Politics Archives

Tuesday

8 Apr 2008

Coming to blows

As always, Rachel Sylvester’s column in the Telegraph is essential reading. Today she writes of how divide, doubt and mistrust have permeated every level of the Government. In particular, this revelation jumped out at me: “Behind the scenes, things are even worse. With no clear direction from above, Cabinet ministers are at each other’s throats. I am reliably informed that, after one recent Cabinet meeting, Jack Straw threatened to punch Ed Balls during a row about who was responsible for youth crime. The Justice Secretary came back to his department fuming that he had never been spoken to so rudely by a colleague in public and that he was not

Monday

7 Apr 2008

James Forsyth

More bad poll news for Brown

Politics Home, which is becoming an indispensable resource, flags up tomorrow’s poll in The Times which shows the Tories ahead 39 to 33. The Tories will be disappointed not to be above the psychologically important 40 percent mark but the guts of the poll contain much encouragement for them. Seven in ten voters say that Britain is heading in the wrong direction, Gordon Brown’s leader rating is down to 4.50 among all voters and 6.26 among Labour voters—a drop among Labour voters of almost half a point, and the Tories now have a clear lead on which party is competent and capable. Blairites still bitter at the way that the

Peter Hoskin

Non-essential viewing

If you feel like an afternoon nap, then Labour’s first local election TV spot (see below) might help you drop off. If you stick through to the end, there are details of how to send questions through to Gordon Brown – a selection of which he’ll answer tonight. What will CoffeeHousers be asking our Dear Leader?

Peter Hoskin

Past posters

A few sites across the political blogosphere have already flagged up the newly-digitised Conservative Party Archive Poster Collection, but it deserves a Coffee House mention as well. I’d recommend you take the time to browse through all the 600-or-so posters they’ve got there. Here are a couple of golden-oldies that grabbed my eye – Team Cameron might want to bring them out of retirement:

Peter Hoskin

Boris’s biggest lead yet

More great news for Boris today. Our Man notches up his biggest lead yet in the latest Evening Standard / YouGov poll; claiming 49 percent of first preference votes – whilst Ken languishes on 36 percent. That’s a hefty advantage of 13 percent, then. When second preference votes are allocated, Boris is on 56 percent, with Ken on 44 percent. These results tally with recent Evening Standard / YouGov polls, which have given Boris 10 and 12-point leads. But they’re out of line with last week’s Guardian / ICM poll, which had the two leading candidates neck-and-neck. Already Team Livingstone is whining that YouGov employs “flawed methodology”. I wonder whether that’s more out of hope than conviction.

Fraser Nelson

An urgent need for change

We hear phrase “market failure” often enough – but (as Michael Prowse once said) government failure is far more common. The most egregious example is education – and David Cameron says in his press conference today with Michael Gove. Here are a few facts they highlight today in their document (read it here): 1) Some 140,000 pupils were suspended from secondary schools for violence or persistent disruption in 2005/06. Many end up in the cells – almost 100,000 under-18s are given custodial sentences. 2) Suspensions for physical assault (in primary schools) is about twelve times higher in deprived areas than in the least-deprived ones. The scourge of school violence is focused

James Forsyth

Ming offers lukewarm support for Nick Clegg

It is hard to imagine that this week could be as disastrous as last week for Nick Clegg, but Ming Campbell’s interview in the Independent this morning won’t have put a spring in Clegg’s step. Ming’s praise for his successor is hardly gushing. Take his response to this question: Would an experienced parliamentarian like yourself have led his party out of the Commons? Cid Evans by email I have been punctilious in not second guessing the new leader. It is for him to decide strategy and tactics. This is politician-speak for, ‘it was a really stupid thing to do but I’m not going to say that’. To add insult to

Peter Hoskin

The chickens come home to roost

There’s more trouble for Gordon Brown this morning over his decision to scrap the 10p tax rate for low-income earners. The Treasury Select committee – lead by the Labour MP John McFall – has the following to say: “The group of main losers from the abolition of the 10p rate of income tax – those below the age of 65 with an income under £18,500 who are in childless households – seem an unreasonable target for raising additional tax revenues to fund the benefits of tax simplification and meeting the needs of children in poverty.” It looks increasingly like this issue will drive a wedge between Brown and his party.

Sunday

6 Apr 2008

James Forsyth

Another calamity for Clegg

The last thing that Nick Clegg needed this morning was the claim in The Independent on Sunday that if all the votes had been counted Chris Huhne would have been elected leader. Clegg won the leadership by 511 votes but the paper claims that if the 1,300 postal votes which arrived after the voting deadline had passed had been counted then Huhne would have won. On Sunday AM, Clegg dismissed the story as having “no foundation or fact whatsoever.” But by suggesting that he is not the legitimate leader it undermines his position at the end of a disastrous week for him. Clegg’s GQ interview is continuing to cause problems

Peter Hoskin

Voters look to the Tories as the credit crunch bites

Another encouraging poll for Team Cameron today. The latest ICM / Sunday Telegraph poll puts the Tories on 43 percent (up 6 from last month); Labour on 32 percent (unchanged); and the Lib Dems on 18 percent (down 3). Below the headline figures, there’s some suggestion that the credit crunch is starting to hit people in the pocket. Around 22 percent of voters have had to cut back their personal spending “a lot” over the past year, whilst 37 percent have done so “a little”. The worry is that things will only get worse. Our latest cover story paints a bleak picture for home-owners. And – thanks to Gordon Brown

Saturday

5 Apr 2008

Charles Moore

The Spectator’s notes | 5 April 2008

If Boris Johnson wins the contest to become Mayor of London on 1 May, he will not inherit an impartial civil service of the sort to which British national politicians are accustomed. There has only been one Mayor of London so far and he, Ken Livingstone, has made sure that London officials reflect his views. So if Boris wins, he will immediately be confronted by the politically motivated hostility of the bureaucracy. It is good to know that he promises to deal with this, less good to hear that he proposes to keep on leading figures like the commissioner of Transport for London, Peter Hendy. The left-wing Mr Hendy is

Peter Hoskin

A period of family meltdown?

