Politics

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

Wednesday

28 Apr 2010

Brown’s apology to Labour members

This message has just been blasted out to Labour members: As you may know, I have apologised to Mrs Duffy for remarks I made in the back of the car after meeting her on the campaign trail in Rochdale today. I would also like to apologise to you. I know how hard you all work to fight for me and the Labour Party, and to ensure we get our case over to the public. So when the mistake I made today has so dominated the news, doubtless with some impact on your own campaigning activities, I want you to know I doubly appreciate the efforts you make. Many of you

Fraser Nelson

Ten reasons why this is a catastrophe for Brown and Labour

Every politician will be thinking “there but for the grace of God…” today – but the Gillian Duffy incident is not just a gaffe. It is bad for Gordon Brown and Labour on very many levels. Here are ten of them. 1. The image of the Politburo pulling away in the Jag, slagging off the proles. This confirms the idea of an elite, who sneer at voters in private but try to charm them in public. And the idea that politicians (of all parties) say one thing on camera, and another when they think no one is listening. 2. The is not just a gaffe, but the PM on

James Forsyth

Will there be a backlash against criticism of Brown?

Gordon Brown badly needed Mrs Duffy to come out of her house after his 40 minute meeting with her and grant him public absolution and declare that she’s voting Labour after all. But she chose to stay firmly inside. There’s now no footage to replace that of the initial gaffe on the nightly news tonight. In his statement after his meeting with her, Brown said he had ‘simply misunderstood some of the words she had used.’ But it is hard to see how he could misunderstood what she said. Some are asking if there’ll be a backlash to the criticism of Brown as there was after the Jacqui

Peter Hoskin

The timing could not be worse

So Brown has now visited Gillian Duffy’s home to apologise to her in person. Somehow, I think that’s not going to defuse this row. Labour have, in the lingo of the The Thick of It, a major omnishambles on their hands. And he’s called Gordon. The worst aspect of this for Labour, though, is the timing. Sure, they wouldn’t have chosen this at any point the campaign. But, with only a week left, it threatens to both obliterate eveything that’s gone before and overshadow whatever Brown does from now until polling day. And then there’s the final TV debate. The audience has been asked to listen to the participants

Alex Massie

Oh Dear: Calling Voters “Bigots” Doesn’t Often End Well

Well the only good thing, from Labour’s perspective, is that this has happened the day before the final debate and not several days before it. So there’s just a chance it will be a 36 hour story, not a 72 hours one. Clearly it’s not a great idea for the Prime Minister to be heard calling a middle-aged widow he’s just encountered on the mean streets of Rochdale a terrible “bigoted woman”. The video is excruciating and demonstrates why Labour have generally been wise to keep Gordon away from the general public during this campaign: The comments once Brown has escaped to the supposed-safety of his car are pretty awful,

Fraser Nelson

Brown v The Voters

We have just witnessed the biggest moment of the 2010 election campaign. It wasn’t that Brown let off steam: it was that he instinctively described as “bigoted” a woman who represents what should be Labour’s core vote. Sure, she mentioned immigration – but just said “where are they coming from”? Her main concern was the national debt, and what her grandchildren will have to pay. Neither Cameron or Clegg would have thought these points bigoted – and neither would Tony Blair. The thought would not have crossed his mind. Nor that of Kinnock, Foot or Callaghan. Labour’s campaign is led by a man who dislikes campaigning, having to get down

James Forsyth

Clegg will be hurt by this too

Brown calling Gillian Duffy that ‘bigoted woman’ from the safety of his car having ended his conversation with her cordially is, obviously, hugely damaging for Labour’s campaign. But I suspect Nick Clegg will also suffer some collateral damage as it will push immigration to the top of the political agenda, an area where the Lib Dems with their plan for an amnesty for illegal immigrants are on the wrong side of public opinion.

David Blackburn

“That was a disaster…”

… Well that ain’t the half of it. Brown has just made the most garbled apology imaginable on the Jeremy Vine show: “I apologise if I said anything like that.” Well, unfortunately, Brown had, and Vine duly played the tape. Brown had to apologise again: “I apologise if I’ve said anything remotely hurtful…there were comments about immigration…which I didn’t get the chance to reply to…that were annoying…you’ve got to remember, it’s a case of me being helpful to the broadcasters who have recorded and played my private conversation.” He might be cowering, but verbally Brown simply comes across as arrogant and unrepentant. Small wonder that politicians are loathed. PS: Now

Peter Hoskin

Brown calls woman a ‘bigot’

Wow. Just when you thought Labour’s campaign couldn’t get any worse, they go and wheel out Brown in front of ordinary voters. And this is the result: he has been caught on mic describing a member of the public as a “bigoted woman”. Speaking to one of his advisers, he added “you shouldn’t have put me with that woman. Whose idea was that?” Classic. This may be trivial beside the big questions about the economy, etc. – but you can expect is to become one of the defining TV moments of the campaign. It’s one thing to insult and attack the politicians who serve alongside you, but quite another to

David Blackburn

The high tide of Liberalism?

