All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
David Cameron acquitted himself well at Leveson yesterday, as he does in all such events. But it was odd to hear him say that there should be ‘more distance’ between politicians and the press. The implication of his comment is that he has been sucked into the brutal realpolitik of the newspaper industry; that he
Primary school children studying subordinate clauses and foreign languages? What an outlandish but suddenly very real idea. Michael Gove announced earlier this week a curriculum reshuffle to restore rigour and aptitude to primary education. But why is liberalising Gove instigating a top-down approach, prescribing what teachers teach? It’s not the first time that Gove’s
There are at least two things at which the British are very good: being jobsworths and complaining about jobsworths. Today’s example of this feature of British life comes courtesy of Martha Payne and Argyll & Bute Council. Martha, as you may know if you’ve read the papers today, listened to the radio, or been on
The Keynes vs Hayek debate is at its sharpest on the issue of employment. Can government create jobs (as Balls says)? Or does large public sector employment simply displace economic activity that would happen elsewhere (as Osborne says)? A fascinating study has been released today by the Spatial Economics Research Centre at the LSE showing
Chaos and confusion are mounting in Egypt tonight, where the country’s constitutional court has ruled that laws governing parliamentary elections are invalid. It follows that the Egyptian parliament must be dissolved, by the interim government led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. And the constitution must be rewritten before the presidential run-off on
George Osborne will formally unveil the government’s banking reforms in a speech at Mansion House later this evening. The reforms are in line with the recommendations of Sir John Vickers’s Independent Banking Commission (ICB), as laid out by the Treasury, which published this White Paper earlier today. For those who’ve forgotten, Vickers suggested splitting retail
David Cameron was visibly rattled by Robert Jay QC, Counsel to the Leveson Inquiry, earlier today. Counsel was examining the relationship between the PM and Rebekah Brooks. Counsel concentrated on the text that Mrs Brooks sent Mr Cameron on the eve of his 2009 party conference speech. Mrs Brooks’s use of Cameron’s phrase ‘in this together’, which he
While summer party season is warming up, is the work drying up for Cherie Blair? At last night’s Renaissance Photography Prize at the Mall Gallery, Mrs Blair took full advantage of being introduced as Cherie Booth QC. ‘As a barrister there are important people for me here – solicitors!’ She went on to name check
History was made in the House of Commons this afternoon when two MPs spoke openly of their mental health problems; the first time that MPs have done so in the House. I’m indebted to Andrew Sparrow’s invaluable politics live blog at the Guardian, which carries the statements. Labour’s Kevan Jones on his depression: ‘Like a
Friends of David Cameron are pretty satisfied with how today went. Their sense is that nothing explosive came out and that if that embarrassing Brooks text is the worst headline from his four hours plus on the stand then that’s not too bad a result. The prime minister has also been greatly helped by the
‘You attack poverty by knowing what you do changes the lives of those people.’ In that phrase on this morning’s Today programme, Iain Duncan Smith summed up the difference between his approach to combating poverty and Gordon Brown’s. As Fraser has put it, Brown saw poverty as ‘a statistical game… his great spreadsheet puzzler’. The
Today is the last day of the Government’s consultation about its gay marriage proposals. But as an editorial in the Telegraph points out, this is a more limited exercise than it sounds…you’re not being asked whether it’s a good idea for gay people to marry so much as how you think the Government should implement
Is High Speed 2 headed for the sidings? In our cover feature this week, Ross Clark examines why the ambitious infrastructure project — designed to boost Northern cities — has all but disappeared from the government’s agenda. Despite the chancellor’s ‘boyish enthusiasm for fast trains’, the project has lacked the essential support from private business.
