Politics Archives

Sunday

4 Oct 2009

Gordon Brown & The Thick of It

A lovely catch and telling observation from Iain Martin* on how the Prime Minister’s speech to the Labour party conference was put together and how this exhausted government is, essentially, a real-life satire: My favourite [part of The Thick of It] is the episode in which, after a Prime Ministerial resignation, increasingly frantic meetings go on all night around Whitehall as various spin-doctors try to find a suitable replacement leader. Well, over to that exasperated Labour aide: “Do you know when the decision was finally taken by Gordon to drop the commitment to debate Cameron from the speech? At 1:30 in the morning on the day of his speech, that’s

James Forsyth

Who won’t make it into Cameron’s Cabinet?

There are 29 members of the Commons and the Lords speaking from the podium at conference. Four shadow cabinet members are not — Lord Strathcylde, Lady Anelay, Patrick McLoughlin and Mark Francois. We shouldn’t read too much into who is not speaking. The Leader of the Lords and the Chief Whips in the Lords and the Commons are not regular conference turns and there is an obvious reason why the Tories don’t walk to talk about Europe. What might be more significant is that one person who is on the front bench but not in the Shadow Cabinet has got a slot, Maria Miller — suggesting that the party hierarchy

James Forsyth

Someone didn’t tell the printers

The official conference guide announces that at 2pm tomorrow “Alan Duncan, Shadow Leader of the House of Commons” will be speaking in a session entitled “Reforming politics: Transparency”. Of course, he won’t be. He is no longer shadow leader of the House. Ironically, it was this appointment that sealed his fate. It was thought that it would be a PR disaster to have someone who had complained that MPs were living on rations speaking on this topic and so Duncan was demoted to be shadow Prisons Minister and Sir George Young moved into his job and speaking slot. I suspect that a proof reader somewhere will be getting an earful

James Forsyth

We await the beef

The Tories have been briefing heavily that this would be a policy heavy conference. Indeed, I’m told that every shadow Cabinet member will have at least one substantive announcement to make. But there is relatively little that is genuinely new in the Sunday newspapers. One explanation for this is that the Tories accept that Lisbon is going to crowd out any other story. One senior source told me on Friday that CCHQ thought that nothing other than Europe would have cut through until Sunday afternoon. So far, the Tory containment operation on Europe appears to be just about holding. There is, though, grumbling about Boris’s comments in the Sunday Times

David Blackburn

Cameron’s radicalism is best for Britain

The Observer’s leading article asks the question: will David Cameron’s modernism serve Britain’s interests? The article’s conclusion is a firm ‘no’; its key is that the ‘Conservatives’ apparent relish in tackling the budget deficit is not entirely economic in motivation. It expresses a broader ideological commitment to a smaller state.’ A smaller state is better for Britain. The consistent growth of the state over more than a decade has demolished Britain’s financial strength. In changed economic circumstances, its continued growth is unsustainable. July is a month that should produce a revenue surplus, as tax receipts outweigh borrowing. This year saw a £8.1bn deficit. Nothing expresses the nation’s parlous financial position and the

Alex Massie

What is Tory policy on Europe?

Fraser says there’s plenty to fight for on the Great European Question and, in many ways, I’m sure he’s right. But what is Tory policy in the event that Lisbon is ratified before the election? That may be a hypothetical, but it’s not an unreasonable one. It deserves a clear answer. I’m struck too by what Cameron said in his interview with Fraser in this week’s edition of the magazine: The whole Conservative party has had the benefit of learning the mistake Blair made – having a mandate and not using it. Not actually using your early months to demonstrate how you can transform a country… There are some things

David Blackburn

The European issue gets the Tory conference underway

The Conservative conference is just hours old, but already Cameron faces a battle to hold the line over Europe and the Lisbon treaty. He produced his standard response on the Andrew Marr show: that he wanted a referendum if the Czechs refuse to ratify the treaty. And he added: “I don’t want say anything or do anything that would undermine what was being decided and debated in other countries”. Meanwhile, rent-a-quote Europhiles and Eurosceptic Tories exchange blows in Manchester. Leon Brittan described a possible referendum on the Lisbon Treaty as “ludicrous” and Dan Hannan has just told Sky News: “This is not the Conservative party of the past. This is

