Politics Archives

Wednesday

30 Sep 2009

Is David Cameron tough enough to be a Tory revolutionary?

A Pall Mall club: the members’ table at lunchtime: unease and discontent. Everyone wants rid of Gordon Brown. No one is sure about David Cameron. I am asked the questions that I have been asked a hundred times before. What does he believe in? Will he be up to it? The questioners think that their doubts arise from a shortage of policies. They are wrong. The problem is caused by an absence of conviction. After all, the Lib Dems have policies on everything from asparagus beds to xylophone-playing. Little good it does them, because few people believe that they stand for anything. No one thought that about Margaret Thatcher. Yet

Irwin Stelzer

Tips for the new US ambassador

Obama’s man in London needs to stop bashing Bush, immerse himself in domestic political discourse, and get out and meet some true Brits, says Irwin Stelzer ‘He is not even a diplomat,’ sniffed BBC News when Louis Susman took up his post as America’s ambassador to the Court of St James. An Obama Chicago crony, the Guardian’s Ewen MacAskill rushed to point out from his perch in Washington — ‘a little bit of Chicago’s ruthless and combative political machine is soon to descend on the decorous calm of the Court of St James’. Because Susman had donated some $200,000 to Barack Obama’s presidential campaign, and hoovered up so much more

Rod Liddle

Is it more rude to ask if someone’s going whacko than blind?

Rod Liddle says the furore surrounding Andrew Marr’s questions to Gordon Brown is academic. These rumours are rife in the blogosphere Is our Prime Minister perpetually out of his brainbox on powerful psychotropic substances, as everybody now seems to believe? Dilaudid, crystal meth, that sort of thing? Does he stagger out of bed and say: ‘Aw, Sarah, I’ve got a meeting with Harman in half an hour. Light up the crack pipe, will you?’ Looking at the man, you would not think so. That strange, strangulated smile, the ever encroaching brow — this is not the demeanour of a man who, for example, mainlines camel tranquillisers every morning. If he

Fraser Nelson

Cameron: ‘What you need is thoughtful radicalism’

Lord Mandelson is outside David Cameron’s office when I go in for my interview. Not in person, alas, but boxed in a small television set giving his speech to the Labour party conference, to heckling from those gathered around it. A few days ago, the noble lord had suggested he would serve in a Tory government, and Mr Cameron has already thought of a role. ‘He can chair a truth and reconciliation commission on New Labour,’ he says, laughing. ‘I think that would be a very good opening job. Perhaps when he has done that and atoned for all his past sins, we could find him another.’ If Mr Cameron

Tuesday

29 Sep 2009

Peter Hoskin

The Sun shines on David Cameron

The Sun’s Whitehall Editor, David Wooding, has just tweeted that the newspaper will officially back the Conservatives at the next election. Given the paper’s recent editorial stance, it’s hardly surprising news. But it will still delight Team Cameron, and is a blow for Brown in the aftermath of his conference speech. I expect we’ll hear more about it shortly. UPDATE: The relevant Sun story is here, although it’s still only showing the opening paragraph.

David Blackburn

Brown’s watch words to defeat

Comment Central’s Alice Fishburn has collated Brown’s buzzwords. It’s revealing that derivatives of ‘choice’ and ‘change’ were used 38 times, whereas the words ‘honest’ and ‘responsibility’ were uttered twice and four times respectively. Given that the public have turned against the government’s running of the economy, Brown was unwise to concentrate on Tory-bashing rather than attempt to emphasise his honesty and sense of responsibility, but perhaps he’s given up on that front. Initially, his Goethe-inspired avowal to dream big and change the world again had me grasping for the gin; but this speech was for the hall first and the voters second, which isn’t enough to avoid defeat. All he’ll

Lloyd Evans

Good enough for Labour

For Brown this was a doddle. He couldn’t fluff it. Expectations have sunk so low that all he had to do today was show up, try not to look too knackered, spout a few revivalist platitudes and make sure he didn’t fall over. The rebellion has stalled, the plotters are paralysed. Those who criticise won’t lead, while those who would lead won’t criticise. Mandy, like a protection racketeer within the cabinet, has enriched himself in the currency of ‘loyalty’ (which in these circumstances means a reluctance to coerce others to be disloyal), and yesterday he couldn’t contain his delight at the scale of his new-found wealth. And so Mr Brown,

Peter Hoskin

What was in Brown’s speech for those turning away from Labour?

