Politics Archives

Friday

22 Nov 2013

How the warring ghosts of Blair and Brown still haunt their successors

Six and a half years after Gordon Brown finally badgered Tony Blair out of Downing Street, the relationship between these two men still dominates British politics. Why? Because David Cameron and George Osborne, and Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are, in their different ways, doing what they can to prevent history repeating itself. Their relationships are both informed by the Blair-Brown breakdown. Cameron and Osborne have quite deliberately structured their working lives to avoid replicating the tensions within New Labour. The pair shared a set of offices in opposition with their aides sitting in the same room. This was meant to prevent the emergence of two separate, competing power centres.

Steerpike

Is the real anti-Cameron brigade the Brady bunch, plus Adam Afriyie?

In September 2012 Mr Steerpike revealed that 14 Tory MPs had signed letters to Graham Brady, the Chairman of the 1922 Committee, calling for a leadership challenge to David Cameron. Today, Adam Afriyie, the alleged leader-in-waiting (who has not written to Graham Brady), called a vote on his amendment to James Wharton’s EU Referendum Bill. The amendment is designed to bring forward the plebiscite to 2014, because it’s Afriyie’s belief that delaying the vote until 2017 will cost the Tories the next election. Mr Afriyie won just 15 votes. A coincidence? Probably not, but it’s certainly a telling sign of just how small the real anti-Cameron brigade is. Douglas Carswell, Nadine Dorries and Andrew Rossindell were among the dissenters. Guido

Fraser Nelson

Blow to Salmond as Nairn Academy votes to save the union

Where Nairn goes, so goes Scotland. And it’s bad news for Alex Salmond because my old school, Nairn Academy, held a mock referendum on Scottish independence yesterday and the white smoke has just come out. They voted 71/28 to stay in the union with a 64 per cent turnout. This is more than a stunt from a Highland comprehensive: next year’s independence referendum is one in which 16 and 17 year olds will be voting so the opinion of Scottish school pupils matters. When Salmond decided to extend the franchise in this way, he obviously assumed the young would be all on his side. Not much. This is the Facebook (or

Thursday

21 Nov 2013

The Spectator

Alex Salmond’s economic policies would drive an independent Scotland into the ground

Within the white paper on economic policy in an independent Scotland that was published by Alex Salmond’s government this week there is a liberal economic manifesto trying to get out. The First Minister speaks about using new ‘levers and instruments’ to revive Scotland and that, freed from Westminster control, he might lure businesses by slashing corporation tax, reducing national insurance contributions and cutting air passenger duty. Unfortunately, none of these ideas is likely to get off the page because the SNP has a much more prominent agenda which could not have been better designed to promote economic stagnation. This one promises more generous welfare, a higher minimum wage, renationalisation of

James Forsyth

Welsh would block an independent Scotland from using the pound

The UK government knows that it plays into the SNP’s hands if it does anything which could be seen as trying to bully the Scots into voting no to independence. So, it has not said that the Scots would not be able to use sterling after independence but merely stated that this would be an issue for the rest of the UK too. The Welsh First Minister, though, has now come out and said that he would veto the creation of a sterling zone. This intervention by Carwyn Jones is one that the UK government had been waiting for, and expecting. It gets the message across without risking the accusation

Will Straw

Why the Right is wrong about ‘the green crap’

The Conservative flirtation with environmentalism was never much more than a branding exercise. Now it is over. Today David Cameron wants to ‘cut the green crap’. Perhaps the Prime Minister has been influenced by David Rose’s cover piece in last week’s Spectator — which encouraged the government to repeal the Climate Change Act, abolish its targets, and stop the Energy Bill coming into force. Strong stuff. But let’s suppose the government really were to follow Rose’s strategy, what would happen? A shale gas revolution? Don’t bet on it. As the energy company Cuadrilla has admitted, domestic fracking would have an ‘insignificant‘ impact on prices. The US, which has seen prices fall,

Christopher Booker

Old England died in 1963

There is no better measure of the pivotal importance of 1963 than to recall what Britain was like in the early 1950s, as we slowly emerged from the shadows of the second world war. The great Labour experiment of 1945 had petered out in a grim slog through years of austerity and rationing. With Winston Churchill back in No. 10, life had begun to crawl back to ‘normality’. Conservative values ruled: respect for tradition, discipline and authority. The old class structure still stood. No extramarital sex or homosexuality. In the cinema we were entertained by cosy Ealing comedies and films portraying the ‘stiff upper lip’ spirit which had won the

