Politics

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

Thursday

Dennis Sewell

The quango state: how the left still runs Britain

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_6_February_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson discusses David Cameron’s quango problems” startat=1350] Listen [/audioplayer]Last week Sally Morgan reverted to type. After almost three years as a model of cross-party co-operation, instinctive Labour tribalism finally won out as she accused Downing Street of purging Labour supporters from high offices. Of the many Labour types appointed by the coalition into quangos, she was probably the last person the government expected to go hostile. Not only had she done a fine job chairing Ofsted, the schools inspector, but she was a proven reformer who certainly shares Michael Gove’s passion for new schools. Like many Blairites, she is something of a Goveite at heart. But now,

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Breaking: Aidan Burley to stand down in 2015

This evening, Conservative MPs have been told that Aidan Burley, the MP for Cannock Chase who attended a Nazi-themed stag do is standing down in 2015. He said: ‘After a difficult time I have decided to announce I will stand down at the next general election. I will continue to work for the people of Cannock Chase until that election, and look forward to supporting my successor, as soon as he or she is selected, to ensure that Labour have no chance of re-taking this seat.’ Rather graciously, Grant Shapps has issued this statement: ‘Aidan has a strong record in his constituency from securing the future of Cannock Chase Hospital,

Ed West Ed West

The Nazis no longer deserve a place on the national curriculum

Apparently there’s some sort of anniversary coming up to do with a war, you may have noticed. To commemorate this the British publishing industry has launched a ferocious selling offensive, no doubt aided by recent remarks from Michael Gove, Tristram Hunt and Boris Johnson. Like with any historical incident, our views of this conflict are more about now than then, 2014 rather than 1914, perfectly illustrated by the German Foreign Minister’s hugely helpful comment that Ukip is a threat to European peace – helpful to Ukip, that is, since the intervention of continental politicians inevitably helps euroscepticism. (Historically it makes no sense, because there are a number of reasons why

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Miliband nutmegs Cameron, while the Speaker seemed preoccupied

That should have been a tap-in. London is currently crippled by a Tube strike thanks to the noted beach enthusiast, Bob Crow, and his high-earning chums at the RMT. So David Cameron had a superb chance to tip a bucket of manure over Ed Miliband’s head. The political connections are self-evident. Red Ed, union militancy, London throttled, all Labour’s fault. But Cameron was nutmegged by Miliband’s tactics. Ignoring the strike, the Labour leader asked about the newly formed inland sea which used to be known as the West Country. He accused the government of a slow, tight-fisted and shambolic response. Cameron assumed the facial expression of pumped-up severity that he

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Is it time to scrap the Environment Agency?

Aside from his ding-dong over floods with Ed Miliband at PMQs today, David Cameron also faced questions from backbenchers who have been affected by the floods. Conservative Graham Stuart asked whether the Prime Minister shared his ‘outrage at the false choice presented by the Chairman of the Environment Agency between protecting urban and rural areas from flood’. He was referring to Smith’s op-ed for the Telegraph earlier this week in which the quango chief pitched town and country against one another. The Prime Minister replied: ‘I think my honourable friend is absolutely right: there shouldn’t be a false choice between protecting the town or protecting the people who live in

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

How we fired Anne McIntosh MP

The decision not to reselect Anne McIntosh, as seen by one of her local party members. One evening last March I was standing at the back of the crowded annual meeting of Thirsk and Malton Conservative Association, observing in a semi-detached way as a rank-and-file member. Our MP, Anne McIntosh, was delivering an angry speech against the association’s chairman, Peter Steveney, and its executive council, who had voted two months earlier not to reselect her as parliamentary candidate for 2015 — a decision confirmed by a membership ballot last week. She paused to scan the room, dropped her voice half an octave, and snarled: ‘Martin Vander Weyer, where are you?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs sees Miliband press Cameron on his party’s ‘problem with women’

Today was not a good PMQs for David Cameron. Ed Miliband went on the issue of whether the Tory party has a ‘problem with women’ and was handed a huge helping hand by the fact that the front bench was all male. It made Miliband’s point for him. It was also sloppy planning by the Tories given that Harriet Harman had used this line of attack on Michael Gove on the Andrew Marr Show on Sunday. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron ‘failing women across his party and across the country’’ on Audioboo But this doesn’t explain why Cameron was quite so off in response. He did mention that the Tories had

Steerpike Steerpike

Spectator sport for Tory rebels

The leading article in last week’s Spectator, which urged Tory rebels to stop rebelling for the sake of it, has upset many gentlemen of the shires/backwoodsmen. The right-wing rump believes that their crusades against the liberal menace and the EU are far more important than Cameron’s party management or coalition realpolitik. So imagine their indignation when copies of the article were sent to them anonymously via the internal parliamentary mail system. One recalcitrant MP – Andrew Percy – suspects that this might be a new tactic of the whips – keen to instil some order in the ranks. If so, Mr S recommends that the whips buy each MP a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Return of the native as Danny Alexander tries to differentiate from Tories

‘I know a few people who could arrange just that,’ remarked a Tory MP this morning on reading Danny Alexander’s remarks in the Mirror that the Conservatives would reduce the top rate of tax to 40p ‘over my dead body’. He told the newspaper: ‘The top rate of tax has been an issue of late. Labour wants to take it back up to 50p, I think the 45p rate is the right place to be. I wouldn’t go to cutting below 45p – that would happen over my dead body. It’s better to say we are going to stick where we are.’ It’s worth pointing out that Alexander only means

