Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Nick Clegg and Danny Alexander may have been hoping for an inspiring backdrop to their tax policy launch today when they booked the Shard as the venue. Sadly, it was foggy. Oh, and only one rather sceptical-looking reporter, the Daily Mail’s Jason Groves, sat in the front row, which left them with this really inspirational photo opportunity. That’s one for the front page of the manifesto…
What are you doing when you vote? Much of the discussion about elections assumes – implicitly or explicitly – that voters are making a judgement about policies being put forward by the parties; that they would only vote for a party which had policies with which they broadly agreed; and, moreover, that these policies will have to form a vaguely coherent programme, and be realistic and affordable. Even allowing for that fact that we know that many voters don’t know the details of the various policies proposed, it is still widely assumed that they would care if they knew. This is why there is so much discussion of policy proposals
Nick Clegg is not having a good day. A survey of the Deputy Prime Minister’s seat claims he is behind Labour by 10 points in his Sheffield Hallam constituency. If accurate, this means that Clegg will be out of a job come May. Now it seems even his own team may have some reservations about his popularity in the local area. Mr S has got wind of a batch of Sheffield Hallam Liberal Democrat leaflets that don’t even mention him by name, let alone include a picture of their candidate. Mr S suspects that the omission of Clegg may be for the best. ‘There’s a big student population in Sheffield Hallam and a
For the best part of half a century Greenpeace’s constant campaigning on environmental issues has been an almost unmitigated success. Its effectiveness has brought it both astonishing wealth and almost unimpeded access to decision-makers. During this time, it has had what amounts to a free pass from the media, its claims and methods rarely questioned by credulous environmental correspondents. But are the wheels finally coming off? Looking back over the last few years it’s easy to get that impression: an organisation that once seemed untouchable has found itself having to answer some very sharp questions about the way it behaves and operates. As far back as 2010, Gene Hashmi, Greenpeace’s
[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_5_Feb_2015_v4.mp3″ title=”James Forsyth and Alex Massie discuss Labour’s problems north of the border” startat=1118] Listen [/audioplayer]Just four months ago Scotland was the scene of great cross-party co-operation — unprecedented in peace-time politics. Gordon Brown was offering advice on David Cameron’s speeches, Douglas Alexander and the Scottish Tory leader Ruth Davidson turned themselves into a formidable debating duo, and Charles Kennedy was being hailed by Labour strategists as the man who would save the Union. Even George Galloway got in on the act. One of the oddest sights I have witnessed in politics was the Respect MP gushingly introducing the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander, at
Cowering in the corner of a pet shop, I edged towards the door to try to escape as a stranger yelled at me. The man’s face was so puckered up and puce with anger that I feared I was moments away from being beaten to death with a ball-thrower or ham bone. I had only popped in to buy some dog food for the spaniel and now the spaniel was hiding behind me as a fellow customer shouted abuse. The lady who owned the pet shop was trying to appease the shouting man, who had his own dog with him, a scrappy little terrier who looked as terrified as the
BP’s profits are down, and the oil giant is slashing up to $6 billion out of its investment plan for the year. At Shell, the cut could amount to $15 billion over the next three years. At troubled BG, still waiting for new chief executive Helge Lund to arrive, capital spending will be a third lower than last year. I wrote recently of ‘consequences we really don’t need’ as the oil price continues to plunge: cheering though it is for consumers (and good for short-term growth) to find pump prices at a five-year low, the full impact will not be felt until a decade hence, when projects cancelled now might
The other night on Channel 4, I watched the best political interview I’ve seen all year. It was with Nick Clegg, and conducted by a guy called Alex Brooker. And it gave me, if only for a few moments, a glimpse of a better world. You’ll know who Nick Clegg is. Brooker, though, might have passed under your radar: he was only just on mine. He’s one of three hosts on a comedy show called The Last Leg, which launched during the Paralympics of 2012. Disability features heavily in the premise of the show, so I probably ought to mention that he has a prosthetic leg and something up with
How did he get away with that? We’re assured that somewhere inside Labour HQ there toils a crack team of sleuths, analysts, Cameron-watchers, policy-fetishists and high-IQ saboteurs who spend all week devising Miliband’s Wednesday assault on the prime minister. And yet these world-class strategists seem to get beaten every time by the most predictable of dodges. Cameron doesn’t even prepare his defence. He just makes it up on the spot. Today Miliband went for the big one: hit Cameron with corruption charges. Or as near as damn it. The government has spared hedge funds from the duty payable on share dealings which is levied on all other financial players. The
One expert who sounded off to great effect in the run-up to yesterday’s vote on three parent babies was Robert Winston, IVF supremo and baby maker in chief. He declared in the Telegraph that the donation of mitochondrial DNA was really no more problematic, morally speaking, than a blood transfusion. Naturally this had an effect on the way the debate was conducted – most MPs were entirely dismissive of the radical character of the bill, allowing for permanent, even if benign, changes to an individual’s genetic legacy, their germ line. (Incidentally, the donation of nuclei to an donor egg is much better researched than the more morally problematic embryo-to-embryo nuclear transfer,