Fraser Nelson

Osborne increases debt more than Labour did over 13 years

The national debt figures are out – £1.2 trillion and rising – and although I hate to say it, the Labour Party has a valid point to make. If you don’t adjust for inflation, Osborne has borrowed more in under four years than the Labour Party borrowed over 13 years. It’s unusual for Ed Balls to talk about debt accumulation as a bad thing, perhaps because his policy remains the accumulation of even more debt. But here’s the story so far:- Labour is, as ever, spinning too much. As they know, you need to adjust for inflation to make any meaningful comparison in public spending. But the overall point holds.

Alex Massie

The Conservative Case for Gay Marriage

Perhaps there is something mildly tawdry about discussing an issue such as gay marriage in terms of its impact on perceptions of the Tory party or the extent to which it helps the Tory evolutionary project. It is, after all, a rather larger, better issue than that. A Conservative who only supported equal marriage for these tactical reasons would be a poor and shilpit thing indeed. Yesterday the Scottish parliament, catching up with Westminster, debated gay marriage. The best speech was that given by Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Tories. It shows her – and her party – at their best and is well worth six minutes of your

Sebastian Payne

The Spectator podcast: The View from 22 on Paul Flowers, Ed vs Ed and how to speak like JFK

Why did no one realise that Reverend Paul Flowers was a preacher behaving very badly? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, the author and publisher Melanie Phillips and the Conservative MP Jesse Norman ask why a man, who didn’t know one end of a balance sheet from the other, was given so much power over financial institutions and charities. Was it because he ticked all the right progressive boxes? Was it because the establishment is too willing to look the other way? Did Parliament fail in its duty by not quizzing him properly? And how deep should select committees dig into private lives? Mark Forsyth discusses the importance of the political soundbite with our deputy

James Forsyth

How the Blair-Brown tussle influences the top Tory and Labour partnerships

Listen to James Forsyth discuss the tale of two political partnerships: [audioboo url=”http://audioboo.fm/boos/1746142-james-forsyth-on-david-george-and-ed-ed”/] Six and a half years after Gordon Brown finally badgered Tony Blair out of Downing Street, the relationship between these two men still dominates British politics. Why? Because David Cameron and George Osborne, and Ed Miliband and Ed Balls are, in their different ways, doing what they can to prevent history repeating itself. Their relationships are both informed by the Blair-Brown breakdown. Cameron and Osborne have quite deliberately structured their working lives to avoid replicating the tensions within New Labour. The pair shared a set of offices in opposition with their aides sitting in the same room.

James Delingpole

James Delingpole: I told Radley school pupils how to rebel. But I’m not sure they want to

For two blissful days last week I was at Radley College — what you might call the posh person’s Eton — as the school’s Provocateur-in-Residence. Delightful place: like an especially agreeable gentleman’s club with a first-rate school attached. My only criticism — and it’s not really a criticism, more a rueful observation — is that even in this Helm’s Deep of immense soundness, the Orcish forces of lentil-eating progressivism have begun tunnelling beneath the walls and infecting the defenders of western civilisation with their malign and slithy creed. Or to put it another way: if you cannot rely on the boys of Radley College to stick up for man’s unalienable right to hunt foxes,

Wednesday

20 Nov 2013

David Blackburn

Philip Hammond sees off John Baron’s Army Reserve amendment

The debate on the Defence Reform Bill extended far beyond the proposed amendments. There was much discussion about the future of the armed forces, both regular and reserve. But these digressions into strategy masked a fierce political battle, which the Defence Secretary Philip Hammond won thanks to a masterly performance at the Dispatch Box. The Defence Reform Bill aims to increase the strength of the Army Reserve (AKA the Territorial Army) from 19,000 to 30,000 by 2018 in order to cover personnel cuts to the regular army, the strength of which is to fall to 82,000. 25 Tory MPs signed an amendment tabled by John Baron (Conservative, Basildon and Billericay). The rebels worry that missed recruitment targets and rising

Ed West

What is the point of having a ‘city of culture’?

