Politics

I have been pretty hard on Cameron and Osborne during the financial crisis for three reasons: their failure to shoot down Brown’s fake narrative, the sheer size of the open goal in front of them, but most of all because of their ability. Both can do far better than this, neither suffer from the politicians’ greatest weakness – being wedded to past mistakes. Some CoffeeHousers ask why I have such faith. The reason lies in Cameron and Osborne’s accomplishments so far: 1) Radical welfare reform, with an agenda so solid that Labour has copied rather than fought it. And in Chris Grayling they have found an energetic Shadow Minister who

It has become fashionable to blame Sarah Palin for John McCain’s election defeat. Sure, say Washington insiders, Palin invigorated the conservative base — add contemptuous sneer — but she alienated the independents and undecideds. The God-fearing mother-governor of Alaska was not fit for high office. Her television performances were an international embarrassment. In choosing Palin as his vice-presidential candidate, McCain proved that he was over-impulsive, cynical, foolhardy. All true to an extent. It should be recognised, however, that Senator Joseph Biden, the man who will now be sworn in as vice-president in January, is just as disastrous a public figure as Sarah Palin. In fact, he might be worse. At

Honey, they shrunk the candidate. It has been a sadness to watch John McCain, a towering figure in US politics, diminished by the campaign trail and by the errors he has made along the way. The nominee who stands before America today is a very different creature to the prospective candidate I interviewed for The Spectator in 2006. McCain’s whole mission then – and one which made him identify with David Cameron – was to stretch a hand out to non-Republican voters, to ditch the Bush-Rove strategy of wooing the “base” above all else. Lest we forget:  McCain was one of the first politicians of the Right to engage sensibly

Estimated number of households in negative equity, 2003-10 If you’re a homeowner, turn away now. CoffeeHousers may remember recent reports of 1.2 million houses at risk of negative equity  – well, that may just be the start of a negative equity tsunami. This Citi graph, the latest in our occasional series, shows what would happen if prices do fall 30% as is widely expected. The left-hand scale is million, not per cent. It presumes 0.5m in negative equity now, rising above 3m – or one in four British households. As Michael Saunders from Citi says in his note: “These calculations are uncertain. But the key point is that, with house

Now that even Nigel Lawson says tax cuts are not the right way to go, why am I calling for them in my column? Lord Lawson did not issue a fatwa on all tax cuts, but warned against “massive tax cuts.” He is wary of so-called Keynesian fiscal activism – borrowing massively, to cut taxes. As am I. You can argue it’s better than Keynsian spending, but both still do more harm than good. I am arguing that the new era of deficits (I don’t expect we’ll see a balanced British budget for five years) need not lead the Tories to abandon tax cuts. They need a new argument for

Alistair Darling has not set out a new fiscal framework in his much-delayed Mais lecture – but he has read the last rites over the so-called the financial rules. “To apply the fiscal rules in a rigid manner today would be perverse,” he says. Not to say impossible: the rules set a 40% limit on net debt and it was 43.4% last month. Instead there is assurance that “people should be in no doubt that Government will take the decisions necessary, to ensure sustainability in the medium term.” George Osborne – back in action, and with a major speech planned on Friday – has released other Brown quotes which pledge