Politics

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

Saturday

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Any Other Business: I’d rather be disciplined by Madame Lagarde than governed by Labour’s truth-deniers

I’m not quite as bowled over by IMF chief Christine Lagarde as the BBC’s Robert Peston seems to be, but I’m an admirer — and I’m finding it hard to shake off a mental image of her as a teenage member of the French synchronised swimming team. That apart, she’s almost alone on the world stage in talking such carefully measured common sense about the financial crisis, including her remark that the Greeks should help themselves by paying their taxes. Fat-cat Greek socialist leader Evangelos Venizelos called that an ‘insult’, but the truth is that his fellow citizens’ misfortune is far more of their own making than it is the

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Who Will Rid Cameron of His Part-Time Chancellor?

I commend Fraser’s most recent post on our part-time Chancellor of the Exchequer. But even my flabber was gasted (or my gast flabbered) by this paragraph: Being Chancellor in a recession is a very tough job. Osborne’s predecessors are amazed at the time he has to spend politicking across departments. I’m told that he is heading the campaign to defeat Salmond in a Scottish referendum, taking on yet another job to add to his other one of chief strategist. Emphasis added. There is no reason to doubt Fraser’s information and assuming, as I do, he is correct one must wonder if Mr Osborne finds being Chancellor of the Exchequer –

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hunt in the clear for now

Minutes after Jeremy Hunt finished giving evidence at Leveson, Number 10 stated that he would not be referred to the independent adviser on the ministerial code. Hunt would have settled for this result at the beginning of the day. But Labour is sure to point out that the reason Hunt was not referred to him before was to avoid parallel inquiries. So, now that Hunt has given evidence, there’s no bar to Alex Allan investigating.   The evidence presented today contained no smoking gun. But it still created an impression that is deeply damaging to Hunt and his future career prospects. It turns out that Hunt carried on texting James

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Osborne’s falling star

It’s tempting to see comedy in the government’s 30th U-Turn, but there’s a more serious side to this. It fits a pattern: act first, think later. The lack of special advisers in government is part of the problem. Even in the Labour days, I argued for more and better political appointees to help a reforming government get its agenda through. But the problem this time was George Osborne’s chillaxing approach to being Chancellor, coupled to what seems to be a casual disregard for detail. This approach was embodied in his decision to join Cameron on White House jolly the week before delivering his shambolic Budget. It makes you wonder if

David Blackburn

Osborne’s gambles

There is now a general acceptance that the Tories’ 2015 election manifesto will contain a pledge, dare one say a cast-iron guarantee, that voters will be offered a referendum on Britain’s relationship with the EU. James first revealed this in his magazine column a few weeks ago. The aim is to see off the surge from UKIP, prevent Labour from opportunistically seeking Eurosceptic ground, and to counter Boris Johnson’s popular adoption of the People’s Pledge. Since then it has been taken as read that George Osborne is responsible for this gambit, which is reasonable given that he is the Tories’ chief strategist, and a likely contender in a future leadership

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The SNP Beat a Retreat

Political stocks can go down as well as up. Shares in Alex Salmond are hardly slumping right now but they’re off their peak and flat-lining. The market is becalmed. Perhaps the launch of the independence referendum campaign will reinvigorate the First Minister but it also carries the risk – unavoidable for sure, but still a risk – that concentrating attention on independence will remind voters that the SNP is, at heart, a single-issue party. And single-issue parties tend to run into trouble.  There is a theory that the SNP have over-extended themselves. Even though they still hold more council seats than Labour (and so could claim their local election “failure”

David Blackburn

A good day to…

While Jeremy Hunt was casting about, trying to save his political life at the Leveson Inquiry, the Treasury issued its latest u-turn: the expected volte face on charitable giving. Interestingly, the Sunday Times’ Isabel Oakeshott reveals that yesterday she arranged to meet 2 senior Treasury officials this morning, but the meeting was postponed earlier today, which might suggest that the decision to drop the controversial tax change was taken at very short notice. If so, what does that say about the Treasury’s view of unfolding events at the Leveson inquiry? Where, in addition to the pressure on Hunt, George Osborne has been implicated in elements of the BSkyB deal by Hunt

