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Wednesday

16 Mar 2016

Budget 2016: The biggest problem with Jeremy Corbyn’s response was that it was delivered by Jeremy Corbyn

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/spectatorpolitics/georgeosbornesbudget-2016/media.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss today’s budget”] Listen [/audioplayer]Jeremy Corbyn’s response to today’s Budget was fine on paper. It included a proper response to the policies that were announced, rather than the Labour leader merely ranting about what he had thought might be in the Budget when he wrote the

The Spectator

George Osborne’s 2016 Budget: full audio and text

Mr Deputy Speaker, Today I report on an economy set to grow faster than any other major advanced economy in the world. I report on a labour market delivering the highest employment in our history. And I report on a deficit down by two thirds, falling each year and – I can confirm today – on course for

Helen Nugent

Budget 2016: what it means for your personal finances

So, what did the Chancellor have up his sleeve? And how does it affect you and your money? Here is Spectator Money’s guide to the major changes. Income tax George Osborne stayed true to a Conservative pre-election pledge to increase the threshold for the higher rate of income tax. While reiterating that the goal is

Steerpike

Watch: George Osborne promises to ‘abolish’ the Liberal Democrats

Of course no Budget announcement would be complete without some customary ‘banter’ from the Chancellor of the Exchequer. With George Osborne’s leadership chances seen to be dwindling, he did his best to show that he had got his ‘mojo’ back. Clearly free of any guilty feelings over how things turned out for the Liberal Democrats in the General

Isabel Hardman

PMQs: A session soon to be lost in the Budget smog

Normally when a Leader of the Opposition prepares for the Prime Minister’s Questions before a Budget, it comes second to the prep for the difficult Budget response and focuses on a slightly random topic. The difference between this session and a normal PMQs is usually rather marked. But when Jeremy Corbyn rose today to ask

The Spectator

Budget 2016 – the key announcements

[audioplayer src=”http://rss.acast.com/spectatorpolitics/georgeosbornesbudget-2016/media.mp3″ title=”Fraser Nelson, Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth discuss today’s Budget”] Listen [/audioplayer] Sugar tax on drinks with over 8pc sugar from 2018. A tax on the poor. Chunky growth downgrades. This year, GDP to grow at 2.0pc (down from 2.4pc) next years at 2.2pc (down from 2.5pc) and at 2.1pc (down from 2.4pc) in 2018/19. Debt target

Freddy Gray

Goodbye, Marco Rubio. You were the wrong candidate at the wrong time

Marco Rubio last night finally suspended his campaign. At the risk of sounding smug, I could have told you years ago that he was not a good presidential candidate. In the wake of Barack Obama’s re-election in 2012, Rubio went on a charm tour of London, where I met him. He was sharp, no doubt about

Isabel Hardman

Budget 2016: Osborne the weatherman to warn of storm clouds over the economy

A year ago, George Osborne was giving voters a glimpse of the sunny uplands that they could expect from life under a Tory government. At the time, few believed that there would be a Tory majority after the election, but here we are at the 2016 Budget with the Chancellor still in weatherman mode, but

Helen Nugent

What will be in the 2016 Budget?

Fresh austerity measures, changes to income tax and the scrapping of a radical overhaul to the pensions system have dominated the headlines ahead of the 2016 Budget. But what money measures does the Chancellor have in store today? Here’s what to expect. Income tax One of the Conservatives’ pre-election pledges was an increase in the threshold for the higher rate

Eleni Courea

Osborne’s new sugar tax is a tax on the poor

The fat man of Europe is getting fatter. His teeth are rotting from the sugar in his coke and chocolates. He feeds his children bread and pasta instead of quinoa and couscous. It is time to tax the fat man – he must learn to stop eating sugar. And today, George Osborne has acted. In his

Isabel Hardman

What to expect from today’s Budget

The art of delivering a good Budget – in a political sense at least – is to give everyone the impression that while you’ve had to do some really difficult things, you’ve miraculously managed to find some nice things to do too that will distract people for at least one round of newspaper front pages.

