Politics

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

Friday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

I would give up my seat for any pregnant woman, except Jo Swinson

Apparently our MPs declined the opportunity to stand up and give the heavily pregnant minister Jo Swinson a seat during PMQs. So she stood. She has made no fuss at all. My suspicion is the MPs would have happily stood for her but were worried that they’d later be castigated as sexist for having done so. And quite possibly by Ms Swinson. With the exception of air-headed Lib Dem ministers, it is right to give a pregnant woman a seat on a bus, or a train, isn’t it? Just as you’d give up your seat for a raspberry, or a very old person, no?

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Ed Miliband’s calculated energy price freeze

It has been pointed out (possibly by me, among many) how hypocritical Ed Miliband is in complaining about energy prices since he was responsible, as Energy Secretary, for driving them up through green levies. We critics have been slow to realise that it is exactly because of his history that Mr Miliband is pushing his price freeze so hard. He knows — because he helped preside over it — that rises in the levies are inevitable, since they are written into the law of the land and of the EU — not just for now, but for many years ahead. He has calculated, with the same background knowledge, how he

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Was Jeremy Browne shut out of the tight Home Office ship?

There’s a lot of interest in Jeremy Browne’s revelation in the Times this morning that senior Tories have already been trying to persuade the sacked Lib Dem Home Office minister to defect. Browne bats this away by showing that he really is a true Lib Dem with the only evidence that his fellow yellows will accept. ‘Not many people have delivered more leaflets than me,’ he protests. It’s also worth asking why Lib Dems are quite so obsessed with shopping trolleys: Browne uses the same image that Clegg used to criticise Theresa May this spring. But what’s just as interesting is what Browne has to say about his struggles in

Thursday

Tristram Hunt

Tristram Hunt’s diary: Why has Gove allowed a school that makes women wear the hijab?

ONE OF THE MINOR sociological treats of being appointed shadow education secretary is a frontbench view of David Cameron’s crimson tide — that half hour journey, every Question Time, during which the Prime Minister’s face turns from beatific calm to unedifying fury. It starts at 12.04 with the merest ripple of annoyance in his shiny, placid countenance. At 12.07, the ripple has become a swell of irritation, still far out to sea, at anyone daring to question the wisdom of government policy. By 12.10, it is a wave of indignation and wounded amour propre at the wilful duplicity of his opponents. And by 12.14, the crimson tide is crashing over

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron appears to be prioritising policy for the next election campaign

Ten days before the last election, The Spectator interviewed David Cameron. By this point, it was quite clear that a hung parliament was the most likely result of the next election. But Cameron repeatedly refused to discuss which parts of the Tory manifesto were non-negotiable. He told us that ‘spending a lot of time trying to fillet your own manifesto is not a particularly good use of time in the actual campaign.’ The next campaign, though, is going to be very different, I argue in the magazine this week. We already know that Cameron’s promise to renegotiate Britain’s membership of the EU and hold an In/Out referendum applies regardless of

Steerpike Steerpike

Another puff piece for Ed Miliband

First Ed Miliband was papped with a teenager holding a ‘bong’ (above). Now the Labour leader is being offered dope on the street by passing fans. According to the Ham & High, little Ed and his team believed that builder Robert Quinn had offered them his ‘last Rolo’ on a walkabout in Camden. In fact, Quinn had offered his ‘last rollie’, referring to a joint. And there was Mr Steerpike thinking that they must be smoking something already.

Douglas Carswell

Toryism’s trip back to the 70s

Remember Ted Heath’s greatest hits of the 70s? Riding high in the charts was his ‘prices and incomes policy’. Followed by ‘state subsidies’ and ‘picking the winners’. And who can forget the smash hit ‘Barber boom’ – with the bust on the B side. Far from being a distant memory, too many Tories today are carrying on as if they were in a Ted Heath tribute band. Instead of a statutory incomes policy, they are crooning about something called a ‘living wage’. That’s right folks, these retro Tories want us to overturn one of the greatest Thatcherite achievements and undo the free labour market reforms. (Heck, why don’t they go

Alok Sharma

What to do about the EU? Work with Germany

As the British Parliament continues deliberating the EU Referendum Bill, it’s worth reflecting on the relationship between the UK and Germany: It could determine the future direction of the whole European Union. David Cameron made a big speech on the EU at the start of the year and there was much in it that centre-right politicians in Berlin could agree with. His five principles of wanting more competitiveness, flexibility, a rebalancing of powers between nation states and Brussels, democratic accountability and fairness had particular resonance. And what was especially appreciated, and came across in his speech, was his genuine desire to work with like-minded partners to help reshape the European

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Press Freedom: The state goes for everyone (and you have no right to be surprised)

Britain’s journalists ought to be asking themselves an unfamiliar question: what is the point of my life? If they have any knowledge of history, they ought to know that they are the custodians of a tradition of press freedom, which began with John Milton and the “Independents” who opposed both Charles I and the Presbyterian theocrats of the 1640s. The point of having freedom is to hang on to it. Although you would never guess that from imbecilic games the British media plays. Before I go further, I must acknowledge that you only have to say “press freedom” to see sneers appear on the wolfish lips of the media academics,

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 podcast: is climate change good, Tommy Robinson and another Tory/Lib Dem pact