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Queen Does Not Inspire; That’s a Feature Not a Bug

Can’t republicans do better than this? If keeping quiet and cutting ribbons is all we can expect of our head of state then perhaps we can agree she’s done well — but surely we can expect more. As a national figurehead and leading public figure the queen has utterly failed to do anything of note or worth. After 60 years who can quote a famous speech or point to a moment of crisis or celebration when the queen offered leadership and inspiration? For all the failures of the monarchy — in principle, practice and in political terms — the queen and the institution offer little in return but an empty

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hunt at Leveson Pt.1

Robert Jay, the Leveson Inquiry QC, is taking a different approach with Jeremy Hunt than he has most other witnesses. He is subjecting the Culture Secretary to an old-fashioned court-room examination full of references to the precise timings of Hunt’s actions. Hunt’s main line so far is that he now understands the quasi-judicial process far better than when he wrote Cameron that memo suggesting a meeting with Cable and Clegg to discuss media policy and the bid. He is adamant that when given this role himself, he behaved properly. But the inquiry is now moving on to whether Smith spoke for Hunt in his texts to Fred Michel. Judging by

David Blackburn

Hunting season distracts from Euro-calamity

As James observed yesterday evening, the Westminster media has its eyes on one story today: Jeremy Hunt’s career-defining appearance at the Leveson inquiry. A deafening cacophony has broken out from a host of tweeters, talking heads and irate scribblers. It will be a diverting piece of political theatre at the very least. There is drama of a different kind in the Eurozone. Irish voters will go to the polls today to approve an EU budgetary restraint treaty, which they are expected to approve. Meanwhile, Spain’s borrowing costs have reached ‘perilous levels’ (6.65 per cent) according to the Times’ commentary (£). The European Commission has indicated that the European Rescue Fund is

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

On the eve of Hunt’s Leveson appearance

It has become the conventional wisdom in Westminster that Jeremy Hunt’s career will turn on his appearance before the Leveson Inquiry tomorrow. Friends of Hunt have today been arguing that the Inquiry’s focus should be on how he carried out the quasi-judicial role. They are saying that once appointed to it, Hunt behaved — unlike Vince Cable — properly. They concede that Hunt’s texts to Fred Michel were overly familiar. But they maintain that, unlike Adam Smith’s texts, they gave away nothing about the state of the bid process. On the charge that Hunt misled Parliament, when he told it on the 25th of April that ‘I made absolutely no

Matthew Sinclair

The deeper problem behind Europe’s rising carbon emissions

The Government takes a lot of stick for blaming the weather when there are queues at airports or lacklustre growth figures. Now the European Union is blaming a ‘colder winter’, as well as ‘economic recovery in many countries’, for emissions in 2010 being 111 million tonnes of CO2-equivalent higher – about 2.4 per cent –than they were in 2009. They are insistent that ‘the increase could have been even higher without the fast expansion of renewable energy. ’ Looking at the record of emissions in the European Union and the United States though, it is clear there is a deeper problem. Even ignoring emissions exports — the amount emitted in

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tom Watson’s Strange Sheridan Obsession

I see that, following Andy Coulson’s detention as part of a police investigation into perjury at the Tommy Sheridan, er, perjury trial,  Tom Watson MP is up to his old tricks. To wit: After the detention of Coulson, Tom Watson MP reiterated his claim that Sheridan’s perjury conviction was “unsound”. He said: “Tommy Sheridan was convicted on an eight to six verdict of a jury in a Scottish court. Mr Sheridan lost his liberty and is still the subject of restrictions on his movement. “The detention of Andy Coulson further highlights why Mr Sheridan’s conviction was unsound. It is now abundantly clear that members of the jury were not in

