Politics Archives

Wednesday

23 Dec 2009

What happened the last time Gove played Cameron’s opponent in debate prep

One of the surprises of the Tory leadership campaign in 2005 was how David Davis bested David Cameron in the TV debate between the two men. Those involved in Cameron’s preparations for that debate blame Cameron’s poor performance on how Michael Gove knocked Cameron’s confidence in the run up to it. Gove was Davis in debate prep and played Davis as a ferociously clever, Oxford Union-style debater and kept leaving Cameron tied in knots. So it is interesting that the Cameron camp have again chosen Gove to play the role of Cameron’s opponent in the run up to a TV debate. This time Gove will, of course, be playing the

Tuesday

22 Dec 2009

David Blackburn

Call yourself a PR man?

The latest Comres poll for the Independent indicates, as if we needed telling, that the Tories are yet to seal the deal. It’s far from panic stations – the lead remains at 9 points – but there are two figures that prove where the Tories are going wrong. The majority of respondents feel that a Conservative government would exclusively represent the interests of the rich, and the contention that the Tories represent an appealing alternative to Labour was rejected. If Cameron is merely a PR man I hope he’s cheap. Aside from Alex Salmond I can’t envisage anything worse than five more years of Gordon, and this suggests to me

David Blackburn

The politics of self-defence

The spin machines are gearing up as we amble towards an election, and strategists’ latest hobby-horse is self-defence. Following the sentencing of Munir Hussain, Alan Johnson admitted feeling “uncomfortable” about Judge Reddihough’s decision. Never one to miss the bus, Chris Grayling went further and faster, suggesting that householders should be immune from prosecution unless they had responded in a “grossly disproportionate” fashion. It’s rather unfair, but deliciously cutting, of cartoonists to portray Grayling as a plump second hand car salesman posing as James Bond, but Grayling deserves criticism because “grossly disproportionate” is as ill-defined as the “reasonable force” that current legislation describes. Conservative proposals would still leave decisions entirely

Martin Bright

Winterval greetings

As the perfect end to the political year, the three wise men of our main political parties have brought the newborn infant of our renewed parliamentary system the gift of a televised debate. This could actually be quite exciting. David Cameron was soundly beaten by David Davis in at least one of his leadership debates and Gordon Brown will hope he can do the same. I’ll be signing off for a week, but back to welcome in the new decade with my own idiosyncratic take on the political scene. A heartless neo-con Zionist to some, a hopeless left-wing apologist for socialism to others, I know I can’t win with

James Forsyth

No Christmas cheer in the Mail for Cameron

The Daily Mail sets about David Cameron in its editorial today. It accuses him of “insulting voters’ intelligence”, tells him to “avoid the PR men, spivs and trashy celebrities with whom he has taken to mixing” and advises him to “spend less time with his spin-doctors, worrying about his image and trying to be all things to all men.” The Mail matters. Privately Tory strategists admit that its savaging of Cameron’s shift in European policy played a considerable part in depressing the certainty of Tory supporters to vote, one of the reasons for the party’s lead narrowing in the polls. If the Mail was fully on board with Project

Monday

21 Dec 2009

Alex Massie

Debates! Brown vs Cameron vs Clegg! Hold Your Excitement Please…

I don’t pay enough attention to the Liberal Democrats to be certain about this but today may have been Nick Clegg’s best day as leader. The announcement that there will be not one but, god help us, three debates between Gordon Brown and David Cameron and that Clegg has been invited to participate as an equal partner in each of them is a triumph for the Lid Dem leader. He is the obvious benficiary of this precedent-setting agreement, not least because, in addition to granting him equal billing, he’ll be able, if he has any wit about him at all, to play Cameron off against Brown and vice versa, presenting

Peter Hoskin

Will this be the game-changer that Brown needs?

