PMQs live blog | 7 December 2011
PMQs December 7
Latest from Coffee House
All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Wednesday
Four weeks to Iowa, and Newt’s looking strong
It’s less than a month until the Iowa caucuses, the first big vote of the presidential primaries. It could finish off some candidates who’ve been shuffled to the bottom of the pack, and give us a better idea of the chances of those at the top. Right now, Newt Gingrich looks most likely to
Cameron’s plan
Much ado about a Cabinet split over Europe this morning. The Financial Times has interviewed Ken Clarke, whose europhile instincts are well known — something he shares with the senior Lib Dems. Clarke tells his eurosceptic colleagues not to expect powers to be repatriated from the EU at Friday’s summit. Meanwhile, David Cameron has written
Tuesday
Newt: Another 9/11 Would Have Concentrated Minds
There are many, many, many reasons why Newt Gingrich will not be the 45th President of the United States (assuming, as I do not and actually think pretty unlikely, he wins the GOP nomination) but among them is his habit of saying stuff like this: That’s from 2008. Here’s my transcription of what he says
Can A Cheeseburger Exist Outside A Post-Agrarian Society?
A post arguing that this is a Question To Which the Answer is No has been cropping up on my Facebook feed lately and now I see that Andrew Sullivan has linked to it as well. As Waldo Jaquiath puts it, the cheeseburger was until relatively recently an impractical concoction. Not impossible, perhaps, but one
A regiment of women monsterers
Another day at the Telegraph and another attack on Laurie Penny, this time for writing a short piece describing how she had received excellent treatment at a New York hospital. While she was on her sickbed, she reflected that in the States, ‘Those who are wealthy enough to afford decent healthcare have their needs met
Cameron ramps up his rhetoric
The Conservative backbench disquiet on Europe has been building over the last few days, forcing David Cameron to quell the disaffection. He said earlier this evening: ‘When I go to Brussels I will be there to defend and promote British Interests, and the most important British interest right now is to sort out the problem
How To Lose An Argument: Jim Murphy Edition
Meanwhile, in more examples of sloppy Labour arguments here’s a tweet Jim Murphy sent this afternoon: Oh dear. Murphy is usually better than this. I know and everyone else who pays any attention to Scottish politics (this includes Jim Murphy) knows that Alex Salmond has long admired the Republic of Ireland’s low corporation taxes; he
Russia’s Tahrir?
Just a couple of days after Vladimir Putin’s electoral setback, Russian police have arrested a number of protesters, including veteran liberal politician Boris Nemtsov and the popular blogger Alexei Navalny. This is the umpteenth time that Nemtsov, the former deputy prime minister of Russia, has been manhandled by the Russian state. He also spent some
Labour’s late to the policemens’ ball
Labour has today unveiled a panel of experts to consider the future of British policing. The review, chaired by the former Metropolitan Police Commissioner Lord Stevens, will report by spring 2013. There are far-reaching changes underway to the institutional structure of the police. The coalition government is pursuing sweeping reforms of police pay and conditions
Lobbying for a lobbyists’ register
“I certainly think it’s a serious problem and I described it when we last discussed this as a canker on the body politic and I would stay with that,” said Jesse Norman on the World at One earlier today. The Bureau of Investigative Journalism’s sting, splashed by this morning’s Independent, of executives from lobbying/PR firm
The Only Thing You Actually Need to Read About the Riots
Three cheers for Bagehot for this superb post on the Guardian/LSE’s abject justification for inquiry into this summer’s riots. Mr Rennie puts it exceedingly well: Now, put me in many contexts, and I am quite the hand-wringing bourgeois liberal. Watching Newsnight yesterday evening, I fear I came over all Judge Dredd. The researcher’s contention, in
Fiscal union would hit eurozone credit ratings
There is predictable euro-rage today at Standard and Poor’s warning that there’s a 50/50 chance that the six AAA eurozone countries could see their credit rating downgraded. But if the eurozone does push ahead with fiscal integration, it will — obviously — have an impact on the credit worthiness of the stronger eurozone economies. One
Back to square one | 6 December 2011
Benedict Brogan has some bad news from the engine room of public service reform. ‘I’m told Downing Street is starting all over again on public service reform. Will Cavendish, one of the key people guiding policy in No10, has been put in charge and told to assemble a new team of officials that will put
Mutiny in the air
David Cameron’s European problems seem to be mounting. The usual suspects — Carswell, Redwood, Jenkin et al — have been only too happy to take the airwaves and talk of this ‘great opportunity’ to repatriate powers. Those sentiments are growing across the backbenches. The Guardian quotes an ally of Iain Duncan Smith saying that he and
Monday
Yes, Virginia, History Matters: Eurozone Edition
Broadly speaking, there are two ways of viewing the eurozone crisis: it’s a problem of economics or a problem of politics. Neither explanation quite suffices, of course, since it is both but the emphasis you place on economics vs politics plays a part in how you’ll view the situation and how likely you are to
The Difficult Matter of Praising George W Bush
Will Inboden is frustrated that Barack Obama so rarely has anything nice to say about President George W Bush even when his administration has benefitted from US policies Obama inherited from his predecessor or when he has found it convenient to adopt and sometimes even take further Bush-era views on a given subject (such as
Jewish divided loyalty: the old lie
