Coalition

Saturday

David Blackburn

Bad banking

No wonder the banks like Britain’s corporation tax regime. This morning’s newspapers all tell that Barclays paid just £113m in corporation tax in 2009, despite making profits of more than £11bn. In a rare instance of justified anger, Labour’s chosen men have launched an attack on the government’s failure to ‘take the robust action needed to make sure that the banks which caused the crash pay their fair share, and will stick in the stomachs of small businesses struggling to borrow and ordinary people feeling the pinch of the government’s austerity measures.’ Whatever the absurdities of Labour’s position, this news will ‘stick in the stomachs’ of the little people, whose

Friday

James Forsyth

Even UKIP outspent the Tories in Oldham East and Saddleworth

The spending figures from the Oldham East and Saddleworth campaign have been released tonight and they show just how much the Tories soft-pedaled their campaign there. The numbers, which Michael Crick has blogged on, reveal that the Tories spent less than half what their coalition partners spent in the content, £39,432 to £94,540. Labour, who held the seat, expended the most, £97,085. Indeed, even the UKIP campaign was more expensive than the Tory one. These figures show just how absurd it was for the Tories to claim that they were fighting a normal, style by-election campaign. There was clearly a deliberate decision to go easy in the seat to give

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Calling all wonks

With this government, it’s often hard to see the wood for the forests. But, overall, David Cameron is on the right side of a major battle over the very fundamentals of government: the size and role of state, as well as radical welfare and education reform. Politicians cannot be expected to fight this battle alone. This is about advocacy: making and winning arguments. The think tanks have a huge role to play – as Thatcher realised in the mid-1970s when she set up the Centre for Policy Studies. It’s looking for a new director right now, and as a board member I’m on the committee to find one. The CPS

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

The government has been weak over forests

A very dangerous precedent has been established today over the forest fiasco. Caroline Spelman earlier gave the most extraordinary interview on Radio 4’s PM. “We got it wrong,” she said in the Commons. “How so?” asked Eddie Mair. She wouldn’t say. As he kept asking her, it became increasing clear that she didn’t think they got it wrong. They conducted the U-Turn because they were losing the media war.   Really? Is that all it takes to defeat Cameron’s government? A decent two-week campaign with a couple of celebs? The forest policy was a good one: why do we need state-run timber farms? Not that this argument was ever aired.

David Blackburn

IDS vows to tackle Britain’s welfare addiction

IDS and David Cameron have been evangelising. An insistent newspaper article and pugnacious speeches herald the latest welfare reform drive. There has been one significant u-turn: the threat to decimate housing benefit for those who have been unemployed for more than a year has been dropped. There is debate about the origins of this sudden decision, but Nick Clegg has been apportioned some credit. He is understood to have expressed private concerns about ‘hammering the poor’ and also argued that private sector landlords in areas of high unemployment would be reluctant to rent to claimants, which would impede reform. IDS agrees with Nick, confiding to the Today programme that the

Matthew Hancock-Mp

Miliband’s economic immaturity

As an economist working in politics, I’m sometimes shocked at some of the arguments about the economy. But today’s statement on welfare reform is economically shocking.   Miliband argues that you can’t reform welfare until there are more jobs. Set aside the fact that this is another area where Miliband’s argument is Lord make me virtuous, but only tomorrow. Team Brown delayed welfare reform for over a decade under Labour, and their position today is to call for yet more delay.   Let’s look at the economics.   First, Miliband falls for the classic lump of Labour fallacy. It’s as if he thinks there are a set number of jobs

Daniel Korski

It’s time for Britain to go cold turkey

There’s a simple truth underlying opposition to spending cuts: the country is drugged up to the eyeballs in entitlements. Today, IDS, Nick Clegg and David Cameron renewed their assault on welfare dependency – the most obvious and damaging of Britain’s addictions. The Labour party is broadly supportive, but the coalition’s plans were still be met by the predictable criticism that they are regressive. These arguments miss the point. Work is of value; even in good times it must be made to pay. Even if the public finances were in order, reform would be necessary; now that they have collapsed, reform is imperative. Britain cannot afford all those expensive welfare schemes,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Spelman: I got this one wrong

Caroline Spelman has just told the Commons that ‘I am sorry. We got this one wrong.’ The forests u-turn is now complete. Rachel Johnson has successfully duffed up the government. The coalition is trying to make the best of the situation, stressing that this shows that this is a ‘listening’ government. But there’s no getting away from the fact that this is an embarrassing u-turn and one that will encourage other opponents of the coalition’s reforms to redouble their attacks. The coalition cannot — and must not — continue making u-turns like this.

Daniel Korski

Hopeless Harriet

Last night, Harriet Harman launched a pre-emptive attack on the coalition’s failure to give 0.7 percent of GNI to overseas aid. Pre-emptive because the government has made no such U-turn – nor is it like to. Much as Tony Blair spoke law-and-order like the Tories, the coalition speaks aid like New Labour – just better. As a result, Labour has nowhere to turn except to warn against “strong voices” in the Tory party who would like to cut DfiD from the Budget. Next Labour will launch a protest against what a mind-reader has told them Tory politicians secretly think. Seriously, though, of course there are such sceptical voices – many

Wednesday

James Forsyth

It is not just the Strasbourg Court that is a problem on human rights

As we wait for the result of tonight’s ping pong between the Lords and the Commons over the forty percent threshold, there is one point worth noting about the row over the court ruling on the sex offenders’ register. The court that ruled that sex offenders sentenced to two and a half years cannot be placed on the sex offenders’ register for life was the British Supreme Court taking its cue from the European Convention on Human Right. This shows that merely pulling out of the jurisdiction of the Strasbourg Court will not be enough to end these human rights cases. The only guaranteed solution would be to remove the

