Politics Archives

Wednesday

7 Jan 2015

Steerpike

Sir John Major steps down as president of the Bow Group

As one of the oldest Conservative think tanks, the Bow Group has a prestigious roll call of former chairmen who include Michael Howard, Norman Lamont and Peter Lilley. Now, Mr S hears that times are a-changing at the organisation, with the group’s president Sir John Major stepping down. His departure comes after an eventful few years for the think tank and its colourful chairman Ben Harris-Quinney since Major joined two years ago. Harris-Quinney became embroiled in a spat with Iain Dale after the broadcaster claimed in a post on ConservativeHome that Harris-Quinney was a ‘self-publicist’ whose work at the organisation was leaving many former Bow-Groupers ‘horrified’. Curiously, there appears now to be little mention of Major on the Bow Group website.

Irshadmanji

The Islamic case for a free press

Last year, I watched the British brouhaha over my friend Maajid Nawaz, the prospective Liberal Democrat candidate for Kilburn and co-founder of the counter-extremism outfit Quilliam. Nawaz had tweeted a cartoon called Jesus and Mo. Jesus to Mo: ‘Hey!’ Mo: ‘How ya doing?’ The end. That was it. Two top-tier prophets swapping props. The problem for some Muslims is that, according to tradition, Muhammad cannot be depicted in image lest he become an object of worship. But by insisting that he cannot be drawn under any circumstances, these Muslims make the prophet off-limits to anyone who does not believe as they do. They thus turn Mo into, well, an object of

Sebastian Payne

Five constituencies to watch in the 2015 election

Politicians and commentators of all varieties agree: the next election is nigh-on impossible to predict. Even the grand Tory pollster Lord Ashcroft has refused to publicly say what he thinks, stating today only that he reckons ‘it’s going to be quite exciting’. Instead of offering us his thoughts on who will win, Ashcroft has posted online all of his constituency level polling since May 2014. We’ve already reported on some of these polls but it’s worth revisiting some of the seats, because they offer an insight into some of the trends that may play out in the election. Politicians and commentators of all varieties agree: the next election is nigh-on

Isabel Hardman

Labour seeks urgent question on A&E crisis

Andy Burnham has put in a request for an urgent question on the A&E crisis, I have learned. The question, which the Speaker has yet to decide whether or not to grant, is as follows: URGENT QUESTION Rt Hon Andy Burnham MP To ask the Secretary of State for Health if he will make a statement on the major incidents that have been declared at a number of hospitals and on A&E performance in England. This might seem rather unsurprising at first glance, and it would be on any other day of the week. Today Ed Miliband will face David Cameron at PMQs and as I blogged earlier, it would

Isabel Hardman

How will Ed Miliband use the A&E crisis at PMQs?

Towards the end of 2014, David Cameron was finding PMQs ‘boring’. He knew that it was turning into a session where each week both he and Ed Miliband basically said the same thing over and over again, usually with a long string of statistics that the other couldn’t quibble while in the Chamber. He would talk about the importance of a strong economy, while Miliband would talk about the NHS. And then everyone would filter back out of the Chamber having learned nothing. Well, today the Prime Minister will probably find PMQs takes the same ‘boring’ format, but if Miliband crafts something less stunningly dull than a string of statistics

Tuesday

6 Jan 2015

Robert Smith

Grant Shapps faces planted questions on LBC – before coming up against a real voter

Anyone listening to Grant Shapps on LBC this afternoon will have noticed he was given a fairly easy ride from a number of the callers phoning-in. Rather than the typical angry voter with an axe to grind, the Tory chairman faced questions of a more old-fashioned, deferential nature. Tony, from Parsons Green, appeared to want Labour to be put straight on the NHS. He had his doubts whether the Tories really were keen on dismantling the treasured institution, as Ed Miliband would have us believe. How, asked Tony, were Labour getting their sums so wrong? Then came Sam, in Nottingham. ‘What are the Conservative party doing to cut the amount

Charlotte Henry

Exclusive: Vince Cable will lose his economy job with the Lib Dems tomorrow

Vince Cable will tomorrow lose his job as Liberal Democrat economy spokesman for the election, Coffee House understands. The party is set to announce its team of leading spokespeople for the General Election and I have obtained names in advance. Cable’s demotion in favour of Danny Alexander has been expected for a few months now. The Business Secretary will speak for the party on business. A well-placed source indicates that Lynne Featherstone will continue covering home affairs, Jo Swinson is due a job of some description and it’s likely that Baroness Susan Kramer will continue speaking on transport. However, there will be no role for Kramer’s colleague in the Lords, Baroness

