Politics Archives

Monday

15 Oct 2007

Why Nick Clegg will be next

I regard Nick Clegg as much of a certainty to replace Ming as Blair was to succeed John Smith in 1994. Some Coffee Housers have taken me to task for saying that this is bad for Cameron and good for Brown. What has Clegg ever done, they ask. Well not much, I admit, but from what I know of him I reckon he has the intellect and energy to do a great deal. He is the best hope of restoring the zing the LibDems need. Huhne is Alistair Darling without the eyebrows: cerebral but ineffective. He’ll bomb.

Fraser Nelson

What they’re saying in the bars of Westminster about Ming’s departure

So whodunit? That’s the question in the bars at Westminster, where an excited Commons has just finished voting. Fingers are being pointed at the impatient Chris Huhne, with co-conspirators in the Lords. Lib Dem MPs seem genuinely stunned. The most popular theory (in Strangers’ Bar at least) is that Ming realised he was done for and wanted to quit before a messy and ignominious assassination. Then he flew back to Edinburgh in a “to hell with you all” type of mood. If this is true, it’s unwise of him not to make his own statement. But he never did have a feel for political theatrics. And this, of course, was

Fraser Nelson

Ming’s resignation letter

At last, a statement from Sir Menzies… “It has become clear that following the prime minister’s decision not to hold an election, questions about the leadership are getting in the way of further progress by the party. Accordingly, I now submit my resignation as leader with immediate effect”. Hilarious. Has all the authenticity of a statement drafted for a deposed African ruler. I suspect they had to sedate Elspeth, Ming’s formidable wife, before she let him sign it. So the LibDems perhaps do have a bit to learn about coups after all. Brown will want Clegg to win – posh enough to repel left wing voters and suck support from

Fraser Nelson

Forget the men in grey suits, the men in sandals are more ruthless

I have to say, these Lib Dems are getting good at it. It took the Tories about a decade before they could get their leadership coups down to the 48 hour wonder we have just seen here. The brutality is breathtaking. Where is Ming? Gagged and bound somewhere? Can Coffee House readers remember that last party leader who was not even allowed the dignity of announcing his own resignation? You can smell the grapeshot.

James Forsyth

Ming Campbell resigns as Lib Dem leader

Simon Hughes and Vince Cable have just announced that Ming Campbell has resigned as leader of the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne are both expected to run for the leadership, with Clegg starting as the favourite. The timetable for the leadership contest will be announced on Tuesday. The immediate beneficiary of Ming’s departure is Gordon Brown as Ming’s departure will take the spotlight off his problems. While those vying to succeed Ming are all likely to have more appeal in Southern Tory / Lib Dem marginals than he did.

Sunday

14 Oct 2007

Matthew Dancona

The Blairites can’t fight the last war all over again without destroying Labour

Tony Blair, as I report in today’s Sunday Telegraph, is trying to rein in his supporters, keen that they not become to Gordon what the Eurosceptic ‘Bastards’ were to John Major. The former PM is right that his own reputation will suffer if a neo-Blairite rump is perceived to be sabotaging Brown. Such considerations, however, do not seem to have restrained Lord Falconer, the ultra-Blairite former Lord Chancellor, who pointedly calls on Gordon today to offer a ‘vision’ – the very word used by the PM when he explained why he was not holding an election now. It is widely reported that Alan Milburn, Stephen Byers and Charles Clarke are

Fraser Nelson

Betting on the Lib Dems

Ladbrokes today updates its odds for the inevitable Lib Dem leadership race, and – irritatingly for the Tories – Nick Clegg is the clear frontrunner. Some odds: Nick Clegg 4/5 Chris Huhne 3/1 David Laws 8/1 Ed Davey 10/1 Simon Hughes 12/1 Charles Kennedy 16/1 Alistair Carmichael 16/1 Vincent Cable 16/1 Lembit Opik 16/1 Paddy Ashdown 25/1 Gabriela Irimia 500/1 Of the above, I suspect the Cheeky Girl would do quite well. But it is their funeral….

Fraser Nelson

What Cameron must do now | 14 October 2007

Today’s newspapers are another treat for Conservatives with a taste for schadenfreude. Blair has, overnight, denied that he’s authorising briefings against Brown. But he doesn’t need to. They’ve been at it for days, not just old Blairites but non-aligned backbenchers. Brown is a dud, they proclaim, with no vision. Cameron is a hero, the polls proclaim, setting the agenda. Just a fortnight ago, the conventional wisdom was the exact opposite. The tables are turning too often for my liking: I’d like them bolted down where they are. But only Cameron can do that, and only by bolting down the vision of Conservatism he announced in Blackpool. Had he flopped in

Matthew Dancona

Another panic-induced u-turn

Andy Burnham is a talented minister but his interview in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph represents yet another ignominious U-turn by this Government in response to Conservative pressure. For almost two years, Labour’s unshakeable response to David Cameron’s belief that marriage should be recognised in the tax system has been to say, scornfully, that policy should help all children, not endorse one family structure rather than another. Only 12 days ago, Gordon Brown invoked the words of Jesus – ‘suffer the children’ – to condemn the Tory position on tax and marriage. Mr Burnham’s remarks represent a spectacular capitulation. Hot on the heels of Alistair Darling’s desperate bid to ape George Osborne’s

Fraser Nelson

No lead, no loyalty

Loyalty only lasts as long as your opinion poll lead. Mutinous Labour voices liven up the Sunday press and an ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph gives the Tories a seven point lead at 43 per cent to 36. Expect a return of the Blairites. Like Blake’s Seven, the leader may have gone but it seems they battle on nonetheless. Fun fun fun….

Saturday

13 Oct 2007

James Forsyth

Are Labour wedded to stealing every Tory idea?

