Politics

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

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Tories Latest Constitutional Gimmick is Daft

Ian Leslie says much of what needs to be said about the Tories new and gimmicky tweak to the constitution – that anyone who becomes Prime Minister between elections must call an election within six months – a proposal that, as Leslie puts it, is “at once carelessly radical and hopelessly irrelevant.” It’s also yet another indication that we now have an uneasy, perhaps even unhappy, hybrid political system that is neither fully Presidential nor fully parliamentary. We can see which way the wind is blowing, mind you. And this raises other questions too: all the party leaders pledge to restore parliament and increase its ability to scrutinise and perhaps

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Shock: the SNP are Right to Complain About the Debates

No-one should be surprised that the SNP are going to court to try and change the terms and conditions of this week’s final “Leaders’ Debate”. What may be more surprising is that the Nationalists have a point. A limited point perhaps but a palpable one nonetheless. The BBC would indeed seem to be abandoning its commitment (questionable at the best of times anyway, mind) to “balance” and “fairness” by broadcasting the debates in Scotland (and Wales) without any nationalist involvement. It is not a satisfactory situation. Nor, however is the proposed SNP solution: include an SNP politician in the BBC debate. It is hard to see what value this would

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Cameron was right about the regions

Given that Labour has put out a hilarious plea to discuss “issues” rather than personality (or lack thereof), I would like to rise to this challenge to discuss an excellent point raised by David Cameron on Friday: that the state spending/GDP ratio is far too high in many parts of the UK and needs to be lowered. Stating this utterly uncontroversial fact landed him in a bit of trouble, I suspect because of lack of understanding of the issues. So, in the spirit of Labour’s plea, here are some facts. Cameron told Paxo that: “In Northern Ireland, it is quite clear – and almost every party accepts this – that

Daniel Korski

The ex-factor

One of the interesting features of this election campaign is the near-absence of ex-leaders in national election roles. Tony Blair has been stuck in the Middle East because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and has, at any rate, been “Gored” by Gordon Brown, who is as keen to have his predecessor canvassing for Labour as Al Gore was to see ex-president Bill Clinton in the 2000 election. The former Deputy Prime Minister John Prescott has been more active. For the Tories, Michael Howard is standing down and has not been particularly visible. When I saw him recently in Portcullis House, he looked chipper and relaxed – not like

Peter Hoskin

Just whom will the Lib Dems work with, then?

Two noteworthy entries, today, in the will-they-won’t-they game of coalition government.  The first from Nick Clegg in the Sunday Times: “You can’t have Gordon Brown squatting in No 10 just because of the irrational idiosyncrasies of our electoral system.” And the second from Paddy Ashdown speaking to the People: “Nick Clegg cannot work with David Cameron … We could not go into a coalition with the Tories, it wouldn’t work.” So, assuming both are true, it sounds as though Clegg would only work with a Labour party headed by someone other than Brown.  But don’t count on it.  I, for one, think it’s unlikely that Clegg will prop up an

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 24 April 2010

Hastings, the town where I was born and near which I live, is a marginal seat (Labour majority of 2,000). Since the election was called, I have been visiting it to ‘take the temperature’. I follow a canvass, or stop people in the street and ask their opinion. In the first week, Labour was unpopular, the Tories were tepidly favoured and the Liberal Democrats were barely mentioned. This week, after the effects of the previous Thursday’s leaders’ debate, Labour was unpopular, the Tories were tepidly favoured, and the Liberal Democrats were up. Out of ten people I approached, one had deserted Labour for the Tories, one had deserted Labour for

Martin Bright

Brown Must Manage the Next Twelve Days With Dignity

Let’s not forget that the Labour Party should not have been able to lose this election. I am still convinced that Cameron came to the Tory leadership with a two-election strategy. The swing needed to win a clear majority was always huge. Part of the reason that the party leadership has found it so difficult to retain the lead in the polls is that they could never quite belive their luck at the collapse of Labour support.  Likewise, the Lib Dem surge has happened partly because no one is quite convinced that the Tories are ready for government. But the real story of the next week and a half will

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Has the Lib Dem bubble burst?

Is this the end of the LibDem soufflé surge? Tomorrow’s News of the World has an Ipsos-Mori poll – conducted the day after the second debate – putting things back to where they were pre-debates: Tories with a six point lead over Labour and the LibDems lagging seven points behind Labour, i.e. 36-30-23. This is broadly where Mori had them in March. The polls are in a state of flux, to be sure. But Ipsos did a full, 1,200 weighted sample, telephone poll. Even on this basis, Cameron would be 42 seats short of a majority. But this is the best news he’s had since the first TV debate –

Peter Hoskin

When the going gets weird, the weird hire an Elvis impersonator

Really, what’s happened to the Labour campaign?  You know things are taking a turn for the worse when you read that Gordon Brown is taking a more high profile role to save his party from a third-place finish.  But then you see that high profile role in action, and, well … First there was an event which incorporated some deliciously ironic innuendo about the Tories’ spending cuts.  The PM lamented the fact that Jeremy Paxman didn’t press the Tory leader on claims that there is “too much” public spending in Northern Ireland and the North East, concluding that “there is no part of the United Kingdom that is safe from

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Tories must sell their most radical policy: the Gove schools plan

The Spectator’s endorsement of David Cameron started with his ‘free schools’ policy – and we could have ended there. We said that this is, in itself, enough reason to vote Conservative. This week’s Economist has produced one of the best explanations of this policy, and its potential.  This is important because this election campaign shows that, while the public are indeed minded to oust Gordon Brown, they’re not terribly excited by the Tory offering. The Gove schools plan is something which, if properly expressed, cannot fail to capture the imagination. In my limited experience of persuading people why they should vote, I find the schools policy always works. The Tories,

Peter Hoskin

Tories growing used to a hung parliament in public and in private

Planting seeds, that’s what the Tories are doing – they’re planting the seeds of a Lib-Con alliance.  Yes, it’s a subtle process, and is couched in terms of denial and defiance.  But it’s still going on.  I mean, look at Cameron’s interview with Jeremy Paxman past night (video on Spectator Live), where he declined to rule out having Nick Clegg in his Cabinet – although, happily, he was more unequivocal on the subject of Vince Cable.  And then there’s Ken Clarke’s interview with the Daily Telegraph this morning, in which he says that the Conservative “starting point” for any coalition would be a refusal to compromise on their economic plans. 

