Politics Archives

Thursday

3 Mar 2016

The debt monster

Just after last year’s general election, George Osborne delivered a budget that he hailed as proof that his policies were working. ‘The British economy I report on today is fundamentally stronger than it was five years ago,’ he crowed, as he started to detail the record number of jobs created and a growth rate that had accelerated past our neighbours. ‘Our long-term economic plan is working. But the greatest mistake this country could make would be to think all our problems are solved.’ As it turns out, this final sentence summed things up the best. There was growth but a whole lot of debt as well. The national debt today

James Forsyth

Will Cameron pull his punches to help the Tories reunite?

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsangryamerica/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth, Fraser Nelson & Isabel Hardman discuss the opening skirmishes of the EU referendum campaign” startat=540] Listen [/audioplayer] If Downing Street’s calculations are correct, next week will see politics begin to return to normal. We’ll all move on from talking about Boris Johnson and Brexit and instead start fretting about the budget and pensions: the first phase of this four-month referendum campaign will be over. The two sides will regroup and try to work out what they can take from these initial skirmishes. One lesson from the first weeks of the campaign is that the ‘in’ side have the advantage when the debate is on the economy.

Timothy Garton Ash

A conservative case for staying in

I open a dusty binder and look at my yellowing Spectator articles from Poland, Germany and Russia in the dramatic 1980s. And here’s one from Brussels in 1986, suggesting that Britain was edging towards finding its role in the European Community. Ho ho. Back then, Charles Moore was the editor and I was the foreign editor of this magazine. He shared my passion for the liberation of eastern Europe, while becoming increasingly dissatisfied with the western European Community, but he let me make the case for it. Now, 30 years on, Charles and I stand on different sides of a historic national argument. This makes for a curious role reversal.

Hugo Rifkind

Of course the old Tory hatreds are back. That’s referendums for you

Of course it’s vicious. It was always going to be. Sure, they’ve spent decades living peacefully side by side, but so did the Hutu and Tutsi. So did the Alawites and Sunnis, and so did every manner of former Yugoslavian. In politics, old hatreds do not die. They merely keep mum, so as to get selected and maybe become a junior minister. You will not find me dwelling upon the row in cabinet, this week, about whether pro-Brexit ministers are allowed to see government papers related to the EU referendum. Personally, I’d pay good money not to see government papers related to the EU referendum. I consider it a very

Martin Vander Weyer

Better that the Americans take over the London Stock Exchange

The London Stock Exchange is no longer the red-hot crucible it once was, given the multifarious ways by which shares, bonds and derivatives now change hands. But the prospect of the LSE passing into the control of Deutsche Börse — in what was announced as a ‘merger of equals’, but with the Germans holding the larger stake and the top job — is a mighty provocation to Brexit campaigners. The Express claims it would reduce the London market ‘to an insignificant regional afterthought’. Brexit or not, there’s logic to a pan-European trading platform with shared technologies and harmonised listing rules: but who can doubt that the German agenda must be

Wednesday

2 Mar 2016

Steerpike

Paul Mason hits back at George Osborne: ‘I am not a revolutionary Marxist’

This week Jeremy Corbyn provided the Tories with much comedy fodder after he announced that Syriza’s Yanis Varoufakis would be advising Labour. It was then revealed that Varoufakis’s old chum Paul Mason — who is stepping down from his role as Channel 4’s economics editor — will also be helping the party — contributing a lecture to Labour’s New Economics series. Osborne couldn’t resist ridiculing John McDonnell over the appointments during Treasury questions. He suggested to the shadow Chancellor that the pair were picked because’Chairman Mao was dead and Mickey Mouse was busy’: ‘The fact that the Labour party is now getting it’s advice from Yanis Varoufakis and the revolutionary Marxist broadcaster Paul Mason does

James Forsyth

Head of the IN campaign says wages will go up if we leave the EU

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsangryamerica/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth, Fraser Nelson & Isabel Hardman discuss the opening skirmishes of the EU referendum campaign” startat=540] Listen [/audioplayer] Stuart Rose will have to be added to the long list of British businessmen who have struggled to make the transition to politics. Rose, the Chairman of Britain in Europe, didn’t get off to the best of starts in this campaign when he told The Times that ‘“Nothing is going to happen if we come out of Europe in the first five years, probably. There will be absolutely no change’ a quote that was seized upon by the Out campaign who said it disproved all the dire warnings about

