Politics

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

Wednesday

6 May 2015

Nick Clegg got coalition wrong. Tomorrow, he’ll pay the price

It’s hard not to feel a bit sorry for Nick Clegg. He’s a decent man who took a tough decision to put his party into coalition with the Conservatives, and lost half of his support as a result. Tomorrow, his party will be hammered. His great miscalculation was imagining that in England the Lib Dems would emerge with a list of achievements voters would applaud – as they did in the 2003 Holyrood elections when, after four years of coalition, the Lib Dems overtook the Scottish Conservatives to become the third-largest party. On the radio the other day Clegg vainly paraded his boast list, his own version of Kelly Clarkson’s Because

Steerpike

Miliband’s adviser Stewart Wood says he is ‘loving’ #JeSuisEd

A little Twitter fad had emerged this afternoon where fans of Miliband tweet pictures of themselves eating sloppily along with the hashtag #JeSuisEd. It came about after the Sun went to town this morning on the Labour leader, reheating his famous bacon sandwich antics. While Labour can hardly stop their supporters from hijacking the #JeSuisCharlie meme that was set up in honour of the journalists massacred in Paris earlier this year, surely Miliband’s chief aide Lord Wood, a bright Oxford tutor, should know better than to use it for a quick laugh online? The compassionate left out in force again.

Sebastian Payne

How did David Cameron spend his final day campaigning?

David Cameron’s 72-hour tour of Britain has finished up in the north west this afternoon. I have followed the Prime Minister to two campaign ‘events’ this afternoon — both purely for photo opportunities and neither involved meeting any ordinary voters. By this point in the campaign, knocking on doors is probably not the most effective use of time, so the best Cameron can hope for is to look enthused and feature in some colourful snaps. His first major event of the day was at a building site at Chester Zoo, in the heart of the Northern Powerhouse. A new tiger pen is being constructed, an ideal opportunity for the Prime Minister to

Hugo Rifkind

If the SNP doesn’t hate the English, why do so many of its supporters behave as if they do?

You get bad losers in politics and bad winners, too, but it’s surely a rare business to get a bad winner who didn’t actually win. Yet this, since they lost last September’s referendum, has been the role of the SNP. Dismay, reassessment, introspection, contrition, resignation; all of these have been wholly absent. Instead, they have been triumphalist. Lording it, with cruel and haughty disdain, over their vanquished foes. Who, we must remember, they didn’t even vanquish. Well, maybe they’ve vanquished them now. I write this pre-election, with the polls all saying that the Nats will win something between almost every Scottish seat and actually every Scottish seat. Only, of course,

Ross Clark

I have worked out the only possible way to build a viable government (but it’s not pretty)

For the past few days the BBC website has had an interactive game where you have to build your own coalition, using a series of possible results from tomorrow’s election. It ought to be marketed as an educational test, far more challenging even than Michael Gove’s rigorous school tests. But finally, I think I have done it. I have worked out the only possible way to build a viable government using the composition of the House of Commons which the polls appear to be predicting. Take Nate Silver’s analysis of the polls this morning, which predicts the following: Tories 281 seats, Labour 266, SNP 52, LibDem 26, DUP 8, Sinn

Isabel Hardman

The new Lib Dem party strategy: drown voters in leaflets

If you want an idea of how exhausting this election has been for some voters in marginals, just watch this video of a Green supporter in Bristol West: I profiled the seat, where the Lib Dems are trying to hold off a ‘Green surge’ among middle-class voters, here and I was rather impressed with quite how many leaflets Stephen Williams had managed to produce even before the short campaign got underway. It will be a tough seat for the Lib Dems to hold, even if the Greens don’t win, as Labour appears to be in front currently. But perhaps Williams is trying a new ‘get out the vote’ strategy, in which

Isabel Hardman

Last ditch attempts to win votes are pointless without months of legwork

All three party leaders are in the middle of their last-minute campaigning efforts, travelling across the country with little sleep. But what are they actually doing during these last few hours before polls open? David Cameron underlined that this isn’t just about meeting voters but about the photo opportunities by deciding to have a cosy chat with members of the farming community in Brecon… at 6 o’clock in the morning. The press were held back by this rather pointless pen (which later fell over) while the Prime Minister held his morning chat. To be fair, farmers do get up very early, though more to deal with their animals than for

