Politics Archives

Monday

3 Jun 2013

Mike Hancock resigns from Lib Dems

Lib Dem MP Mike Hancock has resigned from the party to fight ‘very serious allegations’ about his conduct. He took the decision to do so after a meeting with the chief whip. The party this evening released a statement saying: ‘Mike Hancock has chosen to resign the party whip while he defends himself against very serious allegations in a High Court civil action. Mike Hancock strenuously denies the allegations made in the civil case and intends to clear his name in court.’ In a letter to party chief whip Alistair Carmichael, Hancock wrote: ‘I can assure you that I will continue to vigorously defend my position and that I completely

Alex Massie

A register of lobbyists has nothing to do with “clean” politics; it’s about protecting stupid MPs

So, just so we’re clear about this: people pretending to be lobbyists appear to be able to persuade parliamentarians to do their bidding (for cash, natch) and this therefore justifies introducing a statutory register of lobbyists. You need no diploma in cynicism to perceive that this is aimed at protecting stupid and greedy politicians rather more than it is a serious attempt at “regulating” lobbying or access to politicians. It’s a means of helping MPs avoid embarrassment. Now they can check to see if the people paying them are real lobbyists! Result! Which is fine (and the coalition gains bonus Urquhart points for using the measure to stiff the Trades

James Forsyth

Why Cameron’s warning on Syria leaves me feeling nervous

David Cameron’s Commons statement today contained two blunt warnings. In a significant escalation of the argument over communications data, he warned that ‘we will suffer’ if we don’t make progress on the matter. He also declared that not intervening in Syria could boost extremism and mean that the situation there becomes a ‘tragedy for us too’. On communications data, I suspect that there’s a limit to how much progress he can make with his coalition partners. The vibe from the Clegg camp is that they have no desire to back down on this issue and feel that many of their critics are being opportunistic post Woolwich. However, it was Cameron’s

Isabel Hardman

Lobbying Bill: Govt tries to solve one problem by tackling another

This morning, the government’s plans for a register of lobbyists were ‘ongoing’. This afternoon, they’re well on their way to becoming law. Number 10 has announced that it will be bringing forward a lobbying bill after all, and before the summer recess. Next time we hear the word ‘ongoing’, perhaps we won’t all be so cynical about a bill’s trajectory. Ministers have clearly decided to use a scandal about lobbying to crack down on the influence that trade unions hold over the Labour party, which is a non-sequitur. The weekend’s allegations were about MPs and peers behaving badly, not trade union influence, and the government may find that its desire

James Forsyth

The significance of Ed Balls’s speech, and what it means for Ukip

Ed Balls’s speech today is significant for two reasons. First, it implied that a Labour government in 2015 would not spend more on current spending. But, rather, it would borrow more to fund higher capital spending—what Gordon Brown used to calling ‘borrowing to invest’. This, I take it, means that a 2015 Labour government wouldn’t introduce the five point plan for the economy that Balls has previously outlined. The second was the announcement that Labour would stop winter fuel payments to higher and top rate taxpayers. This will save about a £100 million a year, which is hardly enough to give Labour a reputation for fiscal rectitude. But it does

Isabel Hardman

Even a limited snooping bill is causing the Home Office trouble

David Cameron is giving a statement in the Commons this afternoon on, among other things, the Woolwich killing. He may well find himself answering questions afterwards about whether the government is planning to resurrect the Communications Data Bill, after a fierce debate in recess over whether it would have made any difference to the security and police services ability to stop the attack or to the investigation in the aftermath. The Lib Dem line remains that the party will not allow this legislation, and will only consider the very narrow issue of IP addresses. But there have been some interesting negotiations taking place behind the scenes, I hear. One is

Isabel Hardman

Lobbying scandal could threaten MPs’ pay rise plan

Sleaze scandals will crop up in politics from time to time, but what makes the latest round of allegations particularly damaging is that the government has had two opportunities to at least address faltering public mistrust in politicians, and hasn’t. Those pushing for the power to recall MPs and a register of lobbyists have had rocket boosters fitted to their campaigns in the past few days, and inevitably those who appear to have either blocked or at least dragged their feet on these two policies are now facing criticism for doing so. This morning, Francis Maude insisted that the register of lobbyists wouldn’t have stopped the alleged behaviour reported over