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs to push ministers further on snooping bill

Tory MPs believe they have sufficient numbers of would-be rebels to be able to amend the government’s Investigatory Powers Bill, which was published yesterday. Coffee House understands that there are already around 10 Tory MPs who would be happy to join forces with Labour to change key sections of the legislation on the authorisation of interception warrants, and on the level of detail on someone’s internet history that is available to intelligence services and the police. David Davis, the Tory MP who tends to lead the charge on civil liberties matters, is concerned that a number of the points set out by the joint committee that scrutinised the Bill when it

Brendan O’Neill

Sadiq Khan, please stop playing the Muslim card

Sadiq Khan, I’m sure you and your supporters think you’re being super right-on when you say that it would send a ‘phenomenal message’ to the world if Londoners were to elect their first-ever Muslim mayor in May. But actually you’re playing an incredibly dangerous game. You’re Islamifying what ought to be a straight political contest. You’re turning the vote over who should run London into a test of Londoners’ tolerance of Islam. You’re asking voters to prove they aren’t prejudiced, when all they should be doing is expressing a political preference. Stop it. The Khan camp has been playing the Muslim card from the get-go. Last year, Khan talked up

Charles Moore

Trade comes before trade agreements (but the ‘in’ campaign don’t think so)

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/viewfrom22/donaldtrumpsangryamerica/media.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth, Fraser Nelson & Isabel Hardman discuss the opening skirmishes of the EU referendum campaign” startat=540] Listen [/audioplayer] The government, or at least David Cameron’s bit of it, seems to think that trade is something that takes place because of a trade agreement. The order is the other way round. People trade, and have done for several thousand years, because it is to their mutual advantage. After a bit, governments come along and try to direct and often impede it, but in the modern world of instant communications, ready transfers of money and container shipping, this has become blessedly difficult. A friend, Edward Atkin, who has made

Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: Corbyn’s sitting back and waiting for the Tory funerals

Jezza is one of the oldest Out campaigners in the Commons. He’s not quite the ‘Father of the Outs’ – Bill Cash claims that honour – but the Labour leader is next in line. Yet the referendum has led him to a shrewd, albeit unprincipled, decision. If your enemies are tearing each other apart, pull up a chair and enjoy the show. Hence his silence on Europe. A slow but strengthening civil war has begun within the Tory party and the vote itself will sound the death-knell for many a high-profile Conservative. So Corbo’s pleasant task is to sit back and wait for the funerals. Meanwhile he’s obliged to pick

Steerpike

Coming soon: Emily Thornberry, the disc jockey

Emily Thornberry’s decision to appoint disgraced spinner Damian McBride as her media adviser has upset a number of her constituents. However, the shadow Defence Secretary will be hoping that the expertise McBride can offer will outweigh any negative publicity. So, after Thornberry angered Labour MPs at a meeting of the PLP over Trident and then was left red-faced when Nicholas Soames ridiculed her for asking for his advise on Labour’s defence review, what’s McBride’s plan of action? It seems he is planning to shift the narrative by focussing on Thornberry’s musical prowess. Steerpike understands that Lady Nugee will appear at tonight’s LGBT fundraiser at the Vauxhall Tavern for Sadiq Khan’s mayoral campaign —

James Forsyth

PMQs: Why won’t Corbyn address the Tory EU divide?

David Cameron coasted through another PMQs today. Jeremy Corbyn asked about childcare but his questions were too long and unfocused to trouble the Prime Minister. It does seem odd that Corbyn doesn’t even dare approach the Tory split over the EU. He could surely have made something of IDS calling the government’s paper on the alternatives to EU membership a ‘dodgy dossier’? David Davis asked Cameron, after Bernard Jenkin failed to turn up, whether he would get the HMRC to publish its figures showing how many NI numbers issued to EU nationals are active. This would show whether the official immigration figures are significantly undercounting the number of EU migrants

Isabel Hardman

What is the point of the government’s dodgy EU dossier?

