Politics Archives

Wednesday

20 Mar 2013

The Budget puts petrol in the Tories’ political tank

For the opening half of George Osborne’s Budget speech, the Labour front bench was busy waving around copies of the Evening Standard’s front page. This was visibly putting Osborne off; he wouldn’t be human if the fear that another of his Budgets was going to be dashed on the media rocks hadn’t crossed his mind. But by the time he sat down, the storm over the Standard front had died down thanks to a quick and dignified apology from the paper itself. Osborne will also have been pleased by the cheers of his own side as he returned to his seat. For all the speculation got up by the irreconcilables,

Fraser Nelson

Budget 2013: Six Scary Graphs

Those of a nervous disposition should not click beyond the link. What follows are a few graphs that sum up what’s very hard to spin out of: the extent to which our economic situation has worsened, and how bleak the future looks. The Chancellor started by saying he’d cut the deficit by a third, not a quarter. That’s one way of putting it. Another way is to say that debt is up 38 per cent under the coalition so far, and is set to double: George Osborne’s targets involve ratios, not absolute levels of debt. Here is how the outlook on his debt/gdp ratio has changed since his first budget:

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Everyone talks about nothing, while no-one listens

Let’s have a breather. It seemed like a truce had been tacitly declared between the party leaders at today’s PMQs. Instead of going on the offensive, Cameron and Miliband turned their solemn and unified gaze towards the sorrows of the eastern Mediterranean. Miliband asked about Syria. Cameron used the opportunity to take a pot-shot at the EU, still agonising over the arms embargo. Their sluggish and dithersome talks, he said, reminded him of the hesitation that caused needless bloodshed in Bosnia. Cameron wants the rebels to get tooled up pronto and to finish off the appalling Assad regime. He called it ‘hateful’ three times, just be sure. Next the EU

Isabel Hardman

Budget 2013: Five boxes George Osborne needs to tick

We’ve got just over half an hour until the Chancellor stands up to give his Budget statement in the House of Commons. It’s the last Budget, many Tory MPs believe, that he has to make a real difference to the party before 2015. And those who enjoy plotting against the leadership are touting it as one of the last chances David Cameron and George Osborne have to convince their own MPs that they’re worth backing for the long run. So what does the Chancellor need to do to emerge unscathed from this bleak Budget? Here are five boxes he needs to tick. 1. Cost of living. A big issue for

The Spectator

Budget 2013: Live

Alex Massie

An Antediluvian Tory Press Causes Problems for David Cameron

Today’s papers make dreadful reading for anyone with an interest in modern, reformed conservatism. They are a reminder – if it were needed – that the Tory press is estranged from the Prime Minister. Mr Cameron has played his part in the breakdown of relations (his behaviour over press-regulation has hardly helped) but he is hardly the only guilty party. Today is one of those days you look at the headlines and just wonder what decade it is. An Insult To Stay At Home Mothers screams the Mail. The Telegraph is only modestly more restrained: PM’s ‘slur’ on stay-at-home mothers. Good lord, you may think and wonder, what on earth Mr Cameron has done

Tuesday

19 Mar 2013

Dan Byles

The quiet global energy revolution

In all the noise of tomorrow’s Budget, many may not spot a small tweak to the fiscal regime for UK oil and gas. Those of us with a close interest in unconventional oil and gas, however, will be watching closely. Last year the Chancellor announced a consultation on a specific tax regime for onshore shale gas development, the results of which are expected on Wednesday. Press coverage of shale gas is often characterised by myth and hyperbole. For some, it’s the last gasp for fossil fuels; for others, a new source of energy security and the key to bringing down bills for industry and consumers. We are not used to

Fraser Nelson

Why The Spectator said ‘no’ to David Cameron’s Royal Charter for regulation of the press

