Politics

Forget Iran, forget North Korea, forget the emerging Chinese superpower and forget the resurgent nationalism of Vladimir Putin’s Russia. Even before Benazir Bhutto’s assassination, Pakistan was the country that arguably posed the greatest challenge to the West’s security. Now it is an even greater challenge. Pakistan is the first Muslim country to have acquired nuclear weapons. Her nuclear arsenal was developed in the 1970s by Benazir’s father, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, to protect the country from the possibility of attack by India. Whether Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal is maintained purely for self-defence could now become a moot point, particularly if the Islamists make a strong showing in the forthcoming Pakistani elections —

Nick Clegg’s reshuffle illustrates the problems that he is going to have as Lib Dem leader. Three of the most talented and well know Lib Dems won’t be on the front bench. It is hard to imagine that a party as small as the Lib Dems can afford to have big beasts like Charlie Kennedy, Paddy Ashdown and Ming Campbell missing from the front line. The top team is, though, as Iain Martin argues, strong in certain aspects. Vince Cable is an impressive figure and if the economy goes south, he’ll make sure that the Lib Dems benefit politically. Ed Davey will be a more formidable foreign affairs spokesman than Michael

David Cameron and George Osborne are both singing from the same hymn sheet about the fact that there was no Granita style deal between the two of them in their joint interviews with the Mail and the Telegraph. The big difference between Cameron and Osborne and Blair and Brown is that Osborne was never the senior partner and as the younger man need not fear that he’s missed his turn. Probably the most likely source of future tension between the two of them is foreign policy. Where as Cameron is a classic Conservative when it comes to foreign policy, see his Berlin speech which was depressingly Hurdian, Osborne’s world view is far

The main news coming out of Gordon Brown’s monthly news conference is that nationalising Northern Rock is now clearly under serious consideration, with Brown and Alistair Darling both stressing that all options are on the table. The other notable thing was how Brown kept banging on about ‘the spirit of Christmas’ in, what came across on television, as a rather over the top fashion. One of the New Year’s resolutions for Brown’s media team must be to find a way of humanising him and allowing him to demonstrate some warmth and humour in a way that comes across as natural. PS Bob Marshall-Andrews, who’d be disloyal to himself if he

Peter Hyman, Tony Blair’s former chief speechwriter, described Nick Clegg as a ‘mini-Cameron’ on Newsnight yesterday and there’s little doubt that Cameron and Clegg exude a similar aroma. Some think that this will dilute Cameron’s appeal, see Simon Heffer in the Telegraph this morning, but this ignores the fact that Clegg is not yet as able a politician as Cameron. For evidence of this, just compare how both fared against Jeremy Paxman. Last night, Clegg attempted to counter Paxman by questioning his entire method as Cameron famously did during the Tory leadership race in 2005. Clegg repeatedly told Paxman you can sneer if you like and tried to dismiss him

To lose by this small a margin must be absolutely gutting for Chris Huhne. To come so close against the candidate of the party establishment and the media is a real achievement. But this defeat need not be the end of the road for him.  What Huhne should do now is become the leading voice in the party against going into coalition without a guarantee of PR. This would not be technically disloyal and Nick Clegg would be hard pressed to slap him down over it. But it would position Huhne perfectly if there’s a hung parliament. Clegg would be sorely tempted to accept an offer to go into government and

After perhaps the quietest leadership race in recent political history the Spectator/Threadneedle Newcomer of the Year has not disappointed us. I thought Nick Clegg would win by a mile: in the end his 510 votes are testimony what was (in my view) a superior campaign by Huhne (whom I underestimated). But the real winner was Vince “killer” Cable, who has had just enough limelight to shine and not so much that he’s had time to flop. He’s an economic expert on the economics brief: it shows what happens in the rare occasion where politicians have some expertise in their given area. There’s talk that Huhne would have moved Cable. I