Coalition

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Vince’s land tax land grab

There was one notable bit of kite flying in Vince Cable’s speech earlier, an indication that he wants the next Liberal Democrat manifesto to contain a commitment to a land tax. This would give the party a distinctive policy going into the next election. With the proceeds of a land tax, they could abolish stamp duty and still have a lot of fiscal wriggle room allowing it to propose increasing the income tax threshold or spending more on certain public services. There’s already work going on in Lib Dem circles on how to model a land tax and to find how much revenue it would raise.  Here’s the key section

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Bonuses: a question of political economy

There is a reason why the coalition has used the Lib Dem conference to step up its rhetoric about the bankers and their bonuses. The coalition believes, rightly, that balancing the budget is a matter of political economy. It is acutely aware, and has been for some time, that the sight of banks paying out huge bonuses later this year just as the public sector begins to lay people off and cut services would be disastrous. This view is shared by everyone in the coalition from Cable to Osborne. Bumper bonuses would increase calls for new punitive measures against the banks and produce precisely the kind of political atmosphere that

Peter Hoskin

All so predictable from Cable

If Vince Cable has achieved anything, it’s to enliven a Lib Dem conference that had settled into cosy anonymity after Clegg’s speech on Monday. He has now delivered the address that David blogged about earlier – and all of the firebrand passages trailed in this morning’s papers were present and correct. “Capitalism,” Cable warned, “kills competition where it can.” And he followed that lead to kick the bankers where he could. In between passages extolling the virtues of “pro business, pro market” policy, he set about the “spiv and gamblers” who had triggered the financial crisis. To be honest, though, I find it hard to get too worked up about this. Sure,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Lib Dem activists less than gleeful about the coalition

Last night, Liberal Democrats gathered for their traditional conference glee club. It is a light-hearted occasion with lots of communal singing and jokes. But some of the gags did seem to vocalise a certain unease about the coalition.   There was a very lusty rendition of a song that went like this, to the tune of The Twelve Days of Christmas: On the first day of coalition The Tories gave to me A referendum on AV On the second day of merger The Tories gave to me Absolutely zilch And a referendum on AV On the third day of coalition The Tories gave to me Sweet FA Absolutely zilch And

Natalie Evans

Building more for less

There’s no way round this: housing in this country is in a pretty awful state. Waiting lists for the shrinking number of “affordable” or social homes are rising, while fewer people can afford to buy their own home. That would be the case even if the banks were able to lend – which they can’t because of the credit crunch.   Fewer than 100,000 new homes are currently being built per year, when 200,000 – 300,000 are needed.  The number of new mortgages being arranged is at its lowest level since 1975, while housing waiting lists have risen from 1 million in 2000 to 1.75 million today. The number of

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Whither the Lib Dems?

A striking aspect of the Liberal Democrat conference is how discussion of cooperation with Labour takes place in public while talk of any future work with their current coalition partner happens in private. Tonight, Paddy Ashdown told an Observer fringe meeting that the Liberal Democrats’ long-term goal should still be to become the dominant party of the centre-left in Britain. I must admit that I struggle to see how this is possible. The steps that the coalition needs to take to deal with what Nick Clegg calls the ‘invisible crisis’ of the deficit will alienate the party from the centre left. But then again, as one liberal Liberal Democrat said

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Keeping the flame alive | 21 September 2010

In the early hours of this morning, Lib Dem conference looked like any other party conference. A throng of people—mostly men in suits—standing around outside the conference hotel having come from the various media parties. Indeed, it is surprisingly hard to tell the difference between Lib Dem conference and the others now. There are a large number of lobbyists here and a whole host of corporate types.   But there are some activists trying to keep the flame of the traditional Lib Dem conference alive. Julian Glover has a lovely story over at Comment is Free about what happened after Nick Clegg’s speech yesterday: “In the hall yesterday evening, where

Andrew Haldenby

What you need to know ahead of the Spending Review: making the right defence cuts

This is the latest in our series of posts on the Spending Review with Reform. A list of previous posts can be found here. The debate on the defence budget has become one of the most fiercely contested in recent days.  Over the weekend, editorials in both The Times and The Daily Telegraph agreed that defence was different because it wasn’t just a matter of cuts in the short term, it was also a matter of the UK’s strategic defence needs for years ahead.  Building on a report by the House of Commons Defence Select Committee, they raised concerns that the Government is forcing through the Strategic Defence and Security

Peter Hoskin

Hughes retracts his claws (for now)

Few observers would have expected Simon Hughes to tear into the coalition with full force in his speech today. The mood in Liverpool is geared towards support, not destruction. But the deputy Lib Dem leader’s effusiveness was still fairly surprising. He reassured the audience that he is a “rock solid supporter of the coalition – which our party has democratically agreed will last for five years”. He echoed one of Clegg’s central messages from yesterday, saying that “when you move from the touchline to the pitch, there is a risk you may get some knocks and pick up a few bruises – but on the touchline you never get the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A lot done – and a lot still to do – for Nick Clegg

There’s always an after the Lord Mayor’s show feel at conference the today, after the leader’s speech. Adding to this feeling today is that the programme is relatively light; Simon Hughes and Chris Huhne are the star attractions.   Last night at the various parties one sensed a certain satisfaction among those close to Clegg at how the conference has gone. They feel they have got though it without any serious trouble and that the leader’s speech has warned the party of what is to come. But I do think that it is next year’s conference, when the cuts are biting, that will be the real test of what the

Peter Hoskin

Why David Miliband is the most dangerous candidate for the coalition

Now how’s this for an opinion? Writing for Labour Uncut, Dan Hodges announces that David Miliband has won the Labour leadership contest. His piece starts: “This Saturday David Miliband will become leader of the Labour party. He will have won a majority of his Parliamentary colleagues and the wider membership, along with sufficient support from unions and other affiliates to secure not just victory but  an overwhelming mandate. The New Labour era will be over.” To most other observers, myself included, it still looks too close to call. But the more I think about it, the more I feel that David Miliband is best equipped to win this contest. If

Peter Hoskin

Is Laws writing himself out of a return to government?

