All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Four weeks into the new government and the National Security Council machinery is still being put in place and ministers are still getting read into their briefs. The visit by William Hague, Andrew Mitchell and Liam Fox to Afghanistan was important, despite the brouhaha over the Defence Secretary’s comments. Such a visit was simply not
There was a time when Vince Cable held the Liberal Democrats in thrall. Those days may come again, but for the moment (until this morning at any rate) David Laws is the new Gladstone. In yet another example of Laws’ value to the right side of the coalition, he hints that he opposes Cable’s CGT
Paul Waugh and Matthew D’Ancona are debating whether David Laws will stay or go. D’Ancona is plain that Laws must go; Waugh wonders if this is an ‘Ecclestone moment’ and that Cameron and Clegg will dig in. John Rentoul agrees with Waugh. Laws’s situation looks bleak, and Andrew Grice concludes that Laws is no longer
As you know, it’s Ivan Basso in the picture here and on Saturday, for the first time and on the penultimate stage, in this year’s Giro d’Italia he will wear the race leader’s Maglia Rosa. He deserves it too. On the Zoncolan and then yesterday on the Mortirolo pass Basso has been the pride
Even a general election could not shorten the expenses crisis’s shadow. The Telegraph has the scoop that David Laws apparently abused the second home allowance between 2006 and 2009, claiming tens of thousands of pounds for rooms owned by his long-term partner. MPs have been banned from leasing accommodation from their partners since 2006. Spice
Next week in Westminster is going to be dominated by the election of deputy speakers and select committee chairmen. On the select committee front, the party whips will agree on which party will chair which committee. Then, the chairmen will be elected by the whole House. There are some intriguing races in prospect. I’m told
Here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson outlines the death of the male working class, and says that Michael Gove must guard against the vested interests. James Forsyth watches the Tory right reassert itself, and sets out the tactical considerations over the timing of the AV referendum. Peter Hoskin
In some senses, and for all its reforming zeal, this is something of a throwback government. David Cameron’s own views and preferences have, I think, mellowed with time to the point that he is now in some respects the kind of Tory who might not have been altogether out of place in the era of
Surprise, surprise – Menzies Campbell doesn’t sound 100% taken with the coalition in interview with Andrew Neil on Straight Talk this weekend. This is, don’t forget, the man who encouraged the Lib Dems to seek a deal with Labour at the last minute. And here he claims that he “would have found it very difficult
David Cameron’s speech today was, in many respects, the one he needed to make: the clean-break speech, which trashed Labour’s record on the economy while also outlining how the coalition would deliver us to the sunny uplands. As it happens, it was also quite effective: a blend of policy specifics and punchy rhetoric. And while
While Britishers have been getting used to coalition government, some things in America never change. In fact, if anything the Cult of the Presidency* is stronger than ever. True, the Obama administration has not always, or even often, done much to acknowledge any limits** on Presidential brilliance but the response to the BP oil spill
Wondering why David Laws put in such a convincing performance when defending the government’s cuts at the dispatch box on Wednesday? This little detail from Allegra Stratton’s excellent profile of him might help explain: “A friend confirmed that for the past six months, as the official Lib Dem party line decided on by Vince Cable
All kinds of hoohah about last night’s Question Time, for which Downing St refused to put up a panellist because of Alastair Campbell’s involvement. If he was replaced with a shadow minister, they said, they would happily get involved. But, as the excutive editor of Question Time explains here, the Beeb wasn’t prepared to go
Was the delayed ballot in Thirsk and Malton a referendum on the coalition government? If so, the result released in the early hours of this morning will greatly reassure David Cameron and Nick Clegg. The Tory candidate Anne McIntosh won the seat with 52.9 percent of the vote (up from 51.9 percent in 2005), and
The newly-elected 1922 Executive is another demonstration of the strength of the right wing of the Conservative party. Paul Goodman notes that of the seven MPs elected to the executive who were are not new to Parliament, six are on the right. The only one who isn’t is Nick Soames, who is a special case.
