Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
With characteristic bluntness and admirable concision, Joan Rivers has offered her thoughts on the Israel-Hamas conflict: ‘Let me just tell you, if New Jersey were firing rockets into New York, we would wipe them out.’ She also lobs a few rockets at ‘college grad’ Selina Gomez for her pro-Gaza tweets: ‘Let’s see if she can spell “Palestinian”.’ Watch her rant above.
One of the last duties Sir George Young undertook as Chief Whip before stepping down during the reshuffle was to call ministers who were in line for the chop to check that they were not planning on taking the news too badly. Mr S suspects that Sir George’s heart was not really in it. One deposed Cabinet minister recalls their brief call with the Chief Whip: ‘Hello, I understand you’re off to see the Prime Minister and I’m meant to be doing a little pastoral care, but as I’m getting fired too, I suppose this is just a goodbye from one sacked minister to another. Cheerio.‘ Demob happy!
Mr S can only commend Boris Johnson’s column in the Telegraph today. It eviscerates Ed Miliband for his hypocrisy over ‘image’ and ‘substance’. As Boris puts it: ‘Ed Miliband is absolutely right to say that politics should be about ideas, and he is right to say that these should be more important than image. But the awful fact – confirmed by this speech – is that, frankly, Miliband’s image and photo-opportunities are the best things he has in his political programme.’ The rest is here.
Talk to most Tory strategists about Ukip and Ed Miliband and they say something along the lines of ‘Vote Farage, get Miliband’. They hope that this will deter people from voting Ukip or win back those Ukip supporters who are not irreconcilable to the Tories. The Telegraph has news that Labour’s private polling confirms the Tory view: Ed Miliband will win Downing Street if Ukip polls 9 per cent of voters, which it is more than capable of doing on current projections. The Tories, I suspect, will be fairly pleased that Labour has published this information. It reinforces what we’ve known all along: an unpopular left-wing party will win power
Ed Miliband has suggested that there be a public version of Prime Minister’s Questions. This courageous idea makes Mr S want Miliband to be prime minister. What would you ask him?
Some of what David Smith, author of the essential Economic Outlook column in the Sunday Times, says today will be salve to George Osborne: ‘…the government intended to spend £722bn in the 2013-14 fiscal year. In fact, it spent £714bn. Spending has been lower each year than set out in 2010. Current spending was originally intended to be £679bn in 2013-14. In fact, it was £668bn. Unusually for any government, spending has come in comfortably within budget. There has been no slippage.’ Other parts will not: ‘Where there has been slippage is in tax receipts, which have been weaker than expected. A small amount of that was due to deliberate
Ed Miliband’s admirers are hailing his speech on Friday as an attempt to change how we think about leadership. It might have been that, but it was also a very political attempt to deal with the ‘Ed problem’, the fact that he trails David Cameron in the leadership stakes by a potentially fatal margin. There is huge frustration in Miliband’s circle that, as one puts it, voters say that they don’t like spin and then say they won’t vote for Ed as he’s bad at it. But for all Miliband’s decrying of modern politics emphasis on presentation, he has—at times—tried to play the image game just as hard as
If Scotland goes independent in September, who knows what patriotism will feel like. This may be a last chance to savour some of this magazine’s most passionate expressions of British pride. In 1828, this article laid out the difference between a ‘genuine Briton’ and a Liberal. ‘The disposition of a genuine Briton is to make up his mind upon what he ought to do, and having once determined that, to adhere to his resolution with a fixedness of purpose, which more frequently proceeds to the length of obstinacy, than deviates into vacillation and uncertainty. Now this is a character quite opposite to that of the Liberals, and much to be
Last summer, parliament was recalled after President Assad’s forces used chemical weapons in Syria. David Cameron wanted the Commons to support air strikes against the Syrian regime in response. But the Commons refused, defeating the government motion. Whatever you thought of the decision, it was a bold move by MPs. They had demonstrated that even on matters of war and peace, the traditional preserves of the executive, they were prepared to stand athwart the Prime Minister. The decision changed Western foreign policy, but not perceptions of parliament. Almost a year on, the public are still cynical about the institution and MPs remain deeply unsure of the worth of what they
Ukip are holding an action day in Thurrock today. Their tails are up at the moment because a recent poll of marginal seats by Lord Ashcroft put them in first in Thurrock on 36%. The party also leads in Thanet South, according to this round of polling. Ukip very kindly offered me the chance to interview its candidate in Thurrock, Tim Aker MEP (pictured above). I declined due to diary commitments; but I did submit some written questions which I thought might prove relevant if Aker was indeed elected to parliament. I haven’t heard anything back from Ukip, so I reproduce them here for readers of Coffee House to consider:
The Liberal Democrats have always been a party of contradictions. In the time I’ve been a member, as well as a journalist covering the party, few of its contradictions have baffled me more than the fact that it is called the Liberal Democrat party but it unequivocally fails to support the only liberal democracy in the Middle East. There has always been a strong link between British Jewry and Liberal parties, but the present day Liberal Democrats are broadly not trusted by the Jewish community. This is despite the best efforts of Nick Clegg and others to rebuild links. This was brought home to me only a couple of months
