Politics Archives

Saturday

1 May 2010

Should Osborne start planning a second career in soft furnishings?

Martin Vander Weyer’s Any Other Business I’ve come up with a slogan to revive flagging Conservative canvassers — and an encouraging report from the doorsteps. My man in the housing estates of suburban York, of which I wrote two weeks ago, told me ‘the Labour vote is collapsing’ two days before reporters started using that phrase on Radio 4. He also said he was still meeting large numbers of ‘don’t knows’. So there’s everything to play for. But no one could say the Tory campaign has gone according to plan — and that fact is adding new venom to criticism of George Osborne, who is the campaign’s director as well

Friday

30 Apr 2010

Alex Massie

More Nonsense from National Review

Earlier today I took issue with John O’Sullivan’s take on this election but do not let it be said that his views are the only odd ones available at National Review. Here’s Dennis Boyles: I’m sure all good Tories wish Cameron well. But one could argue that a Cameron win might be the worst of all outcomes for the Tories. Call it the sorrow of granted wishes, but if he wins, the Conservatives will run on visionless, unimaginative, timid platforms for years. […]As I said, party partisans surely would never wish it — and after this last week, it’s a very unlikely outcome, anyway — but I ask Jack and Andrew, is

Fraser Nelson

Darling socks it to Balls

The election is six days away, Labour civil war is seven days away. And Alistair Darling has today delivered a rather nice put-down to Ed Balls for BBC Campaign Straight Talk. Here is his conversation earlier today with Andrew Neil: Andrew Neil: Has Mr Brown given you any indication that you’d stay as Chancellor if he wins? Alistair Darling: Yes he has, and I would. AN: You would? AD: Yes. AN: And you’d be happy to do so? AD: Very happy. AN: So Ed Balls should not be packing his bags to move into Number 11? AD: I don’t think Ed has got any intention of doing that. AN: Well

Alex Massie

The Guardian Comes Out for Clegg

As so it has come to pass: even the Guardian has abandoned Labour and endorsed the Liberal Democrats. I expect the Independent will do the same and that the Mirror may be the only (London) blatt to support Gordon Brown. Meanwhile and for the first time since 1992 the Times is backing the Tories. Perhaps the most notable aspect of the Guardian’s editorial is not its decision to support Clegg (this was predictable) but its repudiation of Labour’s central charge against the Conservatives: that they have not changed. The paper disagrees: This election is about serious choices between three main parties which all have something to offer. David Cameron has

The Spectator

The week that was | 30 April 2010

It has been a busy week at Spectator Live, where Gaby Hinsliff has argued that Gordon Brown looks too knackered to carry on and Jo-Anne Nadler interviews William Hague, who wants to be Foreign Secretary. Here is what Spectator.co.uk made of the final televised debate; Fraser Nelson says that Cameron shone, Clegg wobbled and Brown sank. James Forsyth believes Cameron delivered the required performance. Peter Hoskin argues that the sunshine wins it for Cameron. David Blackburn watches Labour’s campaign implode. And Alex Massie proclaims a victory for Cameron, at last. And here is a selection of other posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson asks Gordon Brown

Daniel Korski

Tories would look to withdraw from Afghanistan in the next parliament

Today’s Express is reporting that David Cameron has said it would be wrong to set an ‘artificial deadline’ for withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan, but that he hoped troops would come home during the course of the next Parliament. In many ways this is smart politics. Given that President Obama has said that US troops would be looking to come home from 2011 onwards, it is hardly surprising that the Tory leader hopes British troops would return within the next five years. Other countries in Helmand, like Denmark, have begun signaling the same. The statement may – I say may – help those who care passionately about the

Fraser Nelson

Yet another Brown disaster

Word reaches me of another Brown live mic incident, breaking now. Our Dear Leader has just been at Blidworth Oaks Primary School in Mansfield, talking to eight year olds about NICE and drug rationing – boring the bejesus out of them. The teacher, sensing impending classroom unrest, tried to shut Brown up by thanking him for his contribution. Brown says: “Am I being thrown out?” Reply: “Um… Yes”. And in more ways than one.