David Cameron’s morning at the Leveson Inquiry has not been a pleasant experience for him. In the opening hour or so, Cameron was calm and statesmanlike. But as the inquiry moved onto his connections to News International and how Andy Coulson was hired, the prime minister was pushed onto the back foot. One could see
Yesterday saw the annual Commons vs. Lords Tug of War, in aid of Macmillan and sponsored by BAE. Battle was joined at Westminster College Gardens, behind the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Teams of marines, fireman, hacks and staffers battled it out before the final show down between the elected and the unelected. Disappointingly for the
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=9ebfd32d82″ >PMQs live</a>
A firestorm has torn across Westminster overnight, since Nick Clegg instructed his MPs to abstain from today’s opposition motion demanding that Jeremy Hunt be referred to Sir Alex Allan, the ministerial standards supremo. Numerous Tory backbenchers have taken to the airwaves to condemn their perfidious coalition colleagues. The Mail has the most complete record of
George Osborne and Michael Gove are two of the Cabinet ministers closest to the Prime Minister. In their appearances before the Leveson Inquiry, they have both made clear that they are not interested in some giant new regulatory system for the press. Indeed, the vigour with which Gove made this argument rather got under the
I got lost about two minutes into PMQs today. Or maybe sooner. Jeremy Hunt’s in trouble over that old business again. And Baroness Warsi has breached the ministerial code but hasn’t resigned. So Ed Miliband wanted to know why Warsi has been referred to someone or other and Hunt hasn’t. And David Cameron said it
The government won’t fall over the Lib Dems abstaining on an opposition motion attacking Jeremy Hunt. But Nick Clegg’s decision to order his MPs to sit out today’s vote is another sign of how the ties that bind the coalition are weakening. Those close to Clegg argue that because Cameron did not consult Clegg when
A slightly absurd PMQs today, dominated by Leveson and Jeremy Hunt. I suspect that history will not look kindly on the fact that there were no questions on what is happening in the Eurozone until 28 minutes into this half hour session. The Cameron Miliband exchanges were rather laboured, neither man was on particularly good
Why was David Cameron so lukewarm in his endorsement of HS2 at PMQs today? (In response to a question about the project’s future, he offered, ‘I believe we should go ahead with HS2’, which is rather than different to asserting that it will go ahead.) The project is – as one Tory minister has told The
The Eurozone crisis is teaching us plenty about how to recover from recessions. The nations that tried a debt-fuelled stimulus have found that their economies haven’t grown much, but they are saddled with the extra debt. The Swedes have cut taxes for the low paid, the Estonians took the fast route back to fiscal sanity
It’s not often that three relatively small NGOs can change politics. So today’s parliamentary debate on the Defamation Bill is cause for considerable pride, among my former colleagues at Index on Censorship and their partners at English PEN and Sense about Science. In November 2009, we began a campaign to reform England’s unfair libel laws.
In nominating the lawyer and former rail regulator Tom Winsor as her choice to be the next chief inspector of constabulary, the home secretary has stoked more discontent among the ranks of the Police Federation. Not only is he the first non-police officer ever to be nominated to the role, but he is also the
There was, as Freddy has said, something inevitable about the Church of England’s response to the imminent prospect of gay marriage. A convinced Anglican, who also has intimate knowledge of constitutional law and decoding legislation, recently told me in no uncertain terms that the government’s plan could force the church to schismatic ends because, for
It was back to the future at the Leveson inquiry today, as Sir John Major suggested how the press might be regulated. He was calm and confident, launching the odd softly-spoken salvo at former enemies, among them Rupert Murdoch. He said: “Certainly he [Murdoch] never asked for anything directly from me but he was not
The great thing about the Leveson inquiry is that every so often it offers us the opportunity for that most lovely and undervalued of sensations, nostalgia. I hope that you, like me, revelled in that strange Scottish man’s performance yesterday — the man who, incredibly, used to be in charge of us all. It took
There’s an inevitability about the Times’s big splash (£) this morning: Gay Marriage Plan Could Divorce Church From State. The Church of England’s historic role as ‘religious registrar’ for the State would have to be severed, we are told, if government plans to legalise gay marriage go ahead. That would not, apparently, mean ‘total dis-establishment
George Osborne’s musings today on how Greece might have to leave the Eurozone before the Germans will act in order to save the single currency makes public the British government’s current thinking on the future of the Eurozone. In remarks the frankness of which have taken other parts of government by surprise, Osborne told The
Steerpike’s transatlantic cousins at the New York Post’s Page Six are stirring up the rumours (again) that Vogue editor Anna Wintour is set to become Obama’s Ambassador to the Court of St James. Coincidentally, the fashion supremo has been pulling her weight for Obama’s fundraising. Though vaguely denying the appointment, she is not exactly doing
Even for people on the same side of an argument, opinion is often wildly divided. Among those of us who believe government should support civil marriage equality, this morning’s papers (£), and specifically Church of England fears that the religious will be ‘forced’ to carry out same-sex weddings, re-opens a fundamental division of opinion.
Stephan Shakespeare has a fascinating article on Con Home today, comparing which words voters associate with the terms ‘right-wing’ or ‘left-wing’. The results aren’t too surprising: the language of the left is, generally, softer than the language of the right. Shakespeare’s article is entitled ‘Fairness versus selfish’, which gives you an idea of how voters
The news that matters today isn’t what was said at Leveson, it’s becoming increasingly clear that the government won’t act on the inquiry’s report if it suggests anything big, but that the Spanish bailout is failing. Indeed, Spanish bank stocks are lower this evening than they were this morning and the yield on Spain’s 10
