Politics

Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.

Friday

20 Mar 2015

Keith O’Brien stripped of the rank of cardinal – an extraordinary disgrace for the Scottish Church

Keith O’Brien, former Cardinal Archbishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh, was today stripped of the rank of cardinal by Pope Francis. Technically he has resigned. But the statement above leaves us in little doubt that O’Brien has had the red hat forcibly removed from him. He’s the first cardinal to lose his title since Louis Billot, a French Jesuit who resigned as cardinal in 1927 in protest at the Church’s condemnation of the far-Right anti-Semitic Action Française movement. Billot was the only cardinal to resign in the 20th century. [Update: see discussion in the thread over O’Brien’s title. This he has not lost, de jure, but de facto he is no longer

Daniel Jackson

Scottish nationalism is hypersensitive and insular. So is the newspaper it has spawned

Last year Russia Today launched a poster campaign with a fanciful strapline: ‘This is what happens when there is no second opinion’. The extraordinary implication is that the conflict could have been avoided, if only we had listened to Putin. This is such an obvious fallacy that it’s hardly worth dwelling on. But RT (as it now likes to be known, as if people don’t know what the ‘R’ stands for) is producing lightly disguised state propaganda. The viewers know it and so do the mercenaries that make it. In contrast, Scotland’s new pro-independence daily newspaper – ‘The National’– is written with earnest conviction. Its contributors are devout believers, and

Graham Brady-Mp

Parliament is weak and ineffective — it needs to change

Only a third of the public think Parliament is effective in holding government to account: two thirds want improvement of our democratic institutions. We struggle to get more than two in three adults to cast a vote at a general election. It is widely held that anti-politics is the prevailing mood of our times. With depressing regularity though, discussions involving politicians and the media focus not on how to improve our democracy, but rather on how we can better communicate the brilliance of our achievements to those too cynical or ill-informed to see them. My eighteen years in the Commons have led me to a different conclusion: I think Parliament is weak, ineffective and in need of

Isabel Hardman

Main parties seem rather old and tired, say voters

Perhaps there’s nothing wrong with negative campaigning (though surely there’s something a bit wrong about being inaccurate). But when parties pontificate about crafting messages of hope and avoiding smears and falsehood, before plumping for the latter, can they really be surprised that overall voters are a bit cheesed off with mainstream politics? All the parties negatively campaign against negative campaigning, accusing the others of doing something that they too are doing, and hoping that no-one notices. Well, voters do seem to notice. They’re also not particularly thrilled with any of the parties. While the Tories might be pleased that the first YouGov poll after the Budget puts them two points

Sebastian Payne

Mini Election: Quilliam’s Maajid Nawaz discusses fighting a three way marginal

Will the Liberal Democrats make any gains in the London suburbs at the upcoming election? In the latest Mini Election video, I went to Hampstead & Kilburn to speak to Maajid Nawaz, the Liberal Democrat candidate and head of counter-extremism think tank Quilliam, to discuss his campaign to win this seat, which was a three-way marginal at the last election. Nawaz discusses how his work with Quilliam has strengthened his reputation locally when the Liberal Democrats’ national reputation has taken a beating. Given the publicity surrounding his involvement in the Jesus and Mo cartoons furore and calls for him to be deselected, Nawaz said he still thinks the recognition makes it

Steerpike

Breaking: Ukip not in crisis

After the Ukip MEP Janice Atkinson was suspended from her party following claims that a member of her staff tried to get a fake receipt to increase an expense claim, media pundits have claimed that Ukip is in crisis. However, according to Nigel Farage’s right hand man, this is not the case. Raheem Kassam has taken to Twitter to say that things are going so swimmingly for Ukippers that he even has time to play on his Xbox, while members of the press office have been spending time in the pub. That’s all cleared up then.

