Politics Archives

Tuesday

23 Mar 2010

A philanthropic future

There is barely a cigarette paper between Ben Bradshaw’s and Jeremy Hunt’s approaches to arts funding: it will almost certainly be cut. The Tories intend to plug the shortfall with National Lottery cash and Ben Bradshaw will fight to preserve his ‘miniscule’ budget but can give no guarantees. The arts are integral to Britain. Their importance extends beyond the cultural sphere. The Treasury receives £5 for every £1 that it invests in the arts. And it isn’t only a competitive tax regime that attracts business to these shores; Deutsche Bank relocated to London specifically because it’s an almost unrivalled cultural and artistic hub. This and the coming crunch has inspired

Peter Hoskin

The Tories want you to help unpick the Budget

One of the best things about this Brave New Web World is how it helps you to draw upon the talents, knowledge and expertise of people around the world. We certainly had that in mind when we asked CoffeeHousers to help us track down the tricks and deceptions in last year’s Budget – and now the Conservatives are thinking along similar lines. Earlier today, David Cameron said that the Tories would “crowd-source” their Budget response tomorrow. Jeremy Hunt has since provided more details here. This kind of thing ties in neatly with the Tories’ powerful transparency agenda. But the real test is whether they would continue this approach in government

Peter Hoskin

Two things to bear in mind tomorrow

If, as expected, Alistair Darling reduces his borrowing forecasts tomorrow, it’s worth keeping two particular points in mind: 1) This government has always tended to underestimate its borrowing levels. Ok, so you might argue that the government couldn’t have foreseen that public sector net borrowing would rise to £178 billion in 2009/10 when it predicted £38 billion in Budget 2008. A recession has bitten, banks have collapsed, since then – that kind of thing. But Brown & Co. certainly have a track record when it comes to underestimating borrowing totals. In Budget 1999, they thought that borrowing would be at £3 billion in 2002-03 – it turned out to be

Daniel Korski

Sarkozy, le comeback kid?

David Cameron may be talking about a new relationship with France, but let’s hope the Conservatives do better than Nicolas Sarkozy’s UMP, which suffered a heavy defeat in local and regional elections, with a Socialist-led opposition alliance taking an estimated 52 percent of the vote. This is bad. At least three of President Sarkozy’s enemies have now made a comeback: the French left, the far-right Front National and Dominique de Villepin, who appears to have been buoyed by UMP’s defeat and a new poll that showed the French preferred de Villepin to Sarkozy as UMP leader. It will be interesting to see how Sarkozy copes. Until now, he has not

James Forsyth

Cameron denounces Labour’s “lies”

David Cameron’s press conference this morning was ticking along rather uneventfully until James Landale asked Cameron a question that set the Tory leader off on one about, what he called, “Labour’s complete and utter lies.” Cameron had started off by talking about how pleased he was that we going to be a father again, letting slip that he and Samantha had been trying for another baby for a while, and with some remarks on the lobbying scandal and the Budget. There had been questions on Ashcroft and cuts but nothing had really got going. Then, James asked Cameron about a Lib Dem plan to scrap the winter fuel allowance for

Peter Hoskin

John Butterfill won’t get a peerage…

…confirms David Cameron, at his monthly press conference. If you didn’t catch last night’s Dispatches, Butterfill is the Tory MP who said, among other things, that it is “quite likely that I will go to the Lords,” and that this is “another string to my bow as far as you’re concerned”. More on him from Paul Waugh here.

