Politics Archives

Thursday

2 Jul 2015

The wrong man

For the final three years of his 18-year career at Goldman Sachs, Jim O’Neill, the Treasury’s new commercial secretary with responsibility for developing the Northern Powerhouse, served as chairman of Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the company’s least-regarded and most bothersome unit. While two younger executives ran the business, O’Neill was dispatched to faraway conferences to bore audiences of docile suits with his views on whether Nigeria or Malaysia offered a better investment opportunity. When finally in early 2013 he resigned his sinecure, he was not replaced and his title was mothballed. Since then, he has been all but marching up and down Whitehall wearing a sandwich board pleading for a

James Delingpole

Must all Children’s Laureates be tedious lefties?

Unless you’re an avid reader of the Guardian, you’re probably blissfully unaware that Britain has a new Children’s Laureate. His name is Chris Riddell, he’s an illustrator and a cartoonist for the Observer, and according to one who has interviewed him he is a delightful man: ‘Giggly, childlike, doodled book illustrations on his napkin throughout.’ I’m glad about this. One of the roles of the Waterstones Children’s Laureate — in return for his £15,000 bursary and his ‘specially designed and inscribed silver medal’ — is to tour Britain’s schools and festivals acting as an ambassador for children’s literature. Clearly, it would be a disadvantage were the incumbent to prove, say, a filthy

Wednesday

1 Jul 2015

James Forsyth

Rachel Wolf to Number 10

Good news for those who value the Michael Gove education agenda, Rachel Wolf — the founder of the New Schools Network — is joining the Number 10 policy unit. Wolf, who has spent the last few years in the States working on education technology, will be covering tech, innovation and education. As her work at the New Schools Network demonstrated, where she helped get the first wave of free schools up and running, Wolf gets things done. The fact that Camilla Cavendish, the former Sunday Times columnist who is now in Number 10, has hired her, suggests that Cavendish wants a series of practical ideas from the Policy Unit rather

Sebastian Payne

What happens next with Heathrow?

Now that the Davies Commission has made its recommendation, the ball is back in the government’s court. The biggest immediate challenge the government has to face is David Cameron’s 2009 remark that ‘the third runway at Heathrow is not going ahead, no ifs, no buts.’ As James noted at PMQs today, the Prime Minister’s body language did not suggest he is particularly favourable towards Heathrow. But now the Airport Commission report has been received by the government, the buck has been passed to the Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin. While Cameron said in the Commons that a decision will be made ‘by the end of the year’, McLoughlin said it would be

Steerpike

Ed Miliband makes a return to frontline politics

Ed Miliband was praised for his integrity by George Osborne after he returned to the Commons and gave a speech so soon after his election defeat. Although the Conservatives have been happy to pile on the praise towards their old foe, Mr S suspects their enthusiasm will begin to wear thin by the end of the week. The former Labour leader is to dip his toe back into frontline politics by leading a commons debate tomorrow on Hatfield Colliery, the Doncaster coal mine which is closing this week leading to the loss of 430 jobs. Judging by Miliband comments so far on the mine’s early closure, the Tories will be in for a rough

Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: Airports and angry Nats

Chooom! Davies has arrived. Sir Howard’s report made a text-book landing on the PM’s desk yesterday afternoon and began taxiing towards Cameron’s in-tray. But the PM hasn’t read it yet. Or so he claimed at PMQs. He therefore avoided any commitment to building a third runway at Heathrow. And his excuse? Wilful ignorance. Seriously? He hasn’t read it? Given the time and cash the damn thing has gobbled up he might have glanced at the executive summary. Sir Howard has worked his way through twenty million smackers reaching a foregone conclusion. His defenders point out that this money was very well spent because Sir Howard pays scrupulous personal attention to every

Steerpike

The Spectator summer party, in pictures

With a Tory majority to celebrate, the Cabinet turned out in full force for this year’s Spectator summer party. As David Cameron and George Osborne caught up with their old head of strategy Steve Hilton, Sajid Javid and Michael Fallon enjoyed the British heatwave. Harriet Harman was there on behalf of Labour, with the departing deputy leader sharing a tender moment with Boris Johnson in the garden. Johnson meanwhile was on fighting form over the Heathrow expansion recommendations. However, he also found time to say some kind words about his brother Jo Johnson’s plan to change the current university grade system to put a stop to students who ‘coast within the 2:1 band‘.

