Politics Archives

Wednesday

18 Sep 2013

Lib Dem conference: Dr No tells party activists that he loves blocking popular policies

Nick Clegg’s speech was supposed to be about how the Lib Dems are the modifying party. They stop the nasty Tories doing lots of nasty things, and under different circumstances, they’d stop Labour being incompetent. The text of the speech suggests that Clegg is trying to say that what the Lib Dems stand for more than anything else is better government: that is, government that doesn’t do mean or incompetent things (both of which are judged by the moral compass of the junior coalition partner, of course). He closed his speech by saying: ‘In the past the Liberal Democrats would eke out an existence on the margins of British politics.

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Why Nick Clegg gave a personal speech

Why did Nick Clegg choose to give ‘his most personal speech so far’ at this year’s autumn conference? Ed Miliband, after all, has been giving these speeches for three years now, each apparently more personal than the last. And Clegg doesn’t really have any more compelling a story than anyone else in Westminster: like Miliband, his parents have a fascinating story to tell, but his own upbringing has been pretty standard for a politician. But this conference was the first opportunity Clegg has really had to market himself because for a few years his reputation was so toxic in the country, and the decision he had taken to go into

The Spectator

Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg’s speech – full text and audio

listen to ‘Nick Clegg: ‘We want to get in to government next time around’’ on Audioboo Three years ago – nearly three and a half – I walked into the Cabinet Office for my first day as Deputy Prime Minister. Picture it: history in the making as a Liberal Democrat leader entered, finally, into the corridors of power, preparing to unshackle Britain after years of Labour and Conservative rule. Only to arrive and find an empty room and one shell-shocked civil servant promising me we’d get on with things shortly – but first he had to get us some desks. You saw the calm bit in the rose garden. What

Douglas Murray

Life would be better if the Lib Dems ceased to exist

Steerpike’s photos from the Lib Dem conference make the affair look far more interesting than it could possibly have been. As I have written here before, the terms ‘Liberal Democrat’ and ‘party conference’, when put together, constitute probably the most soporific words in the English language. There are few ways to adequately summarise the pointlessness of this annual fandango of positioning and lies. Granted the other party conferences aren’t much better. But at least people broadly know — largely for historical reasons — why the Conservative and Labour parties exist. There is simply no point in the Lib Dems. They may once have been a useful outlet for a protest vote; now we

James Forsyth

Lib Dem conference: It is Nick Clegg’s party now

There has always been a sense that Nick Clegg and his coterie have been separate from the rest of the Liberal Democrats. They were more hard-headed in their politics, more professional in their approach and more ambitious for power. But every year of Clegg’s leadership, the party becomes more like the leader. This conference, the Cleggites have been in the ascendant in the hall and on the fringe. The leadership has won every important vote, the activists have happily engaged in surprisingly non-ideological discussions about future coalitions and there has been far less hand-wringing about the compromises of power. In the first years of the coalition, speaker after speaker would

Steerpike

Floreat Ed-ona

Ed Miliband might have to tone down the attacks on Old Etonians after weeks of speculation were ended today with an announcement from Labour that they have hired Paddy Hennessy, the now ex-Political Editor of the Sunday Telegraph, to spin for them. The hire is is likely to trigger renewed scrutiny of the backgrounds of the Miliband and those closest to him. As this month’s Spectator Life will reveal, Ed is surrounded by some incredibly wealthy champagne socialists. Find out just how many and who on Thursday.

