Politics

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

Wednesday

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

The Strange Death of Scottish Nationalism

A few months ago a German magazine phoned me to talk about Scotland leaving the UK. The reporter had bought the SNP line that Scottish independence was a practical proposition, and that Scotland could survive and indeed flourish as an independent state in the Eurozone. But, I told her, the Royal Bank of Scotland and the Bank of Scotland, which were meant to be leading Scotland’s charge to become a Celtic tiger economy, have collapsed. ‘Does the EU really want another country with a failed financial system? Try selling that to the readers of Bild.’ On the BBC on Sunday, Alex Salmond became increasingly tetchy when John Sopel questioned him

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband’s immigration attack no threat to Cameron

Ed Miliband broke with his post-conference policy of always asking about the economy at PMQs to devote all six questions to the whole Brodie Clark/Theresa May border dispute. Miliband, though, had no new killer fact or question. Instead, he stuck to general criticisms of the government’s approach. This gave Cameron an easy ride. He simpy backed the Home Secretary unequivocally before turning on Labour’s immigration record. By the end, Cameron was at his most disdainful towards Miliband. Indeed, the most interesting element of the exchange was how the Liberal Democrats looked at their feet as Cameron rattled off the coalition’s greatest hits on immigration. The rest of the session was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why is Huhne still shunning shale?

Chris Huhne’s article in the Telegraph this morning attacking those who think that shale gas can solve Britain’s energy needs is built around a straw man of an argument. Huhne claims that, ‘Some therefore argue that we should abandon everything else and devote ourselves wholly to shale.’ This is, to put it mildly, a dubious claim. Advocates of shale gas don’t want to abandon all other forms of energy, they just want Britain to properly exploit an energy resource which could be as significant for Britain as North Sea oil has been. The Energy Secretary’s aversion to shale is even more puzzling when you consider how keen he is for

Peter Hoskin

Clark rounds on May

Has anyone used the “Mayday” gag yet? Perhaps it’s too cheap and obvious, but it’s certainly applicable today. Not only are Theresa May’s troubles still splayed across the newspapers — sure to come up in PMQs later — but they have also been aggravated by the man who just quit as head of the UK Border Agency’s border force. So far as the bookies are concerned, the Home Secretary is now second-favourite (behind Chris Huhne) to be the Cabinet’s next ejectee. As for how the former head of the UK Border Agency’s border force, Brodie Clark, has made things difficult for May, I’d suggest you read his resignation statement here.

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

George Osborne Slays the Tobin Tax

George Osborne was filmed laying into the idea of a Tobin Tax on financial transactions at today’s Ecofin meeting in Brussels. As he says: if you want to tax bankers, tax them but don’t create a tax that will only be paid for by their customers. Here’s Osborne: All this is well said (transcript here) and is, incidentally, a revealing glimpse into parts of euroworld that are rarely broadcast. Also, calling this a “Robin Hood Tax” is perverse: in fact it’s a Sheriff of Nottingham ploy that appears to target the rich while actually being paid by the poor. It’s equally worth observing that Osborne’s position is broadly the same

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Osborne gets frank with Europe

George Osborne’s attack on the European Commission and his fellow finance ministers, for wasting time talking about a financial transactions tax when it is not going to happen, is quite a significant moment. It marks an attempt by Britain to knock this idea, which would hit this country far harder than anywhere else in Europe, off the agenda.   The Treasury, the Foreign Office and Number 10 have become increasingly exasperated about how this issue keeps coming up again and again. This feeling has been intensified by the fact that this issue is being discussed even as the crisis in the Eurozone is worsening by the hour.   Osborne’s remarks

