Politics Archives

Friday

6 Jan 2017

Steerpike

Wanted: ‘first class’ networker to spin for Labour

With Labour predicted to win as little as 20pc of the vote in the 2020 election, there’s been little cause for celebration in the Leader’s Office this week. However, should you be a glutton for punishment, an opportunity has arisen to join the beleaguered party as its ‘deputy director’ of Strategy and Communications: The lucky candidate will work as Seumas Milne’s deputy — and will preferably have experience of project management in ‘complex situations’. It seems, too, that Corbyn may be looking to step outside of his comfort zone — with the deputy director required to have ‘first class’ networking skills. Alas it might not be the longest career working for the Labour

Matthew Lynn

Economists called Brexit wrong, but so did the Bank of England

As confessions go, it was hardly the most revelatory. Cheryl Fernandez-Versini admits she has problems with relationships. Sir Philip Green accepts he made a bit of a hash of BHS. Ed Miliband owns up to struggling with bacon sandwiches. They would have all come as more of a surprise than the chief economist of the Bank of England, Andy Haldane, finally admitting that when it came to forecasting the impact of Brexit they were a couple of alphas short of a full algorithm. Well, thanks Andy. Who knew? The problem is that Haldane, and more importantly the Bank, is still deflecting the blame. Haldane argues there is a general problem

Helen Nugent

Spending, property, pensions and earnings

The switch from traditional spending to online shopping continues to gather pace as new figures show that high street sales fell last month for the fourth year running in favour of internet purchases. The BBC reports that online sales in December were 19 per cent higher than in 2015 while online orders increased in the week to 25 December by 51.1 per cent compared to the same week in the previous year. That’s according to BDO’s High Street Sales Tracker, which also found that consumers are splashing out more on home wares but less on fashion. Nevertheless, online sales account for about 15 per cent of all retail spending. Property The

Katy Balls

Philip Davies interview: I don’t like being bullied

Philip Davies originally wanted to be a journalist but decided against it after coming to the conclusion that he lacked the confidence: ‘It was my ambition in life but I just realised I was too shy. You’ve got to have a confidence that I think I probably never had.’ Now an unruly backbencher, it’s hard to believe the MP for Shipley is one to suffer from self-doubt. Westminster’s pantomime villain, Davies has a reputation for championing unfashionable causes – from talking out bills that help the vulnerable to standing up for men’s rights in the face of ‘militant feminists’. Last month he gave his critics fresh cause for complaint when

Thursday

5 Jan 2017

The Spectator

Sir Ivan’s exit

The wonder about Sir Ivan Rogers’s resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU is that he was still in the job. He may have possessed useful knowledge about the workings of the EU, but he was also heavily associated with a failed way of conducting negotiations with it. It was he who advised David Cameron last February on his unsuccessful renegotiations of Britain’s relationship with the EU, which failed to convince the British people to vote to remain in the union. It would have been better and less disruptive had he resigned in the wake of the referendum last June, along with the Prime Minister. That Sir Ivan was not

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: The Sir Ivan Rogers row rumbles on

Sir Tim Barrow has been appointed as Britain’s ambassador to the EU. Yet still the row over his predecessor’s departure rages in today’s papers. Sir Ivan Rogers may well have thought that the country made a mistake in backing Brexit, says the Daily Telegraph, but it is ‘not his place to make that impression public in the way that he did’. There was ‘nothing even-handed about the way in which he left, according to the paper’s editorial, which hits out at Rogers’ apparent inability to deal with politicians not always taking on board his advice. But the Telegraph’s most stinging criticism for Rogers is the way in which this row

Isabel Hardman

May’s big chance

It is the fate of all new prime ministers to be compared with their recent predecessors. Theresa May has already been accused of being the heir to the micro-managing Gordon Brown. Her allies, meanwhile, see a new Margaret Thatcher, an uncompromising Boadicea destined to retrieve sovereignty from Europe. But perhaps a more fitting model for May would be a less recent Labour prime minister: Clement Attlee. When Labourites reminisce about Attlee, it isn’t so much the man himself who makes them misty-eyed. It is the achievements of those who worked for him — Nye Bevan, Ernest Bevin and the rest. Attlee’s government created the welfare state and the National Health

