Politics

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

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Removing McBride from the front-line will leave Brown weaker

Damian McBride’s reported departure should be seen as a major part of today’s reshuffles. He has for years been Brown’s real “enforcer”, and – as Martin Bright argued – became a focal point amongst ministers who suspected he was briefing against anyone who defied his master. He was referred to as “McPoison” by none other than Peter Mandelson, so I link Mandy’s return and McBride’s departure – because Mandy knows the real power of spin doctors, would rightly see McBride as one of his major enemies and demand his head as the price of returning to government. Without McBride, Brown’s media operation will take a major hit. McBride was very effective

The Spectator

Brown revamps his press team

Is Damian McBride paying for the shambolic handling of the Ruth Kelly resignation?  The FT are reporting that he’ll be replaced by Justin Forsyth as the PM’s political and press adviser.  Then again, McBride is to remain as part of the No.10 team, so the influence he wields could still be considerable. 

The Spectator

BBC: Ed Miliband to head new department

There is to be a new department dealing with energy and climate change which will be headed by Ed Miliband. This reshaping of the government will force Cameron into at least a mini-shuffle to create a shadow for this new department.

Matthew Dancona

Mandelson’s astonishing return

Peter Mandelson’s return to Government is arguably the most astonishing single event of the New Labour era. His 14 year feud with Gordon Brown has led both men to say the most vituperative things about each other in private: their once strong friendship seemed completely beyond repair and the virulence of their hatred for one another was a source of huge instability during the Blair years. It is only two years since Mandelson was openly questioning Brown’s abilities to lead the party at the 2006 Labour conference in Manchester. I would call this a Molotov-Ribbentrop pact, except that the comparison does not do justice to the breathtakingly counter-intuitive character of

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Boy Dave Done Good

It’s just like old times, ain’t it? The Sun wading in behind the Tory leader. The paper’s leader today has a headline Tory HQ would have written themselves: He’s Ready. The Sun says: DAVID Cameron finally stood up yesterday and showed what he is made of. Gone was the show pony politician. In his place emerged a tough leader, a young but credible statesman with potent ideas for rebuilding our nation. Mr Cameron said the words his party wanted to hear. He echoed their hero, Margaret Thatcher, calling for “strong defence, sound money and the rule of law”. The Tory leader insisted there would be “no new dawns, no overnight

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Littlejohn Vote

As expected, David Cameron’s speech has been well received. In the Telegraph, Iain Martin says this was the moment Cameron “came out as a Conservative”.  Indeed so. But amidst the sobriety and the resolution, there were moments of populist blue meat too. The BBC’s mini-focus group particularly loved this passage: For Labour there is only the state and the individual, nothing in between. No family to rely on, no friend to depend on, no community to call on. No neighbourhood to grow in, no faith to share in, no charities to work in. No-one but the Minister, nowhere but Whitehall, no such thing as society – just them, and their

Daniel Korski

Who, and what, should follow Sir Ian Blair?

With the departure of a Commissioner who is seen as an intellectual New Labour-style cop, there will be a desire for a copper’s copper at the head of the Met: someone who has risen up through the ranks, commands respect on the beat and is seen as focused on crime, not convention.  But the Commissioner’s job has become very political, requiring not only the support of one’s Bobbies but of a range of ‘stakeholders’. There are, of course, serious inside candidates who fit this bill – like Northern Ireland’s Hugh Orde or the Met’s own Paul Stephenson – and outsiders such as David Veness, who used to work for the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

So who will succeed Ian Blair?

It’s confirmed: Sir Ian Blair is offski. The world heard it here first at 2.10pm – we pipped Iain Dale to it by about a minute. We ran it as a rumour. The Times and The Sun followed with firmer reports about ten minutes later. See we offer it all here – the best coffee and the hottest gossip. And there’s more. Boris doesn’t have the powers to sack Blair but after today’s Daily Mail splash he applied as much pressure as he could, including threats of what would happen when he took over chairing the MPA, which he will soon. Ian Blair went running to Jacqui Smith for protection,

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Rumour: Sir Ian Blair to resign today

