Politics Archives

Sunday

28 Sep 2008

Tory conference: first impressions

Waking into the Tory conference centre here in Birmingham cheers you up immensely. I am a fan of wartime and Soviet propaganda posters, and the Tories have mocked up a bunch of them but with capitalist slogans. “Big government = big problems” says one. Then some of Cameron’s top phrases, that there is “such a thing as society; it’s not the same thing as the state”. The only one which struck me as a little too authentic was one saying Social Responsibility (depicted on a balloon) which sounds one of those weird phrases Soviet governments tried to promote to try and make them mean something. Didn’t work then, won’t now.

Fraser Nelson

The first of the Tories’ financial reforms

The first of the Tory financial reforms is announced in the News of the World today. There is to be an Office of Budget Responsibility to ensure government doesn’t break certain spending or borrowing limits, as part of a new “Debt Responsibility Mechanism”. As George Osborne says: “We will call time on Gordon Brown’s age of financial irresponsibility and put in place an independent system that will allow a referee, if you like, to show a yellow card to a Chancellor and Prime Minister if they are stepping out of line.” This sounds to me like the political equivalent of storing biscuits in a cupboard very high up in the

Saturday

27 Sep 2008

Fraser Nelson

Indebted Britain

The debt Gordon Brown has saddled his country with deserves to be a top political as well as financial issue, as The Times powerfully argues in a leader today. Gordon Brown has over the last week been on a mission to airbrush Northern Rock out of the national accounts. He has claimed repeatedly—and mendaciously—that he’s taken debt as a share of GDP from 44% to 37%. The Times in its leader today gets it precisely right. Not only does it use the correct net debt figure – 43.3% in August – but it goes on to lambaste Brown. “This parlous financial position is a direct political legacy. A government of genuine prudence

Matthew Parris

Another Voice | 27 September 2008

I find Miliband’s fridge and its contents more interesting than the Foreign Secretary Did you see David Miliband’s fridge? It was massive. I saw it in a photograph in a Times magazine article about the brainy young Foreign Secretary. The pictures were intended to illustrate the would-be Prime Minister’s human side, but the fridge was more interesting than the man: probably the first case in history of a Cabinet minister being upstaged by a refrigerator. There was also a bewildering picture of Mr Miliband wearing loafers without socks. One sees the case for a shoes-and-socks combination. One sees the case for socks and no shoes. One sees the case for

James Forsyth

Your chance to vote in the Spectator awards

After a gripping week of political theatre in Manchester, James Forsyth invites readers to submit nominations for a new category in our Parliamentarian of the Year Awards: the prize for the Readers’ Representative If a week is a long time in politics, then a year is an absolute age. In Manchester, Labour delegates appeared staggered by what has happened since the party’s last conference. Now it is the Brownites, not the Cameroons, who take comfort in how quickly things can change, with Ed Balls reassuring Labour supporters that because things have gone so wrong for Labour since last September, they can go equally wrong for the Tories next year. The

The Spectator

A novice with the right ideas

For all its stunts, vacuities and plain deceptions, there was something undeniably compelling about Gordon Brown’s conference speech in Manchester. Here was an old stager, battered and bruised, giving his all to what may be his last such performance as Labour leader and Prime Minister. Even as he claimed to deplore the cult of political celebrity, he chose this moment to deploy, for the first time, all its most cunning tricks and sleights of hand. Leave aside the nasty jibes at David Cameron’s family photo-ops and class background. There were two particular attacks to which the Tory leader must respond in his own conference address on Wednesday. The first came

Rod Liddle

If Miliband becomes PM, I’ll join the right-wing coup to topple him

Rod Liddle is outraged by the Foreign Secretary’s alleged comparison of himself to Michael Heseltine: like comparing a Big Beast to a stumpy little Muntjac deer. Where have all the political giants gone? Apparently, David Miliband’s speech to the Labour party conference was deliberately low-key because he did not wish to have a ‘Heseltine Moment’ — that is, he did not wish to be seen as being too obviously a threat to the Prime Minister, too openly desirous of his job. What a fabulous strutting little cock this man truly is. Flying around the world in the Queen’s private jet to deliver fatuous or anodyne pronouncements to the media at

Friday

26 Sep 2008

Alex Massie

Gordon Brown is Jimmy Carter

Sure, his conference speech tried to meld elements from both the McCain and Obama campaigns, but the Prime Minister’s micro-management and control-freakery is more reminiscent of the poor old Georgian peanut farmer. Consider this telling anecdote from Martin Kettle’s column in the Guardian today: And then there’s the dysfunctionality in Downing Street itself. The briefing and counter-briefing these days make journalism easy. A few weeks ago, one official confided an extraordinary story to me. Four years ago, ministers decided that Britain’s South Atlantic island possession of St Helena needed to have an airport. If planes could land on the tiny island, more than 1,200 miles from the nearest continent, its

The Spectator

The week that was | 26 September 2008

Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writes that Marx was partly right about capitalism. Jon Cruddas continues his Labour conference diary. You can read parts 5 and 6 here and here, respectively. Theo Hobson outlines the Creationism debate. Matthew d’Ancona gives his take on Gordon Brown’s conference speech, and argues that voters won’t pay attention to Muddled Labour. Fraser Nelson reveals why Nigel Lawson was the most redistributive Chancellor, and says that Brown isn’t paid to lie to us. James Forsyth describes the aftermath to Brown’s speech, and reviews David Miliband’s conference speech. Peter Hoskin asks whether

Peter Hoskin

A new front-runner

As Iain Dale points out, Harriet Harman has overtaken David Miliband as the bookies’ favourite to succeed Gordon Brown. Here’s the full list from Ladbrokes: Harriet Harman — 3/1 David Miliband — 7/1 Jack Straw — 5/1 Jon Cruddas — 8/1 Alan Johnson — 8/1 James Purnell — 12/1 John Denham — 12/1 Alan Milburn — 16/1 Ed Balls — 16/1 John Reid — 16/1 Andy Burnham — 20/1 Ed Miliband — 20/1 Caroline Flint — 25/1 John Hutton — 25/1 Yvette Cooper — 25/1 And you can read our profile of Harman here.

