Politics

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

Monday

Matthew Dancona

An ordinary kind of guy?

Gordon Brown’s claim on Andrew Marr’s show yesterday to be a “pretty ordinary guy” has occasioned much mirth, not least because of its echo – subconscious or otherwise – of Tony Blair’s famous remark in the midst of the Ecclestone Affair 11 years ago that he was a “pretty straight sort of guy.” As one senior Labour figure put it to me: “The one thing Gordon just is not, is ordinary.” But support for the PM’s description of himself comes in Adam Boulton’s gripping new account of the Blair Administration, Tony’s Ten Years, which I heartily recommend to all CoffeeHousers. As part of a much broader analysis, Boulton compares and

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown’s Enron for Africa

In David Miliband’s “leaving do” speech for Gordon Brown, one line jumped out at me – when he said Gordon Brown has “transformed the debate about international development in Britain”. He has certainly transformed the accounting, by pioneering dodgy off-balance sheet financing of overseas aid. It’s worth revisiting, in the light of his new pious anger about banks who use off-balance sheet financing. His so-called International Finance Facility is a classic Brownite vehicle: it exploits a Eurostat loophole so if three or more EU countries share a pool of debt, it doesn’t show up on any of their books and they can fool their taxpayers into thinking they owe less

Peter Hoskin

Would this be Miliband’s first Cabinet?

Over at his excellent blog, the Evening Standard’s Paul Waugh has posted a list he was given (by “one Blairite”) which purports to outline what David Milband’s Cabinet would look like.  Here it is in full: Prime Minister – David Miliband Foreign Secretary – James Purnell Chancellor – John Hutton Home Secretary – Alan Johnson Health Sec – Andy Burnham Education Sec – Jacqui Smith Business Secretary – Ed Balls Defence – Jack Straw Justice – Liam Byrne DIUS – Jim Murphy Work and Pensions – Mike O’Brien Chief Sec to Treasury – Kitty Ussher Transport Sec – Yvette Cooper Environment – Caroline Flint Cabinet Office – Hazel Blears DCLG

Theo Hobson Theo Hobson

The Creationism debate

Here’s the latest instalment of Theo Hobson’s regular Coffee House column on religion. Is the Telegraph’s religion correspondent, George Pitcher, a creationist? Last week he came out as one – sort of. But what he really means, he says, is that he believes in creation as a ‘meta-narrative.’ This is not the same thing. It is muddying the waters to confuse creation-faith with creationism. All Christians believe in God’s creation of the world – but if they are thoughtful and honest they will admit that this is a hugely problematic matter, which more or less defies rational explanation. Creationists are Christians who cannot admit this, who need a pseudo-scientific account

Sunday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Brownies just keep on coming

On the basis that a Prime Minister should not be able to mislead his country every time he opens his mouth, here is a list of the Brownies to which we were treated on the Andrew Marr Show this morning. The sheer volume of them is overwhelming: this is carefully woven-together matrix of exaggeration, misrepresentation and outright porkies in order to create a fake picture of prosperity. Here is the by-no-means-exhaustive list, all in the space of less then half an hour. INTEREST RATES: “Well interest rates in the last world downturn were 15%. I think everybody remembers that terrible time. Interest rates at the moment, the base is 5%.”

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How John Prescott got the better of me

I’ve had the pleasure of doing a column for the News of the World for a couple of years now, but this is the first time I’ve had the newspaper’s title on my conference pass. I wish I’d done it earlier. It seems to drive Labour people quite mad. The ushers here recoil when they check my pass, some tut, others hiss. “Is that newspaper still going?” one of them asked me on the way in. Um yes, it’s the largest selling newspaper in the English-speaking world and its readers are the type who tend to decide British elections. The sort of people whom Labour seems to have given up

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown is in danger of turning into a figure of fun

Today Brown claimed that every two-year-old will have a free nursery place – by 2018. Coming from a guy who’ll be lucky to be in power by December 18, it’s just a joke. I wonder if John Major is thinking: ‘that’s what I should have done, announced wonderful things to happen by 2007’. It would cost £1 billion and he doesn’t have £1 billion. He doesn’t have the money he’s spending right now. In my News of the World column today (now online) I explain how the danger facing Brown is that he’ll exit not a hated figure but one derided by anyone. Already Alan Johnson has started talking about

Saturday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Labour form book: Jack Straw

Coffee House is running a series of posts on the contenders to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour party leader.  The latest is below.  Click here for our profile of David Miliband, here for Jon Cruddas, and here for Alan Johnson. Jack Straw, 62, Lord Chancellor and Secretary of State for Justice Pros Experience: This is a man who has been an MP since 1979, and who – in his near thirty year career – has filled positions including Foreign Secretary and Home Secretary. On paper, at least, it’s not a bad record, perhaps the best among any of the potential leadership candidates. Straw’s got experience by the bucketful. And that’s

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The PM serves up Brownies for Sky

Interviewing Gordon Brown is a horrible job. He normally regards interviews as speeches with occasional interruptions, and typically he reverts to his lines while his PR man calls up after to say ‘what Gordon meant to say was…’.  Yet Sky News team squeezed a fairly decent amount out of Brown in their inteview broadcast at 8pm last night. Plus a new crop of Brownies. Some were slips (‘Fannie Mac’ etc) but the below were, we should believe, deliberate – and should not pass without comment: 1) “In 1997 we came in and… the debt of the United Kingdom was 44% 45% of national income, we cut that and it is

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Politics | 20 September 2008

