Politics

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

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Is Edinburgh University Scotland’s latest disgrace?

Imagine if Durham University were to decide that for courses heavily over-subscribed with qualified applicants it would reserve a small percentage of places for would-be students hailing from within 50 miles* of the university. Would anyone raise an eyebrow? I doubt it. Yet when Edinburgh University adopts precisely this approach – for some of the humanities and, I suspect, medicine – suddenly there are hysterical cries of “racism” and “xenophobia”. Tom Harris MP** [see update]  says this is “shameful” and goes so far as to label the university “an embarrassment to Scotland”. What piffle. It’s not the university that is obsessing about politics or the border here, it’s the likes

Saturday

The Spectator

A propaganda war

If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. If you want to know about Labour’s election campaign, simply turn on a commercial radio station. Soon enough, you will hear an advertisement offering to help you lose weight, buy a car, claim more benefits, deal with door-to-door salesmen or stop smoking. Who provides all these services? The government, of course. The covert message is that Gordon Brown cares and Labour, if re-elected, will look after you. The cap on election spending in Britain is £19 million, a sum that the Labour party cannot hope to raise. So instead, the Prime Minister is doing

David Blackburn

Pot, kettle, black

George Boateng, Alan Milburn and Andrew Smith have written a letter to George Osborne, calling him to task over the contradictions in his policy. ‘It is not clear to us whether these mixed messages are a deliberate attempt to obscure your plans or a symptom of a confused approach to policy but either way the public deserves better.’ Fair enough. Osborne’s policy has become more concrete in recent weeks, but much remains still to do. Peversely, I think they’ve given too much detail, and have been found out because they haven’t seen the nation’s books.The reduction in the amount of cuts that are planned is a case in point. But

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

No place for porkies in digital politics

We have just witnessed a fascinating glimpse of the use of the internet in elections. This morning, Cameron proposed a unilateral bank tax – moving, I suspect, ahead of what he believes Darling will announce in next week’s budget. Next, at 1.19pm, Will Straw digs up a selectively-edited version of Chris Grayling speaking in his local constituency (put online by the Labour candidate, Craig Montgomery). Straw’s headline: “Calamity Grayling opposes Cameron’s unilateral bank tax.” Now, this headline – a lie – might have worked on a Labour Party press release. But it’s far harder to lie on a blog. Grayling is quoted saying “there is absolutely no point on earth

Daniel Korski

Clegg’s consigliere: Lib Dems would “sustain the Tories in power”

Everyone has been guessing at what Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats would do if the voters return a hung parliament after the next election. The Lib Dem leader has sent all kinds of mixed signals. But if there is one person worth listening on the party’s intentions it is Julian Astle, the head of CentreForum, Britain’s leading Liberal think-tank, and a former political advisor to Paddy Ashdown. Astle has, in recent years, acted as one of the Lib Dem’s unofficial consiglieri – but one that has never shied away from challenging party orthodoxy. He has, for example, argued against the Liberal Democrat pledge to abolish tuition fees – showing

Peter Hoskin

Ed Miliband’s new investment vs cuts battleground

Ed Miliband certainly isn’t one for holding back, is he?  In an interview with today’s Guardian he discusses what we might expect from the Labour manifesto, and there’s some pretty noteworthy stuff in there: a People’s Bank based around the network of Post Offices; an increase in the minimum wage; a reduction in the voting age to 16; things like that. But, as Sunder Katwala suggests over at Next Left, the most eye-catching passage is when Miliband discusses Free School Meals for all: “The manifesto could well include a pledge to provide free school meals for all children, Miliband says. ‘I think a lot of people would like free school

Martin Bright

Tony Judt’s Manifesto for the Left

Anyone who cares about political debate should read the essay by the historian Tony Judt in today’s Guardian. It is an astonishing piece of work which argues for a renewal of social democracy in response to the failure of the New Labour experiment (which Judt considers as evidence of the redundancy of the philosophy of Thatcherism so willingly embraced by Blair and Brown). You may quibble with the detail — Judt remains over-sentimental about the public sector — but it is a challenge to received wisdom in all strands of dominant contemporary political discourse.  He captures what many of the liberal left feel here: “It’s difficult to feel optimistic about

Sam Tanenhaus

Why American Jews are backing Obama

It seemed a classic diplomatic faux pas — the sort that begins in mutual embarrassment and soon descends into ominous bristling and then open recrimination. On 9 March, Vice President Joseph Biden, in Jerusalem on a mission to revive peace talks between Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the Palestinians, made the expected pledge of ongoing American commitment to Israel’s security, only to be upstaged hours later when Israel’s interior minister, Eli Yishai, announced the construction of 1,600 new housing units in East Jerusalem, an ancestrally contentious zone. Netanyahu, pleading innocence, insisted he had no idea the announcement was coming. But he did not countermand Yishai, who is also the leader

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

‘I want to stand for parliament’

Piers Morgan talks to Freddy Gray about interviewing Gordon Brown, his horror at the prospect of a Tory government, and why he’s tempted to move into politics Piers Morgan comes across on television as the consummate new Briton: boorish yet charming, vulgar yet strangely elitist, at once chauvinist and cosmopolitan — an archetype of the Blair era. In person, he’s much the same. We meet in a pub, at his suggestion, and he orders a latte. He calls me ‘mate’, which is nice, and we settle down towards the back. Unfortunately, however, the amicability doesn’t last long. We start talking about his recent ITV interview with Gordon Brown, the one

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

The real scandal is that MPs are paid so little

Disgraced politicians should not be relentlessly persecuted, says Rod Liddle. We should address the problem of MPs’ expenses by raising their salaries instead I felt a little ashamed watching the Westminster Three — Elliot Morley, Jim Devine and David Chaytor — herded into a magistrates court to face charges of defrauding the taxpayer with their MPs expenses claims. Outside the court there were the usual maniacs howling at them, or grunting like pigs — one man even wore a pig’s head to drive home the point more forcefully. Can you imagine the sort of people who would do that? ‘Any plans for the day, dear?’ ‘Yes, I’m going to dress

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Cameron must never say “deficit”.

