Politics Archives

Thursday

17 Jan 2008

Commons Clerks stymie Lib Dem plans

The Lib Dems are deeply split on the question of whether there should be a referendum on the European Constitution, as they promised in their manifesto. As Fraser explains in this week’s magazine, Ming Campbelll came to a compromise with the pro-referendum forces in the party where the Lib Dems committed themselves to a referendum but not on the constitution, or as we are now meant to call it the Lisbon Treaty, but the whole question of whether or not Britain should stay in the EU. Nick Clegg has decided to stick with this position as he has no desire to disturb the uneasy calm in the Parliamentary party over

Charlotte Leslie

Vocation calling

I was at a lunch this week to talk about the state of further education, in view of the Government’s plans to extend the school leaving age. It was generally agreed that further education and training are in a bit of a mess. “Does Gordon Brown actually know what vocational skills are?” someone asked. Who knows? But his Government could start showing that they understand the problem they need to tackle in non-academic terms by using the right language. “Vocational” is the extraordinary term that has slipped into the vocabulary of politicians and educationalists to mean what we used to call practical, manual, technical skills. (That was before the expectation

Matthew Dancona

Leave those schools alone

Is there anything more depressing in an age of prosperity, choice and freedom than the spectacle of an old fashioned public sector rationing system doing its bleak work? The criticisms levelled by Jim Knight, the schools minister, at the best schools over the implementation of the statutory admissions code are a horrible revival of the language of a bygone era when public goods were controlled by rigorously enforced queuing. And, in keeping with Fraser’s warnings, this is another example of the Brown government undoing the public service reforms of the Blair years (such as they were). The decision to make the admissions code statutory rather than advisory was a sop

Peter Hoskin

Walls closing in on Ken?

The London mayoral race is entering a bitter period, with most of the invective being directed at Ken Livingstone. Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised when the Evening Standard, which has had its run-ins with Livingstone, produces headlines such as “Mayor ‘misled public over cash'”. But – surprising or not – these headlines will still spoil Livingstone’s reputation with the voting public, and have already lead to condemnation from MPs of all three parties. More telling, though, is the fact that outlets such as the Guardian and New Statesman are adding their weight to the assault. The Guardian’s criticism may be heavily mitigated but it exists nonetheless, with Dave

James Forsyth

Brown’s nationalisation nightmare

Iain Martin’s column this morning on the political dangers to Gordon Brown of nationalising Northern Rock is essential reading. As Iain argues, the danger for Brown is that Northern Rock could destroy his reputation for economic competence and set in the public mind the idea that he—unlike that nice Mr. Blair—is too left wing for modern Britain. One senior shadow cabinet minister tells Iain that: “It’s very him,”…” It’s what people think he came into politics to do all along: nationalise banks.” In The Independent, Steve Richards points out that neither Blair nor Brown have ever really grappled with the issue of ownership fearing that the whole issue was all

Wednesday

16 Jan 2008

Fraser Nelson

Cameron gets the better of Brown in clash over Northern Rock

Great fireworks today over Northern Rock. Cameron started with sombre questions about taxpayers’ money involved – Can Brown guarantee the safe return of the taxpayers’ money given Northern Rock? Was he advised the liability could rise so high? Could it rise higher than £55bn? No answer. Brown tried his trick of last week of asking Cameron a question so often that Michael Martin intervened. “He doesn’t have to answer the Prime Minister’s question,” says Michael Martin. Not until the next general election, at any rate. Then for Cameron’s coup de theatre. “I’ll tell you what you did. When it came to the need for a total guarantee of deposits,

James Forsyth

The US elections are about to turn dirty

Mitt Romney’s win in the Michigan Republican primary makes this Saturday’s Republican vote in South Carolina all the more important. If John McCain wins there, he should—barring disasters—end up as the Republican nominee. If he doesn’t, the race becomes wide open and Rudy Giuliani’s much criticised late state strategy could end up paying off. Politics is a dirty business in South Carolina and in 2000 John McCain was defeated in one of the nastiest campaigns ever conducted. No blow was too low. It was claimed that been turned while a prisoner of war in Vietnam and was really a Communist sleeper agent and that his adopted Bangladeshi baby was really