So there we have it. There will be televised election debates between the three main party leaders during the next election campaign, after all. The first will be on ITV, then there’ll be one each on Sky and the BBC. Talk about good TV for political anoraks. Like Tim Montgomerie and Mike Smithson, I suspect that Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg will be happiest with the news. Both of them, particularly Brown, need potential game-changing events like this to make some progress in the polls. As for Cameron, he’d probably be better off not giving his opponents a chance to make inroads into the Tories’ poll lead. But he

Alex Massie

Washington’s Unhealthy Fetish for Bipartisanship

So health care has its 60 votes and, since there are, depending upon how one classifies Joe Lieberman, 60 Democrats in the United States Senate all those votes are Democratic votes. No Republican crossed the aisle. At this point you might be forgiven that this is how politics is supposed to work: the side with the majority wins. But that reckons without the amusing wisdom of the Washington “centrist” establishment that measures a bill’s worth not on its merits but by the extent to which it may be considered “bi-partisan”. Thus David Gergen, with David Broder the keeper of the faux-moderate flame, whines: “In my judgment it’s a tragedy for

David Blackburn

Is the EU not glamorous enough for Lord Mandelson?

James Macintyre is well connected among Mandelson’s associates and he discloses that Gordon Brown agreed to back Mandelson if he chose to board the Eurotrain once more. Macintyre describes the revelation as a ‘demonstration of the supportive dynamic between what were at one time bitter enemies’, that’s true, though Brown would scarcely brand his right hand man an overrated liability. What’s more intriguing is why Mandelson chose not to apply for the job of EU foreign minister, which he considered for a time. Baroness Ashton can only expect to exercise ‘quiet diplomacy’ at best, which is unlikely to appeal to a man of Mandelson’s tastes. As Fraser noted yesterday and

Peter Hoskin

Simple but effective?

It’s the most straightforward dividing line the Tories could draw: “Tories good, Labour bad”. But it’s still striking to see it deployed quite so bluntly as in George Osborne’s Telegraph article this morning. His point is that four more years of Labour will lead us to ruin, whereas a Conservative government would pull us out of the mire. Here are some snippets: “Down the path of least resistance lie economic decline, higher interest rates, high unemployment, and more social breakdown. This is the path down which a cynical and exhausted Labour Government tempts us. But there is another path that leads to lasting recovery, rising prosperity, social responsibility and a

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 21 December 2009

…here are some posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson wonders whether Peter Mandelson is planning to run as Mayor of London, and laments the pessimism of the left. James Forsyth says that David Cameron plans to lighten up, and outlines Gordon Brown’s PR dilemma. Peter Hoskin sets out the dangers with a Tory policy blitz, and reports on a slightly surprising stat. David Blackburn reports on the latest opinion poll, and discusses the relevance of politics. Daniel Korski blames Bono for the Copenhagen failure. Rod Liddle attacks the hypocrisy of commentators on the Munir Hussain case. Alex Massie gives us some Sunday Afternoon Country. And Cappuccino Culture

Fraser Nelson

Europe: ignoring the Lisbon Treaty when it suits them

Is Greece too big to fail? When the Eurozone project was up and running, its taxpayers were promised: this was not a system where they’d have to bail out a badly-run country like Greece or Italy (or Brown’s Britain, were we members). But this rule (a clause in the Lisbon Treaty) is being torn up with various assurances from Germany and the ECB that they Greece is too big to fail – and they’d rather put their taxpayers’ wonga on the table than risk their precious promise. I made this point in my News of the World column yesterday (that bit not online). Here’s the story: 1. The Eurozone did

Sunday

20 Dec 2009

David Blackburn

It’s the economy, isn’t it?

