Politics

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

Saturday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Meet James Purnell: the best hope Labour has of avoiding disaster

Fraser Nelson says that the 38-year-old Work and Pensions Secretary is the best candidate to succeed Gordon Brown. Already surging ahead at his department, he has the gift of sounding like an ordinary human being — and he understands the Cameron Conservative party These days, it is scarcely possible to talk politics with a member of the government for more than ten minutes — if that — without The Question cropping up. Gordon Brown is doomed, runs the premise: he has hit rock bottom and carried on drilling. This cannot be allowed to go on. So what to do? Who is the successor? The job description is easy: someone hungry

Anthony Browne

Britain needs US-style think tanks to counter the Left’s grip on universities

It wasn’t the television studios, or the boss’s office the size of an Olympic swimming pool. It wasn’t the auditorium for 200 people, or the ten-storey-high purpose-built building with a two-storey atrium. It wasn’t the overseas offices in Oman and Beijing, the staff of 400, the oak-panelled corridors, or the oil paintings lining the walls numerous enough to set up an art gallery. It wasn’t the $300 million endowment, or the ability to raise $2.3 million from a single fundraising dinner (with tables going for $75,000 a time). It wasn’t the fact that my meeting with one institute’s president was delayed because a real president — of Panama — had

The Spectator

The credibility crunch

We at The Spectator are concerned about our occasional contributor, Frank Field. In last week’s magazine, the MP for Birkenhead declared that ‘the 10p revolt is unlike any other faced by the Labour leadership over the past 11 years… it has at a stroke placed clear red water between practically the whole of the Parliamentary Labour Party on the one hand and the government on the other.’ Over the weekend, he told the BBC that it was time for the Prime Minister to consult his loved ones with a view to resigning. Yet it was a very different Mr Field who apologised unreservedly on Tuesday for his personal remarks about

Friday

The Spectator

The week that was | 16 May 2008

Fraser Nelson outlines the high cost of living, and claims that James Purnell could be the next Labour leader. James Forsyth asks CoffeeHousers to suggest what the Tories would achieve if in power, and wonders whether Ken Livingstone’s heading for Parliament. And Peter Hoskin says the bleak economic horizon spells trouble for Brown, and hopes that voters are seeing through Alistair Darling’s 10p tax measures.

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown’s sermon on The Mound

Do you give in yet? Because Gordon Brown still isn’t through. Another speech tomorrow, to the General Assembly on the Church of Scotland at The Mound in Edinburgh. Pointedly, it’s the 20th anniversary of Thatcher’s speech there – allowing Brown to contrast his mission with her wickedness. We can expect a pious regurgitation of his goals. Shame the means he chooses are inimical to those goals. Most of all, we can expect a dusting down of Brown’s Son of a Preacher Man credentials. Brown has only two oratorical styles: the pulpit sermon, inspired by his clergyman father, and the statistical, rapid-fire, speak-your-weight machine. I, for one, will listen. Brown is sincere

Peter Hoskin

The 42 day detention rebels make their move

Things are hotting up over the Government’s plan to extend pre-charge detention for terror suspects to 42 days.  A group of Labour rebels, headed by Andrew Dismore MP, have tabled an amendment which calls for detention to be kept at 28 days, but a range of new bail measures introduced.  The Lib Dems have immediately stepped out to say that – if their own amendment isn’t selected by the Speaker – they’ll support Dismore’s proposals en masse.   All of which adds to the feeling that Brown is facing defeat over this – yet another thing that would pile pressure on his premiership.  Watch this space.

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s poverty fiddle

Over at the Adam Smith Institute blog, Dr Eamon Butler highlights a very important truth – that severe poverty has worsened under this government.  How so, when the Government claims to have lifted ‘a million’ people out of poverty?  Well – as you’d expect – it’s all to do with a Bronwie-style, statistical fiddle.   The Treasury defines a poor household as one which earns under 60 percent of median income.  They’ve expended a whole lot of effort, time and taxpayers’ cash to lift people from just under that line to just over it – success, by this Government’s terms.  But those far below the line have been left behind.  As Dr Butler points

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Gove lays out the Tory first-term agenda

Yesterday, we asked what the Conservatives would promise to do in their first term. Today, Michael Gove goes a long way to answering that question in a typically smart column in the Telegraph. Acknowledging that, realistically, governments have to choose an area to prioritise, Gove sets out what the Conservatives will seek to achieve: “the areas where a Conservative government will act first, and fast, to make a difference are improving education, reforming our welfare system and providing practical support to families.” The theme—unblocking opportunity—that Gove is proposing for the Conservatives is politically potent and the most effective way to defuse the class issue that Labour, in its desperation, is

Peter Hoskin

The chances of a Brown comeback

Some good reading material in today’s Economist.  Bagehot charts the recent attacks and apologies that have coursed through Labour, concentrating on the case of Frank Field.  Here’s the concluding paragraph: “But for Labour to revive, and maybe for Mr Brown to survive, it will take more than a semblance of unity and the odd crowd-pleaser. It will (among other things) require the prime minister to change: his style, his demeanour, the way he treats his ministers—the very things Mr Field apologised for criticising. In fact, beneath the hostility, and perhaps partly explaining it, the two men are oddly similar. Both are hard-working, religious ascetics who care about the poor. Both

Thursday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

How depressed is the left?