Ed West

High-rise housing is hellish. It’s time to bring back terraces

On the radio this morning the subject of high-rise housing was being discussed, the hook being the new film adaptation of JG Ballard’s High-Rise. Tower blocks are widely considered to be a disaster today; they took largely working-class populations out of often sub-standard (but potentially very nice) terraced houses into technically better housing that was

Helen Nugent

Money digest: today’s need-to-know financial news | 16 March 2016

Today’s the day. George Osborne will deliver the 2016 Budget amid fears of £4 billion in extra spending cuts, fuel duty rises, and an increase in insurance premium tax. Wednesday’s Spectator Money Blog is devoted to what to expect from the Chancellor, from a rowback on an overhaul of the pensions system to help for

Jonathan Ray

St George’s Day tour and lunch at Chapel Down

Join us for an intimate and exclusive Spectator lunch at Chapel Down’s vineyards and winery in Kent. On your visit you will be accompanied by Chapel Down’s head winemaker, Josh Donaghay-Spire, and The Spectator’s drinks editor, Jonathan Ray. Chapel Down is England’s leading wine producer, offering a world-class range of sparkling and still wines, together

Tuesday

15 Mar 2016

Alex Massie

Barack Obama is right to offer his government’s view on the EU referendum

My word, what a disgrace! What an outrage! Isn’t it deplorable that the President of the United States has the gall to offer an opinion on the merits of an argument that will have some significant impact on the future of one of the United States’ closest allies? The arrogance and sheer effrontery of the

Laura Whitcombe

Paying for financial advice – with your pension

You could soon be able to dip into your pension in order to pay for financial advice – so long as the government listens to recommendations from the Financial Conduct Authority. The measure would go some way to addressing the City regulator’s ‘current concerns about the affordability and accessibility of financial advice and guidance’, it

Isabel Hardman

Burnham makes the case for Labour not supporting the Investigatory Powers Bill

The saying ‘the House of Commons at its best’ is normally a pompous description of parliamentarians agreeing with one another on something it is impossible to disagree on. However, when MPs come together to scrutinise legislation involving the security services, they do come rather close to being at their best, as they grow rather anxious

Steerpike

Labour’s former election star distances himself from Jeremy Corbyn

In 2010, Ross Kemp appeared in a party political broadcast urging the public to vote for Labour in the General Election. In this, the EastEnders actor, who plays Grant Mitchell in the BBC soap opera, warned the nation against voting for David Cameron: ‘It only takes around 60 seconds to cast your vote. 60 seconds to

Douglas Murray

Cameron’s support for Turkey’s EU membership should worry us all

David Cameron this morning claimed that people who wish to leave the EU are ‘taking a risk with people’s jobs, taking a risk with families’ finances.’ Well then let us consider an even bigger risk that David Cameron is taking. In a visit to Turkey in 2010 our own Prime Minister announced that he would

Tom Mludzinski

Osborne suffers from being the Microsoft to Cameron’s Apple

George Osborne’s battle to become Conservative leader may well be tougher than the battle he faces from the Labour opposition. The Chancellor delivers his eighth Budget tomorrow with only 31 percent of Britons believing he has done a good job as Chancellor. The backdrop for his set-piece speech is perhaps more troubling: only 26 percent say their

Ed West

Is more multiculturalism really the cure for the EU’s problems?

Germany is on its feet again; the country’s answer to Ukip, Alternative Für Deutschland, made huge gains at the polls, winning a presence in three state assemblies. The shadow of Auschwitz looms over all European politics on the subject of immigration and race, but obviously more so in Germany, and many people are worried. Their

Steerpike

‘Brexit martyr’ John Longworth gets ready for his comeback

Last week John Longworth, the Director General of the British Chambers of Commerce, caused upset in the Remain camp when he used a BCC conference to claim that Britain could have a ‘brighter future’ outside the EU. With No.10 rumoured to have ‘bullied’ the BCC into disciplining him — an allegation they deny — Longworth was

Isabel Hardman

Meet Labour’s alternative shadow Treasury team

Jeremy Corbyn is preparing for his first response to a Budget since becoming Labour leader. The last time he spoke in a debate following an economic statement from the Chancellor was in 2012, when he complained about the ‘granny tax’, the benefit cap, proposals for regional pay, transport spending and Heathrow and housing. The MP

