Politics

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

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Taleb in 30 minutes

Nassim Taleb, the Lebanese-American academic whom we interviewed in The Spectator last month, is the subject of a Radio Four profile by The Economist’s Janan Ganesh that was first aired last Monday but will also be on Radio 4 at 21:30 this evening. David Willetts is interviewed, saying that Taleb’s work underlines the folly of long-term forecasts because ‘the big events that shape the world today are those which no one predicted four or five years ago’. The discovery of Shale gas, for example, could utterly change Britain’s energy requirements. Taleb’s heroes are Burke and Popper: his emphasis is on the need for humility, on how hard it is for

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Downing St plans to boost construction

In the last few months, there’s been a distinct change in the attitude of the Tories at the heart of government. They are now far more cognisant of just how difficult it is to drive change through the government machine. It is no longer just Steve Hilton and Michael Gove complaining about this, but Osborne and Cameron too. The Chancellor’s particular frustration at the moment is over the pace of planning reform. Osborne and his brains trust believe that simplifying the planning rules is one of the things that they could do to both give the economy a short term stimulus, by encouraging more construction, and improve its long term

Saturday

The Spectator

Barometer | 17 March 2012

Heated debate Eric Joyce, MP for Falkirk, was fined and given a community order for butting a fellow MP in a Commons bar. Which countries’ national and regional assemblies are the most violent, according to the number of videos posted online over the past four years? Country Number of fights Ukraine 6 Taiwan, South Korea 6 Italy, India 3 Russia, Somalia 2 Argentina, Germany, Georgia, Israel, USA 1 Source: parliamentfights.wordpress.com On tap Rising water bills have not resulted in enough investment to prevent a hosepipe ban. Are water bills higher in places with less rainfall? Typical annual household water cost (200 Megalitres) Annual rainfall (mm) €166 Rome 802 €220 Madrid

The Spectator

Bookbenchers: Jacob Rees-Mogg MP

Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP for North East Somerset, is this week’s Bookbencher. He prescribes Psmith for all ailments. 1) Which book is on your bedside table at the moment? Paper Promises by Philip Coggan. This is a straightforward review of the current financial crisis in the context of a brief history of paper money and its instability. It argues that creditors will probably lose out to debtors as the crisis is solved. I am also reading M.R. James’ Collected Ghost Stories, which I have by my bedside in Somerset. It is a splendid series of short stories which he wrote to entertain friends after dinner. I was given this

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The man behind the Budget

In today’s Telegraph, I profile Rupert Harrison, chief economic adviser to George Osborne and the man who’ll do more than anything else (including his boss) to shape next week’s Budget. In the British political system, special advisers are given very little attention — even though the best of them are more influential than the average Cabinet member. The Treasury’s vast power, assembled by Brown, is still there. That can’t be said for Osborne: he spends half his time in Downing St, and is sufficiently detached from the Budget process that he felt able to take a couple of days’ holiday in America last week to jump in the motorcade and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Politics: Taking back the cities

When the Prime Minister’s chief adviser, Steve Hilton, quits Downing Street in May, he’ll leave behind what he believes to be a mechanism to solve the Conservatives’ biggest electoral problem, which is their failure to win urban seats. On 3 May, ten of England’s largest cities will vote on whether to join London in having a directly elected mayor. These mayoralties will, if the Conservatives play their cards right, provide a platform from which the party can rebuild its metropolitan appeal. Directly elected mayors could provide the accountability that local politics has so lacked in the postwar era. For the first time in generations, people might know who is running

Quentin Letts

‘I am in charge’

He needed a trilby and leather coat but there was something of ’Allo ’Allo!’s Herr Flick to the mandarin giving evidence at the Public Accounts Committee one recent afternoon. The PAC is parliament’s prime scrutineer of state spending. Civil servants have it dinned into their skulls to regard it with caution, if not respect. Yet this Herr Flick, with his little sticky-up fringe, his minimalist spectacles, his subtle pouts and sly smiles, conducted himself as a superior mortal. He toyed with the committee. He said he was there as ‘a courtesy’. The MPs should not expect him to make a habit of appearing before them. This lean-livered, bloodless Brahmin was

