All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The Office of Budget Responsibility was created to be George Osborne’s friend. The theory was that under the leadership of Sir Alan Budd, the OBR would urge the Chancellor to cut. Budd would be listened to more than Robert Chote, who was then running the IFS. But when Sir Alan quit unexpectedly, Chote took over. Since
Roll up, roll up! The biannual Lib Dem half-baked tax policy circus is in town! Last time, the so-called ‘mansion tax’ show never lived up to its billing, as ringleader Clegg tried juggling too many ideas. We had the mansion tax, tycoon tax, new stamp duty bands and the more noble income tax threshold rise
This year more than ever, Nick Clegg is looking around for a policy to ensure he does not, to quote Nye Bevan, go naked into the conference hall when his party meets in Brighton. He does not have Lords reform to rouse his party ranks, the grassroots are nervous about the threat of an extra
Every honours list throws up some controversy or other, such as whether a knighthood is linked to a political donation (a media favourite) or can be interpreted as some kind of political favour. Despite this, the Public Administration Select Committee took evidence which suggests that the honours system is broadly popular (81 per cent) and
‘I am the granddaughter of a Welsh coalminer,’ said Ann Romney, as she introduced herself to America last night, auditioning for the job of First Lady. She did pretty well, and if she were the actual candidate then the Republicans would be home and dry. Whatever her roots, she is now the millionaire owner of an
The saying goes that the only silver lining at the end of a political career is the chance to read your own obituary without actually dying. For Giles Coren, the speculation that he had ‘quit Twitter’ was the twenty first century equivalent. It was not all good news though. After a characteristically bad tempered exchange with
Buoyed by his department’s recent success in squashing allegations of ‘slave labour’, Chris Grayling launched a new back-to-work scheme for unemployed young people in London today. The joint pilot with the Mayor of London will put 6,000 18-24 year-olds with little or no work experience into placements with charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises in
I returned from holiday to discover that the silly season has turned into something much more serious. The daily list of horrors from Syria, the Eurozone crisis and the terrifying state of the UK economy: they had all been there when I left (for Greece by the way, where people are genuinely scared about the
Hugh Robertson was trying to stick up for the Prime Minister this afternoon when he said David Cameron was ‘absolutely a man’. He was defending the government’s decision to stay right where it is on airport expansion, against Tim Yeo’s warning that to stick to manifesto pledges and commitments in the coalition agreement on Heathrow would
Conservative backbenchers are worried that the Prime Minister and his colleagues leading the Conservative party do not have a clear plan for winning the 2015 election. The Times reports today that they will try to corner David Cameron at a supper of the parliamentary party next week to ask him what his strategy is. They
The Tories’ shadowy donor-cum-puppetmaster has been given the cold shoulder, yet again. Taking full proprietor privileges at ConservativeHome, he’s taken aim at young Dave’s departed brain, Steve Hilton. It seems that the guru has left the Lord of Belize off his Republican National Convention party guest list: ‘Apparently, the event to be seen at is
Justine Greening will be relieved: Downing Street has just poured cold water on suggestions the government could U-turn on a third runway at Heathrow. At the morning lobby briefing, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘Their stance is as laid out in the Coalition Agreement: that’s not changed. The coalition parties have made a pledge not
Way back in my debating days at Trinity College, Dublin we knew you could guarantee large crowds and impressively – that is, pleasingly – bad-tempered debates twice a year. These were the annual debates on Northern Ireland and abortion. And they really were annual fixtures during which, for years on end, the same arguments were
It was difficult not to feel sorry for Transport Secretary Justine Greening this morning as she twisted and turned to avoid questions fired at her by Jim Naughtie on a third runway. Each time Greening thought she had escaped having to tell Radio 4 listeners whether she could remain in the Cabinet should the Prime
The Republican National Convention is properly underway today*, where Mitt Romney will try to introduce himself to an America that still doesn’t really know him. The race is close: Romney leads 47-46 in a Gallup poll. Both sides have been spewing out attack ads, which seem to be working: not for 20 years have both
Autumn is nearly here, so it must be time for another good row about planning, mustn’t it? Given the number of recent reports that ministers are considering relaxing green belt protection, it was only a matter of time before the Campaign to Protect Rural England lifted its head above the parapet. Today it warned the
There was a news report on BBC South East last week expressing outrage that two people had not been arrested and charged for posting allegedly ‘homophobic’ comments on Twitter about the gay fans of the football club Brighton and Hove Albion. The reporter was incensed that charges had not been brought and the miscreants duly
So the Conservative party’s immigration minister, Damian Green MP, has introduced the idea of the ‘Danny Boyle test.’ In today’s Telegraph he argues that the Conservative party must resist ‘nostalgists promoting a better yesterday’ and that since the Olympics opening ceremony was a demonstration of ‘modern Britain’ it is therefore a ‘test’ that Conservatives must pass.
