the various campaign groups have not found

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lansley and Cameron in the firing line

The coalition’s decision to ‘pause’ its NHS reforms has left an open goal for its opponents, and they’ve been busy tapping the ball into this empty net this morning. At its conference up in Liverpool, the Royal College of Nursing has, predictably but embarrassingly, declared that it has no confidence in the health secretary. Back in London, Ed Miliband has been making hay while the sun shines attacking both the bill and the pause. His refrain at his press conference this morning was ‘the answer to a bad bill is not to slow it down but to junk it.’ Miliband’s performance this morning was striking for him speaking at a

Peter Hoskin

Osborne enters the fray

Seems that the Tories can be more assertive too. After remaining more or less silent on the matter since the coalition was formed, George Osborne has today given his take on the AV referendum to the Daily Mail — and he’s far from kind towards the Yes campaign. “What really stinks,” says the Chancellor, “is actually one of the ways the Yes campaign is funded.” What he has in mind are the campaign’s ties to an organisation that sells vote counting services, as revealed by Ed Howker in The Spectator. “I think there are some very, very serious questions that have to be answered.” But, rather than just attacking the

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s War on Literacy

Don’t take my word for it just ask Iain Gray, Labour’s leader at the Scottish Parliament. This is from a leaflet sent to voters in Edinburgh by Labour: Aye, well, there you go. Ye ken noo. Depressingly, Scottish schools now exist as a kind of control group against which we may measure the success of the English school reforms instigated by Lord Adonis and continued by Michael Gove. I hope the English win. Meanwhile, in other depressing election-leaflet news, I’ve yet to receive anything from the Jacobite Party who stood (manfully) and fell (equally manfully) in these parts last year. Surely they can’t have given it up as a Lost

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Another fight looms for Cameron over votes for prisoners

Prisoner voting is back on the agenda. The European Court of Human Rights has rejected the British government’s appeal and declared that the coalition has six months to draw up proposals to change the law.   David Cameron now has to decide whether to ignore the Strasbourg Court or go against the will of his MPs, who voted overwhelmingly to oppose giving prisoners the vote in response to the court’s initial decision. In many ways, ignoring the court is the safer option. Tory MPs aren’t inclined to back down on this issue and if Cameron tried to make them he would create a lot of ill-will and take an awful