We’re picking up rumours here at Coffee House that – following the Mail’s splash about the how Sir Ian Blair awarded his mate a £15,000 “contract” to improve his image – the Met commissioner has decided to resign and may do so at 4pm this afternoon. Watch this space.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron must beware factual errors, lest they look like Brownies

Given the fun we have here in Coffee House picking Gordon Brown up on factual errors, it seems only fair to cast our eye over David Cameron’s speech. One can argue his errors are made from ignorance rather than calculation, but errors are errors and have no place in a leader’s speech. It is untrue to say – as Cameron did – “In Afghanistan the number of our troops has almost doubled but the number of helicopters has stayed just the same.” Not only are all the choppers which were there two years ago still there, but they have been joined by an additional unit of Sea Kings with new

Daniel Korski

Brown on back foot in Europe

Gordon Brown likes to think of himself as above anyone else when it comes to dealing with world of finance. A few years ago, he was late for a meeting with policy wonks in the Treasury and chortled condescendingly that he had just come off the phone with the fifth French Finance Minister in five years. The point was clear: while the French have no stability at their financial top, Labour had in Britain guaranteed a better way of economic management. All the more interesting, therefore, that as the financial markets tumble down it is France, not Britain, which has taken the lead in calling for a financial crisis summit on

Andrew Neil

The post-conference landscape

The party conference season is over and we’re back to business as usual — except that in the current financial and economic turmoil, political business is anything but normal.   Last night the US Senate voted for the Bush bailout plan by a large majority, which should keep the markets happy until the House of Representatives considers the matter again. The word from Capitol Hill is that it is likely to go through on a second vote; but nothing is certain in Washington in an election year and if it fails again the global economy will be on the brink of collapse once more.   The French are now proposing

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Political Advertising 13

Dedication. Humanity. Good Sense. Fine virtues all. But enough to win an election? Jimmy Carter hopes so in 1980. But, dash it, there’s something a little forlorn about this ad:

Matthew Dancona

The speech of a Prime Minister in waiting

‘No new dawns, no immediate transformations. I’m a man with a plan, not a miracle cure’: in that line lay the key message at the heart of this astute speech, by a man who now deserves to be seen as the Prime Minister in waiting. Elected as the ‘sunshine’ leader in 2005, David Cameron said in the Symphony Hall today that he was ‘still optimistic because I have faith in human nature’. But this was the speech of an instinctive realist who knows that, if he becomes Prime Minister in the next year and a half, he will head a Government that will have to take some deeply unpopular decisions,

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s speech: live blog

1405, Peter Hoskin: Welcome to the Coffee House team’s live blog of David Cameron’s conference speech.  Just keep refreshing to get the latest.  The Tory leader’s not expected on stage until around 1430, but preview snippets of his speech suggest that the headline message will be: “Britain needs change, not experience”.  In the meantime, here’s one for you to ponder: was Tony Blair as good a PM as Winston Churchill?  That’s certainly what Mrs Blair seems to think…  1412, PH: Make that 1452 for Cameron’s ETA. 1420, James Forsyth: Cameron’s mission today is to show the public that he—not Gordon Brown—is the leader Britain need in these tough times. He must demonstrate that

Peter Hoskin

Georgia’s PM drops by the Tory conference

In a classic piece of conference choreography, the Georgian Prime Minister – Lado Gurgenidze – has just made a surprise appearance in Birmingham.  Sure, he may have met with Gordon Brown a couple of weeks ago, but it’s still quite a coup for the Cameroons.  Not only is it a effective reminder that there are other international problems than the financial crisis (thereby forcing the debate away from Brown’s comfort zone), but it also creates the impression that the Tories are very much part of the process; a government-in-waiting.

Peter Hoskin

Councils wary over Osborne’s tax plans

One question that’s been hovering above George Osborne’s council tax pledge is whether his expectation that “100 percent” of councils will sign up to it is overly optimistic.  If a survey of London council leaders in today’s Standard is anything to go by, it may well be.  That survey finds that 16 of London’s 32 boroughs – every one run by Labour or the Lib Dems – would oppose the measure, and – allegedly – there are grumblings from Tory councillors too.  Their beef is that a freeze on council tax would force services to be cut back, and could even cause taxes to be artificially higher in subsequent years. These are not worries that