When Number 10 said that Gordon Brown’s leadership had not been discussed in the Cabinet on Tuesday morning, it sounded a bit odd. After all, every other gathering of Labour MPs in the land has been talking of little else: how much more humiliation lies ahead, and when the end might come. So it came as no surprise to learn that the spin doctors’ claim was untrue. In fact, the issue did come up in Cabinet, raised by none other than the Prime Minister himself — and in the most extraordinary terms. After Mr Brown had gone through the motions of discussing government business (not something anyone is much focused

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 19 September 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson thinks that Brown’s rollercoaster fall may be stabilising for now, and shows how Nick Clegg’s tax cuts are a con. James Forsyth explains why the Tories need to face up to some tough tax decisions, and advises the Labour rebels not to make it personal. Peter Hoskin reviews Nick Clegg’s conference speech, and asks whether Stuart Wheeler will force the Tories to talk about Europe. Daniel Korski explores the tensions in Ukraine. Brian Cullen questions how far the Cabinet is really backing Brown  Mark Daniell introduces us to this year’s Ryder Cup. Stephen Pollard highlights

The Spectator

Brown shouldn’t lecture anyone about hiding debt

Quotes have been released from the Sky News interview with the Prime Minister tonight, and one catches my eye. He talks about City firms misbehaving. Kay Burley asks him how. He answers: “What we are discovering is that there were large off balance sheet activities that were being run by some of the major companies in the world, I’m not naming any individual companies, because many companies were involved in this. They were not fully disclosed, they were therefore the problem that had to be dealt with when the markets started to fall.” Hmm – large off-balance sheet activities? This from the man who has so far kept at least £50 billion

Peter Hoskin

Grumblings from the grassroots

LabourHome’s poll of Labour members – featured on the cover of today’s Independent – has caused quite a stir.  UK polling report summarises the criticism that a few Labour figures have levelled against it – i.e. that it’s not sufficiently scientific – but also points out that similar polls by ConservativeHome have proved quite accurate in the past.  Either way, the results are well worth a read.  Here are some of the headline findings: 46.2% want Gordon Brown to lead Labour into the next election. 53.8% would prefer someone else.   45.3% believe a change of leader would improve Labour’s General Election prospects. 27.7% believe a change would harm Labour’s prospects.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Reasons for Brown to be cheerful

The Brown demise is on a downward rollercoaster trajectory: it stabilises before it plunges again. I suspect that a period of stabilisation, and maybe even an upswing, is now on the cards. Yesterday went very well for him, and from the quotes I have seen he managed to get through even Jeff Randall on the Sky interview to be broadcast at 8pm tonight. Also, he may soon have another merger deal to point to.  EDF, which walked away from British Energy in July, will meet during the Labour Party conference to discuss a higher offer. Creating an entente nuclear is one of Brown’s main ambitions – something which justifies his

Thursday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown’s charade is working

At 8pm on Friday, Sky will broadcast an interview with Gordon Brown which seals off what will be his best day for months. The risible idea that he somehow played matchmaker between HBOS and Lloyds TSB proved irresistible to news editors last night. It fuses together the political crisis with the financial one and has been written into the script. Him bumping into the part-time chairman of board of Lloyds (not Eric Daniels, who actually runs the company) has been puffed up into the moment when (as one newspaper put it) Brown ordered banks to merge. It’s the perfect myth, which allows him to say “I’m your man for the economic meltdown.”

Peter Hoskin

An indebted nation

As Fraser and I point out in this week’s cover piece, Brown’s major legacy will be to saddle the next government – and the country – with unprecedented levels of debt.  There’s the prospect that around £100 billion of public money will be sunk into Northern Rock; there’s another £110 billion set aside for PFI projects, much of which is scandalously kept off the balance sheets; and that’s before we get onto the offical total government debt figure of around £600 billion. Problem is, that last figure is set to rise exponentially.  The latest public finance statistics (out today) reveal that from April to August this year the deficit grew by £28 billion –

Peter Hoskin

The Labour form book: David Miliband 

With the Brown premiership on the ropes, Coffee House takes a look at those who might succeed him as party leader.  In the run-up to the Labour Party conference this weekend, we’ll be profiling each of the main contenders.  And, once we’ve got through them, we’ll give you the chance to vote on which one you think would be the best for Labour.  We kick things off with the bookies’ favourite… David Miliband, 43, Secretary of State for Foreign and Commonwealth Affairs Pros Youth: According to the “Milibama” strategy, Miliband’s youthful vim and vigour will go some way to rejuvenating the Labour project itself.  At the very least, it offers a stark

Peter Hoskin

Will Wheeler force the Tories to talk about Europe?

The major Tory donor Stuart Wheeler is to deliver an ultimatum to David Cameron tonight.  If the Tories fail to make two particular pledges in their next manfiesto, he’ll take his money elswhere.  And those pledges are:  1. A promise that if the Lisbon Treaty is not law when they come to power, they will hold a referendum on whether to withdraw UK ratification. 2. A promise that if the Lisbon Treaty is law when they come to power, there will be an immediate, massive renegotiation of the UK’s relationship with the EU. If the UK did not get what it wants, the UK should pull out of the Union altogether.

Peter Hoskin

The Blairites lurk in the shadows – for now

Rather than wading into the fray, Alan Milburn steps gingerly towards it with his article for the think tank Progress today.  Sure, he writes that “change beckons once again”, but he also holds back from questioning Gordon Brown’s leadership.  Why so timid?  I somehow doubt it’s because he supports Brown.  But rather because Blairites – like Milburn – have to be careful not to give No.10 any opportunity to portray the current rebellion as one masterminded by a rightist cabal.  This, I suspect, is the main reason why many major figures are biting their tongues for the time being.  Until the widest-possible coalition against Brown is built, their explicit involvement