Politics Archives

Monday

28 Sep 2009

Does Miliband the elder represent Labour’s future?

Danny Finkelstein’s right: there are some surprising results in today’s ComRes poll for the Independent. The one which catches my eye is that David Miliband would be the most successful alternative leader at reducing the Tories’ poll lead. Along with Jack Straw, the poll suggests, he would make Labour the largest party in a hung parliament. Now, I’m frequently surprised at how popular the elder Miliband remains in Labour circles. But – after the failed coup of last year, the banana and Heseltine moments, and that disastrous trip to India, among other embarrassments – I’d assumed that that popularity wouldn’t stretch to more general voters, and that, say, Alan Johnson

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 28 September 2009

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson revisits the BNP conundrum, and profiles Labour’s choice to take on Nick Griffin. James Forsyth examines Labour’s latest dividing line, and says the Tories are planning operation tumbleweed. Peter Hoskin wonders if Alan Johnson’s feeling a little more confident, and catches Ed Balls trying to force the tax debate. David Blackburn can’t imagine the Tories would ever work with Peter Mandelson. Daniel Korski argues that Iran is operating ‘threshold power’. Martin Bright observes the true extent of Labour’s financial collapse. Clive Davis says learning foreign languages has become a case of us and them. Rod Liddle

David Blackburn

Brown’s new dividing line ignores that banks are our route to salvation

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will launch their umpteenth fight back today by talking tough on banks and bonuses. They hope to prove the Conservatives are interested solely in “helping their rich friends”. The Times has the details: ‘The Chancellor will tell the party conference in Brighton that legislation to be introduced in the next few weeks will scrap automatic year-after-year bonuses and stop executives getting payouts unless they can prove they are deserved. Bonuses will be deferred over a period so that they can be clawed back if they are not warranted by long-term performance.’ This is not a dividing line. The Conservatives intend to curb short term-bonus culture,

Fraser Nelson

Either debt goes up, or goes down. It really is that simple.

Last night, I appeared on an hour-long phone in on Five Live listening in amazement as Angela Smith and Barry Gardiner defended Brown. You’d be amazed the lines the Labour MPs are being sent out with: that the shallow media is personality-based, but real people know that Brown did a great job on the economy. Seriously. That Brown’s fiscal decisions have somehow saved us all – rather than bankrupted us all. They are suggesting that the idea of 9% Labour cuts was a Treasury speculation, when it is a hard plan contained in the Budget. They are claiming that Brown is hailed around the world as a genius – and pointing as

Sunday

27 Sep 2009

James Forsyth

Was Marr right to ask Brown that question?

Andrew Marr asking Gordon Brown if he was on anti-depressants was a real surprise. When I first heard that Marr had put this question to Brown, I thought there was a possibility that Labour aides had let it be known that the Prime Minister would like the chance to shoot down these rumours. But Brown’s reaction, suggests he wasn’t expecting the question. One can see why Marr asked the question: if Brown was on anti-depressants that could affect his judgement then the public has a right to know. It wasn’t in the public interest, as Andrew Marr seemed to acknowledge in his interview with George Osborne, that the BBC sat

David Blackburn

Mandelson: I would work with the Tories

The Conservative party’s seizure of the progressive agenda and the rhetoric of liberal democracy suggests that Cameron intends to build a broad coalition. But how large would the Tories’ tent be? Peter Mandelson reveals that he would have no trouble “serving his country” under a Conservative government. ‘In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, the business secretary said he would be willing to put his “experience at the disposal of the country”, if Labour lost power. “As I grow older, I can imagine more ways of serving my country than simply being a party politician,” he said. Asked whether he might use his experience in business and world trade under

