Politics

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

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Ideas for government

Frank Field’s piece for the latest issue of the magazine is well-worth reading, and fecund ground for a weekend debate.    As he sees it, Brown and Cameron have to concentrate on the “post-Thatcher question” of “How can individual freedom be extended while at the same time protecting that degree of public provision which voters believe necessary for a civilised life?”    Cameron’s ahead on this issue, at the moment. But can the Government bounce back? The article suggests they can, but only by enshrining a “wider tax contract giving individual ownership and control over state programmes”. Whether or not Brown’s prepared to do this is another matter – but Field’s detailed suggestions should

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

More bad news for Brown

I’m in the Sky News green room, preparing for an 11.30pm paper review. The front pages coming in could be straight from Gordon Brown’s nightmares.  “Consumer crunch” says The Times in huge type: mortgages up £150 a month, holidays up, petrol 107p a litre and bread up 25p in a year. Its the best way of doing a theme on all front pages: “Home loans to cost more despite rate cut by bank” as The Guardian puts it. Brown has for months been bleating on about how he is “able” to lower rates. The borrowed penny has dropped now. Bank of England rates falling does not mean mortgages falling. The

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Yet another Balls up

Ed Balls has had a rather bad week and it now appears that Jim Knight, the schools minister, has been sent to mend fences with the Board of Deputies over Balls’s attack on the admission procedures of Jewish faith schools. This whole row over admissions was concocted by Balls himself but has ended up back-firing dreadfully on him. Maybe the Prime Minister should take his protege in hand and tell him that a period of silence on his part would be most welcome.

Peter Hoskin

Video wars

How strange.  Ken’s just released a video attacking Boris’s first election broadcast.  For me, the main thrust of it seems to be: “black-and-white film = unattractive to foreign investors; colour film = attractive to foreign investors”.  Here’s the clip, so CoffeeHousers can judge for themselves: 

Peter Hoskin

A clearer position?

Recently, the Tories haven’t quite been giving us the full picture on Europe.  Sure, they’ve opposed the Lisbon Treaty, and have been pushing for a referendum on it.  But they’ve also been tight-lipped about what a Cameron Government would do should the Treaty be ratified.  Would they pull out of it?  Would they hold a retrospective referendum? etc. etc.   As Three Line Whip points out, the Tory MP David Heathcoat Amory may have made things a little clearer.  Here’s what he told The House Magazine: “The next Conservative government will renegotiate our relationship with Europe and finally the people will have a vote on this.” A party spokesman has already batted down expectations, with a coy “We’ll

James Forsyth James Forsyth

That didn’t take long, did it?

Gordon Brown has only been Prime Minister for 289 days but already The Sun  is devoting its main commentary slot to handicapping the race to succeed him. George Pascoe-Watson lists nine contenders—Ed Balls, David Miliband, James Purnell, Andy Burnham, Alan Johnson, Harriet Harman, Jacqui Smith, Jon Cruddas and Charles Clarke—giving Balls and Purnell particularly favourable write-ups. Now, you might say this is just one newspaper story on a quiet Thursday but it does show that the current chatter has broken out of the Westminster Village. If Labour takes a pasting on May 1st, then this chatter will only get louder and Brown’s authority will be diminished even further.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Was this the Straw that broke Jack’s back?

The knives are out for Ed Balls at the moment. Partly this is because, as Michael White points out in The Guardian, he is a proxy for Gordon Brown. But it is also because he’s been empire building with little thought to the feelings of his fellow ministers. One friend of Coffee House points to evidence that Balls gave to the inaugural meeting of the Children, Schools and Families Committee as a reason why Jack Straw might have felt like punching Balls: I am jointly accountable to Parliament and this Committee, with Jack Straw, for every aspect of youth justice and youth justice policy, even though most of the budget

Matthew Dancona

The schools battle

As Jonathan Freedland and Coffee House favourite Steve Richards have pointed out, the row over school admissions is turning into a proper Left-Right punch-up. And quite right, too. For much too long, the most publicly visible battle lines (expertly drawn by Gordon Brown) have been between “Labour investment versus Tory cuts” – mostly nonsense, but politically adhesive. Now, there is a different and no less rowdy argument rising in prominence: namely between the central control of the supply of public goods and the drive to make public service institutions free of central control and encourage diversity. As it happens, I rather like Ed Balls – sorry, CoffeeHousers – and, as

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Has Blair Kinda/Sorta Endorsed John McCain?

