Politics Archives

Wednesday

13 May 2009

The Inevitability of Gradualness

I have been reading Marcia Williams’s 1972 memoir of her time with Harold Wilson, Inside Number 10 (no don’t ask why) and come to the chapter with the wonderful title The Inevitability of Gradualness. Here, Wilson’s former personal and private secretary weighs up the successes and failures of the 1960s Wilson governments. On the negative side, failure to reform the civil service, on the plus side the Open University: that sort of thing. At one point Williams quotes New Statesman and Observer contributor Francis Hope writing in the New York Times about the Wilson years: “The achievements of the Labour Government were mostly minor acts of decency.” I discover that

Lloyd Evans

An atrocious performance from Brown

A quiet, chastened, nervous House of Commons today. Like a bunch of naughty schoolboys caught wrecking the art-block and forced to clean it up. The Prime Minister, looking even more dank and grotty than usual, faltered as he recited the names of last week’s war dead from Afghanistan. By contrast Cameron’s bright, youthful demeanour served him well as he once again outclassed the PM on expenses. Cameron suggested saving £6m by scrapping the new £10k ‘communications allowance’ for members which, he said, merely allowed MPs to tell the world how wonderful they were. The PM tried to play the lofty man of principle but he sounded feeble and indecisive. He

Tuesday

12 May 2009

Alex Massie

Parliament of Chancers

Like Bagehot I think this one of most entertaining – and revealing – reactions to the revelations of the Great Expenses Swindle of 2009: The latest batch of expenses details revealed by the Telegraph included the fact that Peterborough MP Stewart Jackson had made a claim of £304.10 for the upkeep of a swimming pool. In response he said: “The pool came with the house and I needed to know how to run it. Once I was shown that one time, there were no more claims. I take care of the pool myself. I believe this represents ‘value for money’ for the taxpayer.” Priceless, if you know what I mean.

Matthew Dancona

Cameron delivers a non-electoral milestone

Leave aside the specifics: when David Cameron walks into Number Ten, his press conference this afternoon should be remembered as one of the non-electoral milestones on the road from Opposition to power. Compare and contrast the image of Gordon being interviewed on a train when the Telegraph story first broke last week – blaming the System and congratulating himself on the action he would be taking in the future to reform it. In his body language, tone and recognition of the public’s fury, Cameron showed that his antennae are much more sensitive to the electoral mood than Brown’s. He has acted today to rectify the worst of the expense abuses

Alex Massie

Expenses Backlash Extra! Guilty Party Named!

The problem with being a newspaper columnist is that you have to keep finding new stuff to say. New is more important than better, you understand. So when everyone is outraged (and, hell, justifiably so for once!) by the spectacle of MPs’ outrageous abuse of the spirit, and often the letter, of their expense arrangements then, sure as eggs is eggs, you know some columnist is going to take the contrary view and argue that it’s all a lot of fuss over not very much. David Aaronovitch has nobly decided that this is his role this week, inviting us to cool our passions and admire his sagacity as he scolds

Matthew Dancona

Speaking for the electorate as a whole

In normal circumstances, Lord Tebbit’s intervention this morning – urging voters to punish the main parties for the expenses scandal at in the June 4 elections – would almost certainly be a disciplinary matter. But these are anything but normal circumstances, and David Cameron would be ill-advised to take action against the mighty Chingford Polecat. Unlike many who have urged modernisation upon the Tory Party, I also have a very high regard for Tebbit. As one of the architects of the Thatcher revolution, he was responsible for the trade union reforms which enabled Britain to recover economically. As party chairman in 1987, he steered the Tories to a famous victory,

Monday

11 May 2009

Martin Bright

The Sky Has Fallen In

We blithely say that politicians are despised even more than journalists. But those who work closely with MPs generally end up thinking they are a pretty decent lot. The revelations of the past week have changed all that. Speaker Martin’s intervention today was a new low point. Beyond embarrassing, it verged on the seriously chillling. Poor Nick Robinson looks like he has had the stuffing knocked out of him. Those columnists who have made a career out of saying we should have more respect for politicians look pretty stupid now. In a previous post I found myself saying that the expenses scandal would not have made such a splash in less desperate

