Politics

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

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tony McNulty, Benefit Cheat

Exhibit A: From the Daily Mail, November 8th 2008. Man caught in £30,000 benefit fraud: After the case, employment and welfare reform minister Tony McNulty said: “Lying to the DWP to get money you aren’t entitled to is a crime. Expecting to get away with it is criminally stupid. This man thought he could live a life of Riley at the taxpayers’ expense. He was wrong. Our investigators caught up with him and now he’ll face the penalty for his crimes.” Exhibit B: On December 4th 2008 the BBC reveals how councils are using “voice recognition lie detectors” to crack down on benefit fraud: DWP Minister of State Tony McNulty

Wednesday

Martin Bright

New Deal of the Mind at 11 Downing Street

I don’t think it’s quite right for me to keep promoting New Deal of the Mind here on my Spectator blog. That should happen elsewhere and will. But just in case readers are interested, the launch meeting at Number 11 Downing Street was a fascinating affair. Cabinet Ministers Andy Burnham and James Purnell pledged their support as did opposition culture spokesman Ed Vaizey. It’s probably best to let others who were there speak about this so check out Lynne Featherstone’s report of the event. Lynne has been a great supporter of the initiative, designed to harness the innovative potential of the creative industries during the downturn. She made the following key point: “Admiration for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

One pledge that David Cameron can, and should, make on tax

The state of the public finances means that it is going to be very hard—if not impossible—for the Tories, if elected, to cut taxes during their first term. But it is important that the electorate, and the base of the party, still know that the Tories believe in the benefits of low-taxation. One easy and eye-catching way for David Cameron to signal this would be for him to declare that he’ll freeze the salaries and allowances of the Prime Minister, Ministers and MPs until the government can cut taxes overall. This would be a tax pledge that would cost nothing and tap into the public’s discontent with the political class’s

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Harman lays out Labour’s election strategy in PMQs

The B-team were back today. With Gordon Brown abroad on Superman duty it was left to Hague and Harman to slug it out. Harman was as useless as ever, unsteady, inarticulate, hectoring, self-satisfied. Rather than engage with the debate she ducks incoming fire and replies with a prepared weapon. Yet again we heard that the Tories would ‘do nothing’, that they opposed the fiscal stimulus, they fought the VAT cut and so forth. Her killjoy mannerisms suggest a head-girl scolding trouble-makers for  pillow-fighting after lights out. But she looked less obviously uncomfortable at the despatch box today. Hague, by contrast, seemed too relaxed, almost detached. Instead of taking his Lamborghini

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can the Internet turn Dan Hannan’s skewering of Brown into a story?

Dan Hannan’s speech yesterday was magnificent, in three and a half minutes he absolutely eviscerated Gordon Brown. Unsurprisingly, the speech received little attention on the broadcast news—Tory MEP attacks Labour Prime Minister is a dog bites man story. But the speech has already has more than twenty-five thousand views on YouTube, Downing Street’s video of Brown’s address has had only 219 views. If Hannan’s speech was to become an internet sensation, hitting, say, the million views mark, then the media would be likely to cover that as a story in and of itself.  P.S. The Vote Different video has had more than five and a half million views.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Obama and the Blair Succession

There was the pretence that all government spending is “investment” and there was some familiar-sounding talk of “bubble and bust” but most of all Barack Obama’s press conference was designed to send the message that, look, “I’m a pretty straight kind of guy”. As we know, that’s what Tony Blair said once upon a time and as we also know the public, more or less, believed him. So no wonder something in Obama’s demeanour seemed so oddly familiar to British viewers. There are differences – there always are when comparing British and American politics – but Obama has essentially spent recent days imploring the public to ignore the details and

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The beginning of the end?

Is the Government about to go pop? If Britain does go to the IMF it would be because the Government fails to find buyers for its debt. And this morning, for the first time in seven years, this happened. It could be a one-off, it could be for technical reasons as yet undisclosed. But given how dependent Brown is on being able to bum money from the City, a so-called buyers’ strike (ie, when investors say ‘we don’t want your crappy debt’) will be hanging over him like the sword of Damocles. Britain this year will need to raise £180bn according to Ernst & Young, equal to the entire economic

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hemmed in

Gordon Brown is now hemmed in. Both the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England have now indicated that they would rather walk than go along with a full scorched earth policy. The Prime Minister must know that the resignation of either man would destroy him so we can be confident that Brown will not be able to wreak irreparable damage on the public finances before he leaves office. There have been precious few pieces of good economic news recently. But the fact that there is now a check to Brown’s actions is deeply reassuring. P.S. Sadly, there’ll be no chance for Brown to be questioned about King’s

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

An Irish Grand Slam and a Lions Party

It wasn’t a great championship this year, though few in Ireland can be expected to give a damn about that. And while there are plenty of folk who might think that Ireland’s Grand Slam (sixty one years in the waiting) was hardly vintage stuff, that’s often been the case with Grand Slam winning sides. The great England team of the early 1990s didn’t play much champagne rugby while outside observers might say the same thing, and with some reason too, of Scotland’s twin triumphs in 1984 and 1990. Nonetheless, there’s little denying that there was no truly outstanding team in the championship this year. Apart from their performance against France

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

45p is Not the Problem; 40p is the Problem

I think James and Danny Finkelstein are correct. Political considerations trump the need to satisfy the Conservative party’s right-wing. And that means that, regrettably, George Osbourne is probably right not to promise to abolish the new 45% income tax band for the rich. At the very least this should be an aspiration not an immediate priority. But the problem is not so much the 45p band, but the number of people trapped by the existing 40p band. This has been one of gordon Brown’s most successful stealth taxes, drawing more and more middle class voters into his clutches every year. Even this years’ widening of the bands does little to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why the Tory leadership is right not to engage Brown on 45p