Isabel Hardman

Labour only hurts itself by whinging in public

Ed Miliband’s office has complained that no-one told them about Angela Merkel’s visit to London, which takes place tomorrow. They are apparently very irritated about no-one telling them, even though the Foreign Office isn’t required to flag up visits like this anyway. But worse than that, they were given warning: in the newspapers. Here are the first few paragraphs of a story published by the Times on 27 December, entitled ‘Merkel puts culture and G7 on agenda for visit’: ‘Angela Merkel will make Britain her first overseas visit of the year in a sign of the importance that she attaches to her relationship with David Cameron. ‘The German chancellor, named yesterday as

Isabel Hardman

Has Ukip given up persuading one would-be Tory defector?

Has one Ukip defection become less likely? Before Christmas, top Tories were falling over themselves to tell Basildon and Billericay MP John Baron how much they valued him and how seriously they were taking his demands for proper compensation for nuclear test veterans. Baron was very high on the list of MPs likely to defect to Ukip, and did little to assuage the fears of his colleagues by saying things like ‘never say never’ when asked if he might leave the Tories. But this week Ukip selected a candidate in his constituency, which suggests that the party has given up on the Tory MP moving over to join the People’s

Steerpike

Guardian journalists fail to protect their sauces

Mr S is inclined to believe this is a piss-take, lest it be clear the Guardian completely disappeared up its own bottom. Apparently enjoying HP Sauce basically makes you some sort of quasi-racist, Ukip-voting, little-England philistine: ‘Created in the late 1800s, brown sauce reads, tastes and smells like the idle creation of some Phileas Fogg-type, just back and hugely, over-excited about his adventures in the British empire. Dates! Molasses! Tamarind! Cloves! Cayenne pepper! It is not so much a recipe as chauvinistic flag-waving, a smug, muscle-flexing case of: “Look at the size of our spice cupboard.” Said exotic ingredients were combined, moreover, with all the sensitivity of the period. Just

William Cook

Germany is shackled in the immigration debate. But Britain isn’t so must lead the way

Today Angela Merkel will meet David Cameron in Downing Street. She will tell him what she can do – and what she cannot do – to help keep Britain in the EU. Yet she might like to begin by telling him what she plans to do to keep her own people behind the EU project, for in Germany the Eurofederalist consensus is being challenged like never before. In Germany, as in Britain, the most emotive issue is immigration. In Germany, as in Britain, people are scared to discuss this issue frankly, for fear of being branded racists. And now a new movement has emerged to fill this vacuum: Patriotische Europaer Gegen

Steerpike

Ukip MPs infiltrate Conservative HQ’s Twitter feed

If social media is going to play a deciding role in the general election, the brains at Conservative HQ ought to take a closer look at who they promote on their Twitter account. The official Conservative Twitter feed has a Tweetminster list of Tory MPs on it which allows their 131,000 followers to catch up with the ramblings of all of their MPs at once. However, a quick inspection of the Tweetsminster list shows that Ukip defectors Douglas Carswell and Mark Reckless remain on it despite abandoning the party: This means the Tory Twitter account is letting Ukip reach their audience, as these tweets show… If the Conservatives plan to unsubscribe from the

Sebastian Payne

Jim Murphy vs. Diane Abbott: will Miliband rein him in?

How far will Jim Murphy be allowed to go? Yesterday, the Scottish Labour leader proposed funding extra nurses through the Mansion Tax — something his colleagues south of the border aren’t particularly happy with. On the World at One today, the Hackney MP and potential London Mayoral candidate Diane Abbott attacked Murphy, and at first forgot his name, for ‘jumping the gun’ on the Mansion Tax. She argued London will be unduly hit by this policy and the super-wealthy will avoid it: ‘I’m very surprised John…Murphy’s making these boasts. I support the Mansion Tax in principle, I support the union and redistributive taxation but there are two big problems about

