Politics

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

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

What’s the reason behind Miliband’s Israel snub?

So why has David Miliband cut his trip to the Middle East short? The plan was for him to be in Israel today, meeting with luminaries including Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tzipi Livni, before hopping on a plane tonight to be back in time for tomorrow’s 42-day detention vote. Ben Brogan charts what actually happened: “Instead Geoff Hoon told him to come back early, ostensibly because of difficult votes today. Mr Miliband and the rest of us duly got on a dawn flight in Jerusalem. Yet there is no sign of trouble at Westminster this afternoon, prompting some jolly speculation about the reason for the rushed return.” Miliband

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Should Britain join the Euro?

Should Britain join the Euro after all? Patrick Hennessy, political editor of the Sunday Telegraph, bravely asks the question over at Three Line Whip, arguing that one can no longer claim the British economy is doing better than the Eurozone’s. A provocative point, certainly, and one we’re likely to hear much more often as the consequences of Gordon Brown’s reign of error at the Treasury hit mortgage owners and shoppers. My answer is pretty simple. One cannot conceive of a way that the Euro would help us. The arguments used ten years ago by the pro Euro campaign – more jobs, lower prices, increased trade – have been proven to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Red Ken to run again

Martin Bright, whose Dispatches programme on Ken Livingstone moved a lot of the allegations against him to the forefront of the mayoral debate, reports that Ken is not done yet and plans to be the Labour candidate in 2012. Presumably, Livingstone’s thinking is that Boris will find it more difficult to get re-elected during the mid-term of a Tory government than elected during the mid-term of a Labour government. Yet judging from how things have gone so far, Boris is settling into the job rather well. Indeed, I suspect he’ll win re-election by a larger margin than he defeated Livingstone by.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

If you don’t understand it, why vote for it?

In his Irish Independent column today, Kevin Myers brilliantly nails one of the most infuriating pro-European arguments: The final argument from the ‘Yes’ camp is that the ‘No’ side really doesn’t understand Lisbon. And, for once, they’re right. So why should I say ‘Yes’ to a legal document I don’t understand? My lawyer would never urge me to buy a house under such conditions. Why would we follow different rules when voting for the future of our country?

Peter Hoskin

The public want a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty

Conservative Home have an exclusive sneak peek of a Daily Politics / ComRes poll on the Lisbon Treaty.  Here are some of the numbers, which – to my mind – serve to further highlight how the Government has betrayed the British public on this: The ComRes survey of 1,010 UK voters finds that 64% of UK voters believe that the UK should hold a referendum and 26% think Parliament should decide. 33% say that they would vote to accept the Treaty if given the opportunity.  40% say that they would reject it.   27% don’t know.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Tory poll leads widens dramatically

A new Populus poll for The Times shows the Tories surging yet further ahead of Labour. The Tories are now on 45, Labour on 25 and the Lib Dems on 20. Since this poll last month, the Tories have gained five percent while Labour has dropped 4 and the Tory lead has gone from 11 to 20 points.  As Anthony Wells points out at UK Polling Report, this means that two pollsters are now reporting 20 point leads for the Tories.  In more good news for the party, the poll was carried out as several of these expenses stories were breaking—suggesting that they have done no immediate electoral damage. 25

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

An Afghanistan progress report

Channel Four says it feels “dutybound” to examine on what ground Gordon Brown says of the 100 servicemen who died in Afghanistan that “they have paid the ultimate price but they have achieved something of lasting value.” On its always welcome Snowmail email, Ch4 lists its own yardsticks to decide if things of lasting value have been achieved and declares that “reliable measures of these things are scarce”. Not too scarce, actually. Here are my thoughts on their seven tests …. 1. Territory safely held – all of Helmand is safe, apart from three districts near the border (pictured). The main areas, including the Pashtun capital Kandahar, have been made

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron is just doing what Thatcher did

Watching Michael Cockrell’s documentary on Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power last night, I was struck by how many times she was interviewed with her family. Just after her maiden speech she was interviewed on the family sofa with her son Mark, then 6, climbing all over her. As she was running for the Tory leadership, Carole and Mark—then 21—were interviewed for World in Action about how they felt about their mum’s political career. It all put David Cameron’s decision to allow ITN to film his family eating breakfast into perspective. My point is not that it makes Cameron’s actions any better or worse, but that it shows that he was

Peter Hoskin

Has Clarke found the answer to the West Lothian question?

