Politics

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

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Ireland’s Last Growth Industry: Pitchforks and Torches

Morgan Kelly’s piece in today’s Irish Times is a brutal and alarming analysis of Ireland’s next nightmare: a mass “strategic default” on mortgages. This could, he suggests, change the politics of the state forever: My stating the simple fact that the Government has driven Ireland over the brink of insolvency should not be taken as a tacit endorsement of the Opposition. The stark lesson of the last 30 years is that, while Fianna Fáil’s record of economic management has been decidedly mixed, that of the various Fine Gael coalitions has been uniformly dismal. As ordinary people start to realise that this thing is not only happening, it is happening to

David Blackburn

Gove the bully?

There has been a telling development in the resistance against ‘free schools’ this morning. The Evening Standard reports that Brian Lloyd, the headmaster of a school in Bromley, claims he is being ‘bullied’ by Michael Gove into adopting academy status. In a matter of weeks then, Gove has morphed from ‘miserable pipsqueak’ into Judd Nelson in The Breakfast Club – an odd transformation even in caricature. But depicting Gove’s schools revolution as the agent of draconian central government is a cunning ploy by local education establishments.   However, test Lloyd’s case and the real picture emerges. Hundreds of parents have contacted the Harris Federation, an academy provider, to terminate Lloyd’s

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 8 November 2010

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says that diversity is the name of the ‘free schools’ game, and wonders if David Cameron is simply too nice. James Forsyth analyses the Archbishop’s intervention, and urges that British values be taught at school. David Blackburn notes that the welfare battle is remarkably consensual, and says that Douglas Alexander is hiding from some inconvenient truths. And Alex Massie condemns the sympathies of some Celtic fans.

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Reconnecting with a left hook

At last the Labour Party is reconnecting with its core working class vote, and this time in an engagingly direct manner. Paul Farrelly, the MP for Newcastle-under-Lyme punched a newspaper seller in the sports and social club of the House of Commons, leaving him with blood pouring down his face. They also grappled on the floor. It is not recorded, but I hope Harriet Harman or Tessa Jowell were also standing by screaming: “Leave ‘im Paul, jus’ leave ‘im – he ain’t bleedin’ worf it.” The victim, Bjorn Hurrell, has said that he will press charges. Over the weekend Mr Farrelly was telling anyone who would listen that he had

Peter Hoskin

Congratulations to Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton

Congratulations to the Labour leader and his partner on the birth of their second son. Miliband will now take two weeks of paternity leave, during which time Harriet Harman will step into his brogues, etc. Here’s the official statement: “Ed and Justine are overjoyed at the birth of their second child and can’t wait to introduce the new arrival to his big brother, Daniel. Both are keen to pass on their thanks to the NHS staff at the hospital.”

Sunday

David Blackburn

A day of electoral positioning

Away from turbulent priests and the welfare battle, there have been important changes to electoral politics today. The coalition partners will fight one another in Oldham East and Saddleworth. The seat is a three way marginal, which was number 83 on the Tories’ target list – precisely the sort of seat they’ll need to win in 2015. However, as James noted on Friday, the Liberal Democrats’ need is greater at the moment. Already, tongues are wagging that a pimpled Etonian is destined to journey north of the Watford Gap, safe in the knowledge that gallant defeat will ensure he is the next Prime Minister but three. Enter Nigel Farage, opportunistically.

Daniel Korski

What happened to Germany’s European identity?

What has happened to Germany? Policy-makers and analysts have been pondering the question for the last few years. No longer happy to be the pro-European par excellence, Germany has become more assertive, more self-centred – in others words more normal. German scholar Ulrike Guerot has called the new Germany “post-Romantic”, ie more interest-based and less willing to let its history determine its future. Dominic Moisi says Germany has become “a second France.” Part of the reason is the change among the country’s political elite. The post-war generation has left the scene and the new leaders – on the Left and Right – have little time for Helmut Kohl’s cheque-book diplomacy.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

This Scotland, Alas

I gather this banner was seen at Celtic Park yesterday. Notice how these clowns can’t even spell. I wonder, too, what the club’s chairman, Dr John Reid, thinks of this sort of caper. For the rest of us, it kind of leaves one thinking that if there isn’t a refereeing conspiracy out to get Celtic (the buggers won 9-0 yesterday) then perhaps there should be? Then again: why give them the satisfaction? Also worth noting: this sort of dreary “protest” is so familiar that, like the 90-minute (at best) bigotry at Ibrox, it barely warrants much of a mention in the press.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron the optimist

Is David Cameron just too nice? There are worse accusations to levy at a politician, but it’s one I have heard suggested quite a lot recently – and I have written about it in my News of the World column today. He seems to have adopted the politics of wishful thinking. There is a “zip-a-dee-do-dah strategy” and precious little contingency if things go wrong. He makes defence cuts, because he doesn’t intend to go on a massive deployment (neither did Woodrow Wilson). He will make prison cuts, because he thinks – bless him – that it won’t increase crime. He signs a deal with French for military co-operation, thinking they

David Blackburn

Breaking dependency

IDS has played the party politics of welfare reform adeptly. He has built a coalition beyond the government, convinced of the need for urgency and dynamic reform. Even Labour is on side, only criticising when valid and necessary. It has not proposed a comprehensive alternative because it is protecting its record in government – sensing, correctly, that it is vulnerable to its history. Douglas Alexander rallies to New Labour’s defence in the Independent on Sunday. Labour’s record on welfare was not uniformly baleful: Purnell, Hutton and Murphy did important work, on which IDS has drawn. But Alexander overlooks some inconvenient truths. Gordon Brown’s definition of ‘poverty’ was an arbitrary line

Saturday

Daniel Korski

Is Euro-pragmatism here to stay?

