Politics

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

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

How Peter Mandelson’s HS2 intervention will change the debate – and how it won’t

Peter Mandelson’s surprise rejection of high-speed rail in this morning’s FT is another sign that the wheels are coming off this project. But while the project’s critics on the backbenches – particularly those on the Tory side such as Cheryl Gillan and Michael Fabricant who are campaigning vociferously against the plan – will be thrilled, the continuing cross-party consensus means you won’t hear Cameron being probed on this at Prime Minister’s Questions, for instance, or Maria Eagle castigating Patrick McLoughlin at the next departmental question time in the Commons. But Mandelson’s concerns about the project are about its spiralling cost, not the impact on one MP’s constituency (or their majority,

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Theresa May’s modernising moment on stop and search

Theresa May’s statement in the Commons today on stop and search strikes me as an important moment. Here, we had a Tory Home Secretary standing up and saying that she understood why some communities felt that stop and search was used unfairly and announcing a review of it. This is, as I said on Sunday, is quite a change in Tory attitudes. William Hague, who was Tory leader at the time, criticised the Macpherson report for making police reluctant to use stop and search. Just five years ago, David Cameron was emphasising the need to ‘free the police to do far more stopping and far more searching’. Now, May doesn’t

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Weak, weak, weak’ Labour will have to avoid looking panicked on any referendum pledge

David Cameron’s statement on the European council was another example of how easy it is at the moment for the Tories to portray Ed Miliband as a weak leader. He made it perfectly clear what he wanted those watching to take away by stealing Tony Blair’s ‘weak, weak, weak’ line in 1997 when attacking John Major (which is well worth watching again). Today the PM told the Commons that Ed Miliband’s position on Europe could be summed up in three words: ‘weak, weak, weak’. He said: ‘What I thought was interesting about the right hon. Gentleman’s response was that we heard not a word about the referendum that we are

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Who governs Labour?’ is perfect new Tory attack line on Miliband’s weakness

A row in Labour over union influence that doesn’t benefit the Tories in some way is as rare as hen’s teeth. But the latest revelations about Unite’s attempt at ‘transforming Labour’ (as reported by Rachel Sylvester in her explosive Times column) are even more of a gift to the Conservative party than usual because they feed perfectly into the line of attack the party has chosen. As Coffee House reported recently, Lynton Crosby told Tory MPs that he wanted to focus on Miliband’s weaknesses as leader, identifying clear weak spots rather than the ‘he makes the coffee’ line. That the unions are enjoying such success in stitching up the selection

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Pro-referendum MPs to plot for Labour and Lib Dem manifesto commitment

MPs from all parties who want a referendum are meeting this week to discuss how to get a pledge into the Labour and Lib Dem manifestos, I hear. The All-Party Parliamentary Group for an EU referendum will meet tomorrow, partly to look ahead to James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill on Friday, but also to draw up a strategy for a referendum commitment from the other two parties. Speaking alongside Wharton at the meeting will be Labour’s Kate Hoey and Lib Dem John Hemming, who backed John Baron’s Queen’s Speech amendment. Labour donor John Mills, who the Times reports this morning as warning that his party could lose the next election

Monday

Steerpike Steerpike

Ian Austin: Hunger expert

Handbags at the ready in the Department for Work and Pensions questions in the House of Commons this afternoon, as Gordon Brown’s former lick-spittle Ian Austin attacked the government benches for never having gone hungry. Something, of course, that the shouty MP for Dudley is somewhat of an expert in. In 2007 he was among the 32 MPs to claim the full £400 in cash available  – without showing a single receipt – each month for food under the old expenses system. Iain Duncan Smith responded by calling Austin ‘an empty barrel’. In pocketing £4,800 in one year on top of his salary, Austin was certainly rolling in it.

Chi Onwurah

Consumers suffer because this government doesn’t know how to regulate

The current Government has squandered  the competitive environment it inherited from Labour, tolerating quasi-monopolies who abuse their position to harm consumers.  The policy responses to these monopolies should be strong and decisive, not weak and acquiescing. In all the ‘utility’ sectors (gas, water, telecommunications) and some emerging markets, such as search, there is a compelling need to redress the balance between incumbent vested interests and consumers. In the late nineties the Labour Government put in place one of the best competitive regulatory environments in the world. It ranked third behind the US and Germany in an independent review by KPMG. ‘Light touch’ evidence-based economic regulation was the order of the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Do pay rises really lead to better MPs?

It was entirely predictable that any MP who opposes a pay rise or wants to show how in touch they are with the public would seize the opportunity to say so today. Nick Clegg said he wouldn’t take the raise himself at his new monthly press conference this morning, followed by Vince Cable, who told Sky News that ‘I think everybody will understand the wider context and the attitude of the public, which I think will be very hostile if the political class decides to put its own interests first’. Former minister Tim Loughton, while suggesting he might withdraw his amendment to the Finance Bill calling for tax breaks for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Nick Clegg is so keen to talk to the media

Liberal Democrat leaders are used to having to do more to get noticed than the other party leaders. But it is still striking just how much the Deputy Prime Minister is doing to try and inject himself into the national conversation. Joining Nick Clegg’s weekly phone-in on LBC is a monthly press conference. One of the reasons Clegg is doing all this is to try and drain away the anger created by the compromises of coalition and, specifically, the broken promise on student fees. After 23 press conferences, even the lobby will tire — or so the Lib Dems hope – of asking Clegg about the U-turn on tuition fees,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cross-party EU referendum campaign aims to counter partisan problems

The Tory campaign on James Wharton’s EU referendum bill has been very slick but very partisan – I examined some of the problems with this last week when eurosceptic Labour MP John Cryer announced he had been put off by the Let Britain Decide campaign and would abstain on the bill. So today campaigners in favour of a vote launched a cross-party campaign called I Support a Referendum. They hope that their emphasis on the referendum itself rather than the party politics will help bring MPs from other parties into the fold where previously they felt excluded. Wharton was present at the launch, and he insisted that he was keen

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Do MPs deserve a pay rise?

