Politics Archives

Wednesday

14 Sep 2016

David Cameron is only partly to blame for Libya’s problems

David Cameron is not having the best of weeks and the Foreign Affairs Committee’s highly critical report on his Libya intervention will not improve his mood. When the Chilcot Report came out, Cameron made much of how the National Security Council structure that he had put in place had improved policy making. But the FAC report states that despite the National Security Council, there was still no coherent strategy for the intervention. Indeed, it calls for an inquiry into how the NSC actually makes policy. The Libya intervention might have prevented a massacre in Benghazi. But the chaos in Libya since, the migrant crisis and the increase influence of Islamic

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn donates fruits of his labour to Momentum

In the aftermath of ‘traingate‘, one of the most striking things about the incident was not that Jeremy Corbyn had a seat despite claims to the contrary, but that the Labour leader and his team kept providing conflicting versions of events. Although Corbyn eventually admitted he had just wanted to sit next to his wife, this was only after his representatives had told hacks that the issue was not that he couldn’t find two unreserved seats next to each other. In the end, this communications breakdown was put down to Corbyn… making jam. A source told the Guardian that the ‘leader was impossible to reach for some time on Tuesday because he was

Tuesday

13 Sep 2016

Steerpike

Shami Chakrabarti makes her Lords debut

Although David Cameron’s resignation honours were widely criticised for cronyism, it’s fair to say that Jeremy Corbyn’s one appointment to the House of Lords caused just as much upset. The Labour leader was accused of a conflict of interest for giving Shami Chakrabarti a peerage after she chaired his anti-Semitism inquiry. Apparently unfazed by the negative publicity, Baroness Chakrabarti of Kennington was introduced into the Lords today. Alas, it seems she couldn’t find reason to smile.

Steerpike

Liam Fox doesn’t have a job – he just doesn’t know it yet, says Nick Clegg

Given the fragile egos of Theresa May’s three Brexiteers — Boris Johnson, Liam Fox and David Davis — Mr S suspects it’s for the best that none of them were present at today’s press gallery lunch with Nick Clegg. After accusing David Cameron of engaging ‘in a brutal act of one upmanship’ by quitting as the MP for Witney on the same night as his book launch, Clegg went on to launch an attack on the government — focussing on Liam Fox. While Clegg refused to comment on what Cameron really made of May, he was happy to share his thoughts on the Secretary for International Trade. The former deputy Prime Minister said he felt pity

Nick Hilton

Jeremy Corbyn has decided to campaign like New Labour

Jeremy Corbyn has today announced the launch of the Labour Organising Academy, a new body designed to look at methods of turning the party’s newly engorged membership into an effective campaigning body. In the pamphlet he produced, Corbyn observes that ‘Labour is now Europe’s biggest political party’ and that the ‘party’s membership will transform how Labour campaigns’. The launch of this might feel somewhat hasty. After all, the leadership campaign won’t be concluded until the announcement at party conference in Liverpool on 24 September – but it represents a big change for Corbyn. It is a tacit acceptance of the notion that his supporters are too inward looking, too concerned with

Daisy Dunn

From paper to the £5 polymer: the origins of the banknote

Kublai Khan, said Marco Polo, had ‘a more extensive command of treasure than any other sovereign in the universe’. There were no jangling pockets of coins in Kanbalu. Bark had been stripped from the mulberry trees and beaten into paper notes. The notes carried delicate little pictures of earlier currency — long, frayed ropes weighed down with coins. It was as though they were mocking the old ways. Paper money had been produced in China from as early as the 7th century, but that did not stop Marco Polo from gushing that the Great Khan had discovered ‘the secret of the alchemists’. Back home, there was much curiosity but apparently

Katy Balls

Boundary review fuels Labour MPs’ reselection fears

This week the Boundaries Commission has released its proposals for new constituencies in England and Wales. Although this is part of a wider effort to reduce the number of MPs in the Commons from 650 to 600, the Labour party feel as though they are being unfairly picked on. While the plans mean George Osborne and Boris Johnson are among the politicians who would have their seats redrawn, it’s the Labour party as a whole that would be worst affected with a potential loss of 25 Labour-held seats. However, this is not the party’s only problem when it comes to the proposals. There are concerns that the process could allow Corbyn’s supporters to

