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No, in short, he hasn’t. Clegg was deemed to have compromised his party’s intricate anti-politics strategy by ruling out a ‘progressive’ coalition with Labour led by Gordon Brown, a stance that suggested Clegg sought the affections of David Cameron. Clegg has since clarified his position: “I think, if Labour do come third in terms of
In September 2005 I wrote about the “stampede for the centre ground” in an article for the New Statesman. I had just been underwhelmed by the Liberal democrat conference in Blackpool and noted how easy it was to sneer about the centre party from the Westminster village. The Lib Dems were not making it easy
So it seems you have to vote Conservative to accept the party’s invitation to join the government of Great Britain? Who knew? Tory warnings of the dire consequences of a hung parliament are understandable but, I suspect, unfortunate. There is little evidence that the electorate believes that a hung parliament will be a disaster, far
Fireworks at Labour’s press conference this morning, thanks to some brilliant questioning of Mandelson and Balls about the cuts which Labour is concealing from the public. A while ago, the FT did its own version of a table that Coffee House ran in February: the implied cuts that departments will make under HM Treasury forecasts.
I’m a bit late to this, so apologies, but there’s a very good piece in the current issue of the magazine by Andrew M Brown, about why almost everybody is fat. Andrew suggests that as a consequence of the class system breaking down, we no longer know when we are supposed to eat and so,
Clegg won’t join without proportional representation; Cameron says he won’t countenance such a ‘con’. Indeed, it runs deeper than that. Iain Martin has canvassed Tories from across the party and found that Cameron will get short shrift if he tries to reform the voting system at all. There is another consideration. This election has the
Britain’s role in protecting the downtrodden and protecting the weak has significant historical pedigree. The British role in abolishing the international slave trade was one of the first liberal interventions. And as Abigail Green’s biography shows, Britain’s Sir Moses Montefiore was not just a pre-eminent Jewish figure of the nineteenth century, but his pioneering approach
Arresting, to the point and right. But tactically it leaves the Tories open to claims about ‘scare tactics’, of which the Tories accuse Labour. UPDATE: This one is more effective because it avoids the other one’s tactical shortcomings.
It makes sense for the Conservatives to argue that a hung parliament doesn’t do the country many favours. It’s in their interest to make this case and, certainly, there’s something to be said for the Conservatives winning a clear and comfortable majority. That would be preferable to a narrow Tory victory, not least since the
Fed up with how all the political parties emphasise the need for spending restraint while promising increased investment in popular services? Fed up too with all the talk of “savage” or “Thatcher-level” spending cuts without any clear indication where these savings may be made? Well now, thanks to the Financial Times, you can play Fantasy
Cameron is now in Lib Dem held Romsey. After a walk-about, where he received a largely positive reception, he delivered a stump speech. His message was that Nick Clegg, with his comment that PR is a pre-condition to getting Lib Dem support, is trying to hold the whole country to ransom. “It is now becoming
A good spot by Ewan Hoyle: The Telegraph has gone after Nick Clegg’s support for a more sensible approach to the “War on Drugs”. It seems that when he was an MEP the Liberal Democrat leader supported decriminalisation. This, we are supposed to believe, is a Bad Thing. Which makes it amusing or interesting that
Well no surprise there – the Politics Home poll projection suggests that the Tory recovery, started by Cameron on Thursday night, comes at the expense of Labour but remains indecisive: ‘In the new projection, which incorporates all polls published up to and including Sunday 25th April, The Conservatives would be thirty six short of a
Post-election deals are tough for those on the wings of political parties – the activists, the die-hards, the idealists. Those in the middle, by definition the pragmatists, find it easier to prioritise aims or to compromise in the short-term in order to win over the long-term. Any Con-Lib deal will be tough for the left-wing
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson explains why Cameron is right about the regions, and argues that the Tories must work harder to sell the Gove schools plans. James Forsyth watches Cameron make the Big Society more accessible, and catches Cable flip-flopping on yet another issue. Peter
It’s the story which has been simmering throughout the election campaign, and now it has has boiled over onto the front pages: fear and loathing in the Labour ranks. After rumblings in the Sunday Times yesterday, its sister paper splashes with the headline “Labour in turmoil as pressure on Brown grows”. And, inside, Francis Elliot
The ideas buried in the Tory manifesto – buried I say because they’ve not spent nearly enough time explaining them – are good and classically conservative. Family, Community, Country. Those are the pillars. But they’ve not been able to build upon this good work and instead the “Big Society” has left voters cold and confused.
