Politics

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

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

House price crash the worst since the war

For months we’ve been hearing that however bad it may be with Brown, it was worse under Major. But new house price data from the Halifax shows that this is not the case. House prices have declined more sharply than at any time since 1983. Prices have dropped 8.7 percent year on year, 8.5 percent in the last six months and 5.9 percent in the last three months. So Brown has already broken Major’s unwanted record on house prices, as well as sterling depreciation. The quarterly house price data, which started in 1955 never showed significant downturns. And real estate rose steadily in the post-war years. The razor-sharp Michael Saunders

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Labour’s factions

Talk about how to depose Gordon Brown is widespread in Labour circles, but for journalists it is hard to know how to convey it. There is no real news story, insofar as there has been no rebels’ meeting (that we know about) but the whispers have reached such volume that it has become an event in itself. In my political column for the magazine today, I lay out the three camps. The Insurgents: This includes but is not limited to Blairites. They want to use the recess to dump him, arguing that the longer he stays the more damage Labour will sustain and the larger the Tory majority will be.

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Cameron’s Spiffing New Party?

Reihan: If [David] Cameron embraced an agenda like the one outlined in Grand New Party, he would likely be accused of being a libertarian radical hellbent on destroying the most cherished parts of Britain’s welfare state. This, alas, is true. Too bad. Which reminds me that I’ve been lax in not blogging about Messrs Salam and Douthat’s new book. Will rectify that shortly. But not today, as the city calls. All of which is to say: buy the book. It’s excellent.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Public opinion on 42 days unchanged by the Davis by-election

Results from Politics Home’s tracker poll of 5,000 voters suggest that David Davis still has a long way to go in his campaign to shift public opinion on 42 days. Politics Home reports that: “the number of people who oppose 42-day detention has remained largely unchanged. If anything, it has dropped since his resignation. PoliticsHome has twice asked the PHI 5000: “do you support or oppose extending the period that terrorist suspects can be held without charge from 28 days to 42?” On the 20th June, 65% supported the extension and 31% opposed. On the 7th July, 66% supported 42 days and 30% opposed it.” What I was more surprised

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

What’s really happening in the credit market

As Joni Mitchell said, you don’t know what you got till it’s gone. Only when cheap credit is over do we realise how much we relied on it, and that what Gordon Brown wrongly labelled “prosperity” was a debt-fuelled mirage. The key to making sense of the credit crunch is to ditch the old measurements and find new ones. The Bank of England base rate doesn’t matter anymore, mortgages have a life of their own. Today the Bank showed what’s happening. Base rates may not have moved, but interest rates certainly have. The average interest rate on a 75 percent LTV (loan-to-value) two-year fix jumped to 6.63 percent last month

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The campaign in Glasgow East

Drive around Glasgow East and it seems the SNP is making most of the headway. Its simple yellow fluorescent logo is everywhere. When I was in the constituency yesterday, I saw the same SNP van in four different parts of the seat– blasting out music and with “on your side” written in big letters on the side of it. There’s no doubt about it, the Nationalists are making their presence felt. Their message is: “You’ve voted Labour for decades – and what has it got you?” This resonates. The Nats have a head start. It is a delicious irony that Gordon Brown called the Glasgow East by-election early so as

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

It is personal between Brown and the electorate

There is a fantastic chart on page 7 of The Times today (annoyingly, I can’t find it online) which shows just how deeply and personally unpopular Brown is. Here are his personal ratings on a series of ‘gut check’ questions with Cameron’s in brackets.    Strong  29 (57) Or Weak  67 (33) Winner  21 (60) Or Loser  74 (31) Good for you and your family 22 (48) Or Bad for you and your family  73 (36) Up to the job of being Prime Minister 25 (55) Or Not up to the Job 72 (37) In touch 27 (56) Or Out of touch 71 (37) Mean what he says 31 (30) Or Says what he thinks people want to hear 66 (630 For

Monday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Scottish sectarianism

Is it significant that Cameron will speak in a Catholic church in his visit to Glasgow East today? You can bet any Scottish politicians would have avoided any church in a constituency where sectarianism remains a factor – and one not very well understood in Westminster. Church observance may not be high, but the east of Glasgow is still an area where pubs are known as Catholic, Protestant or mixed. It is still shaking off a long and deep legacy. My father grew up in one of Glasgow East’s council schemes, and in those days Protestant kids like him simply didn’t know any Catholics. The self-segregation was complete. It has

The Spectator

In case you missed them | 7 July 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the weekend: Fraser Nelson notes that Gordon Brown is only “currently” leader of the Labour party. The Skimmer wonders how a bunch of Labour talking-points got turned into an FT editorial. James Forsyth reflects on the resignation of Ray Lewis and the rather hysterical reaction to it in some parts of the media. Clive Davis bemoans John McEnroe’s absence from the BBC commentary box. Americano wonders how the McCain campaign will deal with its Bush problem at the convention and Melanie Phillips chortles at the left’s shock that Obama is tacking to the centre.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Glasgow East moves centre stage

The Glasgow-East by-election is going to dominate the news for the next few weeks. The Westminster Village has concluded that if Labour can’t hold its 25th safest seat under Gordon Brown then the Labour party will move to get rid of him. Although, The Guardian reports this morning that one cabinet member believes that Brown should be given one final chance after a possible defeat to try and connect, suggesting that there would be no challenge until late autumn.    In a sign of Labour discipline having broken down almost completely, tensions about the running of the campaign have already spilled into the press. The Telegraph reveals that there is concern

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Situation soon to be vacant?