Fraser Nelson

Another poll shows that Brexit hasn’t changed Scottish appetite for independence

Throughout the EU referendum campaign, we heard that Brexit would not only sink the UK economy but destroy the Union because Scots were likely to vote Remain. In the event there was a difference at the polls—38 per cent of Scots voted for Brexit, vs 52 per cent in the UK as a whole—but was it enough to destroy, or even threaten, the Union? Polls in the immediate aftermath showed an uptick for support for Scottish separation which has since ebbed away. Kantar TNS has today published a poll showing that 53 per cent of Scots are against independence, which confirms the YouGov poll taken at the end of August showing 54

Helen Nugent

Fraudulent claims, new £5 note, pensions and cowboy builders

The number of fraudulent insurance claims rose to 2,500 a week last year, according to industry figures. In total there were 130,000 fraudulent claims, up 6 per cent on 2014, the Association of British Insurers (ABI) said. Dishonest motor claims remained the most common crime, accounting for over half the total. But fraudulent claims for injury, supposedly as a result of negligence, such as so-called ‘slip and trip’ claims, was the fastest-growing crime. False claims in this area were up by over a third compared to 2014, the ABI said. New plastic The new plastic £5 note is being launched in England and Wales today, but most people may have to wait

Nick Cohen

The Brexiteers will always blame everything but Brexit

The worst men always find themselves in others. If they are instinctive liars, they accuse their opponents of lying. If they mistreat women, they assume all other men do the same. If they are sleazy, over-promoted know-nothings, they see their angry faces in every stranger they meet. On this reading, Liam Fox’s barroom tirades are just the voice of his own subconscious speaking truth to a man who should be a thousand miles from power. When Fox said the British were ‘too lazy and fat’ to be a free-trading people, he did not realise he was describing himself. When he said British managers were not up to the task of

Monday

12 Sep 2016

Tristram Hunt

Theresa May has done a poor job of stealing Labour’s clothes

‘I don’t think we are a charity. We are a successful, multi-national educational institution,’ explained the public school head to me. And he was right. As it happens, he was a highly progressive head committed to using the wealth and resource he enjoyed to collaborate with an under-performing local academy. For the first time, their partner school now had maths graduates teaching physics and a new range of language options. But he had no doubt that he should not be in receipt of charitable status and tax relief. Which is why one of the few components of Theresa May’s school reforms I can support is the Prime Minister’s determination to

Fraser Nelson

Cameron resigns, again. Breaks his word, again. Trashes his reputation, again

Is David Cameron trying to trash his own reputation? First came the worst resignation honours list for decades, which seemed designed to confirm everyone’s worst fears about his chumocracy. And today, he has handed a gift to those who denounced him as a career politician, someone with no sense of public service, whose interest in politics ran out when he thought it could no longer be useful to him. “Brits don’t quit,” he told us a few months ago: now he has quit, twice. After telling us several times that he’d stay, to fulfil a duty to parliament and his constituents. Even Gordon Brown fought another election after leaving No10

Nick Hilton

Coffee House shots: David Cameron quits backbenches and Witney

David Cameron chose a rather blustery Oxfordshire afternoon to announce that he was stepping down as MP for Witney with ‘immediate effect’. Cameron had previously suggested that he would stay on in Parliament, telling the BBC it was ‘very much [his] intention’ to continue as an MP. Pundits have linked Cameron’s surprise u-turn to Theresa May’s announcements about grammar schools at the end of last week, which undermined a key feature of Cameron’s social policy. So what should we make of this move? And where does it leave May and the remaining Cameroons in the Commons? In this edition of Coffee House shots, Fraser Nelson tells Isabel Hardman that: ‘I guess