Fraser Nelson

Signs of the changing political landscape

So how radical is David Cameron? I was on a Radio Four panel yesterday for “Beyond Westminster” (now online) where, for once, I was not the only token right-winger. It was presented by Iain Martin and had Bruce Anderson, who wrote this week’s cover piece about Cameron, and Jackie Ashley. I was begging Iain to introduce her as being from “the left-wing Guardian” to repeat the intro that the BBC so often gives the “right-wing” Spectator (“Warning: the views you are about to hear are not from the consensus”). Iain asked me if I thought Cameron had the courage and the character needed to transform Britain. I concluded with words

Saturday

3 Oct 2009

The Spectator

How to ‘seal the deal’

David Cameron will be Britain’s new Prime Minister by next summer — this was the main conclusion drawn from the Labour party conference. David Cameron will be Britain’s new Prime Minister by next summer — this was the main conclusion drawn from the Labour party conference. It did not need to be announced formally, but it suffused everything, from the desperation in the platform speeches to the gallows humour in the Brighton bars. This week, Britain has seen the spectacle of a party whose MPs are going back to their constituencies and are preparing for retirement — or abject defeat followed by a brutal civil war. There is now only one party of

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 3 October 2009

For years, I kept Labour’s shortest version of its 1997 ‘pledge card’. For years, I kept Labour’s shortest version of its 1997 ‘pledge card’. On one side, in red, were the party’s key pledges and a photograph of Tony Blair beside which it said, ‘strong’ (Daily Telegraph). The other side was blue, stated the main shortcomings of the Tories and carried a picture of John Major beside which it said ‘weak’ (Daily Telegraph). Sadly, I have now lost the card, and have forgotten what the famous pledges were. A colleague recently asked me if the Conservatives, now approaching New Labour’s winning position in 1997, were to produce their own pledge

Fraser Nelson

Time to start banging on about Europe

It’s not yet official, but everyone is couning on a big “yes” from Ireland – to the tune of about 64% says The Guardian. I say in my News of the World column tomorrow that this is far from a disaster for the Conservatives. It works well for them, in fact: it isn’t nerds who want a UK referendum but any fair-minded person who has just witnessed the way Brussels bullies, bribes and cajoles to get its way. Tony Blair was the one who reneged on his promise of a rederendum – something which, in my opinion, should be a criminal act (but, as Stuart Wheeler tested, is not technically

David Blackburn

The politics of hope are dead. Cameron has everything to gain by being realistic

Publicly at least, Labour MPs are jubilant that Gordon Brown has agreed to appear, in principle, in a televised election debate. They give the responses to the creed first spun by Blair: that Brown is an arch-realist and heavyweight who will undo the vacuous Tories in debate. Certainly, Mr Brown is blessed with talents. As proud wives like to do, Brown’s listed his the other day – intelligence, hard work, dutifulness, diligence and patriotism. All laudable attributes, but even from environs of the cosy Labour conference, Mrs Brown did not dare suggest that her husband was in any way a realist. Brown’s, and Labour’s, messy divorce from political reality was

David Blackburn

Brown agrees in principle to TV election debate

Despite trying to turn Adam Boulton to stone on Tuesday night, Gordon Brown has agreed in principle to appearing on the Sky election debate. It’s long been suspected that he would agree to participate, today merely confirms the rumour. If the debate goes ahead, it would represent a huge change in British electoral procedure. Mr Brown deserves credit for contributing to that change. Why he did not choose to announce this positive move, illustrating that he’s prepared to take the fight to Cameron and Clegg, in his conference speech defies belief and speaks volumes about his political courage and instincts. As ever, Brown’s appearance is subject to certain as yet undefined caveats and conditions and the party leaders will have to agree

