Politics

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

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Speaker tossed aside

Trevor Kavanagh’s column in The Sun today has a little story in it which shows how tense relations are between John Bercow and some MPs. ‘Thin-skinned new Commons Speaker John Bercow is a “tosser”. Not my choice of words, although it fairly describes a man who is fast becoming even more embarrassing than disgraced predecessor Michael Martin. The offensive term was used last week in an angry spat with Mr Bercow by an MP who has since apologised in writing-at Mr Bercow’s insistence. The MP is now absolved. Speaker Bercow remains a “tosser”.’ Now, I’ve no idea of the rights and wrongs of this argument and calling someone a tosser

Peter Hoskin

Brown puts on his gloomy face for the world stage

How peculiar.  After all the economic optimism coming out of government recently, all the talk of recovery by the end of the year, Brown’s going to warn that the worst of the recession may be yet to come in his meetings with G8 leaders this week.  The Times has the full story here, but this snippet from the Dear Leader’s address in France today gives you the idea: “If we do not take the necessary action now to strengthen the world economy and put in place the conditions for sustainable world growth, we will be confronted with avoidable unemployment for years to come.” So does this mean he’s losing faith

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Pure Balls | 5 July 2009

According to the Sunday Times, poor old Shaun Woodward is getting the blame for inspiring Brown’s mendacious “Labour investment v Tory cuts” line. As if. This is the work of Ed Balls, and his trademark belief that the public can be easily fooled on such issues because their eyes glaze over when you mention statistics. A quick chronology: when the 10 percent figure came out in my Daily Telegraph piece it was Ed Balls who seized on it (his wife did so earlier that day with the Standard) and used it in a letter to Michael Gove demanding where those 10 percent cuts would be made. He used my figure as

Peter Hoskin

More blows against Brown’s spending narrative

It’s public spending time again, dear CoffeeHousers, with a couple of eye-catching articles in  today’s papers.  The first is a comment piece by Steve Bundred, chief exec of the Audit Commission, on the necessity for extensive spending cuts.  If you recall, Bundred claimed a few days ago that health and education shouldn’t be ring-fenced from cuts, and here he repeats the point, adding a snappy conclusion: “So don’t believe the shroud wavers who tell you grannies will die and children starve if spending is cut. They won’t. Cuts are inevitable, and perfectly manageable. We should insist on a frank and intelligent debate about how and where they will fall, which

Peter Hoskin

Osborne’s crazy admission

Tim Montgomerie flags up this passage from Andrew Rawsley’s column today: “Mr Osborne raised some eyebrows at a recent private meeting in the City when he was heard to remark that ‘40% of my time is spent on economics’ – meaning that most of his hours are spent on campaigns and tactics. Mr Osborne seemed to think that 40% was an impressively large amount of his time to find to spend on economics; some of his audience thought it was a worryingly low proportion for the man who expects to be chancellor in less than a year’s time.” Of course, it’s no secret that Osborne has other responsibilities within his

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 4 July 2009

Except for the great William Rees-Mogg, no commentator seems to have noticed that Gordon Brown’s Bill to ‘clean up politics’ is about to remove the liberty of Parliament. ‘Res ipsa loquitur’ is the old legal tag: ‘the thing itself speaks’. Under the new Bill, the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA) is created. When IPSA speaks, its word will be law. It will tell Parliament what its allowances will be and MPs will not be allowed to vote this down. As David Heathcoat-Amory said in the debate in the Commons on Monday, it is ‘the final achievement of the quango state’ to create a quango which will tell Parliament what to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Palin resigns. Pundits ask, what did she mean by that?

Sarah Palin’s decision to quit as governor of Alaska is perplexing. It is hard to see how she can be a credible presidential candidate when she failed to serve out even one term as governor. There has been little normal or orthodox about Palin’s political career and trying to assess why she is walking away now isn’t easy. One can make a credible case that she is doing so because she has had her fill of politics, certainly that what NBC News’ Andrea Mitchell has heard. (And whatever one thinks of Palin, some of the attacks on her family have been disgusting Or, you can argue, as Bill Kristol does,

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Labour’s U-turn on social housing for non-immigrants is welcome but too late

Rod Liddle says that metropolitan liberal ideology is too deeply ingrained in local councils, social services and the judiciary to be overturned by one panic measure driven by Labour’s sudden fear of the BNP The government’s new and exciting ‘No Homes for Darkies!’ policy, announced earlier this week, has, for those of you on the right, a certain bracing, post-Weimar Republic feel to it. The policy — or, put better, pointless aspiration — was part of Labour’s relaunch, an amalgam of ideas with which it hopes to win the next general election, much in the way that Hull City might hope to win the Premier League next season by buying

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s U-turns analysed

Steve Richards’ column in today’s Independent – analysing Brown’s u-turns on the Post Office, 42 days and the abolition of 10p tax rate – is superb. As Steve notes, all these u-turns have in common the question of where does Brown stand in relation to Blairism; is he break from it or its continuation? Steve’s conclusion sums this up brilliantly: “The U-turns show that Brown has never acquired a clear voice of his own as Prime Minister and has failed to break away from his complicated past. Perhaps an early election would have liberated him from the manacles. Instead, we are left with a trail of major reversals that convey