Fraser Nelson

The campaign to ditch Speaker Martin gathers pace

Ben Wallace has just called for the Speaker to resign, joining Douglas Carswell’s call. This doubles the number of MPs who have broken the parliamentary protocol and are openly calling for the Speaker to go. Wallace explained his rationale on Channel Four news: from 2001 when Freedom of Information legislation was passed, it was clear this juggernaught was coming down the track. What Wallace didn’t say is that his old employer, the Scottish Parliament, felt this first – Tory leader David McLetchie was felled in a scandal about his taxi expenses. It was clear to Wallace (if to all too few of his new Westminster colleagues) that it would be

Matthew Dancona

A sorry state of affairs

Gordon’s “Sorry” looks and sounds like catch-up – for the good reason that this is precisely what it is. In my Sunday Telegraph column yesterday, I argued that the British polity had slipped backwards on the moral evolutionary path from a “guilt culture” (governed by moral conscience) to a “shame culture” (governed only by fear of discovery) – if you are interested in this all-important distinction, by the way, try Ruth Benedict’s classic work of anthropology, The Chrysanthemum and the Sword. Only disclosure, or the threat of disclosure, has forced our parliamentarians to promise reform. I am not saying that their forbears were all paragons of individual ethical conduct. But

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 11 May 2009

Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson reports on MPs getting away with everything they can, and sets out the Margaret Moran doctrine. James Forsyth picks up on another blow to the Budget’s credibility, and suggests that the Tories are also tainted by the expenses revelations. Peter Hoskin says that Cameron must act over the expenses scandal, and speculates about Alistair Darling’s future. Martin Bright wonders how the Labour Party will rebuild itself. Alex Massie celebrates Townes van Zandt. And Melanie Phillips recommends the work of Robin Shepherd.

Alex Massie

A Parliament of Thieves

Like any sensible person I’ve been thoroughly amused and appalled by the scandal of MPs expenses. Appalled because the extent of MPs’ avarice is sufficient to shock even an iron-souled cynic; amused because watching MPs try to justify their gluttonous appetite for taxpayer-funded freebies affords a certain pleasure that one might consider vindictive if only it weren’t so entirely merited. This isn’t a tragedy, it’s a stinking farce. The dreary pretense – duly repeated by every sticky-fingered parliamentarian – that it is all ok because “no rules were broken” could hardly be more priceless. Nor could it do more to underline the essential fact that these people are fools who

Saturday

9 May 2009

Fraser Nelson

Getting away with everything they can

So, no Ed Balls in the Sunday Telegraph tomorrow, no Shadow Cabinet. But we do get Sinn Fein (of which, more later) as well as Kitty in the City, aka Kitty Ussher who succeeded Balls as City Minister and is now benefits minister. Anyway, she spent £22,000 of taxpayers’ cash doing up her terraced house in Brixton. A new bathroom costing £1,460, a carpet for £980 and windows costing £5,610. As she explains to the fees office: “The basic situation is that this house was relatively cheap to purchase but requires quite a lot of work.” This would be the house she lived in for five years before becoming an

Fraser Nelson

Labour down to a record low of 23 percent in one poll, Tories lead by 16 in another

The bottom has again dropped out of the Labour party. A BPix/Mail on Sunday poll shows its popularity has slumped to its lowest level since polling began in 1943. Its 23 percent, just below the 23.5 percent it polled at Michael Foot’s nadir. Meanwhile a YouGov/Sunday Times poll puts Labour down 7 to 27, yielding a 16 point lead to the Tories who are on 43 percent. My personal favourite: a healthy majority, 61 percent, say Brown has “completely lost authority”. And yes we have twelve fun-filled months of this pantomime to go.

Martin Bright

What Next?

