Politics

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

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Party of Trammeled Freedom

Like James, I thought there’s some interesting stuff in David Brooks’ column today. On the other hand there’s also a fair quantity of stuff with which one might take some issue. To wit: Today, if Republicans had learned the right lessons from the Westerns, or at least John Ford Westerns, they would not be the party of untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice. They would once again be the party of community and civic order. What? When did the GOP become the party of “untrammeled freedom and maximum individual choice”? Remind me please, because I seem to have missed it. This is a very strange statement since no-one would suggest

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Fiscal collapse

For all its faults, the European Commission is quite good at polling and economic analysis. And its diagnosis for the UK is even worse than some of the papers write up this morning. For CoffeeHousers who are sitting down, here are a few of its most depressing points. I added the OECD, which includes other developed countries which lack the EU’s problems: Brown has reached his goal, and this (for the left) is not to be sniffed at: state spending will be more than half of UK GDP. But he could not do this by increasing government revenue, as taxpayers would not abide it. So he has used borrowing instead,

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 5 May 2009

…here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the bank holiday weekend: Fraser Nelson marks the 30th anniversary of Margaret Thatcher becoming Prime Minister, and reports on Hazel Blear’s intervention. James Forsyth notes three things keeping Gordon Brown down, and says that Harriet Harman’s friends may be doing the PM a favour. Peter Hoskin wonders whether Brown is preparing a purge of the Labour backbenches, and reports on some more Lib-Lab fun and games. Martin Bright notes John Prescott’s determinedness. Clive Davis reveals the case against the Gurkhas. Alex Massie says that Harman disappoints again. Melanie Phillips highlights the secular inquisition. And Americano charts a Rebublican Ridge to

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

30 years on

“Where there is discord, may we bring harmony. Where there is error, may we bring truth. Where there is doubt, may we bring faith. And where there is despair, may we bring hope.” It was 30 years ago today that The Lady said these words at 10 Downing St. It’s not quite the Prayer of St Francis of Assisi – the first line appears to have been a little improvisation. And it is the one most often quoted because it strikes such a contrast with what was to come. They are often quoted because they strike such a contrast with what was to come. She had, in fact, come to

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Harriet Harman Disappoints Again

Say it ain’t so, Harriet! Labour deputy leader Harriet Harman has denied a report she would fight for the party leadership, as speculation grows over Gordon Brown’s position. She insisted the story was “simply not true” and under “no circumstances” would she be a candidate. She told the BBC’s Today programme: “I don’t want to be prime minister and I don’t want to be leader of the party.” Can this be true? Surely not! Then again, Harriet seems determined to disappoint us. One does wonder, however, how many times Labour must talk about its leadership problem before anyone has the courage to actually do something about it…

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Holy Gordon’s Prayer

There’s a telling line in this story from the Mail which (if true!) gets to the heart of Gordon Brown’s sense of himself. Apparently he was unhappy with the line of questioning being pursued by a recent TV interviewer, leading Brown to complain, off-camera, that “You are impugning my integrity.” Now if ever a complaint reeked of the Manse, this is it. Not that the Prime Minister is alone in parading his own estimation of his integrity as though it deflected not only criticism but, more implausibly still, the very grounds upon which such criticism might be offered; the late John Smith could take such a view himself. Smith was

Sunday

Etan Smallman

The lady is for tubing

So Hazel Blears has decided to fill the bank holiday news void – and ruin Gordon Brown’s weekend – by attacking politicians’ use of YouTube. Fraser and Martin have highlighted the sticky political consequences of her Observer piece, but there’s a more straightforward problem. A quick search of YouTube will reveal Hazel as a massive hypocrite. She has her own account and the website is littered with this prolific YouTuber giving Brown a run for his money in the new media stakes. Here she is evangelising about her online prowess: “The internet is reshaping the way we do politics … My department is trying to be a pioneer. I’ve got

Martin Bright

Hazel Takes the Reins

Hazel Blears knows exactly what she’s doing by intervening in print during the Labour Party’s darkest spring. Think of it the other way around. Ministers know that when the Prime Minister pledges 100 per cent support then it’s curtains. It’s a sign of the declining authority of Number 10 that this rule has now been inverted. Cabinet loyalty is assumed. It should not have to be asserted. Hazel Blears is stating the obvious, which is very dangerous indeed. Of course the government was on the wrong side of the gurkha debate, of course it is failing to communicate with the voters, of course the YouTube performance was a disaster. But Cabinet ministers

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Blears weighs in

Enter the iron chipmunk. Hazel Blears has given it straight to Gordon Brown in the Observer, including the immortal line “YouTube if you want to” – this lady is not for tubing. She’s for campaigning, operating on a wavelength broadly approaching that of the British public. This shook up No10 which forced her to put out words of loyalty which (bless her) had all the sincerity of a hostage statement. “I want to make it clear that the Prime Minister has my 100 percent support,” etc. So, what’s cooking? With Charles Clarke sending a coded message that Ed Balls should quit, and Kate Hooey sounding off, all this can be

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A Laboured farce

Disquiet on the Labour backbenches, calls for Brown to go, Harriet Harman calling for “unity” – ie, politician-speak for “I’m game”: will Labour stage a mutiny this summer, as they failed to do last summer? Absolutely not. Tories do mutiny, and do it properly. It’s House of Cards-style brutality: serious people doing serious violence to each other. With the Tories, it’s a lethal drama. In my News of the World column I say what we’re likely to get from Labour is a summer pantomime. A tragicomic performance with mad hatter Brown, John Prescott  returning to the stage, chasing girls and raising laughs and David Miliband whipping out another banana. And

Saturday

The Spectator

A 30-year blip?

