Politics

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

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What Cameron should learn from Blair’s experience

When historians look back at the Blair era, one of the things that will puzzle them is the fact that Tony Blair never attempted anything truly radical when his popularity was at its height. For instance, I’m sure if he’d called a referendum on the euro—which he wanted to join—early on in his tenure, he would have won. One of the reasons Blair was so cautious was his belief that the Tories were not dead but only sleeping. Steve Richards has a great example of how concerned the Blairites were of a Tory revival in his column today: “I remember having a cup of tea with Blair during the first term, when

Peter Hoskin

Who is Gordon Brown?

Our Prime Minister’s been compared to quite a few (real and fictional) characters of late.  Lord Turnbull got the ball rolling with his “Stalin” jibe; Vince Cable observed Brown’s transformation into Mr Bean; and the Spectator’s own Fraser Nelson saw similarities with Del Boy.  And now David Hughes spots the parallels with Inspector Clouseau. So, CoffeeHousers, who does Brown remind you of?  And why?  For me, his tendency to pick people up by the lapels recalls a certain James Bond bad-guy:

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Blowing the Tory budget

Eight years ago, Tony Blair sat on Sir David Frost’s sofa and pledged that Labour would spend 8% of GDP on health. Brown called up afterwards in a fury, saying “you’ve spent my f**king budget”. One wonders what David Cameron said to Andrew Lansley after his Times interview where he says 11% of GDP should be spent on health. A number of responses spring to mind:- 1) Please explain to me why you considered it helpful to come up with this 11% figure. Please. I’m interested. 2) Did anyone authorise this 11% figure? Or was it in the faxed instructions the BMA send you each morning in large type?” 3)

Matthew Dancona

The Norman conquest

Lord Tebbit’s response to Michael Gove’s Spectator article last week is a remarkable spectacle: an argument between a past colossus of Tory Government and a future one. To the irritation of some of my fellow modernisers, I have a deep respect for Norman and thought it was especially crazy of that faction to try and expel him from the party in 2002. He is not, as some mods claim, the Scargill of the Right: this is a man who took on the unions and won, drove through many of the key Thatcherite reforms and was responsible for some of the party’s most remarkable electoral achievements. He is also a hero

Peter Hoskin

Lansley splashes the cash

Andrew Lansley lobs a firecracker into the tortoise-hare debate this morning; announcing that the Tories would increase health spending by an extra £28 billion a year. The pledge actually goes beyond any made by the Government, and will see health expenditure rise by 2 percent of GDP. It sends a strong message out to the voting public. Something like: “We care about the NHS because we’re pumping more money into the NHS”. Sadly, though, it’s the wrong message. If ten years of Blair and Brown have taught us anything, it’s that increased inputs don’t necessarily equate to improved outputs. Today’s National Audit Office report only serves to underline this. If

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Europe Referendum back on the cards

Ian Davidson, the Labour MP who has been leading the charge for a referendum, has managed to get down an amendment on whether or not Britain should remain in the European Union; the Lib Dem’s failure to get the Deputy Speaker to accept their amendment on this yesterday led to them storming out of the Commons. Davidson has succeeded where Nick Clegg failed by proposing a two question referendum which would ask: “Should the United Kingdom retain its membership of the European Union?” “If it remains a member of the European Union, should the United Kingdom approve the Lisbon Treaty?” The amendment will appear on the Order Paper tomorrow and will

James Forsyth James Forsyth

RIP William F. Buckley Jr

Few journalists can claim to have been as influential as Bill Buckley was. George Will, the conservative columnist, introduced Buckley thus on the 50th anniversary of National Review, the conservative magazine that Buckley founded: This might be a bit of an exaggeration but there can be no doubting Buckley’s influence, few people were more influential in the creation of the American conservative movement than he. In his 55 books and more than 5,000 beautifully written newspaper columns, Buckley remade the intellectual landscape of America. “Let me invite you to take credit for winning the Cold War. The argument goes like this: Without Bill Buckley, no National Review. Without National Review,

Peter Hoskin

Poll skulduggery

If Mike Smithson over at Political Betting is right (and he usually is), then there was a spot of Team Livingstone skulduggery behind yesterday’s tit-for-tat poll exchange. That “new” MORI poll which gives the Mayor a 2 per cent lead over Boris Johnson?  Well, it turns out that it’s not new at all.  MORI actually conducted their research some three weeks ago.  Crucially, that’s before Lee Jasper was suspended. By contrast, the YouGov poll which gave Johnson a 5 percent lead was conducted last week; after Jasper’s suspension. Smithson indicates that Livingstone purposely held back on the MORI results: “My understanding is that Labour and Ken knew about the MORI poll almost as

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The press takes direct action

During today’s protest against a third runway at Heathrow the protestsers draped a banner down from the roof over the side of the Palace of Westminster. Someone from the inside, though, leaned out and cut the banner in two. Over at the Mirror, Kevin Maguire has  rounded up the usual suspects and thinks that he might have identified the culprit.  

The Spectator

Tebbit wades into the “Heir to Blair” debate.

