Politics

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

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Britishness parties? No thanks.

The government hasn’t given up on plans to compell us to celebrate our Britishness. Immigration Minister Liam Byrne: is due to make the case for the August Bank Holiday to be a national British day in a wide ranging speech on national identity to New Labour think tank Progress. The immigration minister will say a “clear majority of people” support the idea of a national day of celebration, based upon his own discussions with voters in recent months. He will tell Progress there is a “strong sense that the time is right for Britain as a country to do more to celebrate the things we have in common”. “And one

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The wacky world of Lib Dem policy

I know one shouldn’t take Liberal Democrat policy seriously, but I went along to their first lobby briefing today just to see. Anyone who believes Gordon Brown is detached from reality should have taken a seat as Nick Clegg and Norman Baker faced lobby journalists. It was on their transport policy, to reverse Beeching cuts with a new generation of railways as seen in, em, no other country in the world. What cost? They haven’t worked that out yet. But the money would come, Baker explained, from train companies in return for even longer franchises. One problem though: train operating companies don’t have money of their own other than what

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The odds on ministers losing their seats

If you fancy a punt on various cabinet ministers losing their seats here are the odds from William Hill and, where relevant, the swing required for the Tories to take it: RUTH KELLY    BOLTON WEST    86 (4.9%)    7/4  JOHN HUTTON    BARROW AND FURNESS    115 (6.25%)    2/1   JACQUI SMITH    REDDITCH    41 (2.3%)    5/2                 ALISTAIR DARLING    EDINBURGH AND SOUTH WEST    161 (8.25%)    14/1 JACK STRAW    BLACKBURN    178 (9.6%)    20/1                JOHN DENHAM    SOUTHAMPTON ITCHEN    198 (10.45%)    33/1 JAMES PURNELL    STALYBRIDGE AND HYDE    50/1 GEOFF HOON    ASHFIELD    50/1

James Forsyth James Forsyth

No unadulterated good news for Gordon anymore

Gordon Brown should be breathing a large sigh of relief over the fact that Jacqui Smith has apparently won over enough Labour backbenchers to stave off defeat. But it seems that Brown has reached that stage where all good news for him is qualified. Smith’s impressive performance has led to Nick Robinson tipping her as a contender “to succeed Gordon after he stands down or maybe after he’s pushed.” So, even though Brown looks like avoiding the massive blow to his authority that would come from a Parliamentary defeat he still finds his position being undermined, albeit more subtly, by the chatter about who will be the next Labour leader.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The best case for 42 days

The piece by Peter Clarke, the former head of the Met’s anti-terror command, arguing for 42 days detention in the Telegraph today is essential reading. As I said the other day, I’m still undecided on the issue but Clarke makes the most persuasive case for it I’ve seen. Here is Clarke’s crucial point: “When I was asked, in 2005, by the home affairs select committee how many terrorists I had been obliged to let go through lack of time to investigate, I inwardly despaired. It was the wrong question. We should look forward, not back. The fact that we have been able to convict more than 60 terrorists in the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Brown question

Gordon Brown timed the Crewe and Nantwich by-election so that MPs would be heading out for the recess as the result came in. With Labour MPs scattered to the four winds, leadership plotting failed to get off the ground. This and the Labour party seeming to row in behind the government on 42 days do not mean that Brown is out of the woods, though. As Rachel Sylvester notes this morning, “Labour MPs will no longer give Mr Brown the benefit of the doubt. The next crisis (a funding scandal, another U-turn, a ministerial resignation) could be fatal.”  It is revealing how frank various cabinet ministers are prepared to be

Monday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Good news for Gordon!

At least one person thinks he can still win! This man is on much more comfortable ground discussing his work with overseas politicians, including his contributions to Blair’s 2005 campaign, which include dreaming up the slogan “Forward Not Back”*. “Part of the reason I’ve been so successful in so many different foreign countries,” he says, “has been that I’ll come to people who are locked into a world that they see only from their political context … and be able to say ‘No, no, no – let’s take a look at the numbers.'” He seems remarkably sanguine about the current prime minister’s problems. “Look, obviously, Labour and Gordon Brown are

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Andrew Grice: 42 days rebellion fading

The Independent’s Andrew Grice reports that Jacqui Smith’s performance at the Parliamentary Labour Party meeting was well received. It appears that the rebellion is diminishing rather than meta-sizing. Smith was frank about the consequences of losing the vote next Wednesday: “We have gone a million miles. Meet us on the way. Make no mistake. Defeat will have a political message.” Ever since the local elections, Tories have been saying that they expected Labour to rally to Brown on this measure and it seems that this might be beginning to happen. The PLP is not yet prepared to deal the kind of blow that defeat would entail to the Prime Minister.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Blunkett: Things can only get better

David Blunkett’s attempt to be helpful on 42 days is a classic: We’ve hit a rock bottom in my view and we can only get… climb out of it, so I think that, whilst it would be yet another knock, it would not be a knockout blow  

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Clegg about to do a left turn?