A small group of MPs have put their heads above the parapet in a brave and commendable fashion by demanding that they and their colleagues should not receive large pay rises. My own view is that MPs should be paid substantially more than what they currently receive, not least because it might improve the intake a little. The Guardian quotes Lib Dem Jo Swinson, Conservative Tim Loughton and Labour’s Keith Vaz as being opposed to a large pay increase. Mr Vaz supplements his income by writing for newspapers, fairly frequently. Ms Swinson is married to another Lib Dem, Duncan Hames, and so has the benefit of being a young double

Douglas Murray

Kenneth Minogue RIP

The weekend brought the sad news of the death of Kenneth Minogue. Intellectually and physically active to the last, he died on Friday at the age of 82, while returning from a conference on the Galapagos Islands. Spectator readers will remember his essays and reviews for the magazine stretching over many decades. Some may have been fortunate enough to have been taught by him at the London School of Economics. Ken was, needless to say, one of the most brilliant conservative political thinkers of his generation. He was also the most wonderful man. He had that rare mixture of great intelligence and twinkly, irrepressible good-humour. Spotting him across a room

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Tory party calm survive MP pay row?

Coffee House readers will be unsurprised by the interest taken by the newspapers and the Today programme in MPs’ pay: this blog predicted that it could be the next big row in the Conservative party at the start of June. It is politically sensible for the Prime Minister to say that he disagrees with a pay rise recommended by Ipsa if it raises overall costs, even if he has no formal veto over a raise. All he can do is send a formal response to the pay consultation. But he will need to work hard to keep his party behind him, and so will the other party leaders. This is not

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Gove guide to composition

Michael Gove is not the only minister to be frustrated by the poor quality of letters drafted for his signature. One minister was horrified to find his reply to the Prime Minister starting ‘Good to here from you’. Another complains that his name is still spelt wrong, three years after he started in the job. But Gove is, probably, the only one who would send a memo to his ministers and civil servants urging them to read ‘George Orwell and Evelyn Waugh, Jane Austen and George Eliot, Matthew Parris and Christopher Hitchens’ to improve their prose.’ The memo contains, what he dubs, Gove’s Golden Rules for writing a letter which

James Forsyth James Forsyth

‘What’s more important obeying a Brussels directive or keeping the lights on?’

Andrew Neil’s interview of Michael Fallon on The Sunday Politics was a reminder of just how much of UK energy policy is determined by EU rules. When pressed on why there’s such a capacity crunch that there’s a risk of blackouts in the winter of 2015-16, Fallon explained that this was because a whole series of ‘dirtier’ plants are coming off-stream because of EU rules. If this wasn’t happening, there wouldn’t be a problem. Intriguingly, when asked ‘what’s more important obeying a Brussels directive or keeping the lights on?’ Fallon responded that ‘Keeping the lights on is the job of the government’. But he stressed that the government was ‘not

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband’s EU referendum dilemma

Friday’s vote on James Wharton’s EU referendum bill is going to push the whole Europe question right back up the political agenda. The Tories will try and use it to highlight their support for a vote and the opposition of the other major parliamentary parties. It will be very hard for Ed Miliband to go into the next election opposed to a referendum. It would look like he was opposed to giving the public a say. I also suspect that it will become almost politically impossible to oppose a referendum after the European Elections in 2014. Patrick Wintour reports today that Labour is toying with the idea of either amending

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is George Osborne’s ‘Help to Buy’ the equivalent of Bush’s sub-prime loans?

There is a strange disconnect between George Osborne’s enthusiasm that young people should buy homes, and the reluctance of young people to do so. The Telegraph has reported that fewer young people own homes than ever – and it fears, perhaps as the Chancellor does, that this has political implications because owners tend to vote Tory and renters Labour. The Chancellor stands in the tradition of a long line of conservatives being enthusiastic about promoting home-ownership in hope of turning people into right-wingers.  In her seminal book The Anatomy of Thatcherism, Shirley Letwin famously argued that home ownership released the ‘vigorous virtues’ and made someone more inclined to see the

Friday

Steerpike Steerpike

The ‘conservative wing of the coalition’ toast Maggie and roast Dave

Margaret Thatcher’s death has reinvigorated her devout following in the Conservative Party. The current Prime Minister was wise to give the House of Lord’s terrace a wide berth last night. It was packed out for the summer party of Conservative Way Forward. This is the pressure group that was established to preserve ‘the lady’s legacy’. Young Dave was not the most popular person in the room. This became clear after the minute’s silence for the group’s deceased honorary president, when former defence minister Gerald Howarth took to the podium to greet ‘the conservative wing of the coalition’. He went on to slam the PM for ‘slashing defence spending while protecting

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Lock, load and prepare for ambush – David Cameron’s very British approach to Brussels summits

Many Prime Ministers go native when they head to Brussels. But David Cameron’s hostility to the whole racket is hardening with every trip. At his post-summit press conference today, he was remarkably frank about what had just happened. “I have defeated this latest attempt to cut the rebate,” he said. “I am frustrated I have to go through that battle all over again. But in this town you have to be ready for an ambush at any time, and that means lock and load and have one up the spout, and be ready for it. And that is exactly what I did… It is, and I won’t lie, it is immensely