Peter Hoskin

Has the ‘novice’ line worked?

For a few months now, Cameron and Osborne have led Brown and Darling in poll questions on economic competence. Today’s ComRes poll for the Daily Politics ends that trend. Answering the question “Putting your party allegiance aside, who do you trust most to steer Britain’s economy through the current downturn?”, 36 percent of respondents said the Labour pair, 30 percent the Tory pair. It’s the first substantive sign that Brown’s “I am the right man to steer us through these dark times” positioning at party conference – encapusulated by the “novice” dig at Cameron and Miliband – has hit home with voters. And another reminder that the Tories need to

Fraser Nelson

Why Nigel Lawson was the most redistributive Chancellor of the Exchequer

When I was at the Fabian Society debate last Sunday with Ed Balls, the subject of taxing the rich came up. I warned them they were chasing a false God, that it will result in less tax yield. The rich will have less incentive to earn more, and more incentive to dodge tax. I gave a figure which one of those in the audience later accused me of making up. It’s pivotal to understanding how this country is financed, so here it is… The richest 1% of this country pay 23% of all income tax collected (table here) in 2008-09. The richest 5% pay 42% of the tax. These ratios

Thursday

25 Sep 2008

Fraser Nelson

Brown has a cunning plan…

Gordon Brown’s Baldrick-style Cunning Plan for global finance involves using the International Monetary Fund (IMF) as an “early-warning system”. Great idea. When I was a business journalist, I remember the IMF early warnings – about how Brown’s switch to debt-fuelled profligacy post-2000 would end in tears. The key misjudgement made by both Brown and Greenspan was to try and get around the 2001 slowdown (which would have flushed out bad businesses and dodgy loans) by pumping the economy full of cheap debt. Pain delayed today means disaster tomorrow in financial markets. The IMF said in September 2001 that Brown’s spending spree was “regrettably pro-cyclical”. And since then? Here, via what

Peter Hoskin

Another Clegg plan backfires

If you recall, one of Nick Clegg’s recent Big Ideas was for the Lib Dems to cold call some 250,000 households and play a pre-recorded message to their occupants. It didn’t seem like the cleverest move at the time – who would want to be pestered by an automated party political phone call in the evening? – but it seems downright stupid now that the ICO has ruled that the practice is in breach of privacy laws, and that the Lib Dems would face prosecution if they continued it. Sure, it’s hardly an earth-shattering ruling in itself. But it fuels the the idea that Clegg is a calamity for his

Matthew Dancona

Voters won’t pay attention to Muddled Labour

The deepest cruelty of politics is its simplicity: pose with a banana and you are bang in trouble. The obverse truth is that a straightforward and positive image can work wonders: David Cameron’s tree- and huskie-hugging photo-ops in the initial months of his leadership were widely mocked, but they worked wonders in cementing the notion that Dave was both new and green. We do indeed live in the first-impressions world brilliantly described by Malcolm Gladwell in his book, Blink. It follows from this that complexity kills. When a Government begins to disaggregate, the problem is not only the intrinsic one of division (this lot are more concerned with fighting each

Peter Hoskin

A downturn milestone

The Irish economy has become the first in the EU to officially slide into recession. Here in the UK, we’re most probably in the middle of one already, but we’ll have to wait a while longer yet for the official figures to confirm it.

Peter Hoskin

Will the Labour poll boost stick?

So, today’s YouGov poll for the Sun records a 7 point post-conference boost for Labour. The Tories are now on 41 percent (down 3 from last month); Labour on 31 percent (up 7); and the Lib Dems on 16 percent (down 4). And there’s some good news for Brown personally, too. 39 percent of respondents want him to stay in No.10 – up 10 from last month. It’s not entirely unexpected. Although I found it less than impressive, Brown’s speech did get generally good notices in the press. And pundits are already picking up on ‘the Sarah Effect’. The question now, though, is will the Labour gains stick? There are

Wednesday

24 Sep 2008

Alex Massie

Gordon’s Asset Management

Jackie Ashley argues that Gordon Brown deserves the extra time she thinks he bought with his speech yesterday, even though she concedes it won’t be nearly enough to save him in the long run. But I was also struck by this: His wife Sarah’s appearance was touching and starry: she is truly his greatest asset. Iron rule of politics: anytime hacks start referring to the leader’s spouse as his/her “greatest asset” it’s time for sentient folk to head for the lifeboats. cf, Laura Bush. A good wife (or husband) is not enough. Sarah Brown’s appearance introducing the Prime Minister was a) obviously borrowed from American politica and, more importantly, b)

Alex Massie

Just Say No

There are very good reasons for wanting to be rid of this shower sooner rather than later: Identity cards could be handed out to children as young as 14, a home office minister has suggested. The first ID cards are due to be offered to 16 and 17-year-olds from 2010 as part of a plan to introduce the controversial scheme in stages. But Meg Hillier said the age range was still “up for grabs” and could be lowered “if they prove popular”. She also said the scheme might be too far advanced for the Tories to “unpick” if they came to power in 2010. Lord knows, the Tories will find