Politics Archives

Wednesday

17 Aug 2011

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Full-length interview with IDS

I have interviewed Iain Duncan Smith for tomorrow’s Spectator. In print, space is always tight and we kept it to 1,500 words. One of the beauties of online is that you can go into detail in political debate that you never could with print: facts, graphs (my guilty pleasure) and quotes. Here is a 2,300-word version of the IDS interview, with subheadings so CoffeeHousers can skip the parts that don’t interest them. I’ve known him for years, and remember how hard it was to get out of his room four years ago when he started on the subject of gang culture and the merits early intervention. Now, he’s in the

Alex Massie

Irish Green Shoots?

Could it be that Ireland has passed through the worst of the storm? Writig in the Financial Times yesterday David Vines and Max Watson argue that maybe, just maybe, it has. [T]he first and most important thing about Ireland is that it is swiftly restoring its competitive edge. Indeed it is moving rapidly towards a sizeable current account surplus – in a range of 3 to 4 per cent of gross domestic product. Of course, recession has also played a role in turning external accounts around, but a steady uptrend in exports has been underway for some time. The second element is that Ireland’s net public debt will probably peak

Nick Cohen

In praise of Gordon Brown, being the first part of a one-part series

All politicians require a thick skin, but Gordon Brown must have an elephant’s hide. If an ordinary man had presided over the greatest crash since 1929, shame would compel silence. Not so with Brown, who is unable to see himself as other see him, and has written an account of the European crisis for the New York Times, which is – astonishingly – well worth reading. ‘The exigencies of domestic politics have locked the euro zone into an impossible set of economic constraints — no defaults, no deficits, no stimulus and, of course, no devaluations — which mean that there can also be no banking stability, no lasting growth, no

Fraser Nelson

EXCLUSIVE: IDS on British jobs

Last week, George Osborne boasted that Britain has the second-fastest job creation in the G7. In tomorrow’s Spectator, we disclose official figures showing that 154 per cent of the employment increase can be accounted for by foreign-born workers. We on Coffee House have often questioned Labour’s record: 99.9 per cent of the rise in employment was accounted for by foreign-born workers. The graphs for the Labour years and the coalition year are below: The idea of 154 per cent is strange, so I will reproduce the raw figures below: Now, no one outside Westminster expects the UK labour market to change the day a new government is elected,

David Blackburn

Riot sentencing row brews

David Cameron promised that looters would feel the full force of the law. Courts have been sitting round the clock holding defendants on remand and issuing stern sentences. This is causing disquiet in some circles. Lib Dem MPs complain that the government has overacted, incapable of resisting the temptation to take draconian decisions without adequate scrutiny. Tessa Munt told the Guardian that the government’s approach “smacks of headline grabbing by Conservatives, not calm, rational policy-making.” Lady Hamwee also told the paper that it would be a “great pity if what [the justice secretary] Ken Clarke has been doing – finding a better way of sentencing – was to be undone.” Much

David Blackburn

With an eye on 2015, Osborne is ramping up the growth agenda

30,000 new jobs by 2015: that is the glittering prediction made by the government as it announces the creation of more enterprise zones this morning. 11 zones* have been identified in total, tailored to foster the expansion of hi-tech manufacturing industries away from London and the M4 corridor. Enterprise zones certainly have their critics – notably the Work Foundation’s Andrew Sissons, who told the Today programme that they were merely an “expensive way of moving jobs around the country.” But the coalition is adamant that it has learnt from past mistakes, insisting that the policy will rebalance the economy and rejuvenate regions that have been “left behind”. There has been

