Politics Archives

Friday

11 Dec 2015

Zac Goldsmith: I’m ‘delighted’ Heathrow won’t be a Mayoral election issue

Many suspect that the latest delay on a third runway at Heathrow is actually the government bending to the will of Zac Goldsmith. On the Daily Politics today, the Conservative’s London mayoral candidate said he hadn’t been consulted on the latest delay — all the communications have been one-way from him to the government, apparently — but he still welcomed the decision: ‘It’s an important issue, but it’s not as important as housing, it’s not as important as policing or TFL investments or any of these other issues, so I am delighted that Heathrow is not going to be the dominant issue in the run up to the Mayoral election, of course I am’. Goldsmith also argued this is

Sebastian Payne

Tony Blair: bringing Colonel Gaddafi ‘in from the cold’ prevented future terrorism

Tony Blair was hauled up in front of the sparsely-attended Foreign Affairs select committee today for a grilling about his links to Colonel Muammar Gaddafi — particularly around the time of the 2011 uprising. The former prime minister said he met with Gaddafi ‘once or twice’ because ‘it was important to bring them in from the cold’. If Britain hadn’t engaged with the regime, Blair said it would be ‘continuing to sponsor terrorism, was continuing to develop chemical and nuclear weapons and would have remained isolated in the international community’. Blair mentioned that he currently visits the Middle East once or twice a month and his philosophy is that ‘evolution is better than

Sebastian Payne

Patrick McLoughlin: government may still back second runway at Gatwick

‘Gutless’ is how this morning’s papers are describing the government’s decision to yet again delay the decision on where in the South East to build a new runway. On the Today programme this morning, the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin attempted to explain why the government has changed its mind — noting ‘we could have said we couldn’t have taken this forward at all’: ‘I think we’ve made some important movements already. We’ve accepted what Davies says about the need for additional capacity in the South East and we’ve said that we will make a decision on that over the summer’. Most significantly, McLoughlin signalled the government is still toying with expansion at Gatwick. ‘Please get

Fraser Nelson

No, Britain can’t direct Europe. Let’s stop pretending otherwise

Can Britain reorder Europe? When James Forsyth and I interviewed the Prime Minister on Monday we were struck by his line of argument. Yes, he said, seeing the immigration crisis coming straight after the Euro crisis may make voters want out. But this, he said, was an instinctive reaction. There was a better response:- The longer term reaction might actually be: well if they are going to have a single currency and they are on our doorstep and they are going to try and make it work, let’s make sure our relationship with them works… If they are going to have a borderless Europe which we’re not part of, for heaven’s sake

Steerpike

Meet Jeremy’s Stop the War comrades: anti-Zionism, abortion comedy and the Stalin Society

Although Jeremy Corbyn is facing growing criticism over his role as a speaker at Friday’s Stop The War Christmas fundraiser, so far the Labour leader is showing no signs of backing down. Despite pleas from the likes of Michael Dugher, Tristram Hunt, Caroline Flint and Emma Reynolds for Corbyn to cancel, he looks set to attend, and will give the main speech. So, who will he be dining with as he feasts on Turkish food and rallies the troops? Mr S has compiled a list of some of the Stop the War comrades that may be in attendance tonight: Francesca Martinez: As well as Corbyn’s speech, entertainment will be provided by the

Thursday

10 Dec 2015

The Spectator

State of the Union

Last year, the United Kingdom came within 384,000 votes of destruction. A referendum designed to crush the Scottish nationalists instead saw them win 45 per cent of the vote — and become stronger than ever. Since then, the SNP has taken almost every Scottish seat in the Commons and is preparing for another landslide in the Holyrood election next year — giving Nicola Sturgeon the power to threaten a second referendum. We may be just a few years away from a second battle for Britain. In her short time as First Minister, Sturgeon has established herself as one of the most formidable politicians in Europe. She has raised a rebel army that

Isabel Hardman

Have food banks become a ‘boil of no significance’?

