Politics

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

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

What phase of the coalition are we in now?

It was not so long ago — the run-up to last May’s AV referendum, to be exact — that we heard the coalition would be entering a new phase. Gone was the happy synthesis of the Tories and Lib Dems that prevailed after the election, and in its place would be a government that spoke more openly, more angrily about its differences. But even if Phase 2.0 had the appearance of being more fractious, it was actually designed to keep the parties together. The idea was that, by highlighting the essential differences between the two sides, their supporters could more easily be kept on board with the overall project. I

Saturday

The Spectator

Global Britain

David Cameron did not expect to spend Christmas being toasted as a conquering hero. The Prime Minister fully intended to sign a new EU Treaty that night in Brussels, subject to a modest condition that the City of London would be exempt from even further regulation. But the French refused him so much as a fig leaf, and Nicolas Sarkozy went off to cast Britain as the villain of the summit. Had talks started at 7 a.m., rather than 7 p.m., they might have ended more amiably. But much of history is decided by frayed tempers in negotiating rooms. It could scarcely have ended better for the Prime Minister. He

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 17 December 2011

A Spectator footnote on David Cameron’s adventure in Brussels last week. In 1990, Nick Ridley gave a famous, prescient, ill-tempered interview to the paper in which he condemned the single currency as a ‘German racket’. He had to resign, and Mrs Thatcher’s fall was not long in coming. Last week, Ridley’s nephew, the Northern Ireland Secretary Owen Paterson, gave an interview to The Spectator in which he said that, since the eurozone seemed to be trying to form a new country, we should wrest the right to rule our own country back. Mr Paterson was not forced to resign, and Mr Cameron vetoed the proposed centralising treaty. Things have really

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

Cameron’s missing the point: Christian values require Christianity

The Prime Minister does God. At least, that’s the gist of his first major speech on religion. Actually, the interesting thing is that a Tory Prime Minister feels that he has to make the point that he is a Christian. Other than Michael Howard, who was Jewish, most other Tory leaders could have assumed we’d take it as read that he or she was more or less CofE, including Mrs Thatcher, who was, of course, a Methodist.  Following Richard Dawkins’ remark that the Prime Minister may ‘not really’ be a Christian, Mr Cameron responded: ‘I am a committed – but I have to say vaguely practising – Church of England

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Another sign of coalition splits over Europe

Coalition tensions over Europe are again threatening to be the story this morning. Nick Clegg has told The Guardian’s Patrick Wintour that Britain has ‘signalled we are happy for them [the Eurozone plus group of countries] to use EU institutions’ to enforce any new treaty they agree between themselves. This is a striking claim given that David Cameron has not publicly said that he would accept this. If the Deputy Prime Minister’s summary of the coalition position is accurate, then Cameron will face criticism from eurosceptics that he is backsliding on his veto. But for all Clegg’s criticism of Cameron handling off the summit, he remains unconvinced by the plans

Quentin Letts

What I really, really want

Dear Father Christmas, please fill my stocking with the following goodies:   A referendum on Britain’s future in Europe… Or, a Linguaphone course to brush up my German. A new shadow chancellor. The old one doesn’t really work any more. A straitjacket to stop George Alagiah waving his arms around so much when he is presenting the BBC News. During the Jubilee celebrations, a minute’s standing ovation, nationwide, for the Duke of Edinburgh. A protest march through Islington by striking taxpayers. An announcement from David Cameron that he is scrapping the Ministerial and Other Pensions and Salaries Act 1991, which granted pay-offs to Cabinet ministers. (The Act was also responsible

Paul Johnson

Season’s greetings

My recollections of Christmas Past are dominated by the fabrication of the family card. It was one of my father’s principles that Christmas was a family event and that any cards sent out should be created within the family. It was quite wrong to buy one. Happily he was an artist of the old-fashioned sort, skilled at all the various methods of reproduction — etching and drypoint, engraving, photogravure, lithography and various abstruse methods of printmaking. Indeed he taught them at his art school. Lithography was his favourite because it had a softness and fidelity to nature and avoided the harsh line of the other reproductive processes. We sent out

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics: Cameron is at his best when he is boldest

David Cameron must sometimes wonder if the gods are against his modernising project. Events have forced him back on to the traditional Tory territory of Europe and the economy. This is not how the Cameroons expected it to be in the early days of his leadership. Then he defined himself not by his position on spending cuts or the repatriation of powers but by his urging the country to ‘Vote Blue, Go Green’ while wearing a pair of recycled trainers. He was a different kind of Tory talking about a whole new set of issues. In May 2007, Oliver Letwin, the modernisers’ intellectual godfather, gave a speech setting out the

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 16 December 2011

Here is a selection of posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Kelvin MacKenzie asks if the Guardian will apologise to Rupert Murdoch. Fraser Nelson looks at where the Europe debate left us, and says Cameron’s having trouble articulating the government’s growth strategy because there isn’t one. James Forstyth thinks Cameron pummelled Miliband in PMQs, and reports on Cameron’s cautionary words to an applauding 1922 Committee. Peter Hoskin takes a look at Labour’s latest attempt to reach out to Lib Dems, says Miliband’s position is foggy and nebulous, and reveals Nick Clegg’s Chistmas recipe. Jonathan Jones calls Mitt Romney’s $10,000 bet a big mistake, and takes a detailed look at the

Peter Hoskin

Miliband is trapped in his own foggy argument

With one well-timed jab in PMQs, David Cameron turned much of this week’s political debate – in domestic terms, at least – into a debate about Ed Miliband’s leadership. And how is Miliband responding? Predictably, for the most part. His celebratory speech in Feltham and Heston this morning reduced down to the claim that the result ‘offers a verdict on the Government’s failed economic plan’. And his interview in today’s FT covers much of the same territory. But the FT interview is also revealing in one particular regard: it demonstrates, once again, how Miliband is caught in a strange, undefinable strategy somewhere between attack and defence. This was, if you