Matt Cavanagh

‘Guest worker’ plan would hurt the economy

The economists who advise the Home Office on immigration policy have come out against a plan to turn economic migrants into ‘guest workers’. Last week, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published their response to the government’s proposals on restricting settlement rights for skilled workers from outside the EU. With all the debate around David Cameron’s pledge to cut net immigration to the ‘tens of thousands’, many of the detailed policies for achieving that overall aim have been somewhat neglected. It should be clear, however, that these particular proposals would represent a very significant change, with serious implications for employers. While a few exceptional migrant workers would be invited to stay,

Jonathan Jones

Berlusconi on the brink

Silvio Berlusconi no longer has the support of the majority of Italy’s MPs. That big budget vote was passed an hour ago, but only because 321 of the 630 members of the lower house didn’t vote. Just 308 supported the Prime Minister, leaving him eight votes short of a majority and suggesting he’d lose a confidence vote. This is a result that the global economy could’ve done without, when the need is to move on from Italy’s political problems and start to deal with its economic ones. The yield on Italian bonds, which had settled down earlier after soaring to the euro-era high this morning, have now shot back up

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Two Cheers for Theresa May and her Passport Fiasco

The obvious thing to be said about the pilot programme run amok that “loosened” border controls at a number of busy UK airports this summer is that said programme was both rational and reasonable. Obviously one is not supposed to say this and instead concentrate on the thousands of terrorists and other nasties who will have been “let in” to Britain as a result of the failure to “read” every “chip” embedded in every passport. Shockingly, officials were told that school parties and kids travelling with their parents probably wouldn’t need the same level of scrutiny as other, more probably malevolent, types. A useful rule for modern politics: when the

Clarissa Tan

Who will bail out the EU bailout fund?

While all eyes are fixed on Italy’s ever-increasing borrowing rates, a far larger problem may well be emerging. The EU bailout fund, set up to help countries who can’t borrow, may itself have trouble borrowing very soon. A sale this morning of 10-year bonds by the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) had a very muted response, barely bringing in the €3 billion it was meant to. This despite the fact that the offer was priced at a much more enticing yield, some 90 basis points (or 0.9 percentage points in non-market lingo) above a previous sale. Mind you, that’s better than last week’s sale, which had to be postponed due

Jonathan Jones

Crunch time in Italy and Greece

Reports of Silvio Berlusconi’s imminent resignation yesterday may have been exaggerated, but it remains to be seen how greatly. He faces a big test today, in the form of a crucial vote on the Italian budget. Berlusconi has proved adept at surviving such confidence votes throughout his time as Prime Minister, but today’s opposition may be too much even for him. In the words of Italian academic Roberto D’Alimonte to the Telegraph: “Nobody knows what the result will be, I think even Berlusconi doesn’t know.” In the last few minutes, Umberto Bossi – the leader of Berlsuconi’s coalition partners Lega Nord – has said that he called on the Prime Minister

Jonathan Jones

Immigration headlines spell trouble for Cameron

So soon after taking on the right over the European Union, David Cameron didn’t want to be seeing negative headlines on another of their hot-button issues. But that’s just what he’s woken up to this morning, thanks to the revelations that the Home Secretary authorised the relaxation of border checks. As James said, May’s performance in the House of Commons yesterday left her looking safe for the time being – not least because of Cameron’s support for her, as evidenced by his sitting alongside the Home Secretary during her statement. But immigration is as potent an issue as ever. Unlike the EU, it’s one that the general public does think

Monday

Clarissa Tan

For Sarkozy, AAA stands for austerity

Nicolas Sarkozy has served up his second austerity budget in as many months, in a bid to retain France’s AAA credit rating. The president wants to cling on to those three precious letters at all costs. There are elections in six months’ time and he isn’t doing well in the polls. Austerité Part Deux consists of tax increases and spending cuts totalling €7 billion, the government announced today. There will be increases in VAT and levies on large corporations, as well as curbs on increases in welfare spending. This savings programme follows the €11 billion one announced in August. Sarko’s bid to get re-elected in 2012 is in disarray. According

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron defends the IMF

David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons on the Cannes summit was dominated by the question of increasing Britain’s dues to the IMF. Cameron stressed that his message to the Eurozone countries was “sort yourselves out and then we will help”. He also tried to offer reassurance that the IMF would not contribute to any eurozone-specific bailout fund. But after Ed Miliband’s response, the Prime Minister tried to counter-attack. He began by saying of the Labour leader’s speech, “I don’t know who writes this rubbish” which drew one of Ed Balls’ infamous calm down gestures. Cameron then offered an aggressive defence of the IMF, calling it an “organisation that

Jonathan Jones

Which Miliband?