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clarke goes OTT

Today’s award for hyperbole goes to Ken Clarke. He has just told the Leveson inquiry that, ‘The power of the press is far greater than the power of parliament.’ Given that parliament can still make the law of the land, this is a rather absurd statement. (Though, I do regret that parliament has given away so many powers to Brussels and the courts. But I doubt that was what Clarke meant.)   Clarke’s statement seems to stem from a belief that MPs buckle under pressure from the press, that they’d all be a lot more liberal if it wasn’t for those pesky tabloids. I just don’t think this is true.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

George Osborne, Poker Player

May God protect me from my friends. That, I suggest, should be George Osborne’s reaction to Ben Brogan’s Telegraph column this morning. As best I can tell, it’s supposed to be a supportive piece, reflecting on the Chancellor’s efforts to rediscover his mojo in the aftermath of his justifiably poorly-received budget. If so, then, with friends like these…  Consider Brogan’s opening salvo: Optimism comes easily to George Osborne. In the face of adversity he chooses to smile with the confidence of a politician who relishes a challenge. There is something of the high-stakes poker player about the Chancellor, a keen student of the Lyndon Johnson Texas school of hard-nosed politics.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The guilty men

There was a telling moment in Michael Gove’s testimony to Leveson yesterday, when he applauded Rupert Murdoch for The Sun’s campaign against the Euro: ‘Gove: Other politicians recognised that the campaign which the Sun and others ran to keep us out of the single currency was right, and I think if we’re reflecting on other newspaper campaigns, I think we can undoubtedly say that was a campaign in the public interest. Jay:  Well, some people might still disagree with that proposition, Mr Gove, but I’m not going to take you on it. Gove: I’m sure — well, a dwindling number may.’ To me, the exchange was a reminder of how

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Social mobility — more than a political battle over universities

Nick Clegg wants to make social mobility his big theme in office. This is an ambitious target and one unlikely to be motivated by electoral consideration given that visible progress on this front is unlike to be achieved by 2015. The publication of the former Labour minister Alan Milburn’s report, commissioned by the coalition, into the professions and social mobility takes us to the heart of the debate: when can most be done to aid social mobility. Personally, I think the emphasis should be on education reform and family policy. Others, argue that more can — and should — be done later. Politically, as the row over the appointment of

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Gove stands up for free speech

Michael Gove’s appearance at the Leveson Inquiry has set the heather alight in Tory and journalistic circles. There is, among those who fret about the dangers to free speech created by the current mood, relief that someone has set out the case for liberty so clearly and without apology. While among Tories there is a delight at seeing one of their ministers articulate a Conservative worldview so clearly. Gove was, in some ways, at an advantage going before the inquiry. His department has no responsibility for the press and so he knew that the focus would be on his work as a journalist and his attack on Leveson, saying that

Peter Hoskin

What to make of Gove’s remark about for-profit free schools?

Garlands from all quarters for Michael Gove’s performance at the Leveson Inquiry this afternoon (well, not quite all quarters) — but the most significant thing that the Education Secretary said wasn’t actually related to the media, but to his ministerial brief. When asked about the prospect of profit-making free schools, he replied that they ‘could’ happen ‘when we come to that bridge’. It’s probably the clearest statement that Gove has made, on record, to demonstrate that he’s not averse to introducing the sort of profit arrangements that could give his agenda an almighty boost. The question is: when will he get to that bridge, then? My understanding is that it’s

Peter Hoskin

Clegg takes on the Establishment (and the Tories) again

So Nick Clegg wants to present himself as anti-Establishment, does he? That’s hardly surprising. After all, the Deputy Prime Minister has ploughed this furrow before now, attacking the ‘vested interests’ that are the banks and the political class. And it’s generally a large part of the Lib Dems’ ‘differentiation strategy’ to come across as insurgents in suits. But Clegg’s comments today are still striking for how far they weaponise this theme and then turn it against the Tories. It’s not just the context of it: with Tory ministers — including Jeremy Hunt — appearing before Leveson this week, Clegg chooses to attack those who ‘bow and scrape in front of