Politics Archives

Sunday

21 Oct 2012

Theresa May won’t deny she told Andrew Mitchell to go

Theresa May’s political stock has risen this week. Announcing an intention to opt-out of EU law and order directives pleased Tory MPs while her decision not to extradite Gary McKinnon was popular. But we’ve also seen the Home Secretary operating -rarely for her – beyond her brief. She played a key role in pushing Andrew Mitchell out, something she effectively confirmed on the Sunday Politics. When Andrew Neil pressed her on this, she simply replied ‘I’m not going to talk about private conversations’. Here is the exchange:- listen to ‘Theresa May dodging Andrew Mitchell question, 21 Oct 12, BBC1 Sunday Politics’ on Audioboo

Fraser Nelson

Ed Miliband’s winning strategy

Ed Miliband has adopted a rather simple strategy: do nothing, and wait for your opponents to screw up. It’s lazy, but undoubtedly effective. The Tories are playing along perfectly. The last week has given plenty ammunition for his new theme — which he repeated during his union Sponsored Walk yesterday — ‘they think they are born to rule, but they are not very good at it.’ The Sunday Times reports MPs’ anger that No 10, the most visible part of Whitehall, is turning out to be one of the most dysfunctional. David Cameron’s odd fuel tariff announcement last week did have normally loyal Cabinet members wonder what on earth is going on

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron needs to wear his heart on his sleeve

Underlying this week’s media mess on the government’s energy policy was a good intentioned pitch by David Cameron to his ‘strivers’: hard-working people who struggle to make ends meet. His speech at last week’s party conference was the launchpad for this new mission, and included the Prime Minister telling members that ‘it’s not enough to know our ideas are right – we’ve got to explain why they are compassionate too’. He knows he has a tough task ahead: polling earlier this month found 28 per cent of voters believe the Conservatives ‘don’t care enough about the very poor and vulnerable’. Cameron introduced the compassion section of last week’s speech with

Saturday

20 Oct 2012

James Forsyth

It isn’t Miliband’s anti-austerity message that should worry the Tories but his pitch for small business support

Ed Miliband’s speech to the anti-cuts rally today was well-pitched. The lines about how any government would have to make cuts guaranteed him the jeers that he needed to show that he wasn’t pandering to his audience. What should worry the Tories, though, is not the generic anti-austerity and pro-NHS rhetoric but the direct pitch for small business support. One of the big changes since the 1980s is that those who run small and medium sized enterprises now view the banks as part of the problem not the solution. This provides a significant political opening for Miliband, and one he is intent on exploiting. It’s worth noting that he was

Sebastian Payne

Class warfare is back, and not just in politics or from the left

Class is back with a vengeance, and not just thanks to the Andrew Mitchell saga. Today’s newspapers are chock full of stories across the news spectrum linked back to class. The Mail, for example, has declared all-out war on the government, with a splash of ‘Who do you they think they are?’ — a front page one could expect to see from the Mirror. The Mitchell-Osborne matter receives the double page treatment, lambasting both affairs with ‘Exit Mitchell, four weeks late’ and ‘Move Mr Osborne? But he can’t possibly sit in standard class’. Their coverage is summarised in a strong op-ed by Simon Heffer discussing class attacks on the Tories. The Telegraph has

Friday

19 Oct 2012

James Forsyth

David Cameron turns to Sir George Young again

Sir George Young’s appointment as chief whip is testament to both the respect David Cameron holds him in and the Prime Minister’s intense dislike of reshuffles. This is the second time that Cameron has asked Young to step in after a colleague has imploded, the first time was in 2009 when Alan Duncan was caught complaining about how MPs were ‘treated like shit’ and ‘forced to live on rations’. I suspect, though, that one thing that marked Young out this time was that his appointment would not require any other changes in the government ranks. Sir George is one of the politest people that you’re ever likely to meet. I