Thirty years ago this Sunday, Margaret Thatcher was elected Prime Minister with a Commons majority of 43. In the 11 years that followed, she took an economic basket case, the sick man of Europe, an offshore banana republic, and transformed it: inflation was curbed, penal tax ended, the unions tamed, and Britain’s confidence on the world stage reasserted by victory in the Falkland Islands and the strength of the Iron Lady’s alliance with President Reagan. Her greatest achievement, paradoxically, was to transform not one party but two: New Labour was the offspring of Thatcherism too. And for many years it seemed that many core Thatcherite presumptions had become orthodox: in

Friday

Martin Bright

The Generation Game

The rhododendron flowers are out, so it must be time for the  big beasts of the Labour Party to stir again. Charles Clarke has said that he’s ashamed to be a Labour MP after the events of the past few weeks. Well, who wouldn’t be? Clarke says there are no signs of a leadership challenge, but I’m not so sure. I think Frank Field is right that if the European and local elections on 4 June are as bad as expected, we might see a summer of serious speculation about Brown’s position. We are back preceisely where we were last summer. David Blunkett has entered the fray again. I thought he was

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Gordon Must Stay!

Iain Martin – who’s been blogging has been splendid lately – is right: the Tories should be worried that Labour might unseat Gordon Brown and fight the next election under new leadership. It’s hard to see how even this could win the election for Labour, but at the very least it might limit the losses the party can otherwise expect next summer. In fact Labour would be well-advised to get rid of Brown after the European elections next month, replace him with someone such as Alan Johnson or even, god help us, Jack Straw and promise to hold an election in October this year. Since there’s little advantage in carrying

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Satan, Art Laffer and John Rentoul

We baristas at CoffeeHouse aim to serve all our customers, so I’m happy that I have made John Rentoul remind himself that he is “left wing really.” And why? Because in my (admittedly grumpy) write-up of Cameron’s press conference yesterday I said that using words like “Laffer” to describe the pernicious effects of high tax rates makes it sound like an obscure argument. JFK was cutting taxes for the rich and arguing that a “rising tide lifts all boats” well before Art Laffer doodled on a cocktail napkin. And it’s an ancient idea, I said, which you can trace back to the book of Deuteronomy if you want.. Uh-oh. My

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Bacon sandwiches and 50p tax at Cameron’s presser

There were cold bacon sandwiches on offer at Cameron’s press conference this morning, arranged for 9.15am to get it in before Gordon Brown’s presser with the Iraqi PM (no shoes thrown at Brown), and to time it with the passing of the Coldstream Guards band playing outside. Well, the latter was perhaps a coincidence. But it did make it all seem like one of those IDS-era party conferences where they had Nimrod playing in the background. Anyway, my highlights: 1) SPENDING “We’ve said for some time ‘you’re spending too much in 2009, you’re spending too much in 2010’.” It’s hilarious hearing Cameron claim to have been some kind of prophet

Wednesday

Martin Bright

First Outing of the Coalition

I thought the Cameron-Clegg show (or was it the Clegg-Cameron show?) provided us with an interesting new double-act today. Was this the dry-run for the coalition following the next election? The two men didn’t look entirely uncomfortable in each other’s company, I thought.  The government’s position on the Gurkhas is so patently unjust that it provided the opposition with the easiest of open goals. As James has said, of course soldiers who have fought for this country should have the right to live here. It is hard to see what constituency ministers thought they were appealing to in resisting this.

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Gurkhas: Parliament’s Shocking Display of Decency

The shocking thing about the government’s defeat this afternoon is that it can be described as a shock at all. And parliamentarians wonder why they are viewed with, to put it mildly, disdain? Anyone with an ounce of commonsense can see that it is grotesque to tell the Gurkhas that they may fight in the British army but they cannot live in Britain. And yet 246 MPs duly blundered through the government lobby solely so they could be good little soldiers themselves and try and spare their masters some much-deserved embarrassment. Then again, it’s a testament to the reduced expectations people have of parliament that it actually is a surprise

Martin Bright

The FT Turns On Thatcherism

 A truly magnificent piece by Gideon Rachman in the Financial Times yetsterday. An extremely nuanced argument, which ends with the following paragraph: “One of Mrs Thatcher’s most famous phrases was: “There is no alternative.” As yet, no major political figure in Britain or the western world has really articulated a coherent alternative to the free-market principles inherited from Thatcherism. Until that happens, the Thatcher era will not be definitively over.” The rest of the piece, however, is an important deconstruction of the Thatcherite case for moral superiority.  “Perhaps most damagingly, Thatcherism has lost the moral high ground. The Iron Lady once proclaimed, slightly sinisterly: “Economics is the method. The object

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Flu takes over at PMQs

A total cheat at PMQs today. It was a swine flu swindle. Only a week has passed since Labour’s manifesto-busting tax-hikes were announced in Darling’s bankruptcy budget and the MPs’ expenses scandal is still pumping out clouds of noxious smoke and yet Cameron allowed himself to be persuaded that the pig-bug business equals a State of Emergency. If Cameron agreed to a truce today he was duped. Rather than hammering the prime minister he joined him in a stage-managed recital of announcements and statistics.  So what if a few million extra masks have been ordered? The health secretary should deal with that. People watch PMQs for a cage-fight that reveals the competing strengths