Uk politics

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Len McCluskey: Miliband is brave and a genuine radical

Len McCluskey is doing Conservative HQ’s work for them. The emboldened Unite leader is welcoming the return of socialism under Red Ed. Last night at the annual Jimmy Reid lecture, McCluskey spoke passionately of Miliband’s bold new agenda: ‘Ed Miliband’s speech to the Labour conference was – some would say – the most genuinely radical we have heard from a Labour leader for nigh on 30 years.’ He also welcomed the end of New Labour’s ‘neo-liberal’ dogma (you know, the policies which resulted in three general election victories). In reference to Ed’s energy policy: ‘that is not just a break with the coalition’s policies, it also represents Labour turning its

Alex Massie Alex Massie

If Ed Miliband is to become Prime Minister he needs more than gimmicks

Ed Miliband, everyone seems to agree, has had a good few weeks, even months. Everyone agrees on this even though Labour’s position in the polls is not significantly better now than it was before the summer. The Labour leader, and again on this everyone seems to agree, has been setting the agenda. David Cameron has been forced to respond to whatever Miliband has been talking about. From Syria to the Daily Mail to the cost of living it’s been the leader of the opposition who has seized the initiative. As a result, Miliband looks stronger; Cameron somewhat diminished. That, at least, is the conventional wisdom and, as is so often

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Why won’t the SNP embrace the shale gas revolution?

One of the odder elements of the current energy debate at present is that the political party that spends the most time talking about energy – that’s the SNP by the way – is strangely reluctant to chase the opportunities afforded by the imminent shale gas revolution. It’s a subject I consider in a column for The Scotsman today: Scotland’s oil resources are a vital national asset. Everyone, I think, knows this. If there were no remaining oil reserves waiting to be exploited in the North Sea, the economic case for independence would be severely weakened. Oil is a cushion and a comfort blanket. But the Nationalist’s determination to make

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Royal Mail shares surge in early trading

Royal Mail shares are currently trading at 421p, 91p above its 330p opening price. This morning, the shares hit 456p before falling back slightly. This increase of more than a third in value and the fact that the share offer was so oversubscribed has led to lots of claims this morning that Royal Mail was undervalued. But it is worth remembering that when the government announced it was going to privatise Royal Mail, there was lots of chatter about how the government would struggle to get it away. It was argued that it was foolhardy to sell it into a strike by postal workers. On its current price, the Royal

Thursday

Steerpike

Ruff justice at the Westminster Dog of the Year competition

Off to the highlight of Mr Steerpike’s 2013, the Westminster Dog of the Year competition, where the pedigree chums of our elected representatives lined up to compete for a prestigious place on the podium. With Jake Berry’s standard poodle Lola taking a break from the competition after competing three years in a row, someone was needed to fill the role of Westminster Poodle – and Alan Duncan’s Noodle was more than willing to fill Lola’s pawprints.  Although strictly a Cockapoo, so only half poodle (very on-trend, don’t you know), Noodle had gone all-out with her campaigning, even going so far at to write her very own ‘Dogifesto’. She wasn’t alone

Steerpike Steerpike

New minister’s crackdown on beefy builders baring big bottoms

It’s been a busy first few days in the new job for Jane Ellison, who took over as Public Health Minister this week. She’s been dealing with big bottoms – those belonging to builders and hanging over trousers, no less. A cheeky press release from the Department of Health – which features a man with the title ‘Britain’s favourite builder’, Tommy Walsh – this afternoon announced ‘Britain’s beefy builders say bye bye to baring bottoms’, adding that ‘the image of the bottom baring, overweight builder is being replaced by workers who are hands-on well-oiled machines’. Once you get to the, er, bottom, of what on earth the department is talking

Sebastian Payne

Leveson: press regulation is ‘your problem, not mine’

Brian Leveson has no opinions on press regulation, apparently. It just took him three hours to repeat this to MPs, over and over again, peppering his increasingly exasperated answers with ‘with respect’, when he appeared before the Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee this morning. Leveson did his upmost to get through the whole session without tilting one way or another on his inquiry, report or recommendations. But there were a few hints of what he actually thinks. Firstly, Leveson is keen for some progress, particularly from the newspapers themselves. ‘I would be sorry if my recommendations were lost’, he said, adding: ‘I have said… in discussions I had with editors

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Gove sets early policy test for Tristram Hunt

The congratulations have been flowing in from across the Labour party for Tristram Hunt as the new Shadow Education Secretary. But there is no praise higher for the newly promoted MP than to get a detailed letter from Michael Gove testing his mettle just a few days into the job. Gove saw Stephen Twigg as someone he didn’t need to worry about a great deal, more of a distraction from his daily hobby of provoking the teaching unions than a mighty threat. But Hunt, while still possibly in danger of proving too Blairite for his party’s tastes, appears a mightier candidate. Education Questions in the Commons will certainly be an

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Theresa May’s Immigration Bill is another contemptible piece of legislation

Say this for the government, they are at least consistent. Their contemptible lobbying bill is now followed by their equally contemptible immigration bill. Sometimes you think that if it weren’t for Michael Gove and for the fact that David Cameron isn’t Ed Miliband there’d be few reasons to support this government at all. And this immigration bill really is contemptible. Politics is often a question of signalling and what this bill signals, alas, is that the government prefers the presumption of guilt to the presumption of innocence. It is a bill that turns ordinary Britons into snitches for central government. A bill that will make life more inconvenient for millions

