Politics

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

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Lib Dem fight turns dirty

For all their woolly policies, the LibDem are dirty fighters, as anyone who has seen them campaign will attest. So it was only a matter of time before its leadership election turned vicious. Chris Huhne has dropped off press releases demanding that his rival Nick Clegg seeks corrections from newspapers who have suggested he’s in favour of education vouchers. Clegg repudiated the idea of vouchers, says Huhne, at a hustings meeting last weekend. All this, of course, makes me all the more favourably inclined towards Clegg. There’s nothing illiberal about school vouchers, and the idea chimes squarely with localism and empowering people rather than the state. It’s ideas like this

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Can’t get no Respect

The internecine warfare at Respect just took another turn with George Galloway denying that he has left the party. There now seems to be a bitter dispute between Galloway’s faction and the Socialist Workers Party about which group is going to have to be the one to actually break away. The SWP are claiming that Galloway’s decision to hold a rival party conference suggests that he is the one who has left, while Galloway’s lot are refusing to budge. 

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This time with feeling

Tara Hamilton-Miller has a great little blind item in this week’s New Statesman:  A shadow secretary of state, who shall remain nameless, decided to sing and briefly weep to a Radiohead song in a northern university student union (determined, clenched, porcine fist punch ing the air during the rocky bit). She sang with such feeling that even the greasy left-wing undergraduates in the smoky basement were moved enough to keep the experience private. Over to you, Coffee Housers

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Respectable behaviour

Respect is finally collapsing under the weight of its own contradictions. Daniel Finkelstein reports that George Galloway has kicked out the Socialist Workers. However, this is only the beginning of the fun. Danny points to a statement posted on the party’s website: Dear Members, Respect has been locked out of its head office. Overnight the locks were changed on the Respect national office. This action excludes most National Officers, the national office staff and the majority of Respect members who support them from their own organisation’s headquarters. All one can say is that it couldn’t have happened to a nicer party. It is a good job that they have a leader

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Brown backs away from a fight over 56 days

It was supposed to be the big day when Gordon Brown put the case for detaining terror suspects for up to 56 days and took on his backbenches. Instead he, um, bottled it. Jack Straw was sent out to open the debate on Home Affairs (called by the Tories) and Jacqui Smith closed it, talking about how she wants a consensus and hasn’t decided on 56 days at all. David Davis speech on civil liberties was strong stuff, rather wasted on the triviality of a debate where the government has very little to tell us. But then again, who was Brown going to get as his witness to call for

Wednesday

Matthew Dancona

The Lord Malloch-Brown story

Don’t miss a very important piece in tomorrow’s magazine by James and the distinguished US journalist Claudia Rosett on the star of Gordon’s “ministry of all the talents”, Mark Malloch Brown. Although plenty of people expressed concern about Lord Malloch Brown’s appointment to a senior ministerial post at the Foreign Office and his early remarks, myself included, this article is the first major investigation of His Lordship, around whom all sorts of rumours have been swirling in the past few weeks. It reveals some remarkable things. Amongst them:  The extent of Malloch Brown’s connection with George Soros when he was at the UN How, with the encouragement of friends, he

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What will it take for Sir Ian Blair to quit?

The Met have been convicted of breaching of Health and Safety Laws, the London Assembly has passed a vote of no confidence in him but still Sir Ian Blair clings onto power. At some point, actually a long time ago, Blair should have done the decent thing and resigned. Arguing, as Livingstone does, that all this fuss over Blair’s position is some kind of boon for the terrorists is tripe. By that logic for the rest of this struggle, which will go on for a generation at least, we won’t be able to hold any public figure to account for their actions. If we were to do that, we really

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Race for the White House hots up

Today is a big day in the race for the Republican nomination with both Rudy Giuliani and John McCain (pictured) rolling out major endorsements from influential Christian conservatives. Giuliani wheeled out Pat Robertson, the one time presidential candidate and a hugely powerful figure in the movement. Robertson’s backing should help reassure those who fear that Giuliani’s pro-choice stance could split the Republican Party. Although, one wonders how someone running on their leadership on 9/11 can cosy up to someone who allowed his radio programme to be used as a platform for those who blamed 9/11 on “pagans, and the abortionists, and the feminists, and the gays and the lesbians” and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lord Drayson resigns

I don’t mean to sound like a kill-joy but doesn’t it suggest a rather warped set of priorities for a minister in the Ministry of Defence to quit his post to prepare for a car race at a time when British forces are engaged in two wars?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown fails to seize the agenda