I’m off to Brussels, capital of the superstate, home of the EUSSR, or whatever you might want to call it. It has made me re-engage with European issues for the first time in six months. If Europe is not dead as a political issue in Britain then it is at least firmly stored in a coalition freezer, which can only be unlocked in the case of a thumping electoral for the Conservatives. But if the Tories scrape in at the next election or come up short of an outright majority,  David Cameron is likely to want the Coalition to continue. That would mean another decade of euro-pragmatism. A decade is

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The importance of teaching British values in schools

One of the websites that the young Muslim woman, Roshonara Choudhry who stabbed Stephen Timms MP mentioned in her police interview was RevolutionMuslim, which now appears to have been taken down. Charles Moore turns his attention to the site in his column today: ‘After Choudhry’s conviction, I had a look at RevolutionMuslim. It has put up a list of all MPs who voted for the Iraq war, details of their surgeries and even a link to a supermarket website where you can buy knives. I watched its video, in which a young man praised Choudhry for “taking the matter into her own hands”, and attacked Muslims who collaborate with the

Andrew Neil

The New Republicans

After the Tea Party’s election success, the American right has a mandate to fight for a smaller state ‘I am not a witch.’ Now that’s not something you hear very often from a politician. But Christine O’Donnell, Tea Party darling and Republican candidate in Delaware for the US Senate, felt the need to say these words in a campaign commercial, after a youthful dalliance with witchcraft was revealed. The denial was somewhat undermined by the all-black outfit and smoky background. But the Democrats and their cheerleaders in the US media had a field day. These Tea Party folks? Strange, barking, dangerous. Who’d vote for them? As predicted, though Ms O’Donnell

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Let councils take the decisions – and the blame

Let councils take the decisions – and the blame If there’s something strange in your neighbourhood, the coalition wants you to call ‘bureaucracy busters’. This may sound like an irritating bit of alliterative spin, but it’s actually one of the government’s most radical proposals. The idea is to help individuals and community groups overcome the regulations and government restrictions that stand in the way of innovation at a local level: in other words, to clear a way for the big society. Bureaucracy busters is the brainchild of Greg Clark, the minister for decentralisation. Clark has a degree from Cambridge and a doctorate from the LSE, and is astute enough to

Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Take it from a former MP – popular outrage is wrecking parliament

Paradoxical I know, but I must first explain that there’s little point in my writing this, and somebody else should. Paradoxical I know, but I must first explain that there’s little point in my writing this, and somebody else should. The column it’s futile for me to write sounds a warning about the mess we’re making of MPs’ pay and allowances; and the danger not only that we discourage capable men and women from considering a political career, but that we relegate the status of politics and its practitioners in a way that may reverberate through generations to come. The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority (IPSA), paralysed by the hysteria over MPs’ expenses

Ed Howker

Cameron’s clearances

James Cummings could never refuse a drink. Even after his boss — a Watford publican — threatened him with the sack he couldn’t lay off the bottle. He’d worked his way through the profits of a family business, two houses and a marriage by then. He eventually awoke in a tunnel under the Elephant and Castle three weeks after he was sacked from the pub. That was the winter before last. Now, having recovered sufficiently to rent a flat, fight his addiction and get some qualifications, James is doing everything we expect of those on unemployment benefit. He is teetotal and has avoided debt; he does voluntary work with other

Daniel McCarthy

Mr Tea

The last time Republicans retook control of Congress, in 1994, the face of the revolution belonged to the party’s leader in the House of Representatives, Newt Gingrich. This year the standard-bearer is a less obvious figure: Rand Paul, the newly elected junior senator from Kentucky. Not only is Rand not part of the leadership, he is the son of Ron Paul, a maverick former presidential candidate who is considered a pariah within his own party. But this is an outsider’s hour in American politics, and the younger Paul is everywhere hailed as the paragon of the Tea Party revolt. That revolt has been directed as much against the Republican establishment

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Free Speech Is Expensive But It’s Free

Simon Heffer is very good on grammar, Thomas Carlyle and, most importantly, cricket. And much more besides. But even Mr Heffer is not immune to the unfortunate Laws of Punditry, one of which insists that while writing something in one time zone something will happen in another which rebuts one’s argument all too convincingly. So his suggestion that Hillary Clinton might challenge Barack Obama for the Democratic party’s presidential nomination in 2012 is somewhat confounded by the Secretary of State’s declaration, during a visit to New Zealand, that she has no intention of doing so, nor of ever running for President again. Of course, she may be lying! Or events

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Irish Austerity Diet Revealed: Cheese

Somehow, I don’t think this kind of government assistance is going to be enough to soothe Irish woes: The Government is to distribute some 53 tonnes of free cheese to people in need in the run up to Christmas. Minister for Agriculture Brendan Smith announced the EU-funded scheme today following talks with a number of charitable organisations. He said the cheese will be available free of charge for distribution to those most in need. It will be available from November 15th “in time for Christmas”. The State has been given more than €818,000 from the EU budget to purchase the cheese and the Irish Dairy Board has been awarded the

David Blackburn

Transparency: the government’s self-protection aid

Monday is eagle day for the overhaul of government machinery. Ben Brogan explains how the publication of 20 departmental business plans will enable the public to chart the progress of government reform – inaugurating a revolution is transparency, that meme of the moment. I’ve always wondered why the Tories are so keen on touting ‘transparency’. One answer, it seems, is to expose those ministers and departments who are dragging their feet. This instrument of New Politics doubles as a self-protection mechanism, which is especially useful with those dastardly Lib Dems and the odd pugilistic right winger scurrying about. Brogan writes: ‘The plans will spell out the timetables for implementing every