Politics

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

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Syria debate: the sensible and profound punditry on Twitter

At 10.00pm last night, Parliament votes against giving British approval to an American missile strike that was going to happen with or without us. But to the New York Daily News, it’s a sign that the British have gone AWOL. And to many in Britain, it’s a sign that the world has ended. Here’s a selection of the more emotional responses to last night’s vote: @paddyashdown In 50 years trying to serve my country I have never felt so depressed/ashamed. Britain’s answer to the Syrian horrors? none of our business! The Respect MP George Galloway who rediscovered his liking Labour… @georgegalloway It was also a victory for Ed Miliband who

The Spectator

Syria: How MPs voted

Here is a list of all MPs and how they voted – or did not vote – in last night’s division on the government’s motion on Syria. MPs who voted on Labour’s amendment and then did not vote on the government motion: Adam Afriyie (Conservative) Christopher Chope (Conservative) Justine Greening (Conservative) Edward Leigh (Conservative) John Redwood (Conservative) Andrew Rosindell (Conservative) Mark Simmonds (Conservative) Tim Yeo (Conservative) Annette Brooke (Liberal Democrat) Lorely Burt (Liberal Democrat) Tim Farron (Liberal Democrat) Greg Mulholland (Liberal Democrat) John Thurso (Liberal Democrat) Mark Williams (Liberal Democrat) Ben Bradshaw (Labour) Ann Clwyd (Labour) Meg Munn (Labour) John Woodcock (Labour) Active abstentions on the vote on the government’s

Alex Massie Alex Massie

On Syria, parliament has voted to have no policy at all.

A muddle and a cock-up. For all the talk of parliament reasserting itself, last night’s vote on Syria showed a parliament that voted, twice, to oppose actions it actually supports. David Cameron has been humiliated but this was hardly a banner day for Ed Miliband either. The House of Commons has, for now, cut off its nose to spite its face. Perhaps surgery can repair the damage. Perhaps it can’t. Because the longer and more deeply one contemplates yesterday’s events the more evident it seems that there were no winners. The government motion was defeated. So was Labour’s amendment. Since these motions were, in essence and in most practical respects,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

MPs didn’t want to kick Cameron, but they didn’t want to trust him either

One of the lines doing the rounds this morning in the post-mortem of what this means for David Cameron’s leadership is that it shows yet again that backbenchers do not trust the Prime Minister. This is true, but it is worth being as specific as possible. This rebellion was not like the other revolts over Europe and House of Lords reform, where it was as much about sticking two fingers to the leadership for not listening to MPs as it was about the issues at stake, serious though they are. The number of conversations I’ve held with backbenchers in the run-up to and aftermath of those votes made it quite

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

Don’t be daft – last night’s vote was nothing to be ashamed of

Are you ashamed of your country and depressed following last night’s vote against intervening in Syria?  David Aaronovitch  the journalist is. I do not give a fuck what this means for Miliband and Cameron. It’s the message it sends to Assad that counts. I am ashamed. — David Aaronovitch (@DAaronovitch) August 29, 2013 Tim Shipman of the Daily Mail is. Glad I’m in France today, a country that understands the responsibilities of being a military power — Tim Shipman (Mail) (@ShippersUnbound) August 30, 2013 So is Sarah Vine, the columnist, as well as, apparently, her husband Michael Gove. Paddy Ashdown says that Great Britain is plunging towards ‘isolationism’. Even our own Toby Young

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

George Osborne: We’re not trying to make a fetish of division

When will today’s politicians be able to stop wrestling with Tony Blair’s ghost? Not for a while it seems – partly because they don’t want to. George Osborne decided to use the Kind of Spin as a means of spinning last night’s terrible defeat for the Coalition government on Syria when he appeared on the Today programme. As well as referring to the shadow Blair and Iraq cast over the debate, yesterday, the Chancellor made clear that the Prime Minister had tried to shake off that shadow by conducting things ‘in a different approach’. he said: ‘The shadow of Iraq pervaded the whole debate yesterday both on the media and

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

George Osborne’s tendentious logic on Syria

A sombre George Osborne has just popped up on the Today programme saying that parliament last night triggered ‘soul searching’ in the country. ‘I think there will be a national soul-searching about our role in the world and whether Britain wants to play a big part in upholding the international system, be that big open and trading nation that I’d like us to be or whether we turn our back on that.’ listen to ‘George Osborne on Today’ on Audioboo

