Politics

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

Saturday

Matthew Sinclair

Why do-gooding ‘sin taxes’ always stink of politics

Nutella may have been created by Italians, but it is the French who really love it. The hazelnut spread is a fantastically popular accompaniment for everything from bread for breakfast to crêpes for a delicious dessert. Yet the French Senate, in its infinite wisdom, decided that Nutella should be taxed. The proposal was voted through the Senate, before being stopped by a very unlikely coalition of Communists and conservatives. The plan to impose a ‘sin tax’ on Nutella in France was obviously ludicrous; but it was also full of politics. Sin taxes and green taxes may look like an efficient intervention on an economist’s blackboard; but they never live up

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

David Blunkett warns MPs against regulating the press

David Blunkett, the former Home Secretary, has has his private life in the newspapers often enough to yearn, Hugh Grant-style, for a world where the press is not free but obliged to operate within parameters outlined by the government. But I’ve interviewed him for Radio Four’s Week in Westminster (it airs at 11am this morning) ahead of next week’s Leveson report and he has come out against the idea state-mandated regulation. It was an unusual discussion: the supposedly illiberal Blunkett, himself a compensated victim of hacking was defending press freedom. A Tory, Nadhim Zahawi, was urging David Cameron to act. As a former Home Secretary, Blunkett’s words carry some weight. He

Friday

Jonathan Jones

George Osborne might meet his debt target after all

When George Osborne gives his Autumn Statement on 5 December, the OBR will publish its new forecasts for growth, deficit and debt. For the last few weeks, the consensus has been that the OBR would declare that Osborne will miss the debt target he set himself in 2010: to have the debt-to-GDP ratio falling in 2015-16. The logic behind this, as I set out in September, is pretty straightforward: the OBR will have to lower its growth forecasts, which will in turn mean lower tax revenues, higher deficits and more debt. But it now looks like Osborne might narrowly avoid failure, though not because the outlook for the economy or

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A satisfactory outcome at the EU budget talks for David Cameron

So, the EU budget summit has — as expected — broken up without agreement. We await the date of the next discussion of the matter. But for the moment it means there is nothing that David Cameron will have to try to pilot through parliament. Talking to those close to the Prime Minister, I sense that they are not unhappy with this conclusion. In Downing Street, they feel that their criticisms of the running costs of the EU bureaucracy have struck a chord with other contributor countries. They’re also pleased that Cameron has managed to strike a tough negotiating position without isolating himself. But what is giving them the greatest

David Blackburn

EU budget talks end

The EU Budget discussions have ended with no agreement, as seemed inevitable after yesterday’s struggles and rows. David Cameron has been copping a lot of flak for his intransigence, particularly from Francois Hollande, who has spent much of the time talking of the need for ‘solidarity’ with Europe – by which he means the Common Agricultural Policy. Despite these headlines, it’s worth remembering that plenty of other countries objected to Van Rompuy’s proposals, and for many different reasons. Indeed, far from being isolated, Britain may have forged closer relations with those countries thanks to the experience of these talks. Nicholas Watt reports that blame is being aimed squarely at Herman van Rompuy, which is an interesting development from the

Tim Wigmore

The Lib Dems’ future may not be so bleak

At last week’s Corby by-election, the Liberal Democrat candidate requested two recounts. Once a formidable by-election machine, the Lib Dems were reduced to searching in vain for the 14 extra votes they required to get 5% of the vote, and so get their £500 deposit refunded. In 1935, a famous book described The Strange Death of Liberal England, a theme that has regularly been returned to in the intervening 77 years. In 1951 the Lib Dems’ predecessor, the Liberal Party, won six seats on 2.5 per cent of the national vote; in 1989, a year after the merger between the Liberal and Social Democratic parties, the Lib Dems polled 6

David Blackburn

Europe’s new iron curtain

The last 24 hours have yielded no agreement in Europe, and they have seen David Cameron’s ambitions decline (he appears resigned to the fact that EU spending will not be limited to 886bn euros, his original objective); but they have also demonstrated that Britain is far from alone at the diplomatic table. David Cameron has been able to forge pragmatic alliances and exert diplomatic pressure precisely. For example, his latest tactic at the budget discussions is to appeal to the downtrodden nations of southern Europe by insisting that the EU’s bureaucracy take its own medicine by raising retirement age and cutting jobs and reducing the final salary pension cap. The EU

Thursday

Peter Jones

Athenians on voting fatigue

‘Politics is polarised’ intoned the chatterati after the Obama-Romney race to the White House. ‘Sick of party politics’ said the people after the elections for Police and Crime Commissioners. Ancient Athenians knew why. One of the many virtues of Athens’ direct democracy (508-323 bc) was not just that citizens (male Athenians over 18) meeting every week or so in Assembly made all the decisions about policy; it was the absence of political parties in our sense. As a result, the Athenian people in Assembly were not bound by any of the preconditions or assumptions that for historical reasons have shaped our party system. There were no manifesto promises, special interest

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 22 November 2012

Lynton Crosby will soon be appointed to run the Conservative strategy for the next election, say reports. Unnamed sources accuse him of saying rude things about Muslims; people mutter about the ‘dog whistle’ campaign of 2005. Such stories involve two great subterranean passions — the desire of rival polling groups to make money and the competition among backroom boys to get credit for electoral success. The public should not be unduly concerned about rows in the servants’ hall, so long as the master is in charge. Possibly it is doubt about this which gives the story legs. But what the anti-Crosby stories also reveal is a weird prejudice about Australians.

