David cameron

Thursday

David Blackburn

The politics of tax avoidance pt. 2

David Cameron got into hot water yesterday when he pronounced Jimmy Carr’s tax avoidance ‘completely wrong’, inviting every nosey-parker to examine Tory donors. But he was a little less clear on the morality of one those donors’, Gary Barlow, arrangements, saying that he would look at the scheme in question. Cameron has done so and told reporters earlier today that he sees Jimmy Carr as an exception because his scheme was aggressive. He said that it was ‘seasonable, fair and reasonable’ for people to reduce their tax bill. It was simply a matter of degree, and Carr had crossed the line. Cameron said that there will not be a running

Rod Liddle Rod Liddle

Gary Barlow, ‘immoral’ OBE

Now, here’s a question. Should Gary Barlow be stripped of his OBE? There are a number of possible answers, including who the hell is Gary Barlow? Well, he was, or is, part of the useless singing ensemble known as Take That. And second, another question in response to the question: why did we give the idiot an OBE in the first place? He’s hardly Lennon and McCartney, is he? If we give Take That honours for their services to music then you might just as well give one to that chap who, a few years ago, was able to fart Jerusalem. But it seems that Barlow got his at least

Wednesday

David Blackburn

The politics of tax avoidance

There is much excitement on the wires about David Cameron’s attitude to tax avoidance. The PM’s just told ITV news: ‘He’s [Jimmy Carr] taking the money from tickets and as far as I can see, he’s putting all of that into some very dodgy tax avoiding scheme.’ It is ‘completely wrong’, he said. Asked about today’s revelations in the Times, which include allegations against Cameron-backer Gary Barlow, the prime minister said: ‘[I will] look at that scheme … as soon as I get in front of my computer.’ Tax avoidance embarrasses the Conservative leader, especially as his government has not successfully curbed it. But two specific points emerge from Cameron’s

David Blackburn

Cameron plays his part in an eventful G20

And there we were thinking that the G20 would be another insipid talking shop. In fact there was intrigue, animus and even a modicum of progress on the crucial question of the moment: how to cure the Eurozone. In a major shift in policy, Germany has agreed to use European bailout funds to buy Italian and Spanish bonds in the hope of reducing yields to a sustainable level. It was felt that if the cost of debt financing was not reduced, then Spain and Italy might slip into the abyss.  £600 billion will be made available from the two EU bailout mechanisms, the EFSF and the ESM. This is but

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Twinkle eyes turns on the charm

William Hague met Harriet Harman at PMQs. They were like old lovers bumping into each other at a party. The tension had vanished and little remained but warm mutual regard. Harman led on health rationing and Hague chose not to retaliate, as Cameron surely would have, by demanding to know why she hadn’t mentioned the fall in unemployment. Hague was all smiles and sunniness today. Harman wanted to know how he’d explain to a patient needing a new hip that the NHS couldn’t afford to operate. ‘Wait in pain? Or pay and go private?’ she suggested. Hague said that the rationing of services was a breakthrough pioneered by the last

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Overhauling the Rolls Royce

‘I was sceptical [about civil service reform] until I read that unreadable column.’ This was the response of a Westminster type who I spoke to earlier about Francis Maude and Sir Bob Kerslake’s joint article on civil service reform in today’s Telegraph. Having re-read the jargon-ridden piece, I see what he means. Take this passage: ‘The Civil Service has to have a culture which is pacier, more innovative, less hierarchical and focused on outcomes not process. We also need sharper accountability, in particular from permanent secretaries and those leading major projects, and we need more digital services, better data and management information and for policy and implementation to be linked

Monday

Matt Cavanagh

Foxhound arrives in Afghanistan – five years too late

There was welcome news yesterday for our forces in Afghanistan, and for those who want to see them supplied with the best equipment, with pictures of the first ‘Foxhound’ patrol vehicles arriving in Helmand. Foxhound is the long-awaited replacement for the Snatch Land Rover, whose inadequate protection against Improvised Explosive Devices in Iraq and then Afghanistan became glaringly obvious as far back as 2005. In the intervening years, the Ministry of Defence has procured a number of vehicles offering much better protection, starting with the Mastiff in late 2006. However, the greater protection of these vehicles came at a price, in terms of weight and manoeuvrability (and air-transportability): the Mastiff