Tuesday

16 Aug 2011

David Blackburn

Government expected to renew growth strategy

The word flying around Westminster this evening is that the government is going to announce a fresh package to stimulate growth tomorrow. In line with recent reports, the expectation is that new enterprise zones will be unveiled. Enterprise zones are, of course, the linchpin of the chancellor’s current strategy, offering generous tax breaks for start-up industries, relaxed planning regulations and investment in state-of-the-art broadband, so this would not be a novel move. But an announcement would be timely nonetheless. Lamentable inflation figures released today are set to be joined by poor employment figures tomorrow, suggesting that economic and business confidence may be becoming even more tentative, especially in deprived areas. The grim continental situation is also a matter of grave

Alex Massie

Adventures in Polling

Oh look: a poll produced by R3 “the insolvency trade body” finds – surprise! – 47% of people think “financial pressures” contributed to the riots and 92% of folk think “easy access to credit” created “a sense of entitlement”. Well played lads. Sir Humphrey would be proud of you: [Hat-tip: Hopi Sen who – huzzah! – says he will be back blogging soon.]

Alex Massie

Breaking: Screws Editor Knew How Paper Got Its Stories! Shocker!

Boom! Phone-hacking is back and it’s yet more bad news for Andy Coulson and, by extension, David Cameron. The Prime Minister’s problem is that we are tasked with believing that he believed the former News of the World editor when Coulson claimed to have had no knowledge of phone-hacking (and other criminal acts) during his time at the paper. At best the Tory leader was deliberately naive; more probably – common sense tells us – he appreciated that the immediate advantages to having Coulson on his team were greater than the potential for embarrassment at some uncertain point in the future. Perhaps nothing would come of it anyway! Fingers crossed!

Alex Massie

Obama: My Opponents Are Beastly

I think it’s ridiculous to argue that Obama is comparing himself to Lincoln here and his remarks about the Old School way of doing politics are a welcome reminder that American politics is not actually very much or even at all uglier now than it has been in the past. Which kinda makes it unfortunate that on his latest non-campaigning, campaign tour the President complained that: “The problem,” Obama continued, “is that we’ve got the kind of partisan brinksmanship that is willing to put party ahead of country, that is more interested in seeing their political opponents lose than seeing the country win. Nowhere was that more evident than in

James Forsyth

Cameron’s missed opportunity

As David noted earlier, the big headline in Nick Clegg’s speech this morning is that the government will hold some kind of inquiry into the riots after all. This climb down in the face of demands from Ed Miliband makes it all the more baffling that Cameron didn’t announce his own inquiry earlier. If he had taken the initiative, he could have determined both its terms of reference and membership which would have ensured that it came up with the right answers. But, in policy terms, I suspect the more important announcement is that prisoners leaving jail will now be placed straight into the work programme. The work programme, masterminded

David Blackburn

Clegg makes his mark

This morning’s papers have been replete with rumours about Nick Cleg engineering some sort of official investigation into the riots, having brokered a deal between the government and Ed Miliband. Clegg has just delivered his post-riots speech. He ruled out a public inquiry (presumably on grounds of cost), but revealed that Whitehall is “tendering a contract for research” into broken communities: his Victims and Communities Commission. This is a minor victory for Clegg, who has marked his sign on these events, albeit in a wishy-washy way. It is also a limited victory for Ed Miliband, who first initiated talks of an inquiry.

David Blackburn

Clegg joins the jamboree

Cometh the hour, cometh Nick Clegg. The Independent reports that the Deputy Prime Minister is to announce that first-time offenders convicted of looting but not given custodial sentences will be forced to do community service in the very streets that they ransacked. The government hopes to ensure that community sentences are robust, inculcating a sense of responsibility in first-time offenders and insulating them from malign criminal influences. The Probation Service already oversees similar community service programmes and will do so with this one, which Clegg is calling ‘Community Payback’. Clegg’s views also allow him to reposition the Liberal Democrats to an extent. The moisture that often characterises his rhetoric has dried

