Politics Archives

Saturday

21 Mar 2009

Politics | 21 March 2009

Once a week, about half of the Cabinet make the rather pointless journey into an underground bunker in Whitehall to learn just how quickly the British economy is disintegrating. This is all to humour Gordon Brown, who calls them his ‘National Economic Council’ and has them meet in the nuclear-proof room as if they were at war with the recession. After six months of such meetings, it is depressingly clear to all concerned that the recession is winning, and in ways that they never really thought possible. Given that almost everyone in Westminster is trying desperately to read the politics of the recession, those summoned to the Brown bunker have

The Spectator

The cost of learning

A momentous shift occurred in British politics this week: the National Union of Students accepted the principle that graduates should contribute to the cost of their degrees. This U-turn is proof that the argument that graduates should pay for their tuition has at last been won, 11 years after the introduction of fees in 1998. The system that existed before then, though routinely described as a badge on civilisation, was, in practice, deeply immoral. University education was paid for out of general taxation: the poorest in society were subsidising the education of those who would go on to be the richest. With the median male graduate earning £325,000 more in

Friday

20 Mar 2009

Fraser Nelson

Regulating for the future

One of the biggest dangers posed by the credit crunch is the instinct to introduce regulations that would stifle any economic recovery. Those whose memories only really cover the boom years might think the mistake was light-touch regulation and that you now need heavier regulation. That’s why the debates in the Lords on this subject are far more informative than those in the Commons: the upper chamber has people who are veterans of economic warfare and know the danger of jumping too much the other way. Here are some edited extracts of my interview with Lord Lawson (read the full transcript on the Spectator Inquiry wiki site) who makes the case

Thursday

19 Mar 2009

Martin Bright

My Long-Delayed Re-Entry

Many, many apologies for my absence from the blog. I have been deep in the inner crevices and interstices of government searching for an escape route from the recession. Have I found it? You will find out next week when the New Deal of the MInd finally sees the light of day. The coalition of people who believe that we must act now to prevent the loss of a generation of creative and entrepreneurial talent has been building steadily and we are beginning to reach critical mass. The University of the Arts (all the London art colleges) and the British Council in the form of its think tank Counterpoint, have both

James Forsyth

Lynton Crosby burns his bridges with the Tories

Over at Conservative Home, Jonathan Isaby has the scoop that Lynton Crosby—who managed both the Tory 2005 general election campaign and Boris’s mayoral run—will run the Libertas campaign in the European elections. This puts him in direct opposition to the Conservative party. Many in Westminster expected that Crosby would return in 2010 to perform the same service for the Tories that he had in 2005. Some Tory insiders felt that Crosby’s experience was just what the party would need for the campaign. But after he worked directly against it, it is very hard to see how he could return to the fold.

Fraser Nelson

Lord Lawson responds to the Spectator Inquiry

Lord Lawson has answered your questions on the recession – and then some. He warns that David Cameron will “have to do what we did initially, both cut back on spending in particular but also raise taxes”. He also explains how his Board of Banking Supervision – which Brown abolished in 1997 – would have done a far better job than the FSA in seeing the crash coming. And proposes that investment banks should be lightly regulated, but that banks should be more heavily regulated. A return, in other words, to the Glass Steagall Act. Head over to The Spectator Inquiry wiki-page to read more.

Fraser Nelson

Responding to the New Statesman

All of us in 22 Old Queen Street are admiring the New Statesman this week, guest edited by Alastair Campbell. He’s evidently put a hell of a lot of work into it and ransacked his contacts book: diary by Sarah Brown, interview with Alex Ferguson (Pete, a dedicated Man Utd fan, says it’s one of the best he’s read), Danny Finkelstein on the theory of the left waking up to the net (except they’re not, but it’s a good read) and Anthony Charles Lynton Blair on his new friend, God. While the Spectator is evidently on the other side of the fence to The New Statesman we’re not really rivals,

Alex Massie

The Gordon Brown Style

A couple of revealing entries from Chris Mullin’s diaries that reveal the Prime Minister to be some ungodly (and unhealthy) combination of Uriah Heep and Lyndon Baines Johnson: Wednesday July 4th, 2001: Later, sitting on the terrace, I was joined by a member of the Blair inner circle*. Conversation soon turned to Gordon. I mentioned that following my departure from government, I had received a handwritten letter saying how much he had enjoyed working with me. It seems that every ex-Minister has received an identical letter. All the new Members have received letters too. He must have been up half the night writing them. No stone is left unturned. Gordon’s

Wednesday

18 Mar 2009

Fraser Nelson

The unemployment pain is only just beginning

This is not even the end of the beginning. Unemployment is rising at the fastest rate since monthly records began, but it will keep rising for two more years. Every month we’ll get this. Every month, Cameron will say “your ‘help’ isn’t working,” and every month he’ll be right. I have two graphs below that make this point. The first compares the monthly rise of this recession to that of Major’s recession. And, below that, the trajectory of this recession versus the previous three. Have a look at the bottom scale: that’s 36 as in 36 months. Three years of rising unemployment. So it will last right up to the

Fraser Nelson

Phoney footage

After PMQs, the burning question around Westminster is this: did Cameron overstep the mark when he shouted at Brown, “What a phoney”? Good point well made, I thought, but to other kinder souls it may come across as a bit harsh. Alan Johnson talks about Cameron coming across like Harry Flashman at times. That’s because they look at Cameron and think “public school bully”. The “phoney” moment comes 2:22 into the footage above – so what do CoffeeHousers think?