The reaction of three of the most influential commentators on the left to the Queen’s speech is instructive. Michael White in The Guardian suggests that it was less important than people think as Gordon Brown will probably go until 2010 before calling an election meaning that there will be time for one more full legislative programme before the government goes to the country.  Jonathan Freedland is far from enthused by the speech but argues that there could be merit in aiming to do a few things on a certain theme and then getting them done. But as Freedland acknowledges if government is purely managerial it leaves itself uniquely exposed to

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mrs Brown

Michael White’s diary for Guardian Unlimited is always worth reading and today it has a fascinating little tit-bit that I hadn’t heard before. Apparently, it was Sarah Brown who persuaded Admiral Sir Alan West to become the security minister in Gordon Brown’s so-called gvernment of all the talents by phoning up his wife.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Advantage Cameron | 6 November 2007

Walking into the press gallery, I saw something I haven’t seen for ages. Labour MPs animated, laughing, roaring, unfrozen. David Cameron was making the light-hearted speech which follows opening of parliament, and making everyone laugh. “We welcome the climate change bill, and when it comes around next year we will welcome it again”. Labour MPs were allowing themselves to be entertained; Showing that it can be done. Sadly for them, Gordon Brown can’t seem to do it. When we moved to the combat phase, Cameron was on great form speaking with immense confidence. Taking interventions, he was asked about the “black hole” in his plans – Brown’s favourite theme. “I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s search for opinions

Ben Brogan flags up a hilarious, and worrying, stat from the FT this morning. Only 71 people responded to the government’s online consultation on the Queen’s speech. The FT also reveals that a government paid for regional road-show event cost more than £50,000. If Gordon Brown really wanted to know what the public thought of his plans wouldn’t it be simpler just to hold an election?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is the monarchy safe for good now?

It has long been a joke in Westminster that you don’t need to put your finger in the wind to see which way it is blowing, you just watch Jack Straw.  So the fact that Jack Straw has revived the tradition of walking backwards once the Gracious Speech has been handed to the monarch should reassure the Queen. If Bray is looking for a vicar, they have the perfect candidate.

Monday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour ahead in new poll

A Populus poll for tomorrow’s Times has Labour on 37, the Tories on 36 and the Lib Dems on 16. The Lib Dems are the big gainers, up four, while the two main parties have both lost votes. The Lib Dems are clearly benefitting form the extra attention they are getting thanks to their leadership election. While the poll, as Anthony Wells points out, doesn’t actually mark a change in the lead when it comes to Populus polls it is still a nice psychological boost for Gordon Brown ahead of the Queen’s speech. 

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Now the Saudis claim they warned the US about 9/11

Following on from King Abdullah’s claim that the British were warned about 7/7, Prince Bandar—formerly the Saudi ambassador to the US who is extremely close to the Bush family—has said that if the Americans had cooperated with the Saudi properly, 9/11 wouldn’t have happened. Here’s how ABC’s The Blotter reports the Prince’s remarks: “Saudi security was actively following the movements of most of the terrorists with precision,” Bandar, the national security advisor to Saudi King told the Arabic satellite network, Al-Arabiya, Thursday.   “If U.S. security authorities had engaged their Saudi counterparts in a serious and credible manner, in my opinion, we would have avoided what happened,” Bandar said. These comments

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Musharraf prepares to postpone poll

The Guardian reports this morning that neither David Miliband nor Condi Rice can get General Musharraf to return their calls. This suggests that Musharraf might be preparing to renege on his pledge to go ahead with elections in January.  It is crucial that Britain and America do not end up appearing to endorse any postponement of elections. At the moment, the chance of Musharraf surviving are less than 50-50 and it makes no sense for Britain and America to further alienate whoever succeeds him. 

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tory candidate in immigration row resigns

Nigel Hastilow, the Tory candidate who said Enoch was right, has resigned rather than an issue an apology for his remarks. The speed with which he has gone has minimised the damage that has been done but Hastilow’s comments illustrate just how dangerous the immigration issue can be for the Conservatives; Peter Hain got in a shot at the ‘racist underbelly of the Tory party’ on Sunday AM this morning. The real problem for David Cameron will come if someone who is an MP, and therefore can’t be got rid of quickly, expresses similar sentiments. The leadership’s irritation with Hastilow can only have been increased by the fact that the

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The government’s immigration numbers are wrong again

The immigration statistics saga takes another turn today, as the News of the World produces figures showing that immigrants from the 25 EU countries account for just 32% of the total. Ergo, ministers have been able to control immigration all along – and its repeated suggestions to the contrary are untrue.   It fingers Liam Byrne, who attacked Cameron’s proposals last week with a very different statistic. “His small print seems not to touch European Economic Area nationals, overseas students and dependents who made up 80 per cent of British incomers last year,” said Byrne.   Now, Byrne is one of the good guys in this government, but his occupational