Remember food banks? They were a hot political issue about a year ago, with Labour MPs raising them again and again to wrong foot Tory ministers, but seem to have dropped off the political agenda, even though many of them are still seeing more people coming to them for emergency food help. Well, some politicians haven’t forgotten about them, and today the all-party parliamentary group on hunger and food poverty publishes an update on its attempts to tackle hunger in this country. The group is led by Labour MP Frank Field, who doesn’t blow about with the political winds but tends to stick to his guns. Ministers choose whether or

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn’s speech falls flat at Labour’s Christmas party

Jeremy Corbyn is currently facing calls to cancel his attendance at Friday’s Stop the War Christmas fundraiser dinner. However, should he stay on course and attend, the Labour leader can at least bank on getting a far friendlier reception from his comrades there than he did at his own party’s Christmas bash. Labour staff gathered in the Conrad St James hotel on Tuesday night for their annual Christmas party. Faced with free drinks and free food, the event had the ingredients for a promising night. That was until Jeremy Corbyn stepped up to the mic to give a speech to his party. Taking inspiration from John McDonnell, who quoted Chairman Mao

Fraser Nelson

‘Voters think: Oh Christ, push Europe away from me!’ – David Cameron interview

This is an extended version of an interview with the Prime Minister from the Christmas special issue of The Spectator. The last time David Cameron sat down with The Spectator for an interview, he was on a train and looking rather worried. There were just weeks to go until the general election and the polls were not moving. At the time, almost no one — and certainly not him — imagined that he was on the cusp of a historic election -victory that would not just sweep the Tories to power but send Labour into an abyss. This time, we meet on another train. But he’s far more relaxed, reflecting on winning

Gavin Mortimer

How Marine Le Pen is winning over the Muslim vote

‘Shock’ was the one-word headline on the front of Monday’s Le Figaro. France was bracing itself for a swing to the right in Sunday’s regional elections, but few imagined it would be quite as dramatic. Marine Le Pen’s Front National (FN) polled nearly 30 per cent of the vote in the first round of voting, ahead of Nicolas Sarkozy’s centre-right Les Républicains and the ruling Socialist Party, who trailed in third with 23 per cent. As it stands, the FN are on course to take control of six regions after Sunday’s second round, although the predictions are they will triumph in no more than three due to tactical voting. Among those who

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s great escape

The last time David Cameron sat down with The Spectator for an interview, he was on a train and looking rather worried. There were just weeks to go until the general election and the polls were not moving. At the time, almost no one — and certainly not him — imagined that he was on the cusp of a historic election victory that would not just sweep the Tories to power but send Labour into an abyss. This time, we meet on another train. But he’s far more relaxed, reflecting on winning The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year award and recalling how election night brought him some of the ‘happiest

Tony Blair

What I got right

All wings of the Labour party which support the notion of Labour as a party aspiring to govern — rather than as a fringe protest movement — agree on the tragedy of the Labour party’s current position. But even within that governing tendency, there is disagreement about the last Labour government; what it stood for and what it should be proud of. The moral dimension of Labour tradition has always been very strong, encapsulated in the phrase that the Labour party owed more to Methodism than to Marx. When I became the opposition spokesman on law and order in 1992, following our fourth election defeat, I consciously moved us away

Rod Liddle

Hug, hold hands . . . then stampede to the right

What a pleasure it was to see two socialist parties triumph in the most recent elections. First, Labour increased its share of the vote in Oldham — and then, last weekend, the Front National became France’s most popular party, securing almost 30 per cent in the first round of the country’s regional elections. Labour’s win was, I suspect, a bit of a false dawn. For a start, the party did an un-usual thing and fielded a sentient and likeable candidate, something which most of the time it successfully avoids doing. But even then, it was at least partly dependent upon Asian men hauling large sacks of votes from illiterate and

