Politics Archives

Wednesday

16 Jun 2010

A Wee Bit of Culture

Never let it be said that politicians will cling to even the meanest post until the torch and pitchfork brigade come calling. Labour MSP Frank McAveety has stood down from his position as the convenor of the Scottish Parliament’s Public Petitions Committee. And why? Because, during a committee meeting he was heard to say: “There’s a very attractive girl in the second row, dark . . . and dusky. We’ll maybe put a wee word out for her.” Mr McAveety went on: “She’s very attractive looking, nice, very nice, very slim,” before adding: “The heat’s getting to me.” The MSP also said: “She looks kinda . . . she’s got

David Blackburn

The waltz never got going

I was expecting drama when the Labour leadership circus called at Newsnight yesterday. Alas, the show whimpered and wheezed to a halt. A contest to determine the party’s future continues to gaze into the past. Assessing failure is essential to renewal, but the candidates are yet to offer anything substantively new. Ed Balls and David Miliband shared one telling exchange. Balls has presented himself as the traditional candidate, and he would have you believe he speaks the language of Mrs Duffy. Gordon Brown’s hideous solecism in Rochdale revealed that he and his government were out of touch on issues such as housing and immigration. David Miliband is the centrist

Lloyd Evans

Hark! A human at the dispatch box

After years of fury and rancour in the chamber, the mood at PMQs was sober and rational today. (Personally, I hope it hots up again soon but the armistice certainly made a change). Under no pressure whatever, Cameron roamed at will over the full spectrum of government policy and gave intruiging hints about future priorities. Tory backbencher Philip Davies urged him to cancel the subscriptions of 4000 convicts signed up for Sky TV. The PM didn’t seem bothered by this. They may not get the vote but they’ll carry on getting Adam Boulton. Cameron is more concerned by the 40 percent of prisoners who celebrate the end of their sentence

Rod Liddle

The case for criminal proceedings

There is something weak and craven in the statements from the half- apologists for the Bloody Sunday killings. In the assertion from Sir Michael Rose that it was British soldiers who brought peace in Northern Ireland, not Tony Blair. In the right wing press showing photographs of British soldiers serving in Afghanistan and insisting look, these are good people and we ought to remember that. In the statements from my old mate Patrick Mercer MP who says that the Saville Inquiry will only make things worse in Ulster. These are pretty cheap and specious arguments, non-sequiturs. The obvious truth, much though it might hurt, is that the army, on that

David Blackburn

PMQs Live blog | 16 June 2010

Stay tuned for coverage from 12:00 12:03: Cameron pays tribute to the 3 soldiers killed in Afghanistan this week. 12:04: Tory backbencher Phillip Davies opens proceedings by calling for prisoners to be denied access to Sky TV. Cameron’s response is true blue: too many prisoners, too many of them in Britain illegally and not enough money. 12:05: Harman rises, talking on unemployment, which has risen this morning. It’s effectively cuts now versus cuts later. Cameron regrets the situation (to much noise from the opposition) and pledges that back to work initiatives will be enacted in next week’s budget. 12:08: Harman re-iterates her point. Cameron responds by saying that Labour hasn’t

Tuesday

15 Jun 2010

David Blackburn

The Labour leadership contest waltzes onto Newsnight

With ill-repressed horror, James Macintyre reports that the remnants of New Labour fear that Diane Abbott might win the Labour leadership, courtesy of the preferential vote. Mildly amusing I suppose. If Ed Balls would be a catastrophe of Footian proportions as leader what would Abbott be? There are no historical parallels. I can’t see this latter day Rosa Luxemburg enticing Labour members. But if she does, then David Miliband, that auteur of absurdity, is to blame. Abbott’s weapon is communication. Unlike her four opponents, she doesn’t sound like an under-manager at Furniture Village. She is accessible, particularly on television – and the hopefuls will be up before Paxman tonight.

