Politics Archives

Thursday

11 Dec 2014

What’s behind the Boris Johnson show?

Coming in from the pouring rain, I make my way to the office on the eighth floor of City Hall. With its curving windows, many books and bust of Pericles tucked away in a corner, it reminds me both of a classroom and the cockpit of a spacecraft. Its occupant is waiting for me, looking a little crumpled but less dishevelled than I had expected. He greets me very pleasantly but this is what I’m thinking. Here is the most famous person I have ever interviewed. In his own way, he is almost as iconic as the Queen or Churchill, the nodding dog in those insurance commercials. He is Boris,

Paul Collier

How to fix Britain’s immigration crisis (without leaving Europe)

The response to the Ukip surge has reached the panic stage. Just as British business and academia chorused the economic benefits of Union in the final stages of the Scottish referendum campaign, now their refrain is of the economic benefits of immigration. A letter from ten chief executives in the Financial Times pronounced that unimpeded immigration from Eastern Europe is highly valuable. The previous week economists estimated that immigration from Eastern Europe had contributed £20 billion net in taxes. But Ukip supporters are no longer overawed by businessmen and dons, so what is to be done? Within the accepted rules of English social hierarchy, the tempting implication for the rest

James Forsyth

From coalition to chaos – get ready for the age of indecision

A recent email from Samantha Cameron started an intriguing debate in the Prime Minister’s social circle. It was an invitation to a Christmas party at Chequers and word quickly spread on the Notting Hill grapevine that the PM was convening an unusually large gathering of friends at his country retreat. So, the guests wondered: were they being asked around because the Camerons were having a last hurrah at Chequers, sensing that they would be evicted by the electorate? Or was the bash being thrown because they were in celebratory mood, convinced that the political tide has turned their way? This confusion is understandable. We might only be three months away

James Forsyth

Interview: Alex Salmond’s game plan for the Commons

Alex Salmond is losing his voice but that’s not going to stop him from talking — I doubt that anything would, or could. I meet him in the Savoy, after The Spectator’s Parliamentarian of the Year Awards (he won top gong) and he orders a hot toddy — setting out the ingredients just in case the Savoy Hotel is too English to know how to make one. No one talking to Scotland’s former first minister today would have any idea that his political dream was clearly rejected by Scottish voters just three months ago. He is relishing the SNP surge and the likelihood of his party holding the balance of

Penelope Lively

Penelope Lively’s notebook: Coal holes and pub opera

I have been having my vault done over. Not, as you might think, the family strong room, but the place beneath the pavement — the former coal cellar — pertaining to an early 19th-century London house. The vault opens onto the area — mine is the last generation to know that that is what you call the open sunken space between the basement and the pavement — and has been given the latest damp-proof treatment, plus shelving and smart lighting, so that I can use it for storage. Others use their vault more creatively: a couple next door had theirs excavated several feet and made into a troglodyte bedroom. No,

Martin Vander Weyer

How do I ever get speaking gigs? I’m guessing it goes like this…

To Brighton, to address a conference of property investors. Unusually, I find myself programmed alongside both Gerard Lyons, City economist turned Mayor Boris’s adviser, who is notably upbeat in his forecast, and Robert Peston, who is distinctly downbeat in an extended after-dinner lecture with graphs, but gets away with it because his voice mannerisms are so compelling and women in the audience are fascinated by his new haircut. I do a lot of this kind of work and always enjoy it, but what’s different this time is that I’m more accustomed to being booked as a stand-in for the likes of Pesto and Lyons than as a stand-up awards-ceremony-compère sandwiched

Wednesday

10 Dec 2014

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Nick Clegg heats up in the hot seat

Cameron is away in Ankara. His mission is to annoy the Germans by inviting Turkey to join the EU as soon as possible. It all sounds like fun. Let’s hope the Turks know they’re being used as pawns in a much bigger game. His absence left Deputy Clegg facing Deputy Harman at PMQs. Clegg’s chief gift at the dispatch-box is for coining and distributing insults. It’s not a winning talent though, and his manner is far too prickly for national leadership. His attractive looks, posh schooling and agile tongue should have resolved themselves into something softer and more generous. Yet he still comes across as a Leninist crusty who happens

