Politics

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

Tuesday

Daniel Korski

(Some) Afghans vote

So the Afghans have now voted in their second-ever presidential elections. Well, some of them have. But with the extent of voting unclear, accusations of poll-rigging rife and violence claiming countless innocent lives, it is far too early to call the process a success. Today, the Elections Commission will likely release preliminary results, with a full tally expected in a month’s time. Wisely, key US and UK officials have been circumspect in their pronouncements. The EU Monitoring Mission has said the election was “mostly good and fair.”  But Afghan observers cited “some credible allegations of fraud and mistakes by elections officials.”  NDI, the US organisation, said the poll “involved serious

Peter Hoskin

Man on wire

It’s a fairly quiet day in Westminster, so Chris Grayling’s comparison between Britain and the gangland ghettos portrayed in The Wire is probably getting more attention than it would normally – after all, it’s not like the Tories haven’t majored on the “Broken Britain” theme before now.  But, even so, I think he may have erred in mentioning the acclaimed US TV series.  While superb, it is, don’t forget, the show that the chattering classes love to chatter about.  So, now, much of the coverage is about the TV programme rather than the problems Grayling is highlighting.  As Paul Waugh points out over at his indispensable blog, Grayling’s appearance on

Peter Hoskin

Twilight Zone Tuesday: Brown to announce spending cuts

Now this is a turn up.  According to the Independent, Gordon Brown is going to “issue a list of specific [spending] cuts” as part of his Autumn “fightback”.  Here’s how the strategy goes: “Initially, Mr Brown will seek to establish in voters’ minds the key differences between Labour and the Tories – on policy, government intervention to limit the impact of the recession and preserving frontline services. Then he will acknowledge that the Government needs to go beyond the £35bn of efficiency savings it has already promised. The aim will be to show Labour is serious about reducing the deficit, which is set to rocket to £175bn in the current

Monday

David Blackburn

Would Cameron govern differently?

In an episode of Yes Prime Minister, a tobacco mogul asks Sir Humphrey: “Does he carry any clout in Whitehall?” The Mandarin replies: “None at all, he’s only a minister.” The context has changed but the essential truth remains – most Cabinet ministers have no clout in government whatsoever. That at least is the view of four former Sir Humphreys. Lords Turnbull, Wilson, Butler, and Armstrong are quoted in the Guardian saying that New Labour has centralised government around a clique of special advisers. The result? The marginalisation of the cabinet and the breakdown of what they term ‘the efficient and proper conduct of government’. Not even Jonathan Powell denies

Sunday

David Blackburn

Thank God they’re not running a war

Last week, defence maestro Kevan Jones launched his master-strategy to smear General Sir Richard Dannatt. It was ingenious. An FOI request would reveal the General to be a spendthrift, abusing taxpayers’ generosity by lavishing their money on his grace and favour accommodation and on raucous parties for his army mates. To borrow a phrase, there was just one small flaw in the plan: it was rubbish. The Mail reveals that General Dannatt’s grace and favour apartment is a stable block, not a palace, and that he pays tax on it because he views it as a perk. His other claims are modest. Audiciously, Sir Richard secured £19,270.77p in expenses between 2005

David Blackburn

The stench of realpolitik

Suggesting that al-Megrahi’s release was the result of a deal being struck to protect commercial interests should be offensive, but there are a number of questions the government need to answer. First, was al-Megrahi’s transfer a condition of the Blair-Gadaffi Deal in the Desert? On Friday, Saif al-Islam said: “In all commercial contracts for oil and gas with Britain, Megrahi was always on the negotiating table”. The Foreign Office deny this and yesterday Lord Mandelson said: “The issue of the prisoner’s release is quite separate from the general matter of our relations and indeed the prisoner’s release has not been influenced in any way by the British government.” In addition

