Politics Archives

Monday

23 Jun 2008

Can Brown avoid death by inflation?

We’ve made the point before that Brown’s fortunes are largely wedded to the state of the economy. After all, he took all the credit for its buoyancy during his time as Chancellor. So he seems to be the best candidate to take the blame now things have gone awry. The worry for Team Brown is that things may be about to get a whole lot worse. Over the past few days, the chatter from monetary policy makers has been of how both the private and public sectors need to show pay restraint in order to prevent a particularly vicious inflationary spiral. Trouble is, many public sector workers don’t exactly share the Treasury’s

Peter Hoskin

Your questions for David Davis

It’s been just over a week since we asked CoffeeHousers to put forward their questions for David Davis. We’ve since picked out the best ten, which have now been put to the former shadow home secretary. He’ll get back to us over the next couple of days. The CoffeeHousers whose questions were chosen can e-mail me on phoskin @ spectator.co.uk to claim their t-shirt and 180th Anniversary issue of the magazine. Anyway, here are the questions: 1) Simon Chapman: “The Conservative Party had won the argument and the moral victory. There are still battles to be fought in Parliament. As Shadow Home Secretary, in the current polls, you had the opportunity

James Forsyth

Where it all went wrong for Brown

This Friday marks the first anniversary of Gordon Brown becoming PM. To put it mildly, it hasn’t been a successful start. This week on Coffee House we’ll be putting forward our views on why and where it has all gone so wrong. The obvious answer is the whole debacle of the election that never was. But this is a necessary but not sufficient explanation for why Labour is now recording some of its lowest poll ratings since records began, and why 85 percent of voters think that Brown has done a worse job than they were expecting. On Friday, we’ll invite you to vote for what has been the biggest

Peter Hoskin

CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 23 June – 29 June

Welcome to a new feature on Coffee House – one we’re calling CoffeeHousers’ Wall. Every Monday, we’ll put up a ‘wall’ post and – provided your writing isn’t libelous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s no need to stay ‘on topic’ – which means you’ll be able to debate with each other more freely and extensively (that means you TGF UKIP and Tiberius). There’s also no constraint on the length of what you write – so, in effect, you can become Coffee House bloggers. Anything’s fair game – from political stories in

Peter Hoskin

Two MPs wanted to join David Davis

If you want to quantify the power of David Davis’ campaign for civil liberties, then there’s always this news story in today’s Standard. Apparently, two other MPs offered to step down – and force by-elections – in sympathy with the former shadow home secretary. They were only prevented from doing so when Davis told them “there should only be one sacrifice”. What gives the story added spice is the claim that one of the MPs belongs to Labour (the other’s said to be a Tory). Do CoffeeHousers have any ideas about who the rebel might be?

The Spectator

Just in case you missed them… | 23 June 2008

Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: James Forsyth wonders whether a coup is the best Zimbabwe can hope for, and highlights another disastrous poll for Gordon Brown. Peter Hoskin reports on the end to the row between Burnham and Chakrabarti. Fraser Nelson thinks that Boris Johnson was right to accept James McGrath’s resignation. Clive Davis points out a problem with “a particular strain” of multiculturalism. And Americano thinks Team Obama has made a mistake in releasing its own version of the Presidential seal.

Peter Hoskin

Unkind comparisons

Oh dear. It looks as though Brown’s speechwriters have got it wrong, wrong, wrong for his address on social mobility today. Rather than setting out what policy wonks call a “progressive vision”, it dwells all too acrimoniously on Margaret Thatcher, and tries to lay the blame for poor social mobility at her feet. As I see it, there are three immediate problems with this approach: 1) This is the same Margaret Thatcher that Brown stood with on the steps of No.10 last year. He seemed happy enough to be seen with her then – so why the harsh treatment now? It’s nothing more than hypocrisy – and unkindness – on