Danny Finkelstein thinks so. Noting that Blair had said that modern politics is more a matter of Open vs Closed than Left vs Right: And then I asked which politicians on the right he regarded as on his side, the open side, of the new argument. He replied:I think you can see the Republicans in the US who are on the pro-immigration side of the debate, on the pro-free-trade side, the Americans who are Democrats but protectionist. I think the thing that has come home to me most since leaving office is just the speed at which the world is opening up. Full interview – largely on Blair and his

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Brown’s Olympian confusion

Gordon Brown’s position on the Beijing Olympics is becoming more absurd by the day. He’s happy to have the Olympic flame surrounded by guards from a particularly unsavoury branch of the Chinese security services in Downing Street but not to touch it himself. Now, he’s planning to skip the opening ceremony but doesn’t want anyone thinking that he is snubbing or boycotting the event. Brown’s confused position has seen him drawn into the US presidential campaign with Hillary Clinton—who supports a boycott of the opening ceremony—praising Brown for his stance: “I wanted to commend Prime Minister Gordon Brown for agreeing not to go to the opening ceremonies of the Olympics

Peter Hoskin

More trouble for Ken

Over the past few months, the Evening Standard has been a particularly sharp thorn in Ken’s side.  And tonight they reveal that the current Mayor has mislead the public over donations.  Here’s the Standard’s scoop: “The Mayor received … £30,000 knowing it was from multi-millionaire Sharad Patel who wants to build a £120 million theme park and leisure complex in north-west London, then claimed he knew nothing of who his donors were. He saw the cheque, from Mr Patel’s wife made out to the Labour Party, and agreed to meet him for dinner, once his 2004 election campaign was over. The revelation means the Mayor misled the public when he repeatedly denied

Peter Hoskin

Who to believe?

Which polling company’s getting it right in the run-up to the mayoral elections?  YouGov reckons Boris is miles ahead.  ICM have it as neck-and-neck.  And today Ipsos-MORI records a slender lead for Ken.  According to their poll, the incumbent snares 41 percent of first preference votes, compared to 40 percent for Boris.  When second preferences are allocated, Ken leads by 51 percent to 49 percent (although Political Betting suggests some creative rounding may lie behind that result). As Conservative Home points out, this latest poll may actually be a boon for Boris.  The closer the race appears, the more Tory voters will hit the polling stations come 1st May.  Or at least that’s the hope. 

Peter Hoskin

Amnesty London

As the Independent reports this morning, Boris has united with the other mayoral candidates in support of an amnesty for illegal immigrants – a move which goes against official Tory policy.  ConservativeHome have the low-down from Team Boris on their man’s decision.  Their view is that if illegal immigrants have been here for a long time, then we should get them enrolled in the system so they can contribute taxes etc. Makes sense, non?   However, ConservativeHome contrasts this with David Cameron’s view on the issue.  According to the Tory leader, amnesties just build up expectation for another in the future.  In other words, it smacks of a softly-softly approach to

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Five steps to denial

Here is Gordon Brown’s five-step plan to escape blame for the credit crunch. 1) Blame America for the credit crunch, present Britain as the innocent victim of a global storm. 2) With a straight face, claim the economy is well-placed to withstand the crunch, even though the UK household debt/income ratio is the highest in the G7. 3) Present a fake narrative of the early 1990s, and compare it with equally fake stats about how good things are now. 4) Point to Bank of England rate cut as proof you are helping (even though, by making the BoE independent, no honest politician can claim credit/blame for its decisions). 5) Encourage journalists