Alex Massie

McDonalds vs Burger King

It’s rare that I disagree with James but I’m not quite persuaded by this: David Cameron and Ed Miliband both gave speeches on the riots this morning and the political dividing lines between the two are becoming more and more apparent. Cameron argues that these riots were about culture not poverty, Miliband thinks you can’t ignore inequality. Cameron believes that society needs two parent families, Miliband that it is about parental responsibility. Cameron doesn’t want an enquiry, Miliband does. Granted, James refers to “political dividing lines” not “policy divide” and that’s what saves his bacon. Nevertheless, is there anyone (sensible) who thinks inequality matters but you can’t ignore the impact

Monday

15 Aug 2011

James Forsyth

Cameron and Miliband’s differences

David Cameron and Ed Miliband both gave speeches on the riots this morning and the political dividing lines between the two are becoming more and more apparent. Cameron argues that these riots were about culture not poverty, Miliband thinks you can’t ignore inequality. Cameron believes that society needs two parent families, Miliband that it is about parental responsibility. Cameron doesn’t want an enquiry, Miliband does. The challenge for Cameron now is to turn the social analysis in his speech, which I think was broadly correct, into actual policy. Already in Conservative circles, people are saying that if Cameron really does want to support two parent families then surely he must

Alex Massie

Cameron’s Cognitive Dissonance

The best parts of David Cameron’s speech this morning were those passages spent defending the government’s plans for police reform and secondary education in England. This should not be a surprise: whether you agree with them or not, these are relatively coherent policies that have enjoyed the benefit of long gestation. The rest of the speech, alas, was a humdrum tour of long-familiar bromides (families are good!), items pulled from discount bins (‘elf and safety!) and impossible promises just vague enough to escape obvious ridicule (“a clear ambition that within the lifetime of this Parliament we will turn around the lives of the 120,000 most troubled families in the country”).

Alex Massie

Bill Bratton’s Approach Provides Ammunition for Tories and Labour Alike

It’s always worse elsewhere. That, at any rate, is one conclusion to be drawn from this question: This is consistent with polls that find twice as many people think crime is “Top Three” problem for the country as a whole than consider it a major problem for their own family. Doubtless there are many reasons for this discrepancy, among them the way in which crime is reported by a breathless, always-indigant media. Nevertheless, perceptions matter in life as in politics and cannot be wished or even, sometimes, persuaded away. One aggravating aspect of all this post-riot contemplation is the way in which the violence has been taken as proof that

David Blackburn

Osborne and the deepening malaise

George Osborne has taken to the pages of the FT this morning, warning that the global economy is in torpor thanks to a ‘serious malaise’ on the part of politicians. His worries are well founded. Growth is anaemic in Britain and flat in France. Today brings news of fresh disasters louring on the horizon. The quarterly employment survey indicates that businesses in the north are preparing to shed jobs. The economy has been bumbling along, saved from deeper crisis by strong private sector job growth. If businesses downscale, it will increase the pressure on the government over insipid growth. Markets already doubt that Britain has the capacity to rebalance the

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 15 August 2011

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson points out that Bill Bratton has advised the British government before, and reiterates the case for an inquiry into the recent riots. James Forsyth says that Cameron must not be bullied into silence by the police, and argues that Crispin Blunt’s flawed prisoners’ rehabilitation programme must be reversed. David Blackburn thinks that Sarko’s euro tonic may not be the perfect medicine, and notes that the police have opened another front against the government. Jonathan Jones has news from the Republican battle. And The Arts Blog has been talking to Ron Arad.

David Blackburn

Merkel versus Sarkozy

August is supposed to be a languorous month, but fevered economic worries have dispelled the illusion of ease. Eurozone finance ministers will meet tomorrow to discuss the single currency, again. The luxurious coffee tables at the summit venue will be sullied by an article authored by global finance ministers, including George Osborne, who insist that the Eurozone take decisive political action to reassure the markets. The answer to this crisis, the ministers argue, is political integration. There are indications that the Eurozone agrees: dramatic gestures are required. Last week, the European Commission abandoned numerous sacrosanct policies: freedom of movement across borders was suspended in Spain and the CAP is to be