Uk politics

You should never, these days, under-estimate peoples’ ability to be outraged – outraged, I tells you – by the most innocuous event. Never. There are, after all, a depressing number of chippy morons in this country. Even so, I confess to being surprised by the hostility with which plans to commemorate the First World War have been met. At least in some quarters. I had thought, naively it is now clear, this commemoration would be uncontroversial, what with the First World War being, by any reckoning, an episode of some seriousness and consequence. That’s hardly to say that the war’s arguments have been settled. Far from it. Interpreting or understanding

In case you’ve been wondering what that strange feeling of tension in the air across the country is, the #LetBritainDecide bill returns to the Commons tomorrow for its report stage and third reading. There is, actually, rather a lot of valid tension – in as much as a backbench bill that will never become law can create valid tension – over the legislation this time around. The first reason is that Labour’s Mike Gapes has tabled a fantastic series of amendments to try to wreck the bill, which join his fantastic series of amendments that he tabled at committee stage. The second is that there are many more Tories planning

I am delighted to reveal the first of our ‘Tea at 22’ films: a series of short video interviews with Westminster personalities in the Spectator’s 22 Old Queen Street offices. This week I spoke to Margot James, member of the Number 10 policy board and one of the stars of the gay marriage debate, about how the party is developing its manifesto. Here are some key points: James denied Westminster rumours (revealed in the Spectator’s politics column) that the policy board members weren’t getting along, and explained how the board develops manifesto and government policy. She revealed that she is currently working on ideas to improve ailing town centres. The

‘Let’s have it every 90 seconds!’ shouted Boris to the CBI this afternoon as he played a series of clips of loud and quiet plane engines. He wanted to illustrate that ‘quiet’ planes would not make another runway at Heathrow palatable, and he used his customary strong language in attacking the government’s position on aviation policy. ‘End the dither, cut the cackle,’ the Mayor of London told the conference, urging the government to rule out a ‘toxic’ third runway by Christmas. While he’s trying to be loyal, the Mayor seems to have a special licence to attack the government on aviation. Today he said that ‘you can’t blame British business

Will Ed Miliband’s pledge on the Living Wage, made in today’s Independent on Sunday, work? Actually, that’s not really the most important question: the experience of the weeks following the autumn conference season is that you don’t actually need a workable pledge to be able to set the terms of debate. The Labour leader’s plan is for private and public sector employers to receive a tax rebate – on average £445, but up to £1,000 – for 12 months for every employee whose pay is lifted to living wage level of £7.45 an hour. He says this will be paid directly through increased tax and national insurance receipts. The big