Politics Archives

Monday

10 Aug 2015

What’s so bad about professional politicians anyway?

If you’re at all ambitious in Westminster these days, the most important thing is to show that you’re not a professional politician. Generally, the accepted definition of ‘professional politician’ is someone who has done something normal as far away from Westminster as possible before entering Parliament. But some alter the standard definition at their convenience to also mean ‘has a northern accent’ or ‘isn’t from a posh family or school’. That second may make someone stand out in Parliament: given how expensive it is to stand in an election, it helps if you’ve got wealth of some kind, and private schools are disproportionately represented in Parliament. Today Andy Burnham has released

Gabriel Heller

Immigration helps explain Sweden’s school trouble

Sweden’s education performance has faltered in the past decades, with scores tumbling in the OECD’s international Pisa survey since the early 2000s. Both the Guardian and the BBC have recently looked into this phenomenon. There’s no shortage of explanations for the poor results, but British enemies of school reform have latched on to one of them: the free schools reform of the early 1990s, which they claim sent the system into chaos. You’ll notice how the naysayers never give any evidence to back up their claims. This is unsurprising, since there isn’t any to give. On the contrary, research indicates that free schools have to some extent cushioned Sweden’s fall. Free schools are

Steerpike

Harriet Harman: how I protected my baby from Margaret Thatcher, ‘the witch’

According to some of the more far-left members of the Labour Party, Harriet Harman is a Tory. The somewhat surprising claim came after she told her party to abstain on the Tories’ Welfare Bill, leading 48 MPs to break whip and vote against it. However, seemingly keen to silence the naysayers — in an interview with the Guardian — Harman, who has three children with Jack Dromey, has given an account of the lengths she has gone to to avoid socialising with Tories. The acting Leader of the Labour Party says that she once hid in a side corridor to prevent Margaret Thatcher — who she likens to a witch — from

Isabel Hardman

Are you the heir to Blair? Liz Kendall: ‘I don’t think so, actually.’

Unless something entirely undetected is happening in the Labour membership, Liz Kendall is not going to be elected party leader in the next few weeks. Today in an interview with the World at One, she said she was ‘definitely’ the underdog in the contest and that though ’I know I’ve got a long way to go’, she would be making the case ‘right towards the end’. Now her aim, it seems, is to advance her arguments about the future of Labour, rather than hoping that she might win. Those arguments might be characterised as Blairism, but when Kendall was asked if she was the ‘heir to Blair’, she said: ‘I

Steerpike

Corbynmania takes hold of the Tories

Forget Tories4Corbyn, a new craze is taking hold of Conservative politicians across the country. With Jeremy Corbyn’s popularity now at an all-time high, he has amassed a hoard of female fans who have described him as sexy in ‘a world weary sea dog’ sort of way. Now it seems the Tories too want in on the action. In a bid to look more like the man of the moment, David Gauke — who is the current Financial Secretary to the Treasury — has grown his beard out in the style of Corbyn. #Corbynmania reaches my chin. Temporarily. pic.twitter.com/C2OKJXlfNi — David Gauke (@DavidGauke) August 10, 2015 What’s more, he’s not alone; Ed Vaizey has also been

Isabel Hardman

Could tax credit cuts undermine the Tory claim to be the ‘Workers’ Party’?

The Tories are on a mission to brand themselves the Workers’ Party while Labour messes about with its leadership contest. The party has got the energetic Robert Halfon as its Deputy Chairman, and he is fizzing with ideas on how to improve the Conservative appeal to working class voters to the extent that they start seeing the Tories as their natural home, not Labour. Labour types might scoff, but if the past few months have taught us anything, it’s that you cannot take ‘your’ voters for granted as staying ‘yours’, with Scotland being the prime example. As I explain in the Sun today, the party has plans to get on

Sunday

9 Aug 2015

Isabel Hardman

Clause IV or not, Jeremy Corbyn wants to change Labour

Jeremy Corbyn’s supporters and spokespeople are fiercely debating whether or not he told the Independent on Sunday’s Jane Merrick that he wants to bring back clause IV. His quote to the journalist seems pretty clear: ‘I think we should talk about what the objectives of the party are, whether that’s restoring Clause Four as it was originally written or it’s a different one. But we shouldn’t shy away from public participation, public investment in industry and public control of the railways. ‘I’m interested in the idea that we have a more inclusive, clearer set of objectives. I would want us to have a set of objectives which does include public

Tom Stevenson

Why is Michael Fallon cosying up to General al-Sisi?

