Politics

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

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The Tories would have to rely on the DUP in the event of a hung parliament

Reg Empey may yet oust the DUP’s William McCrea in South Antrim, but the indications are that the UUP and Tory alliance will not win a seat. The Tories will have to rely on co-operation with the DUP. In truth, competition between three Unionist parties has left the Unionist cause divided. The TUV’s Jim Allister is giving the DUP’s Ian Paisley Jr a close race in North Antrim. Robinson’s DUP will emerge the largest Unionist party in Ulster, but with a point to prove to voters who are keen to protect Northern Ireland’s bloated public sector and generous funding. Conservative he may be, but Robinson is an Ulsterman first and

David Blackburn

Deceitful Brown returns to the old dividing line

Labour’s campaign becomes ever more like The Prisoner. Every time the plot seems decided, it veers-off in the contrary direction. The Prime Minister was interviewed by The Times yesterday and I feel for those who conducted it, stuck in the vortex of what Gordon will say next. If you cast into the recesses of memory, you’ll recall that yesterday morning was tactical voting morning. They were all at it – Balls, Brown, Alexander and Hain. If you’re yellow threatened by blue, vote red; if you’re red threatened by blue, vote yellow. It was so confusing I half expected them to endorse blue if you’re red threatened by yellow. That was

Tuesday

Daniel Korski

An economic coalition makes political sense

If you believe, as most people probably do, that Robert Chote of the Institute for Fiscal Studies and Mervin King of the Bank of England should be listened to, then two conclusion emerge: one, that a new government’s budget-slashing will be far, far worse than anything the main parties have hitherto acknowledged; and that after a parliament of deficit-busting, the party in charge will be severely punished by the voters. It stands to reason, therefore, that it would be better to spread the pain, even if one party has a near-majority or an outright majority. The Tories, even if they move passed the magic number of 326 seats, would do

Peter Hoskin

The campaign money game

Here’s a minor turn-up for the political anoraks’ scrapbooks: donations to Labour outstripped those going to the Tory party in the third week of the campaign. Brown & Co. were handed £1,416,863 against the Tories’ £645,250. Which is no sign of an effective campaign – after all, almost all of Labour’s publicity has been heavily negative. But it is a turnaround from the first week, when the Tories received £1,455,812 to Labour’s £783,159. Another thing to note is the downturn in Lib Dem donations. They jumped up to £120,000 in the second week, but have now sunk back to £64,000.  The Tories, in particular, will be hoping that that represents

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s Tactical Voting Blunder

Pete asks whether Labour’s tactical voting ploy can work. My suspicion is that it cannot and will not. This is not 1997. There is all the difference in the world between voting tactically against a government and voting tactically against the idea of a government that may otherwise come to power. More generally, the advice from Ed Balls and the others that tactical voting is the smart thing to do is an admission that Labour no longer believes it can win. Given the state of the polls that’ hardly a startling conclusion but the problem, from Labour’s perspective, with conceding it publicly is that it cannot possibly motivate Labour voters

Peter Hoskin

The Tories’ final onslaught

“Where’s the popcorn?” I thought, as I joined a bunch of journos to watch the Tories’ final broadcast of the election campaign. It was a good nine minutes long, and might as well have been titled The Downfall of New Labour. The opening shots were of Blair and Brown in 97: “a new dawn,” and all that. But Blair’s image soon faded to black-and-white, and we were bombarded with a montage of headlines, quotes and images which highlighted the failures of the Labour years. 10p tax. Falling education standards. MRSA. The misdemeanours of Peter Mandelson. Defence spending. Purnell’s resignation. Gillian Duffy. Even Manish Sood’s comments today. Depending on your disposition,

Daniel Korski

The G-men or the Granola Army

In the last stretch of political campaigns, things tend to get ugly as the real cost of winning and losing becomes clear. This one is no different, with its suggestions of tactical voting and disagreements about tactical weapons. The latter has become particularly viscious with a former spymaster, an ex-general and a former CT chief calling into question the securty and defence policies Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats. In their defence, the Lib Dems have positioned their biggest weapon, Paddy Ashdown, who fired a volley against Richard Dearlove, the former head of MI6, saying that “things had changed since he supplied intelligence to Tony Blair about Iraq and WMD”.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How is it strange that only British citizens can vote in British elections?

Michael Crick has just blogged about a ‘strange quirk in the British political system.’ Writing about a Lib Dem councillor he says ‘interestingly, because she is a Danish citizen, double-councillor Lockington isn’t just disqualified from standing as a candidate in the coming general election, she can’t even vote in it.’ But what seems strange to me is the idea that people who aren’t British citizens should be able to vote in a British general election. PS I should, of course, point out that Irish citizens can vote in UK elections because of a reciprocal agreement made at the time of the foundation of the Irish Republic, which the Irish then

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Clegg Might Need Cameron More than Dave Needs Nick

Paul Waugh has an excellent post on the difficulties and opportunities that will face Cameron if he falls short of winning a majority. Much of the commentary on this has hitherto focused on the difficulties but Waugh is right to suggest that, actually, a minority Tory ministry could probably pass a good deal of legislation and, just as importantly, effect change in other areas without the need for primary legislation. I doubt Cameron would want to run a minority government for more than 18-24 months but it’s worth noting that Stephen Harper’s minority ministry in Ottawa still stands and so does Alex Salmond’s in Edinburgh. Eventually, of course, the sheen

Peter Hoskin

Osborne backs Crossrail

George Osborne sounds a more confident note than most of his Tory bandmates in interview with the Standard today.  On top of the obligatory Ready for Government noises, he rattles off a list of London marginals which are winnable for the Tories, and adds that an overall majority is “within our grasp”.  Pretty direct stuff for a politician, given all the uncertainty clogging the air in Westminster. To my eyes, though, the most significant passage could be this: “He gave a commitment to keep London’s £16 billion Crossrail scheme, although he confirmed he will look for savings. ‘I think Londoners would expect me to get good value for their money.'”