There’s an interesting debate fizzing between Iain Dale’s Diary and Three Line Whip at the moment. It’s all about the West Lothian question or, rather, Ken Clarke’s proposed solution to it. As the Telegraph reported this morning, Clarke’s plying this notion, which Cameron’s alleged to have signed up to: “…allowing all MPs to vote on English legislation at the initial second reading stage of parliamentary scrutiny. But only English MPs would get to vote during the detailed committee stage of the legislative process, where real changes can be effected.” At the third and final reading, all MPs could once again vote, but a new parliamentary undertaking would prevent any party using Scottish

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Cameron dyeing his hair?

Iain Martin moves the Cameron hair story along over at Three Line Whip. Iain suggest that we hacks might have been wrong to concentrate on the parting and should instead have been examining the absence of any grey hairs. Iain writes: ‘Any use of hair dye was initially vigorously denied but when I asked again at a later date I was told not to be so silly and urged to focus instead on the serious issues – which in my book is politician’s code for ‘this is true, but a little embarrassing.’ Cameron would be far from the first politician to resort to the use of dye but you can

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Damning with faint praise

Tonight’s Dispatches on Gordon Brown, which Pete blogged about on Sunday, has already generated a bunch of buzz. Reading the transcript, these two quotes jumped out at me as neither are meant to wound and are all the more telling for that: Andrew Rawnsley: Would you have done that pre budget report differently? Alistair Darling: Well errm if I knew now what I knew then well errm off course there would be something’s I would do different, I actually think the inheritance tax changes that I made do have some merit. Will Labour win the next election? Peter Hain: That’s a matter for the electorate, I think we’ve got a

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 9 June 2008

Here are some posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth identifies the most worrying Tory sleaze story so far, and highlights a new poll which shows that the public back the Tories on national secutiry. Peter Hoskin reports on the recent Tory expenses scandals, and points out Jack Straw’s less-than-kind words about Gordon Brown. Fraser Nelson asks: should military casualties be named and honoured in PMQs? Melanie Phillips explains the reasoning behind her blog. Clive Davis marks the start of Euro 2008. And Americano features a video of Barack Obama addressing his Chicago campaign HQ.

Sunday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Adopting Mencken’s Definition of Democracy

The government’s proposals for incarcerating suspects for up to 42 days before being required, however inconveniently, to produce a charge are, naturally, appalling. How can you be so sure? Well, they must be: 65% of the public supports them. In other poll news, ICM puts the Tories on 42%, Labour 26% and the Liberal Democrats on 21%. This is extraordinary: how can one in five Britons be prepared to vote for the Lib Dems?

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Report: Brown won’t reshuffle before the next election

 In The News of The World today, Ian Kirby reports that: “Last night, however, Mr Brown insisted all his Cabinet would stay in their jobs till the next General Election. He would change only junior ministers.” If this is accurate, then it is great news for the Tories. At the moment, the Tories have the stronger front bench but there is a decent amount of talent on the Labour back benches which could even things up. It also means that Labour’s most effective communicator—Alan Johnson—won’t be moved into more of a frontline role.

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s a ditherer, says Straw

Ok, so Jack Straw may not quite have used the word “ditherer”, but here’s what he has to say about the PM in a Channel 4 documentary, aired tomorrow: “[Brown is] someone who is cautious in his decision-making.”  Apparently, that’s in stark contrast to Blair, who was “a much more instinctive decision-maker”. Jacqui Smith and the Labour deputy chief whip, Nick Brown, weigh in with their thoughts on the election-that-wasn’t as well.  They’re less than kind.  But Straw’s words are the ones that will upset No.10 the most.  Until now, he’s been largely supportive of our Dear Leader – at least in public.  So this represents the first real sign that he might be prepared to take

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The public back Labour on 42 days but think the Tories are tougher on terrorism

The latest ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph has the Tories on 42, Labour 26 and the Lib Dems 21. Labour’s ranking is the lowest it has ever been in an ICM survey. What is really interesting about the poll is its findings on terrorism. 65 percent of the public back the government on 42 days, even two-thirds of Conservative supporters are in favour of the measure.  Yet, still the public by 32 to 28 think that the Tories have the tougher policies to deal with terrorism. This suggests that the public, rightly, do not view 42 days as the be all and end all of counter-terrorism.  The fieldwork for

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Should British military casualties be named and honoured in PMQs?

Should the Prime Minister (and, increasingly, each party leader) name and honour the recent fallen in Iraq and Afghanistan at PMQs? I had thought this quite respectful, but when I was in Afghanistan I was surprised to find a number of soldiers opposed to it. Their problem is that it reads to the nation a narrative of failure when the incredible success of the military during the turnaround against the Taleban barely gets a mention. I raised this with Brig Mark Carelton-Smith, commander of Taskforce Helmand, when I was in Lashkar Gah and I print his response in my News of the World column today. “The casualty rate is not