Ministers are today publishing a document that is already being rubbished as a ‘dodgy dossier’ about the options for Brexit. The report, which comes out later, concludes, funnily enough, that all of the alternatives to EU membership would leave Britain ‘weaker, less safe and worse off’ and that ‘no alternative model guarantees that British businesses would have access to Europe’s free trade Single Market, that working people’s jobs would be safe and by how much prices would rise’. Iain Duncan Smith has been sent out to rubbish it, saying: ‘This dodgy dossier won’t fool anyone, and is proof that Remain are in denial about the risks of remaining in a

Steerpike

Chris Bryant brings Blair into the Brexit debate. What will Corbyn say?

Under Jeremy Corbyn, the Labour party has been rather quiet when it comes to fighting for Britain to remain in the EU. Happily, Chris Bryant got the chance to put the pro-EU argument forward at last night’s Great Brexit debate, organised by the University of London Brexit Society. Sitting on a panel alongside SNP MP Stephen Gethins, Bryant did his best to convince the pro-Brexit speakers — who included Jacob Rees Mogg and Peter Lilley — and audience members why they ought to reconsider their position. To highlight the ‘confusion’ surrounding the referendum, Bryant kicked things off with an anecdote about a former Labour leader who has gone out of fashion of late. ‘I’m going to

Tuesday

1 Mar 2016

Tom Goodenough

Sir Jeremy Heywood strikes a delicate balance over Brexit papers ban

It was perhaps rather optimistic to hope that the row over Eurosceptic ministers being banned from seeing official papers in the lead-up to the EU referendum would be cleared up in one select committee session alone. But Sir Jeremy Heywood’s appearance in front of MPs did manage to demystify some of the confusion over what will and won’t be handed over to pro-Brexit ministers. The cabinet secretary and head of the civil service said those wanting out of the EU will get access to ‘all the facts that have been provided to Number Ten’. Bernard Jenkin seemed happy with proceedings at least, saying at the end: ‘We have successfully cleared

Isabel Hardman

How Tory MPs could cause more trouble in EU document ban row

Sir Jeremy Heywood is currently insisting to the Public Administration and Constitutional Affairs select committee that there is absolutely nothing untoward about his guidance to civil servants about withholding documents that have a bearing on the EU referendum from ministers. ‘I’m really struggling to see what the problem is here,’ he has just argued to MPs. The row is occupying the energy of an awful lot of Tory MPs at the moment, and is unlikely to go away. One way that ministers could escalate the dispute is to work with backbenchers and use departmental questions in the Commons to make their point about the impact that this guidance has on

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Bored Bercow lashes out

John Bercow hit out at Greg Hands for his ‘long-winded, boring and unnecessary’ answer in the Commons: Ken Livingstone said that his history of rebellions, as well as those rebellions orchestrated by Jeremy Corbyn and John McDonnell, proved they were right: The former London mayor also said Labour was ‘completely out of kilter with the membership’ and that it was time for Labour MPs to come to terms with Corbyn: George Osborne had a dig at Labour’s appointment of Yanis Varoufakis. The Chancellor said he was signed up by the party because ‘Chairman Mao was dead and Mickey Mouse was busy’: And Sadiq Khan vowed to crack down on Uber

Steerpike

Watch: John McDonnell heckled in Commons debate – ‘shut up your face’

Punch and Judy politics is clearly the mood of the moment in the House of Commons. Last week, David Cameron offered Corbyn some motherly advice on his dress sense, while a Tory MP heckled Jeremy Corbyn by yelling ‘who are you?’ during an EU debate. This morning, it was Shadow Chancellor John McDonnell’s turn to be on the receiving end of some Chamber abuse. After trying to get the Government to withdraw its proposals over regulatory regimes for senior bankers, he sat back down but didn’t quite get the answer he expected. Before Chief Secretary to the Treasury Greg Hands stepped up to reply, a Tory MP on the other side

Katy Balls

Treasury questions: knives out for George Osborne over Brexit

As expected, there was one topic which dominated Treasury Questions today and that was the EU. The Chancellor did his best to hold his nerve as he faced strong opposition — in the shape of MPs in his own party. It’s a rare occasion when George Osborne is able to find more support in the Labour benches than his own but that’s what happened today as Tory MP after Tory MP went into attack mode over the government’s handling of the EU referendum. Andrew Tyrie, the chair of the Treasury Committee, gave the criticisms an air of authority as he kicked things off by calling Osborne out on the use of Article 50