Alex Massie

Why I am voting Labour

This is a bastard election full of bastard choices. In such circumstances some triage is required. Once everything that is impossible has been eliminated what remains must, for tomorrow at least, be the truth. Which is why, as I wrote in today’s Times, I shall be voting Labour. For the first time. Ever. It is not a vote cast lightly or with much confidence. But though my constituency, Edinburgh North and Leith, has an admirable Tory candidate the sorry truth is that he cannot win tomorrow. This being the case, it is not illogical to vote for the least bad candidate who might have a chance of prevailing. In this instance,

James Forsyth

Tory backbenchers increasingly reconciled to another coalition

Speaking to various senior Conservative backbenchers in the past 24 hours, I’ve been struck by how much support there is for the formation of another coalition. There is a recognition that if the Tories have around 290 seats on Friday morning—which is at the optimistic end of the election projections, it is simply not realistic for them to try and run any kind of minority government. The view among those I have spoken to is that Cameron should be given a decent amount of flexibility to negotiate a deal with the Liberal Democrats as that is the most likely way for the Tories to be able to begin to put

Robert Smith

Newspaper readers decide elections, not editors

How much influence will newspapers have in this election? Less than ever before in print, if circulation figures (above) are anything to go by. Yet paranoia remains. On certain days, newspapers do get excited and act like they’re trying to win the election. Today’s Sun digs up that infamous picture of Ed Miliband and urges readers to ‘Save our bacon‘, the Telegraph pictures Nicola Sturgeon with the headline ‘Nightmare on Downing Street‘, while the Mirror leads with ‘Major fail‘ on comments by the former Prime Minister on inequality. Meanwhile, the Times and Mail have followed the Independent and Evening Standard in putting their weight behind a Cameron-led government. The truth, of course,

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron defends ‘con trick’ line about Ed Miliband’s plans

Is David Cameron talking up the SNP as a naughty campaign tactic to hurt Labour? This morning the Prime Minister denied that charge in his Today programme interview, saying: ‘I don’t accept that; I’m fighting the nationalists in Scotland. Indeed, I’ll be there later today standing up for Conservative candidates who want a strong United Kingdom and also want our economy to continue to grow and continue to create jobs and all the other things the United Kingdom can do together. ‘But if you want to know, what would I do as prime minister on Friday to make sure our United Kingdom stays together, I would say let’s complete the

Douglas Murray

This election campaign has shown a democracy in a horrible state of disrepair

It is often said that we get the politicians we deserve. But throughout this election I have kept wondering, ‘Are we really as bad as all this?’ The answer must be ‘yes’. This bland and empty ‘campaign’ has not only been the fault of the main parties competing to govern the UK – it has also been a reflection of what they believe we, the general public, now expect from our politics. Of course the result is aggravating, in part because we keep trying to enjoy contradictory things. For instance at some point in recent years it was decided that any statement outside a vague centre-left orthodoxy constituted a ‘gaffe’.

Steerpike

Former Tory Brian May backs his local Labour candidate

When Brian May quizzed Russell Brand about his revolution at a screening earlier this month, the Queen guitarist mentioned that he had launched his own campaign, called Common Decency. The scheme supports ‘decent candidates’ irrespective of their party: ‘We’ve been asking for feedback on who is actually a decent candidate and who would listen, genuinely act for the interests of their constituents, whichever party they are from.’ May says the aim is to try and ‘unseat MPs in all these safe seats’ where ‘often the percentage of people who didn’t vote is greater than those who voted for one party’. Since May previously identified himself as a Tory it may come as some surprise

Sebastian Payne

Campaign-kick off: 24 hours to go

Finally, after six weeks of campaigning, endless opinion polls and the semi-TV debates, the final day of the 2015 general election campaign is upon us. David Cameron, Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg will be dashing all over the country to make their final plea to voters, while rumours are beginning to spill out about the conditions for any coalitions. To help guide you through the melée of stories and spin, here is a summary of today’s main election stories. 1. Neck and neck Before the election campaign kicked off properly at the end of March, a poll of polls put Labour on 34 per cent and the Tories on 33 per

