All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
You may not have expected anything less, but it’s still encouraging to see the new government pay so much attention to Afghanistan. After David Cameron’s meeting with Hamid Karzai last week, no less than three ministers have visited the country today: William Hague, Liam Fox and Andrew Mitchell. And Whitehall’s number-crunchers are busy trying to
Disowning the Iraq War: that’s the task which Ed Balls and Ed Miliband have a set themselves today, as part of their continuing efforts to distinguish themselves from the Blair and Brown years. In interview with the Telegraph, Balls says that the public were misled by “devices and tactics” over the case for war. And,
Charles Moore’s column in the Telegraph today on Cameron and the 1922 is quite an indictment of the way that the new Prime Minister has treated his parliamentary party. Charles has long been an advocate of Cameron. As Thatcher’s official biographer and the most trusted Conservative-leaning journalist of his generation, he has played a crucial
There’s an entire gaggle of noteworthy interviews in the papers this morning, but let’s start with David Laws in the FT. It’s generally quite hard to draw substantive conclusions about the actual interviewee in political interviews, but I’m sure you wouldn’t come away from this one thinking anything but that Laws is a good man
Well, in the government anyway. After David Cameron and Nick Clegg, the next most important chap is David Laws. So it’s reassuring to see that the Liberal Democrat Chief Secretary to the Treasury is prepared for the worst. I recommend this interview with the Financial Times which, frankly, offers just another reminder that the calibre
During the coalition negotiations, the Tories agreed to introduce the Lib Dems’ plan to raise the income tax threshold to £10,000. As part of paying for this, they agreed to increase Capital Gains Tax to 40 percent. But, crucially, this increase only applies to non-business assets. What makes this so important is that there is
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson interviews Graham Brady, and argues that a Bill of Rights would be useless anyway. James Forsyth says that it’s a shame Jon Cruddas isn’t running for the Labour leadership, and gives his take on Cameron’s reform of the 1922 Committee.
From the Morning Star and noted without any need for much further comment: Veteran Communist Monty Goldman is jubilant over his outstanding result in Hackney’s mayoral election this month. Goldman, who was born and bred in the east London borough, began contesting local elections 50 years ago. This time he won 2,033 votes – or
John Redwood is interviewed by Andrew Neil on Straight Talk this weekend, and there’s a rather eyecatching exchange where the Tory MP claims that he’s “not sure” whether ministers will be able to vote in the 1922 Committee, after all: John Redwood: …as I understand the ballot, the ballot was about whether Ministers should come
Going out on a limb here, I’m guessing that Rand Paul’s admission that he would have opposed the 1964 Civil Rights Act is not going to help him become the next Republican Senator representing the great state of Kentucky. Of course he’s walking back from his comments now but going from “I wouldn’t have voted
A wise column by Martin Kettle in today’s Guardian. Wise, of course, because he reaches a conclusion this blog arrived at some time ago: Yet it is not too soon to insist that almost everything about this government so far, including today’s programme, is intended to be about more than making the best of a
IPSA, IPSA, IPSA. If there’s one thing exercising MPs across all parties at the moment, then it’s the new expenses regime in the Commons: the Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority. I won’t run through all of their grievances here, mainly because you can find good summaries here, here and here. But they are already a frustrating
It is quite telling that David Cameron’s first newspaper article since becoming Prime Minister is for the Daily Mail, and even more telling that its central message is, “you still have a Conservative Prime Minister”. There then follows a series of reassurances about Dave’s political motivations (“I believe the state is your servant, never your
A week ago, I wondered whether the Labour leadership contest might produce a “cuts candidate”: someone prepared to responsibly debate the fiscal situation as part of their campaign. But, as Danny Finkelstein has noted, none of the candidates so far has even mentioned the deficit, let alone suggested solutions for trimming it. Their wilful silence
This is a question of faith and those who believe won’t let anything change their mind, while those who can’t believe in the Miracle of Lance won’t be satisfied until the poor man does something impossible and proves a negative. I’m divided: I think the believers deluded and the sceptics dangerously monomaniacal but I also
Today was a day with two significant developments. First, the publication of the detailed coalition agreement. Second, the fact that 118 Conservative MPs have rebelled against David Cameron before his first Queen’s speech. The coalition agreement is a document that, I suspect, most Conservatives can get behind. It is not perfect but then no coalition
Jonathan Baume is fast becoming one of the political celebrities of the LibCon era. If you recall, he’s the union chief who revealed that the senior civil servants had written letters to Labour ministers in concern at spending decisions made close to the election. And now he’s popped up again, with more unflattering comments about