It’s a familiar theme: the Tory conference is approaching, David Cameron is in trouble and knives are coming out for him. But how much of the problems are of his own making, and how many have come from the Treasury? Tim Montgomerie focuses today on No.10 (£), saying that Prime Minister must come out fighting
‘If we don’t like modern Britain, then it is very unlikely that modern Britain will like us’ says Damian Green, in a piece for the Daily Telegraph today. I’m not sure if this is a piece of pre-reshuffle positioning or a cri de coeur, but his analysis is about ten years out of date. Green is
David Cameron is already going to struggle to hit his target of taking net migration from 250,000 to the tens of thousands. But I understand that the Home Office is nervous that other Whitehall departments could undermine that target further, seeing immigration as one sinew that could be strained as they begin to panic about
The idea of closing the House of Commons for five years will, I suspect, be popular with those who see in this a chance to move the MPs to a lifeless, European style semi-circular chamber that supposedly encourages them to co-operate. The current Commons chamber is divided by the length of two swords, a deliberately
David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat partners are coming under increasing pressure from Tory ministers and other senior party figures to U-turn on a third runway at Heathrow. Yesterday, in what appeared to be a bid to take over from Justine Greening as Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps became the first minister to call on the
Every time there is a shooting in the US there is an eruption of sanctimony from Europe about how crazy the US gun-laws are. But there are some good reasons for those laws, and many Americans feel gun-ownership to be an important part of what keeps them American. However, the downsides are just awful. Gun-murder rates in
Labour and the teachers’ unions have had their way: there is going to be an official inquiry into the GCSE results. The exams regulator Ofqual is only investigating the English results, though, saying there are ‘questions about how grade boundaries were set in a very small number of units across the year’. In a letter to the
I have it on good authority that, as matters stand, some senior figures within the SNP are concerned by the way the party has lost – or is perceived to have lost – momentum this summer. Of course, the road to the independence referendum is a long one and there’s ample time for the nationalists
One of the biggest problems that David Cameron faces at the moment is discipline within his own party. He was astonished by the size of the rebellion on the second reading of the House of Lords Reform Bill, which he had expected to be much smaller. He is now considering what to do with the
There is great excitement in some circles at a paper from the International Monetary Fund which has emerged in the past 24 hours. This piece of research warns that cutting government spending too quickly can weaken economies permanently and lead to even deeper recessions. It says: The analysis in this paper shows that withdrawing fiscal stimuli
One of the solutions Tory MPs are mulling over now the boundary reforms are dead in the water is some sort of partnership with UKIP to boost the party’s chances in 2015. As many as 60 per cent of Conservative activists are reported to favour such a pact. But David Cameron has yet to show any
The Paralympic flame is now burning in Trafalgar Square ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony on Wednesday. As it was lit, Boris Johnson encouraged London to ‘re-ignite the spirit of the Golden Games’ for the Paralympics, which London looks ready to do, given the record sales of 2.3 million tickets (a lesson in endurance and
For the first year since GCSE’s came in we have not seen ‘the best results ever’. Which is, of course, a great relief. As Anthony Seldon, among others, has pointed out, these results suggest a return to credibility in our examination system. But there are already those, including some teachers and teacher unions who are
The current issue of the New Statesman leads off with a characteristically elegant and thorough feature by its deputy editor, Helen Lewis, on the fate of the political cartoon. In short, she fears for its future. The most poignant element, however, is a sidebar headed ‘Cartoons in the New Statesman‘. After reviewing the magazine’s magnificent
In one sense, I have some sympathy for Lance Armstrong. He has been hounded by the American anti-doping agency USADA who, like other federal agencies, are remorseless foes. Once they have their hooks in you they never let go. The usefulness of their investigations is another matter. Even so, Armstrong’s declaration that enough is enough
Prince Harry’s naked outing on the front page of today’s Sun has already prompted 60 complaints to the Press Complaints Commission about a breach of the Prince’s privacy. It also illustrates the problem facing Lord Leveson as he prepares to make his recommendations on the future of press regulation. The Sun’s editorial, which it published alongside