The real question for Labour now is how the party will rebuild itself. This has important democratic implications: we have witnessed how an over-mighty government can operate without the scrutiny of a strong oppoistion over the past decade and it is often not a pretty sight. But there is a serious problem for the Labour Party here. If the collapse continues for much longer there will be no one of any seniority or experience left standing. Some will think this is no bad thing and that the Labour Party needs a completely fresh start. But I have always felt there is considerable talent in the younger generation of Labour politicians

Ross Clark

The monetary policy committee

I’m your man for the job, Chancellor HM Treasury has placed an advert in the Economist looking for a new external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, the body that sets UK interest rates, to succeed David Blanchflower. I have decided that it is my duty to apply and have therefore sent this letter to Alistair Darling, who will make the decision. Dear Mr Darling, I would like to apply for the vacant post of external member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee. Admittedly, beyond a grade A at ‘O’ level, I don’t have any formal qualifications in economics, but your advert does not specify

The Spectator

The New Avenger

The Prime Minister’s epic catalogue of early summer mishaps, mistakes and misjudgments lengthens by the day: if he is not making a fool of himself on YouTube, he is misreading the mood of the Commons on MPs’ expenses, or posing in front of swastikas. But, as wretched as they are, these incidents pale into insignificance compared to one truly monstrous strategic error: Number 10’s failure to acknowledge Joanna Lumley’s requests for a private meeting with the PM. Part of New Labour’s political genius in its early years was to hoist a Big Tent, a welcoming canvas which stretched over everyone with influence. Sometimes, this ‘inclusiveness’ was absurd and desperate: in

Friday

8 May 2009

Alex Massie

Monarchies vs Republics and the Importance of Cynicism

Christopher Caldwell’s* diary in the latest edition of the print magazine is good fun and I look forward to reading his new book. This part was especially entertaining: For many years, the ingenuity of the British press in exploiting the Brown-Blair rivalry story amazed me. What a gift the papers had for conveying that, this time, it was really about to blow. It was good to see last week that this old journalistic warhorse can still be saddled up, with the help of Hazel Blears’s remarks about the Prime Minister’s ‘lamentable’ failure to communicate. To an American audience, Blears’s insistence that she was 100 per cent behind the prime minister

Thursday

7 May 2009

Fraser Nelson

How not to respond to the expenses scandal

So how damaging is the expenses scandal? Harriet Harman has told Sky that it is all within the rules, and I’m sure that’s true. But that’s not the point. To the public, this will look like plunder pure and simple. Straw claiming his council tax back, etc. Ministers had best calibrate their response very carefully, and here is an example in how not to respond from Sir Stuart Bell, who sits on the House of Commons Commission: “If this was received by unauthorised means, it is disgraceful that a national newspaper should stoop so low as to buy information which will be in the public domain in July. It undermines

Fraser Nelson

The expenses are in the open

Blackberies are buzzing all over London: The Telegraph seems to have got its mitts on the story everyone wants. The disc with MPs expenses is out – and finally we see the Cabinet’s expenses. My favourite is that Gordon Brown has paid his brother Andrew £6,570 for “cleaning services”. Second favourite that Jack Straw claimed twice the amount of council tax that he paid (although, unlike Brown, he actually apologised). Then Hazel Blears spends £5,000 on furniture on her third home in four months. Brown claimed the same plumbing twice. Oh dear. More follows.

Fraser Nelson

The poverty Brownie

When JK Rowling’s gives her endorsement of Gordon Brown in this week’s edition of Time magazine, she writes that the Dear Leader’s policies saw 600,000 children “raised out of poverty”. This particular piece of fiction that deserves some exploring, and not just because figures out today show it’s actually 400,000 and falling. This use of language, “raised out of poverty”, is one of the most pernicious Brownies out there – and is largely responsible for the appalling lack of progress made on tackling genuine poverty during the boom. When Brown says “lifted out of poverty?” he means the number of people whose income rises above an arbitrary line – 60%