Isabel Hardman

Greening takes dovish tone on government’s schools plan

Is Theresa May planning an epic battle with some of her own MPs to introduce new grammar schools in England? When Justine Greening gave her statement in the Commons this afternoon, she repeated many of the Prime Minister’s own lines about selection already existing through house prices and so on. But her language was much more conciliatory, with the Education Secretary telling MPs that ‘this is the beginning of a consultation that sets out a debate that we need to have’. Greening and her colleagues will be responsible for trying to persuade reluctant MPs of the merits of the changes, and she clearly doesn’t want to start a stand-off just

Steerpike

David Davis: Brexit is the sexiest area of politics

Since the nation voted to leave the European Union in the referendum, Brexit has been described as a lot of things by a lot of people. However, until now Mr S had not heard it be described as sexy. At today’s European Union Select Committee, David Davis — the Brexit secretary — claimed that his brief is the ‘sexiest area of politics’. He made the comments as he answered a question on the possibility of establishing a ‘clearing house’ where interested parties can get in touch with the department: ‘As you can imagine — because this really is the sexiest area of politics at the moment — everybody writes to us. And my

James Forsyth

David Cameron resigns as MP for Witney

David Cameron is quitting as an MP. The former Prime Minister has just told ITV’s Chris Ship that he is resigning with immediate effect, prompting a by-election in Witney. Cameron’s decision is a surprise. It had long been assumed that Cameron would be the anti-Blair, staying on as the MP for Witney for some time after leaving Number 10. In that famous 2015 interview with James Landale, when he committed to not standing for election as Prime Minister again, Cameron waxed lyrical about his connections with Witney and the importance he attached to them. By going with immediate effect, Cameron has missed the opportunity to demonstrate to voters the importance

Steerpike

George Galloway comes to Lady Nugee’s defence over Sky interview – blame the Blairites!

Yesterday Emily Thornberry accused Sky News‘s Dermot Murnaghan of sexism for asking her to name the French foreign minister. While the shadow Foreign secretary has since been the subject of much ridicule over the claims, she can take heart that some comrades still have her back. Step forward George Galloway. Galloway has written a blog post on his website in which he defends Thornberry. The former Labour MP says she was ‘right to complain’ about Murnaghan’s questioning — though not for the reason she put forward: ‘I’m not Emily Thornberry’s biggest fan, and she should have known the name of the French Foreign Minister (whom Boris Johnson had just met) and both

Sunday

11 Sep 2016

Alex Massie

Liam Fox confirms that Britain now has a nationalist government

Unlike the boss, I thought Liam Fox’s comments on fat and lazy British businesses that could be exporting more but aren’t because, well, an afternoon on the golf course is more comfortable than striving for Britain were deplorable. But they were also telling. Because they were a further confirmation that the United Kingdom now has a nationalist government. The liberal Toryism of the Cameron era is gone, sunk with a whimper in record time. In its place is a Conservative nationalism that envisages SS Britannia buccaneering its way across the world’s oceans. This, after all, was the animating spirit of what we might call the Brexit campaign’s more cheerful wing. Well, it’s a nice

Steerpike

Lady Nugee accuses Sky News of sexism… for asking her to name French foreign minister

Oh dear. It’s fair to say that Emily Thornberry’s appearance on Sky News this morning did not go to plan. The shadow Foreign Secretary — and shadow Brexit Secretary — appeared on Murnaghan to discuss Labour’s stance on Brexit. Discussing her brief, Thornberry — who is married to Sir Christopher Nugee — slammed the government’s Brexit efforts while bigging up her own work telling officials in Brussels that there are still reasonable people in Britain. So, just who has Lady Nugee been speaking to? While it remains unclear, what is clear is that France’s foreign minister is not on that list. When Dermot Murnaghan asked her if she was in touch with Jean-Marc

Isabel Hardman

Owen Smith: UK could join euro and Schengen

Why on earth did Owen Smith say that he might consider re-joining not just the European Union but also the euro and Schengen? Some of the Labour leadership contender’s colleagues have been asking the ‘why on earth’ question a fair bit this summer, not least when he made the interesting decision to out-Corbyn Corbyn on the small matter of Islamic State. But today the Pontypridd MP told Andrew Marr that if certain conditions, such as a further recession, privatisation of the NHS and so on, were met, ‘I think the sensible and responsible thing for a Labour government to do is to say we’re better off in the European Union’.