Saturday

26 Sep 2009

The Spectator

It wasn’t all bad

The Labour party typically disembowels itself after an election defeat, but this time it hasn’t waited to be beaten. The Labour party typically disembowels itself after an election defeat, but this time it hasn’t waited to be beaten. The party which gathers in Brighton next week is already at war, and many of its brightest prospects have already left the field. The likes of John Hutton and Alan Milburn have despaired, and are quitting parliament altogether. The trade unions, who have long dreamed about capturing Labour, may soon buy it for scrap. This magazine sheds few tears for the demise of a party which is now as bankrupt morally as

James Forsyth

Labour’s latest dividing line

Today’s papers give us an idea of what Labour’s new dividing line with the Tories is going to be. Labour will find money for eye-catching but not too costly initiatives such as the cancer pledge that the papers have reported on this morning. These pledges will be financed by taking money from the less sexy parts of departmental budgets. Labour will then ask, as Pete noted Ed Balls doing today, how the Tories can match this spending when they are committed to paying down the deficit faster than the government and to reversing several of Labour’s tax rises. If the Tories won’t commit to matching these new pledges, we can expect Labour ministers

James Forsyth

Tories plan Operation Tumbleweed for Labour conference

Throughout Labour conference, the Tories will be trying to promote the message that the conference shows Labour is on the way out. Expect the Tories to pump out lots of statistics about how the number of delegates attending is down, how there are fewer commercial stands, lobbyists and the like. The other thing the Tories plan to do is constantly contrast it to John Major’s last conference, a sweet form of revenge for all those in the Tory party who worked for it during the Major years—a group that includes Cameron and Osborne. Tory researchers have been reading Major’s 1996 conference speech ready to point out parallels between it and

Martin Bright

A Bargain Ringside Seat to History

Apparently the Labour Party is selling tickets to sit behind Gordon Brown during his leader’s speech for a bargain £130 a pop. At the same time they are struggling to fill the seats for their gala fundraising dinner in Brighton. Things are getting desperate. Already, last year in Manchester, the exhibitors’ hall was dominated by Labour associated organisations and unions. The corporate world abandoned the party long ago. The interviews in this morning’s papers show a new change in the political weather. Ed Balls continues his charm offensive and even borrows the rhetoric of Peter Mandelson’s “fighter not a quitter” speech as a rallying call for the party. (I’m not

Rod Liddle

Let’s give this family a degree of privacy and peace to heal the wounds

We need to guard against childish gloating when we read about the arrest of Patricia Hewitt’s son for possessing cocaine, says Rod Liddle. But first, a quick recap of her record There is something rotten with this country when people can take such base, spiteful pleasure from the arrest of a young lad simply because his mum was a former government minister and architect of New Labour. The sins of the father should not be visited upon the child; the sins of the child should not be used as a whip with which to beat the parents simply because, unaccountably, some people don’t like them. I find it terribly saddening

Friday

25 Sep 2009

The Spectator

The week that was | 25 September 2009

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week Fraser Nelson argues that the BBC and mainstream political parties need to think very carefully about how they will handle Nick Griffin on Question Time. James Forsyth sees the Lib Dems’ incoherence embodied in Nick Clegg, and says that the Tories are cockahoop about the Lib Dem disarray. Peter Hoskin thinks that the Tories must ready themselves to talk about tax, and believes that the Tories are preparing for the post-election period. David Blackburn describes Brown’s submarine announcement as clever diplomacy, and urges Nick Clegg to accept David Cameron’s overtures. Lloyd Evans reviews Nick Clegg’s conference. Daniel

Fraser Nelson

Question Time conundrum

I was a panelist on Question Time last night, and it started me thinking about how they will handle the BNP episode – which I expect fairly soon. Make no mistake, a Question Time slot is as big for the BNP as winning seats in Europe. When I was on the campaign trail with them for a cover story in June, I noticed how they would refer to Question Time as a goal – almost as much as getting to Brussels. It represents one thing: the political mainstream. With two MEPs and almost a million voters the BNP have a legitimate claim to that Question Time panel. For them, it