Peter Hoskin

The Budget is a bigger opportunity for the Tories than for Labour

Last night’s Dispatches programme was a concentrated double blow for Labour. Not only did the limelight burn more unflatteringly on their party, but it has also undermined their careful Budget operation. For the next few days, at least, it’s possible that broken politics may trump the broken economy in the public mind. And Alistair Darling is going to have a difficult, if not impossible, task in bridging that chasm of “distrust and disbelief” with his prescriptions tomorrow. It doesn’t help the Chancellor’s cause that, by most accounts, we’re going to get an unconvincing and unspectacular Budget – some spin about lower borrowing forecasts; none of the tax rises that Peter

Monday

22 Mar 2010

Martin Bright

Cab for Hire: Dispatches and the Moral Collapse of the Political Class

I am still reeling from Antony Barnett’s Dispatches investigation into MPs and lobbying. Truly brilliant TV. Horribly watchable. Exquisitely awful. I watched half of it from behind my hands. This was Curb Your Enthusiasm meets the Office: political Dr Who for grown-ups. Why is it always the Blairites who get themselves into these messes? Is it simply because they bought the New Labour compact with the market more fully than the rest of the party? Or is that they waded so far into unfamiliar territory that they lost their moral compass? None of this completely explains what is going on here. There was something rather sad about watching Stephen Byers wade

Peter Hoskin

Byers, Hewitt and Hoon suspended from the Labour party…

…according to the Beeb just now. And if you watched tonight’s Dispatches programme, you’ll know exactly why. Nick Robinson comments that the “Labour leadership” will delight in “taking revenge” on three figures who have ruffled Brown’s feathers on multiple occasions – so it continues to look like backbiting and politicking will take priority over geniune reform. A grubby Parliament just got considerably grubbier.

James Forsyth

Another shaming day for Westminster

There was something particularly depressing about Harriet Harman’s statement to the House today on this lobbying scandal. The MPs involved have damned themselves more effectively than anybody else could and so the anger of the Commons lacked bite. Though, it was noticeable that the personal attacks on those involved tended to come from their own side not the opposition benches; proof that for many this is another episode in the long running battle for the soul of the Labour party. David Heath, the Lib Dem shadow leader of the House, made probably the best speech. He wanted to know why the House was always reacting to these problems rather than

Alex Massie

Obamacare = Romneycare = Mitt’s the Biggest Loser?

Jon Chait loves a good fight so I’m not surprised he’s in I Told You So mood today. I kinda, sorta, less confidently, told you so too even after Massachusetts when the prospect for HCR were pretty bleak and Fred Barnes was saying it was dead, dead, dead. Well, we all get things wrong and sometimes perhaps we get a little lucky. The chap with the most to lose from last night’s vote – in terms of politics and 2012 if nothing else – is our old chum Mitt Romney. No wonder Romney released this statement: America has just witnessed an unconscionable abuse of power. President Obama has betrayed his

David Blackburn

Both Labour and the Tories need to get stuck into Vince

The public remains infatuated with Vince Cable. A Politics Home poll reveals that 31 percent want Cable to be chancellor. It’s a crushing endorsement: Don’t Know is his nearest rival on 24 percent, followed by Ken Clarke on 16 percent. Cable’s reputation rests on his sagacious airs and an apparent contempt for party politics. His eminence is baffling. Fleet-footed fox-trotter he may be; economic guru he is not. Andrew Neil’s interview shattered Cable’s invincibility. The Sage of Twickenham admitted to changing his mind over the HBOS Lloyds merger and his constantly shifting position on cuts was exposed. Add to that the ill-thought out Mansions Tax and Cable begins to look

Daniel Korski

Yanukovych – Ukraine’s Nixon?

It is easy to paint Ukraine’s new leader, Viktor Yanukovych, as a pantomime monster, Russian stooge and businessman’s puppet. Last month I suggested his electoral victory over namesake Victor Yushchenko may not be as bad as people think. Now Andrew Wilson, Britain’s foremost Ukraine expert, argues the same. In a briefing paper, he notes that elections in Ukraine open up new opportunities for the EU: ‘Paradoxically, Yanukovych’s quest for good relations with Russia could also make it easier for EU member states to reach a consensus about how to deal with Ukraine. Too often in the past, the EU has been unable to develop a coherent policy on Ukraine because

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 22 March 2010

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson introduces a new tax, and says that the internet has made deception transparent. James Forsyth believes Obama’s healthcare bill comes at a cost, and welcomes Cameron’s theory of change. Peter Hoskin laments yet another dirty politics story, and evaluates the new cuts versus investment dividing line. David Blackburn says voters deserve better, and warns the Tories against pushing an alternative to Ashcroft. Martin Bright reviews Tony Judt’s manifesto for the left. Alex Massie finds an eye-raising passage in the Pope’s letter to the Irish church. And Melanie Phillips notes the emasculation of America.