Much like Peter Mandelson’s address yesterday, Gordon Brown’s speech was designed for the Labour Party members inside the conference hall. It was effectively book-ended by two crowd-pleasing rat-a-tat lists: the first, a rundown of Labour “achievements” which received massive cheers; and the second, a disingenuous account of Tory measures “for the privileged few”, designed to draw hisses and boos from the audience. All very pantomine. And all very fun, I’m sure, for the party faithful. But what about those voters who are turning away from Labour in their droves? What was there for them? Well, having Sarah Brown introduce her husband again was a cynical attempt to reach out to

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s speech: live blog | 29 September 2009

1404, PH: We’ll be live-blogging Brown’s conference speech from 1415 onwards. In the meantime, CoffeeHousers, your thoughts on how our PM will kick things off. Last year, of course, he got Sarah Brown to introduce him. Will he repeat the trick this year? Or will he get someone else? Mandelson, perhaps? Or someone off X-Factor? Or will it be nothing flash, just Gordon? Your predictions, please… 1405, PH: Brother Massie is also live-blogging the speech here. 1410, PH: Oh, and you can watch the speech here. 1416, PH: So what will Brown actually say? Well, his announcements on anti-social behaviour and childcare have been heavily trailed. Apart from that, we

Alex Massie

Gordon’s Alive? Live-Blogging Brown in Brighton

Of course, in the movies Gordon wasn’t merely alive, but on his way to a memorable victory. Politics may not be so kind to our hero. But, since this may be his last conference speech as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party it seems appropriate to mark the occasion by sitting in the peanut gallery and live-blogging the merriment. We’ll kick off around 2pm (9am for any intrepid Americans joining the entertainment) and there will, I hope, be polls and bells and whistles and the chance for you to take part too. Hope to see you back here in an hour or so… Gordon’s Alive?

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s uncertainty over a TV debate exemplifies his moribund premiership

So what’s the story with Brown and the leaders’ TV debate? There were reports, weeks ago, that the PM was going to use his speech today to, ahem, “challenge” his opposite numbers to a debate, but then Sky intervened and Downing Street fell silent. Last we heard, Brown was veering towards a debate, but was still uncertain about the timing of it all. Now, this morning’s FT reports that Brown “spent hours on Monday night agonising” over whether to mention a televised debate in his speech today. Nick Robinson has followed that up by saying that the relevant passage has been removed from the speech. If Brown does finally accept

Alex Massie

Gordon & The Last Chance Speech

Fraser says that the Labour conference in Brighton is like an Irish wake: People are happy to see each other, but sad at the circumstances of the gathering. Shouldn’t that be the other way round? At least you know what you’re supposed to feel at a funeral; there’s none of the bittersweet sensation that can accompany a wedding, nor any nagging suspicion that the party has gathered to celebrate a terrible mistake. So, Gordon Brown has it all to do. It is, once again, the Most Important Speech of His Political Life. As Iain Martin points out, We’ve Been Here Before: We are told that Brown must demonstrate his party

David Blackburn

Brown is either fleet-footed or indecisive – he cannot be both

Gordon Brown delivers the most important speech of his life this afternoon. Whether that speech can even check the march of the seemingly inevitable is doubtful, but his best chance is to express an alternative strain of personality from the severe and serious man the electorate plainly dislike. Jim Naughtie and Neil Kinnock debated the alleged disparity between Gordon Brown in public and Gordon Brown in private. Kinnock repeated the line that, behind closed doors, Brown is a barrel of laughs, a near dilettante, and he sang the usual ‘if you could see him through my eyes’ chorus. Kinnock claimed that many in Labour circles have urged Brown in private