‘Labour promises “no PM pictures”‘ reported the BBC three days ago: ‘The party said it would focus on issues rather than personalities. and not use negative personal campaigning. Its election strategist Douglas Alexander said the Conservatives were preparing to spread “fear and smear”.’ That was Sunday, and today is Wednesday and the official Scottish Labour Party Twitter account is punting out ‘negative personal campaigning’ using the PM’s picture. It seems there is one rule for billboards and quite another for social media: Who benefits most from more SNP MPs? The Tories. #VoteSNPGetTories pic.twitter.com/LJVNdYGxeg — Scottish Labour (@scottishlabour) February 4, 2015 They should probably sack the graphic designer as well as
D:Ream’s Things Can Only Get Better was the song of choice in the Labour campaign that saw Tony Blair win the 1997 general election. Alas, Ed Miliband won’t be able to use the tune this time around. Professor Brian Cox, who played keyboard with the band, before becoming a TV scientist, says in an interview with the Evening Standard that he would not let Labour use the tune in this election. ‘I’d probably say no to Labour using the song — there are immense pros and cons to all the parties and I can’t quite see a clear direction. It’s very different now than in ’97. In ’97, it was obvious that everybody supported Blair. But
David Cameron didn’t answer the question today at PMQs despite Ed Miliband repeating it five times. But in a rowdy chamber, it didn’t seem to matter as Tory MPs roared their approval at Cameron’s one liners. Cameron, in reference to Ed Balls’ disastrous slip on Newsnight last night, quipped ‘Bill Somebody is not a person, it’s Labour policy’. Miliband wasn’t helped by how technical the question he was asking was. It, according to Labour sources, related to something called Schedule 19 which governs the taxation of share purchases made by hedge funds through investment banks. Now, Labour will argue that it illustrates their general point that the Tories are the
There are still perfectly reasonable, thoughtful Labour MPs who sincerely think their party has a good chance of winning a majority in May, even though most of their colleagues are reconciled to being the largest party. I’ve found more of them in Parliament in the past few weeks than I have found Tories who think the same about their party. But today’s Ashcroft poll may well mean that the verbs in that first sentence have to change into the past perfect. There were still perfectly reasonable, thoughtful Labour MPs who sincerely thought their party had a good chance of winning a majority in May. Then the Ashcroft poll came out,
Last year Simon Danczuk was accused of disloyalty by his fellow Labour party members after he was photographed meeting Nigel Farage for a pint. Ed Miliband’s troupe can, however, breathe a collective sigh of relief as judging by a recent incident relations between Danczuk and Ukip members are far from friendly. The Labour MP for Rochdale has accused his Ukip opponent of dirty tactics. Danczuk claims that Mohammed Masud, the Ukip PPC for Rochdale, was thrown out of a local mosque after he tried to badmouth him. Just hearing that my UKIP opponent has been thrown out of a Rochdale mosque after trying to address the congregation & clumsily attack me! — Simon Danczuk (@SimonDanczuk) January
The education secretary gave Durham Free School (DFS) until 3 February to make representations showing why it should not have its funding agreement ended. Nicky Morgan now has the school’s response: a detailed explanation of why the DfE’s threat to close the school is unfair, disproportionate and wrongheaded. The academy trust has also served notice that it may apply for judicial review. A critique of Ofsted’s behaviour throughout this affair has also been drawn up, saying that the chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, may have misled a commons committee. When MPs raised concerns about Ofsted inspectors asking children inappropriate questions about what lesbians ‘did’ or whether they had ever felt they might
Gordon Brown is holding an adjournment debate on the union this evening, which comes after an Ashcroft poll which shows precisely what danger the union is in. If today’s polls were tomorrow’s election result, the SNP would have 55 out of 59 seats in Scotland. It’s even set to lose Coatbridge, where it picked up 67pc of the vote at the last election. Yes, all this will help the Tories in the short term: Cameron needs the SNP to destroy Labour in the north and the SNP need Cameron in No10 – remember, their political model is based on grudge and gripe. Without a villain, Alex Salmond won’t have a pantomime. But back
To be fair to Ed Balls, everyone forgets names from time to time. ‘His surname has just gone from my mind at this time of night,’ said the Shadow Chancellor, looking sheepish. We’ve all been there, struggling to remember the name or Jenny Thingummer, or Tom Whatsisname. But the wider problem is that Balls couldn’t think of anyone other than this Bill Somebody when asked to name business leaders who supported Labour. It’s easy to forget a name. But not so much an entire list of names who support a party, especially when you’re on your way into a studio to claim that said party is very pro-business. Was Bill
How much is the SNP going to harm Labour in the general election? Labour is already braced for a battering but a new set of polling from Lord Ashcroft shows just how great the SNP threat is. The Tory peer has polled 16,000 Scots in 14 Labour-SNP target seats and two Lib Dem seats — all areas that Ashcroft said voted yes for independence or the result was close. His snapshot reveals that the SNP is ahead in 13 of the 14 Labour targets and ahead in both of the Lib Dem targets. This represents a 25 per cent swing in the Labour targets. If you want to see the results for each seat, use
Newsflash! Labour does have a business supporter – or so, at least, Ed Balls was able to disclose to Emily Maitlis on Newsnight. His name is Bill. But he couldn’t quite remember his surname. It was comedy gold, certainly my moment of the campaign so far. Maitlis asked if Balls was worried that in 2001 there were 58 business leaders writing to the Times backing Labour, in 2005 there were 63 writing to the FT backing Labour. Where were they this time? Ed Balls: I’ve been at a dinner tonight with a number of business-supporting Labour figures [sic] Maitlis: who? who? who? Ed Balls: Well, em, Bill. The former chief executive of EDS who I
