Politics

It is a red letter day for welfare reform. James Purnell’s Green Paper, leaked today, is a clear, honest and robust approach to the scandal of Britain’s 5.1m on benefits. I say in my political column in this week’s magazine that it is so close to Chris Grayling’s report (mainly because David Freud essentially wrote both parties’ policies) that the Tories should accept it and wish Purnell well. This is precisely what Chris Grayling has done today, praising Purnell’s bravery and pledging to support him. This is a breakthrough.   Bipartisan agreement is the condition for welfare reform. As I say in the column, this was true in Wisconsin in

The Scorched Earth policy has begun. The FT has a hugely significant story – that the Treasury is “working privately on plans to reform Gordon Brown’s fiscal rules” which would “initially allow for increased borrowing”. In the vernacular, Brown has realised that if the Tories win the next election the he is now spending with Cameron’s Gold Card – every by-election bribe, every union sellout will be funded by borrowing with the bill sent to D. Cameron Esq. Cameron will have to tax us to pay for what Brown is today spending. The Treasury is claiming that it was always going to “review” its 40% limit after the current economic

Has Glasgow East influenced the postponed 2p increase in fuel duty, as David Cameron implied today? I doubt it, for a depressing reason. The place is so poor that most households in that constituency – 59% to be precise – simply don’t have access to a car (let alone own one). For the record, here are the car ownership figures for some of the estates in Glasgow East (from the 2001 census). In Parkhead North, 77.2% have no car. In Easterhouse it’s 71%. In Banlanark, 71%. In Bridgeton, 64%.  I can understand why, in Westminster, they may have a vision of the motorists of Glasgow East punching the air in

I watched PMQs from the vantage point of Simon Mayo’s Radio Five studio today, with John Pienaar. We both scribble furiously during the PMQs – John has to select clips and present a narrative instantly. Now Cable has gone, only Cameron provides the jokes. And he was on especially good form today. John spotted that Cameron used the word “useless” three times. This must have been deliberate. I can easily imagine Andy Coulson in a meeting saying Brown’s main claim to fame is being dull-but-competent. Strip out competent, and you’re not left with much. “The Prime Minister has a nerve to accuse me of inconsistency,” said Cameron. “I said he

Today is one of those days when I had a Tom Harris moment and realise the perils of blogging. I checked PoliticsHome (as I do pretty much ever hour) to see that I was referring to “Cameron’s ‘disastrous’ left-wing business plan.” Hardly a wicked distortion of what I wrote – but not what I meant either. For the record, I don’t considerer Cameron’s entire business plan to be intrinsically left wing. I was referring only to the introduction of a Chapter 11-style insolvency law to Britain, which I oppose. I also believe that in proposing it Cameron is positioning himself to the left of Labour. I consider this to be

Let’s quickly unpack today’s horrendous inflation figures. According to the Consumer Price Index, food inflation is now a staggering 10.6 percent year-on-year. I had previously predicted double-digit food price inflation by Christmas. But this double-digit rise in the price of food is concealed in today’s headline inflation figures of 3.8 percent CPI and 4.6 percent Retail Price Index – which factor in a 7.5% dip in clothing. In Cabinet today, Brown was expounding on his narrative that this is a global problem. But one of the biggest factors behind this is sterling’s loss of value – 13 percent against a trade-weighted index – which is of the same magnitude as

Some of the most left-wing things David Cameron says involve his plans for business. Take his plan, announced this morning, for a “Chapter 11” for British industry. Even Labour’s most influential voices in business like Gerald Frankel failed to have it adopted by Gordon Brown and Tony Blair. Why? Because it’s a potentially disastrous idea which throws a lifeline to badly-managed companies, and can be used by the least scrupulous to launder their balance sheet and re-enter the market with prices that well-run rivals simply can’t compete with. This December 2003 article in Harvard Business Review shows how Chapter 11 is abused by companies – like WorldCom – who use