In opposition, the Conservatives pursued an AfPak policy that can best be described as loyal criticism – while they supported the mission they criticised the means and methods employed to achieve it. It was an effective line of attack. But now that they have the internal documents and can call for further intelligence assessments, they
Recent events in the Eurozone have led a number of commentators to suggest that we are nearing some repeat of the financial crisis that followed the nationalisation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in August 2008 and the subsequent (and consequent) bankruptcy of Lehman’s. In my view, the current situation is rather different from that
So, three weeks in and Vince Cable has resigned his position of deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats – ostensibly because he will be “too busy” to undertake the non-duties demanded by the post. Do you swallow that? I’m not sure that I do. Meanwhile, David Davis has emerged with guns blazing over the proposed
Gender discrimination is illegal in Britain – but tell that to the recession. It has hit male jobs harder than female jobs and in a cover story for this week’s Spectator, Matthew Lynn looks behind it. This has been, he says, a Mancession, where “the jobs lost in the last two years have tended to
Yesterday, it was Michael Gove’s schools agenda. Today, it’s the other main reason to get behind the coalition: IDS’s plans for fixing the welfare system. The Secretary of State for Work and Pensions has given a speech outlining them this morning. You can read it here, and I’d certainly encourage you to do so. There
Point six of ten on the Conservative-Liberal agreement reads as follows: “We will work to promote stability in the Western Balkans.” William Hague will get a chance to show what this means when he joins fellow European foreign ministers at a summit in Sarajevo on 2 June. As I argue in a new brief about
To address the deficit, George Osborne will probably have to raise taxes. This is a grim truth to which most people are reconciled. But raising taxes and raising revenue are two different things. If the Chancellor is serious about closing that deficit, then he would doubtless be interested in the idea that a Capital Gains
So, did Cameron say anything particularly noteworthy during his interview on the Today programme? In truth, not really. Most of the answers were of the “let’s wait and see what in the Budget” variety. The ratio of spending cuts to tax rises: wait and see. Plans for hiking capital gains tax: wait and see, and
A few days ago – that is, a couple of years back in blogworld – my old chum Iain Martin asked how Nick Clegg will fill his time. Without a department of his own what will the Deputy Prime Minister actually do? The first and obvious answer: less damage than ministers who have departments. Happily
Backbenchers are invariably a motley crew. That’s the nature of the beast. And I think it’s right that backbenchers have a proper forum for airing their passions, concerns and grievances. Which is why I also think it right that the 1922 Committee has survived the Tory leadership’s misguided attempt to all but abolish it. Nevertheless,
Vince Cable’s resignation as deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats has, predictably, sparked speculation about his motives. But one definite effect of his resignation will be to create a contest for the deputy leadership. The deputy leader is elected by the parliamentary party. So it is unlikely that anyone will stand on a coalition-sceptic position.
I’m indebted to Stephen Pollard, late of this very parish, for alerting me to these poetic renditions of the Blessed Sarah’s public pronouncements. They have a certain zany – zen? – charm to them. For instance: “Prayer Before Debating Joe Biden” I. I said, “Piper, ‘kay, I’m going out onstage. I’m debatin’ this guy, it’s
Polly Toynbee was on ‘mute’ on Sky News in my office, the remote wasn’t working, which is frustrating because I’d love to hear how someone mounts a passionate defence of why local government should have monopoly control of state schools. Very few things in politics are indefensible, but a system which doles out sink schools
The results of the 1922 elections show that Conservative backbenchers are distinctly right-wing and keen to assert independence. In the race for chairman, Graham Brady — the only man to resign under David Cameron’s leadership on an issue of party policy — romped home by 126 votes to 85. This result suggests that Brady would
Graham Brady is the new chairman of 1922 Committee. He beat Richard Ottaway by 126 votes to 85. You can read Fraser’s interview with Brady in last week’s magazine here.
Hello – a pleasure to be back, having spent a week in Italy, a country which believes itself to be a part of the European Union. Charming people, very pleasant place, you must try it, if only to enjoy the spectacle of grown men pottering around on scooters eating ice-cream. I think I mildly prefer
Several months ago, European leaders went to Copenhagen to save the planet. China, India and Brazil on the other hand went to the climate negotiations in Denmark to showcase the changed distribution of power in the world. Unsurprisingly, the Europeans came home empty-handed, shut out of the key negotiations and powerless despite what was meant
Wags may term them ‘Osborne and Little’, but David Laws is emerging as one of the government’s star performers. Laws was instrumental in constructing the coalition, and now he has the unenviable job of identifying cuts. Being the axeman and taxman is hard work enough, but the opposition have weapons at their disposal. Labour
The stock response of many Coffee Housers will be ‘Who Cares?’ but surely Ed Balls will be nominated for the Labour leadership? Labour may recognise that a Balls leadership would likely end in Footian catastrophe but he will, in all certainty, proceed to the next round. Surely? Like Pete and Ben Brogan, I reckon Balls