Nick Clegg is the subject of The Independent’ s ‘You ask the question..’ feature today. His answer to this question is particularly interesting:  Who was a worse PM, Blair or Brown? Saurav C, by email Clegg: Blair was more wrong, Brown’s more incompetent. Now, I may be reading way too much into a pithy response but it rather suggests to me that Clegg is shifting his political positioning leftwards. It might be that this is in response to the stories about him becoming Home Secretary in a Tory government or he might have decided that given the current political environment, the Lib Dem’s best chance of gains at the next election

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The economy points to a two term Tory government

I’m now back from the recess and checking up on all the news I missed – the most striking of which seems to be how the economic stars are aligning for a Tory second term. Three things jump out:- 1. The downturn has only just begun: The political soap opera is so compelling that it’s easy to overlook that the property market is now falling faster than at any point in the 1990s. Commercial property down 16 percent and residential down 11 percent, on an annualised basis. As Britain has one of the closest links between house prices and consumer spending, you can’t say this will be isolated to the property

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown makes the case for 42 days

Tonight, Jacqui Smith will address the Parliamentary Labour Party. Brown will not attend the meeting but he has outlined the compromises he is prepared to make in an article for The Times this morning. Brown stresses both the complexity of modern terrorist plots and how rarely this power would be used. As someone who is agnostic on 42 days, the least persuasive part of the piece is when Brown says that if the Home Secretary decided to use the 42 day power, Parliament would then have to ratify this decision. This seems to confuse the role of the legislature and the judiciary. The level of public debate it would entail

Saturday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown has been phoning round since 1997

The story that Gordon Brown personally calls members of the public who write him critical letters gets more bizarre with the news in today’s Guardian that he has apparently being doing this since 1997. This suggests that he can’t be calling that many people as otherwise this would have surely leaked out before now. Someone who has received one of these calls told The BBC: ‘the prime minister apologised on behalf of the government “for what had happened to the people of Iraq”.’ This flags up another potential problem with the scheme: people who have been phoned could start coming forward and announcing that government policy on x,y or z

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour’s money woes

Peter Oborne’s column in The Daily Mail reveals just how bad Labour’s financial position is. As Peter notes, there are doubts as to whether the party can be deemed a ‘viable going concern.’ Incredibly, there is a real chance that the Labour party might actually go bankrupt and that members of the NEC could find themselves personally liable for Labour’s debts: “This threat of personal liability is now being taken very seriously indeed, so much so that the GMB trade union has already taken the extraordinary step of discussing at its last executive council meeting whether its two representatives on Labour’s ruling National Executive Committee (NEC) should be indemnified against

The Spectator

The fumes of failure

‘We have no plans not to implement our budget’: the double negative employed by Phil Woolas, the Environment Minister, on Tuesday’s Newsnight, and the familiar ‘no plans’ formula, told you all you need to know about this government’s collapse of confidence. On the matter of retrospective Vehicle Excise Duty (VED) increases, ministers are desperate to execute a U-turn as quickly and as painlessly as possible — one which, in any case, they fear they will be forced into sooner or later. Equally, Gordon Brown does not want to be seen to be bowing — yet again — to popular pressure, so soon after the 10p tax debacle. It is hard

Edie G-Lush

National Cyber-database Proposal

When Labour ministers say ‘we’re listening’, this is what they really mean — and it’s frightening Last week the Labour government revealed its plans to create a national cyber-database to hold details of every phone call, text, email and visit to the internet, as part of its plan to fight terrorism and crime. Internet service providers and telecoms companies will be required to give their records to the Home Office, where the data will be held for at least a year. Police and other security units will be allowed access if permission is granted by the courts. The government claims the proposal comes as part of plans to implement an

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 30 May 2008

Some highlights of the week on Spectator.co.uk: Matthew d’Ancona surveys the new political landscape. James Forsyth asks if New Labour can survive opposition and looks at the Cruddas alternative. Stephen Pollard explains why he is not unduly worried about 62 percent of the shadow cabinet being privately educated. Americano takes a look at McCain’s VP shortlist and looks at the Republican Obama should pick as his running mate. Clive Davis offers his take on whether Amy Winehouse lyrics have a place on a Cambridge exam paper. Michael Millar wonders why Barclays appears to be encouraging rather reckless financial behaviour and wonders what Northern Rock will do if, as expected, some

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The question Brown must answer if Labour is to recover

Stephen McCabe, the Labour whip who was in the charge of the Crewe and Nantwich campaign, has written an article for Tribune on his experience. The headlines will be grabbed by McCabe’s claim that there was no ‘toff strategy’ but more interesting is how he explains Labour’s defeat. “Nor could we stem the drift from Labour of the aspirational 25- and 35-plus age groups “Their message was simple. They were fed up with paying too much tax, too much for fuel and food, and feared for their economic future. Labour couldn’t claim to be on their side. That remains the big challenge. What will we do to win back those

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour’s targets for fighting crime are about as much use as a chocolate fireguard

Tim Montgomerie flags up how the targets culture is distorting policing priorities with arresting a child for stealing a chocolate bar treated by the police as being as important as arresting a murderer. There’s little doubt that the police are going for the low hanging fruit when it comes to meeting targets. Indeed, the only way to really measure how the police are serving the public is to make them fully accountable. If police chiefs had to stand for election and re-election it would force them to concentrate on the crimes that most bother the public.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown leads Labour to a historic low–new poll has Lab 23, Con 47, Lib Dems 18 

The headlines figures in today’s YouGov poll are disastrous for Brown, the historical comparisons are humiliating—even under Michael Foot the Labour party never sank this low in the polls, but what should really worry Brown about this poll is that he and Labour now trail Cameron and the Tories on every question. Downing Street has been spinning the line that the recent election results have been so bad for Labour as they have been referendums on the government. The thinking goes that things will improve for Labour at the general election as it will be a choice between Labour and the Tories.  This new poll, though, offers no evidence for