Politics

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

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Ed Miliband could have won the election last night. Now, it’s Cameron’s to lose.

The Sun’s front page today has a picture of Ed Miliband saying: “Oops, I just lost my election”. That’s an exaggeration: I’d say the election is still 50/50, pretty much where it was last week. And realistically, that’s the best David Cameron could have hoped for. Miliband emerged best from the Paxman interviews, and had he triumphed last night he would have gathered momentum that could well have carried him over the line on 7 May. It was easier for Miliband to ‘win – all he had to do to exceed expectations was turn up without the help of a life support machine. Last time, there was a sizeable gap between the caricature of Ed

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The TV leaders’ debate was a well-mannered affair and no one messed up

That was a surprisingly well-mannered debate, tightly moderated, with the main chaos coming from the member of the audience who decided to start heckling (and then stopped, followed by an ominous thud). There wasn’t a big upset at any point, and even the big moments weren’t really big stories. Those big moments were Nick Clegg going straight for David Cameron at the start, Nigel Farage’s rather scary rant, Leanne Wood telling Farage he should be ashamed of himself, Miliband on zero hours contracts, and Clegg turning on Miliband at the end. But no-one messed up. David Cameron came across as being really rather uninspiring, but I suspect that this was the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

No, Jim Webb will not beat Hillary Clinton

Look, I’m sorry about this, but Jim Webb is no more going to be the Democratic nominee next year than Rick Santorum is going to be the Republican candidate for the Presidency of the United States. Indeed Santorum, who has no chance, has a better chance than Webb of succeeding Barack Obama. Which is annoying, I know, because it means the search for a pundit-worthy alternative to Hillary Clinton goes on. Webb, the Marine Corps veteran, novelist, historian and one-term Virginia Senator, is neither the first nor the last candidate to inspire could-he-really journalistic prayers for a competitive contest for the Democratic nomination. It is true that Webb’s biography is

Robert Smith

Cameron needs to be the reasonable statesman on tonight’s debate

Which David Cameron will take the stage for tonight’s seven-way showdown? Will it be the competent, likeable and reasonable statesman who has steered the economy onto safer ground? Or the tetchy one who calls Ed Miliband a ‘waste of space’ at Prime Minister’s Questions? On Monday, speaking at a lectern outside the door of Number 10, the Prime Minister decided to launch a personal attack on his opposite number rather than make a statesman-like pitch to the electorate. To have mentioned Ed Miliband by name once would have been historic – doing so three times smacked of desperation. listen to ‘David Cameron speech outside Number 10 as Parliament is dissolved’

Steerpike Steerpike

Max Hastings reveals the contents of a Prince Charles letter about homeopathy

Last month the Supreme Court ruled that Prince Charles’s ‘black spider memos’ to government ministers should be made public. The decision comes following a ten year legal battle between Buckingham Palace and the Guardian, after Clarence House argued that the contents of the letters were private. With the release now impending, Max Hastings has offered a taste of what could be to come in this week’s issue of the Spectator. The former editor of the Daily Telegraph says that he has a letter the Prince wrote ‘lobbying for some NHS funds to be diverted from conventional medicine to homeopathy’: ‘I have beside me a copy of a letter allegedly written by him some years ago

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

The media and political elite need to stop treating the electorate like dogs

There are many grating phrases in modern British politics. ‘Best practice.’ ‘Fit for purpose.’ ‘Let me explain’ (just bloody well explain!). And that tendency of Labour politicians to preface pretty much everything they say with a schoolmarmish ‘Look’, as in ‘Look here’. As in: ‘You donuts know nothing, so I am going to put you straight.’ But even more grating than those, sat at the top of the pile of temperature-raising sayings, is ‘dog-whistle’. Everyone’s talking about ‘dog-whistle politics’. It has become the media and chattering classes’ favourite putdown of politicians they don’t like: to accuse them of indulging in dog-whistle antics, of making an ugly shrill noise — that