Isabel Hardman

Free school meals plan shows Lib Dems have a tortured view of the state

There’s plenty of fun to be had with the Lib Dems’ decision to give all infant school children free school meals. Firstly there are the letters from MPs like Simon Hughes slating the policy (the Southwark MP told constituents that his local council was ‘spending £15 million giving free school meals, some of this going to the borough’s richest families, irrespective of whether they can afford to pay for them already’). And then there’s the fact that the party has attacked universalism on a number of other fronts, most notably the winter fuel payment, which Nick Clegg and colleagues say is a waste of money as it goes to rich

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg: Only the Lib Dems can finish the recovery properly

Nick Clegg will be closing the Lib Dem conference today with what is being billed as one of his most personal speeches yet. It has echoes of a Miliband ‘this is who I am’ offering, with the Lib Dem leader trying to explain the personal experiences that shape his thinking today. He will say: ‘My upbringing was privileged: home counties; private school; Cambridge University. I had a lot of opportunities. But I also had two parents who were determined that my brothers, my sister and I knew how lucky we were. On both sides, their families had experienced huge upheavals. ‘My Dutch mother had spent much of her childhood in

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Liberal Democrats really enjoy their party conference

The Lib Dems have had a great party conference, haven’t they? Well, perhaps. The conference centre has been a little flat at times. Sometimes delegates have struggled to look really truly excited about debates on tax: And at times, everything has just been far too much: Even for former leaders… Some debates have offered a handy opportunity for catching up on the sleep missed by staying out late at Glee Club: While others haven’t been very well-attended, but have at least offered a chance for a catch-up… …some light reading… …or that favourite Lib Dem pastime, knitting.

Sebastian Payne

Conservative party membership has nearly halved under Cameron

134,000. That’s how many members the Conservative Party now has, according to Paul Goodman at ConservativeHome. Despite months of campaigning from the site, the only figure Conservative HQ would release is that 253,600 people voted for David Cameron as leader in 2005. Today’s number means that membership has nearly halved throughout Cameron’s eight-year term as party leader. Tracking the memberships of political parties is difficult, as they are under no obligation to release any details. The House of Commons Library released a paper in December last year, compiling all the figures they could find. From this, this is how memberships of the Conservative, Labour and Liberal Democrat parties has dropped

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Wednesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. Today is the final day of the Liberal Democrats’ annual conference in Glasgow and the fringes are drying up. But if you are up bright and early, there are still a few worth catching: Title Key speaker(s) Time Location UK skills policies and industrial strategies: why should they be joined up? Vince Cable 07:15-08:30 SECC, Ness Pensions and Welfare Q&A Steve Webb 09:00-10:00 SECC, Alsh 1 Environment Q&A Ed Davey 10:30-11:30 SECC, Alsh 1 If you have any good fringe spots we’ve missed, let us know in the comments thread below.

Tuesday

17 Sep 2013

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Print your own politician

Nick Clegg always rails against the same old politics, identikit politicians and the like. So how will he cope now that tech whizzes have worked out how to print their own politician? This 3D model of the Deputy Prime Minister took seven and a half hours of printing on the Microsoft stand at the Liberal Democrat conference.

Sebastian Payne

Luciana Berger lambasts Ed Davey over inaccuracies in his conference speech

Ed Davey hasn’t had a great conference. First the jokes in the energy secretary’s speech bombed. Then a sign fell on his head on live television (above). Now he’s got Luciana Berger on his case over factual errors. The Labour MP has written to Davey to point out contrary to what he said in his conference speech, questions have been asked by the Labour front bench about climate change. Here is what Berger had to Davey about the ‘untrue claims in your speech to Lib Dem party conference’: Dear Mr Davey, I am writing to you about factually inaccurate statements made in your speech to the Liberal Democrat party conference

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg to announce free school meals for all infant school pupils

Nick Clegg has had a good party conference, and wants to round it off with an announcement that will leave a warm glow in delegates’ tummies. So he’s announcing free school meals for all children in infant school from next September. This will be a key feature in the Deputy Prime Minister’s speech tomorrow afternoon, and also represents the key trade between the two coalition parties over tax breaks for married couples. The latter is likely to appear in a conference speech or two when the Tories meet in Manchester the week after next, and the Lib Dems have a provision in the Coalition Agreement that they will abstain on

