All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So fraternal rivalry it is, then, as Ed Miliband prepares to announce his leadership bid at a Fabian Society conference today. And, reading his interview with the Guardian, it’s clear that Ed Balls is soon going to follow suit. Two Eds, two leadership bids, and much shared rhetoric about “listening” to voters. But the similarities
Cadel Evans wins Stage 7 of the 2010 Giro d’Italia in Montalcino. Photo: Luk Beines/AFP/Getty Images. What with being deprived of, for various reasons*, Contador, Menchov, Valverde, Pellizotti, di Luca, the Schleck brothers, Armstrong and Cancellara you could have been forgiven for thinking that this year’s Giro d’Italia might be a disappointment. Not a bit
One striking feature of the Labour leadership contest so far is how a new more honest line on immigration is emerging. At the Fabian Society conference this morning, Ed Miliband declared that ‘immigration is a class issue’. Pointing out that, “If you want to employ a builder it’s good to have people you can take
Ed Miliband was on impressive form at the Fabian Society conference this morning. Early on, he defused the tension over the fact that he was running against his brother with a well-delivered joke about how, given her politics, he his mother would be voting for Jon Cruddas. Throughout he showed a real lightness of touch
Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week. Fraser Nelson offers reasons to hope amid the misplaced optimism, and comments that Brown saved the worst till last. James Forsyth reveals who missed out on Cabinet, and watches the coalition pass the easy bit with flying colours. Peter Hoskin argues that
Plenty of eyes on the Tory grandees at the moment. I mean, the right of the party isn’t exactly delighted with the LibCon coalition – so the search is on for figureheads to lead the resistance. Which is why Andrew Neil’s interview with Douglas Hurd on Staight Talk this weekend is worth paying attention to.
As Guido and Jim Pickard have pointed out, Liam Byrne’s article in the Guardian today reads like the launch of a leadership bid. But if it is, then it’s not a well-judged one. Amid some sensible points about Labour’s demise, there’s too much “if we’d have done what I said” bravado which, I imagine, won’t
One of the most interesting questions is whether the Tories and the Lib Dems will be able to move from the talking points to the action points. Besides Ken Clarke, Francis Maude and William Hague none of the ministers have any previous government experience. They know government from the outside, from the sidelines, from parliamentary
With the Sun reporting that Ed Miliband is going to stand for the Labour leadership, it’s probably a good time to dig out Anne McElvoy’s profile of the Miliband brothers for the Sunday Times last month. To my mind, its opening neatly encapsulates the choice between the wonkish one and the slighty-less-wonkish one that Labour
Правительство, в русском стиле Britain is being governed by a duumvirate. Britons may not understand how two-headed government works; but Russians should have no trouble at all. They have long been accustomed to a two-headed form of government. Perhaps at the next UK-Russian summit, the quartet of Cameron, Clegg, Putin and Medvedev can swap tips.
After the sunshine of the Downing St rose garden, the gloom of the public finances. This morning’s newspapers are full of stories about the tax hikes and spending cuts that our coalition government is looking to introduce. The Sun and the Times dwell on yesterday’s forecast for a rise in VAT. The Guardian outlines possible
One of my favourite bloggers, Sunder Katwala, has a typically fine post asking if this coalition really is, as some of us think, Dave’s “Clause 4 Moment”. He makes a number of pertinent point, not the least of which is his contention that, actually, it’s Nick Clegg who has imposed such a choice upon his
Before the election, the received wisdom was that the new government would not have much of a honeymoon. The thinking went that the anti-politics mood was so strong and the cuts required so deep, that there’d be no May ’97 style moment. But the coalition has changed all that. One poll shows a 60 percent
The Sun is reporting that former finance minister Stephen Timms has been stabbed during a surgery at his constituency office in East Ham. A 21 year-old woman is being detained. Timms has been taken to hospital. His condition is not thought to be life-threatening. More to follow.