Martin Bright and Jackie Ashley are two of the most astute and influential commentators on the left. So I was particularly struck by how bearish about Brown’s prospects they both are; it is a sign of the times that the fact that Ashley does not totally rule out the possibility that Brown might recover is considered news.    .Here’s how Bright ends his typically excellent politics column in this week’s New Statesman: “in the present atmosphere of seemingly terminal pessimism, many MPs on the government benches would happily take the Wilson outcome: four years in opposition followed by a Labour return to power has to be better than the 18

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Celebrity matters

We have just seen Naomi Campbell coming out of No10 – her appointment was with Mrs Brown, apparently, but she bumped into Gordon while he was there. So where does that take us in the celebrity stakes? Well, Shakira, Clooney, Beckham and Kylie have all met with our Dear Leader. This quote sprang to mind: “I think we’re moving from this period when, if you like, celebrity matters, when people have become famous for being famous. I think you can see that in other countries too. People are moving away from that to what lies behind the character and personality.” This was ahead of the publication of his book on courage. One

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Write Cameron’s version of this ad

John McCain’s latest ad is a simple message to voters about what a McCain presidency would achieve in its first term. Here’s the script: The year, 2013. The Middle East stabilized. Nuclear terror threat reduced. Border security strengthened. Energy independence advanced. Wasteful spending reformed. Health care choice delivered. Economic confidence restored. The year, 2013. The President, John McCain.This set me thinking, what would the Tories’ version of this ad say? What I’ve come up with so far is. Our schools transformed A welfare system that rewards work A tax system that supports the familyWhat else would Coffee Housers add?  

Peter Hoskin

Cameron on top form

A number of CoffeeHousers asked that we put up video of Cameron’s superlative response to Brown’s Not The Queen’s Speech yesterday.  It’s been put up on YouTube now, so here goes (Cameron starts at the 2:26 mark):

Peter Hoskin

Greed or need?

Just to flag up another article from the latest issue for CoffeeHousers.  This one’s by Rod Liddle, and he takes issue with the recent deluge of memoirs from Blairite figures.  As he puts it:  “There is something simultaneously vile and pitiable in the procession of these famous names into their agents’ offices, determined to tell everybody that they were not remotely a party to the bad things that went on, that history should judge them much more kindly because they were on the side of the angels. And then, upon being exhorted with the lure of a few extra thousand quid, cheerfully sticking the boot into their former colleagues, some of whom,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Not Gordon’s Today

If you didn’t hear Gordon Brown’s Today Programme interview this morning, do go and listen to it. You can almost hear Brown’s frustration as he tries to—unsuccessfully—wrestle back control of the news agenda. At one point, Brown has to pause and take a breath before continuing as he is getting so riled by the questions. On BBC News, though, Brown managed to get his line out: “I have taken the British economy through difficult times in the past – I have done it before and I will do it again.” Brown is clearly trying to position himself so that his political fortunes recover if the economy does. It’s a gamble

Peter Hoskin

Purnell: the next Labour leader?

Just a follow-up to Fraser’s post of yesterday.  His article on why James Purnell could be the man to rescue Labour from their current scrape is now on the website.  You can access it here.  And remember to have your say in the comments section – are there any CoffeeHousers who rate the artfully-sideburned one?!

Peter Hoskin

The bleak economic horizon spells trouble for Brown

As I wrote the other day, the British public is increasingly blaming the Prime Minister for the country’s economic problems. He’s no longer regarded as a steady hand on the tiller, but – instead – as a fiscal menace. A key aspect of Brown’s latest relaunch, then, is to reverse this opinion; to convince people that he’ll get them through the difficult times. It’s a message he concentrated on in his various interviews this morning. Will it work? The problem for Brown is that circumstances are going against him. Mervyn King’s just stepped out to say: “Don’t expect interest rates cuts for the next two years; inflation’s going to be

Wednesday

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Wendy (and Gordon) Farces Never Close…

I wasn’t quite sure what to say about this. This being the Scottish Labour party’s latest attempt to finesse their position on the matter of an independence referendum. Happily, J Arthur MacNumpty summarises Labour’s position with admirable clarity: Labour are Unionists, so don’t want an independence referendum, but aren’t afraid of the verdict of the people, so want a referendum now, while waiting for the Calman Commission to present its findings, so want to set the timing and question of a referendum which they do want in a Bill which they can’t introduce and may even be ultra vires, and as they can’t introduce it, they have scored a victory

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Brown hits the airwaves

If you’ve had enough of Brown, stay away from television or radio tomorrow morning. No10 has been hawking him to every outlet from hospital radio upwards, and, if that’s not enough, a press conference is being organised. This is the Blair run-into-fire strategy, but I suspect it won’t work for Brown because the more he talks, the worse it gets for him. I don’t mean that as an insult, but a serious observation. Cameron’s aides take huge comfort from figures suggesting the more their man is on TV the better their ratings, while the reverse is true for Brown. This is regarded as a key factor in the Tory general