David Blackburn

Laws’ return is imminent

Tomorrow’s New Statesman speculates that David Laws is about to return to government. Kevin Maguire reckons that it is significant that Laws is turning down invitations to events after an unidentified date in mid-March. Laws is still awaiting the verdict of the Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, but he is expected to be exonerated. Preparing for a return to government, he has been writing sharp columns in defence of the coalition’s economic policy and expanding into future policy areas like the 50p rate and increased spending on the pupil premium. But Laws has also been keeping close to Clegg in recent months, tasked with building a strategy for the next election –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron breaks from the norm at PMQs

PMQs today contained a rare moment: the Prime Minister admitting that he wasn’t happy with government policy. Ed Miliband, who split his questions up this week, asked Cameron if he was happy with his position on forestry and Cameron replied, ‘the short answer to that is no.’ The answer rather drew the sting from the rest of Miliband’s questions on the topic. But it was a rather embarrassing admission for the PM to have to make.    Cameron made quite a lot of news at the despatch box this week. He accused Manchester City Council of making “politically driven” cuts, said that more regulations needed to be scrapped and announced

David Blackburn

Pickles on the offensive

The normally chummy Eric Pickles was in a black mood on the Today programme. Despite councils’ brazen politicking, Pickles has been deferential in recent months, a stance bemoaned by his allies in local government. But he cut loose this morning. Ostensibly, he was on the programme to defend his policy that councillors vote, in open session, on pay deals worth over £100,000. He believes this will strengthen local authorities by empowering ‘backbench councillors’, provided that they honour the privilege they have been awarded: council meetings are not renowned for being edifying. (There is clear case for extending the policy to the Civil Service, and no doubt many will call for

Tuesday

Matthew Elliott

Why AV will cost £250 million

Today the NO to AV campaign has published research showing that the change to AV will cost the UK an additional £250 million, and – judging by the Yes campaign’s panicky reaction – this charge has hit home. Our estimate represents the additional cost of AV. The government stated the referendum would cost over £90 million – less, admittedly, than if it were not combined with council elections – and the remainder comes from vote counting machines (£130 million) and voter awareness (£26 million). This is, if anything, a conservative estimate. For voter education, we have only set aside 42 pence per person, and we haven’t included the costs of

David Blackburn

More trouble for the government over the military covenant

The news that serving soldiers have been given notice by email has been met fury from ministers. Liam Fox has answered questions in the House about this story and why 100 RAF pilots discovered they were redundant in yesterday’s newspapers. Fox was both livid and contrite, decrying the ‘completely unacceptable’ practices and reiterating the MoD’s ‘unreserved apologies’. He announced that an internal inquiry has been called, which Patrick Mercer believes will expose negligence among those officers who manage personnel. Fox also conceded that the sacked pilots, many of whom were ‘hours from obtaining qualification’, cannot be retained in some form of volunteer reserve, such is the squeeze on the MoD.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Amending the AV bill

Yesterday, the coalition said it would try and overturn all four of the Lords’ amendments to the AV bill. But today it announced that it would accept the one saying that the Isle of Wight should not be combined with anywhere on the mainland. But—and this is where the controversy comes—the Isle of Wight will now be divided into two seats. This is leading to complaints that the Tories are creating an extra seat for themselves as the Isle of Wight is fairly solid Tory territory. The Tories are, reasonably enough, pointing out that these Isle of Wight seats — at about 50,000 each — would be far bigger than

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Defining the BS

Of all the broadcast hours devoted to the Big Society, only one discussion has made me think that the whole thing is not completely doomed. Channel4’s 10 O’Clock Live show, staged last Thursday. It’s up on YouTube now (34 mins in). The comedian David Mitchell kicked off. “The clearest thing anyone can say about Big Society is that it’s the opposite of Big Government,” he said. Now, I haven’t heard anyone not paid by the Conservative Party say anything as clear (or as positive) about the BS. But, then again, neither Phillip Blond (who has built a think tank from the success of his Red Tory theme) nor Shaun Bailey

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The AV referendum hasn’t captured the public’s imagination

It is odd to think that in just a few months we’ll be having only the second nationwide referendum in our history and no one is particularly excited about it. This is largely because the plebiscite is on AV, an unloved voting system that is a half-way house between first past the post and a proportional system. (Just imagine the level of conversation there would be if the vote was to do with Europe not electoral reform). At the moment, the yes side has a growing lead in the polls http://ukpollingreport.co.uk/blog/archives/3115. But, given the vast number of undecideds, this could change very quickly. The No campaign, though, will have to

Tim Knox

Soon we will all be paying £1,000 a household for gold plated public sector pensions

Public sector pensions are grossly unfair. At a time when private sector pensions have collapsed, not least because of Gordon Brown’s infamous pensions raid on private pensions, public sector pensions have continued to be unreformed. The coalition was quick to recognise that this must change. And by appointing former Labour Cabinet Minister John Hutton to come up with suggestions for reform, there is a chance of some cross-party agreement in this difficult and sensitive area. In his recent Centre for Policy Studies report, leading pensions expert Michael Johnson gets a grip on the problem. And, to continue a favourite Coffee House theme, how is it best measured? Many have argued

David Blackburn

Is Cameron’s counter-offensive headed in the wrong direction?

As James has noted, Downing Street has turned its energies to the big society. Op-eds are being written, airtime used and speeches made. This morning saw the centrepiece: a former Labour donor, Sir Ronald Cohen, has joined the campaign and Cameron devoted a speech to what he described as his “political mission”. Cameron was fluent and passionate, determined in shirt-sleeve order. He was not exactly clear, but I don’t think that’s a problem. There is no concrete definition of what the big society is. As I argued yesterday, Cameron has changed tactics and is now using it as a descriptive term of the sort of voluntary and philanthropic instincts his