Peter Hoskin

Another Sunday, another set of damaging rumours for Brown

Brace yourselves, it’s leadership speculation time again.  A story in the Mail on Sunday alleges that Alistair Darling has been attacking Brown in private – “I am trying to talk sense into that man…” – before adding this: “Last night there were claims that backers of Home Secretary Alan Johnson – widely seen as the stop-gap leader if Mr Brown quits before the General Election – were secretly canvassing ‘non-aligned’ Labour MPs not closely linked to any potential successor. Sports Minister Gerry Sutcliffe, who ran Mr Johnson’s unsuccessful Labour deputy leadership bid in 2007, was accused of quietly taking names.” Whether true or no’, these rumblings tell you everything you

Saturday

The Spectator

Reform the religion

A party striving to make the huge leap from opposition to office must speak with one voice, maintain scrupulous clarity and ensure iron discipline. It must reassure the voters relentlessly, persuading them at every available opportunity that it has changed and that it grasps why it has been defeated in prior general elections. Yet a party that aspires to save the country from economic crisis and to transform its public services must also be prepared to think the unthinkable, and to take deeply unpopular measures. This is the dilemma facing David Cameron, neatly encapsulated in the controversy over the NHS and the remarks made in America by the Tory MEP,

Peter Hoskin

Tories more trusted on NHS than Labour

The Tories will be pleased.  After the #welovetheNHS brouhaha of the past couple of weeks, a ComRes poll in tomorrow’s Independent on Sunday gives them a healthy lead on the NHS.  In response to the statement “The NHS would be safer under Labour than the Conservatives,” 39 percent of respondents said they agreed, while 47 percent said they disagreed.  That’s an 8 point advantage for the Tories. It’s pretty devastating stuff for Labour, but – oddly – comes in one of the Tories’ weakest policy areas.  Let’s hope this encourages Cameron & Co. to think and talk more about health service reform.

Peter Hoskin

Do the Tories need an “-ism”?

So what overarching theory do Cameron & Co. believe in now?  Is it Phillip Blond’s “Red Toryism”?  Are they still invigorated by “libertarian paternalism”?  Or have they struck on something else?  This week’s Bagehot column in the Economist gives us a useful overview of all the -isms the Tories have gone through recently, before landing on a conclusion that the policy wonks in CCHQ may not like: “The Tories should stop worrying about whether their view of the world works in theory, and concentrate more on generating ideas that will work in practice. They can live without an ideology; what they urgently require is balls.” Bagehot’s take is certainly attractive. 

Peter Hoskin

The biggest failure of the Tory opposition years

Fantastic, thought-provoking stuff by Matthew Parris in the Times today, as he looks back on the past 12 years of Tory opposition and asks: “Just what did they achieve?”  His response is generally unfavourable: that, until more recently, the wilderness years have largely been wasted years.  And he highlights the Tories’ inability to take on Labour over their wasteful spending and burgeoning deficit: “But it was on the central domestic question of the era that the Tories’ nerve failed almost fatally. At first new Labour held to the tight spending plans that it inherited from John Major’s outgoing administration. Then the Government let go. The letting go was, in retrospect,

Friday

David Blackburn

Widdecombe: I’ve just had enough

It’s worth reading Iain Dale’s interview with Ann Widdecombe in the latest issue of Total Politics. Widdecombe is, of course, standing down at the next election, and much of the interview concerns her future plans: she wants to appear on Strictly Come Dancing, for instance, perhaps as the feminine answer to John Sergeant. But, naturally, the outspoken MP makes some forceful points about the current state of British politics. Her conclusion?  That things are so bad she’s had enough. First, she attacks Cameron’s ‘A-list’ candidate selection policy: ‘We have gone for category rather than ability. We’re looking for more women. I’m all for more women, I’m all for more members

Peter Hoskin

Labour may not be able to exploit one of the Tories’ biggest weaknesses – but that doesn’t mean others won’t

Here at Coffee House Towers, we frequently point out the risks with the Tories’ pledge to keep on increasing health spending in real terms.  As I suggested last week, the two main problems are that it plays up the Brownite idea that spending is a good thing in itself, and it could force the Tories into a position from which they can’t row back in government.  Now, in a acerbic article in the Guardian – in which he describes Tory policy as “an incoherent mishmash of ideas designed by focus group” – Larry Elliot kicks off by highlighting the confusion the Tory line creates: “On Tuesday night David Cameron warned