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Ulster effect

The electoral map that most of the broadcasters use misses off Northern Ireland entirely. But if the election is as close as people expect, then those 18 seats across the Irish Sea could become vital.   The first thing to note is that Sinn Fein remains committed to its policy of not taking its seats at Westminster. So every Sinn Fein MP elected reduces the number that a party needs to have an effective majority in the Commons. Iris Robinson, expenses and the rise of Traditional Unionist Voice have all rather dented the DUP, the largest party in Northern Ireland at the last election. But it should still send back

Peter Hoskin

Will the tactical voting plea work?

There’s only one question which matters when it comes to Labour’s tactical voting plea: will it work?  You can certainly see Brown & Co’s thinking on this.  This is the election, after all, where the Lib Dems have become a viable option for a lot more people – so they might act as a speed bump for people rushing away from Labour and towards the Tories.  And anything which depresses the Tory vote gives Labour a greater chance of holding the most seats in the House, and of making some kind of post-election pact with Nick Clegg. But as David said earlier, Labour’s osciallating stance towards the Lib Dems –

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 4 May 2010

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Over at Spectator Live, Gaby Hinsliff argues that sometimes are at their best in a crisis. Fraser Nelson says that Cameron will walk the line, and explains why the Guardian should have backed the Tories. James Forsyth highlights the ‘what if’ that must haunt Labour, and considers Nick Clegg’s next test. Peter Hoskin reports that the Brownites still think they can win, and is reminded of the grim Islamist threat. David Blackburn is wary of the Tories plans to co-operate with Unionists in Ulster. Daniel Korski says that Gordon Brown knows he’s finished. Martin Bright notes some old

David Blackburn

Labour PPC: Gordon Brown is the worst Prime Minister ever

At last, the election has thrown up a real character. Manish Sood, Labour PPC for North-West Norfolk, has told the Lynn Newspaper: ‘Immigration has gone up which is creating friction within communities. The country is getting bigger and messier. The role of ministers has gone bureaucratic and the action of ministers has gone downhill – it is corrupt. The loss of social values is the basic problem and this is not what the Labour Party is about. I believe Gordon Brown has been the worst Prime Minister we have had in this country. It is a disgrace and he owes an apology to the people and the Queen.’ There is

David Blackburn

From carpet-bombing to love-bombing

Labour’s relationship with the Lib Dems gets more like Dallas’s JR and Sue Ellen with each passing day. Contemptuous and contemptible one day to lisping breathless compliments the next.  Gordon Brown snarled at Nick Clegg during last week’s debate. Clegg would, Brown argued, leap gaily into bed with the Tories on Friday morning – a departure from the previous ‘we must form a progressive coalition’ line pushed by Andrew Adonis. This morning brings another volte face: Brown and several cabinet ministers urge ‘progressives’ to vote tactically. Writing in the Guardian, Gordon Brown pitches for Lib Dems to vote Labour in 100 Tory/Labour marginals. Peter Hain insists that votes are cast

Alex Massie Alex Massie

1910, 1924, 1931… 2010?

As a coda to this response to John O’Sullivan’s response to this post it really isn’t the case that the Conservatives are doing badly. Not only may Cameron beat Labout by the same margin  – in terms of the popular vote – that Mrs Thatcher triumphed by in 1979 (seven points) but his triumph will be much greater than hers. For while the Lady could get to 339 seats by winning 62 extra seats, Cameron will need to win double that number just to win an overall majority. Rarely have the Tories fced such a daunting task. In 1931 they won an extra 210 seats, in 1924 they took an

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

A Response to John O’Sullivan: Cameron is Doing As Well as Thatcher Did in 1979

My thanks to John O’Sullivan for his response to my post on Friday. A post that was so “well hidden” (as he puts it) that it was the top post for four hours and on my blog’s front-page all weekend. I’m grateful too that he sees fit to remind me that the current electoral set-up gives Labour a considerable advantage. I wish someone had pointed that out sooner. Just to re-cap: Mr O’Sulivan thinks that the biggest question of this campaign is why the Tories aren’t winning by more. To which I’d say that actually they are winning but that there are a number of other factors that prevent us

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

One crumb of comfort for Gordon

One small piece of cheer for Gordon Brown as he heads towards annihilation is that he no longer has the support of The Guardian. That leaves it slightly easier for others of us to vote Labour. The Guardian has never been a party of the left, but instead one of the metro liberal faux left. It was, for a while, utterly besotted with the SDP – possibly the most high-born party to have contested an election in Britain since the Marquess of Rockingham in 1782. In a sense, Guardian editor Alan Rusbridger is being wholly consistent, in supporting whichever public schoolboy standing for PM has the cutest smile. Otherwise, if