Andy Burnham saying that “marriage is best for kids” and that it is “not wrong that the tax system should recognise commitment and marriage” is a victory for common sense. But it is also another example of the Brown government’s cynical opportunism and lack of any new ideas. As recently as the Labour conference, Gordon Brown was quoting scripture to suggest that the Tory commitment to encouraging marriage through the tax system was somehow un-Christian. While Harriet Harman, Brown’s deputy, lashed out at David Cameron for his pro-marriage policies, arguing that, “Cameron’s new tax allowance proposal would squander public money on those who need it least and carry the unmistakable

John Andrews

It has more companies than citizens, but the prince’s tiny tax haven is thriving

John Andrews on city life in Liechtenstein. The speed limit on Swiss motorways is 120km per hour and, if you’re travelling from northern Italy to southern Germany through Switzerland at exactly that speed, you’ll spend a scant ten minutes traversing the entire western border of the sovereign Principality of Liechtenstein. Glance to your right about halfway up the country and you’ll notice a fairy-tale castle perched on a hill, overlooking a small town. This town, as well as being the geographical centre of the tiny, landlocked state (the fourth smallest in Europe), is also its political focal point: welcome to Vaduz. It was founded in the 13th century, and both it and

The Spectator

From clunk to cluck

Rattled, hoarse and angry, Gordon Brown did not look a happy man at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday. Small wonder: it is only weeks since his clunking fist was pounding the Tories into submission. Now, he has allowed himself to be caricatured as a clucking chicken, as fearful of an election as he is of an EU referendum. ‘How long are we going to have to wait till the past makes way for the future?’ David Cameron asked — and the PM had no convincing reply. It may be true that Mr Brown’s decision not to go to the country this November will fast fade from public memory, and that

Matthew Parris

The quality of a political speech is a symptom of popularity not a cause

Epiphenomenalism is, as 16-letter words go, not an obvious hook with which, dear reader, to draw you to this column; but let me explain; because I think I may be an epiphenomenalist. My dictionary defines this as the doctrine that consciousness is merely a by-product of physiological processes and has no power to affect them: that we do not weep because we’re sad, but rather that we are sad because we’re weeping. The idea is not quite as crazy as it sounds. Tony Blair did not sound passionately sincere because he was passionately sincere. He mastered the knack of delivering his lines with such passionate sincerity that he became spellbound

Fraser Nelson

The election sprint has turned into a marathon. Can Dave keep the lead?

For a man whose economic policies had once again been stolen by the government, George Osborne looked unusually cheery as he delivered the opposition response to the pre-Budget report on Tuesday. Alistair Darling had brazenly claimed as his own the Tories’ new ideas: raising the inheritance tax threshold, an airline levy and taxing foreign financiers. But to the shadow chancellor, this theft represented victory. ‘From this day on,’ he declared, ‘let there be no doubt who is winning the battle of ideas.’ It was a fair point. Mr Darling had spent the first half of his speech denouncing Conservative policy and the second half aping it. Conspicuous by its absence

Con Coughlin

Meet the next Saddam – minus the torture

Basra No one’s elected him, he flourished as an army officer under Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship, and by the strict standards set by Washington’s neoconservative ideologues for turning Iraq into a beacon of Western democracy, General Mohan al-Furayji, the Iraqi commander in charge of Basra, should have no role to play in the country’s reconstruction after decades of misrule. Yet talk to anyone in Basra, whether Shia militiamen, Sunni tradesmen or British infantrymen, and all you hear is praise for the uncompromising way in which the new strongman of Basra has managed to impose something approaching order on a city that until recently was a byword for inter-factional Shia strife. His

Martin Vander Weyer

Another mistake by Brown

The proposals in the pre-Budget report were a desperate, knee-jerk response to the swing to the Tories in the polls. Rather than demonstrating Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling’s vision for the country, it revealed their commitment to blatant, vote-chasing expediency. Ultimately, this will make the country think less of them. Martin Vander Weyer There’s a new pair of eyebrows at the forefront of British public life. The Northern-rocked Governor of the Bank of England may have lost all traditional power of his once-splendid superciliary tufts – indeed, he might as well go the whole hog and have the damned things plucked, to discourage further comment – but the new Chancellor

Friday

12 Oct 2007

Matthew Dancona

Dave is back–he hasn’t been Terminated

A few weeks ago I was reliably informed by an adviser to Arnold Schwarzenegger that the Governator, as a consummate “image man”, had cancelled his trip to the Tory Party conference partly because there is nothing worse than being photographed with a loser. Well, Arnie seems suddenly to have overcome his reservations. Whatever made him change his mind, do you think?

Fraser Nelson

Pulling back the curtain

The drama of the last week in politics defies analogy – but one celluloid parallel has stuck in my mind. As it is Friday, I thought I’d share. This clip from the Wizard of Oz encapsulates for me the psychological change in the Tory party. The pilgrims (Tories), having reached the Emerald City (the election), are standing scared, knees shaking, in front of the Powerful Courageous Clunking Great Wizard. But thanks to Toto (George Osborne) they soon find he’s not enigmatic and all-powerful after all – just a small man pulling levers behind a curtain. When Cameron challenged Brown to that election, he pulled back the curtain. And the Tories are

Fraser Nelson

How Barroso and Brown could stitch up the press

If I were Barroso, I would pick a huge, fake fight with Gordon Brown before the EU constitution, sorry, treaty is signed. His plea today that Britain should not be “closed to Europe” is what the PM needs. The two have to pretend to be at loggerheads, let the press write up a split, then a “bulldog Brown triumphant” headline at the end. Brown’s problem is that he’s already claimed his so-called “red lines” have been met. So how can he claim they are suddenly under threat again? We’ll see.