Fraser Nelson

Why Andrew Mitchell had to go

Andrew Mitchell’s resignation does not leave David Cameron looking weak, as Labour is claiming tonight. The weekend press will have plenty fun with all this. But in the longer run, it’s the best option – and for everyone involved. The Prime Minister had an unattractive choice: he could cut his Chief Whip adrift, and give the police unions the scalp they were seeking. Or he keep him around, sitting on the front bench at PMQs and becoming a permanent magnet for any ‘pleb’ jokes that Ed Miliband may want to crack. Cameron is fairly cool-headed about these things: he doesn’t get angry (like Major), or vengeful (like Brown) or pig-headed

James Forsyth

David Cameron’s EU dilemma

David Cameron is determined to renegotiate the terms of Britain’s EU membership. But to get a good deal and to show his own eurosceptics – let alone UKIP voters – that he’s serious about this, he is going to have to be prepared to say that he would be prepared to leave if the rest of the European Union doesn’t play ball. (This poker game is why the other northern European countries that Cameron is relying on to help him secure a better deal have been quick to suggest that they wouldn’t mind Britain leaving that much.) Cameron, though, is highly reluctant to do this. Not only does he think

Isabel Hardman

Class War: George Osborne caught in first class with the wrong train ticket

ITV’s Rachel Townsend had a more exciting train journey into Euston than she might have expected this afternoon. She discovered George Osborne sitting in first class with a standard ticket. CLASS. His aide tells ticket collector he cannot possibly move and sit with the likes of us in standard class and requests he is allowed to — Rachel Townsend (@RachTownsendITV) October 19, 2012 remain in First Class. Ticket collector refuses #standoff — Rachel Townsend (@RachTownsendITV) October 19, 2012 What a shame that this happened on a quiet and rainy Friday afternoon in Westminster when every hack and blogger was twiddling their thumbs and wondering what to do. Within minutes,

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron (finally) answers Chris Bryant’s Leveson question (sort of)

David Cameron was very grumpy with Labour’s Chris Bryant at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday, sniping that as Bryant hadn’t apologised to him for speaking in the Commons about embargoed information, he wouldn’t answer his question. Bryant and his colleague Harriet Harman have made a bit of a stink about this, and today the Prime Minister wrote back to Labour’s deputy leader saying the following: Dear Harriet, Thank you for your letter of 17 October about my evidence to the Leveson Inquiry. As you will be aware, on 25 April, Chris Bryant made a point of order in the House in which he suggested that I had misled the House.

Eamonn Butler

Politicians shouldn’t meddle with energy prices

David Cameron’s announcement in the House of Commons on Wednesday – that he would force energy companies to give people the lowest tariff – caused a stir. The Downing Street comms machine has been trying to clarify the new policy ever since and we’re only just starting to see a clear idea taking shape. So what are we to make of it? Well, there is almost no competition in the energy market. There are only six big companies, and those are regulated within an inch of their lives. So with no proper competition, you could make the case that government has a role to make sure that customers are properly

Thursday

18 Oct 2012

The Spectator

Politics of retreat

The closure of Britain’s consulate in Basra marks the end of an inglorious episode in our military history. This ought to have been the city where Britain would forever be seen as the liberator, given that it was our troops who supplanted Saddam Hussein’s forces almost ten years ago. Instead, Basra’s darkest moments came after the invasion: death squads moved in to fill the security vacuum Britain left behind. Our government failed to commit enough resources to make Basra safe. The massacres, executions and tortures that followed Britain’s withdrawal were brought to an end only when the Iraqi army reinvaded Basra. Tony Blair and Gordon Brown were so determined to

James Forsyth

The expenses scandal’s next chapter?

The Daily Telegraph is the paper that broke the expenses scandal and its splash tomorrow threatens to become the latest chapter in this sorry saga. Holly Watt reports that ‘at least eight MPs are either letting properties to, or renting from, another MP’. Now, it is worth stressing that this is not against the rules. One senior MP, who is not renting out his London residence to another MP or anyone else, argued passionately to me earlier that this is a product of badly drawn up rules. They allow MPs to claim for rent but not mortgage interest payments even if the later would be cheaper for the taxpayer. But