A noteworthy snippet in Andrew Pierce’s column this morning: “[David Laws] is hard at work on a book. The title – 22 Days In May – is hardly likely to set pulses racing, but the book will be the first insider account of the negotiations which led to the coalition. Laws is also planning to cover the early days of the Government – days which, of course, include his downfall.” Not that this would completely scupper his colleagues’ plans to draft Laws back into government, of course. But, as we’ve seen with the spate of New Labour memoirs, insiders’ accounts do tend to wait until the insider has left government

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Clegg shades the coalition yellow for his Lib Dem audience

It’s hard to know quite what to make of Nick Clegg’s speech just now. It never really soared as a piece of oration, but he skipped quite expertly across all the issues that might concern, delight and enliven a Lib Dem audience. And so we heard about how much the Lib Dems are contributing towards government; about how the cuts are a prerequisite for fairness; and about how the party will maintain its independence. On the whole, this was coalition politics shaded yellow. But Clegg managed to drop in a few unadulterated sweeteners for his audience – including a dig at the “still illegal” Iraq War. The overall response was warmer than he

Will Tanner

What you need to know ahead of the spending review: deprived areas

This is the next of our posts with Reform looking ahead to the Spending Review. Earlier posts were on health, education, the first hundred days, welfare, the Civil Service, international experiences (New Zealand, Canada, Ireland), Hon Ruth Richardson’s recent speech, selling the case for cuts to the public and how to deliver retrenchment.  (And the next subject, defence expenditure, can be found here) The debate over spending cuts was taken out of Westminster to the ex-mining constituency of Cannock Chase, Staffordshire on Friday. For “Can Cannock Cope? Showcasing local champions and public sector reform in Cannock Chase”, Reform assembled heads of local public services and business leaders in front of

Peter Hoskin

A yellow spanner in the works

The teaching unions, it seems, haven’t been wasting their time in Liverpool: the Lib Dem conference has just passed a motion opposing the coalition’s free schools agenda. Even though the result throws up the bizarre image of, as Guido puts it, “Lib Dems voting against liberalism,” it comes as little surprise. As Fraser reported last night, there’s a tidal opinion in Lib Dem circles that these school reforms are little more than an attack on hardworking local authorities. A pity that Sarah Teather’s message about the “dead hand of local government” didn’t filter downwards sooner.   The concern now is what this actually means for the free schools programme. On

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Lib Dems face the public

The most brutal session the Lib Dems will see is the studio audience currently assembled by Victoria Derbyshire for her Five Live phone-in. It’s a rare event in conference time, where the general public are put into contact with the politicians. The result is normally a bit of a bear pit, and for that reason it’s become one of my favourite conference events – I’m in the audience, in the rather beautiful Liverpool Maritime Museum. And poor Danny Alexander is in the bearpit. “This is toughest job I’ve ever had,” he said at the offset. Erm, yes – the competition being his time as press officer of the Cairngorms National

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Live-blogging from the fringe: “Whose schools are they anyway?”

So where will the tension be at the Lib Dem conference? Easy: the free schools agenda. Clegg backs it, and when David Laws took over the agenda he backed Gove’s market-based reform. But the teaching unions are in a fight to the death against it. The Gove agenda would put power in the hands of parents, whereas it currently rests with unions and local authorities. The latter two have beaten everyone who has spoken about reform, from Callaghan to Thatcher to Blair. But Gove represents an existential threat. Luckily he is in coalition with the Lib Dem MPs, with whom both unions and local authorities have massive influence. The NUT

Peter Hoskin

The Lib Dems’ Scottish question

If you’re looking for a spot of LibCon strife that might actually mean something, then how about Tavish Scott’s interview in Scotland on Sunday? Judging by what he says about David Cameron, the leader of the Scottish Lib Dems clearly isn’t one for coalition niceties: “I suspect that (David Cameron) doesn’t even think about Scotland. It is not even remotely on his radar screen. He has a Scottish Secretary, and that’s that.” With the Scottish general elections drifting into view, there’s little doubt that Scott is dissociating his Lib Dems from a Tory party that is unpopular and – as Alex has frequently noted – inept north of Carlisle. But

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg gets through his Q&A untroubled

There were no explosions during Nick Clegg’s Q&A with Lib Dem members. Some unease with the dynamics of the coalition was expressed: a questioner who asked why the Liberal Democrats were getting the blame for the cuts and the Tories the credit for policies Lib Dems had brought to the coalition got huge applause, but there was nothing approaching a revolt.   Clegg expressed a lot of dissatisfaction with both the Labour party and the media, he even name-checked Polly Toynbee at one point. He accused Labour of being in “a near state of apoplexy and hysteria” and indulging in “a betrayal myth”. He claimed that when it came to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Alexander’s arguments

Danny Alexander’s announcement of a £900 million clampdown on tax avoidance, evasion and fraud is designed to reassure Lib Dems that the coalition’s policies are fair, that it isn’t balancing the budget on the backs of the poor. In a deliberate echo of George Osborne’s comments about welfare, Alexander said that the years when people could treat tax avoidance and evasion as a “lifestyle choice” were over. This Alexander announcement is a preview of what we’re going to see at this conference, a series of sweetners to show the party that the Liberal Democrats are influencing government policy. But Alexander also tried to gird the party for the challenges ahead,