When John Reid was given his last-ever appointment, he’d have fun introducing himself at meetings by saying “I’m John Reid and I am the current Home Secretary.” It was a good joke, both at the instability of the post and his own itinerancy. But if you Google “Labour” then its first line of introduction is “Britain’s democratic socialist party currently led by Gordon Brown”. I just love that “currently”. If I were the Labour Party webmaster, I wouldn’t put anything more permanent there either.

Saturday

Charles Moore Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 5 July 2008

As the new Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans challenges the current running of the Church of England, where does this leave Gordon Brown? I ask because one of Mr Brown’s first acts as Prime Minister was to get rid of his office’s traditional role in the appointment of bishops. In that distant period a year ago when he announced ‘the work of change’, Mr Brown decided unilaterally to hand over all power of appointment to the Church itself. Very modern, very correct, you might think, to separate Church and state. But in fact he created an anomaly. So long as we have an Established Church, it has privileged legal status and

The Skimmer

Pink nonsense

It looks like Gordon Brown broke into The Financial Times last night and wrote its second leader – which is a summary of all Labour’s clichéd attack points, strikingly unworthy of the newspaper’s normally excellent comment pages. It reads like Brown’s more awkward moments in PMQs.  Here are a few examples.  “The Tories have given the impression they are opposed to the abolition of the 10p tax rate, without pledging to reinstate it. They are against raising vehicle excise duty on older cars without saying what they would do to plug the gap in tax receipts.” Demanding the Tories propose a specific tax hike for every tax they propose to

Friday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Why Brown will be cheering on the Tories in Glasgow East

David Cameron is heading up to Glasgow East on Monday to make a visit with Iain Duncan Smith – and they will be campaigning like mad. You may think they’d take their foot of the pedal and leave it to the Queen’s Own Cameron Highlanders (aka the Scottish National Party). But it suits the Tories better when Brown clings on. They want him wounded, but surviving. He is, after all, the Tories’ most powerful recruiting sergeant. Remember this is a 13,500 majority on a 30,900 turnout – ie, Labour had a stonking 61% of the vote last time and the SNP 17%. Cabinet members I have spoken to uniformly predict

Peter Hoskin

London: the best of

Here’s one for whilst you’re winding down on a Friday afternoon: a Guardian article outlining Ken Livingstone’s 10 favourite London haunts. I’m not sure whether they’re in any particular order, but the restaurant Vasco & Piero’s Pavilion fills the number one spot. And Livingstone also finds room for Tate Modern and the Natural History Museum, among others. I quite like the format, and it got me thinking. What would Boris’ top 10 be? What – indeed – would my top 10 be? Without further thought, I’m not sure – but it would have to include St James’s Park, Sadler’s Wells and the Sir John Soane’s Museum. But this is one

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to George Osborne

George Osborne has kindly agreed to a Q&A session with Coffee House.  So, post your questions for him in the comments sections below.  And, in a week-or-so’s time, we’ll pick out the best ten and put them to the shadow chancellor.  He’ll get back to us all a few days later.  And the commenters whose questions are chosen will all win Coffee House t-shirts and copies of the special 180th Anniversary issue of The Spectator.  

Peter Hoskin

Brown turns to the Blairites

“It worked for Tony, so it might just work for me.” That’s what must be going through Gordon Brown’s head at the moment, as – according to this story in the Independent – he’s turning to leading Blairite figures, such as Alistair Campbell and Peter Mandelson, for advice. If true, it’s fairly astonishing – after all, these are people whom Brown undermined and attacked, for the best part of a decade, in his effort to reach the very top. But it’s perhaps even more surprising that the Blairites are going along with it all. Campbell, for example, is said to be “talking regularly” with Brown, and may even take up some

Thursday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

More poppycock from Gordon

Justin at Chicken Yoghurt is bang on: It’s difficult to think of another public-facing job where this kind of evasiveness and inarticulacy would be tolerated…. Picture Gordon Brown getting a job in a supermarket or in a bar. ‘Do you know when you’re getting more tuna in?’ ‘This store is working towards fulfilling its demand for tuna in the very near future.’ …or… ‘Pint of lager, please.’ ‘While we regret that supplies of lager are currently causing difficulties for the public, we have taken the right long term decisions to secure lager supply in the coming years.’ Also note how Brown continues to talk nonsense about Afghanistan while refusing to

Peter Hoskin

David Davis on Brown’s security strategy

We uploaded the content from the latest issue of the magazine this morning.  It includes an article by David Davis, which you can access here.  In it, Davis argues against Brown’s security strategy, and outlines why he’s opposed to the Government’s thinking on ID cards, 42-day detention and the use of CCTV, among other things.  Here’s the bottom line: “Mr Brown’s security strategy is the worst of all worlds — draconian, expensive and ineffective. This contortion of British security and liberty is the result of pervasive ministerial amateurism, driven by a desperate thirst for headlines. Policy-making for the news cycle cannot be properly assessed, checked and tested. That is why I