Fraser Nelson

Brown tries to shift the blame for Britain’s economic troubles

PMQs opened with perhaps the most worst planted question I have ever heard in the Commons and it’s worth a blog on its own. Robert Flello claimed his constituents “concerned about how economic…” (stumbles, looks at sheet) “em, how global economic issues… affect them. How does my Rt Hon Friend feel these events compare with those of the early 1990s when Britain was plunged into recession after recession?” This Brownite jargon sticks in the jaw so much that not even Labour backbenchers can read it without a script. And spot the key Brownite narrative: that there is “global economic turbulence” which is to be blamed if any bad things happen.

Matthew Dancona

Labour was against presumed consent for organ donation before it was for it

Mulling over the organ donations row, and the fascinating posts by Coffee Housers, I went back to the last time the Commons debated the issue properly – which was on an amendment to the Human Tissue Bill in June 2004 calling for “presumed consent”. I recommend the debate to anyone interested in the forthcoming controversy over Gordon Brown’s proposals. The amendment four years ago was put forward by Dr Evan Harris, the Lib Dem MP for Oxford West and Abingdon, although Tam Dalyell recalled that he had championed similar measures decades before. This was Harris’s summary of the case for change: First, it creates a default position that life should

The Spectator

Roll up for Welsh questions

For once, PMQs is not the main attraction on a Wednesday. The hot ticket today is Welsh Questions where Peter Hain faces the House for the first time since his latest funding troubles hit the headlines. Westminster watchers are intrigued to see how, Hain who is not beloved by his fellow MPs, is treated by his colleagues on the Labour side. Things have not got any easier for Hain with the Prime Minister’s intervention to describe Hain’s funding errors as “an incompetence.” Even if Hain survive, his reputation is shot. His poor performance in the deputy leadership contest had already damaged his standing and the news about both how much

Elliot Wilson

The military millionaires who control Pakistan Inc

Elliot Wilson says Pakistan’s economy is dominated by a ruthless business conglomerate that owns everything from factories and bakeries to farmland and golf courses: the army Sometime in late 2004, Pakistan’s all-powerful army made a curious decision. Under mounting pressure from London and Washington to capture Osama bin Laden, believed to be hiding in Baluchistan, Islamabad’s fighting forces instead turned their attention to a far more profitable venture: building golf courses. In itself this wasn’t particularly unusual. With 620,000 soldiers, Pakistan boasts the world’s seventh-largest standing army, but its senior officers long ago realised the perks to be gained from commercial ventures. Since independence in 1947, the army has steadily

Tuesday

15 Jan 2008

James Forsyth

Ken’s doing a paper round at your expense

Anyone wanting proof of the contempt in which Ken Livinsgtone holds the London taxpayer need only read this item on Guido’s blog. Not content with deluging Londonders with dubious, public information announcements that have an uncanny tendency to reflect well on the Mayor he is also posting his Londonder newsletter to the constituency offices of MPs around the country. I’ve contacted the Mayor’s office for a comment and I’ll let you know what there justification is for this. Also watch out for more on Livingstone and his unsuitability for the job in the next few days.

James Forsyth

Between a Rock and a hard place

Rachel Sylvester has a typically eloquent and perceptive piece on the political ramifications of nationalising Northern Rock in the Telegraph today. As Sylvester points out the government has to come up with a solution before the end of February when the six month period for state aid mandated by the European Union runs out. The problem isn’t so much nationalisation per se but the fact that it was so clearly the government’s least preferred option. Reading Hansard one is struck by the venom with which the Liberal Democrats were attacked for first floating the idea. The political effect in the North East is going to be magnified by the fact