Peter Hoskin

Ben Bradshaw’s advice for Brown

It’s the question that won’t go away for Gordon Brown: should he – will he – take part in a televised leaders’ debate? On this weekend’s Straight Talk, Andrew Neil takes the opportunity to quiz Ben Bradshaw about his views on the matter. Here’s how the Culture Secretary responds: “I don’t think [Brown]’s got anything to lose by doing that …. My advice to him would say, I think you’ve got the arguments, you’ve made the right decisions, you could demolish that guy.” Like Mandelson’s interventions before now, Bradshaw’s advice will slightly raise the pressure on Brown to take part in a debate. But the first half of it also

Peter Hoskin

Brown ignores the small issues which precede the “big choices”

James has already highlighted the New Statesman’s interview with Gordon Brown, but it’s worth flagging up this passage as well: “Again and again, throughout our interview, Brown refers to the next election as being about ‘big choices’, not the small issues, which he says the Conservatives would prefer. ‘What was the latest thing? The cost of food in the House of Commons?’ he asks, referring to David Cameron’s recent gimmicky pledge to cut public spending by reducing subsidies on MPs’ food. This theme of ‘big choices’, say Brown’s aides, is one he is likely to pursue in his conference speech and beyond.” To my mind, this exemplifies one of the

David Blackburn

Eureka!

Brown’s pursuit of Obama through the UN canteen has finally paid dividends: PoliticsHome is reporting that Barack Obama will hold bilateral talks with Gordon Brown later today. After yesterday’s negative headlines, Obama was always going to make a gesture that indicated how much he valued Brown; but from the Prime Minister’s point of view, the damage has already been done.

Thursday

24 Sep 2009

James Forsyth

A number that shows what a drag on Labour’s prospects Brown is

The news that Max Clifford is now involved in publicising the story of Baroness Scotland and the illegal cleaner is another blow to an already bruised Labour party. One of the last things that it needs is the beginning of its conference being overshadowed by a story that combines the two toxic issues of political hypocrisy and immigration violations. (There’s also talk that the Telegraph has more expenses revelations and that they will publish them in the next day or so) But I suspect that the bigger problem for Labour, and why it won’t recover from its current dire position, is summed up by these sentences in Mehdi Hasan and

Alex Massie

Does Obama Like Tyrants More Than He Hates America?

Let us accept that Barack Obama is going to disappoint many of us in many different ways. Let us further accept that this is only to be expected and that, yup, one of the awkward things about democracy is that sometimes the other mob wins. There is, however, no need to lose your mind when that happens. This must be what has happened to Michael Ledeen. There’s no other charitable explanation for his latest outburst: I think that he rather likes tyrants and dislikes America. I think he’d like to be more powerful, I think he is trying to get control over as much of our lives as he can,

David Blackburn

Bercow wants Lords Mandelson and Adonis to be questioned by MPs

Speaker Bercow has suggested that prominent cabinet ministers who sit in the House of Lords should be brought before the backbenchers for scrutiny. The Telegraph’s James Kirkup has the details: ‘Mr Bercow said: “I find the fact that backbenchers have no means of directly questioning prominent Ministers of the Crown because they happen to sit in the House of Lords to be less than satisfactory,” Mr Bercow said. “That is even more true at a time when the Cabinet contains the esteemed Lord Mandelson, whose empire is of a scale not seen since the death of Alexander the Great.” He also highlighted the role of Lord Adonis. “I suspect that

David Blackburn

Will he stay or will he go now?

Over at his WSJ blog, Iain Martin reckons that Baroness Vadera’s resignation might be an indication that Gordon Brown is considering standing down. Martin writes: ‘Throughout his troubled premiership I have been of the view that Gordon Brown will fight the looming general election. If he ducks out then history will surely judge him accordingly as a PM who was feart to face the voters, having called off the election in 2007 after turning his move to Number 10 into a coronation with no other candidates. But the resignation of Baroness Vadera makes me wonder if that view holds. Perhaps he really is considering standing down. Of course, there