Here – for the benefit of CoffeeHousers – is the full text of a letter from Lord Tebbit that will run in tomorrow’s Spectator: “Sir: Michael Gove gives a eulogy to Tony Blair, ‘I admired Tony Blair. I knew Tony Blair’.   I had hoped that David Cameron’s claim to be ‘the heir to Blair’ was just a silly mistake springing from inexperience. It is more worrying to find that Blair worship is now the doctrine of modern compassionate Conservatism. No wonder 40 per cent of electors are unwilling to vote; nor that, when asked which party could best meet any challenge facing Britain, those saying ‘neither’ regularly exceed those naming either party. Blair’s

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Here’s another fine mess you’ve gotten me into Harriet

Over at The Three Line Whip, Andrew Porter notes how Gordon Brown distanced himself at PMQs from Harriet Harman’s disgraceful praise for the former Cuban dictator Fidel Castro. Porter reports that her comments about Castro are not the only thing that Harman has said recently that have irritated Number 10. Indeed, if she was not effectively un-sackable one would begin to wonder about her position. I have a pet theory that many of Brown’s problems can be traced back to Harman’s election as deputy leader. If Alan Johnson had got the job, there would have been someone in the Cabinet who would have had license to stand up to Brown

Peter Hoskin

Davey bites back 

Open House have afforded Ed Davey a plaform from which to deliver his version of yesterday’s events.  Unfortunately – yet predictably – he uses it peddle the Lib Dem’s ludicrous line on Europe.  One passage leapt out at me:  “It’s not unusual for Liberal Democrats to be squeezed out of parliamentary debates by the other parties seeking to maintain their cosy establishment arrangements. True, but this was different.  First, all the parties fought the last election on referendum pledges, so there is a democratic obligation for a debate. Second, it goes to the heart of the disagreements between the parties over EU reform. Third, we had undertaken an unprecedented amount of preparatory

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron urges Brown to clean-up politics

A rather downbeat PMQs session, where the following quote from Cameron is the highlight. “If he really thinks these exchanges once a week are a substitute for a proper television debate, then he’s even more out of touch than I thought. We have to be honest with ourselves – not many people watch these exchanges and not all those that do are hugely impressed with them. We’ve seen TV debates in Italy, Australia and Poland. So I have to ask him: what on earth is he frightened of?”  Cameron came to PMQs today on a mission to clean up politics, and sought to enlist Brown’s support. Does he agree that MPs

Peter Hoskin

Protestville

With anti-Heathrow-expansion protestors scaling the roof of Parliament – and sparking all kind of security concerns in the process – it’s worth asking when & whether protests cross the line of decency. It’s a question that Benedict Brogan’s certainly tackling over at his excellent blog.  He takes a hard-line on the matter.  Brian Haw and his ilk were yesterday described as “a disgusting bunch” whose public profanity is (technically) illegal.  And now today’s protestors are dismissed as “idiots”. But does that mean we should clamp down on such protestors?  Or can we pardon their methods on the basis that they’re not doing any particular harm? The answers aren’t obvious, but  – whatever they are – I suspect their application should be

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Boris’s most brilliant wheeze to date was the letter to the Guardian attacking him

Rod Liddle salutes the genius of the Tory mayoral candidate in sending a spoof petition condemning himself and praising Livingstone to the skies to the Left’s in-house newspaper The battle to become Mayor of London is getting dirty. Someone from Boris Johnson’s campaign team — or maybe Boris himself — put a hilarious spoof letter in the Guardian this week. It purported to be from 100 ‘academics’, luvvies, lesbians and professional agitators, all of them aghast at the notion that the ‘right-wing and reactionary’ Boris might actually win. It was a quite brilliant work of parody — long-winded, witless, sanctimonious and marvellously self-important. What Boris had done, with panache, was

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Too much information | 26 February 2008

The Information Commissioner is wrong to order that the minutes of the Cabinet meeting where the legality of the Iraq war was discussed be published. If Cabinet Minutes can be released so soon after the event, no one will speak their mind in cabinet anymore; it would effectively mean the end of Cabinet government. As Sam Coates puts it:  “Cabinet Ministers need somewhere they can discuss, debate and disagree about policy in private. This is surely sensible (if they did not have a chance to raise concerns, how can they exercise collective responsibility?) and this is why Cabinet discussions and the minutes are secret.” One of the things that all the various

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris leads London mayoral race

Political Betting has details of a new YouGov poll which shows Boris five points ahead of Ken Livingstone at 44 percent. Livingstone’s people are reportedly claiming that their polling still has him ahead, but even here the advantage is only a couple of points. It seems that the Jasper affair and the Mayor’s bizarre behaviour are taking their toll. 

The Spectator

Listen Live: Spectator Education debate

Tonight, an all star panel debate whether all schools should be allowed to select their own pupils. Speakers for the motion are Chris Woodhead, former chief inspector of schools, Dr Martin Stephen, High Master of St Pauls, and Lord Tebbit. Opposing them are David Bunkett, Fiona Millar, Cherie Blair’s former aide, and William Atkinson, headmaster of the Phoenix School.  Click here to listen.

Peter Hoskin

Taking leave of their senses

Fraser told us to “stay tuned” to the Lib Dems’ continuing efforts to force an “in or out” referendum, and now we’ve been rewarded with a spot of Parliamentary drama.   Ed Davey – the Lib Dem Foreign Affairs spokesman – was ejected from the Commons for his angry insistence on the matter.  The rest of his party then walked out in protest. It’s difficult to see what the Lib Dems hope to gain from their bizzare behaviour.  Of course, they’re trying to present themselves as staunch defenders of the British public’s rights.  But their actions will most-likely deny that same public a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, whilst achieving nothing by way of compensation.