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Maladroit Mandy

I find the way the Prime Ministerial debates have been spun by the media and commentators more interesting than the debates themselves. It seemed clear to me that Gordon Brown was the real loser of the first debate, as all the post-event polls suggested, and yet the media – even the Tory papers – stuck the boot into David Cameron. In the last debate I thought Brown substantially improved and most of the post-event polls showed little distance between him and Cameron – and yet this time, Brown has been spun as the loser. I ought to add, I am not commenting upon their actual performances during the debates –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Two weeks to save the Conservative party

The Nick Clegg bubble has been caused by the mistaken view that he is not a machine politician, says James Forsyth. But if this bubble doesn’t burst before polling day, then it could be the end of the Tory party as we know it Both Andy Coulson and the gaggle of journalists surrounding him agreed that there had been ‘no game-changer’ in the first leaders’ debate. As the Tory communications chief, it’s his job to be optimistic — but this was not spin. He believed it. And so did most of the Westminster insiders, who gave the debate to Clegg on points but thought there was no moment in the

Ed Howker

Squeaky clean? Nick Clegg is sleazier than you think

Chief among Nick Clegg’s grand claims during this election is that he is Britain’s ‘most honest’ political leader. Chief among Nick Clegg’s grand claims during this election is that he is Britain’s ‘most honest’ political leader. The Lib Dems, he promises, will clean up our politics. And when it comes to politicians using expenses to game the property market or to dodge capital gains tax, he’s delighted to declare his party squeaky clean. ‘Not a single Liberal Democrat MP,’ he swanked in last week’s debate, ‘did either of those things.’ House flipping, it seems, is too gauche for the yellow party. Their expenses scam was a more nuanced affair. In

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The elevation of Nick Clegg shows we’ve reached a new low

It doesn’t matter what the Lib Dem leader stands for, says Rod Liddle. In the era of X Factor politics, people can decide, on a whim, that he should be Prime Minister Is Nick Clegg better than Winston Churchill, as a recent opinion poll seemed to suggest? The obvious answer is yes, of course — because Nick is still alive. Winston Churchill died in 1965 and I have the silver commemorative crown coin to prove it, and a very vague memory of standing somewhere crowded in central London with my mum and dad, watching his large coffin being loaded onto some riverboat. But that is the only area, so far

Brendan O’Neill Brendan O’Neill

Fifty Commandments of New Labour

With its obsessive law-making, this government has sought to micro-manage our lives, says Brendan O’Neill. Let’s hope the next administration leaves us alone The Ten Commandments, which stood Judeo-Christian societies in fairly good stead for centuries, only forbade eight things: murder, adultery, theft, bearing false witness, coveting your neighbour’s missus and things, taking the Lord’s name in vain, worshipping false gods and making idols. New Labour, which clearly knows better than God, has, in its 13 miserable years in power, created thousands of new things Thou Shalt Not do. In fact it has instituted an ‘Era of Thou Shalt Not’, where there’s always some law, busybody, copper or camera keeping

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

If hubris is a commodity, Wall Street’s ‘vampire squid’ has a very long position

Martin Vander Weyer’s Any Other Business There’s a distinct whiff of unfinished business about the current assault on Goldman Sachs, which stands accused of fraud by the US Securities & Exchange Commission and of ‘moral bankruptcy’ by Gordon Brown — you know, that Scottish bloke who sometimes stands on platforms quite close to Nick Clegg. When the leading Wall Street investment bank was dubbed last year ‘a giant vampire squid wrapped around the face of humanity’ by Rolling Stone columnist Matt Taibbi, the phrase resonated around the global blogosphere: everyone knew exactly what he meant. Goldman has long been regarded by many politicians, regulators and market participants (excluding, of course,

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

In This Election Every Vote Counts: Even in Safe Seats

Jonathan Freedland is surely right: Labour’s best hope, now that the electorate appears to have decided that “change” matters* and dismissed Labour’s pretensions to offer that change, is to maximise its core vote in the hope of avoiding an electoral meltdown that would, say, leave them with fewer than 200 seats in the new parliament. If Labour aren’t quite the walking dead the Tories were in 1997 that’s because of the current constituency boundaries, not because there’s any more life in the Labour campaign. Nevertheless the prospect that Labour’s vote could fall to 25% of the vote must be considered a real one and Labour’s team, when anyone bothers to

Martin Bright

Why Not Vote Lib Dem?

There is a terrible desperation about the Tory approach to the Lib Dem surge. There is a clear desire to find some sort of killer story about Nick Clegg or a killer strategy to reassert David Cameron’s claim to be the candidate of change. What is odd is that Cameron seems to have forgotten what made him so attractive in 2005, which was that he was the candidate of the moderate, progressive centre ground.  The recession pushed the Conservative Party into the language of austerity – a message the British public is not yet ready to hear – and they have not recovered.  I have never understood why David Cameron