Lloyd Evans

Cameron scores a direct hit with his “phoney” jibe

A good old-fashioned punch-up at PMQs today. Much dust was raised, much smoke emitted and our old friend, the Truth, barely got a look in. Brown was ready and waiting for Cameron when he led on the surge in unemployment to 2 million. His note of piety was well received, at least by his fellow Labour penitents. ‘I came into politics to tackle unemployment and poverty,’ said a sorry-sounding Prime Minister. Cameron asked him to admit he’d been talking ‘nonsense’ when he claimed Britain was better placed than other economies to survive the recession. Brown quoted investment figures at him, millions here, billions there. Cameron disregarded this and turned to

Fraser Nelson

Cameron pummels Brown in PMQs

My, but David Cameron was good today. Assertive, contemptuous, energetic and all over Gordon Brown. Today’s unemployment rise is the highest since records began (in 1972) so he had plenty of ammo. His point was strong and simple: nothing Brown has done is working. Unemployment is getting worse, all the time. Did this not show how stupid it was for Brown to claim Britain was best-placed to weather the recession? I’ll say this for Brown: he is nothing is not audacious. Britain’s unemployment is better, he said, than France, German, Japan and this country called the “European Union” (whose figures are dominated by France and Germany). He should have added: “But

Tuesday

17 Mar 2009

Alex Massie

A Lib Dem future? Not so fast my friends!

Tom Harris doesn’t much care for the Liberal Democrats: Having seen the damage done to the Labour Party through its association with the Liberals in the Scottish Parliament in previous years, there is, if anything, more hostility among MPs to the idea of power sharing than ever. On the other hand, if the Liberal Party want to sign up to the implementation of Labour’s manifesto in the aftermath of the election, fine. So long as they don’t expect either Labour or Tory MPs to agree to a change in the electoral system so that every possible outcome in future would result in the Liberals being in government. Now I’m as

David Blackburn

The Myners contradictions

Lord Myners finally came before the Treasury Select Committee this morning to answer for his role in the Sir Fred Goodwin pension saga. John McFall asked Myners if he had been misled or negligent. Myners pleaded “neither”, but his answers did not support that claim and were totally inconsistent with what he has said in the past. They also highlighted the government’s reckless approach to the bailout negotiations; an approach which ignored all necessary scrutiny. Myners recalled the tumultuous weekend of 11th-12th October 2008, when he met RBS’s directors to negotiate the first banking bailout. On the evening of Saturday 11th, it became clear that the directors had decided to

James Forsyth

Should the Tories use localism to snare Lib Dem inclined voters?

Rachel Sylvester’s column this morning contains this revealing statistical nugget: “As Lord Ashcroft told the Shadow Cabinet in a presentation about his private polling some months ago, there are more discontented potential Tory voters who have switched to the Liberal Democrats than the BNP.” This suggests that we are unlikely to see the Tories adopting a shrill, populist tone on immigration and other BNP issues. However it does make one think that the Tories missed a trick in not appointing Nick Herbert to DCLG with a brief to be bold on localism. Localism is a good Tory issue is that it makes public servants more accountable and will, over time,

Alex Massie

Mullin on Cameron

I’ve been reading Chris Mullin’s entertaining diaries and was interested to be reminded that David Cameron was a member of the Home Affairs Select Committee, chaired by Mullin. The Tory leader doesn’t feature often in the diaries, but here’s what Mullin has to say: November 15, 2001: “We have an impressive new Tory on the committee – David Cameron, a young, bright libertarian* who can be relied upon to follow his own instincts rather than the party line.” April 9th, 2002: “More than once, when we reached an impasse, David Cameron came to the rescue. The more I see of him, the more I like. He’s bright, personable and refreshingly

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s secret meeting: live blog

As I type, David Cameron is in the Boothroyd Room, in Portcullis House, addressing Tory MPs who are anxious to hear if his Big Sorry on Friday amounts to a change in direction. True in the Cameroon spirit of open information, I’m being sent some dispatches in real time. Whether it’s interpretation or verbatim quotes isn’t clear: I’ll just pass it on to you raw. The party, Cameron is saying, must reassure the public that they value public services. Internal polling (which is the basis for the presentation – basically about party aims in 2009) has shown recently that the Tories are still vulnerable to being seen as anti-NHS. So care must be taken to combat this. Europe

Monday

16 Mar 2009

James Forsyth

Why the Tory poll lead is likely to grow during the general election campaign

Conventional wisdom has it that the governing party recovers in the polls during an election campaign. The theory is that the incumbent party both gests to choose when the election is and benefits from the polls moving from being a referendum on the government to a choice between the parties. But—as Anthony Wells, Mike Smithson and Daniel Finkelstein argue—there is no evidence to support the idea that there is an automatic pendulum effect. So, those arguing that Labour’s poll numbers are definitely understating what the party will get in the general election are wrong. Looking ahead to the next election, I’d expect the Tories to actually have the better of

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s five reasons to vote Tory

So the winning question to David Cameron was Rhoda Klapp’s “Give me five good reasons to vote tory”. It chimes with our winning 2009 resolution for Cameron: “To resolve to produce 5 core reasons to vote Conservative which every British voter is familiar with by the next election”. And his answer? 1) Get rid of an exhausted Labour government 2) Tories would give people more power over their lives, and devolve power to people and local authorities 3) Move away from an economy built on debt to one built on saving 4) Mend the broken society, with radical welfare reform 5) Radical school reform, too. My take… 1) Amen: an

Fraser Nelson

It won’t be enough to just say “sorry”

So just how sorry is David Cameron? On Friday he put his hands up to being part of a “cosy consensus” on tax and spending. So I had expected his press conference today to declare he’d torn up his plans to outspend what he inherits from Labour. All bets are off, I expected him to say, it’s time for clean slate, and the Tories can make no promises on spending until they see the government books – i.e. real spending cuts aren’t ruled out. But nope – his original position still stands: that the only question in his mind is the rate of increase in spending. But it will increase.