All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
Downing Street has just blasted out the full list of Cabinet ministers and those ministers entitled to attend Cabinet. The biggest casualty from the old shadow Cabinet is Chris Grayling who goes from being shadow Home Secretary to a minister of state at DWP. Grayling’s demotion has been much predicted in recent weeks. Tellingly, Grayling
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
Danny Alexander is a brave man to take on the job of Scottish Secretary in this government. I did a slot on Radio Scotland last night and Labour and the SNP were tearing into the Lib Dems for going into coalition with the Tories, accusing them of selling out the 85 percent of Scots who
Here’s another sensible development for the day: the Tories have diluted their pledge to keep on increasing health spending. As the FT’s Alex Barker reports, the Lib-Con political settlement is going to contain these words: ‘We will increase NHS spending in every year of the parliament.’ So what’s the difference? Well, the previous pledge was
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
Of all the Cabinet positions announced so far, one is more eyecatching, and holds more promise, than all the rest: Iain Duncan Smith has been appointed Secretary of State for Work and Pensions. Through his work with the Centre for Social Justice, IDS has shown that he not only knows his way intimately around the
Ed Llewellyn, David Cameron’s chief of staff, is going to be one of the most influential people in Downing Street these next few years. He has already played a crucial role in the negotiation between the Tories and the Lib Dems; having worked for Paddy Ashdown in Bosnia and being friends with Nick Clegg’s wife
The Cabinet is taking shape, admittedly with one or two surprises and not all of them good ones. There is still a way to go, even though action has already been taken on the NI increase. I understand that Michael Gove will be education secretary, which obviously leaves the hugely impressive David Laws to find
New Cabinet Ministers are arriving at their offices. I’ll update this as the day unfolds and we expect 5 Lib Dems to sit in Cabinet, but here’s the order of battle as it stands: Prime Minister: David Cameron Deputy PM: Nick Clegg Chancellor: George Osborne Foreign Secretary: William Hague Home Secretary (And Minister for Women
Fixed term election? Five years? Can anyone, aside from Clegg, see this arrangement lasting longer than, say, next Friday afternoon at about four o clock? Can you really imagine inner city Lib Dem MPs, and those in the former north west cotton belt, supporting the sorts of cuts we will see in the emergency budget?
The Coalition Cabinet remains unformed as yet – it’s rumoured that Chris Huhne is going to environment and Michael Gove and David Laws are out doing one another in the ‘I’ve no idea where I’ll be’ stakes. All the sounds are very positive but the contents of would-be ministers’ statements are careful, as doubtless final
Doing the media rounds this morning, both David Laws and Michael Gove have said that they do not know which one of them will be education secretary in the Cameron Clegg government. But judging from what I’m hearing, last night’s media reports that Gove would not be education secretary appear to have been premature.
Just as the midnight oil burns out, the Lib Dems have finally agreed to a coalition deal with the Tories. Speaking in Transport House, Nick Clegg confirmed that the parliamentary party and federal executive had “overwhelmingly accepted” the deal. And … well, that was it, really. There were few other specifics from the new Deputy
Here are some details of the LibCon deal, and my brief comments: 1. Clegg as Deputy PM. It’s a non-job, but a senior one – it means Clegg will take PMQs in Cameron’s absence, and will defend all those nasty cuts (sharing the blame for these cuts is the main rationale for coalition). This follows
Congratulations to David Cameron and to Nick Clegg. It is a remarkable achievement to have formed this coalition government. Now we shall see whether it can hold together. Some in the Labour Party are already feeling smug about the Liberal Democrats’ discomfort. But this way madness lies. The Labour Party should begin from the assumption that