Politics

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

Wednesday

Toby Young Toby Young

An anti-sleaze party should fight 100 seats

A week ago, I blogged about the possibility of running for Parliament as an anti-sleaze candidate and the response has been overwhelming — overwhelmingly negative, that is. “When Toby Young puts himself forward, you know the country is in desperate trouble,” wrote Martin Bright. I am probably not the man for the job, but the silent majority deserves to be represented by someone who is serious about holding politicians to account — and I’m not 100 percent convinced that Esther Rantzen is that person. I’ve no axe to grind against Rantzen, who may turn out to be an excellent candidate, but the public’s anger over MPs with their snouts in

Martin Bright

Reselect Democracy

Hats of to Paul Evans of the Local Democracy blog who has come up with a brilliant idea for renewing our political culture: Reselect Democracy. I am happy to endorse it along with Liberal Conspiracy. Here’s the Reselect Democracy pitch to the major political parties: Following recent revelations about the abuse of expenses by a minority of MPs, the public appear to have lost some of their confidence in parliamentary politics. It is easy to conclude that a professional political class – many of whom have no real experience outside of the political bubble – has emerged. One that lives on a different planet to the rest of us. The time has

Matthew Lynn

Brown’s nemesis awaits — and his name is Brian

Who will finally sit Gordon Brown down with a bottle of whisky, a loaded revolver and a copy of his own book on courage, and tell him the game is up? You might imagine the task would fall to Jack Straw, flanked by a couple of union bosses. In fact, it’s more likely to be three men you’ve never heard of: Frank Gill, Arnaud Mares and Brian Coulton. Working respectively for the ratings agencies Standard & Poor’s, Moody’s and Fitch, this trio have the job of deciding whether the UK can pay back the hundreds of millions of pounds Brown’s government is borrowing every day through the gilts market in

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Green shoots with shallow roots

It’s true there are signs of an economic recovery, says Martin Vander Weyer, but we should also beware a ‘third wave’ of destruction It’s springtime in North Yorkshire, which traditionally means lashing rain and temperatures like February. But however unseasonal the weather, nature knows when it’s time to wake up: in the first few days of May, my beech hedge always sheds its dead brown leaves and bursts into fresh green. And so it goes — with rather less certainty of timing — for the economic cycle. We may poison the ground with too much fertiliser, we may plant scarce saplings in the stoniest places, we may waste money on

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Even if the system’s to blame, no one forced MPs to milk it

Rod Liddle says that Sarah Teather, the righteous young Lib Dem MP who refused to claim for a second home, proves that it wasn’t mandatory for MPs to fleece us The worst case of expenses fraud I ever encountered as a journalist came when I worked for the BBC and a foreign correspondent claimed a few hundred quid for a lawnmower. This created a bit of a scandal and the chap was quite speedily sacked. Claiming for a lawnmower was considered not really on at the best of times, but especially so when you lived in a third-floor apartment. And then, back in the early 1980s, a mate of mine

Tuesday

Martin Bright

A Collective Sigh of Relief

Watching Newsnight tonight it felt like a dam had broken. Three MPs from the main parties having an open discussion about the future of politics post-Speaker Martin, Jeremy Paxman relaxed and cracking jokes about the growing groundswell of support for Chris Mullin to become speaker: it was all rather extraordinary. The three MPs, Chris Mullin, Douglas Carswell and Norman Baker were all unusually courteous and differences of opinion were argued about amicably. All very peculiar. One thing they all agreed on was the importance of strengthening the select committee system. Actually, I think some of these committees do a very good job. But they do not have enough power and

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Absurdity of Energy Independence

Of all the fatuous “debates” in Washington few can be as absurd or wearisome as the mantra, repeated by politicians of all parties, that it is time for the United States to wean itself off foreign oil and declare “energy independence”. Writing about the discovery of oil in Ghana, Foreign Policy’s Elizabeth Dickinson makes some fair points but, alas, also trots out a familiar refrain: “Wouldn’t it be nice to buy oil from a country with a relatively clean record in human rights, governance, and economic management?” You’d never think that last year just 18% of US oil imports came from the Persian Gulf would you? Or that a mere

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Reviving Scottish Conservatism: A Lost Decade?

A reader asks, not without reason, what I think of the Scottish Tories attempts at a makeover since their wipeout in 1997 and whether, given that I’m generally, broadly speaking, in favour of the reformers when it comes to Project Cameron or Project GOP, I’m also happy with the Scottish Tories softer than softly-softly approach to decontaminating their “brand”. So, not too much to chew on there. The first thing to be wary of is our old friend the Pundit’s Fallacy. That is, the erroneous belief that a given political party’s electoral prospects would be transformed if only they were sensible enough to tailor their policies to fit my own

Monday

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 18 May 2009

…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson reveals how Norway won the Eurovision song contest Blair-style, and suggests how David Cameron could expose the long tail of waste. James Forsyth analyses the latest opinion poll findings, and reports on the growing movement against the Speaker. Peter Hoskin tracks Gordon Brown’s efforts to overtake Cameron on expenses, and fisks the PM’s article for the News of the World. Clive Davis reveals how they made the Great Depression even worse. Alex Massie reports on a billionaire’s secret life. And Americano highlights the breathtaking recklessness of Donald Rumsfeld.

Saturday

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Why won’t my employer pay me to look after my castle while I’m in London?