Sebastian Payne

Janice Atkinson is just the latest example of Ukip’s persistent problem with candidates

Ukip is in crisis once again. Today’s Sun reveals that Janice Atkinson, an MEP for the South East and PPC for Folkestone and Hythe, has been suspended and may face a police enquiry over a fake receipt from a Margate restaurant. The party appears to be washing its hands of Atkinson, with Guido reporting she has been advised to find legal counsel. On LBC this morning, Nigel Farage distanced himself from Atkinson, saying he was ‘deeply shocked’ by her actions, describing them as ‘one of the most incredibly stupid and dishonest things I’ve ever seen in my life’: ‘We have suspended Janice Atkinson and we will hold a disciplinary hearing as soon as possible which will be

Thursday

19 Mar 2015

The Spectator

The Conservatives should be the party of immigrants — and here’s how they can be

For a long while, the Conservatives have been puzzled about their lack of popularity among immigrants. In theory, the Conservative party should be the natural home of new voters who are ambitious, entrepreneurial, hard-working and family-orientated. The immigrant vote — to the extent it can be considered a coherent block at all — ought to be fertile Tory territory. By and large, these are families who have moved to Britain to get ahead and to avail themselves of what Michael Howard called ‘the British dream’. Yet at the last election fewer than one in five ethnic minority voters endorsed Conservative candidates and the party is unlikely to fare much better

Danny Alexander

Danny Alexander’s diary: Trying to put an undercover reporter at ease, and the unicorn poop question

It’s dangerous, in my line of work, to promise you’ll be anywhere by 8 p.m. I made this mistake recently, saying I’d turn up to a dinner after a Budget discussion — a ‘quad’ meeting, where I sit with the Prime Minister, George Osborne and Nick Clegg. We’ve been doing this for five years, so have come to know each other pretty well. Not that we all agree; on the night in question, Nick was angry about something (I won’t say what) and our meeting ran on. I headed back with him to Dover House, a magnificent building where I was based during my tenure as Scottish Secretary. A great

Sebastian Payne

Tories ahead again in first post-Budget poll

The Tories have pushed ahead of Labour again after George Osborne’s successful Budget. In tonight’s poll from YouGov/The Sun, the Conservatives are ahead by two points on 35 per cent while Labour are on 33 per cent. The Lib Dems have seen no shift, remaining steady on eight per cent, while Ukip is on 13 per cent and the Greens on six per cent. Budgets always tend to produce an immediate polling bounce for the incumbent party — assuming the Budget isn’t badly received. The Tories, though, will be pleased that they are back in the lead after falling behind Labour in the past week. As with all the recent

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs content with ‘boring’ Budget

How has George Osborne’s Budget gone down with his party? The Tory MPs I’ve spoken to in the past 24 hours or so since the Budget seem reasonably content with it. They’re not skipping through the corridors singing, but they’re equally not furious or despairing. Most seem to have sympathy with the lack of a rabbit in the Chancellor’s speech, even though they’re a bit disappointed that the Chancellor gave enough signals for them to think he was keeping a rabbit in his hat, only for a hamster to come scuttling out in the form of his Help to Buy ISAs. One senior Tory backbencher says: ‘The judgement that he’s

Freddy Gray

Is Nigel Farage becoming Ron Paul?

I think I have seen Nigel Farage’s future, and it is not pretty. A copy of Farage’s The Purple Revolution reached my desk today. The cover instantly reminded me of a cover manifesto for Ron Paul, the once inspiring libertarian radical who has turned into something of a crank. On Farage’s book, the word LOVE has been mirrored on to the word Revolution. Ron Paul posters used to employ the same silly trick. As did Russell Brand. It is becoming a sort of logo for anti-establishment feeling. It is also hilariously crap. ‘Every great cause begins as a movement, becomes a business, and eventually degenerates into a racket,’ said Eric Hoffer. The quote certainly

Sebastian Payne

Budget 2015: five things you need to know about the IFS analysis

Did George Osborne hide any surprises in yesterday’s Budget? The Institute for Fiscal Studies delivered its post-budget analysis this afternoon and presented a generally positive picture — noting that, as expected, the Budget ‘did not usher in any dramatic changes’ and Osborne ‘resisted the temptation to offer lots of pre-election goodies.’ Here are five things you need to know about the IFS’ report. Voters are ‘probably’ better off under this government ‘Are you better off now than you were four years ago?’ was the question Ronald Reagan put to America during his first presidential campaign. Ed Balls said last year he thought the answer would be no. But the IFS’ Paul Johnson (pdf of his