Listening to BBC news, it’s striking how they are still using Labour’s politically-charged vocabulary. When the universities are kicking off about their budgets being cut, the BBC newsreaders are told to talk about “investment” in higher education, rather than spending. Why, though? An “investment” would be to put £1 billion of taxpayers’ money into an Emerging Markets fund, and hope it grows. Giving it to universities – many of which serve neither students nor society – is not an investment. But using the word “investment” is Labour code for “good spending”. There is one particularly frequent example if this: the BBC regularly confuse the words “deficit” and “debt” – a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

These strikes are a gift to the Tories

It is rare that a political party is handed an issue that enables it to rally its base, appeal to swing voters and put the other side on the back foot. But that is how much of a gift to the Tories these strikes are. There has been a bit of an enthusiasm deficit amongst Tory activists and traditional Tories more generally ever since David Cameron recalibrated the party’s European policy following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. But the strikes issue, and Cameron’s strong position on it, is, I’m told by those out in the country, rallying these voters to the cause. At the same time, I suspect it

The Spectator

The week that was | 19 March 2010

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week. Fraser Nelson says that age is no impediment to wit and intelligence, and argues that Cameron has to win outright. James Forsyth watches Cameron kick-off his campaign, and says there is growing confidence among Tory ranks. Peter Hoskin asks if the Tories have been fools or knaves over Ashcroft, and welcomes the start of mature economic debate. David Blackburn believes that the Tories’ Unite strategy is paying unimagined dividends, and watches Brown dither over BA. Daniel Korksi evaluates the ECR. Martin Bright finds Ashcroft and Whelan equally repellent. Susan Hill has had more than a day at

Peter Hoskin

Darling’s Budget takes shape

Yep, it’s that time of the year again – when the government starts briefing about the contents of the Budget.  First up, there’s the news that Alistair Darling may cut projected borrowing figures by £5-10 billion, thanks to higher-than-expected tax receipts.  And then there’s Peter Mandelson’s claim that new tax rises would have to be considered a year from now – implying, perhaps, that there won’t many in this year’s Budget. Many folk around Westminister were surprised that the government was putting out a pre-election Budget – especially given the sorry state of the public finances.  But Labour’s plan is becoming clearer now: lower borrowing figures, no significant tax hikes,

Thursday

Martin Bright

Ashcroft vs Whelan

It is difficult to imagine two more unappealing characters than Michael Ashcroft and Charlie Whelan. Just when you thought the Westminster culture couldn’t get more decadent, these two great toads come forward to squat on the body politic.  The sight of senior politicians lining up to trade insults about which of the men is more corrosive of trust in politics is such a depressing spectacle. How is it possible to weigh up the relative awfulness of these two individuals? And what are we supposed to make of the parties that tolerate them?  William Hague’s reputation has been seriously damaged by revelations about his role in lobbying for a peerage for

David Blackburn

It’s turning into an extremely good week for Osborne

The gods are smiling on George Osborne. On Monday, he wrote an excellent article in the FT, explaining why he opposed the government’s fiscal plans and giving a brief sketch of his alternative vision. It was a short, sharp, shock article that contrasted with the tentative and nebulous announcements that characterised the Tory post-New Year slump. They were immediate benefits. On Tuesday, the EU Commission broadly supported the Conservative position on reducing public spending, and today a City AM poll indicated that 77 percent of a panel of City experts think that cuts must be made this year. Indeed, many panellists rejected Samuel Brittan’s contention, elucidated in last week’s Spectator,

Peter Hoskin

When does reputational damage become real damage?

So has the Lord Ashcraft saga fouled the Tories’ reputation?  Well, looking at this One Poll survey in PR Week it would seem it has.  52 percent of respondents feel that the party’s reputation hasn’t improved since the start of the year – and 37 percent think that the Ashcroft revelations are the biggest contributing factor to that. But what does all that really mean?  After all, another finding is that 20 percent of respondents believe that the 2006 story about a bike-riding Cameron being trailed by his chauffeur is “still damaging” to the Tories.  That may be so.  But will that kind of reputational “damage” really stop people voting

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Tories & Middle England: United Against the Unions

The admirable Hopi Sen thinks the Tories will blunder if they continue their Unite-bashing. Childish, playground stuff he calls it: The idea that Gordon Brown is in the pocket of the Unions because errr, he keeps going around condemning them, and (in the case of the RMT) designs business models that make them so angry they disaffilliate from the Labour party is silly on its face – and therein lies the danger for the Tories. This false perception leads the Tories to overplay their hand. If  you put up posters condemning the Government for being in the pocket of the Unions,  that just gives ministers the chance to make you look silly by proving

Peter Hoskin

The Tories try to plug a leak

What a difference two weeks make.  When the Ashcroft story first broke, the Tory response was equal parts sloppy and defensive.  Now, their operation seems altogether more incisive.  William Hague kicked off his Today programme interview by saying that leak of Cabinet Office papers to the BBC was proof of Labour’s “culture of leak, half-truth and spin”.  And Sir George Young has just written to the Cabinet Secretary asking him to hold an inquiry into the matter.  Here’s a copy of the letter: Sir Gus O’Donnell KCB Cabinet Secretary Cabinet Office 70 Whitehall London SW1A 2AS   Sensitive papers prepared by the Cabinet Office for a Select Committee inquiry have