Rod Liddle wants to know why the taxpayer has to pay for Douglas Hogg’s moat and Phil Woolas’s groceries, but nobody will subsidise his own extravagant needs — and is offended by MPs’ attempts to posture as the victims of an impersonal ‘system’ The thing that puzzles me is why did Phil Woolas, the immigration minister, need to buy a whole box of tampons? I can understand that he might wish to look at one, out of curiosity. But it seems profligate, if you’re the taxpayer, to shell out for a whole boxload. Couldn’t he have just borrowed one from his missus, if he was that interested? Apparently you are

Martin Bright

Politics | 16 May 2009

The Labour party now has three weeks to save itself from oblivion. The only question facing MPs is whether the open fratricide that would follow a challenge to Gordon Brown would be preferable to the death by a thousand humiliating cuts if the Prime Minister sits tight at Number 10. The European and local council elections on 4 June have been as good as written off by the party. Beyond the Prime Minister’s inner circle there is now a tangible fury at Gordon Brown, with the Damian McBride affair, the Gurkha fiasco and the expenses scandal merely reinforcing what they knew already about the Prime Minister. Where there was once

James Forsyth James Forsyth

It could be worse, you know: not every MP is a Moran

Britain’s most popular political leader has been involved in a dodgy property deal with a fraudster. Britain’s most popular political leader has been involved in a dodgy property deal with a fraudster. On the same day that the politician bought his new home for £165,000 under the asking price, a regular campaign contributor purchased (via his wife) the adjacent plot of land from the same seller for the listed price of £350,000. The donor, a property developer who had a significant amount of business with the government, had been alerted by the politician to the availability of the land and to his intention to buy the house next door. The

Friday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cameron in the Fair City

David Cameron’s speech to the Scottish Tory conferene was, I thought, workmanlike rather than inspired.The troops enjoyed it even if they were not necessarily enraptured by it. Interestingly he spent more time attacking the SNP than Labour, portraying the Conservatives as the only party that can truly efend the Union. Of course Labour will argue that a vote for the Tories will encourage the SNP given the nationalists’ palpable desire for a Tory government in Westminster. It is not impossible that both parties are right. Still, Cameron’s speech also betraed the fact that, ten years on from devoution, the Tories remain, perhaps unavoidably, in a defensive crouch in Scotland. “I

The Spectator

The week that was | 15 May 2009

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Matthew d’Ancona thinks that David Cameron has proved himself over the expenses scandal, and suggests that Lord Tebbit is speaking for the electorate as a whole. Fraser Nelson watches Gordon Brown resort to bully tactics, and sets out the significance of Andrew MacKay’s departure. James Forsyth says that there is nothing British about the BNP, and sets out the Tory verdict on whose claims are defensible and whose aren’t. Peter Hoskin tracks the growing movement to oust Michael Martin, and outlines how the BNP are campaigning. Toby Young highlights some hypocrisy on the part of journalists. Martin

Toby Young Toby Young

The anti-sleaze party

I got a curious email yesterday from my friend James Evans, who runs Hustings.com: “Why don’t you stand as an independent at the general election? Never will be a better time for independents, you know the media and even with any new rules cld probably earn enough as an MP.” I’m not sure I’m the man to do it, but as sure as eggs are eggs someone will emerge as the Martin Bell of this crisis. My first thought was: Paul Staines, aka Guido Fawkes. I immediately dispatched an email: “Why don’t you change your name to Guy Fawkes by deed poll and stand as an independent at the next

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Off camera

What a weird day. I’m blogging this, crouching below a camera on college green, about a metre away from Nick Brown being grilled by the BBC’s Jon Sopel over Elliot Morley. Brown is a chief whip who seldom talks, but he has just admitted to BBC News that Morley ‘fessed up to this days ago. So why didn’t he suspend him then? “There are ambiguiities on all of this”  Brown has just said. Really? I can’t see them. Gordon Brown is playing catch up with Cameron, as far as I can tell, and Cameron is now not waiting for the Telegraph and, instead, hunting out his own dodgy do-ers. This

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Tory Defence Policy

What is Britain’s role in the world? And what resources will be devoted to sustaining it? These questions, germane for more than 40 years anyway, have an extra urgency in this New Age of Austerity. Liam Fox is addressing the Scottish Tory conference as I write this. Fox reiterates the urgent need for a post-election Defence Review but says “There is one area however where the basic argument has not changed. There will be a replacement to the submarine-based nuclear deterrent under a future Conservative government.” Dr Fox acknowledges that it’s impossible to make fim predictions for defence spending, but given that he complains that “despite the two wars [Britain

Matthew Dancona

Cameron proves himself

The expenses scandal just keeps getting better and better for David Cameron. No, you read that right. The departure of Andrew Mackay is indeed a grievous loss to the Tory leader’s inner circle and – self-evidently – a grotesque embarrassment. But, by pre-empting press disclosure, it shows that Mr Cameron will not wait for the media to force him into action. It also shows that he is willing to put the public interest before his own narrow personal interest as a party leader in desperate need of accurate intelligence on the Commons from a trusted source. It shows that Dave has the ruthlessness to govern for the nation rather than

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Caledonian Campaign Next Year

In a risky break from blogging orthodoxy, I’m actually attending a political event today (and tomorrow!) and have travelled north to Perth for the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party’s annual conference. Next year’s election – assuming we have to wait until then – will be a strange one in Scotland since, for the first time, the electorate will have two parties against which to cast protest votes. That is, voters may choose to vote against either Labour or the SNP. Or both. Add the complexities of a four-party system in a first-past-the-post election and the picture rapidly becomes somewhat murky. That the Caledonian campaign is something of a sideshow that