James Forsyth

Greek referendum going ahead as Tsipras again urges No vote

After much speculation that the Greek referendum was about to be cancelled, Alexis Tsipras has just appeared on Greek television to confirm that it is going ahead and to urge people to vote No. He said that those saying a No vote would mean Greece leaving the Euro were telling lies. He argued instead, that a No would strengthen his negotiating hand and allow him to achieve a ‘social deal’ which would be easier on the poor and pensioners. Everything now turns on the result of the referendum. If it is a Yes vote, the Syriza-led government will almost certainly resign and one can see how the country’s creditors could

James Forsyth

PMQs: David Cameron gives the impression he isn’t sold on a third runway at Heathrow

Harriet Harman began at PMQs by asking about the situation in Tunisia. The mood of the House was appropriately sombre as this issue was discussed and there was much agreement between her and Cameron. But then she turned to the Davies’s report and its recommendation that a third runway should be built at Heathrow, and party politics was resumed. Harman announced that Labour was now backing a third runway, and challenged Cameron to do the same. He dodged, hiding behind the threat of judicial review. Harman then cracked a series of good jokes at his expense, chastising him for ‘being bullied by Boris’ out of doing the right thing for the

Steerpike

Tory summer party auctions a photo of the Cabinet – for £200,000

Despite the government planning £12bn worth of welfare cuts, it’s still a case of no expense spared when it comes to Tory parties. Last night the Conservative Party Summer Party was held at the Hurlingham. The lavish bash saw the Tories celebrate their return to government with their rich donors, who in turn volunteered hundreds of thousands of pounds for a number of lots, including a copy of the EdStone: Although the event was supposed to be private, Mr S’s colleague Fraser Nelson was on hand to report back on the lavish bash. He writes about the do in his diary in the forthcoming issue of The Spectator: ‘Mind you, nothing much embarrasses the Conservatives nowadays. They

Steerpike

Jo Johnson takes aim at those who ‘coast within the 2.1 band’

This morning Jo Johnson gave a speech in which he outlined his recommendations for the way in which universities grade students. The new science and universities minister suggested that they rethink the current honours system and instead have a ‘dual running’ with regards degree classifications and grade point averages. If his idea does become a reality and there is less of a focus on degree classifications, Mr S suspects it will be music to the ears of Jo’s siblings, Boris and Rachel. Jo was the only one of the three to achieve a first class degree from Oxford, an achievement which was reportedly a cause of envy for Boris, who along with his sister Rachel, only managed

Nicholas Mayes

There’s only one way to save the crumbling Houses of Parliament. Turn them into a theme park

The Houses of Parliament are falling down. According to the Independent Options Appraisal of the Palace of Westminster Restoration and Renewal Programme – a group of engineers and project managers commissioned to have a butcher’s – the Palace of Westminster is ‘partly sinking, contains asbestos and has outdated cabling’, is ‘infested with rats and mice and in an advanced state of disrepair’ and will take £5.7 billion and 32 years to put right, unless MPs and Lords shuffle off somewhere else for a bit, in which case it’ll be £3.5 billion over six years. Without such repairs, ‘major, irreversible damage’ looms. Several MPs have taken advantage of the report to suggest that

Tuesday

30 Jun 2015

Sebastian Payne

How the three stages of the Labour leadership race could benefit Liz Kendall

Liz Kendall is continuing to push herself as the ‘change everything’ candidate for the Labour leadership. During a speech at Reuters this morning, Kendall called for the party to make a big shift on fiscal responsibility if it has any hope of winning the next election — a task some think is beyond Labour in its current state: ‘If we continue to stick with the politics that we had at the last election or, indeed, over the last seven or eight years, we will get the same result. Einstein said the definition of madness was to continue doing the same thing over and over again and expect to get a different result. We need

Lloyd Evans

Common sense suggests Britain’s economy doesn’t depend on the EU

They say you have to be nearly 60 to have voted in the 1975 referendum. I voted in that referendum. I was 12. My mum had forgotten her glasses. We were a Labour household and as we left the polling station she said, ‘You did vote “in”, like Harold Wilson suggested?’ ‘No,’ I replied, ‘I’m with Tony Benn. I want “Out”’. Benn wasn’t right about much but he asked three good questions about the Common Market. Who appointed these people? What are the limits to their power? How do we get rid of them? Satisfactory answers are still unforthcoming. And his clear-headed approach may persuade others of the need to quit.