After due consideration, we at The Spectator have decided our response to the proposed Royal Charter system of press regulation. Our answer is given on the cover of the new magazine (above). We fully supported David Cameron’s response to the Leveson Report and agreed with him that the press regulation needs a major overhaul. But, he said, this ought not to be done by politicians. The press was willing to implement the regulatory changes that Lord Justice Leveson wanted: up-front apologies, £1m damages, everything. Statute would not be necessary. The press would do it themselves, and did not need to be suborned by the politicians. Our ancient press freedom would

Isabel Hardman

Letter to PM: ‘Nicholson must go with all speed’

Earlier, I blogged that Tory MP Charlotte Leslie planned to raise concerns with the Prime Minister about Sir David Nicholson’s incorrect select committee evidence. She’s now written a letter, which I’ve seen, telling David Cameron that the NHS chief executive ‘must go with all speed’, and reminding the Tory leader that she has the backing of 60 colleagues. The letter is pretty strong stuff. It says: ‘I am deeply concerned that the man who currently leads the largest employer in the country has not only overseen a culture that has damaged our NHS, but has now given a false account to a Select Committee in this way. I know you

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s frontbench gets a taste of the welfare battles to come

The Commons this evening approved emergency regulations for the government’s work experience programme so the DWP can avoid repaying benefits to those who were sanctioned for refusing to take part. This wouldn’t be a particularly interesting vote, but for an uprising on the Labour benches. This is the controversial ‘workfare’ programme, where those on Jobseeker’s Allowance are required to undertake work experience as part of their benefit claim. A court judgement last month (which was widely misinterpreted) meant the government had to rush these new regulations through. But though Labour made hay with that judgement at the time, its official position this afternoon was to abstain on the vote. Shadow

Isabel Hardman

How the Treasury could sell its tax cuts to voters

One of the big challenges for the government in tomorrow’s Budget is how well the Number 10 machine is able to sell some of the positive measures that George Osborne will announce. Some are easy for voters to notice: cancelling the fuel duty rise, for instance. But others, like the personal tax allowance, need a bit more noise. One Tory backbencher is currently trying to push an idea to the Treasury about how to do this: tell voters every time they get paid. Justin Tomlinson, who chairs the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Personal Finance, will raise his idea in the post-Budget debate in the House of Commons on Thursday. Every

Steerpike

Jim Sheridan MP and those “parasites” in parliament

Labour MP Jim Sheridan covered himself in glory this morning by asking why the ‘parasitical press’ is ‘even allowed to come into’ parliament. Westminster watchers will remember the eloquent and thoughtful Mr Sheridan’s contribution to the expenses crisis when he described the soon to be disgraced Speaker, Michael Martin, as a man of the ‘highest integrity’. Now, a reader has regaled me with a tale that makes you wonder how Mr Sheridan reached the giddy heights of the Culture Media and Sport Select Committee: ‘At a day at the races some years ago my girlfriend was making small talk with him and he must have been the Labour Convenor for

Isabel Hardman

Cabinet ministers told to find an extra £2.5 billion in cuts

Cabinet this morning can’t have been a cheery occasion. The Prime Minister did congratulate all those who had been involved in the Leveson talks, with a little bit more congratulation from the Deputy Prime Minister and Maria Miller. But that was where the backslapping stopped. the Chancellor and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury announced that OBR forecasts tomorrow will show that departments are underspending more of their budgets than the historical average. As a result, departments will now be required to reduce their spending by a further 1 per cent in 2013/14 and 2014/15, which amounts to a further £2.5 billion to fund capital investment projects in tomorrow’s Budget.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers avoid awkward vote on foreign criminals as Tories rebel on press damages plan

The Crime and Courts Bill, which contains one half of the government’s response to the Leveson recommendations, has just passed its third reading in the House of Commons. An earlier amendment on exemplary damages, which the Mail’s James Chapman reports this evening has roused the ire of Boris Johnson, saw this group of Conservative rebels troop through the ‘No’ lobbies: Richard Bacon, Christopher Chope, Tracey Crouch, Philip Davies, Richard Drax, Nick de Bois, Andrew Percy, Mark Reckless, John Redwood, Jacob Rees-Mogg, Andrew Turner, Martin Vickers, Charles Walker and Sarah Wollaston. The amendment passed 530 ayes to 13 noes (the list above includes tellers Rees-Mogg and Drax, who are not listed in