Alex Massie

Primaries and recall elections may be nice ideas, but they won’t transform British politics

Say at least this for those twin gadflies Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP, they are optimists in a political scene often dominated by a certain brand of dreary pessimism. Their faith in the bracing refreshment of a reformed democracy is as palpable as it is touching. Their article in today’s Telegraph, repeating their long-pressed arguments for open primaries and recalling errant MPs. Neither idea is without merit. Even so, it is hard to avoid the suspicion that neither measure would have quite the transformative impact Messrs Carswell and Hannan suggest. They argue, for instance, that open primaries would put an end to safe seats. And they insist that

Isabel Hardman

Ed Balls steels himself for spending review battle

Ed Balls has had plenty of warning about how politically dangerous this month’s spending review will be for him. James reported in April that George Osborne planned to use the settlement (when he eventually gets it) to prod the Labour party. But perhaps it’s also the party’s inability to make polling hay from the Tories in crisis over the past month that has provoked not one but two big policy speeches from the Labour leadership this week. The concession that Balls will give in today’s speech about universal benefits no longer being automatically justifiable has attracted the most attention. The Shadow Chancellor is expected to say: ‘When our NHS and

Sunday

2 Jun 2013

James Forsyth

Coalition shifts position after a weekend of sleaze, lobbying register now coming in

Today is not a good day for politics or parliament. The latest, depressing sleaze revelations are only going to increase public cynicism about politics and parliament. It seems that a statutory register of lobbyists will now be coming in. Francis Maude, in a striking shift from the government’s post Queen’s speech position, told Andrew Neil on The Sunday Politics ‘we are going to do this.’ But it is hard to see how a statutory register of lobbyists would stop MPs and peers from doing what Panorama, the Telegraph and The Sunday Times appear to have caught them doing. My instinct is that no set of regulations or regulators will be

Fraser Nelson

Competition: any ideas for David Cameron’s new Policy Unit?

Jo Johnson is now in situ, Christopher Lockwood has started his two-year sabbatical from the Economist and David Cameron’s new policy unit is in in place and ready to go producing ideas of how to win the 2015 election. But word is that they’re not entirely overflowing with ideas, and believe it will be tough to improve on the inherited agenda. This is true to an extent, as the Coalition Agreement was pretty radical. Then, ministers wanted to achieve a Moore’s Law-style expansion of Free Schools, elimination of the deficit and reconstruction of a dysfunctional welfare state. Any one of those three would have been more than Labour achieved in

Saturday

1 Jun 2013

M.E. Synon

Why William Hague’s ‘red card’ plan won’t work

Alas, now we know William Hague has joined the list – and it’s a long list – of British government ministers who do not understand how the European Union works. His idea that national parliaments should demand a ‘red card’ system so they can block unwanted EU legislation is muddled in several ways. First is that, if national parliaments are where EU laws should be vetoed, where does that leave the prime ministers who make up the European Council? Prime ministers – and foreign ministers, and agricultural ministers, and the rest — go to Brussels and put their vote or their veto (when they’ve got one) on the table when

James Forsyth

Telegraph reveals full extent of allegations against Patrick Mercer

I suspect that there’ll be a few MPs and peers nervously waiting for 9pm on Thursday night. For this is when the Panorama special on parliament and lobbying, which has already caused Patrick Mercer to resign the Tory whip, will be broadcast. Today’s Telegraph contains details of the accusations surrounding Mercer. The paper alleges that the MP has been paid £4,000 by a fake lobbying company set up by the Telegraph and the production company making Panorama. Mercer appears not to have declared this money. But he has asked a string of questions on Fiji; the paper claims that the company had told him that ending Fiji’s suspension from the