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Five things to watch for during tonight’s debate

1) Can Natalie Bennett do enough to spark another Green surge? After Natalie Bennett’s infamous ‘brain fade’ the Green surge faded away. The media stopped giving the Greens the attention they had been and without the oxygen of publicity, support for the party fell away; this morning’s YouGov poll has the Greens on 4%, their lowest score since October. But tonight offers Bennett a chance to get her party back into the election frame. If she can deliver a few good answers and the odd zinger, that would be enough to get the media—and, then, the voters—to take a second look at her and the Greens. 2) Will Leanne Wood attack

Camilla Swift Camilla Swift

Podcast: In defence of Christianity, and the Conservatives’ lack of passion

Being a Christian in Britain today is to invite pity or condescension, writes Michael Gove in this week’s cover piece. Why is that, and what is the future of Christianity in Britain? Michael Gove joined Isabel Hardman and Ken Costa, the Chairman of Alpha International, on this week’s View from 22 podcast, to discuss the issue. Has there always been this much suspicion of Christians, or is this a more recent phenomenon? James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson also joined Isabel Hardman to talk about this week’s leading article. In it, The Spectator argues that the Tory campaign so far has lacked passion. The Conservatives ought by all accounts to be winning in

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: the seven-way TV leaders debate

Tonight’s televised debate between seven of the party leaders promises to be one of the most interesting events of the campaign. In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and I discuss who is expected to do well, the issues that will be raised, which leaders will gang up on David Cameron and whether Ed Miliband can meet the high expectations, As with the Q&A programme last week, we’ll be running a live blog on Coffee House from 7:45pm this evening, so you can follow our instant reaction to the debate. You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The challenge for insurgents and ex-insurgents in tonight’s TV debate

The party leaders have been reflecting on the challenges facing them ahead of tonight’s TV debates. Nigel Farage said this morning that he wished there weren’t so many of them taking part, something the audience may also feel by the end of tonight’s two-hour extravaganza. But the Ukip leader is probably peeved by the sheer number of party leaders because it makes it more difficult for him to appear to be the only exciting force disrupting British politics. His advantage is that he’s the only one on the Right. John Cleese or not, Nick Clegg does have one of the biggest challenges of any of the leaders participating. He needs

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why aren’t the Tories winning? Because they are seen as the party of the rich.

The leader column in this week’s edition of the magazine (please subscribe, by the way) asks an excellent question: Why aren’t the Tories winning? After all, and despite everything, David Cameron has presided over a period of, first, economic stabilisation and, now, some useful quantity of economic growth. His party is better trusted on economic issues than the opposition and, well, Mr Ed Miliband has not yet convinced voters he has the chops to be Prime Minister. As Danny Finklestein observed in The Times yesterday, it is possible to lose despite enjoying one of those advantages but most unusual to lose while being ahead on both these metrics. And yet the Tories may still

Steerpike Steerpike

Nigel Farage causes problems for Alison Jackson ahead of leaders’ debate

Tonight’s leaders’ debate will see the seven party leaders battle to be heard on ITV. The set up has given organisers a headache as they work out how to arrange it without the debate descending into chaos. For Alison Jackson who is going to shoot a lookalike version in its aftermath, she has another issue to contend with. The English artist, who is known for her lookalike photographs of celebrities, is in the process of assembling a team of political doppelgangers. While David Cameron and Nick Clegg have been located, there are still a few more to be found, including Nicola Sturgeon. However, the man causing her the biggest problem is Nigel Farage. ‘I am still looking for a Farage. It is very difficult