Emma Hartley

We haven’t had a pan-European war for 70 years. Why is that?

The EU referendum makes me suspect that the grownups don’t know what they’re doing. I can see how we got to this point but it seems absurd that something so fundamental should be up – not just for debate but possibly even – for reversal. It is doubly absurd because David Cameron has said that he will be campaigning – as you would expect of a conservative – for the status quo. So why are you doing this? I mouth at the television, wishing heartily that he would fight his internal party battles on his own time. Bewilderment is, it seems to me, one of the main forces behind this referendum. Some

Steerpike

Dennis Skinner: ‘Gordon Brown and I were the Northern Powerhouse’

After Dennis Skinner successfully won the SNP turf war over his favoured seat in the Commons, the Labour backbencher has been relatively quiet of late. So Mr S was pleased to see him back on fighting form this lunchtime during Business Questions. In what could only be described as an ambitious move, the Beast of Bolsover decided to take on Anna Soubry over George Osborne’s pet project, the Northern Powerhouse. After Soubry talked of the great work the Tories have carried out in the North, Skinner went on to claim that it was actually he who was behind the Northern Powerhouse: ‘I’ve listened carefully for the last half an hour to find out exactly what

Steerpike

Charlotte Church to be reunited with David Cameron at this year’s Tory conference

In 2012 Charlotte Church met with David Cameron at the Conservative Party Conference as part of a Hacked Off fringe event. Although the meeting appeared to be civil at the time, the classical singer turned anti-austerity activist later said he came across as ‘gross and really misogynistic’: ‘He was so dismissive to what I had to say. It just really irked me that whole situation.’ Now three years on, Steerpike understands that the pair will have the chance for a reunion at this year’s Tory conference, which is to be held in Manchester in October. Church announced during a debate over the weekend that she is set to appear there as

Steerpike

Simon Danczuk lashes out at Karen Danczuk following split

Over the weekend, Simon Danczuk confirmed his break up from his wife Karen Danczuk, with both the Labour MP and the ‘Selfie Queen’ describing themselves as devastated at the decision. Alas, any sadness appears to have turned into anger. Simon has taken to Twitter to accuse Karen of using their split for publicity. He says that she is helping her personal trainer ‘friend’ to promote his gym: Whatever could he mean?

Jonathan Foreman

Aid is no substitute for defence, and Michael Fallon knows it

It’s been obvious for a while that the Prime Minister is exasperated by the way American and other allied officials – including President Obama himself – keep expressing concern about Britain’s rapidly shrinking defence capabilities and the prospect of yet more defence cuts. David Cameron also dislikes being reminded that he lectured other Nato leaders about meeting the alliance’s minimum of spending 2 per cent GDP on defence, when by any honest calculation the UK is not going to meet that target. He hasn’t responded directly to the multiple warnings from Washington. This is presumably because overtly contradicting the President, the Secretary of State and Secretary of Defence of the United States could

Ryan Shorthouse

The quality, not quantity, of childcare needs improving

The Chancellor has found himself a treasure chest: childcare. In his quest for full employment, it’s seen as crucial for boosting maternal employment. Helping parents with punishingly high childcare costs appeals to and supports those on modest incomes – the so-called ‘blue-collar’ voters – that Conservatives still need to woo. Nothing quite encapsulates the modernisation of the Tory party as its growing enthusiasm for childcare. The Conservatives no longer want to be seen simply as the flag-waver for a traditional family setup. Instead, they aspire to be the party for working people. No yearning for yesteryear, but enthusiastically supporting two-earner couples that are increasingly the norm, out of choice and

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