Rod Liddle’s right, Steven Mulvain should not be sacked for his limp attempt at humour. You know, Benedict branded condoms and the like. (Maybe endorsing the age of consent with a brand called ‘XVIs’ might have worked better. I don’t know.) However, there is a possibility that Mulvain’s email was part of an FO ‘brainstorm’.
David Cameron is visiting Hampshire today, hitting both Labour and Lib Dem held seats. In a visit to Southampton University, he was confronted by a feisty Lib Dem supporting student who accused him of planning changes that would make it more difficult for working class kids like her to go to university. Cameron dealt with
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
What should we do about Steven Mulvain, the young civil servant who suggested that the Pope, when he arrives for his visit here, should be asked to open an abortion clinic, or sponsor a new brand of “Benedict” condoms? If you haven’t already read about the case, here it is. Mulvain’s email is certainly typical
The sole current political certainty is that Nick Clegg will not prop-up Gordon Brown. Clegg holds Brown personally responsible for 13 years of failure and not even political marriages can be built on enmity. Labour’s choice is clear: remove Brown to accommodate Clegg. The Sunday Times reports plots are afoot to kill Gordon ‘with dignity’.
I am not surprised that Paddy Ashdown says the Liberal Democrats cannot work with the Conservatives. He would say that wouldn’t he? After all, Ashdown came close to selling his party to New Labour, lock, stock and barrel. Nevertheless, the idea that the Tories and Liberals cannot work together (though doggedly contested by this blog
Ian Leslie says much of what needs to be said about the Tories new and gimmicky tweak to the constitution – that anyone who becomes Prime Minister between elections must call an election within six months – a proposal that, as Leslie puts it, is “at once carelessly radical and hopelessly irrelevant.” It’s also yet
No-one should be surprised that the SNP are going to court to try and change the terms and conditions of this week’s final “Leaders’ Debate”. What may be more surprising is that the Nationalists have a point. A limited point perhaps but a palpable one nonetheless. The BBC would indeed seem to be abandoning its
Given that Labour has put out a hilarious plea to discuss “issues” rather than personality (or lack thereof), I would like to rise to this challenge to discuss an excellent point raised by David Cameron on Friday: that the state spending/GDP ratio is far too high in many parts of the UK and needs to
One of the interesting features of this election campaign is the near-absence of ex-leaders in national election roles. Tony Blair has been stuck in the Middle East because of the eruption of the Eyjafjallajökull volcano and has, at any rate, been “Gored” by Gordon Brown, who is as keen to have his predecessor canvassing for
Two noteworthy entries, today, in the will-they-won’t-they game of coalition government. The first from Nick Clegg in the Sunday Times: “You can’t have Gordon Brown squatting in No 10 just because of the irrational idiosyncrasies of our electoral system.” And the second from Paddy Ashdown speaking to the People: “Nick Clegg cannot work with David
There is clearly a real chance that the Conservatives will get the most votes and the most seats at the election but still be significantly short of a Commons’ majority. If Cameron is asked to form a government in these circumstances, he has two options. The first, as I say in the Mail on Sunday,
We’ve just seen the first Tory event designed to show—not tell—people what the big society actually is: David Cameron and Michael Gove speaking to a rally of parents in West Yorkshire who want to set up their own school, something that they’ll be able to do if the Tories win. At last, the Tories are
One of Labour’s talking points during the election has been that even the US administration is worried about Conservative Europe policy and how a government led by David Cameron may marginalise Britain in Europe and hobble Europe in the world. Until now, there has been very little to prove the concern. US Secretary of State
Let’s not forget that the Labour Party should not have been able to lose this election. I am still convinced that Cameron came to the Tory leadership with a two-election strategy. The swing needed to win a clear majority was always huge. Part of the reason that the party leadership has found it so difficult
Is this the end of the LibDem soufflé surge? Tomorrow’s News of the World has an Ipsos-Mori poll – conducted the day after the second debate – putting things back to where they were pre-debates: Tories with a six point lead over Labour and the LibDems lagging seven points behind Labour, i.e. 36-30-23. This is
More election videos on Spectator Live.