Monday

18 Mar 2013

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May tries to deter Tory uprising on foreign criminals

MPs are hard at work in the Chamber tonight: once they’ve finished voting on the Leveson amendments to the Crime and Courts Bill, they’ll move on to everything else in this piece of legislation. And everything else includes that amendment signed by over 100 MPs on Tory and Labour benches which limits the ability of foreign criminals to resist deportation. The Leveson debate has been a bit of a gift to ministers, as this big proposal would have enjoyed far greater attention had the Chamber not ben more exercised over press regulation. But that hasn’t stopped a ‘Dear Colleague’ letter going out from Theresa May to Conservative MPs to explain

Nick Cohen

It’s not a press regulator, it’s a web regulator.

Since the early 1990s, hundreds of millions of words have been produced about the Web. Enthusiasts have told us that it is the greatest communications revolution since Guttenberg invented movable type, and they are probably right. Utopian fantasists have imagined that cyberspace would be beyond the reach of governments – those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’, as one particularly giddy theorist put it – and they were certainly wrong. Their libertarian dreams, as we can see tonight, were an illusion. Those ‘weary giants of flesh and steel’ are tougher than they look. They are more than capable of using the new technologies to their own advantage, while censoring what

Isabel Hardman

Newspapers irritated by exclusion from Leveson talks

As he summed up today’s debate on press regulation, the Prime Minister repeatedly stressed that the new system was a voluntary one, with incentives for journalists to join. It marked a shift in the tone from the leaders at the start of the debate: the Prime Minister was now trying to coax the industry to join the new system leaders had agreed on. Perhaps it was this statement from the Newspaper Society that made him a little more conciliatory: ‘We would like to make it clear that, contrary to reports broadcast by the BBC this morning, no representative of the newspaper and magazine industry had any involvement in, or indeed

Isabel Hardman

Press regulation: Tory backbenchers worried by proposals

MPs are continuing to debate the cross-party deal on press regulation in the Commons at the moment. The debate has been divided between congratulations for the party leaders and their colleagues who hammered out the deal, and wariness from some Tory backbenchers about what the proposals actually mean. David Cameron insisted during the debate that this wasn’t statutory underpinning, but Nick Clegg said ‘of course’ when asked whether it actually was. Some Tory MPs agree with Nick: they believe this does include statutory underpinning. Perhaps the most forceful speech came from Charles Walker, who started his speech by saying that this country has a ‘pretty revolting’ press, but that he

James Forsyth

Leveson Royal charter debate: statutory or non-statutory?

The three party leaders have just opened the debate on the Royal Charter. David Cameron was at pains to stress that this is not a ‘statutory approach’. But this was undermined by the deputy Prime Minister describing the approach as ‘a mix of Royal Charter and Statute.’ It was Miliband, though, who looked most satisfied with the deal. He dished out praise to those involved in securing agreement as if he was the Prime Minister. Labour are still in shock about how Letwin wandered into Ed Miliband’s office to negotiate last night without a political adviser or the backing of any other minister. One of the things that worries me

Steerpike

When art imitates Wee Dougie Alexander

Is Labour MP Douglas Alexander paranoid or very candid? The Shadow Foreign Secretary told a group of luvvies and great minds at the Names Not Numbers festival in Suffolk that he may well be the inspiration behind Tom Hollander’s blundering character Simon Forrester, the anti-hero of In The Loop: ‘I had to admit that when the final shot was shown of In The Loop it was a bit of a Vietnam flashback for me because it involved a vertically-challenged, spectacularly incompetent international development secretary, and when that film hit the British screens I was the International Development Secretary!’ Rare modesty from a politician.