Society

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Would Labour cut by 10 percent (again)?

One important story which has been rather obscured by all the expenses revalations today is Andy Burnham’s claim that the health Budget would never be cut under a Labour government.  It’s a position that he stated last week, but quickly retracted after realising that it impled, yep, 10 percent cuts for other departments.  Anyway, he’s hinted at it again, in interview with the Mirror: “[Burnham] said seeing the dedication of NHS staff will guide him in his new role as Health Secretary. And he backed up his claim by boldly announcing there will NEVER be any cuts to the NHS as long as Labour is in power. Mr Burnham said:

Peter Hoskin

Darling’s measured approach will drive Brown mad

I’ve just got around to reading Alistair Darling’s Mansion House speech from last night, and I’d recommend that CoffeeHousers flick through it too.  It’s a strange mix which takes some dechipering.  At first glance, there’s plenty of talk about “investment”; the doubling, tripling and quadrupling of budgets; and how “cutting spending across the board would choke off the recovery”.  But the overall emphasis – which, in turn, has become the emphasis of the newspaper coverage – is on bringing the public finances back into shape, and on lowering the debt burden. It’s a speech which No.10 should welcome as it’s a not altogether unsuccessful refinement of the blunt “Labour investment

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Campbell wonders at Balls’ motives<br />

This post from Alastair Campbell is fascinating and shows just how much Brown’s authority has slipped: “I had a brief chat with Ed Balls, unaware that he had said on TV yesterday morning that his ‘personal’ view was that the Iraq inquiry should have been more open than the one announced by Gordon Brown. As I said here the other day, the question of whether the inquiry is private or public is not as simple and straightforward as GB’s critics are making out. But what is strange is that a member of the Cabinet, and one so close to the PM, should not be supporting him, totally, one hundred per

Peter Hoskin

An obscure form of transparency

And so here it is: the list of Members’ allowances for 2004-08, uploaded – after months of delay and prevarication – onto the Parliament website earlier this morning.  You can hunt down any MP from those years – apart from some, like Blair and Boris, who have left the House – and download pdf copies of their expense claims.  All very open at first glance, except… well, these are censored versions of the claim forms.  MPs have been able to sift through them with a marker-pen, and take out addresses, unsuccessful claims and other details which have been crucial to the Daily Telegraph investigation.  As Paul Waugh points out over

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The People Who Are Not Marching Through Tehran Matter Too

How best to help the Iranian dissidents? George Packer suggests that they need our aid and encouragement and that, despite what many people think, we shouldn’t worry too much about any putative backlash. In one sense this is fair enough, given that the regime is blaming outside interests for whipping up dissent anyway. But, well, first here’s what Packer has to say: A number of writers seem to know exactly what the Iranians in the streets want from us, and what they want is for us to stay out of it. I wonder how many Iranians these writers have talked to. But even if you don’t have Iranian contacts, you

Martin Bright

A Very Worrying Development

Harry’s Place reports that Al-Muhajiroun has reformed and it is already returning to its thuggish ways. A debate between Anjem Choudhary and Douglas Murray turned very nasty when a member of the audience insisted on not being segregated and sat with his female friends. Free expression does not equal the right to brutalise those who exercise their choice to sit where they wish, with whoever they wish in a public place. Horrible.

Wednesday

Martin Bright

The Big Chill

Not my choice for the Spectator’s Top 50 films (really not) but the title of the masterful new edition of Index on Censorship. The article by Floyd Abrams on how Britain has become an international centre for libel tourism is particularly powerful.  The following note to the Khalid bin Mahfouz/Rachel Ehrenfeld case is particularly telling: “So speech-destructive is English defamation law that, on the advice of a prominent and skilled Englishsolicitor, I am neither describing what it is Ehrenfeld had to say about bin Mahfouz or what the sources relied upon by her had stated, lest the estimable but none too richly financed magazine you are reading run the risk of finding

Peter Hoskin

Another one bites the dust

Just stepped off the Tube to read that Kitty Ussher – the Treasury minister – has resigned from the Government over her expenses.  The Telegraph writes that “further disclosures” about her claims are “due to be published” by them – so I imagine that could have been the direct cause.  All in all, a reminder that this scandal is still rumbling on, claiming scalps, and that the fragmentation of Brown’s government didn’t end with the Cabinet reshuffle. P.S. Read Martin’s take on Ussher’s departure here.

Matthew Dancona

The Spectator’s 50 Essential Films

Attention all film fans: tomorrow’s issue of the magazine – print version only – launches a truly special celebration of the best films of all time, edited by our very own Online Editor, Pete Hoskin.    CoffeeHousers will have their chance to pitch in in due course – but if you want to join the debate, you’ll need to get the souvenir magazine itself, complete with lavish illustrations. As you will find out after you have rushed out to the newsagent, Pete is much more than a kingpin of the Web 2.0 era: he is also an awesomely knowledgable cineaste, in the best traditions of the Spectator (whose past film

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Beckett better than Bercow – but not by much

When Michael Martin announced that he was stepping down as Speaker, there was a general feeling that the House needed a substantial figure to step into the job, someone who could command the respect of the House and—just as importantly—the country. Well, it looks increasingly like we are going to get Margaret Beckett. Beckett is not the worst outcome of Monday’s Speakership election though. That would be John Bercow. Bercow has virtually no support on the Tory side and is being pushed forward by Labour MPs who rather like the idea of having a Tory Speaker who is disliked intensely by the Tories. But as Gary Gibbon reports, wiser heads