The Spectator

The week that was | 3 July 2009

Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson reveals Ed Balls’ lies, and outlines the scale of the debt crisis. James Forsyth says a shadow Cabinet member needs to call Brown on his lies, and sets out the Tories’ higher goal for education. Peter Hoskin looks at how cuts can be advertised, and tracks the Government’s approach on a spending review. Martin Bright reveals how New Labour policy making works. Clive Davis gives his take on the death of Michael Jackson. Alex Massie has a few simple questions for Alan Johnson. And Melanie Phillips says that the Schools Secretary has forgotten where he

Peter Hoskin

Another one for Miliband’s collection of cock-ups

Great spot by Paul Waugh, who’s got evidence of the latest Miliband cock-up over at his blog.  Basically, Miliband told the Commons earlier this week that British aid to India would be decreased and eventually stopped because “India is becoming a richer country”.  But now he’s had to sneak out a complete retraction, which even makes reference to India’s “continuing levels of poverty”: “We have no plans to scale down the provision of aid to India, nor to stop the provision of aid by 2011.  Our aid expenditure under current spending plans amounts to £285m in 2008/09, £275m in 2009/10, and £280m in 2010/11. These figures reflect India’s continuing levels

Peter Hoskin

Can Brown’s inner circle be broken?

Given the speculation that’s whirling around Westminster about plots to oust Brown in the autumn, it’s worth noting this passage from Steve Richards’ article for the latest New Statesman: “The most significant change since the hopelessly disparate attempted coup last month is how the rest of the cabinet relate to Brown, Mandelson and Balls, the trio who are working closely together. Recently a friend asked one cabinet minister on the so-called Blairite wing whether he thought Mandelson would tell Brown that the game was up if polls suggested Labour was heading for electoral oblivion. The minister replied that he could no longer have such a conversation with Mandelson; it would

Peter Hoskin

Darling’s position of strength

Interviewed in today’s Indy, Alistair Darling’s “get real” warning to the bankers seems to be grabbing the headlines – but his comments on public spending rather jumped out at me.  After Peter Mandelson said that there wouldn’t be a spending review before the next general election, there were rumblings that Darling was actually still thinking about a pre-election review.  Here, he confirms that: “Mr Darling insists the uncertain economic position means he cannot decide now whether to go ahead with the scheduled comprehensive spending review (CSR). He will announce his decision in his pre-Budget report, due in November. ‘To do detailed allocations running up to 2013-14 at the moment, with

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Few Simple Questions for Alan Johnson

Home Secretary, is “identity theft” unknown in countries that already have identity cards? If it isn’t, then how will Britain’s ID cards solve that problem? (A problem that is, in any case, vastly smaller than you claim.) You now say that ID cards will be “voluntary”. Doesn’t that compromise their (putative) effectiveness? And if the case for ID cards is so compelling – as you insist it remains – why has your government been backtracking on the matter? You argue that you are “committed to delivering them more quickly to the people who will benefit most”. Previously this was everyone. Who “needs” them “most”? Or, to put it another way,

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Things the Tories shouldn’t do

It strikes me as being in both bad taste and politically foolish for Alan Duncan to suggest that Gordon Brown is “vandalising” the despatch box when he uses a thick pen to take notes during PMQs. It is bad taste because the reason Brown uses a thick, black felt-tip because he is blind in one eye and has poor sight in the other. Whatever one’s opinion of Brown, his eye problem is not something that should be mocked. It is politically foolish because one of the themes that Labour is trying to get into the national conversation is that the Tories are a bunch of posh bullies. This kind of

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

A meritocratic private school system

Northern Ireland is trying to decommission its grammar schools. The case against selection is being made with the familiar vehemence: a system that allows an 11-year-old child to fail a test and be branded second-rate is retrograde. This seems to be the official line of all the main political parties in mainland Britain. But none of them quite believes it. The problem with this line is that, if strictly adhered to, it would lead to the banning of private schools. For many middle-class children fail to get into the top private schools, and such failure might come at the tender age of seven. Such selection is part of the daily

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tories move to raise the standard of teachers

Michael Gove’s speech today is another sign that the Tories are serious about raising educational standards. In it, Gove proposes a series of measures to improve the quality of teachers trained by the state. Under a Conservative government, those in state-run teacher training would not be allowed to retake the literacy and numeracy tests multipile times. Primary school teachers would need at least Bs in both English and Maths GCSEs (remember that in the state sector primary school teachers are generalists not specialists). Also, those who do post-graduate teacher training will have to have a 2.2 or better. Personally, I’m sceptical of the whole concept of teacher training. Teach First

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s Definition of Progress Will Kill Us All

Thanks to David Maddox for this gem. During a debate on BBC Scotland last night, marking a decade of devolution, Iain Gray, leader of the Labour party at Holyrood, boasted of the parliament’s achievements: Has it [the Scottish Parliament] made a difference?” he asked rhetorically. “Yes it has. When the Parliament started one in five children in this country lived in poverty. That’s now one in three. That’s significant progress.” God knows, mind you, how much more of this progress we can take. Oh, Iain Gray was once a teacher. His subject? Mathematics, obviously…

Peter Hoskin

Brown primes his new dividing line

With Brown shifting his position on spending by the minute, it’s worth highlighting this snippet from today’s Guardian: “Treasury ministers, in particular, believe they can look at whether there will be a need for cuts at the time of the pre-budget report in the autumn. They intend to use the report to show the scale of projected future savings, as well as how frontline services and new priorities can be protected by switching resources. Labour still believes the Tories have made a political mistake by committing themselves to public spending cuts so early.” It rather supports Fraser’s prediction that, following all their talk about “envelopes” and “projections,” the Government will