Jonathan Jones

Clegg tries to rebuild EU bridges

What are the Lib Dems up to? On Tuesday, Clegg, Cable, Alexander, Huhne and Laws met with ‘Business for New Europe’, a group of pro-European business leaders, in what the FT describes as as ‘a very public display of engagement with business over Europe’ and the front page of today’s Mail calls ‘plotting to rally business chiefs against Cameron over Europe’. It is, of course, not surprising to see senior Liberal Democrats talking to pro-EU business people and advocating more engagement with Europe. But it does highlight what will be a key goal of the Lib Dem leadership over the next few months: building bridges with Europe, particularly to reconnect

Peter Hoskin

A victory for Labour, but not necessarily for Ed Miliband

‘This result… is a victory for Labour that shows the progress we are making under Ed Miliband’s leadership; a vote of confidence in the way that Labour is changing…’ Or, rather, it isn’t. Whatever Labour’s winning candidate in Feltham and Heston, Seema Malhotra, says, this byelection result was little more than an unsurprising Labour victory in a Labour area. The opinion polls, as we know, show more comprehensively what people think of the ‘progress’ that Labour is making under Ed Miliband’s leadership. And it’s far from a vote of confidence. Which isn’t to say that Malhotra underperformed in her byelection victory, last night. Not at all. Labour actually increased their

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The veto arguments rumble on

The Times has a very interesting story (£) today on page 17. It claims that David Cameron had agreed to inform Nick Clegg if it appeared that Britain was going to be isolated at last week’s European Council. The significance of this is that it suggests that the Lib Dems believed they would be consulted before the government vetoed anything. This news emerges after senior Liberal Democrats have privately questioned why their leader did not insist that Cameron only use the veto once he had Clegg’s explicit agreement. The Times also reports that this negotiating protocol did not envisage a situation where Britain was left in a minority of only

Peter Hoskin

Nick Clegg’s Christmas recipe

Our Christmas issue is so packed that, sadly, there wasn’t enough space to include everything that was originally commissioned. Among the ejectees was a series of Christmas recipes and tips from politicians, writers and friends of The Spectator. In which case, we thought we’d put them up online, where the real estate, just like the goodwill, is endless. You can read Nick Clegg’s recipe for Patridge ‘Estofada’ below. And there is — and will be — more on our Facebook page today, including Ed Miliband’s recipe for roast lamb… Partridge ‘Estofada’
 This isn’t what we’ll be eating on Christmas Day but we’ll certainly have it in the run-up, when we

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s warning to his applauding backbenchers

David Cameron was greeted with a full-on, desk banging reception at the 1922 Committee. The applause only stopped when the chief whip told the assembled backbenchers to sit down. The Prime Minister’s message was that the next year is going to be even tougher than the 1979-81 period. He argued that the government needed to be even bolder to show that it wasn’t just a technocratic government but one motivated by a desire to help families who do the right thing, but sadly no MP pressed him on how that fitted with the coalition decision to increase out of work benefits by more than 5 per cent. One other interesting

Peter Hoskin

Miliband’s poll nightmare returns

There has, as we all know, always been a fug of doubt about Ed Miliband’s leadership. Even when Labour have been winning by-elections (as they’re expected to in Feltham and Heston tomorrow), even when even when they have fluttered ten points above the Tories, the question has always been there: would they be better off without him? After all, in terms of poll numbers, the party has generally exceeded the man. But today that question is wrapped in flashing, coloured lights, with a star on top. It’s not just how David Cameron filleted Miliband in PMQs earlier, but more Labour’s position in the latest opinion polls. As others have pointed

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Miliband crumples to a new low in PMQs

Inept, useless, incompetent, maladroit, hopeless, clumsy, crap. With thesaurus-rifling regularity Ed Miliband comes to PMQs and delivers a performance which is inept, useless, incompetent, maladroit, hopeless, clumsy and crap. The only virtue the Labour leader has is consistency. He’s consistently worse than last week. In theory he should have scored some damage today. Unemployment is soaring. Growth seems grounded. Cabinet ‘partners’ scuffle in public whenever they get the chance, and Nick Clegg changes his mind as often as he changes his socks. And Miliband’s tactics had some merit too. By disinterring the PM’s New Year Statement from January 2011 he was able to open up the Coalition’s wounds and have

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron pummels Miliband in PMQs

Today, was yet another reminder that David Cameron knows just where to hit Ed Miliband to make it hurt. After a few questions on the economy, Miliband moved to Europe — the coalition’s greatest vulnerability. Miliband joked that it was ‘good to see the deputy Prime Minister back in his place’, before mocking the coalition’s divisions over Europe. Cameron began his reply by saying it was no surprise Tories and Lib Dems don’t agree on Europe before saying that the split on the issue could be exaggerated: ‘it’s not like we’re brothers or anything,’ Cameron said in his most mocking tone. At this line you could see the Labour benches

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg in the spotlight

All eyes at PMQs will be on a man who isn’t speaking, Nick Clegg. His refusal to attend the Prime Minister’s statement on the European Council means that today he will be the centre of attention. Labour will attempt to embarrass him as much as possible, trying to highlight both the divisions in the coalition and the impotence of the deputy PM. For its part, the press will read an awful lot into his body language every time Cameron mentions the E or V words.   The worry for the coalition is that this split over Europe is just going to keep repeating. There are going to be many more