The Tories’ 17 point lead in this morning’s Observer Ipsos-Mori poll has got tongues wagging. The headline figure is that confidence in the economy, and by extension the government’s management of it, has collapsed since the PBR. Just 32 percent of voters believe the economy will improve in 2010, compared to 46% last month. The politics of debt and the public finances appear to have swung decisively in favour of the Conservatives, and the leadership must press that advantage all the way to the ballot box. But the economy represents only part of the explanation. Anthony Wells’ digest of the poll is a must read, and he notes that the ‘lack of political weighting’ has ‘produced such extreme switches

David Blackburn

Labour calls cease-fire on binge drinking

The government has sued for peace. The Observer reports that in the face of lobbying from the drinks industry, the government has dropped its mandatory code on the sale of alcohol, which Gordon Brown first brewed-up during the local election campaign. Labour excuses the u-turn on the grounds that vulnerable pubs and drinks retail industry must remain viable during this fragile economic situation. On the face of it, that is sensible; delve deeper and that excuse does not hold. Of course, there’s no sense in endangering businesses by punishing all drinks deals and ‘happy hour’ promotions. However, aspects of the code would have outlawed promotions such as ‘all you can

Fraser Nelson

Mayor Mandelson?

When Mandelson said in his Spectator interview that he plans another 15 to 20 years in politics, what could he have meant? Now that his European career is over, there is only one decent post coming up for a Labour figure in the first half of the next decade – and I float the latest theory in my News of the World column today: that Mandy might stand as Mayor of London in 2012. A bizarre notion, I grant you, but no less bizarre than his CV to date – and Ken Livingstone is certainly taking the prospect seriously. Whoever the Labour candidate, they have a pretty good chance given

Saturday

19 Dec 2009

The Spectator

A simple solution

There is something deeply unfashionable about British poverty. We worry endlessly about melting glaciers, and wear wristbands to demand an end to hardship in faraway lands. Christmas cards are sold in aid of dogs, birds and children in other countries. But we prefer to avert our eyes from the British poor. They’re looked after by the welfare state, aren’t they? Problem solved, now let’s get on with enjoying Christmas. It might be easier to ignore problems at home, but that won’t make them disappear. This Christmas one in six British people will be jobless — and even this horrific figure masks a far worse picture regionally. A quarter of Birmingham,

James Forsyth

Cameron plans to lighten up

David Cameron’s interview with Tim Shipman suggests that the Tory leader is about to undergo a course correction. The Tories have, rightly, begun to be frank with the public about the cuts that will need to be made and have, again rightly, refused to rule out a short-term rise in VAT. But the ‘we’re all in this together’ rhetoric has only been applied to the tough measures that are needed now not the prosperity that might follow in years to come. If Cameron is to start showing the public more of his vision of where he wants to take Britain then that is to be welcomed. But he also needs

Peter Hoskin

Slightly surprising stat of the day

According to a YouGov poll in tomorrow’s People (reported by the paper’s political editor, Nigel Nelson, on Twitter): “1% more people would rather have G.Brown than D.Cameron round for Christmas dinner.” There’s better news elsewhere in the poll for the Tories: the gap between them and Labour is back in double digits. It’s the Tories on 40 percent, Labour on 28, and the Lib Dems on 18.

Peter Hoskin

The dangers with a Tory policy blitz

Sounds like the Tories are going to go policy-heavy in the New Year. According to this morning’s Times, Team Cameron are going to publish a “draft election manifesto” around 4 January, which will – as James revealed in his political column this week – set up a “policy-a-day blitz” throughout the rest of the month. There will also be a separate policy release “showcasing the party’s commitment to the NHS”. The thinking is that all this will regain some momentum for the party, as well as answering the charge that the Tory operation lacks substance. Question is: will it work? Well, we’ve often called for more detail from the Tory

Friday

18 Dec 2009

Peter Hoskin

The case for John Hutton as a New Labour hero

Ok, so identifying the heroes of the New Labour era may not sit well with CoffeeHousers – but I’d still recommend you read through the latest Bagehot column in the Economist, which does just that. It identifies five figures from the past 12 years who have “done the state and country some serious and lasting service,” and whose “virtues [are] not be clouded or cancelled by grave mistakes or misdemeanours”. They are: Lord Adonis, Donald Dewar, Lord Mandelson, Sir William Macpherson and Robin Cook. James Purnell, Alistair Darling and, strikingly, Bill Clinton finish in the runners-up list. You can debate the merits and demerits of those names all day long,