Isabel Hardman

Labour unease over Investigatory Powers Bill

The Investigatory Powers Bill has its second reading in the Commons this afternoon, with Labour planning to abstain and make its support for the timing of the legislation conditional on the Home Secretary satisfying a number of concerns that the party has. Separately, I understand that Tory MPs such as Liam Fox are pushing for

Fraser Nelson

Chuka Umunna: Labour MPs represent more people than the Corbynistas

It’s the Ides of March today, and there are pitifully few signs of a Labour plot. I was on ITV’s The Agenda last night with Chuka Umunna, one of the putative successors to Jeremy Corbyn, who was teased by Tom Bradby about his ambitions. He came out with the usual hedged denials (“there’s not a vacancy.,,

Steerpike

Michael Buerk takes a swipe at virtue-signalling luvvies: ‘there’s only so much of the Benedict worldview you can take’

In recent months, a number of luvvies have entered the public debate to give their take on what ‘must be done’ on a number of pressing issues. While Benedict Cumberbatch turned the air blue at the theatre with a ‘f— the politicians‘ rant over the refugee crisis, Emma Thompson recently waded in on the EU

Helen Nugent

Money digest: today’s-need-to-know financial news

Ahead of tomorrow’s Budget, the financial pages are full of last ditch attempts by MPs, think tanks, businesses and pressure groups to persuade the Chancellor round to their way of thinking. On pensions, the Work and Pensions Select Committee has urged the government to consider giving some women early access to their state pension in return

Monday

14 Mar 2016

Isabel Hardman

Pollster finds Labour level-pegging with the Tories. Pollster panics.

Look! All this sniping at Jeremy Corbyn is wrong and now we have proof. The Labour leader is not in fact trashing his party’s brand. Today a poll from ICM puts the Conservatives and Labour level on 36 per cent, a jump of four points for the opposition and a drop of three for the

Isabel Hardman

Iain Duncan Smith given pointless grilling on how he sleeps and jobs fairs

Labour had an aggressive session at Work and Pensions Questions today, attacking the Conservatives on disability benefit cuts, and on whether they had any morals. Normally questions in the Commons are supposed to be about the design of policies, but today Owen Smith appeared to be taking a leaf out of Jeremy Corbyn’s book, asking

Rod Liddle

Even the Germans are starting to despair of their country’s migrant policy

A rather impressive performance by Alternative für Deutschland (AfD) in Germany’s regional elections. Second in Saxony-Anhalt and double digit percentages in Baden-Württemberg and the Rhineland-Palatinate. Today’s papers have tended to conclude that despite AfD’s shock success, the elections were nonetheless a triumph, of sorts, for Angela Merkel’s policy towards migrants, if not for her party, the CDU. I

Steerpike

Watch: Dennis Skinner takes a pop at Nick Clegg – ‘what on earth was the Queen doing confiding in him?’

Today’s Mail claims that Michael Gove is ‘clinging to office’ as a result of accusations that he was the source of the Sun‘s ‘Queen backs Brexit‘ story. So, in a bid to keep the pressure on the government over the alleged leak, Tom Watson was granted an urgent question today on the growing row. However, little was achieved

Andy Walton

Could Britain’s evangelical Christians ever support a Trump-like figure?

Building walls, banning Muslims, mass deportations. However bad things appear in UK politics, we console ourselves with the thought that Trump could never happen here. Before that comforting thought tips over into full schadenfreude at the expense of our American cousins, we might wonder why that’s the case. There are two obvious reasons we don’t

Steerpike

Momentum activist: Labour’s ‘dodgy’ members could be result of an anti-Corbyn conspiracy

Last week Jeremy Corbyn was left red-faced in PMQs after David Cameron asked him why he had allowed Gerry Downing — a 9/11 apologist — to rejoin the party. While Labour later expelled Downing, the party now face fresh controversy over one of its other members. This morning Guido Fawkes revealed that disgraced former Labour PPC Vicky Kirby is Woking

Olenka Hamilton

Meet the British Poles who back Brexit

Britain’s Poles appear to be struggling with a sort of Brexit-induced identity crisis. Earlier this month, BBC News showed Poles in Leeds expressing support for Brexit. I’m sure many people would have found this confusing. Aren’t a lot of these Poles in Britain thanks to an EU work permit and therefore benefitting directly from Britain’s

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