Robert Smith

Michael Gove might not be preparing for another coalition. But other Tories are

Michael Gove pitched up on Newsnight yesterday to give one of his typically confident performances to the programme. Apparently CCHQ don’t believe any floating voters watch the BBC’s flagging current affairs show. The Chief Whip was removed from his previous role as Education Secretary because of poor poll ratings with floating voters, and senior Tories involved in that move were keen that he only be unleashed in controlled circumstances, despite being dubbed one of the new ‘ministers for broadcast’. So Gove wasn’t there to persuade wavering mothers in Bolton, but he was trying to persuade those who were watching that the Tories remain confident they can win a majority in May. He even

Steerpike

Claws out in Rochester: Mark Reckless not worried by Tory candidate

Things are getting heated in Rochester after Conservative HQ announced that the lacklustre Kelly Tolhurst will return as their candidate for the general election. The businesswoman put on a dismal display when she represented the Tories in the recent by-election against Mark Reckless. Reckless won then, and judging by his recent retweets, the Ukip MP is confident he can retain the seat come what May: #Rochester & Strood Tories to help @MarkReckless retain seat for @UKIP by re-selecting @KellyTolhurst as candidate http://t.co/RfvdYudgFB — A Jockertarian Rebel (@A_Liberty_Rebel) January 6, 2015 @marwilk @MarkReckless @BBCPolitics @UKIP True. The Tory’s kitchen sink was full of vote losing Kelly and her mind numbing rhetoric. — Debra Stevens

Steerpike

The Laws according to David

As Westminster clatters back to life after the Christmas break, so the steady stream of invitations land on Steerpike’s mat. Don’t all rush at once, but David Laws will be giving a speech this month at the Institute of Government on ‘effective government in 2015 and beyond’. While this will no doubt be riveting feast of wonkery, it is a bold move by the senior Liberal Democrat minister. The speech is to launch the the Institute’s ‘Programme for Effective Government’ report which ‘outlines a series of practical measures for parties to adopt in making sure they honour their party manifestos’. Is this really something that a leading light of Nick

Alex Massie

Does anyone in London actually know how the Barnett Formula works?

We’ve just had two years of intensive constitutional politics. Time enough, you’d think, for even London-based politicians and commentators to work out how British politics actually works. But if you think that you’d be wrong. Very wrong. Consider our old friend the Barnett Formula. Antiquated and not entirely fit for purpose – it being a 1970s convenience that was itself an updated version of the 1880s Goschen Formula – but hardly a mystery or a terribly complicated piece of financial wizardry. And yet it seems that almost no-one in the Westminster village actually understands how Barnett works. Yesterday, you see, Jim Murphy promised that he would use Scotland’s share of

Sebastian Payne

Mark Pritchard calls for law change on the anonymity of rape suspects

Mark Pritchard, the Conservative MP for The Wrekin, is no longer being investigated by the Met. In a statement, the Met said: ‘A 48-year-old man voluntarily attended a north London police station on Tuesday, 2 December where he was arrested, following an allegation of rape in central London. ‘He returned on bail on 6 January where he was informed he will face no further action as there was insufficient evidence.’ Pritchard gave a brief statement outside of Parliament this morning, where he argued that the law regarding the identity of rape suspects needs to be changed: ‘Sadly as an MP sometimes you have a target on your back. Of course, she

Steerpike

David Miliband: I might be back

David Miliband has refused to rule out a return to British politics in an interview with Vogue. Ed’s departed brother has not had much of an impact in New York, and is coy about his future: ‘I don’t know, is the answer.’ Intriguingly he also refuses to praise his brother’s performance as Labour leader: ‘I can’t say anything, because anything I say plays into the whole narrative. And I made an absolute commitment to myself not to play into the story … It’s not good for him and it’s not good for me for this to become a story.’ That would be true if David said something negative. Mr S

Monday

5 Jan 2015

Isabel Hardman

Will any party really offer an election message of ‘hope, not falsehood’?

Ed Miliband today promised that Labour will offer ‘hope, not falsehood’ in its General Election campaign. It’s a bold pledge given the party is making so much of the claim that the Tories want to reduce public spending to levels not seen since the 1930s – a claim that has foundations made of something oddly similar to sand. Similarly the Tories have today produced an interesting dossier that Miliband’s party has interestingly called ‘dodgy’ because it contains a number of ‘assumptions’. As James explains, that’s part of the plan, as Labour now has to say which cuts it wouldn’t reverse and which it would. But one of the central tricks