Martin Bright

That Philip Hammond Email in Full

There was some interesting discussion on the subject of interns after my post last night about the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury’s attitude to the use of free labour in parliament. Young people are now effectively paying employers to get on the first rung of their careers. I have no doubt that some people gain valuable experience in this way. But the question is, which people? As Alan Milburn’s recent work on social mobility demonstrated, the professions are still largely inaccessible to all but the relatively privileged.  Make up your own mind whether Hammond’s attitude is enlightened or not: > From: HAMMOND, Philip [mailto:HAMMONDP@parliament.uk] > Sent: 12 August 2009

Thursday

Martin Bright

Visions of Life Under a Tory Government

A fascinating post on the Interns Anonymous website. This brilliant organisation is devoted to exposing the pernicious growth in the use of free labour. It shares many of the aims of my new outfit, New Deal of the Mind. Philip Hammond, the well-respected shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury has been tipped to leapfrog George Osborne into No 11 Downing Street.  According to the IA website, Hammond recently advertised for an intern post for which the terms were less than generous. When challenged by a member of the public about his failure to pay the national minimum wage he emailed back: “I would regard it as an abuse of taxpayer

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Sending the Lockerbie Bomber Home

I could have done without Kenny MacAskill talking quite so much about our values “as a people”, if only because, as Fraser writes, we actually often do insist that prisoners die in jail. That though, is really an argument for showing a degree of compassion more often, not for denying it in this instance, no matter the ghastliness of the cime for which Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi was convicted. Nonetheless, on balance, I thought MacAskill’s justification of his decision to release Megrahi so that he may die at home and in the company of his family, was about as good as could have been expected given both the circumstances and the

David Blackburn

Field: Harman would give Labour direction

Gordon Brown, if you are about to pick up today’s New Statesman, I advise you to put it down, return to the sofa and start re-watching those Raith Rovers tapes. In it, Frank Field writes that Harriet Harman offers Labour a sense of direction that Gordon Brown’s government, which is simply drifting towards ‘the most horrendous defeat’, has lacked. Here are the most crucial, and the most gushing, bits: ‘You have to hand it to her. Harriet Harman has really shown how to use No 10 as a platform from which to direct policy. You may not agree with how she presented her programme, but, for the first time since

Martin Bright

Meet the New Political Editor of the Jewish Chronicle

I was delighted, not to say honoured, when Stephen Pollard approached me to become the political editor of The Jewish Chronicle. It is a great publication with a long tradition of campaigning for the Jewish community in this country. But above all it is good old-fashioned newspaper with all that this entails, including, of course, having an eye to the future. I was pleased to discover that the paper has an active NUJ chapel, which is welcomed by the management. All very progressive – as indeeed is the decision to appoint a non-Jew as political editor. I am really looking forward to working with the fine team of journalists in the JC newsroom and, from time to time, finding my

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Revisionist Labour Market History: Ulster Division

This Reuters piece on hostility towards immigrants in Northern Ireland contains the, well, oddest paragraph I’ve read today: Historically, it was economic migrants from the largely Catholic Republic of Ireland who stirred up sectarian trouble in Protestant commmunities. The south, a “Celtic Tiger” until the credit crunch kicked in, is now the euro zone’s weakest link. Mind-boggling, dizzying stuff, you’ll agree. The Pleasures of Underachievement puts it nicely: “I was wondering where all those economic migrants from the Republic were going all those years from 1922 on. Looks like it was one long border raid.”

David Blackburn

The plot against Sir Richard Dannatt

Aside from the irony that ministers think they can nail General Dannatt over his Civil List expenses, I can’t see how the government can benefit from smearing Sir Richard, assuming they placed the FOI request. (Although to be honest, I can’t see why anyone other than these defence ministers would seek to damage Dannatt.) Friends of General Dannatt say that he will “do his duty and carry out his responsibilities to the Army and the country whether he is in uniform or not”. And I imagine the man who won the Military Cross fighting the IRA will take this smear campaign in his stride and write an especially savage book