James Forsyth James Forsyth

2010 intake of Tory MPs write to Adam Afriyie telling him to drop his amendment

More than 140 of the 147 Tory MPs elected in 2010 have written to Adam Afriyie telling him to drop his amendment to the EU referendum bill. Given that Afriyie has previously suggested he’ll drop his attempt to bring the referendum forward to 2014 there is no support for it, it now seems doomed. This loyalist flexing of political muscle by the 2010 Tory intake will cheer Downing Street. It shows that the parliamentary party does, for the moment at least, want to stay united on Europe. It also indicates that a certain discipline is returning to Tory ranks as the next election approaches. Even six months ago, an amendment

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 podcast: fat Britain, Westminster reshuffles and Obamacareless

Does Britain have an obesity problem? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson discuses the bizarre steps taken by the NHS to deal with our growing weight problem. Do we have such a thing as a ‘fat gland’? Why is Britain’s changing size so rapidly? And according to Fraser, Nottingham is the ‘fattest’ part of our country and deep fried Mars bars really are a delicacy. James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman also discuss this week’s Westminster reshuffles, what they mean (if anything) for the man for the street and who’s up and who’s down in the the cabinet and shadow cabinet. What do the changes says about the

Wednesday

Alex Massie

Yes, of course the War on Drugs exists (but it shouldn’t)

There is something contemptible about Nick Clegg’s latest piece of handwringing. the Deputy Prime Minister – a position that, at least notionally, carries some clout – complains that he’d very much like to do something about Britain’s antiquated drug laws but, well, he can’t because it’s hard and, besides, the Tories are such rotters. Clegg could have made this a cause. He could have done something about this before now. He could, at the very least, have talked about the War on Drugs rather more than he has. He could even have noted, frequently, that David Cameron has changed his own tune on these matters, abandoning the sensible attitude he once had. He has, instead,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Greg Barker: BBC gives too much coverage to climate change sceptics

If you asked most people about the BBC, few people would describe it as a hotbed of scepticism about global warming. But the coverage that the BBC gives to those who have doubts about the orthodoxy on the subject is too much for Barker. He, as the Press Association reports, told the Science and Technology Committee, ‘In the case of the BBC they have a very clear statutory responsibility. It’s in the original charter to inform. I think we need the BBC to look very hard, particularly at whether or not they are getting the balance right. I don’t think they are.’ Barker did say, ‘I’m not trying to ban

Chloe Smith

‘Newsnight offered me a goodbye interview with Jeremy Paxman. I didn’t return the call.’

I have been very touched this week by the messages of goodwill I’ve had after revealing my decision to step down from being a minister. I’m neither the first nor the last MP to enjoy my constituency work deeply.  Indeed, my predecessor in my own seat was well-regarded for being often obstinate in Westminster and a great constituency MP at home. I’m proud of what I’ve been able to contribute to my country, in three years as a whip and minister. I whipped the Welfare Reform bill through Parliament;  at the Treasury I negotiated detailed decommissioning contracts with the oil and gas industry, to open up billions of pounds of

The Spectator

Nick Clegg says we’re losing the war on drugs. But is there even a war?

This country is losing the war on drugs, according to Nick Clegg. The Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC’s Free Speech programme that he was frustrated that his Coalition partners were not prepared to be more imaginative on the issue, given clamour from other quarters for a new direction: ‘I don’t think we’re winning the drugs war; I think we keep banging our head against the wall and in fact I find it very frustrating that my Conservative coalition partners are not prepared to look more openly, imaginatively. You’ve got very senior police officers now coming out saying that the war on drugs is failing, that we should treat drug

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Score draw at PMQs as leaders bicker about energy bills

Perhaps David Cameron got up super-early to open his birthday presents today, or perhaps he’s a bit tired after his fortnight of party conference and reshuffle mayhem, but the Prime Minister wasn’t on top form today at PMQs. Neither was Ed Miliband, for that matter. Both men bickered about who had the best energy policy, like two kids comparing birthday presents in a playground. Neither really got in a deadly shot, with both seeming a little halting. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron v Miliband on energy prices’ on Audioboo

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory cost of living drive begins in earnest

At their autumn conference, the Tories managed to get the last word in on the cost of living debate by explaining that you can’t just talk about living standards while not having a proper plan for the economy. This was all very well and good and the party leadership was confident that this was an easy sell to voters who already trust them more on the economy and continue to blame Labour. But many were worried that without the sort of retail offer that Labour had made at its conference, the Tories still wouldn’t cut through. George Osborne’s fuel duty freeze announcement in his speech was the start of what

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Pizzas banned as politicians get set for crunch press talks

It’s funny that the pizzas that ministers, advisers and lobbyists munched as they thrashed out a deal on press regulation in March have become a symbol of all that was wrong with those late-night negotiations. Today when Maria Miller decided to distance herself from the talks in Ed Miliband’s office, a source close to the Culture Secretary explained that this included ‘the Miliband office, the pizza, it was the presence of Hacked Off’. Obviously the presence of Hacked Off was more menacing than a few boxes of ham and pineapple pizza, but both have been banned from the three days of talks that the parties will now go into, ahead

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tory ‘stick with us’ message boosted by IMF

Poor old Ed Balls. He’s been making predictions of doom that now appear to have gone too far and too fast. The latest blow to the Shadow Chancellor is that the IMF, which he went through a period of definitely liking a lot when its lieutenants started suggesting that austerity was ‘playing with fire’, has upgraded its growth forecasts for the UK by more than any other major economy. This map from the organisation’s latest World Economic Outlook illustrates rather neatly how well the IMF expects the UK to do in comparison to other European economies. Obviously this doesn’t mean that everything is fine and dandy and that everyone in the UK can