Martin Vander Weyer

Markets start the year strong while Italy totters towards the next crisis

The headline business story of the holiday season was the latest bailout of Banca Monte dei Paschi di Siena. This is Italy’s third largest bank and, according to recent ECB ‘stress tests’, Europe’s weakest — regarded by pessimists both as a potential catalyst for systemic collapse and a symptom of deeper Italian problems that could kick off another euro crisis this year. Monte dei Paschi is also of special interest to me as the world’s oldest bank, having been founded by the magistrates of Siena in 1472 to provide loans at non–usurious rates to ‘poor or miserable or needy persons’, underpinned by wealth from local agriculture. Though it evolved more

Elisa Segrave

The Atomoxetine year

Driving my son’s snake, Todd, a 3ft python wrapped in a pillowcase, to a Brighton vet in August was child’s play compared to the rest of what had gone on that summer. My son, who is 32 and has Asperger’s syndrome, had been served with an eviction notice from his rented flat, having been on what was effectively speed for the previous eight months. Since early July, when his three young carers resigned, he had been visited by the NHS mental health crisis team twice a day. This team, with great skill, calling on him in twos, had managed to get him off what — for him, and for anyone

Wednesday

4 Jan 2017

Katy Balls

Tim Barrow’s appointment as Britain’s EU ambassador should silence May’s critics

Just a day after Sir Ivan Rogers’ resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU, his successor has been named as Sir Tim Barrow. Currently political director at the Foreign Office, Barrow is a career diplomat who is a former ambassador to Russia with significant experience of Brussels. Speaking on LBC, Rogers’ old boss Charles Crawford, a former British diplomat critical of the EU, says that Barrow will be a popular choice with the Foreign Office. He adds that Barrow will be ‘fearless’ in putting to ministers the choices ahead: ‘If you have to choose someone for this job, he is — given where we are — as good as it gets at the

Ross Clark

A post-Brexit slump? Here’s the good news about Britain’s economy you didn’t hear

The rearguard Remain campaign is now living in a parallel universe. In the past 24 hours we have heard endless whining about Sir Ivan Rogers’ departure and how it will mean disaster for our trading relationship with the EU. We’ve had more claims that inflation is going to surge. The poor Christmas results put out by Next have been taken as a sign of a post-Brexit economic slump when they are really just part of a change in the patterns of retailing, with online sales growing at the expense of those in shops. Meanwhile, come yet more genuine good news on the economy. Yesterday, the Markit/CIPS Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI)

Steerpike

Bill Cash makes a date with Sir Ivan

After Sir Ivan Rogers unexpectedly resigned as Britain’s ambassador to the EU on Tuesday, it’s safe to say that the diplomat is not the flavour of the month in Downing Street. In fact, given that his resignation letter appeared to take swipes at both Theresa May and Liam Fox over their Brexit approach, it’s probably for the best if Rogers keeps a low profile in the coming weeks. Alas, this might not be possible. Bill Cash has today written to Rogers to remind him that his presence has been requested before the European Scrutiny Committee. The arch-Brexiteer adds that the committee’s interest in Rogers is ‘all the stronger’ in light of

The Spectator

The only mystery about Sir Ivan Rogers is why he was still in his job

The wonder about Sir Ivan Rogers’s resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU is that he was still in the job. He may have possessed useful knowledge about the workings of the EU, but he was also heavily associated with a failed way of conducting negotiations with it. It was he who advised David Cameron last February on his unsuccessful renegotiations of Britain’s relationship with the EU, which failed to convince the British people to vote to remain in the union. It would have been better and less disruptive had he resigned in the wake of the referendum last June, along with the Prime Minister. That Sir Ivan was not

Douglas Murray

There’s a simple explanation for the Brexit ‘hate crime’ spike

A New Year is upon us and a new wave of racism, bigotry and xenophobia is meant to be stalking our land. That’s according to a Sky poll released on Monday which proclaimed that ‘Britain is more racist and less happy since Brexit vote’. If this made you check your pulse and wonder what racism has started coursing through your veins since June 23rd, fear not. The headline does not reflect reality but simply some peoples’ perception of reality. It is the result of a question in the poll which asked people not whether they felt more or less racist since last June, but to answer the question ‘Would you

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Sir Ivan ‘the terrible’ or a terrible loss?

