Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
A couple of days ago, we asked CoffeeHousers whether the Tories should pledge to cut public spending. Many thanks to all those who voted. The results are now in… Yes, but they should wait until nearer a general election to make the pledge — 49.5 percent Yes, they should make the pledge over the next few weeks — 33.5 percent No — 15.0 percent Don’t know — 2.0 percent
Just as high street chains send spies to Paris fashion shows to nick ideas, so British political parties send envoys to American conventions to see what new ideas are coming off the production line. Francis Maude is here for the Tories and Ed Miliband (plus his fellow Harvard alumni David Lammy) for Labour. In my political column for tomorrow’s magazine, I list some lessons they should be taking home – because the convention so far has highlighted vulnerability in both parties. The first two are worrying for Cameron, the last three for Labour. When charisma goes wrong. The ghost at the feast here in Denver is the lack of any
One of the things about Cameron on Cameron is that it provides journos with a bank of quotes from the Tory leader, on more topics than you could care to think of. Accordingly, then, I flicked through it, looking for some words on Andrew Lansley, whilst writing my earlier post. There’s only one relevant entry in the index and it took me to this exchange: [Dylan Jones:] Sell me your Shadow Cabinet. What’s so brilliant about it? [David Cameron:] Our Cabinet is so much stronger than theirs. David Davis (Shadow Home Secretary) is quite clearly so much stronger than Jacqui Smith. Or look at Liam Fox (Shadow Secretary of State) against Des Browne. There’s just no comparison. Andrew
In a speech to the think tank Reform earlier today, Andrew Lansley outlined a few potential measures to tackle obesity in the UK. You can find a good summary of those measures here, and we’ll have more about them on Coffee House later. In the meantime, a controversy is brewing over one of Lansley’s suggestions – namely, that the ‘traffic light’ labelling currently used to flag up fat, saturates, sugar and salt on food packaging should be replaced with clearer information about ‘guideline daily amounts’. Why so controversial? Well, it’s less to do with the suggestion itself – although there are issues about whether ditching traffic light labelling would be
The Daily Record reports that Gordon Brown is to take personal charge of the Labour campaign in the forthcoming Glenrothes by-election, presumably on the basis that he’s well acquainted with the area. It’s a high risk strategy. Of course, should Labour triumph he’ll be able to claim greater credit than would otherwise be the case, and his hand will be strengthened in any Labour leadership struggle. But there’s an obvious flip side to that. If Labour are defeated – and that’s currently the most likely outcome – then many in the party will hold Brown even more responsible. That he’s prepared to take such risks is proabably a measure of how precarious he sees
My take: Hillary did what was required of her but I saw plenty traces of a 2012 campaign in her speech. The CNN coverage (it’s all they show here in the press tent) focuses on how incredibly gracious she was – but I didn’t see it. Unsurprisingly, she told people to vote for Barack Obama but I felt she was going through the motions. It was more “hold your nose and vote Obama” plus a few mild attacks at her “friend” John McCain. As for her future, what really jumped out at me was the bit in her speech where she quoted Harriet Tubman’s advice to fleeing slaves: “If you
In January, I met a friend of mine to discuss his impending departure from Washington DC. He was moving to Chicago to join Senator Barack Obama’s budding presidential campaign. At the time, it was hard not to have an instinctive sympathy for Obama, not least because the Clinton campaign had by that point attracted many of the most loathsome careerists in Democratic politics. Among other things, we discussed the general election landscape. My friend, confident even then that Obama would win the Democratic nomination, was convinced that New York mayor Rudy Giuliani would be Obama’s toughest opponent in a general election. Despite the many skeletons in Giuliani’s closet, he was
The number of times that the Georgian president Mikheil Saakashvili has spoken with world leaders during the recent crisis in the region… George Bush: 9 times Nicolas Sarkozy: 20 times Angela Merkel: “several” times And… Gordon Brown: once As the Telegraph story reporting this puts it, “The revelation is likely to reinforce the image of Mr Brown as a brooding loner with little interest in foreign affairs.”
A poll in today’s FT finds that the public are – by and large – blaming Brown and his government for the current state of the economy. Over three-quarters of respondents thought that the government “bore at least some of the blame” for the current downturn, whilst 56 percent thought that ministers had “a lot, or complete, responsibility”. Of course, the finding’s a blow for Brown, ahead of the launch of his economic recovery plan. But it could also add a dash of extra piquancy to the Tory spending cuts debate. The more the public turn against Brown and his tax ‘ n spend economics, the less risk there is attached to Cameron & Co. offering an
In the U.S, after a slow start by a media suffering from post-9/11 stress, a great debate about Iraq is going on. Every administration initiative is evaluated, wonks have made careers out of tracking Iraq policy and the press are full of analysis. The future of Iraq’s leader is a source of constant editorialising. Every month, politicians and analysts are flown to Baghdad by the U.S government for briefings. In fact, the surge was not even invented by the White House, but by the American Enterprise Institute, an independent, albeit government-affiliated think tank. The contrast to Britain could not be starker. Here there is little debate and what exists is decidedly
Victor Davis Hanson: If the Olympics were a referendum on comparative ideologies, then I suggest radical Islam is about through. Only a pedant, of course, would point out that the Olympics could be no such referendum. Never mind.