Cleggmania may be in remission. A Populus poll for the Times puts the Tories up 4 at 36 percent, the Lib Dems down 3 at 28 percent and Labour down one at 27 percent. Com Res has Labour and the Lib Dems tied on 29 percent with the Tories up 1 to 33 percent, whilst You Gov has the Tories on 33 percent, Labour on 29 percent and Clegg’s party on 28 percent. A hung parliament remains the probable outcome next Thursday. Anything other than a decisive Tory victory will sustain the Liberal surge, as Clegg would hold the balance of power or a Lib-Lab coalition would seek to inaugurate

Alex Massie

The Scottish Question

The other day a wise friend, lamenting the “madness” of the people carried away with Cleggmania, fretted that it all amounts to the beginning of the end. For the Union, I mean. These days, you see, it’s Unionists who are forever whistling an old song and always wondering if it’s for the last time. I didn’t, I admit, quite follow his argument but it had something to do with the Liberals in power, the advent of proportional representation leading eventually and inexorably to an English parliament and thus loosening the ties that bind to the point that they may be severed with a single blow of a Damoclean sword. Or

Tuesday

27 Apr 2010

Alex Massie

When Hung Parliaments Go Wrong. (Or Right?)

Egging? Check. Fisticuffs? Check. Smoke-bombs? Check. This is what Ukraine’s hung parliament looks like… The dispute is over whether or not Russia’s lease on the naval base at Sebastapol should be extended. The opposition, as you can see, are not happy. Whether this adds weight to Tory warnings about the dire consequences of a hung parliament (and proportional representation!) is a different matter entirely…

Eamonn Butler

The British constitution is in dire need of reform

The UK Conservative leader David Cameron says that any Prime Minister not ‘directly elected’ by the public should be forced to hold a general election within six months. He has in mind his Labour opponent Gordon Brown, who in June 2007 was catapulted into the position by a secret ballot in his own party, rather than by an open election of the people. And if, after the forthcoming general election on May 6, Labour chose to ditch Brown and catapult that gap-year kid…ah, yes, David Miliband…into the top job in order to stitch up a coalition deal with Nick Clegg’s Liberal Democrats, well, Cameron would give him only six months

David Blackburn

The battle for the middle ground

The New Statesman has interviewed Douglas Alexander, who appeals, as Andrew Adonis has, to Liberal Democrat voters to back Labour to inaugurate what he terms a ‘New Dawn for Labour and progressive politics.’ Progressive is a vague term, but the best definition for it is reform to encourage social mobility. In this morning’s Times, former Fabian Stephen Pollard argued that only the Tories can guarantee this. For the time, Pollard says, he will vote Conservative and all because of Michael Gove’s schools reform. ‘Mr Gove has promised that within four years of a Tory government, all parents will have the option of sending their child to an independent school

Peter Hoskin

Where is the axe going to fall?

If you want a sense of where our politicians are when it comes to sorting out the nation’s finances then I’d recommend you read this briefing paper which the IFS released earlier today. What it shows, in stark graphs and charts, is what Adam Boulton, Andrew Neil et al were getting at in Labour’s press conference earlier: yes, we know that there are significant cuts to come, but none of the parties are really letting on just where they will come from. To my eyes, this chart tells the story particularly well. It depicts how much each party will cut “unprotected” departmental spending by – and how much of

Alex Massie

Paxman vs Wales

Not a great showing by Jeremy Paxman last night as he wrestled with a Welshman* (who seemed to be named after an Icelandic volcano) and lost. And it wasn’t even close. Immensely entertaining, therefore. The real fun starts just after the two minute mark: *Plaid Cymru’s** economics advisor Eurfyl ap Gwilym. **Typo fixed, Jeremy.

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s secret weapon is amiability

David Cameron has just taken his first real “kicking” of the campaign from a parent of a disabled child. Handled it brilliantly, I think. The parent is angry, understandably, about the problems he has finding a normal school for his wheelchair-bound son. The Tories are suspicious of the “inclusion” agenda – often a code for denying special-needs children the extra tuition that they deserve. But, as the father of a severely disabled son, Cameron knows more about this subject than almost anyone else in Westminster. “It should be your choice, sir” he said: and he’s right. The voucher system would make a disabled child worth north of £22,000 a

David Blackburn

The government, not Chris Grayling, is misleading the public over violent crime

The New Statesman’s George Eaton admonishes Chris Grayling repeating his ‘false claim that violent crime has risen dramatically under Labour.’ Eaton cites the British Crime Survey’s findings that violent crime has fallen by 41 percent since 1997. True, the BCS asserts that violent crime has fallen since 1997. Changes in recording practice in 2002-03 mean that comparing current statistics with those compiled a decade ago is inherently inaccurate – a point conceded by UK Statistics Agency head Sir Michael Scholar with regard to Grayling’s police statistics, but not the BCS’. The independent House of Commons Library gave a more accurate assessment, finding that violent crime rose from 618,417 to 887,942

James Forsyth

Nothing to offer except personality politics

Labour’s press conference this morning highlighted the party’s problem. Labour is demanding that the media cover policy more than process and personality. But when the discussion turns to the biggest policy issue of the day—how to cut the deficit—Labour doesn’t want to engage. This morning, Nick Robinson, Adam Boulton, Andrew Neil all pushed Mandelson, Balls and Cooper on this issue. All of them were clearly frustrated by Labour’s lack of answers. Ironically, all the memorable lines from Labour’s press conference came when process and personality were discussed. Mandelson raised a laugh when he suggested that if you flirt with Clegg you’ll wake up not only with David Cameron but with

David Blackburn

Has Nick Clegg ruled out a pact with the Tories?

No, in short, he hasn’t. Clegg was deemed to have compromised his party’s intricate anti-politics strategy by ruling out a ‘progressive’ coalition with Labour led by Gordon Brown, a stance that suggested Clegg sought the affections of David Cameron. Clegg has since clarified his position: “I think, if Labour do come third in terms of the number of votes cast, then people would find it inexplicable that Gordon Brown himself could carry on as prime minister. As for who I’d work with, I’ve been very clear – much clearer than David Cameron and Gordon Brown – that I will work with anyone. I will work with a man from the