Politics

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

Friday

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 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

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband won’t take no for an answer

Further to Pete’s post, David Miliband’s comments on Channel 4 tonight are a classic example of Euro double-speak: “We are ready to respond to the vote that took place in Ireland in a way that is respectful, that is calm, and above all listens to the Irish people and the Irish government.” The respectful way to respond to the Irish vote and the one that listens to the Irish people is to accept that no means no. The idea that you just keep holding votes until you get the right result makes a mockery of the democratic process. PS If you haven’t already, do read Dan Hannan in the magazine

Peter Hoskin

Just say ‘No’

The news coming out of the EU summit in Brussels is less than encouraging. Apparently, the various representatives are preparing themselves for months and months of negotiation over the Lisbon Treaty. And that includes the Irish. Their Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, had this to say: “It is necessary for Ireland to have time now to analyze last week’s vote and explore options … It is far too early yet for anyone to put forward proposals.” True, there are few absolutes in politics. But the Irish ‘No’ result should be one of them. It could take the Irish Government all of a second to repeat this declaration to the other EU leaders. That they are willing to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Labour attack machine has lost its teeth

If you want to know how much Labour’s political skills have atrophied just consider how it has failed to land a hit on the Tories—and David Davis in particular—over their stance on civil liberties. Take the Tory position on removing the DNA of all those who have been charged but not convicted of a crime from the national database. On Tuesday, Gordon Brown claimed in his speech that if DNA had not been retained from these people, “8,000 suspects who have been matched with crime scenes since 2001 would in all probability have got away, their DNA having been deleted from the database. This includes 114 murders, 55 attempted murders,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Burnham gets more than he bargained for

Andy Burnham’s comments about David Davis and Shami Chakrabarti were a cheap shot and unworthy of this office. They also typified the cack-handed way in which Labour has responded to the Tories on civil liberties—more on that later. Davis hit back hard in the papers this morning and Chakrabarti has escalated the issue with a threat of legal action: “I look forward to your written apology as I’m sure does Mrs Davis. If on the other hand you choose to continue down the path of innuendo and attempted character assassination, you will find that the privileged legal protection of the parliament chamber does not extend to slurs made in the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Tories should take the poor out of tax

The Telegraph’s excellent Tories in Power series continues today with a splendid piece by Tim Montgomerie. Tim argues that: “The Tories’ next moral target should be the taxation of low-income workers. Income tax is taken from many poor families, churned through an expensive bureaucracy and then returned in benefits. It would cost £44 billion to take approximately 14,000,000 people out of the tax system altogether. The Conservative government doesn’t have to set a timetable, but it would be the greatest of missions; as radical and just as Margaret Thatcher’s sale of council homes. It would sow panic in Labour’s heartlands. The difference between freezing public spending and growing public spending

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Davis story

A few months ago, I was told that David Davis had confessed at a dinner party that he didn’t believe the next Cameron government would be very Tory, and didn’t see the point in staying. I put this to both Mr Davis and a few of his friends. All laughed it off. Mr Davis said he was perhaps a little bored waiting for the 42 days vote, but not unhappy. (This, by the way, is typical of the way he’s played down any split with Cameron at every opportunity in private as well as public). One of his friends told me that it wasn’t so. “I’m not just saying this,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Does Brown need some holiday reading?

Alistair Horne has a delightful piece in today’s Independent reflecting on the dinner he went to with George W. Bush and what politicians learn from history. I was particularly struck by this anecdote: But probably the best read of any, not only in history, was Harold Macmillan. To fight the “Black Dog” of depression, he would regularly lock himself away for hours at a time to read. He claimed to have re-read the whole of George Eliot during the Suez Crisis of 1956. One wonders if what the Prime Minister needs to do right now is to kick his shoes off and read some fiction. As Iain Martin has long