Iain Martin asks a good question about today’s 1922 Committee vote: “This is a rather curious little episode. In what other club, society or members-run committee would nonmembers (ministers in this case) get to vote for their being granted full membership against the wishes of the existing members?” N.B. Paul Goodman has done the maths
I’ve just read through George Osborne’s speech to the CBI annual dinner last night, and there’s much in there about free markets and tax cuts that will encourage Tory supporters. But one passsage seemed a little strange to me: “And on the subject of coalitions, let me be absolutely frank. As a member of the
…by 168 to 118 votes, according to Paul Waugh. Comfortable, but not comfortable enough to suggest that there won’t be a strong core of resentment to this change. UPDATE: This could rumble on. Here’s the latest from PoliticsHome: A number of MPs, headed by the previous 1922 secretary Christopher Chope, are planning to challenge the
The full coalition agreement, released this morning, is fascinating enough in itself. Here we have a step-by-step guide for how two different parties will operate together, what they will do, and, broadly speaking, when they will do it. And, perhaps to ease the general uncertainty surrounding this type of government, it is considerably clearer than
Tales of the expected and the unexpected this morning, as two more names enter the Labour leadership fray. The first is the expected one: Andy Burnham, who announces his bid in an article for the Mirror. And the unexpected one is … Diane Abbott, who revealed her intentions on the Today programme earlier. That thud
David Cameron’s move to neuter the 1922 has been pulled off with great tactical skill. He sprung the move on the party and then called an instant ballot, denying any rebellion time to gather strength. But however tactically smart this move might have been I can’t shake the feeling that it is strategically foolish. Tory
In tomorrow’s Spectator we have an interview with Graham Brady, tipped to be chairman of the 1922 Committee of backbench MPs – which David Cameron has just proposed to abolish in his 4.30pm meeting with MPs today. Technically, he is proposing to dilute its membership by including the payroll vote, thereby making it synonymous with
In a move of breath-taking audacity, David Cameron has just announced that there will be a ballot of the parliamentary party to establish whether or not members of the government payroll vote will be able to be full voting members of the 1922 Committee. This may seem like a small technical change but it is
With Ed Balls and John McDonnell announcing their candidatures for the Labour leadership, it’s clear that Labour’s soul-searching period has now begun in earnest. Speaking in front of the cameras just now, Balls reeled of the lines that he’s been priming over the past week: “listening … immigration … listening … beyond Blair and Brown,”
Amidst rumours of a compromise on the 55 percent rule, a meeting of the Tory parliamentary party has been called for 4.30. More soon.
I would like to defend the coalition from allegations that there has been a deplorable Tory concession on the Human Rights Act. Tearing it up was never in the Tory manifesto. Dominic Grieve, who drafted the Tory plan, is one of those lawyers who is rather passionate about the European Convention of Human Rights (ECHR)
Danny Finkelstein’s column this morning is one of the most important things to have been written since the coalition was formed. Danny makes the point that the coalition has no ideas infrastructure in place. There’s nowhere for it to go to get new ideas. Think tanks will rush to fill this void. But as Danny
“The biggest shake up of our democracy since 1832.” That’s how Nick Clegg is describing the legislative package that he’s announcing today. And, even if that’s pure bravado, there’s certainly plenty of encouraging stuff in it. Scrapping ID cards; restricting the storage of innocent people’s DNA; and the government is even set to ask the
Labour’s decision to opt for a long leadership contest means that the new leader of the opposition will not be in place when George Osborne presents his emergency Budget on the 22nd of June. This presents the coalition with a significant political opportunity. Harriet Harman is a consistently underrated Commons performer, she came off far
Is the new government marching across scorched earth? They certainly claim so, and now they seem to have the civil service backing them up. Speaking to the Beeb this afternoon, Jonathan Baume, the leader of a civil service union, said that senior civil servants had written “letters of direction” to Labour ministers in concern at
One of the things that critics of the LibCon coalition keep coming back to is the question of what will happen in European, local and other elections. Will the two governing parties stand against each other? And how can they differentiate themselves when they support the same policies? To many, it seems like David Cameron
David Cameron sat alongside Nick Clegg on the government benches, with Harriet Harman two sword-lengths away as leader of the Opposition. Even though the coalition has been around for a week now, it took the images from the Commons this afternoon to bring home just how extraordinary recent politics has been. I mean, even the