The attacks against this Government are becoming angrier and more widespread by the day. Now a senior judge wades into the fray, blasting Labour for not preventing family breakdown. Here’s what he had to say: “We are experiencing a period of family meltdown whose effects will be as catastrophic as the meltdown of the ice caps … as big a threat to the future of our society as terrorism, street crime or drugs … What is certain is that almost all of society’s social ills can be traced directly to the collapse of the family life … I am not saying every broken family produces dysfunctional children but I am saying that almost

James Forsyth

Can Clegg recover?

Nick Clegg has had a disastrous week. His comments about the number of women he had slept with have made him into a laughing-stock while his party’s position on the Lisbon treaty becomes more incoherent by the day. Clegg’s interview with The Times this morning shows how difficult it is going to be for him to get past the Clegg-over business. Helen Rumbelow and Alice Miles press him repeatedly on the issue and you have to imagine that every other interviewer is going to do the same for the foreseeable future. Clegg does, though, say one interesting non Clegg-over related thing. When asked about coalitions he replied, “I don’t think about

Fraser Nelson

Watch the Tories sidling up to the Lib Dems: the foundations for a post-election pact

Now that Francis Maude is no longer lurking around Conservative headquarters dampening any high spirits he might encounter, bubbles of optimism are allowed to float with impunity around Team Cameron. For the last three weeks, the Tories have enjoyed double-digit opinion poll leads. The consensus in Westminster is that the Conservatives (or, more accurately, Boris Johnson) will capture London next month. Some bookmakers are now predicting an outright Conservative victory at the general election, whenever Gordon Brown deigns to hold it. The end of opposition appears, at last, to be in sight. In the absence of Mr Maude, the cure for Tory euphoria lies in the other dismal science: psephology.

The Spectator

The real immigration lie

Yet again, New Labour’s predilection for spin and misleading statistics has landed the government in trouble. Ministers have long been fond of making the argument for immigration on the basis that it increases the country’s GDP. But as the House of Lords Economics Affairs Committee rightly points out in its new report, adding more people to the population will lead — barring a recession — to a higher GDP. So this is hardly a clinching argument for immigration. After all, the fact that Turkey’s GDP is larger than that of Switzerland scarcely means that the Turks are better off than the Swiss. The report also concluded that immigration does little

Friday

4 Apr 2008

The Spectator

The week that was | 4 April 2008

Nick Clegg answers CoffeeHousers’ questions. James Forsyth points out how bad things are looking for Gordon Brown. Peter Hoskin questions the Government’s eco-town policy. Fraser Nelson says we should dispense with the bureaucrats. And Matthew d’Ancona suggests that Hillary Clinton should cool it with the Rocky comparisons.

Peter Hoskin

Who spent what?

The expenses claims of nineteen MPs – including Blair, Brown and Cameron – have been released today. Nothing in breach of the rules, but still some cause for eyebrow-raising. For instance, John Prescott claimed £4,000 in 2003/04 for groceries (would it be cruel to say it showed?) And Blair had his TV license-fee paid for. Despite the lack of Derek Conway-style revelations, the release is welcome – if only because it’s one in the eye for Michael Martin. But – for good or ill – things still aren’t as transparent as they could be. Martin continues to fight against the release of “receipt-by-receipt” breakdowns; a battle that will be adjudicated in the

Fraser Nelson

Brown does cool. Fails

As it’s Friday, here’s some entertainment – the interview Gordon Brown gave to Radio One’s Newsbeat last year (newly added to YouTube). The interviewer, Rajini Vaidyanathan, specialises in leftfield questions and often gets hilarious results. After asking if he was a “grumpy, dour backstabber” (he was prepared for that one) she asked the then Chancellor where he would take her on a date. What film would they watch? United 93, he said. Not very romantic, she replied. He tried again: Hotel Rwanda. And his music? He likes “mod..moder…moder…modern groups” Here is a wee transcript (forward to 1’40): Rajini Vaidyanathan: Let’s pretend I’m on a political dinner date with you. Would

Peter Hoskin

The Great Gordo

Michael Heath’s illustration for our Brownies posts (so far we’ve covered Inflation and The Lisbon Treaty) deserves to be showcased. So here’s Brown the magician, in all his glory:

James Forsyth

The Blair dividing line

Most of the press attention on Tony Blair’s speech last night has concentrated on what he said about faith, and understandably so. But to my mind, the most interesting section was when Blair talked about what he sees as the new dividing line in politics today: “The world is interdependent today, economically, politically, even to a degree ideologically. The divide, then, is between those who see this as positive – the opening up offering opportunity; and those who see it as threatening and wish to close it back down. As you can see from the Presidential race in the U.S., there are new questions that cross traditional Party lines: free