The Spectator

Syria defeat: The Tory and Lib Dem rebels

These are the names of the MPs who voted against last night’s government motion on Syria: Conservatives (30): David Amess, Steve Baker, Richard Bacon, John Baron, Andrew Bingham, Crispin Blunt, Fiona Bruce, Tracey Crouch, David TC Davies, Philip Davies, David Davis, Nick de Bois, Richard Drax, Gordon Henderson, Philip Hollobone, Adam Holloway, Dr Phillip Lee, Dr Julian Lewis, Tim Loughton, Jason McCartney, Nigel Mills, Anne Marie Morris, Andrew Percy, Sir Richard Shepherd, Sir Peter Tapsell, Andrew Turner, Martin Vickers, Charles Walker, Chris White, Dr Sarah Wollaston. Liberal Democrats (9): Gordon Birtwistle, Michael Crockart, Andrew George, Julian Huppert, Dan Rogerson, Andrew Stunell, Ian Swales, Sarah Teather, Roger Williams.

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why must we worry about London’s success?

For a long time my view of the Imperial Capital — as, like other Scots, I am still prone to considering London — was borrowed from Joseph Conrad’s description of its riverside: ‘It is a thing grown up, not made. It recalls a jungle by the confused, varied and impenetrable aspect of the buildings that line the shore, not according to a planned purpose, but as if sprung up by accident from scattered seeds. Like the matted growth of bushes and creepers veiling the silent depths of an unexplored wilderness, they hide the depths of London’s infinitely varied, vigorous, seething life.’ London was mysterious, huge and confusing. I disliked it

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The PM is preparing for another coalition. His colleagues have other plans

Conservatives have been returning to their Westminster offices this week to find the wind behind them. Something suddenly seems to be going right: there’s good news on the economy, jobs and immigration and Labour seems to be in gentle meltdown. The idea of an outright majority in a 2015 election suddenly seems a lot more plausible. Which is why ministers and advisers are so dismayed at reports last week that David Cameron was planning for a second coalition after 2015. Just when a Tory election victory seemed possible, the Prime Minister has been mulling over a change in party rules so that MPs could vote on a new coalition agreement.

Andrew Marr

Andrew Marr’s diary: Holidays after a stroke, and what the Germans really think of us

It’s been a strange summer. After a stroke, holidays are not what they used to be. We went to Juan-les-Pins for a week in a hotel. It seemed perfect because it had beaches for the family, and at nearby Antibes there is a great little Picasso museum for me to haunt. It has the best drawing of a goat ever made. My daughters and wife doggedly manhandled me across hot sand into and out of the water and I enjoyed that. But being surrounded by so many fit people running, cycling and swimming was a little dispiriting. Mind you, I’ve always been useless at holidays. I hate being too hot.

The Spectator

Let Osborne finish the job

Upon taking office, David Cameron promised himself that he would resist the temptation to sack ministers in response to every scandal. He would have a major reshuffle halfway through his government and another one before the election. That would be all. He is now understood to be weeks away from deciding who should go where, and Labour-supporting newspapers are commissioning opinion polls to help the Prime Minister in his deliberations. The main verdict: sack George Osborne. Some Tory MPs agree. If there is to be a new Chancellor, now would be the time, because any new economic strategy would take three years to have much effect. This argument is as

The Spectator

Barometer – 29 August 2013

Your name here Supporters of Merthyr Town Football Club objected to having their ground renamed the Cigg-e Stadium in a £60,000 sponsorship deal with a manufacturer of electronic cigarettes. Some more unappealing football sponsors: Northern Rock Still sponsoring Newcastle United in 2009, two years after the bank run Wonga Newcastle’s new sponsors Cambridge Pet Crematorium Sponsors of a local under-12s league Rentokil Sponsors of Yarraville Glory FC, a club for eight-to-17-year-olds in Victoria, Australia Votes and prayers Steve Webb, the pensions minister, claimed that God would vote Lib Dem. For which party are people of various religious beliefs inclined to vote? christian Conservative 40% Labour 30% Lib Dem 18% MUSLIM