Don’t be too hard on the Independent leader writer and proof readers. Ed or David Miliband? It’s an easy mistake to make. John Humphrys got it wrong on the Today programme back in May, and even Ed’s own deputy, Harriet Harman, slipped up. “I hope we will have David, er, Ed, Ed Miliband elected as Prime Minister at the next election,” she told Woman’s Hour during the Labour conference in September. At least Harman corrected herself, as the Independent now have on their website. This Daily Mail article from June still carries the wrong caption. But this affliction is even more widespread than that. Back in July, YouGov showed 1,265

Daniel Korski

After the EU

If the EU comes crashing down as a result of the Euro crisis, one thing is certain: the UK will be at the forefront of re-creating the bloc. Not exactly the way it is now, but not a totally different entity either. The reasons for this are three-fold, simple and are about Britain’s interests. First, Britain derives benefits from being part of, and determining the rules for, the world’s largest market. When the world is entering a “no-Doha” future, where pressure for protectionism will rise, there is no substitute for access to a relatively open market of some 400 million people. Neither transatlantic trade, commerce with the Commonwealth or links

James Forsyth James Forsyth

May caught in immigration row

Theresa May has up to now proved remarkably adept at avoiding the political bear-traps that have ensnared so many Home Secretaries in recent years. But she now finds herself caught in a classic Home Office row over who allowed the UK Border Agency to ease passport checks to cut queues during the summer months. James Kirkup has the scoop that ministers approved this decision. Given May’s reputation for keeping her ministerial team on the tightest of leashes, this creates a problem for the Home Secretary. Labour will go at this issue hard. They know it provides them with a populist way to claim that the cuts are endangering the country’s

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 7 November 2011

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says Ruth Davidson “could have been designed by a committee of A-lister fantasists”. James Forsyth says the Union needs a champion to take on Alex Salmond. Matt Cavanagh gives his take on the latest immigration revelations. Rod Liddle asks how you lose 124,000 people. Daniel Korski says Labour haven’t figured out a position on the EU either. Alec Ash reports of shocking protests in Tibet. Nigel Jones describes the unique Bonfire celebrations in Lewes. On the Arts Blog, Patrick O’Flynn shares some of The Jam’s hidden gems. And Michael Fallon answers the Book Blog‘s literary questions.

Jonathan Jones

Papandreou to go, but uncertainty remains

The eyes of Europe, which have been focused on Greece all week, will see a slightly brighter picture today – albeit one still engulfed in heavy fog. The good news: a new coalition government will be formed – the government of “national unity” that EU leaders wanted – to approve the bailout package ahead of new elections. Prime Minister George Papandreou will step down, following his aborted call for a referendum on the bailout terms last week. His future had been a major part of the uncertainty surrounding Greece: reports of his resigntion on both Thursday and Friday turned out to be premature, if only by a matter of days.

Sunday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Union needs a champion

The First Minister of Scotland v the Secretary of State for Scotland on the Politics Show today was a non-contest. Michael Moore was hesitant and failed to fill the screen. Alex Salmond was crisp and confident. This disparity between Salmond and his opponents is one of the biggest problems for the Unionist cause. Polls consistently show that most Scots don’t want independence. But every day Salmond is out there making his eloquent—if factually dubious—case for it. There is a real and growing danger that’ll he end up winning by default because no one of stature is countering him. What’s needed is a big figure, preferably a non-political one, to defend