James Forsyth

Cameron is dignified in trying circumstances

As David says, the conclusions of the Saville Inquiry make for grim reading. One person with close links to the services who served in Northern Ireland just told me, ‘it is far worse than we expected.’ In the House, David Cameron’s statement on it was heard in subdued silence. It would be remiss not to say that David Cameron dealt with this situation as well as anyone could. There was no equivalent to Jonathan Powell’s disgraceful statement that ‘the war against Irish terrorism was not our war’. He pointed out the context of the event and the fact that it was very much the exception rather than the rule of

James Forsyth

McGuiness, culpability and atonement

I wish that every time Martin McGuinness offered commentary on the Saville Inquiry, it was pointed out that he admitted to the inquiry that he was the IRA’s second in command in Derry. We should never forget that the IRA has more to apologise and atone for than any other group that played a role in the Troubles. The idea that the RUC or the British military and the IRA are all equally guilty is the worst kind of simplistic moral relativism. McGuinness is now deputy first minister of Northern Ireland and drawing a handsome salary as part of the peace process. If he expects his—far more morally dubious—past to

Monday

14 Jun 2010

Martin Bright

Study Leave

I will be taking a sabbatical from the Spectator over the summer in order to think about the future of the Left and the historical connections between Britain and the Islamic world. I will return for party conferences. Thank you for all your challenging comments.

Fraser Nelson

Osborne’s headache

The below chart sums up the extraordinary announcement from the Office for Budget Responsibility. George Osborne did his best to maintain the “things are worse than we thought” line but the reverse is true. Unemployment, inflation, the deficit – everything is better than not only the Treasury forecast but better than the market had been preparing for. (And Citibank, which compiled the graph, thinks things will get better still – because the economy will keep surprising in the upside). I have a piece in the Daily Telegraph saying that this will be deeply irritating for Osborne. His plan was conceptually fine: that he’d create an external agency, which would demolish

James Forsyth

Trimble frozen out of government

The announcement that Lord Trimble will join the Israeli review into the flotilla incident is a reminder that he has no role in the current government. Trimble takes the Tory whip and given that the party is not overly supplied with Nobel Prize winners, it is a bit of a surprise that no role has been found for him. In opposition, the word was always that relations between him and the new leadership of the Ulster Unionists, the Tories’ electoral allies in Northern Ireland, were not great. But the UUP leader has resigned since the election. Now, it may well be that Trimble himself is the obstacle. Even his admirers

David Blackburn

Naughty Nokes

Life has imitated art – or Jilly Cooper in this case. The former chief executive of the National Pony Club, Caroline Nokes MP, 37, has been having a three year affair with a Tory toy boy, Councillor James Dinsdale, 27. Theirs was an affair of hotel-room assignations and steamy conference meetings – Bournemouth has little else to commend it. They were outed by the Sunday Mirror. Mrs Nokes, a married mother of one, was photographed entering the Kensington Close Hotel last Monday night. Minutes later, Mr Dinsdale arrived, casually dressed in a blue hoodie. Taking a ‘Hug a Hoodie’ to extremes, Mrs Nokes checked out at 8:30 the following morning.

David Blackburn

Defence matters

Sir Jock Stirrup’s early departure was one of the worst kept secrets in Westminster. But the ‘resignation’ could have been better handled. The coalition has created a lame duck in Stirrup. And, rightly, Con Coughlin asks why Stirrup is overseeing the strategic defence review if he was sufficiently inept as CDS? It makes no sense, as removing Stirrup and Sir Bill Jeffrey (the MoD’s permanent secretary) is clearly about preparing the way for spending cuts and a new model of UK military intervention. Liam Fox gave a speech this morning promising a ‘clean break with the Cold War mindset’. He emphasised the importance of maintaining counter-insurgency spending and training; presumably,