The Spectator

Lib Dem conference: Danny Alexander’s speech – full text

listen to ‘Danny Alexander: There’s no spending bonanza around the corner’ on Audioboo Conference, it’s great to have you here in Scotland. In Glasgow or, as we like to call it in Inverness, ‘the deep south.’ This great city has many claims to fame: its industrial heritage, culture, football, it’s even the home of the new Doctor Who. So, let take me you back in time. It’s spring 2010. We’re in the depths of the economic storm. Greeks rioting on our TV screens. Labour had dug a gigantic hole of debt – the bankers had pushed us in. We were forecast to have the largest deficit in the EU. The

Nick Cohen

Extremists and the mainstream: the case of Comrade Newman

The Chippenham Labour Party has decided that its candidate to contest the 2015 general election will be one Andy Newman. As the anti-totalitarian blogs Howie’s Corner and Harry’s Place have already argued he is almost certain to be the worst politician to stand for a mainstream party. An innocent observer, who believes the British Left’s protestations that it is for workers’ rights and against sexism, racism and homophobia, could go further wonder how such a man could get close to the Labour Party – let alone close enough to run on a Labour ticket. Newman manages the laughably named “Socialist Unity” website: laughable, not just because it engages in vicious

Isabel Hardman

Why Cable’s zero hours contracts crackdown won’t ruffle Tory feathers

What do the Tories make of Vince Cable’s crackdown on zero hours contracts? The Business Secretary’s review has been long-known, but yesterday he announced that he would ‘act against abusive practices in zero hours contracts, like exclusivity arrangements which prevent workers seeking alternatives’. Some read this as an overture to Labour, but from conversations that I’ve had recently with senior Conservatives, I’m not so sure. The Tories haven’t given us many clues on what they do make of zero hours contracts, largely allowing the debate to be framed by Labour, and then leaving Cable to talk about them. But Conservative ministers are not unhappy with tackling exclusivity arrangements, whereby a

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: The subtle clear yellow water between the coalition parties

Aside from the usual outright bashing of the Conservative party, the Liberal Democrats do want to put some clear yellow water between their party and their coalition partners on subtler issues. They don’t just want to talk about the ‘Tea Party Tories’, as Vince Cable did yesterday, but also about some of the different decisions they would like to take after the 2015 election, if they have their way. To that end, when Danny Alexander appeared on the Today programme, as well as slapping down Vince Cable’s talk of an early coalition break-up, he repeated Nick Clegg’s hint that the Lib Dems could ringfence NHS and education spending into the

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Tuesday fringe guide

Every morning throughout party conference season, we’ll be providing our pick of the fringe events on Coffee House. The Liberal Democrats’ annual conference has entered its fourth day and again, there are plenty interesting sessions with key Lib Dem throughout the day – be sure to check out for the traditional Glee Club if you fancy watching a surprising number of MPs singing your favourite liberal tunes: Title Key speaker(s) Time Location New thinking on the welfare state Steve Webb 07:15-08:30 Crowne Plaza, Castle 3 UK Automotive: Supporting growth through industrial strategy Vince Cable 08:30-09:00 Campanile, Monet 2 What is social housing’s purpose and how should we pay for it?

Monday

16 Sep 2013

Douglas Murray

A refreshing attempt to renew conservatism, boycotted by the Tory leadership

Apropos of the current issue’s excellent cover story (‘The End of the Party’) about the hollowed husks that are today’s party conferences, I spent Saturday at the 2nd Conservative Renewal conference in Windsor. It was an interesting day, not least because what was intended to be a genuinely open meeting, though dominated by Conservative party activists, was boycotted by the Conservative party’s own leadership. Organised by Adam Afriyie and the Windsor Conservative Association and sponsored by the Conservative Home website, the keynote speaker was the former President of the Czech Republic, Vacláv Klaus. Other speakers came from a broad range of the conservative grassroots movements including the TaxPayers’ Alliance, Migration Watch and