Peter Hoskin

Memo to the Tories: stop talking about being authentic, and just do it

Paul Goodman wrote a thought-provoking article for ConHome last week, in which he suggested that “authenticity vs artificiality” will be one of the key battles of the forthcoming election. Not only do voters crave authenticity after years of spin, deception and malice on the part of politicians, wrote Goodman. But, also, this election is specifically wired to expose inauthentic behaviour. Blogs, YouTube, mobile phone cameras, poster spoofs – all will work to undermine the cold and the stage-managed methods of elections past. Which is why the Tories are getting all excited about David Cameron’s more or less spotaneous performance in Lewisham last week. It’s proof, they say, that all those

Sunday

21 Mar 2010

Fraser Nelson

Introducing the Nelson tax

In the News of the World today, I propose a new tax on the rich: specifically, on ex-ministers who go on to earn a crust advising companies how to avoid the regulations with which they have saddled the British economy. I proposed this before the news broke about Byers and Hewitt etc, but their appalling story makes it all the more pertinent. The Nelson tax should be above the top rate, and imposed on any activity such as giving speeches to the Chinese, lobbying, consultancy, etc. – anything which trades from contacts or reputation built up while serving the taxpayer. It would not be levied on activities which the ex-minister

David Blackburn

The Tory donor who’ll take a sword to the ‘morons’

Buried deep in the Sunday Times is the Tories’ answer to the problem that is Lord Ashcroft. James Tyler is a fund manager who has donated £250,000 to the Tory party since 2007. He is that rare creature: a multi-millionaire who is both resident and domiciled in merry old England. Tyler’s chief attraction for the Tories is his virulent opposition to what he terms ‘the morons’ – City Boys taking excessive risk and Gordon Brown’s culpability in the financial collapse. It was his subject in a speech to the Adam Smith Institute last year and he remains consumed by it. The Sunday Times reports: ‘His chief bête noire is the

Peter Hoskin

Osborne steps up his game

George Osborne must have changed breakfast cereals, or something, because he’s suddenly a different man. After the Tories muddied their economic message to the point of abstraction a few weeks ago, there’s now a new clarity and directness about the shadow chancellor’s languange. Exhibit A was his article in the FT last week. And Exhibit B comes in the form of his article for the Sunday Telegraph today. It sets out five deceptions that we can expect from the Budget this week, and are all punchy and persuasive in equal measures. But it’s the first which, as I said on Friday, is the most important: “The Chancellor might be so

Peter Hoskin

Dirty money and dirtier politics

Busted. Yep, that’s the word which first sprung to mind when I read the Sunday Times’s expose of MPs and their dirty lobbying work. Hoon, Hewitt, Byers – they’re all revealed as providing influence and access for cash, and a lot of cash at that. But it’s Byers who comes out of it the worst. You can read his story here, but suffice to say that it involves boasts about successfully lobbying ministers to change policy, and about parading Tony Blair in front of his clients. He even describes himself as “a bit like a sort of cab for hire”. I imagine he’ll pick up fewer fares now. Our democracy

Alex Massie

Is Edinburgh University Scotland’s latest disgrace?

Imagine if Durham University were to decide that for courses heavily over-subscribed with qualified applicants it would reserve a small percentage of places for would-be students hailing from within 50 miles* of the university. Would anyone raise an eyebrow? I doubt it. Yet when Edinburgh University adopts precisely this approach – for some of the humanities and, I suspect, medicine – suddenly there are hysterical cries of “racism” and “xenophobia”. Tom Harris MP** [see update] says this is “shameful” and goes so far as to label the university “an embarrassment to Scotland”. What piffle. It’s not the university that is obsessing about politics or the border here, it’s the likes