In all the furore over Jeremy Clarkson’s ‘joke’ about shooting strikers, people can be forgiven for missing a second row over outrageous remarks made by a public figure. Paul Flynn is Labour MP for Newport West and known as a reasonable man of the left. Flynn is a campaigning MP who has asked some difficult
The New York Times’ austerity myth
Yet again, the New York Times fact-checkers seem to have taken the day off. The newspaper yesterday printed an editorial about British economic policy which contained basic errors – identical to those made in a blog which Paul Krugman bashed out last week. It’s worth fisking a little, because Krugman appears to be using the
Disappointment in Durban
Will Durban break the cycle of climate change meetings that repeatedly disappoint those hoping to replace Kyoto with an upgraded model? With so much else on, most people seem to be ignoring the latest summit entirely. Scanning the major newspaper websites, only the Guardian and the Independent mention “Durban” on their homepages. First Copenhagen
Learning to live with Islamists
Islamists have won a landslide in Egypt, with the Muslim Brotherhood and the ultra-Conservative Al Nour party winning some 60 per cent of the votes cast. Future rounds of elections may benefit them further, as they take pace in more rural and conservative areas. Their success should be a surprise to nobody. Egypt is a
The referendum question Pt. 2
Earlier this morning, Number 10 briefed that fiscal union in the eurozone would not trigger a referendum in this country because sovereignty will not be transfered from London to Brussels — a pre-requisite for any vote. The problem for Cameron is that some of his backbenchers say there should be a referendum. Bernard Jenkin was on the Daily Politics
Club Rules, Brussels Edition
Ben Brogan’s latest post offers a revealing glimpse into the oddness of the eurosceptic mind. He begins: To the dismay of many of his colleagues preoccupied by the euro crisis, the Prime Minister has been adept at nurturing strong personal relationships with Angela Merkel and Nicolas Sarkozy. Instead of confrontation he has engaged constructively with
Raab’s early hits
The Commons will debate the UK’s controversial extradition treaty with the US and the European Arrest Warrant later today. The debate has been brought by Dominic Raab MP. He was on the Today programme this morning, explaining that he wanted to introduce a ‘forum clause’ to the UK-US treaty. Forum is a principle that could
CoffeeHousers’ Wall, 5-11 December 2011
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which — providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency — you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
Behold post-Putin Russia
Sunday’s parliamentary elections in Russia marked the beginning of the end of the Putin era. It won’t feel like it for another few years, as the Russian strongman ascends to the nation’s Presidency again and bestrides the international stage. But when future historians come to examine post-Putin Russia, the end of 2011 will be seen
Just in case you missed them… | 5 December 2011
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says auterity is not enough – what we need is a real plan to kick start growth – and reports on Herman Cain’s exit from the US Presidential race. James Forsyth highlights the political advantage in setting spending plans beyond the next election.
Improving the health of the nation
Britain’s future prosperity, we are frequently told, lies in scientific discovery, so it’s odd that David Cameron has not given a major speech on it as prime minister until now. He will talk later today about the need to deregulate pharmaceutical licensing to encourage private investment in public health. He views the life sciences sector as a vital
Sunday
Putin’s party takes a hit
Vladimir Putin’s party has taken a hit in Russia’s parliamentary elections. Reuters reports that the United Russia party took 48.5 per cent of the votes, down from 64 per cent in 2007. These results are far from reliable: the BBC reports Russia’s independent election monitoring group has already recorded more than 5,300 complaints of malpractice.
Worrying developments in the Middle East
It’s been an eventful , if worrying afternoon in the Middle East. First, the initial Egyptian election results confirm the expectation that Islamist parties would dominate the first round of elections: they’ve taken more than 50 per cent of the vote. Douglas Murray wrote a Spectator cover story two weeks ago on how the Arab Spring
The referendum question
As French and German officials make final preparations ahead of tomorrow’s meeting on fiscal union, it’s worth reconsidering the coalition’s triple referendum lock. James Kirkup has an incisive post on the issue, describing a potential government split. The division was evident on TV this morning: Iain Duncan Smith told Dermot Murnaghan that a referendum would
Baseline advantage
One of the advantages the governing party has during an election campaign is the ability to set the baseline. It is your plans which every other parties’ are measured against. So, if they plan extra spending you can accuse them of a ‘tax bombshell’ or if they want to spend less than you, then you
A winter comfort
Robert Sellers and James Hogg’s Little Ern!, the authorised biography of Ernie Wise, is an uplifting, heart-warming and beautifully written book that will act as a comfort blanket recalling cheery Christmases past: a time when Christmas didn’t really begin until the whole family gathered round the television set to enjoy the collective warmth of Morecambe
The importance of being earnest | 4 December 2011
The absence of growth and the importance of credibility are recurring themes in this morning’s papers. John Lord Hutton has told the BBC that revised growth figures make pension reform even more urgent, and he added that the deal that was put before trade unions was ‘perfectly credible’. Meanwhile, David Cameron has insisted that ministers increase