Peter Hitchens

The gay marriage trap

The shambling remnants of Britain’s social and moral conservative movement are marching to Stalingrad, singing as they go. They will not be coming back, but they don’t realise that yet. David Cameron has cleverly provoked them into this suicide mission, by claiming to be a keen supporter of homosexual marriage. And so, with all the self-control of bluebottles massing round a dead cat, or squirrels besieging a bird-feeder, the Moral Minority have rushed to campaign against him. The risk to them is great. The risk to Cameron is minor. Even if they succeeded, the Prime Minister would not mind much. Very probably, Cameron does not really support same-sex weddings at

Merryn Somerset-Webb

Investment Special: Searching for income

The outcome of last week’s Monetary Policy Committee meeting came as no surprise, but if you’re trying to live off income generated from capital, it was still bloody irritating. Once again, base rate was left at 0.5 per cent, its lowest level since records began in 1694. Once again, it was decided that quantitative easing must continue. So annuity rates will remain at record lows; deposit rates will remain below a level worth anything after inflation and tax; the squeeze on pensioner living standards will continue; and savers will feel forced to move into riskier markets to preserve the purchasing power of their cash. So what can you do? The

Friday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour miss out the details

Labour’s launch of its new youth jobs policy has been rather overshadowed by Harriet Harman’s inability to explain the costing behind the policy on the Daily Politics earlier: not a good look for a party trying to show that it is fiscally credible. But more interesting than the number behind the policy is how it marks an attempt by Labour to toughen up its position on welfare. Those young workers who have been out of work for a year will have to take one of these minimum wage jobs or have their benefits docked.



 On the Labour front, the interview with Ed Miliband in the Times today is also worthy

Peter Hoskin

Cameron and Obama bargain over fuel

No wonder David Cameron and Barack Obama were being so chummy: they both knew that they could help each other. The Times carries an intriguing story (£) on its front page this morning, about how the two men discussed a plan to get fuel prices down in the UK and the US. The idea is that both countries — and perhaps more — would release some of their oil reserves. And so supply would go up, and prices would come down. As would our reliance on the oil-rich countries of the Middle East. Apparently, we’re some distance from a deal yet, but you can see why both the PM and

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Go on, George — scrap the 50p rate

Will George Osborne scrap the 50p tax in next week’s Budget? Whispers to this effect have been getting louder, and now the Guardian is saying that it will come back down to 40p, and it makes a lot of sense. As I argued in my Telegraph column a fortnight ago, this is the perfect time to do it. Axing the tax paid by 1 per cent of the population will be unpopular with the remaining 99 per cent, so if Osborne is going to take a political hit he should do so now. Anecdotal evidence of its harmfullness has been getting stronger: multinational companies saying they can’t persuade people to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Liberal Unionism? In Ulster? Why Not?

On balance, theGood Friday Agreement was (forgive me) a Good Thing. It should be possible to welcome the Agreement yet recognise that it has not delivered everything it promised. Not the least of its troublesome consequences has been the manner in which the centre-ground of Northern Irish politics has been hollowed-out. Time passes, however, and the moment for a viable alternative to the Sinn Fein-DUP double-act cannot, surely, be delayed forever. At least that’s what Robin Wilson suggests in the Belfast Telegraph today. This, perhaps unexpectedly, is the time for a New Ulster Unionism: [N]ow the UUP – otherwise on its political death-bed – has a huge choice to make.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How mayoral elections can strengthen the Tories

The most important political changes are those that will not be reversed. I think that both directly elected mayors and police commissioners fit this mould. I can’t imagine voters choosing to cede the ability to hold power to account that these positions will give them. Tellingly, more people in London now favour independence for the capital than want to scrap the office of mayor. Police commissioners and mayors also provide the Conservatives with a massive opportunity to rebuild the party in urban Britain, as I argue in my column this week. The Conservatives have little chance of gaining overall control of the council in, say, Leeds. But they could win a mayoral