Steerpike

Game of Thrones: Charles Dance says Cameron not brave enough to be a Lannister

After David Cameron was asked in a live Q&A this week who his favourite Game of Thrones character was, the Prime Minster replied Ned Stark – the heroic head of the Stark family, who died at the end of series one. While many commentators were quick to claim that Cameron would be much more at home with the villainous Lannister clan, it appears he made a wise choice. Speaking at the Game of Thrones premiere, Charles Dance – who plays the murderous Tywin Lannister in the series – said that the Prime Minister would not cut the muster in House Lannister. ‘I don’t think he’s brave enough to be a Lannister,’ the actor told The Debrief. Cameron ought

James Forsyth

The Lib Dems’ alternative budget showed the difficulties of a Lib/Lab coalition

The Tories described the Liberal Democrats’ alternative Budget statement today as ‘part of price they had to pay to have a Budget.’ But the Liberal Democrats, oddly, didn’t seem to take their own statement particularly seriously. When Danny Alexander got to his feet there were only six Liberal Democrat backbenchers present. Two of the Liberal Democrats’ Secretaries of States didn’t bother to turn up either and Nick Clegg left long before the end of it. This lack of Lib Dems’ strength in numbers was a particular mistake as Labour predictably barracked the statement very aggressively; Andrew Gwynne even stood up and shoved a copy of the Treasury Red Book at

Rod Liddle

Why do politicians try to convince us they are normal human beings? We know they’re not

I suppose we’re going to have to suffer these confections until the first week of May. But it’s beginning to get my goat. First we had Ed Miliband trying to pretend he was a normal human being. Inviting a camera crew into his house. Ed posing in one of his many kitchens, looking about as comfortable as a man with an enraged porcupine sellotaped to his scrotal sac. Now the Prime Minister is doing the same thing. David Cameron in a scruffy T-shirt preparing sardines on toast for his missus. Yep, just like he does every day. All for the benefit of the media and to convince us, ahead of

Isabel Hardman

Voters won’t be able to make an informed choice in May

If there’s one major takeaway from this morning’s Budget interviews, it is that voters won’t get the opportunity to make as informed a choice as many would like in May. George Osborne refused to set out the detail of the £12 billion of welfare cuts he will make in the next Parliament and gave a classic politician’s answer on defence spending, which was that ‘we are promising to keep our country safe’. Meanwhile Ed Balls ended up telling the Today programme that he wouldn’t reverse anything from the Budget, claiming it was pretty ’empty’. He said what he was worried about were those spending cuts in what the OBR calls the ‘roller coaster’ planned for the next Parliament.

Steerpike

Did Vince Cable think he was presenting the Lib Dems’ budget?

This morning Danny Alexander is scheduled to reveal the Liberal Democrats’ proposed alternative budget. Alas, Vince Cable appears to have missed the memo. Speaking about the budget on LBC yesterday, Cable claimed he would be leading the Lib Dem budget: Presenter: Is it difficult to sit through a Budget like that and be barely mentioned? As a party, not personally. Vince Cable: If it’s the response to the Budget tomorrow, I will be leading and I will be setting the tone of the debate. Cable was demoted as Liberal Democrat economy spokesman in January in favour of Alexander. Happily, Mr S hears Cable will still have a role in the Lib Dem budget later in the day after Alexander

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: George Osborne’s 2015 budget, the jobs miracle and shooting squirrels

Has George Osborne produced a successful Budget? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss the last major act of this Parliament and what it means for the impending election campaign. Did the Chancellor announce anything of particular interest? Is this a Budget targeted purely at savers and pensioners? How influential were the Liberal Democrats in creating this budget? And on which points will Labour attack the government? Jonathan Portes and Fraser also discuss this week’s Spectator cover feature on the jobs miracle and why the government isn’t extolling its excellent record on employment. Is the coalition still embarrassed over immigration record and therefore reluctant to mention any of the upsides? Is the boom

Steerpike

Currency wars: John Major vs Zac Goldsmith

Zac Goldsmith recently wrote in the Spectator that it was his father – not the Labour party – who had stopped Britain from joining the euro. The Conservative MP claimed his dad Sir James Goldsmith was to thank, after his Referendum party battled to ‘ensure that Britain would never join the euro without the consent of the people’. One man who appears to disagree, however, is former Prime Minister Sir John Major. Major has written a letter in this week’s Spectator arguing that Goldsmith did not have any effect on government policy: ‘Much as I admire filial loyalty, I cannot allow Zac Goldsmith’s article about his father to go uncorrected. Sir James Goldsmith was a formidable