Peter Hoskin

When a picture speaks a thousand words

Daniel Finkelstein has picked up on the most striking aspect of Michael Martin’s valedictory statement earlier: the cutaways to Brown and Cameron when the ex-Speaker laments their failure to “show leadership” over expenses last year.  Fairly or unfairly, it seems to speak volumes about their characters.  You can see it 0:19 into this video on the Beeb’s website – classic stuff. It doesn’t contain the contrasting Brown ‘n’ Cameron shots, but here are some more highlights of the Speaker’s statement: And you can find the full text here.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Seeing through Brown’s dividing lines

If you want an idea of just how strongly the press have rumbled Brown on his Labour investment versus Tory cuts line, read this blog from the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard about PMQs. Here’s an extract: “Unfortunately it showed the prime minister at his worst. No one will be fooled by his attempt to create dividing lines where they don’t exist (Andrew Lansley may have slipped up but the Tories subsequently made very clear that the idea of 10 per cent cuts across departments – if the NHS budget is ringfenced – is based on existing Labour figures). In doing so (accusing Cameron of a ‘dogmatic’ desire to cut investment)

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What a Balls-up

A new poll out from Politics Home shows that the Balls and Brown attempt to claim that the next election will be a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts isn’t doing Labour any favours. When asked which party is being most honest about tax and spend, Labour came third on 16 per cent behind the Tories on 37 and the Lib Dems on 28. Not even a majority of Labour supporters think their party is being straighter than other parties about its plans. Among non-aligned voters, only six percent say the Labour party is the most honest. The smartest strategy for Labour on cuts would have been to make

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Cameron tears into Brown’s lies

Cameron kicked off on the 10 percent issue. “Some Labour MPs were a bit confused when they were told about 10 percent: they thought it meant his opinion poll ratings.” The gag went down well, and Cameron picked up where he left off with those spending totals that Brown read out in PMQs last week. They spelled out a real terms cut – though Cameron wasn’t to know at the time (the figures were brand new and, suspiciously, cut out of the Treasury documents* perhaps when they realised that they spelled a cut).  But he certainly did this time, and kept asking Brown whether there are real terms cuts in

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Cynical Case Arguing that Mousavi Doesn’t Matter At All

Beneath the headline Iran’s Brave Revolutionaries Can Change Nothing But the Faces Con Coughlin sighs, lights a cigar, pours himself another brandy and explains to those folk foolish enough to believe that anything can change for the better in Iran just why they’re not much more than a bunch of naive, though charmingly well-intentioned, fools: For the past 30 years, Mr Mousavi and his supporters have demonstrated their unswerving dedication to the cause of revolutionary Islam. Under his premiership in the late 1980s, Iran came close to all-out war with the US and its allies during the death throes of the Iran-Iraq war. The greatest advances in the country’s nuclear

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 17 June 2009

Live coverage of PMQs from 1200. 1202: Brown kicks off by marking this as the Speaker’s final PMQs.  We’ll have a “valedictory” session for the Speaker after PMQs. 1203: Oh dear. Labour’s Alan Whitehead asks what would happen with climate change commitments if budgets were cut by “say, 10 percent”.  Embarrassing.  I think we can see where this PMQs is going… 1204: Good, punchy start from Cameron, saying that this is “Prime Minister’s planted questions”.  And then asks Brown to confirm that he will cut real terms spending from 2011 (as the Budget says it will). 1205: Disgraceful stuff from Brown.  He says that the Tories have to to confirm

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why the Tories might be backing Blair for the EU presidency

This morning’s story in The Times about how the Tories won’t oppose Tony Blair becoming President of Europe if the post is created can be read on two levels. The high-minded one is that Blair as a pro-American, economic liberal is as good as it is going to get from a British perspective so why try and block him. As one top Tory tells the paper, “Frankly we could do a lot worse”. The more scheming one is that the Tories are still worried about Blair’s domestic vote-winning potential. A few weeks back I was chatting with one of the most politically astute Tory strategists about how the coming general

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s failure to communicate?

Fascinating stuff.  ConHome’s Tim Montgomerie has got his hands on a letter sent on House of Commons writing paper to all Tory MPs, by – allegedly – a group of Conservative parliamentarians.  Tim has uploaded a pdf of the entire thing but, as he says, this is the key section: “We all know that the expenses crisis is a massive problem, but it has brought out clear evidence of what all of us had sensed and feared, namely that the party in parliament has ceased to be a team effort and is now just run and dictated to for the personal advantage of David Cameron and George Osborne. We are

Peter Hoskin

The case for pessimism

Amid all the talk of green shoots and renewed economic growth, Vince Cable and Martin Wolf pop up today to warn that the nightmare is, potentially, far from over.   Of the two, Wolf’s is the more useful article; linking, as it does, to a paper by the economic historians Barry Eichengreen and Kevin H. O’Rourke, entitled A Tale of Two Depressions.  I recommend that all CoffeeHousers check that paper out, as the graphs in it are, as Wolf puts it, “worth more than a thousand words”. They suggest that – across a range of indicators, from world industrial output to the volume of world trade – we remain on