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Lynton Crosby gives Tories ‘lovely’ roasting as MPs demand govt EU referendum bill

The Conservatives have just held a party meeting where Lynton Crosby was supposed to be reading them the riot act over their behaviour in the past few weeks. But the MPs leaving seemed to think it was ‘lovely’, ‘very positive’ and ‘all very tame’, which sounds like an unconventional roasting. The meeting focused on turning technical achievements into an emotional message and strategy for the European elections. The latter includes listing where the Conservatives have already delivered: on the EU budget, the veto and cutting bailouts, which should be proof enough that the Conservatives can deliver more. Apparently the Prime Minister and George Osborne said nothing. It will be interesting

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Relax, you can safely ignore BP’s “warnings” about the impact of Scottish independence

Why, a Tory grandee asked me recently, won’t more businesses come out against Scottish independence? It was, in his view, axiomatic that independence would be bad for businesses north and south of the border. So why the silence? Perhaps, or at least in part perhaps, because when businesses do raise their concerns they often contrive to present themselves as hopeless chumps. I am sure Bob Dudley, chief of BP, is personally committed to Britain but the idea, as expressed in an interview with the BBC, that Scottish independence creates “big uncertainties” for his business is poppycock. Well, a kind of poppycock anyway. It would require BP to operate in another country and I can

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Labour’s NEC backs ‘historic’ union link reforms

The Labour party’s National Executive Committee has backed Ed Miliband’s plans to change the party’s trade union links by 28 votes to two, which marks a resounding victory for the Labour leader. There was little doubt that the NEC would endorse the reforms, which will still take five years to be implemented, and in the end the two members who opposed the proposals (another member abstained) were vocal leftwing backbencher Dennis Skinner and Christine Shawcroft. The next step is for the party to vote on the reforms at a special conference on 1 March. Miliband said this afternoon: ‘Some people will find change difficult to accept. Others are worried about

Ed West Ed West

Could we move all politicians to Manchester?

The Ukip candidate for Wythenshawe and Sale East has come up with a rather interesting idea: he wants to move the Department for Culture, Media and Sport to Manchester, bringing 700 jobs to the city. I imagine that a lot of Ukip supporters would be quite happy to see the department metaphorically sent to Zurich for an appointment with Dignitas, but it’s a valid point. Why shouldn’t we send more civil servants out of London, where the cost of office space and decent housing is much lower, compared to the capital with its chronic shortage of affordable homes. Lots of countries have separate political and financial centres; Italy has Rome/Milan,

Steerpike Steerpike

Where’s Wally?

There were lots of sniggers at the back when Ed Miliband failed to make the list of the Most Connected Men in Britain, drawn up by Editorial Intelligence for GQ. Plenty of Labour stooges did make the list, so we can reject claims of bias. Ed’s grumpy spinmeister Tom Baldwin is on it, as is Shadow Education Secretary the Hon. Tristram Hunt. Even David Miliband, who has left these shores, made the cut. Now, call Mr S an old cynic but it seems that more column inches have been devoted to Ed not being on this list, than would ever be given over had he scraped on. If only Labour were

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ukip’s anti-Labour mission

Ukip wants to use the Wythenshawe and Sale East by-election as a way of spooking Labour into realising that it can steal votes from every party, not just the Tories. Labour is sufficiently worried to be trialling special anti-Ukip leaflets in the constituency, but behind-the-scenes senior figures still seem reasonably relaxed about the real threat that Nigel Farage’s party poses. The picture (from Guido) above, though, shows that Ukip is trying to hit the two weak spots for Labour, the ones it is trying to neutralise rather than develop radical policy on: welfare and immigration. That line ‘protect your jobs and benefits’ seems to be referring to ‘benefit tourism’, but perhaps

Monday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Blow for Yeo as local Tory party says ‘go’

In part two of the Constituent Spring, Tim Yeo’s constituency association has just voted not to re-adopt him as their Conservative candidate. The Tory MP had appealed against the decision of the South Suffolk Conservative Association’s decision to deselect him, and the result of the vote on this was announced today. Yeo said: ‘It has been a privilege to serve as MP for South Suffolk since 1983. I will continue to work for all my constituents until the General Election next year. I am immensely grateful to all those Conservative Party members who voted for me to continue as their MP. I now ask them all to campaign for my successor

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove and the fight for the moral high ground

Michael Gove’s speech today was, as James explained at the weekend, a pitch from the Tories to be the optimists of the 2015 election. He wanted to have a little boast about the success of the government’s education reforms in raising the desirability of a state education. He said: ‘When Channel Four make documentaries about great comprehensives – academies – in Essex and Yorkshire, when BBC3 make heroes out of tough young teachers, when even Tatler publishes a guide to the best state schools – you know tectonic plates have started to shift.’ This is hardly the running down of teachers or state schools that Gove’s critics like to complain

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory modernisers make hard-headed pitch for greenery

The 2020 group of modernising, mostly 2010-intake, Conservatives is trying to muscle in on their party’s manifesto-writing process by producing an impressive number of reports that they hope the Tory brains trust writing the 2015 offer will hoover up. The latest, ‘Sweating our assets’: productivity and efficiency across the UK economy was led by Laura Sandys, with David Ruffley, Baroness Wheatcroft, Nicola Blackwood and Steven Barclay all contributing. It has some eye-catching proposals, such as a ban on certain products such as mobile phones going to landfill. But what is more interesting about this report is the way it is trying to frame a favourite argument of the modernisers. When