Friday

31 May 2013

Isabel Hardman

William Hague’s EU red card plan could reassure renegotiation sceptics

The Conservatives know that the best way of detracting from the binary In/Out? debate about Europe in the Westminster bubble is to jolly well get on with making the case for reform in Europe. It is vital that ministers give the impression that there are changes that other European leaders would quite happily sign up to, rather than an impossible shopping list. William Hague’s speech to the Konigswinter Conference in Germany today was part of that attempt. The idea he floated – of giving national parliaments a ‘red card’ to veto unwanted EU legislation – is something ministers and Tory MPs paving the way for a renegotiation have been discussing

Sebastian Payne

Ukip is trying to become a grown-up party. Just look at Farage’s response to Woolwich

Ukip has been unusually quiet in its response to the Woolwich killing last week. The only thing we’ve heard is a tactful statement on the day from Nigel Farage, slamming the incident and calling for calm. Not a peep more, and certainly no outlandish statements about tackling the ‘cancer’ of Islam. The muted response is a clear sign Ukip is working hard at its message discipline. The party still has one significant issue to overcome — the views of some of its members. In their response to the Woolwich incident, it appears Ukip wanted to avoid a rerun of the difficult stories they encountered at the local elections. Coffee House

Fraser Nelson

The case for making the government marriage-neutral.

Does marriage matter anymore? Not so long ago, David Cameron was foremost amongst those giving an unfashionable ‘yes’ to this question. It became his signature theme, the closest he had to a Blair-style ‘irreducible core’. It seemed, at the time, as if a 1979-style realignment was underway. The Labour Party was being sucked into the vortex of its own economic failure. Its social failure was just as profound: it had tested to destruction the idea that more welfare makes countries stronger or fairer. And study after study showed that the institution of marriage was easily the most powerful weapon every developed to promote health, wealth and education. In Cameron, we

James Forsyth

Patrick Mercer resigns Tory whip ahead of Panorama programme

Patrick Mercer has resigned the Tory whip. But despite his repeated and outspoken criticisms of David Cameron it is nothing to do with the Prime Minister. Rather, Mercer appears to have been embarrassed by a Panorama/Daily Telegraph investigation. In a statement, Mercer has said that he is considering legal action over the coming programme which, he says, alleges he broke parliamentary rules but that ‘to save my Party embarrassment, I have resigned the Conservative Whip. I have decided not to stand at the General Election’. What remains to be seen is if Mercer quits the Commons before then which would prompt a by-election. Given Ukip’s strength at the moment, a

M.E. Synon

We are all citizens of Europe now, and the benefits row is just the beginning

Yes, that law case the European Commission is taking against the UK is mission creep, or ‘a blatant land grab’ as Iain Duncan Smith has it. The eurocrats are trying to extend EU control over the benefits systems of member states, and they are going to the European Court of Justice to do it. But what the commission is after is more than just that. Jonathan Todd, a European Commission spokesman, spelled it out at yesterday’s midday briefing in one line, and in his perfectly English voice: ‘UK nationals automatically have the right to reside in the UK. EU nationals do not have that automatic right.’ That is what is

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove’s campaigning masterclass

In the past few weeks, the Tories have been so busy fighting each other that they appear to have forgotten about the Opposition party. But now, while things are quieter in the parliamentary recess, senior figures are starting to take the fight back to Labour. Michael Gove has written a barnstormer of an Op-Ed in today’s Telegraph which marks the start of this onslaught with quite some gusto. He describes Ed Miliband as ‘as clearly defined as a blancmange in a hurricane’ and pokes fun at his recent Google Big Tent speech about Willy Wonka and Mr Burns. ‘With less than two years before the general election, the Opposition has

Thursday

30 May 2013

James Forsyth

The Boris bandwagon picks up more speed

Hardly a day goes by these days without a story about Boris Johnson and the Tory leadership. Yesterday, it was Andy Coulson’s revelation that David Cameron believed Boris Johnson would be after his job once he’d been London Mayor. Today, it is The Economist talking about ‘Generation Boris’, the more libertarian inclined voters who the magazine suggests will sweep him to Downing Street in 2020. Now, for Cameron having as his main leadership rival someone who isn’t an MP is not actually that bad, however infuriating some in his circle might find the press and the party’s love affair with the London Mayor. What’s most striking about Boris, though, is