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Boris beats two loud drums

Boris Johnson’s interventions today are another reminder of his ability to please the Tory tribe, and be a thorn in Cameron’s side. The prime minister has concluded that the best approach on Europe is to argue that the Eurozone needs to follow through on the logic of the single currency and move to fiscal union. This is not a popular position in the Tory party. From the Cabinet down there are doubts about the wisdom of it; I understand that Justine Greening told last week’s Cabinet meeting that she did not believe that a transfer union could be made to work. But no senior Tory expresses their disagreement with this

Friday

Fraser Nelson

How close is too close?

David Cameron acquitted himself well at Leveson yesterday, as he does in all such events.  But it was odd to hear him say that there should be ‘more distance’ between politicians and the press. The implication of his comment is that he has been sucked into the brutal realpolitik of the newspaper industry; that he had to spend weekends with Rebekah Brooks or face electoral oblivion; and that the only question for Lord Justice Leveson is why politicians are left in such a position. I look at this in my Telegraph column today.   No one forced Cameron to get on LOL-terms with the editor of The Sun. Certainly, he

Thursday

David Blackburn

Cameron: SpAds answer to me

David Cameron was visibly rattled by Robert Jay QC, Counsel to the Leveson Inquiry, earlier today. Counsel was examining the relationship between the PM and Rebekah Brooks. Counsel concentrated on the text that Mrs Brooks sent Mr Cameron on the eve of his 2009 party conference speech. Mrs Brooks’s use of Cameron’s phrase ‘in this together’, which he used extensively in the subsequent speech, has led some to argue that their relationship was too close. In the morning session, Counsel asked Mr Cameron how often he met Mrs Brooks socially at the weekend. Mr Cameron was vague in response, only offering ‘well not every week’ in answer. (Mr Cameron returned from lunch with

Melanie McDonagh Melanie McDonagh

The battle over complementarity of the sexes is already lost

Today is the last day of the Government’s consultation about its gay marriage proposals. But as an editorial in the Telegraph points out, this is a more limited exercise than it sounds…you’re not being asked whether it’s a good idea for gay people to marry so much as how you think the Government should implement its proposals. Consultation, not. But since the opportunity is there, I’m all for sounding off about whether gay people should marry in the first place, as the Church of England has done, with uncharacteristic robustness, in its official response to the proposals. I can’t myself, see why marriage, as a status and a concept and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron escapes unscathed

Friends of David Cameron are pretty satisfied with how today went. Their sense is that nothing explosive came out and that if that embarrassing Brooks text is the worst headline from his four hours plus on the stand then that’s not too bad a result. The prime minister has also been greatly helped by the fact that we haven’t seen any of his text messages to Ms Brooks. When it came to press regulation, Cameron was not as emphatic as Michael Gove or George Osborne. But he was clear that he is not keen on any new laws. Instead, he seemed to be urging Leveson to opt for beefed-up self-regulation.

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 – is HS2 the rail to nowhere?

Is High Speed 2 headed for the sidings? In our cover feature this week, Ross Clark examines why the ambitious infrastructure project — designed to boost Northern cities — has all but disappeared from the government’s agenda. Despite the chancellor’s ‘boyish enthusiasm for fast trains’, the project has lacked the essential support from private business. Now, more pressing issues have taken charge.   In our View from 22 podcast this week, Ross explains why the Tories were once so enthusiastic about the High Speed link to the North: ‘It was a way for the Tories to say — as part of their decontamination  of the Tory brand — look, we’re