Alex Massie

Why Aren’t the Tories Winning Easily? Because of 2001 and 2005. That’s Why.

In the midst of a piece asking where disillusioned Labour supporters will go – apparently UKIP will be a beneficiary – John O’Sullivan writes: That said, the main underlying truth of this campaign — freshened up by this latest development — is that the Tories ought to be winning easily and by a landslide. That is what has happened in other countries where a Left government has collapsed as completely as Labour. Viktor Orban’s Fidesz party in Hungary has just won more than two-thirds of the popular vote and the right to redraw the country’s post-communist constitution in exactly these circumstances. Orban in fact has just re-fashioned Hungary’s fractious opposition

Peter Hoskin

The quiet rise of Alistair Darling

A noteworthy set of observations from Iain Martin over at the Wall Street Journal: “The Labour family is starting to realise that if it is out of power it would need a caretaker leader in place quickly so that it can regroup, rethink and then work out which of the competing contenders has the best chance of beginning the work of reconstruction. In this context, I hear the name of Alistair Darling being mentioned increasingly as the interim option. It makes a lot of sense. The Chancellor has had a good crisis and he could steady the ship. He also has a great sense of humour – which will be

Alex Massie

The Darling Option

Last October I suggested that if Labour wanted to find a caretaker leader they could do much worse than appoint Alistair Darling to the job. Granted, there were a couple of difficulties with this notion: Darling is Scottish and there is no party of Darling or interest that will swing behind him. Well he can’t do much about the former, but the latter can be turned to his advantage (if he decides he wants the job) since, evidently, his elevation doesn’t dash anyone else’s hopes or interest. As I put it in October: Now, sure, Darling isn’t a perfect candidate. But if such existed we wouldn’t be having this discussion.

Peter Hoskin

Too little, too late | 30 April 2010

My gosh, these latest Labour posters are open for all kinds of spoofery. But at least they’re positive and colouful – unlike Gordon Brown’s performance in the TV debate last night. Which, really, highlights Labour’s fundamental problem during this campaign. The big set-piece events have been almost relentlessly negative, whilst they’ve left what passes for a positive prospectus to posters which will barely make it past the confines of the political blogosphere. But, never mind – Tony Blair thinks that “Labour’s got every chance of succeeding.” So all’s well then.

Daniel Korski

Tories win Today’s first post-debate debate

Today’s debate was riveting. It showed two candidates who were miles away from each other. One was clear, honest and able to avoid the traps set by the interviewer. The other was dissembling and unclear, his line of argument collapsing under the barrage of questioning. If a doubting voter had heard the debate, unsure beforehand whether to vote Tory or Lib Dem, they would likely have plumped for the former, afterwards. Oh yes, there was a debate yesterday, too, among the three party leaders. But that’s not what I’m talking about. No, with the debates now firmly part of the British political system, an equally important feature has arrived with

David Blackburn

Labour’s campaign implodes

Labour’s campaign has been dysfunctional. ‘Bigot-gate’, the concealed cuts, the absence of a spending review, open challenges to the leadership, infighting and a manifesto that read like the terms of surrender, it has been beset by gaffes and self-immolation. Last night, Gordon Brown personified the desperation at Labour’s core. He was negative – dour predictions accompanying an ashen expression. He defibrillated the old cuts versus investment line – a lurid grope for his core vote and one that is incredible in the current circumstances. We expected all of that; what we did not expect was that Brown no longer agrees with Nick. Pitching for what remains of his position on

Peter Hoskin

The Tories’ final push

Fresh from David Cameron’s victory in the final TV debate, the Tory campaign has taken another assured step this morning. As Tim Montgomerie reports over at ConservativeHome, they’re going to flood the doorsteps with the leaflet, ‘A contract between the Conservative Party and you’ (pdf here). Inside, a list of clear policy commitments from “publishing every item of government spending over £25,000,” to “reducing immigration” to the levels of the 1990s – meaning tens of thousands a year, instead of the hundreds of thousands a year under Labour.” And, on the back page, a refutation of some of Labour’s most misleading claims about the Tories. Clear, simple and direct. You