Michael Fallon, the Defence Secretary, was in Egypt this week for the opening of the ‘New Suez Canal’ (in fact an extension to the old Suez canal elaborately advertised), and took the opportunity to express Britain’s support for the military junta that installed itself in Egypt two years ago. The presence of a senior member of the Cabinet at the opening ceremony is in itself a message of support for Abdel Fattah al-Sisi’s regime in Egypt that probably ought not be sent, but Fallon didn’t stop there. After praising the authorities for building ‘a modern wonder’, he announced in the largest state-owned newspaper that Britain ‘stands shoulder to shoulder’ with Egypt and

Steerpike

Andy Burnham’s GQ interview comes back to haunt him

Although much has been made of Andy Burnham’s admission in an interview with GQ that he owns an Armani suit, perhaps the most embarrassing revelation lies further down. When asked for the Gentlemen’s Quarterley’s September issue who he would like to lead the Labour party if he doesn’t win the leadership election, Burnham plays it safe and chooses a politician who is not even running for the coveted position: ‘Alan Johnson is somebody that I think has that authentic Labour voice that the public can relate to, and somebody who embodies aspiration in a good way.’ Pity then that Johnson came out in support of his rival Yvette Cooper just two

Friday

7 Aug 2015

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson sets out his blue collar Conservative manifesto

How do the Tories win over low-income workers for good? That’s the question occupying the mind of anyone seriously thinking about the 2020 election, rather than assuming that Jeremy Corbyn will win it for them. Today Boris Johnson turned his hand to answering that question in an eloquent and detailed speech which set out his stall on social mobility. Of course, every speech at the moment is viewed as part of the leadership contest, and given Boris hasn’t had a particularly stellar first term in the Commons, this speech did appear to be partly a reminder that he hasn’t gone away at all. In fact, it was a fine speech

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron defends giving £3 million to Kids Company

Kids Company staff and service users have been protesting outside Downing Street today after the charity announced it was closing its doors. But the Prime Minister isn’t there: he’s on holiday. He did, however, give this clip to broadcasters in which he defended his ministers’ decision to overrule officials’ concerns and give the struggling charity a further £3 million: ‘Well, the government thought it was the right thing to do, to give this charity one last chance of restructuring to try to make sure it could continue its excellent work. Sadly that didn’t happen, not least because of the allegations that were made and private donors withdrawing their money, but

Steerpike

Karen Danczuk on marriage split from Labour MP: ‘I feel like the new Bridget Jones’

Since Karen Danczuk announced her split from her husband Simon Danczuk, the Labour MP, she has been embroiled in a bitter row with him over the reasons for their parting of ways. Happily, in recent weeks this has cooled, as they try to put their differences aside for the sake of their children. Not that this means the ‘selfie queen’ is about to become a wallflower. The former Labour councillor has started a blog — titled ‘Selfie Made Woman’ — in which she offers readers an insight into her deepest thoughts. And while the Mirror reported earlier in the week that she faces bailiffs after ignoring a court order concerning rent, Danczuk has

Sean Kemp

If the electorate won’t change its mind on the economy, Labour will have to – if it wants to win

Only a couple of years ago the Labour Party was criticised for its silence over the summer recess, with complaints that Ed Miliband’s team had failed to take advantage of the traditionally quiet period to get some much-needed media coverage. Well, never let it be said that Labour doesn’t learn from its mistakes: this year’s seemingly endless leadership election has turned into a nightmare for the party and a delight for hacks. The cause of all this has been the extraordinary rise of Jeremy Corbyn, and attention is shifting to what might happen if he actually wins this thing. But we already know what will happen if Corbyn wins: it