Hamish Macdonell

Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for the Crown Estate — my response to the Scottish government

My article about Nicola Sturgeon’s plans for the Crown Estate caused some excitement within her administration. All untrue, they say. They have written a response (below). So what could have happened? It’s worth look at in some detail, as it gives an insight into how government works. The Crown Estate is in the news because Lord Smith’s Commission into extra powers for the Scottish Parliament recommended that Crown Estate assets in Scotland – and their profits – be handed over to the Scottish Parliament. And, in his report, Lord Smith added: ‘Responsibility for financing the Sovereign Grant will need to reflect this revised settlement for the Crown Estate.’ This is

James Forsyth

PMQs: Nick Clegg delivers a perfect Cameroon performance

Nick Clegg’s performance at PMQs reminded me of Field Marshall Bosquet’s verdict on the charge of the Light Brigade, ‘c’est magnifique, mais ce n’est pas la guerre’. After a week in which the Lib Dems have been busy trying to differentiate themselves from the Tories, Clegg turned up at PMQs and delivered an aggressive defence of everything that the government has done. Indeed, I’m struggling to think of anything that Clegg said from the despatch box today that Cameron would have disagreed with. The session was also a reminder of the personal animosity between Clegg and the shadow Cabinet. Harriet Harman went for him over his party’s attitude to women,

Ed West

Wow, just wow – liberalism is dead

I tend to avoid Camden these days as it makes me feel even more like Mark Corrigan than usual, so it’s been a few years since I visited the Proud Gallery. I seem to remember it was for some industry event and there was lots of free beer; it was a nice venue with a view overlooking the area, but I can’t recall whether the place was gay, super-gay or not-very-gay. Someone else was obviously unaware of the bar’s sexual orientation, as they wrote an email to its owner, Alex Proud, enquiring because some of their staff might have religious objections. Mr Proud’s response was to tell them their booking

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg’s PMQs challenge

Nick Clegg is taking Prime Minister’s Questions today, which will at least force the Lib Dem leader to turn up to a major Commons session, rather than bunking off to Cornwall. It’s not just good timing in terms of sorting out Clegg’s truancy rate, but also because Coalition ministers have been taking public pot shots at one another for the past week. Labour will want to exploit those divisions, but Clegg is unlikely to find many Tory backbenchers rallying to his cause, either. The behaviour of the Lib Dems has reminded a lot of Conservatives of their desire to sack the Lib Dems from the Coalition – a desire they

Tuesday

9 Dec 2014

Steerpike

Revealed: the cringeworthy horror of Ukip chat-up lines

The Roger Bird-Natasha Bolter saga continues. Text messages between the Ukip romantics have revealed by the Telegraph which paint Bolter in a less favourable than Bird. While the Ukip investigation is ongoing, Bird has told Guido that they demonstrate a ‘gradual development of the relationship and make it clear that there was no impropriety involved’. That’s as maybe, but is there anything proper about text flirting of this appalling calibre? Here are some more text messages from Botler to Bird: Nov 9, 17.26: “I am really missing u bird…” Nov 6, 19.05: “I have sang you praises to Nigel for 12 minutes” Nov 6, 00.24: “U r not coming back and accordingly my life

Isabel Hardman

The tricks being played over a VAT rise

Today’s Treasury Questions was a bit odd, not least because neither George Osborne nor Ed Balls were there, so everyone seemed to be quite keen to get the thing over with. Labour’s latest line of attack is to force Treasury ministers into ruling out or obfuscating over whether or not a Tory government would put up VAT after the General Election. Here is the first exchange, between Shabana Mahmood and David Gauke: Shabana Mahmood: ‘The Minister has failed to rule out another tax cut for the richest 1% of earners in our country. As he signalled in his answer, the Prime Minister has made £7 billion-worth of unfunded tax promises

Steerpike

Handbags for Commons couples: Sarah Vine vs Ed Balls

It was a battle of the Westminster couples last night as Yvette Cooper took to the airwaves on Tom Bradby’s ITV Agenda show. Snarkily commenting from the couch at home, Sarah Vine, aka Mrs Michael Gove, publicly questioned ‘How did Ed Balls ever bag Yvette?’ The darling couple of the Brown treasury married in 1998, when Balls was working for Gordon and Yvette was a new Labour MP. But Yvette’s hubby wasn’t having any of it, hitting back ‘Errr.. Hang on.. Pots? Kettles?’ Whatever could he mean? Mr S could never imagine such rumbustious highly personal politics from Nigel Lawson, Norman Lamont, Gordon Bro…oh wait. Over to you chief whip.