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s historic defeat

David Cameron has lost far more than the argument over Syria. He put his credibility on the line tonight, and lost. This is not just an extraordinary defeat but a spectacular political misjudgment, as I say in my Daily Telegraph column tomorrow. There will be a great many more questions asked tomorrow: from a sleepy summer recess, Cameron has conjured up one of the most spectacular parliamentary defeats in modern political history. The first such foreign policy defeat since 1782. What on earth was No10 thinking? That it could depend on Ed Miliband’s support? (He spoke abysmally today, by the way, offering a “sequenced roadmap”, and his amendment was defeated.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Government LOSES Syria vote

In a surprise result this evening, the government lost its motion on Syria, with 272 MPs voting for and 285 voting against. The Prime Minister responded to the vote in the Chamber, with MPs on the Labour benches shouting ‘resign!’. He said: ‘Let me say the House has not voted for either motion tonight, I strongly believe in the need for a tough response to the use of chemical weapons, but I also believe in respecting the will of this House of Commons. It is very clear tonight that while the House has not passed a motion, it is clear to me that the British parliament reflecting the views of

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour frontbencher resigns over Syria

Labour MP Jim Fitzpatrick has tonight resigned from his party’s frontbench over the Syria vote, his party confirmed. The shadow transport minister told the Commons this evening that he felt his party’s amendment was still too open to military intervention. He said: ‘I have problems – for the honourable gentleman’s information – both with the Government motion and the Opposition amendment. I do not believe either is ultimately able to achieve the honourable ends that both sides of this house are trying to achieve. I’m opposed to military intervention in Syria, full stop. And to be honest with myself, and to be consistent on both questions, I will be voting

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Number 10 under fire for ‘succour’ comments

There are currently two debates raging in Parliament at the moment. One is a reasonably measured (and lengthy) exchange in the House of Commons chamber about the merits of intervening in Syria, and the merits of today’s government motion and Labour amendment on Syria. The other is in the corridors of the Palace of Westminster, around the coffee tables of Portcullis House and on MPs’ smartphones as Labour rages about the suggestion from a Number 10 source this afternoon that Ed Miliband had his colleagues are giving succour to the Assad regime. After the leaders had spoken in the Commons, a Downing Street source was asked by journalists whether Miliband

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Closing of the Nationalist Mind

A paper with the title Scottish Independence: Issues and Questions; Regulation, Supervision, Lender of Last Resort and Crisis Management is not one liable to set pulses racing on the streets of Auchtermuchty. Or anywhere else, for that matter. Nevertheless it is a matter of some importance. The paper, published by the David Hume Institute, was written by Professor Brian Quinn and reported upon by Bill Jamieson in today’s Scotsman. According to Quinn, who is an expert of some standing in these matters, a currency union between Scotland and the remainder of the United Kingdom would – or at least has the potential to be – sub-optimal. Actually we might already suspect that’s

The Spectator

Audio coverage of the Syria debate in House of Commons

Welcome to Coffee House’s rolling coverage of the Syria debate in the House of Commons this afternoon. We will be detailing the best speeches in favour of and against the motion below, with full quotes and audio clips. Jump to speeches: David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Jack Straw, Liam Fox, David Davis, Andrew Mitchell, Ming Campbell, Justin Welby Friday 9:10:  Chancellor George Osborne was on the Today programme, discussing the government’s defeat. Fraser thinks his logic was rather tendentious: listen to ‘George Osborne on Today’ on Audioboo 23:00: Defence Secretary Phillip Hammond was interviewed on Newsnight just as the news came through the government’s motion had been defeated: listen to ‘Defence Secretary Philip

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Number 10: Ed Miliband wants to divide the nation on Syria

Even if you were wavering over whether Ed Miliband’s decision yesterday to reject the government’s motion on Syria (before it was published) was a political stunt, it’s a little more difficult to see why the Labour leader plans to continue to oppose the rewritten motion when it comes to a vote in the Commons this evening. You can read the full motion here. Number 10 is in no doubt that Labour now opposes this motion on political grounds rather than out of principle. A senior source says: ‘That just proves they are playing politics with this incredibly serious matter. They want to divide the nation on this matter and divide