Sunday

22 Jun 2008

Fraser Nelson

Boris was right to accept McGrath’s resignation in race row

Unlike Iain Dale, I do believe Boris was right to accept the resignation of his political adviser James McGrath earlier this evening. Like Patrick Mercer, McGrath made a remark which could easily have been misrepresented as racist, even though it was not. Here are the specific words he used in an interview. “McGrath was far from politically correct, David-Cameron-new- cuddly-Conservative Party, when I pointed out to him a critical comment of Voice columnist Darcus Howe that the election of “Boris Johnson, a right-wing Conservative, might just trigger off a mass exodus of older Caribbean migrants back to our homelands”. He retorted: “Well, let them go if they don’t like

Saturday

21 Jun 2008

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s Notes | 21 June 2008

How strange that Gordon Brown’s suggestion this week that MPs should have no say in setting their own pay is being welcomed as a curb on sleaze. If their pay is to be set, as is proposed, by a government-funded agency instead of by their own votes, MPs will cease to be independent legislators and become government employees. Most of British constitutional history (‘I see the birds have flown’) has sought to avoid government control of those we elect, and control of a person’s pay is perhaps the most effective curb of all. We are so disillusioned by our MPs that we now welcome anything they do which discards their

Fraser Nelson

WEB-EXCLUSIVE, LONGER VERSION: Poor, brave David Davis has become the Eddie the Eagle of Westminster

At a dinner party in central London a few months ago, David Davis made an extraordinary confession. He had become disenchanted with David Cameron, he said, and was considering quitting politics. ‘I believe in certain things,’ he claimed, ‘and I do not believe the next Conservative government will implement them.’ He wondered if he should try to earn a little money in the outside world. He did not come across as bitter or regicidal, I am told, just disillusioned — and planning a graceful exit. Or, as it turned out, a rather spectacular one. It is now more than a week since Mr Davis resigned to campaign on the issue

Daniel Hannan

EU leaders will never consult us again

Daniel Hannan, who predicted the Irish ‘No’ vote in this magazine, now says that the EU will simply implement the Lisbon Treaty and never risk a referendum again By ten o’clock on Friday morning, it was clear that the ‘No’s had it. Ireland’s Europhiles were struggling even in their affluent strongholds within the Pale. In the rest of the country, they were being pulverised. A jubilant ‘No’ campaigner rang me from Galway, his words tumbling over each other. ‘It looks like a high turnout, too,’ he exulted. ‘The Eurocrats won’t be able to just carry on as if nothing has happened.’ Oh yes they will, I told him, sadly. They

The Spectator

The old order changeth | 21 June 2008

Until his astonishing resignation from the Commons last week, the prospect of David Davis as the next Home Secretary was one of the foremost attractions of a new Conservative government. On a range of issues from prison policy and police bureaucracy to managed migration and juvenile crime, Mr Davis’s instincts have long been excellent. Since David Cameron’s election as party leader in 2005, furthermore, he acted as a check on the occasional excesses of the Tory modernisers. The ‘decontamination of the Tory brand’ has been a necessary — and highly successful — process. When, from time to time, it veered towards folly, Mr Davis often saved the day, calming the

Matthew Parris

Another Voice | 21 June 2008

It’s all too easy to leave Top Secret papers lying around — I should know News last week that police are investigating a ‘serious’ security breach after a civil servant lost top-secret documents containing the latest intelligence on al-Qa’eda sent a shiver of alarmed reminiscence down my spine. The unnamed Cabinet Office employee apparently breached strict security rules when he left the papers, in an orange cardboard folder, on the seat of a train bound for Surrey. It just would be Surrey. Apparently the papers were classified Top Secret. Mine were more secret than that. Top Secret isn’t the top secret classification — or wasn’t in 1976. There were (to

Friday

20 Jun 2008

Alex Massie

Labour Party in “meltdown”

Danny Finklestein reports: Politely talking to one Labour member, while in the presence of a member of the Shadow Cabinet, I asked him gently to what he thought we owed Labour’s decline in the polls. Instead of giving an involved explanation he replied: “Oh that’s easy to explain. Our Leader is utterly useless. If you asked him which of the two doors from this room he was going to exit from he would be incapable of choosing. And if someone else chose the door for him he wouldn’t be able to make his way there” Well, yes. Once a party starts to unravel, there ain’t anything anyone can do to