Rod Liddle

As political scandals go, Ukip’s latest offering is hardly a knee-trembler

The Natasha Bolter story is a little peculiar, no? Ms Bolter, formerly of the Labour Party and more latterly a rising star in Ukip, has been telling the press how she was ‘sexually harassed’ by the party’s general secretary, Roger Bird. This seems to have amounted to Mr Bird asking her out a couple of times. Unwise and over-bearing behaviour, I suppose, but hardly the greatest political scandal of the age. All this happened a couple of months ago – so why has it only surfaced now? Was Ms Bolter about to be shafted, so to speak, in the seat she expected to get? Either way, Bird has been suspended

Sebastian Payne

Ukip’s Roger Bird suspended over sexual misconduct allegations

The reason behind Roger Bird’s mysterious suspension as Ukip general secretary has been revealed. The splash of today’s Times makes several allegations (£) about Bird and Natasha Bolter, a Labour defector to Ukip and potential PPC in South Basildon: ‘Natasha Bolter, a headline speaker at Ukip’s party conference, has pulled out of hustings today in South Basildon, where she was widely expected to be elected as parliamentary candidate in the winnable seat. ‘Ms Bolter, 35, claims that Roger Bird, Ukip’s general secretary and the man in charge of vetting parliamentary candidates, propositioned her over dinner at his London club on the day that he interviewed her as a prospective candidate. ‘”He asked

Isabel Hardman

The Tory voters who are still vulnerable to Ukip

Today’s conclusion from the British Election Study that Ukip will hurt the Tories far more than it will damage Labour at the General Election is unsurprising, but still important as its warning that the Conservative party could lose nearly two million voters to Nigel Farage’s party underlines the need for the Tories to find a decent solution to Ukip. Thus far the Tories have tended to capitulate to Ukip on policies, with Nigel Farage becoming a think tank for policy development by applying pressure on nervous MPs who eventually secure concessions from David Cameron in the form of policies he didn’t really want to announce. But last month David Cameron

Monday

8 Dec 2014

Sebastian Payne

Ukip general secretary Roger Bird suspended over ‘impropriety’ allegations

To the delight of its enemies, Ukip has just announced its general secretary has been suspended over ‘impropriety allegations’. According to a statement released by the party, claims have come to light ‘about the conduct of Mr [Roger] Bird with regard to candidate selection’. A Ukip spokesman said on Monday evening: ‘Unfortunately, Ukip has had to suspend Mr Bird pending a full investigation into allegations made against him. The party has acted swiftly and decisively and will not tolerate impropriety of any kind amongst its staff.’ Of course, the news will be grist to the mill for those who claim that Ukip is nothing more than a bunch of charlatans, and that it cannot

Nick Cohen

The last days of the Cameron administration: Part 1 The Gove Delusion

Faintly stunned Liberal Democrats report that Michael Gove is an absentee chief whip. He is simultaneously there at the coalition whips’ meetings but not there: a ghostly presence; a bored, miserable figure who has not forgiven or forgotten David Cameron’s decision to demote him from his beloved Education Department. It’s dangerous to humiliate a man and then give him the power to humiliate you. Even in the fag end of a fixed-term parliament, which long ago ran out of useful business to conduct, a government needs a good whips office if it is to stay out of trouble. The Cameron government does not have one and is always tripping over

Isabel Hardman

Rachel Reeves goes for tribal politics over hard questioning on food banks

Most people went into Work and Pensions Questions expecting Iain Duncan Smith to be in a tetchy fame of mind following this morning’s report on food banks. As a matter of fact, the Work and Pensions Secretary was very, very keen to tell us as often as he possibly could how ‘seriously’ he was taking that report. And the Opposition, which claims to care a lot more about these matters, completely failed to make productive use of its time grilling him. Some Tory ministers were worried that an impending Labour reshuffle at some point this term might see Rachel Reeves moved on to their patch, as she’s deemed very good