The Spectator

The Spectator at war: Eton mess

From ‘News of the Week‘, The Spectator, 3 April 1915: Some remarks made by Dr. Lyttelton, the Head-Master of Eton, in a sermon at St. Margaret’s, Westminster, on Thursday week have caused a storm in a tea-cup. Dr. Lyttelton argued that the Germans must be saved from the results of their own appalling venom by being made to feel that they were not excluded from the comity of nations. He used as an illustration of the kind of guarantee of goodwill which might be offered by Britain to somebody’s suggestion that if the Kiel Canal were internationalized Gibraltar should also be internationalized. We think that the suggestion is utterly futile,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The election result that everyone expects – and no one wants

To form a coalition, David Cameron had to give up the Prime Ministerial prerogative to determine when the election was called. But it is hard to imagine that, given the choice, he would have gone to the Palace any earlier than Monday. The Tories have merely drawn level with Labour in recent weeks and there hasn’t been a poll yet which points to him winning a majority. This will be the most polled campaign in British history. On the day it started, depending on your choice of pollster, the Tories were four points ahead of Labour, four points behind or dead level. But one clear theme is emerging from this

Mark Palmer

Letter from Cuba: The tourists are coming – but don’t expect Walmart just yet

Sloppy Joe’s — which starred in the film of Graham Greene’s Our Man in Havana — was always likely to wither on the post-revolution vine. As the decadent hangout of unsavoury ‘imperialists’ whom Fidel Castro despised, it never stood much of a chance. Frank Sinatra, John Wayne and local hero Ernest Hemingway all used to call in from time to time, slaking their thirst at the 65ft-long mahogany bar. It closed in 1960 and no one expected to see mojitos and daiquiris being poured here again, at least not until Fidel and his brother Raúl were gone. But needs must. Double measures and double standards keep Cuba alive. Two years ago,

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Why are so many men on diets? I blame feminists

According to Jenni Russell, my colleague at the Times, David Cameron has lost 13lb since Christmas, mainly by giving up on peanuts and biscuits. Now that’s a lot of peanuts and biscuits. It’s a bit yo-yo, Cameron’s weight, isn’t it? He gets bigger, he gets smaller again, like a giant, very pink, human-shaped balloon that some giant unseen hand is alternately squeezing and relaxing around the legs. He wears it well, though. When Nigel Lawson lost all that weight he looked like a man with a puncture. George Osborne only shrinks these days, and will soon be as slim as his own lapels. So I suppose Cameron might be spurred on

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg’s picture caption election

Mock Nick Clegg all you like, but he is taking an impressively pragmatic approach to this General Election. The Deputy Prime Minister knows that he might not get as much coverage as the main parties or the insurgent parties if he just says things (though already announcing a lot of your manifesto and charging hacks £750 a day for the pleasure of hanging out in your disturbingly Austin Powers-esque bus might make that a tad more difficult anyway). So to ensure that he does get a modicum of coverage each day, he’s having a picture caption election. On Monday, it was hedgehogs in Solihull. Yesterday he had that selfie with Joey

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron’s curiously sanitised Christianity

David Cameron has written a rather interesting piece for Premier Christianity magazine on his faith and the meaning of Easter. I use the word ‘interesting’ advisedly and in the sense that an aged relative might deploy it when regarding some new fangled Christmas present that has a touch screen. The final two paragraphs are particularly interesting: ‘So I end my argument with this: I hope everyone can share in the belief of trying to lift people up rather than count people out. Those values and principles are not the exclusive preserve of one faith or religion. They are something I hope everyone in our country believes. ‘That after all is the

Steerpike Steerpike

Camilla Rutherford backs Ed Miliband’s 007 campaign

Yesterday Ed Miliband declared that it was high time the James Bond films moved with the times and cast a woman as the next 007. Although the comments were met with outrage from some of the more traditional Bond fans, the Labour leader can take heart that Camilla Rutherford has picked up his rallying cry. Speaking at Spectator Life‘s third birthday party, the Gosford Park actress urged the producers to cast a female lead. ‘It’s definitely time we had a Jane Bond instead of a James Bond. I think a woman would be great in the role. The only thing is that with a man it can be quite a suave move