Are there any upsides to climate change? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, author and columnist Matt Ridley discusses the economic impact of global warming with Fraser Nelson, and whether there are any benefits to a rise in temperatures. Will there be a tipping point for disastrous effects? Are we taking the right precautions to deal with that point? Douglas Murray also looks at his encounter with ex-English Defence League leader Tommy Robinson, and what lies ahead for the far-right movement in Britain. Will the EDL wither away without Robinson? And are all far right parties finished in this country? Plus, Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth examine the prospects for another Conservative coalition

Ann Carlton

I was Ralph Miliband’s research assistant, and this is what he was like

‘You can work as research assistant to Ralph Miliband.’ Thus my tutor at the London School of Economics gave me the news that he had found a way for me to finance my first year of study for an intended PhD on the Labour party’s housing policy between the world wars. The idea was that for twelve months between 1964 and 1965 I would help analyse the changing occupational structure of the British workforce by comparing statistics contained in the 1851 census with those in the 1951 census. As a first step, my new boss took me for a drink in the coffee bar next door to the main entrance

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What must Cameron give to Clegg for the Lib Dems to stay loyal?

Ten days before polling day in 2010, it was clear that a hung parliament was the most likely result of the election. But when interviewed by The Spectator at the time, David Cameron refused to discuss what parts of the Tory manifesto were up for discussion in any possible coalition. He said simply that ‘all the things in our manifesto are what we want to achieve’. When pressed, he rather irritably replied, ‘I am not going to go through the manifesto in that way. The manifesto is what we believe in, that’s what we want to achieve and that is what matters.’ Even the offer of a pen and a

Nigel Farndale

Don’t hug me! (Even though sometimes it’s rather nice)

When, in 1957, Harold Macmillan accepted the Queen’s invitation to become prime minister, following the resignation of Sir Anthony Eden, he returned from the Palace, marched up Downing Street to where Eden was waiting for him, and gave his old rival a man-hug, right there in front of the Pathé news cameras. No, of course he didn’t. But we have come a long way since then. Indeed, at the party conferences they were all at it: MPs, ministers, party activists, hug, hug, hug — and not a hoodie in sight. After the Mayor of London delivered his speech he was rewarded with a bear-hug from the Prime Minister, no less.

Wednesday

Steerpike Steerpike

Perfidious Brussels

The European Commission, having done nothing about recent Spanish sabre rattling over the self-determination of Gibraltar, has launched a full investigation into the Gibraltarian tax system. And who heads up the department that has launched this EU investigation? Señor Almunia. And what country does he come from? Have a guess.

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Exaggerations, solecisms and clangers

The Clangers are back. And not just on television. At PMQs, both the party leaders tried to embarrass each other with solecisms, exaggerations – and, yes, clangers – which they’d dropped in the past. Ed Miliband led with the cost of living crisis and said ‘record numbers are now working part-time’. Cameron retaliated with a Miliband prediction from October 2010. ‘The government programme will lead to the disappearance of one million jobs,’ Wrong! A million jobs have been created. Miliband brought up his pet-policy, the energy bill freeze, and accused Cameron of supporting the Big Six fuel giants. A price con, not a price freeze, said Cameron. And why had

George Freeman

Why EU red tape risks our economic recovery

You know you’ve been in politics too long when you’re onto your tenth ‘Red Tape Challenge’. I remember Neil Hamilton as Deregulation Minister in the Major Government in ’92 promising to slash the jungle of red tape. Every time I cheered. Every time the flood of Regulations and Directives kept pouring out of the Whitehall and Brussels machine. But hardened Red Tape Analysts of all stripes will notice something a bit different about yesterday’s news of the Prime Minister’s commitment to implement the deregulatory proposals of the Business Task Force. He has explicitly linked it to the historic Renegotiation and Referendum strategy launched in his Bloomberg speech. So this time

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs: The cost of living versus the economy

PMQs has settled into a pattern. Ed Miliband attacks David Cameron about the cost of living and David Cameron responds by attacking Ed Miliband about the economy. With economic growth returning, Miliband needs to make the political argument about the cost of living if he’s to win. But Cameron is trying to stop Miliband from changing the subject. So, today Cameron dismissed Miliband’s energy freeze as a ‘price con’ while trying to wrench the argument back to the economy. The result: no clear winner. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron vs Miliband’ on Audioboo Interestingly, Cameron again emphasised that the best way to help people with the cost of living was to cut

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

A plot to harm ministers has harmed the plotters more

Presumably one of the motivations behind the decision of Police Federation members to try to discredit Andrew Mitchell was an attempt to discredit the government’s wider reforms of and cuts to the police service, which the union representing the force was at the time engaged in a bitter battle with ministers over. But oddly enough, the plotters’ misdemeanours appear to have found them out, with calls now for reform of police disciplinary procedures. On Today, former Home Secretary Jack Straw said the Federation had shown a ‘poverty of leadership’: ‘[They] had the idea that if they embroidered the truth – and I put that mildly – then they could get

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Who’s who in tomorrow’s Deputy Speaker elections

I will fight for the rights of ordinary backbenchers! I make people admire this mother of all Parliaments once again! I am friendly with a sense of humour! I am professional! Each of the speeches given by the candidates for Deputy Speaker at hustings this afternoon consisted of this guff. As one candidate Gary Streeter said, this election is fought by ‘seven candidates, seven friends’. So, who is standing and who will MPs vote for? Eleanor Laing (33 per cent chance of winning) was keen to extol her passion for Parliament, stressing the need to make the Palace of Westminster open to the public, yet ensuring it remains a place