Steerpike

Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney removed from Conservatives Abroad website

After the Bow Group chairman Ben Harris-Quinney urged Tories to vote for Ukip in seats where the party can’t win, the Conservative think tank’s patrons issued a statement distancing themselves from the comments. Then when Harris-Quinney appeared on the Daily Politics yesterday to discuss the incident he was accused of being a ‘Walter Mitty’ character who had lied about his titles. Doubt was cast on his claim that he is the President of Conservatives Abroad Madrid, after the association told the BBC that he held no such title having failed to renew his membership. While Harris-Quinney denies the claims and continues to list himself as president of the organisation, the website has since removed him from their committee page: Further

Steerpike

Labour release leaflets telling non-English speakers how to vote

This week Labour was accused of hypocrisy for allowing gender-segregated seating at a party rally. While the party have since defended their position claiming ‘there was no forced segregation’, many have accused Labour of pandering to the Muslim vote. Now word reaches Steerpike that Labour activists working alongside Gavin Shuker, the Labour Co-operative MP for Luton South, are posting leaflets to the local community which tell non-English speakers exactly how to vote. The flyer helpfully includes instructions telling the reader to vote by placing an X ‘next to every candidate with the Labour logo’: Of course no instructions as of yet on how to vote if you are a non-English speaker who doesn’t wish to plump for Ed Miliband.

Sebastian Payne

A day on the campaign trail with Labour and Ed Miliband

On Monday, I hopped aboard the Labour ‘battle bus’ for a day on the campaign trail with Ed Miliband. Although each party has a different campaign operation, I was a little surprised to find that journalists are given a bus of their own, travelling separately from the party leadership. But I still managed to gain some insight into Labour’s campaign and how Team Miliband are feeling about the election with in the final stretch. The battle bus The campaigning day began at 7:30am, with Labour’s battle bus pulling out of a garage in Westminster. I boarded with two other journalists, from the Financial Times and the Daily Mail. The large silver Mercedes coach was impressively decked out, including

Tuesday

5 May 2015

Steerpike

Ed Miliband comes to the defence of the #EdStone

Mr S reported earlier on Lucy Powell’s blunder after she unwittingly seemed to contradict the message of the EdStone: ‘I don’t think anyone is suggesting that the fact that he’s carved them in stone means he’s absolutely not going to break them or anything like that.’ Miliband has now come to the defence of his beloved monument. During an interview with the BBC’s deputy political editor James Landale, he was asked whether Powell, the vice-chair of Labour’s general election campaign, had got the wrong take-away message from his 8ft 6 sculpture. To this, Miliband replied, ‘Well, I’m clear about it, yes.’ At least somebody is clear. listen to ‘Ed Miliband says Lucy Powell was wrong to

Ed West

Unfortunately celebrity endorsements really do matter

Whoever comes top on Thursday, Labour has won the only poll that really matters – that of Britain’s beloved celebrities, with recent endorsements by Steve Coogan, Delia Smith, Robert Webb, Ronnie O’Sullivan and Jo Brand, among others. The Tories in contrast can only muster a few self-made businesswomen and Peter Stringfellow. Labour’s most important conquest, however, has to be comedian-turned-people’s poet Russell Brand, who previously suggested that voting was a waste of time, but now backs Ed Miliband. When it comes to this 21st-century political colossus, no one can better Rod Liddle’s words from a few months ago: ‘That’s why I enjoy my mornings in bed with Russell. It’s like a

Steerpike

Sell your Tory glory story: The Sun offers cash for Conservative testimonials

Mr S reported over the weekend that Rupert Murdoch has jetted in to Britain ahead of the election. Now in the UK, the media mogul, and arch rival of Ed Miliband, is expected to be running a tight ship across all News UK titles as polling day approaches. So Mr S couldn’t help but wonder which bright spark thought it was a good idea to place an advert from the Sun with a press agency offering money in return for a ‘good-news story’ about the Conservatives: The advert, which conveniently expired at 4.00pm today, offered Tory voters £100 for such stories but also required them to be available to be photographed within the next two hours. A