David Blackburn

The debate opens as Darling is vindicated and condemned

As Fraser observed at the weekend, Alistair Darling has a point: it is not as bad as was feared. The new Office for Budget Responsibility agrees, reducing estimated public borrowing to £155bn 2010/11. Still, it’s hardly a picnic is it? And I wonder what response Darling will get if he presses Cameron and Osborne for an apology. His growth forecasts have been downgraded to 2.6 percent and the structural deficit is greater than he admitted to – Paul Mason reckons it’s about £5bn more than was forecast. Osborne’s hands are tied by these figures; his calculations will be based on them. There is, of course, the possibility that the OBR’s

David Blackburn

Waiting on the OBR

The Office for Budget Responsibility is expected to downgrade the previous government’s growth forecasts. Alistair Darling’s rosy prediction that the economy would grow by 3-3.5 percent in 2011 will be replaced by a conservative estimate of 2-2.5 percent, in line with other independent forecasters. Also, according to the Guardian, the OBR will ‘trim’ the Treasury’s breezy estimates of growth until 2014-15. There is no guarantee that the OBR’s forecast will be flawless – and the Treasury Select Committee’s scrutiny will have to be exhaustive. But George Osborne is bound to the OBR’s figures, rather than the Treasury being bound to a political agenda. Balance and responsibility will be restored

Sunday

13 Jun 2010

James Forsyth

Hughes pushes Lib Dems into the mix on tuition fees

The first Sunday of the World Cup is predictably quiet on the political front. But Simon Hughes’ comments this morning about tuition fees are worth noting. Hughes said “So to me the big task is to make sure the moment that Lord Browne publishes his report in the Autumn the Liberal Democrat case is entered into the mix. That we talk to Vince Cable, who’s the minster and my very good friend and colleague, and David Willetts, and we make sure the government understands that there may well be ways of finding the money universities need, and they need it, without penalising students from disadvantaged background. I think that circle

David Blackburn

Unfortunate misattribution

The Sunday Mirror contains a warning about the ‘mad axeman George Osborne’. It is terrifying read – a grim vision of future economic misery, a Dickensian catalogue of poverty, worklessness and social breakdown. The Mirror has attributed the piece to Danny Blanchflower, the legendary centre half and captain of Tottenham Hotspur’s 1961 double winning team who died in 1993. As I write, Professor David Blanchflower is tearing down the wing for Hamilton Academicals.

David Blackburn

Tories on the rise in latest poll

Sweet news for David Cameron in today’s Sunday Times YouGov poll, which you can read here: the Tories have broken the 40 percent barrier for the first time since the first leaders’ debate. As the senior partners, the coalition was always going to suit the Conservatives more than the Liberal Democrats. Sure enough, the Liberal Democrats have fallen away by 3 points on last month’s figures to 18 percent – their worst performance since the first TV debate and the beginning of Cleggmania. Those who voted yellow against blue won’t be doing so again. As the indispensible Anthony Wells notes, Clegg’s personal ratings remain in honeymoon territory, and I wonder

Saturday

12 Jun 2010

Fraser Nelson

Darling has a point

I had expected Alistair Darling to have slumped off to spend more time with his memoirs after the election, but here he is, fists aloft, fighting the government. About the only member of the Labour front bench effectively doing so. He has a point. The economy is looking better than expected, not worse – as David Cameron has been pretending. Each new forecast for the deficit seems to give a less ghastly picture. British house prices are on the rebound. And when the Office of Budget Responsibility announces its forecasts on Monday, it is likely to give a better picture than that in Darling’s budget. Already Darling is telling the

David Blackburn

Should Cameron mention McKinnon?

Lord Tebbit poses the question on his latest blog, pointing out that Nick Clegg campaigned against Gary McKinnon’s extradition, and urged the government ‘to do the right thing’. Well, now he can and it would be a popular decision in the current circumstances. The US-UK extradition treaty should be unacceptable to any government that considers itself sovereign, but this is no time for bluster and confrontation. Barack Obama has leapt about with shrill adolescent abandon; it would be hypocritical for Cameron to return fire in kind. Despite what Obama protests, BP is not solely liable (Halliburton and TransOcean have a case to answer). And Obama’s naked political desperation and