It’s good to talk about something other than the election and its aftermath. So let me recommend this: the National Archives are tweeting the Second World War. Day by day and several times a day and with a 140 character limit they bring you the news as it was in 1940. It’s a strangely
Will Straw was on the news this afternoon, arguing that Labour had lost only a small “doughnut” of seats around London and in the south. As John Rentoul notes, some doughnut: Labour was annihilated in England. David Cameron’s swift reform of the Conservative party was built on recognising the scale of defeat. Few on the
Philip Hammond was quietly brilliant as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and it would have been a travesty if he was excluded from the Cabinet. Having avoided assuming the mantle of ‘the most hated man in England’, Hammond has been handed the poisoned Transport brief. A popular saying about frying and pans and fires
Last Thursday was a dreadful night for the Unionists in Ulster. Six months of unionist divisions, dissent and defections culminated in a near decimation of the Unionist vote. There was an 8.7 percent against the DUP, whose self-induced crisis was embodied by Peter Robinson’s humiliating defeat. The Ulster Unionists have been eradicated. Slyvia Hermon was
Amazingly, given his penchant to procrastinate, David Miliband’s leadership bid is flying. High profile endorsements fly-in – former defence secretary and arch-Blairite John Hutton is the latest. Miliband is out on the stump, canvassing the opinions of former voters. Ed Balls, by contrast, looks tentative and there is no doubt he’s losing ground. Iain
Earlier I suggested that this new rule, requiring that any motion to dissolve parliament must be backed by 55% of MPs was “daft, questionably democratic and should be quietly shelved.” That seems to be the majority view. Which means, naturally, it’s time to reconsider. Tom Harris and Hopi Sen are correct to suppose that if
Much ado about this 55 percent proposal – whereby that proportion of the House, rather than just over 50 percent, would be required to vote down a government – and rightly so. But, as so often, Iain Martin says all that needs to be said. Here’s a snippet from his must-read post: “It is rather
David Cameron and Nick Clegg want their coalition government to be seen as a reforming government. They can begin showing their seriousness today, as they fill out the junior ministerial posts in their government. Rather than appoint a slew of ministers, parliamentary secretaries etc, they should keep to one Secretary of State and one junior
Two junior ministerial appointments today suggest areas where the coalition government intends to be radical. First, Nick Herbert has been made minister for police reform. In opposition, Herbert was key to the elected police commissioners agenda and this appointment suggests that the coalition will follow through on this idea in government. The police establishment will
And they agreed to 5 percent pay cuts too.
So who agrees with the economists forecasting that VAT will rise – perhaps to 20 percent – this year? I’m not normally one for making predictions but, as far as I can tell, this one seems pretty likely. Various politicos have been leaning towards this measure over the past year. And the new government will
So will it work? I’m more optimistic than Fraser and, unlike him, think that this really could, for reasons I’ll get to in a minute, be a “new era”. Of course, Fraser is not alone in questioning the long-term viability of the coalition. The excellent Steve Richards also thinks it cannae last. The sceptics may
Today’s civil partnership between two men who look uncannily like each other will, I suspect, be remembered as a festival of misplaced optimism. Cameron overdid it a little, making out that this was his ideal outcome. It seems rude to point it out, but there were two podiums in that rose garden because he flunked
Surprise, surprise – David Miliband has just announced his candidacy for the Labour leadership, and there wasn’t a banana in sight. His address only lasted a few minutes, but it contained a number of hints about how, I suspect, he will look to run his campaign. The emphasis was on newness, natch – “a new
If you read only one thing today, then make a cup of tea, sit in a comfy armchair, and make sure it’s Tim Montgomerie’s 7,000-word review of the Conservative election campaign. Tim has opened up his address book and spoken with many of the main players in the Tory operation – and the result isn’t
The first press conference of this new era was a definite success. The body language between Cameron and Clegg was good. When Clegg called Cameron ‘Dave’ it sounded very natural. Cameron’s argument was that the two parties could have come to a confidence and supply agreement but that would have been ‘uninspiring’ and could have
I have just had a quick read through the coalition agreement and a few things jumped out at me. First, this new government will not abolish Lord Mandelson. The agreement states that while the parties are committed to a wholly or mainly elected Lords ‘likely there will be a grandfathering system for current Peers’.
Congratulations to Sunny Hundal who seems to have got his paws on a copy of the agreement before anyone else. Here it is in full. What do y’all think of it? Conservative Liberal Democrat coalition negotiations Agreements reached 11 May 2010 This document sets out agreements reached between the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats on
Well, so far this new government is doing rather well. It hasn’t passed any unecessary and intrusive legislation yet… One of the curiosities of the reaction to our new Liberal Conservative coalition has been the wailing and stamping of feet from the Guardian-left complaining that the Liberal Democrats have somehow betrayed progressivism or something. There
This magazine had hoped for a Conservative government. We have what is arguably the next best thing: a government led by David Cameron but supported by some political mercenaries put in the positions where they inflict the least harm — and reform-minded Tories in positions where they can do most good. The strategy is fairly