Sebastian Payne

Hodge’s new nemesis: Sir Jeremy Heywood

Margaret Hodge subjected senior civil servants to a fierce ear-boxing this morning. She accused them of trying to avoid the scrutiny of her Public Accounts Committee, and declared the current doctrine of ministerial responsibility unfit for the 21st century: ‘The senior civil service needs to acknowledge that we live in a different world from the world in which ancient conventions could prevail. Everybody wants greater transparency and accountability.’ Hodge also said she ‘has been rattling the cage too much for some’ and detailed some of the resistance she’s encountered. In particular, she highlighted a disagreement with Gus O’Donnell, the former Cabinet Secretary, who berated her for the handling of an

Jonathan Jones

Cameron dines with Obama… and Clooney

The Camerons weren’t the Obamas’ only big-name guests at the State Dinner last night. They were joined by a host of stars including Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and George Clooney, who’s just returned from war-torn Sudan. In their speeches (above), the two leaders had very warm words for each other. Of Cameron, Obama said: ‘In good times and in bad, he’s just the kind of partner that you want at your side. I trust him. He says what he does and he does what he says.’ And the PM returned the compliments: ‘There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority and wisdom.’ Obama

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The significance of Clegg’s PMQs win

Nick Clegg’s assertive performance at PMQs today was a demonstration of the fact that he now feels more confident than he has since his failure in the AV referendum. The deputy Prime Minister doesn’t crouch defensively at the despatch box anymore, and he brushed off some rather good one-liners from Harriet Harman. She joked that the only thing the deputy Prime Minister stands up for these days is the PM entering the room.   Clegg and his team feel that things are looking up for them, that they are setting the agenda. Even the Lib Dem’s lowly poll rating isn’t dampening their mood.   So, what does this change mean

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What’s Happened to Free Speech in Britain?

It’s not just Scotland, however. Speech-restricting madness exists across the United Kingdom. Here’s an extraordinary tale from West Yorkshire where a teenager has been arrested and “charged with a racially aggravated public order offence” for comments published on Facebook. According to Sunny Hundal, these are the remarks in question: These are not sentiments likely to command widespread support or earn Azhar Ahmed much sympathy. Nevertheless, it is hard to see how they really constitute a threat to public order or, for that matter, a threat that’s “racially aggravated”. Stupid or ugly as they may be, they are less revolting than the thought you can be arrested for writing this sort

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Nick rises to Harriet’s limp challenge

Basketball in America. Netball at PMQs. Harriet Harman, Labour’s venerable form-prefect, took her leader’s place today and lobbed a few rubbery missiles at the PM’s under-study, Nick Clegg.  It came down to arithmetic. Even if Hattie had stormed it at PMQs she had no hope of reviving her extinct career. But Clegg has it all to play for. He was ready for it too. Assured, combative and well-briefed, he filled his replies with fresh, punchy rhetoric. (Mind you, his match-fit performance should be credited to his party activists. Clegg must have spent the last 22 months fielding nasty questions from chippy wonks at Lib Dem constituency meetings.)  Hattie tried to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scottish Sectarianism: No Evidence Required for a Conviction

The question to be asked of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communication (Scotland) Act 2012 is whether it is iniquitous, merely pointless or, perhaps paradoxically, both. I vote for both. Here’s why: Two Hibernian fans caught chanting offensive songs on the train back from a cup quarter-final have become the first people convicted under controversial new anti-bigotry laws. […] The pair were travelling home after watching Hibs beat Ayr United on Saturday, to progress to the Scottish Cup semi-finals*, when the incident happened. They had boarded the 6:13pm train from Ayr to Glasgow Central when they were seen by British Transport Police officers chanting and singing songs that