Jonathan King

Why I don’t believe that Ted Heath was gay

The moment Edward Heath sat down in the first class seat next to me on the flight from Scotland to London, shook my hand and said ‘Jonathan, it is a pleasure to meet you’ I determined to flirt with him in order to find out whether the rumours that he was gay were true. I was in my thirties and famous. An undergraduate at Trinity College, Cambridge, I had been lucky, in 1965, to write and sing Everyone’s Gone To The Moon, which sold just under 5 million copies. That same month in that same year Heath had been elected leader of the Conservative Party. I’ve been fortunate, in my life,

Tim Loughton

Uncomradely conduct: My time as a Labour member, by a Tory MP

Yesterday for the first time I trended on Twitter. Apparently I had been busted registering as a ‘supporter of the Labour Party.’ It seems one of the many people I had told over the previous week had ratted to the Guardian that I had paid my £3 and signed up online entitling me to vote in the forthcoming election for the leader of HM Opposition. This was despite the fact that I had applied on my Tory MP email address and given my reasons for doing so in the helpful, if not hopeful, online box asking why I had taken such a step as ‘to vote for Jeremy Corbyn in

Thursday

6 Aug 2015

Peter Jones

Party-naming with Plato

In order to make a sensible choice of new leader, the Labour party is trying to work out what its ‘core values’ are. Perhaps it would be helpful to begin by thinking about its core name: does ‘Labour’ still correlate with the party’s function any more? In Plato’s dialogue Cratylus, Socrates and chums discuss the significance of the names we apply to the world around us. Does a name give the clue to the real nature of the object to which it is applied, or is it a convention, merely an arbitrary sound or sign? At one level, Socrates argues, names are significant. Anthrôpos, ‘human’, for example, distinguishes humans from animals;

Steerpike

Lynton Crosby offers Nigel Farage some career advice

In an interview with Sky News Australia, David Cameron’s former election strategist Lynton Crosby has today offered his thoughts on the Prime Minister’s rivals. Unsurprisingly, his conclusions are hardly flattering. However, the man who has taken the brunt of Crosby’s ire is Nigel Farage. Crosby claims that Ukip does not have ‘a long-term future’. Furthermore, instead of trying to win a Westminster seat again, Farage would be better advised to look for chat show work in Australia: ‘They are very reliant on the performance of their leader Nigel Farage and even he couldn’t win a seat. Sixth or seventh time he’s tried to win a Westminster seat. I think he might be

Isabel Hardman

The looming Tory rebellions to look out for this autumn

Without wanting to dispel the utter euphoria that Tories are feeling at the current state of the Labour party, they do have a tricky autumn to get through which they don’t seem to be thinking much about. In today’s Times I set out some of the looming Tory rebellions on a range of different policies due for Commons scrutiny this autumn. There is, of course, the possibility that the whips pull many of these votes, which means that there will be problems in Parliament, but not actual rebellions in the Commons. The Tories may be trying to pass various policies that aren’t particularly popular, but they’re being nimble about it,

Steerpike

Sadiq Khan gets in a flap over fried chicken

As the MP for Tooting, Sadiq Khan represents a constituency that is home to the largest Chicken Cottage in Europe. Not that he seemed proud of this fact at last night’s Evening Standard Labour mayoral hustings. While the candidates debated how to deal with the spread of high street gambling shops since Labour brought in the Gambling Act, Khan turned his attention to another guilty pleasure: fried chicken. ‘We’ve got too many chicken shops in our town centres. We’ve got too many pawn brokers in our town centres. We’ve got too many gambling shops in our town centres. Elect me to be the London Mayor and we’ll sort all those

Steerpike

Jeremy Corbyn appears to endorse Diane Abbott for London Mayor (again)

Last week Diane Abbott was caught in a sticky situation after her campaign sent out a text to supporters that was allegedly from Jeremy Corbyn. It claimed that the Labour leadership favourite is backing her to be the Labour candidate to run for Mayor. Although Corbyn and Abbott are close, Corbyn’s team were quick to distance themselves, claiming the ‘text wasn’t authorised’. It was then reported that Corbyn had decided not to formally support a candidate in the mayoral race. So Mr S can’t help but wonder if Abbott’s campaign leaflets have been ‘authorised’? Last night at the Evening Standard‘s Labour mayoral hustings, Abbott had her team hand out campaign literature which carried a