The Spectator

Hold Brussels to account

After four years of economic crisis some kind of normality has at last been restored to European politics. The EU is at loggerheads with Britain again. After a prolonged period in which it seemed as if the EU would tear apart, its indebted southern members cast adrift from its more solvent northern members, it is almost comforting to see a return to the more traditional faultline in the EU: where the rest of the EU gangs up on Britain and accuses it of being isolationist. Not once during the euro crisis has a country been singled out for such disapproval as Britain has since David Cameron demanded that the EU

James Forsyth James Forsyth

David Cameron’s tricky position on the Leveson Report

Politics is gearing up for the publication of the Leveson Report next Thursday. It was telling that when Boris Johnson picked up politician of the year at The Spectator Parliamentarian of the Year awards, he didn’t use the occasion to list of his achievements in London or to reminisce about the Olympics but rather took the opportunity to decry the possibility of statutory regulation of the press. On the other side is Ed Miliband, whose party is committed to backing whatever Leveson comes up with. It is unclear yet what Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats will do. But there are a large chunk of Tory MPs who appear to

Jonathan Jones

Labour underestimated Osborne’s deficit

As Fraser reported at the time, Labour put up a deficit clock on its website last month, claiming that the government was borrowing £277 million more during Tory conference than in the same four days last year. It based this on the borrowing figures available at the time, which were for the period April to August. In that period, the government had borrowed £802 a second more than in the same five months of 2011, so Labour assumed it would continue to do so in October. But new figures out yesterday show that this was not the case. In fact, looking just at borrowing in October, Labour was lowballing it

Steerpike Steerpike

We ask the questions

The enemies of a free press, also known as the mysteriously funded Hacked Off campaign, are positively salivating at the prospect of new legislation to regulate the press. I hear that their press conference, held after lobbying the three party leaders, at Four Millbank yesterday gave a glimpse of things to come. Professor Brian Cathcart and former Liberal Democrat MP Evan Harris waxed lyrical about their relentless pursuit of justice for their celebrity backers like Hugh Grant, and the lesser known victims of press mistreatment. Despite being promised the chance to quiz the victims, journalists in the room got increasingly irate as the double act hogged the limelight. The tension

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

In defence of the CofE’s House of Laity

Even friends of an Established church like myself – though I’m a Catholic – should think twice about the wisdom of the idea after the naked political interference in the affairs of the CofE in the Commons. The Speaker, who is non-religious/agnostic, was among the most overt in encouraging MPs to overturn the church’s decision not to approve women bishops. Perhaps, he suggested, they might like to refer the matter to the Equalities Minister (Maria Miller)? It was more or less to say that the equalities legislation should be brought to bear on the CofE when it comes to its way of appointing bishops. Ben Bradshaw too was all in

Steerpike Steerpike

Things get worse for Lord McAlpine

As I report in today’s Spectator, Lord McAlpine’s libel tour continues. The wrongly accused peer is in London to collect damages from shamed broadcasters, contrite journalists and numbskull Twitter addicts. His return coincides with the sad news that St Stephen’s Club in Queen Anne’s Gate is about to close its doors. McAlpine uses the cavernous basement to cellar his London wine collection, and he’s in urgent need of new lodgings for his clarets, ports and champagnes. He tells me that anyone who can offer secure storage space near Westminster should contact him at the House of Lords. No, not you, Sally. This and other tales can all be read in

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Nick Herbert calls for Britain to quit the European Court of Human Rights

The prisoner voting issue is threatening to bring the whole issue of the jurisdiction of the European Court of Human Rights to a head. It is almost impossible to see how the Strasbourg court can be satisfied without the ending of the ban on all prisoners voting, while it is hard to see parliament ever agreeing to that. Cabinet Ministers concede that the government’s current efforts are about buying time more than anything else. (For more on the legal questions that arise from this matter, see David’s post on the subject.) Leaving the jurisdiction of the Court is fast becoming the mainstream position in the Tory party. In an interview

David Blackburn

How easy would it be to withdraw from the European Court of Human Rights?

As James says, the prisoner votes row will return to parliament before lunch today. The government is expected to offer the Commons three choices: The retention of the blanket ban, in defiance of the European Court of Human Rights (ECtHR) Enfranchising prisoners serving up to six months. Enfranchising those serving up to four years. Parliament is expected to vote for retention, as it has done so previously. Such an outcome would, obviously, set the UK government on a collision course with the ECtHR and leave it open to very costly compensation suits. Damages of around £1,000 per case have been awarded in other jurisdictions, and leaked documents published last year

Stephen Glover

Save our speech

In 1644 John Milton appealed to parliament in the Areopagitica to rescind its order to bring publishing under government control by creating official censors. I wonder what he would make of Lord Justice Leveson’s report, due to be published next week, which is expected to re-introduce statutory control of the press into English law after a lapse of centuries. The wonder is that it has happened. Thirteen months ago, as the Leveson inquiry was gearing up, the Lord Chief Justice, Igor Judge, made a moving and passionate speech defending the independence of the press. He cited John Wilkes’s assertion that ‘the liberty of the press is the birthright of a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Westminster waits eagerly for the return of the Crosby show

Never before in British politics can the recruitment of a part-time consultant have been given so much coverage. The papers have treated Lynton Crosby’s coming arrival at Conservative Campaign Headquarters with the seriousness that used to be reserved for changes in the great offices of state. Ministers are no less excited; they are full of theories about the significance of the hiring of this hardscrabble Australian operative and what it says about the future direction of the party. So what’s the fuss about? Well, as with so much to do with the Cameroons, one can only really understand it in the light of the 2010 election. In this case, Lynton’s