Gerald Warner

Shame on Scottish Tories for their Vichy sell-out

Gerald Warner says that Scotland’s Conservatives, far from standing their ground on devolution, have jumped with relish on the gravy train of the Holyrood parliament The Scottish Play has degenerated into a farce and the indigenous Tories have lost the plot. When the constitutional future of the United Kingdom moved centre-stage in late 2007, Unionists were heartened by the deftness of touch David Cameron brought to this issue. It contrasted with the directionless drift of his supposed allies in the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, which is now a wholly-owned subsidiary of the Scottish separatist tendency. The Scottish Tories have gone native. In the run-up to the devolution referendum on

Frank Field

If Labour is to beat Cameron, Brown must forge a new tax contract with the voters

Is David Cameron feeling his way to a winning political narrative? In a number of recent speeches he has begun to spell out a new debate about the size of the state. It is definitively post-Thatcherite. The battle lines are not the traditional ones of cutting public provision and leaving the private sector to fill the gaps. Cameron is instead seeking ways of offering collective provision which is not run and dominated by a central state. The public appears cautiously interested. But, given the weakness of those bodies that once provided collective provision, say in welfare — poleaxed by good old Mr Attlee — provision of collective services by voluntary

Tuesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Labour’s Toast: Or Why Gordon Brown Will Never Win An Election

A delicious column by Rachel Sylvester in today’s Telegraph. Some choice highlights: There is a “sulphurous mood” on the Labour benches. Disillusioned Left-wingers, who campaigned for Mr Brown to become leader, are joining forces with triumphant Blairites who say: “I told you so.” Even Tony Lloyd, the chairman of the PLP, warned yesterday that the Government needed to “clarify what it’s there for”. Ministers are losing the habit of discipline too. Last week, Ivan Lewis, a health minister, warned that Labour was “losing touch” with hard-working families, then Gerry Sutcliffe, the licensing minister, attacked the tax rises on booze. Behind the scenes, things are even worse. With no clear direction

Peter Hoskin

Rudd gets it right

Iain Martin is spot-on over at Three Line Whip. Kevin Rudd has shown Gordon Brown exactly how he should have handled the recent Olympic torch relay in London. Here’s what the Australian Prime Minster had to say yesterday on the security goons the Chinese brought with them: “We will not be having Chinese security forces or the Chinese security services providing security for the torch when it is in Australia. We, Australia, will be providing that security. What Olympic officials the Chinese bring to Canberra is a matter for them, but on the security front we will be providing that security.” I can’t figure out who came out of the London fiasco

Peter Hoskin

What inflation? What debt?

Ok, so Fraser’s already mentioned Brown’s denial over the state of the economy.  But this whopper that our Prime Minister just issued in an interview with Nick Robinson can’t go unmentioned: “Because we’ve got low inflation we can cut interest rates, because we have had low debt, we can afford to keep our public spending programme in line.” Low inflation?  Low debt?  I’ll leave the response to CoffeeHouser RW: “As for Brown, if he really believes the rubbish he’s currently spouting then he’s seriously deluded, and if he doesn’t but keeps on saying it anyway he’s not just incompetent but malevolent.”

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Parent power

Steve Richards’s column in The Independent is, as ever, worth reading. Richards is surely right that education is fast becoming the main dividing line between the two parties. But I’m puzzled by this question that he poses about the Tory plans for independent, state-funded schools: “And if these schools are “independent” of political control, as Mr Gove envisages, to whom will they be accountable?”  The answer is that the schools will be answerable to the parents of its pupils. Once Gove’s supply-side reforms have been enacted, parents will be able to pick schools for their children rather than having the schools pick the pupils. Any school that isn’t up to