Isabel Hardman

Energy bills row: Cameron clarifies his surprise announcement

David Cameron has arrived in Brussels for a meeting of the European Council, and has offered further helpful clarification of what exactly he means to do about energy bills. The Prime Minister said: ‘I want to be on the side of hard-pressed, hard-working families who often struggle to pay energy bills. That’s what I said in the House of Commons yesterday. We’re going to use the forthcoming legislation, the energy bill, coming up this year so that we make sure, we ensure that customers get the lowest tariffs. That’s what we’re going to do.’ This is still different to what the Prime Minister said in the Commons yesterday. Privately, the

Jonathan Jones

Sorry, Alex, but Scots are going off the idea of independence

With two years to go, Alex Salmond’s campaign for a ‘Yes’ vote in the Scottish independence referendum is facing a big challenge to turn around public opinion. Ipsos MORI have a new poll out today, showing almost two-to-one opposition to independence, and support for Salmond’s cause has been declining all year. This matches the findings of two other pollsters. YouGov found the split going from 33 ‘yes’/53 ‘no’ in January to 27-60 in August. And TNS-BMRB have it going from 35-44 in January to 28-53 this month. So the SNP has its work cut out — it needs to change plenty of Scottish minds if its even going to make

Isabel Hardman

Andrew Mitchell needs to worry about his own team, not Labour’s £1,000 fine threat

Determined to keep the Andrew Mitchell story alive for as long as possible, Labour confirmed this morning that next week’s Opposition Day debate will follow the party’s call for Andrew Mitchell to receive a £1,000 fine for his outburst by the gates of Downing Street and debate police cuts. The idea is to highlight the ‘double standards’ line that Ed Miliband pushed yesterday at PMQs: while swearing at a police officer would lead to ‘a night in the cell for the yobs, it is a night at the Carlton Club for the Chief Whip’. As James reported last night, the 1922 Committee was largely warm towards the chief whip, with only five

Steerpike

Steerpike returns in this week’s Spectator

Mr Steerpike is delighted to appear in print this week, with several pieces of juicy gossip. First off, Team Miliband are serenading Westminster’s favourite left-wing Tory, ResPublica director Phillip Blond: ‘A new rumour suggests that Miliband’s wingman, Lord Wood, has been despatched to persuade the Conservative oddball to disappear into the changing room and re-emerge as a Blue Socialist. ‘Good God no,’ Blond says when I ask if he’s tempted to join the Two Eds’ I also reveal that outgoing Tory MP Louise Mensch attempted to pursue some future employment opportunities before running away to her family in New York: ‘Shortly before the ex-MP dashed off to Manhattan to spend

Isabel Hardman

How David Cameron fluffed a key cost of living announcement on energy

The Conservatives are worried that voters are deserting them over the rising cost of living, yet their leader has managed to fluff an announcement designed to remedy that problem. Yesterday at Prime Minister’s Questions, David Cameron surprised the whole chamber and the department concerned by announcing a brand new energy policy. In response to a question from Labour’s Chris Williamson about what the government was doing to help people reduce their energy bills, Cameron said: ‘We have encouraged people to switch, which is one of the best ways to get energy bills down. I can announce, which I am sure the honourable gentleman will welcome, that we will be legislating

Harold Evans

Obama’s nightmare

The 2012 US presidential election will long be remembered for the encounters between a sleepwalker and a ghost intent on breaking into the White House. Even now, after one vice-presidential debate and two presidential debates, it is by no means clear which will win. Millions of astonished Americans watched the first televised encounter, which took place in Denver, Colorado on 4 October. Democratic supporters were apoplectic: their supercool and eloquent President, Barack Obama, was transformed into an unresisting somnambulist by a mysterious intruder. The intruder was identified as Willard Mitt Romney, the Republican challenger. But it was hard to be sure, because he assumed so many moderate shapes and positions

James Forsyth

Cameron will announce an EU referendum by Christmas

William Hague is now one of the most pro-European Conservative member of the Cabinet. The man once reviled by the bien-pensant for his views on this subject is now regarded by the Liberal Democrats as a brake on his more sceptical colleagues and praised in Brussels for his pragmatism. He told his party’s conference that he wants Britain’s membership of the European Union to be about more than just the single market and to extend to ‘co-operation on climate change and other great issues facing us’. In today’s Conservative party, this is unusual. When I asked various ministers in Birmingham if they agreed with it, nearly all said emphatically not.