‘Hull has been named the 2017 city of culture. Better luck next year, Luton.’ So wrote the Telegraph’s Tim Stanley on Twitter. Nadine Dorries said: ‘Hull? City of culture? As one originating from Liverpool, a former recipient, I’m er, surprised but of course, delighted for Hull!’ That summarises the general reaction to the choice of the 2017 UK City of Culture. I’ve never been to the East Riding city, so I can’t comment on whether the widespread view of it as a dump is fair, but certainly lots of the cities that compete for this honour are certified Crap Towns. Dover? Stoke-on-Trent? These are not cities of culture, unless you

Lloyd Evans

Nightmare at PMQs!

It started as soon as Ed Miliband stood up at PMQs today. ‘Nightmare!’ yelled the Tories. ‘Nightmare!’ They’d been fired up by the first question from Steve Brine, who craftily double-loaded his query. He referenced the Co-op bank and the ‘nightmare email’ in one sentence. Would the PM respond, he asked, ‘to grave concerns about the nightmare unfolding at the Co-operative?’ Cameron pretended to be all serious. He fretted about the regulatory controls and about safeguarding the bank without fleecing the tax-payer. ‘Nightmare!’ goaded the Tories. Ed Balls, seated beside Miliband, flushed puce. Not a natural Trappist, the shadow chancellor is clearly under orders to shut his gob during PMQs.

Lottie Dexter

The government must prevent young people from falling into the benefits trap

Despite promises to be ‘tougher than the Tories’ with regards the welfare bill, shadow work and pensions secretary Rachel Reeves MP was today batting away headlines suggesting that Labour was considering plans to scrap benefits for the under-25s. Reeves’s insistence that neither she, nor the party, support a worthwhile report from the influential, left-of-centre think tank, the IPPR, should raise concern. Not least because the IPPR raised similar points to those of the Prime Minister in his speech at this year’s party conference. In it he outlined plans for an ‘earn or learn’ scheme and recommended that young people are taken out of the welfare system altogether. This is disappointing from a Labour

Alex Massie

Nick Boles is right: the Tory party must change.

Another outbreak of the Tory Modernising Wars! What larks! Nick Boles’s speech to Bright Blue, a newish think tank for metropolitan swells folk who think the Tory message needs rethinking, has, as it was designed to, caused a minor rumpus. Rod Liddle thinks Boles is off his head. Iain Martin is kinder but concludes the Cameroons are still obsessed with fighting the wrong battles. Other commentators are gentler still, conceding that Boles is asking the right question but that he’s searching for answers in the wrong places. Nick Denys and, to some extent, Paul Goodman fall into this camp. On the other hand, Ian Birrell and Matt d’Ancona essentially agree

James Forsyth

John Bercow presided well over a stormy PMQs

Both sides came to PMQs today armed with prepared lines. David Cameron had the ‘nightmare’ emails and the whole Reverend Flowers and the Co-Op scandal. Ed Miliband had Nick Boles’ admission yesterday that the Tories are seen as the party of the rich. These jibes were duly hurled across the despatch box. But it was evident that Cameron was enjoying the exchanges rather more. When Miliband called Cameron a ‘loser’ he seemed to be trying a touch too hard. listen to ‘Cameron and Miliband at PMQs’ on Audioboo Cameron’s relaxed attitude was also because he knows that there are serious problems coming down the track for Labour. He announced that

Steerpike

The PM’s musical tin-ear

The news that Hull has been crowned the UK’s City of Culture for 2017 was discussed at PMQs. The PM extolled the virtues of the city, and made special mention of native eighties alt rockers The Housemartins. However, with a crashing sense of inevitability, the band’s founder, Paul Heaton, was unhappy with the endorsement: ‘Well, apparently David Cameron likes ‘London 0 Hull 4’. Which part of the attack on his policies and rich friends did he like best???’ The poor wee lamb ranted for a while about Thatcherism, and then concluded: ‘Cameron has ruined my day.’ My heart bleeds. Still, you would have thought that Cameron might have learned his

Nick Cohen

The Right’s attitude to radical Islam is as bad as the Left’s

Whenever a heresy-hunting left-winger fixes me with an accusatory glare and demands to know how can I talk to ‘someone like that’ (the ‘someone’ in question being a right-wing object of righteous denunciation) I reply, ‘I’m a journalist and will talk to anyone – even you.’ Still, I like to have a choice. I did not have one when I was sitting on a platform discussing Silent Conquest – a film about the ‘Muslim’ destruction of free speech in Europe and North America. I was uneasy about what I had seen, and became more irritable when the organisers announced a surprise guest, Tommy Robinson, formerly of the English Defence League.