Last week, the ONS revealed that the UK economy is most likely in recession. And today Charles Bean, the new deputy governor of the Bank of England, warns that that downturn could “drag on for some considerable time”. Every scrap of gloom adds weight to the argument – resurrected over the weekend – that the Tories can no longer stand by their “sharing the proceeds of growth” formula, and that they should think seriously about pledging to cut spending. Following Lord Forsyth and John Redwood, Trevor Kavanagh gives his support to that argument in today’s Sun. Here’s the key passage: Their incoherent promise to “share the proceeds of growth” looks even more ridiculous
Iain Dale – among others – has already picked up one particular passage from Gordon Brown’s interview with the Mail on Sunday today. It contains such a bizarre quote from our PM that it deserves repetition here: “The growing pressure on him appeared to show during an interview with The Mail on Sunday, in which he refused to answer questions about his hopes of survival. ‘I’m happy to talk to you because you are here,’ he snapped. ‘I have given you special time. That is very good of me. You are very fortunate. I am not going to do an all-round interview about everything that is happening in politics.'” Quite what this says about how
One of Churchill’s mistakes in the 1945 election campaign was to argue that no socialist system could be established in Britain without a form of political police, a British Gestapo. He should never have used the g-word: it struck the electorate as excessive. But reading the Sunday Times this morning, I could see what the old man was getting at. The enemy Britain was fighting was not just Germany, but the way of life that National Socialism in Germany represented. Britain had stood apart from the big government sweeping first Russia, then Italy then Germany. The British way of life was different: respect for liberty and freedom. The nightmares about
After the news that the UK economy is most likely already in recession, the hare and tortoise debate of a few months ago looks set to return to Tory politics with a vengeance. In today’s Telegraph, Lord Forsyth and John Redwood say that the Tories need to think about an alternative to “sharing the proceeds of growth”, and that that alternative should be based around spending cuts. Here are the relevant passages: “Lord Forsyth of Drumlean and John Redwood, who chaired Mr Cameron’s policy commissions on the economy, suggested it was no longer adequate for the party to promise to ‘share the proceeds of growth’ between public services and tax cuts now that
With a protracted recession on the cards, and with the Tories storming into larger and larger poll leads, one question is increasingly important: what would a Tory government do to fix the economy? So far, their grand plan has been to “share the proceeds of growth”. It’s always been a nebulous concept, but now – as Iain Martin points out in an excellent post over at Three Line Whip – it’s probably also a redundant one. After all, when there’s no growth, there’s nothing to share. So what’s the Tory Plan B? Whilst it doesn’t offer any direct answers, George Osborne’s interview in today’s Telegraph does hint that they’re starting to think differently. Here’s the
When R.A. Butler, quoting Bismarck, described politics as the ‘art of the possible’, he was spelling out the pragmatist’s creed. Yet, if nothing else, Barack Obama’s rise to become the Democrats’ candidate for the White House shows that ‘the possible’ can still be extraordinary. Only four years ago, Obama was a mere state senator in Illinois, a rookie legislator with a keen intellect and a bright future. Now, as his party gathers for its convention in Denver, Colorado, he is only two and half months away from the presidential election that could make him the most powerful man in the world. Whatever deals are being stitched up behind the scenes,
Bill Jamieson says calls for a Rooseveltian New Deal to stave off US recession are misinformed; it was FDR’s much-maligned predecessor who set the course for recovery A year into the credit crunch and the world’s leading economies seem locked in a macabre race to be first over the recession line. America, a few months ago firm favourite, has lost the lead to Germany. Or is it France? Or Spain? Is Japan already over the line? In truth, who ‘wins’ is secondary to the direction in which the global economy is heading and the sense of apprehension over further shocks to come in the banking system. Little wonder that in
My old cobber, Iain Martin, wrote an interesting column for the Telegraph yesterday arguing that the success of the British Olympic team in Beijing demonstrates that there’s life in the old Union yet. There may be something to that. At least there may be right now, this week, this month. Certainly, he is right to argue that: Too often of late, Unionists have made their case in cold and exclusively economic terms, as though this were simply a matter of totting up various columns of pounds, shillings and pence, until a definitive answer on the constitution is arrived at. It is not always just the “economy, stupid”. Indeed so. A
Dominic Grieve wants your questions Fraser Nelson outlines Brown’s Bubble, and describes Boris’s gift to Labour. James Forsyth wonders who the PM’s siding with in the Brown-Miliband dispute, and reports on another poor poll for Labour. Peter Hoskin reflects on the lessons of history, and gives his take on the latest economic growth figures. Brian Cullen thinks Russia’s aggression shows weakness as much as strength, and spells out the deceit of protectionism. Sean Martin says school isn’t for everyone, and claims it’s time to stand up to the RMT. Daniel Korski dishes out the award for worst foreign policy. Stephen Pollard wonders whether England can beat Andorra. Trading Floor writes on Britishness. And