Sir Ivan Rogers is stepping down from his role as the UK’s ambassador to the EU – but is his departure really such a great loss? In his explosive resignation email, Rogers urged his colleagues to challenge ‘muddled thinking’ and ‘speak truth to power’, in a parting shot at Theresa May. So is this evidence of a Brexit botch-up? Not so, says the Sun, who calls the departing diplomat ‘Ivan the terrible’ and says it won’t weep over his decision to quit. A quick glance at the ‘pathetic empty shell’ of David Cameron’s EU renegotiation deal is all you need to see as to why Roger’s resignation is no great loss,

Steerpike

When Liam Fox gave up his hand

As No.10 reels from Ivan Rogers’ resignation letter in which he accuses Theresa May’s government of ‘muddled thinking’, Liam Fox has found himself in the firing line. Britain’s departing ambassador to the EU has taken aim at the International Trade secretary — declaring that ‘free trade does not just happen’. Alas should Fox have some tense and difficult negotiations ahead over Brexit, there is reason to believe he may not be the man best placed for a high stakes poker game. Mr S couldn’t help but recall an anecdote courtesy of Theo Bertram — former adviser to Blair and Brown — of working in a corridor across from Fox in

Tuesday

3 Jan 2017

Brendan O’Neill

Face it, Labour: you are now a painfully middle-class party

Today’s Fabian Society paper on the state of the Labour Party — and what a state it is — has put Labourites and the leftish Twitterati into a spin. Aptly titled ‘Stuck’, the paper says just over half of the people who voted Labour in 2015 support the party today. And if an election were called right now Labour could expect to win a measly 200 seats: 40 fewer than in 2015 and 70 fewer than in 2010. Most strikingly, Labour has lost four times as many Leavers as Remainers. Clearly sensing their party’s hostility to the idea of leaving the EU, the inhabitants of those Labour heartlands in the

Katy Balls

Brexiteers will cheer Ivan Rogers’ resignation as Britain’s ambassador to the EU

With Brexit negotiations just months away, Sir Ivan Rogers has unexpectedly resigned as Britain’s ambassador to the EU. The news apparently came as a surprise to No.10, with Rogers previously expected to leave the post in November. While Rogers is yet to give a reason for his departure, the decision comes after reports of growing tensions between No.10 and Rogers over Brexit. Rogers caused upset last month when it emerged he had told ministers it could take 10 years to negotiate a free trade deal with the EU. At the time, Rogers was accused of casting a ‘gloomy pessimism’ over Brexit amid reports that the knives were out for him. Many were dissatisfied with Roger’s role in

Katy Balls

Labour is heading for electoral disaster – will Corbyn now put his money where his mouth is?

New year, new start? Not for Labour. The party’s 2017 has got off to a bad start with the publication of a sobering report on its election prospects for 2020. The Fabian Society predicts that Labour will win less than 20pc of the vote and just 150 seats (to put this into context, Labour has not won fewer than 200 seats since 1935). The thinktank concludes that the party’s only real hope is to work with other ‘progressive’ forces, like the SNP and Greens. Now none of this is hugely surprising. Labour’s poll ratings have been hitting new lows for some time now. But the Fabian Society is a Labour thinktank and its report is a sign that it is becoming

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Foreign aid, commuter misery and financial market woes

Leaving the EU was all about taking back control – and it’s time to do the same with Britain’s foreign aid budget, says the Daily Telegraph. It describes the target set by David Cameron for the UK to spend 0.7 per cent of its GDP on foreign aid as ‘ill-judged’. Making a comparison with the Brexit vote, it warns the Government to listen to voters’ concerns about the levels of spending on aid projects, ‘given that the aid target is at least as unpopular with voters as EU membership was’. The Telegraph goes on to label the money spent on aid projects abroad as having ‘undemocratic origins’ – suggesting that the