Rod Liddle

Debating the BNP

There is a thoughtful blog on these pages from Fraser, about the BNP’s now confirmed appearance on Question Time. I agree with most of it, although not the point that Nick Griffin is a good debater: at best, you might argue that the jury is out on his debating abilities, as he has never before been afforded the opportunity to debate. At worst, we might say that he is too easily thrown by some of the manifest stupidities within the BNP’s manifesto; policies one suspects he might like to jettison but is, for the moment at least, unable to do so. One interesting mode of attack would be to ask

Monday

28 Sep 2009

David Blackburn

Labour want Blair to hit the campaign trail

Tom Watson has told the Times that Tony Blair should hit the campaign trail “if he fancies it”. There have been rumours that both Blairs will campaign at the next election, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Brownite has publicly implored the former PM to return to the fold, and perhaps it’s a measure of the Brown camp’s increasing desperation that they are prepared to bury the hatchet. I’ve no doubt that Blair will answer the call, he would have done so had no call come. His input will be valued by a party that grew accustomed to victory under his leadership, even if he

James Forsyth

Mandelson: If I can come back, we can come back

You would have got long odds on it in the 1990s, but Peter Mandelson is now a conference darling. His hugely hammy performance delighted the hall and earned him a prolonged standing ovation. Since he has returned to British politics, Mandelson has sought to deliver enough good lines to write his own story. He deliberately inverted Tony Blair’s quote about choosing the Labour party and rallied the audience by saying ‘If I can come back, we can come back.’ He flirted with conference before confirming that the car scrappage scheme would be extended before wrapping up with a string of attacks on the Tories and a declaration that “this election

Peter Hoskin

Brown is drinking in the last chance saloon (again)

Oh joy. Alan Simpson’s ultimatum to Brown today gives me an opportunity to update this list: 20 April, 2008 “The Prime Minister, who is battling a growing rebellion over his abolition of the 10p tax rate, has been given until the end of the summer to turn things round by backbenchers angry at a string of image and policy failures.” (here) 24 May, 2008 “It is that Mr Brown be given until the end of July to prove himself and restore morale. If by then things have not improved, ministers, MPs and influential figures in the unions believe the only solution may be to send a delegation of his closest

Peter Hoskin

Does Miliband the elder represent Labour’s future?

Danny Finkelstein’s right: there are some surprising results in today’s ComRes poll for the Independent. The one which catches my eye is that David Miliband would be the most successful alternative leader at reducing the Tories’ poll lead. Along with Jack Straw, the poll suggests, he would make Labour the largest party in a hung parliament. Now, I’m frequently surprised at how popular the elder Miliband remains in Labour circles. But – after the failed coup of last year, the banana and Heseltine moments, and that disastrous trip to India, among other embarrassments – I’d assumed that that popularity wouldn’t stretch to more general voters, and that, say, Alan Johnson

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 28 September 2009

…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson revisits the BNP conundrum, and profiles Labour’s choice to take on Nick Griffin. James Forsyth examines Labour’s latest dividing line, and says the Tories are planning operation tumbleweed. Peter Hoskin wonders if Alan Johnson’s feeling a little more confident, and catches Ed Balls trying to force the tax debate. David Blackburn can’t imagine the Tories would ever work with Peter Mandelson. Daniel Korski argues that Iran is operating ‘threshold power’. Martin Bright observes the true extent of Labour’s financial collapse. Clive Davis says learning foreign languages has become a case of us and them. Rod Liddle

David Blackburn

Brown’s new dividing line ignores that banks are our route to salvation

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will launch their umpteenth fight back today by talking tough on banks and bonuses. They hope to prove the Conservatives are interested solely in “helping their rich friends”. The Times has the details: ‘The Chancellor will tell the party conference in Brighton that legislation to be introduced in the next few weeks will scrap automatic year-after-year bonuses and stop executives getting payouts unless they can prove they are deserved. Bonuses will be deferred over a period so that they can be clawed back if they are not warranted by long-term performance.’ This is not a dividing line. The Conservatives intend to curb short term-bonus culture,