Michael Gove

Faith is left, right. . . and central

There was, of course, something very special about the House of Commons debate on Syria earlier this month. The moral challenge of how to face those who embrace evil without limits, the long shadows and sombre memories generated by military actions past, the divisions within parties and between friends, the wrestling with conscience that brought good men and women close to tears. The importance of what the House of Commons was being asked to authorise inspired outstanding speeches, most notably of all, Hilary Benn’s. While I was listening to the shadow foreign secretary, I noticed a hunched figure in the gallery also held spellbound by the speech, his head occasionally

Charles Moore

Charles Moore vs David Hare: a one-act play

Charles Moore and David Hare sit in the editor’s office at The Spectator, Hare on a brown leather chesterfield, Moore opposite him on the striped sofa once favoured by the former editor Boris Johnson for naps. Hare and Moore disagree on everything from God to Thatcher; capitalism to the Iraq war. But as Moore has recently noted in his column, both men grew up in the same place, near Bexhill on the East Sussex coast. They’re here for tea and to see if there’s anything on which they can agree.… Act I, Scene I CHARLES MOORE: In your book [The Blue Touch Paper] you describe the Bexhill I knew,

Wednesday

9 Dec 2015

Alex Massie

A liar but not a crook; Alistair Carmichael is good enough for parliament

This morning a pair of judges in Edinburgh dismissed a petition seeking to overturn the result of the general election in Orkney and Shetland. Alistair Carmichael is not guilty of breaking the Representation of the People Act (1983) and may remain a Member of Parliament. There will be no by-election in the northern isles. Obviously this was an outrage and not just because everything in Scotland these days is an outrage. It was a disgrace. A whitewash and an establishment stitch-up. A stitch-up slathered with whitewash. All across Scotland you could hear the screeching as nationalist fury chimps rattled the bars of their cages. A dirty protest of the mind will doubtless

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Angela Eagle outshines Corbyn and Osborne

Jeremy Corbyn is like the lights in a planetarium. Whenever he goes off, stars appear. Last week the radiation came from Hilary Benn. At PMQs today it was Angela Eagle who outshone her leader. With Cameron away, George Osborne manned the despatch box but he showed not a flicker of joy or anticipation as he uttered the golden words. ‘Today I had meetings with ministerial colleagues and others…’ Beneath the tomb-stone expression was this. ‘It’s mine already – try and take it off me’. Ms Eagle was dressed for a PTA meeting in a twinkly caravanning jumper and a Primark jacket. Her no-nonsense blonde hair was cropped short at the

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: Angela Eagle tries to cheer up the Labour party

How do you unite the Labour party and cheer them up? Today the party’s MPs were cheering happily and laughing along at the jokes offered from their Dispatch Box for the first time in months. And on Monday, they managed to have a cheerful meeting of the parliamentary Labour party. One thing that was missing from both sessions was Jeremy Corbyn. The cheer that accompanied Angela Eagle as she got to her feet to ask her first question of George Osborne, who was standing in for David Cameron, was full and sincere. And though she didn’t have a particularly devastating series of questions – she managed to meander through the

Steerpike

Watch: Lucy Powell takes a swipe at Diane Abbott over Shadow Cabinet clash

Since Jeremy Corbyn was elected as leader of the Labour party, his main cheerleader Diane Abbott has never been far from his side. In fact, Abbott has even taken it upon herself to often fight Corbyn’s corner. This has involved warning unruly MPs about the size of his mandate, as well as having a heated argument with Jess Phillips during a meeting of the PLP, after the newly-elected Labour MP hit out at the lack of women in Corbyn’s Shadow Cabinet. Since then, it’s been claimed that Abbott — who has earned herself the nickname Madame Mao as a result of her behaviour — has also played up during meetings of the

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Merry Christmas from Nigel Evans, the deep-thinker

Although Diane Abbott’s Christmas card efforts have been well-documented this year — with the Labour MP even finding time to write them during hostile meetings of the PLP, Nigel Evans is surely a contender for the ‘most striking Christmas card’ award. Evans has today sent out his own batch of cards which feature the man himself looking pensively into the distance. Happily they also tick the festive-box thanks to a charming Christmas tree mug he clutches in the shot: Good to see he has so much time on his hands.