David Cameron and Tony Blair faced identical tasks earlier this week. Both wished to force a reluctant group of back-sliders to adopt a more robust and pragmatic position. Cameron wanted Europe to toughen up against Putin. Blair wanted Labour to toughen up against Cameron. Blair’s opportunity was the 20th anniversary of his enthronement as Labour’s leader. Oddly enough the chief beneficiary of that leadership – the Labour party itself – mysteriously forgot to give its messianic champion a chance to reflect on his methods. Instead, he offered his blueprint for further Labour victories to the think-tank, Progress. Blair likes to write in the early morning, in long-hand, seated at a window. This
What were Labour thinking? Against the background of Ukraine and Gaza, the only domestic story likely to cut through is an economic one. The news today is dominated by David Cameron, George Osborne and Nick Clegg wallowing in the success of the British economy. So what did Ed Miliband do? He made a speech about presentation for the Westminster village, of course. The SAS is on standby to land in Ukraine, Gaza crumbles and the IMF gives the UK a gold star for economic performance; but, look over there, Ed’s got something to say about the political-media nexus! Miliband’s war on photo-ops is utterly laughable given that it came just
Today Labour leader Ed Miliband gave a speech on leadership and ‘the choice’ at the Royal Institute of British Architects. Here’s what he said: listen to ‘Ed Miliband: ‘If you want the politician from central casting, it’s just not me’’ on Audioboo
[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_24_July_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Liam Halligan and Adam Memon discuss whether another financial crisis is on the way”] Listen [/audioplayer]When I think about global stock markets these days, the image that springs to mind is the final scene of The Italian Job— the 1969 original, not the tacky 2003 remake. ‘Hang on a minute, lads,’ says Charlie Croker, Michael Caine’s heistmaster-in-chief, as he and his rogue brethren balance precariously in a bus loaded with gold on the edge of an Alpine cliff. ‘I’ve got a great idea.’ The film ends ambiguously, of course. As the credits roll, viewers are left guessing as to whether the gang manage to get the loot and themselves to
The economy is now, at last, larger than its pre-recession peak. The coalition parties are keen to claim vindication this morning. Nick Clegg has declared that ‘The rescue has worked’ and used today’s numbers to justify the Liberal Democrat’s decision to go into coalition. While George Osborne is celebrating a ‘major milestone in our long term economic plan’. But he’s also keen to warn that ‘there is still a long way to go’ and to emphasise that ‘the mistakes of the past’ must not be repeated. In other words, don’t let Labour back in. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/okYiQ/index.html”] Political symbolism aside, GDP is still lower in per capita terms today than it
Labour will launch its summer campaign later today. The centre-piece is Ed Miliband’s speech. He will present a ‘big choice’ to the British public, arguing that they cannot afford 5 more years of Conservative rule. Miliband’s argument is simple: the economy is broken, only we can fix it; the NHS is threatened, only we can save it; the Tories represent the few, only we care for the many. You will have heard these mantras many times before; but, this time, the presentation is different. The speech bears the mark of David Axelrod, who is busy ‘reframing’ Ed Miliband as an honest yeoman of the shires rather than a metropolitan oddball. Rafael
Commons inheritance Emily Benn, granddaughter of Tony and niece of Hilary, has won the right to stand for Labour in Croydon South. Which party produces the most political dynasties? Current MPs who had a parent in the Commons: CONSERVATIVE James Arbuthnot, Richard Benyon, Dominic Grieve, Ben Gummer, Nick Hurd, Andrew Mitchell, Nicholas Soames, Mark Pawsey, Laura Sandys, Robin Walker, Bill Wiggin LABOUR Hilary Benn, John Cryer, Lindsay Hoyle, Anas Sawar, Andy Sawford, Alison Seabeck d.u.p. Ian Paisley Jnr Air scares The loss of a second Malaysian Airways airliner means that the number of worldwide casualties in civilian air disasters — 827 so far this year — has already exceeded that
Dominic Grieve was a worthy attorney-general whose career was helped by this magazine: nine years ago, he was named Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year, beneath the nose of David Cameron, then nearing the end of his successful campaign for the Conservative leadership. But Grieve’s remarks this week, in which he suggested that the Prime Minister would be seen to be as bad as Putin if he pursues proposals to give Parliament ultimate authority over laws in this country, underline why his position as a member of the government had become untenable. One of the few redeeming features of David Cameron’s reshuffle is that it added a certain clarity to our
Sir Malcolm Rifkind was right: there was no agreement in Europe on serious against Russia. The FT’s Peter Spiegel tweets the news that many have been expecting: The #EU ambassadors meeting finally breaks. No decision on “phase three” sanctions, but meeting again tomorrow. And maybe Mon. And Tues. — Peter Spiegel (@SpiegelPeter) July 24, 2014 The EU’s account of the meeting refers, comically, to an ‘exchange of views’ on the ‘preparatory work’ on tier three sanctions. There was some agreement on the extended list of ‘Putin cronies’. Zero Hedge has a summary of the discussion, drawn from a variety of sources. The headlines are that the number of listed ‘cronies’ is expected to be increased to