Peter Hoskin

Hard Times

In the wake of Alistair Darling and Mervyn King’s speeches at Mansion House last night, most of the papers are majoring on the sorry state of our economy. Both Darling and King indicated that this is the worst shape it’s been in for around 15 years, and warned that there’s worse to come. For the gloom-inclined, we’ve pulled out some of their main points over on Trading Floor. And whilst we’re on the subject of the economy, Anatole Kaletsky’s article on inflation in this morning’s Times is essential reading. In it, he expresses doubts over Gordon Brown’s ability to handle inflationary pressures in the right way: “The second genuine reason

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Parliament ratifies the Lisbon Treaty

So that’s it then.  The Lisbon Treaty has passed sucessfully through Parliament, despite an 11th-hour Tory effort to delay proceedings.  The UK now joins a merry band of 19 EU countries which have all ratified the document. It’s a gross betrayal of the ‘No’ vote in the Irish referendum.  The noise coming out of Downing Street is that it doesn’t want a two-tier Europe, and it will attempt to terminate the Treaty should Ireland – or any of the other 27 countries – drop out of proceedings.  That’s better than the “forget the Irish” standpoint that some countries have.  But it’s still less than noble.  After all, as more and more countries ratify the Treaty, the

Peter Hoskin

A referendum, of sorts

Guido helpfully points out that there’s now a counter-petition to the anti-ratification one set up by Richard North and Neil O’Brien on the Downing Street website.  This new petition states: “We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Ignore the result of the Irish referendum and ratify the Lisbon Treaty.” So – in a roundabout way – the Downing Street website’s now offering a vote on whether the Lisbon Treaty should be ratified.  As it is, the ‘No’s currently lead by 18,590 to 8… 

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg should go to David Davis’s constituency immediately

Nick Clegg should be on his way to Haltemprice & Howden right now with the aim of canvassing for David Davis on the first day of his campaign. Clegg’s aim should be to cause as much mischief as possible by fanning the flames of any Tory splits story. If Clegg appeared with Davis before Cameron then the press pack would start sniffing around this story.

Peter Hoskin

Labour confirm they won’t stand in Haltemprice & Howden

Labour have confirmed that they won’t put forward a candidate for the Haltemprice & Howden by-election.  For Team Davis, this will surely ingrain those worries that I mentioned earlier.  But, depsite that, Davis had already set up the perfect response to the news.  Talking to the BBC earlier, he said: “Gordon Brown … is my real opponent”.  Now he just needs to get this message out as much as possible – particularly before getting embroiled in debate with the irregular collection of candidates who are standing.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown pummelled in PMQs

With four more troops dead in Afghanistan, the campaign in Helmand led PMQs. Gordon Brown wished to pay tribute, and I’m afraid it did not go well. “The freedoms that we have in Britain are in no small part due to the fact that we have taken on the Taleban in Afghanistan and refused them to allow to break the democracy of Afghanistan,” he said. Garbled nonsense: I agree that the cause in Afghanistan is noble but in what way are British freedoms “due” to the Afghan campaign? I’m not even sure what Brown was trying to say. Paying tribute to the military does not come naturally to him, as

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Finkelstein fighting the last war?

Few columnists in Britain provoke as often or as brilliantly as Daniel Finkelstein does. But I think Danny reveals himself to be fighting the last war in his piece today. He argues that the Tories should not differentiate themselves too much from Brown as that would be an electoral risk. He writes that: “The only way of satisfying the demand that [Cameron] stands for something would be to leave the centre ground. He is better off leaving that demand unsatisfied.” This suggests that Danny does not believe that there is an electorally popular, reform Conservatism that can be sold to the public. To my mind, this is both defeatist and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A show of strength

Neil O’Brien and Richard North’s Downing Street petition, demanding that Brown abandon ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, is now the third most popular live petition on the Downing Street site. There are currently 15,507 signatures on it which is pretty remarkable considering that it has only been up for just over 24 hours. I think the record for one of these petitions is the 1.7 million plus who signed the road pricing petition. If this one got anywhere near that it would show Brown the strength of feeling on this issue.