James Forsyth

Tonight David Cameron turned in the performance he needed to. In the post-debate polls, Cameron has won three comfortably, one narrowly and tied the other

For the first forty-five minutes it was rather like the first debate. Brown attacked Cameron, Cameron hit back and all the while Clegg soared above it. But then immigration, Clegg’s Achilles heel, was thrown into the mix. Cameron went hard for Clegg over his amnesty policy, and Clegg had no clear answer—initially backing away from the policy, before coming back to it. Throughout this exchange, Cameron had covering fire from Brown. Clegg appeared knocked back as he came under the most sustained attack of the campaign and didn’t get back into his groove until his closing statement. In the meantime, Cameron capitalised; delivering some of his strongest answers of the

Thursday

29 Apr 2010

Fraser Nelson

Cameron shines, Clegg wobbles and Brown sinks

Well, Cameron saved the best till last. His aides are even joking that they could do with a fourth debate because their man is really getting in the swing of it. He looked more confident, assured – and spoke convincingly about immigration at last, a subject he fluffed last time. I’d place Clegg second. Brown was worse than awful: third in this debate, and will probably be third next week’s election too. Clegg was his usual telegenic self – in thespian terms, an accomplished performance. But he ran away from his own asylum policy, and was comically inept with the facts. He screamed at Cameron: “Will you admit that 80

Peter Hoskin

Sunshine wins the day for Cameron

So that’s the second time that immigration has had a major impact upon proceedings this week. Until we came to the question on that topic, I thought Clegg was bossing the TV debate. He was clear, personable and managed to hover elegantly above Brown and Cameron’s dusty brawl over spending cuts. But as soon as it came to clarifying Lib Dem policy on an amnesty for illegal immigrants, the wings rapidly fell off the yellow bird of liberty. All of a sudden, Clegg sounded rattled and unpersuasive. From then on in, it was Cameron’s game. It helped that Cameron had the clearest – and, I suspect, the most popular –

Alex Massie

At last! Cameron Wins

This was hardly a vintage debate even if it is increasingly clear that these men have little regard for one another and that both Cameron and, especially, Brown are irritated by Nick Clegg’s stickability. This was actually Clegg’s weakest performance. After a good start and the best of the opening statements, Clegg’s performance was less focused, less detailed, less persuasive any time he moved away from the Lib Dems’ flagship proposal to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000. That may not matter much since this policy has the great advantage of being popular and easy to understand. Elsewhere, Clegg retreated to a cheap populism on bankers bonuses and the

Martin Bright

An Important Election Intervention from the Left-Wing Intelligentsia

The letter in support of the Lib Dems in today’s Guardian was a brave intervention from Richard Reeves, John Kampfner and a group of prominent figures from left-liberal Britain. It is all too easy to dismiss such interventions as the actions of the usual suspects addicted to writing to the papers to remind themselves of their own sense of importance. But this marks a real shift of the intellectual centre of gravity on the left. The letter ends: “The question is where the energy for the future of progressive politics is to be found. It is a contemporary political fact that the stronger the performance of the Liberal Democrats on 6

Fraser Nelson

Ten questions for Gordon Brown tonight

By rights, Gordon Brown should fear this debate on the economy more than any other. Here are ten questions I would like to hear him answer: 1. You told Gillian Duffy yesterday that you have a “deficit plan to cut the debt in half over four years.” This was a lie, wasn’t it? Our debt is £771bn now. Your deficit plan - ie, to run huge deficits for years – will actually double it to £1,406 billion within four years according to the Treasury. The debt for which Mrs Duffy and other taxpayers are liable would double under your plans - yet you told her it would halve. How