Monday

14 Jan 2008

Fraser Nelson

Cameron meets the press

About the only thing we learned at his press conference today is that David Cameron has mastered the art of not answering awkward questions. He dodged several this morning, but in a way that sounded as if he had given answers. Nick Robinson asked it first. Why didn’t George Osborne personally declare to parliament the cash raised for the party in his name? Cameron said the registrar had given him “unclear” advice – but we knew that as he told Marr this yesterday. Nick asked why Cameron had not decided “if in doubt, publish and be damned”. No direct answer. He was later asked why Osborne sought advice about these donations

James Forsyth

The Hain and Osborne cases are not the same

The idea that George Osborne and Peter Hain’s funding issues are somehow equivalent is absurd. One is a case of confusion over how many times something should be declared and the other is an issue of complete non-disclosure. Hain’s use of the Progressive Politics Forum to donate to his campaign is a scandal in and of itself. Whether intentionally or not, this device obscured the identity of those giving to Hain and had the same effect as David Abraham’s use of third parties. Then, there’s the question of timing. Hain first conceded irregularities in his funding on November 27th last year when he announced that he had failed to register

The Spectator

A new daily must read

If you haven’t already, do go and take a look at CentreRight.com which launched today. Brought to you by the team behind the essential Conservative Home, its aim is to be a hub for the conservative movement in Britain. The contributors list is stellar and includes such name as Jill Kirby, Liam Fox, Stephan Shakespeare, Matthew Elliott and Douglas Murray. This morning, I’d particularly recommend Greg Hands’s post on what the Met should learn from their counterparts in New York and Stefan Shakespeare’s thoughts on why the British political class are so excited about the American elections. CentreRight.com promises to be another splendid addition to the UK blogging scene.

James Forsyth

Gordon Brown: I’m not the decider

Gordon Brown’s interview with the Sun this morning displays one of the least attractive qualities of his premiership, his tendency to pass the buck. So, Peter Hain is praised but the possibility of him being forced to stand down is conceded. Surely, though, if Brown thinks Hain has done nothing intentionally wrong he shouldn’t be prepared to see him forced out over the issue? Meanwhile, the Today Programme is lumping together the Hain and Osborne funding stories when they are of a different order. As Nick Robinson pointed out on the programme, there is a reason that Osborne is prepared to go on the show to answer questions while Hain

Sunday

13 Jan 2008

Matthew Dancona

Hands off our bodies, Mr. Brown

I find Gordon Brown’s notion of ‘presumed consent’ for organ transplants, unveiled in the Sunday Telegraph, morally repugnant. It goes without saying that those who choose to give their organs after their death, and carry Donor Card to ensure this happens, are behaving commendably. They take a clear, proactive, individual decision about the fate of their physical remains, and one which is self-evidently to be applauded. What the Prime Minister now proposes is effectively the nationalisation of the body – with a new ‘right’ to opt out of the otherwise automatic procedure that your corpse will be stripped of organs for recycling. I am squeamish at the suggestion that my

Fraser Nelson

Brown’s golden error

The price of gold broke $900 an ounce on Friday. So this gives us another chance to reflect on Brown’s calamitous decision to sell British gold reserves at $275 an ounce five years ago. By my calculations his disastrous foray into asset management has cost the British taxpayer £3.1bn so far. Tackled about this on Marr last week, he said he was simply responding to those “asking us to diversify our portfolio of holdings from simply gold to other currencies.” The real, extraordinary story is in this definitive Sunday Times piece from last April.

James Forsyth

Cameron’s Sunday best

David Cameron turned in a strong performance on the Andrew Marr show this morning pushing back firmly and effectively against Marr’s suggestion that there was somehow equivalence between Peter Hain and George Osborne’s funding issues. However, as always, the questions about Lord Ashcroft’s status haunt the Tories. The key message that Cameron wanted to communicate was that Brown is a ditherer, he used the word at every available opportunity, and that the Tories have the policy heft to govern. He was generally effective but he still seems slightly unsure of himself when talking about the economy. One has to wonder whether this is why Gordon Brown and Cameron are effectively