I suspect the phrase decontaminating the brand makes most Coffee Housers want to decontaminate their screens. But I do think the Cameron strategist who told Conservative Home that ‘Only when the party has decontaminated itself as the party of the rich will we have the authority to attack the size of the state’ is right. Fairly or unfairly, the Tory party–as the party’s own focus group show–is seen as the party of privilege by many swing voters. Two-thirds of the shadow cabinet are millionaires and to compound this perception problem, both the leader and the shadow chancellor come from moneyed backgrounds. In these circumstances, it would be a huge liability for the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Hungarian Lesson for Gordon Brown

This seems an idea worth copying, doesn’t it? Hungary’s Prime Minister said today he is resigning because of his government’s low popularity amid a worsening financial crisis. Ferenc Gyurcsany, of the ruling Socialists, told the party’s congress that he considered himself a hindrance to further economic and social reforms. Alas, I can’t imagine Brown being quite this, er, bold or noble.

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 23 March 2009

…here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson says that a 45p tax rate is not what’s best for this country, and reveals that that Tories’ current plans would leave national debt 60% higher than it is today. James Forsyth sets out what George Osborne is playing it right on 45p tax, and makes the case for prison reform. Peter Hoskin says that Cameron should avoid dancing to Brown’s tune, and warns about the state of the public finances. Martin Bright asks whether the left is waking from its slumber. Clive Davis looks into what happened in Gaza. Alex Massie reflects on the life

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Tories’ current plans would leave national debt 60% higher than it is today

I had a text a while ago saying “you doing Gordon Brown’s work for him then?” and that was from someone who had not the seen graphic which the News of the World designed to go with my column today. I know many CoffeeHousers will take it as prima facie case of treason, but I’m afraid my sole loyalty is to The Spectator (1828) Party and these things have to be said. Cameron’s original poster claimed a baby born in Britain is saddled with £17,000 of Brown’s debt. Under the plans the Tories are pursuing – ie, raise spending regardless of the tax base – this figure would be £27,000

Martin Bright

Is the Left Waking From Its Slumber?

A rather impassioned piece on unemployment from Polly Toynbee in yesterday’s Guardian made me realise that there are a number of people on the liberal-left in Britain thinking very hard about the implications of the global recession. “Has the horror of it all struck Westminster with full force?,” asks Polly? I think they are beginning to, but the problem is that they are stuck in the politics of the late-1990s census, which had us all triangulating like mad. All the clamour for an apology from the Prime Minister stems from a desire for him to atone for all our sins. It was difficult not to embrace the market when the

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 21 March 2009

Nicko Henderson, who died this week, wrote a famous dispatch when he retired as Ambassador to Paris in March 1979. It summed up how Britain’s precipitous economic decline had undermined her foreign policy, and looked for a solution in being ‘fully and inevitably committed to Europe’. We needed ‘something to stimulate a national sense of purpose’, he said. In the dispatch, Henderson recognised that he had gone ‘beyond the limits of an Ambassador’s normal responsibilities’, but thought it was his duty to do so: ‘The tailored reporting from Berlin in the late ’30s and the encouragement it gave to the policy of appeasement is a study in scarlet for every

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A 45p tax rate is not what’s best for this country

It has taken five months but George Osborne has finally fallen into the trap Gordon Brown set for him when he proposed a new 45p tax on the richest. Without prompting on The Today programme this morning, Osborne said: “If you look at the proposal to increase the top rate of tax for people earning £180,000, a new 45% rate, I’ve said that’s going to be difficult to avoid and I think that is just a statement of the truth.” Difficult to avoid if you have no imagination. It’s not a statement of truth, but a depressing snapshot into the Tory thought process. “If we do x, Gordon Brown will

David Cameron

It is not enough for Labour to lose this election

‘Sit back, keep quiet, let the government unravel and you will be in Number 10.’ If I had a pound for every time these words of advice have been uttered to me over the last year or so, I’d be able to make a sizeable contribution towards easing the pain of Labour’s debt crisis. But the advice — however well meaning — is plain wrong. The election is far from won and I still hold to the belief that governments don’t just lose elections; oppositions must deserve to win them with a positive mandate for change. And there is one central idea which shows clearly that we are not sitting

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Politics | 21 March 2009

Once a week, about half of the Cabinet make the rather pointless journey into an underground bunker in Whitehall to learn just how quickly the British economy is disintegrating. This is all to humour Gordon Brown, who calls them his ‘National Economic Council’ and has them meet in the nuclear-proof room as if they were at war with the recession. After six months of such meetings, it is depressingly clear to all concerned that the recession is winning, and in ways that they never really thought possible. Given that almost everyone in Westminster is trying desperately to read the politics of the recession, those summoned to the Brown bunker have

The Spectator

The cost of learning

A momentous shift occurred in British politics this week: the National Union of Students accepted the principle that graduates should contribute to the cost of their degrees. This U-turn is proof that the argument that graduates should pay for their tuition has at last been won, 11 years after the introduction of fees in 1998. The system that existed before then, though routinely described as a badge on civilisation, was, in practice, deeply immoral. University education was paid for out of general taxation: the poorest in society were subsidising the education of those who would go on to be the richest. With the median male graduate earning £325,000 more in