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s difficult morning

David Cameron’s morning at the Leveson Inquiry has not been a pleasant experience for him. In the opening hour or so, Cameron was calm and statesmanlike. But as the inquiry moved onto his connections to News International and how Andy Coulson was hired, the prime minister was pushed onto the back foot. One could see why some in Number 10 refer to the inquiry as ‘the monster we have created’. The headline for tomorrow’s papers is, at the moment, coming from a text sent to him by Rebekah Brooks. The clinging text read, ‘But seriously I do understand the issue with the Times. Let’s discuss over country supper soon. On

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Clegg abandons Hunt

A firestorm has torn across Westminster overnight, since Nick Clegg instructed his MPs to abstain from today’s opposition motion demanding that Jeremy Hunt be referred to Sir Alex Allan, the ministerial standards supremo. Numerous Tory backbenchers have taken to the airwaves to condemn their perfidious coalition colleagues. The Mail has the most complete record of the rage. One MP vowed revenge on the liberals. Another described the abstention as ‘an act of war’ before Cameron and Clegg appear before the Leveson inquiry. And Peter Bone said that the Lib Dems ‘are not fit to be in government because they can’t accept collective responsibility.’ Downing Street tells a different tale. ‘There

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The message for Leveson

George Osborne and Michael Gove are two of the Cabinet ministers closest to the Prime Minister. In their appearances before the Leveson Inquiry, they have both made clear that they are not interested in some giant new regulatory system for the press. Indeed, the vigour with which Gove made this argument rather got under the judge’s skin, while Osborne openly mocked the kite-mark system that Leveson is so interested in. The implicit message to Leveson was: propose something too big and you might as well post your final report to the Long Grass at the back of Downing Street.   Now, both Osborne and Gove are to the right of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Hunting season at PMQs

A slightly absurd PMQs today, dominated by Leveson and Jeremy Hunt. I suspect that history will not look kindly on the fact that there were no questions on what is happening in the Eurozone until 28 minutes into this half hour session. The Cameron Miliband exchanges were rather laboured, neither man was on particularly good form. Cameron brandished a letter from the independent adviser on the ministerial code Sir Alex Allan. But it later transpired that the letters had been exchanged with undignified rapidity this morning. The perception created by this rather undercuts Allan’s reputation for independence.   Towards the end of the session, the Labour MP Steve Rotheram asked

The Spectator

Tory minister: HS2 is ‘effectively dead’

Why was David Cameron so lukewarm in his endorsement of HS2 at PMQs today? (In response to a question about the project’s future, he offered, ‘I believe we should go ahead with HS2’, which is rather than different to asserting that it will go ahead.) The project is – as one Tory minister has told The Spectator – ‘effectively dead’. Ross Clark has investigated why in the cover story of tomorrow’s issue. Here’s what he found: 1). George Osborne has turned against it. The chancellor and Tories’ strategic brain was once HS2’s biggest cheerleader, but experience of office has made him realise that Britain’s limited airport capacity is a bigger threat

Tuesday

Freddy Gray

On the road to disestablishment

There’s an inevitability about the Times’s big splash (£) this morning: Gay Marriage Plan Could Divorce Church From State. The Church of England’s historic role as ‘religious registrar’ for the State would have to be severed, we are told, if government plans to legalise gay marriage go ahead. That would not, apparently, mean ‘total dis-establishment … but it would be a significant step in that direction.’ The CofE, for all its liberalism, says it will not support a legal attempt to redefine ‘the objective distinctiveness of men and women.’   So that — if this report is to be believed — is that. Unless the government relents or the Anglican

David Blackburn

The language of left and right

Stephan Shakespeare has a fascinating article on Con Home today, comparing which words voters associate with the terms ‘right-wing’ or ‘left-wing’. The results aren’t too surprising: the language of the left is, generally, softer than the language of the right. Shakespeare’s article is entitled ‘Fairness versus selfish’, which gives you an idea of how voters perceive the dichotomy. The upshot is that many voters still believe that the right is intrinsically ‘nasty’; ergo, the modernisation project has not gone far enough. This research, and the conclusions drawn from it, reminds me of Jonathan Haidt’s book The Righteous Mind (indeed, Shakespeare references an article by Haidt). The Spectator interviewed Haidt two