The Spectator

The week that was | 20 June 2008

Some highlights of the week on Spectator.co.uk: Spectator Live is launched. Andrew Neil thinks that Britain has lost out from the Home Office’s decision not to let Martha Stewart into the country. Fraser Nelson outlines his take on the David Davis story, and pays tribute to Scottish alcohol adverts. James Forsyth suggests that the Labour attack machine has lost its teeth, and asks whether Daniel Finkelstein is fighting the last war. Peter Hoskin reports on Ed Ball’s latest attack on grammar schools, and marks the moment that the Lisbon Treaty passed through the House of Lords. Stephen Pollard writes on Gordon Brown’s “instinctive loathing of capitalism”. Melanie Phillips gives

Fraser Nelson

Countering the lies

My, British politics is becoming litigious. First Shami Chakrabarti threatens to sue over “smears” about her and David Davis, and now David Cameron is talking about suing the Liberal Democrats over the contents of their Henley literature. There is an instinct to say ‘grow up, it’s only politics’ but its about time the Tories started getting muscular about the lies told about them. Gordon Brown lied his way through the 2005 election campaign, saying the Tories would make £35bn of “cuts” when they (alas) promised not just to outspend Labour but to raise the tax burden too. If Brown repeated these claims in a document regulated by the London Stock Exchange

Peter Hoskin

Brown delays ratification of the Lisbon Treaty

At the suggestion of Lord Justice Richards, Gordon Brown has confirmed he’ll delay ratification of the Lisbon Treaty until after the result of Stuart Wheeler’s court case against the Government. We should hear the verdict next week and, according to Brown, that “fits in with [the Government’s] timetable.” However, Wheeler has since confirmed that he’ll most likely appeal should the High Court rule in the Government’s favour. In theory, that should mean further delay for Brown & Co. Watch this space. P.S. An explanation for those puzzled by all the “UK ratifies Lisbon Treaty” headlines now Brown’s said he’ll delay ratification. The bill to implement the Lisbon Treaty has passed successfully through

Peter Hoskin

The disgruntled speak out

Over at Comment Central, Danny Finkelstein’s posted a couple of no-holds-barred quotations from Labour MPs: “Our Leader is utterly useless. If you asked him which of the two doors from this room he was going to exit from he would be incapable of choosing. And if someone else chose the door for him he wouldn’t be able to make his way there.” And, “The one good thing about global warming is that as the waters rise, Hazel Blears will drown first.” Of course, it’s no surprise that certain Labour MPs aren’t happy with the party leadership. Nonetheless, it’s telling that they’re expressing this in quite such blunt terms. As Finkelstein says, it has all the hallmarks of

Peter Hoskin

Things are hotting-up in Henley

After David Davis’ resignation, Henley was under threat of becoming the forgotten by-election. But things are hotting up there today, with David Cameron threatening to sue the Lib Dems over some of their campaign methods. Cameron claims the Lib Dems have misrepresented the Tory candidate John Howell’s views on a local hospital. And then there’s the Lib Dem magazine which has positioned a photo of Boris such that it looks like a picture byline, above an article endorsing the Lib Dem candidate (see this image at Conservative Home). Boris has already lodged a complaint. And the Tories are demanding apologies and retractions from the Lib Dems. If they don’t get them, then to the courts it will

James Forsyth

The Davis shuffle

Last night on Question Time, David Davis said: “If I was given my job back, I think I’d take it – but I don’t think I’ll be offered it.” The general feeling in Tory circles is that David Cameron is not in any way obliged to reshuffle to bring Davis back in after he wins his by-election; a stint on the backbenches is the price that Davis pays for his stand. But things get interesting if Cameron is forced into a reshuffle. In these circumstances, the biggest question would be will Cameron bring Davis back? This is a fascinating sub-text to the whole Caroline Spelman business. If this row about