Christopher Fildes

Advice to the next Chancellor

The best moment in a chancellor’s life comes early. ‘Mr Deputy Speaker,’ he says, ‘we have examined the books. The position is grave. My first duty is to put the public finances in order.’ He then sends for the Hungarian middle-distance runner, Savij Kutz. This bogeyman, first identified by Alan Watkins, has been off the track for years but is making a comeback. Nick Clegg for the Lib Dems gave him a friendly wave. Gordon Brown mutters his surname through gritted teeth. David Cameron lets it be known that he wouldn’t want Kutz to be confrontational. He may not have the choice. Public profligacy has seen to that. Public spending

Hugo Rifkind

Shared Opinion | 3 October 2009

How is it that Hollywood has made Roman Polanski into a cause célèbre? He’s a paedo, but he’s our paedo. That’s what bricklayers say. Weird, I know, but there you go. He might have drugged and sodomised that little girl, these bricklayers will say, but he’s had a hard life, and he’s so damn good at laying bricks and doing that slathering thing with his little cake slice that surely that should outweigh the time he took that 13-year-old back to his friend’s house, plied her with booze and Quaaludes, joined her in a hot-tub and… oh no, wait. Silly me. I don’t mean bricklayers, do I? No, bricklayers are

Friday

2 Oct 2009

Martin Bright

David Cameron’s strange European bedfellows

I just don’t understand David Cameron’s stubbornness over his alliance with his new friends in fringe European parties. Why make a stand for these people? William Hague’s insistence of an apology from David Miliband following his comments at Labour Party conference is plain daft. Miliband may have gone over the top in what he said about Cameron’s new allies. But there’s no way he will withdraw his comments. Why draw attention to the Conservative Party’s connections with these people? I don’t know if Poland’s Michal Kaminski really is an anti-Semite or a homophobe or whether he was a member of a neo-fascist group in his youth. Everything David Miliband said about

The Spectator

The week that was | 2 October 2009

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk this week. Fraser Nelson can’t believe the lines Labour MPs are coming out with, and says it’s game over for Labour in Brighton. James Forsyth says that getting shirty with the media won’t do Labour any favours, and sees Brown’s speech fall flat in Brighton. Peter Hoskin believes that Brown’s fightback is already over, and reckons Brown’s drinking in the last chance saloon, again. David Blackburn argues that the banks are our route to salvation, and observes Labour begging for the return of Blair. Martin Bright asks why say it if you won’t act. Rod Liddle wants to eradicate his inner

David Blackburn

A glimpse of Home Secretary Grayling?

Chris Grayling’s reputation as a one-dimensional attack-dog was accentuated by his ill-judged comparison of Britain with Baltimore. The argument laid against Grayling is that he shouts about the government but provides no more than a whisper about policy. However, Grayling shows deep and nuanced consideration of policy when interviewed by Martin Bright in the Jewish Chronicle. Grayling’s subject is extremism and failing multi-culturalism. I apologise for its length, but here is the key section: ‘“I think the government has to make it absolutely clear that anyone in our country who espouses violence is not going to be able to do business with the government of the day and in many

David Blackburn

The Hague Miliband Euro-feud hots up

Much has been made of David Miliband’s vitriol against the Tories and their EU parliament grouping, and the intimation that Eric Pickles is Anti-Semitic. William Hague complained yesterday, and has now formalised that complaint by writing to the Foreign Secretary, highlighting the factual errors and misconceptions that dominated Miliband’s speech. Hague ends the letter by writing: ‘Democratic politics is at its best when it is a civilised and constructive debate between different points of view. It is deeply regrettable that you have listened to those who prefer the politics of slur and smear. Your duty as the country’s Foreign Secretary is to support our nation’s good relations with our allies.

David Blackburn

How to form a government

The change from being in opposition to being in government is almost impossible to gauge. How does a new prime Minister assume control of government? Peter Riddell gives David Cameron 10 tips that would ease the process. To emphasise the scale of Cameron’s impending problem, the only tip he can enact now is to ensure a smooth transfer from Shadow Cabinet to Cabinet. Riddell writes: ‘Do nothing that would make governing harder. When appointing Shadow spokesmen, think whether you want them to do the same job in office. In 1979 and 1997, two fifths of the new Cabinets had not held the same posts in opposition. The most successful ministers