uk politics Archives

Wednesday

2 Oct 2013

Tories shift their plans on benefits for under-25s

Although David Cameron’s speech was deliberately light on policy, it did contain one hint about a manifesto commitment for the 2015 general election. The Prime Minister told the conference that ‘we should give young people a clear, positive choice: go to school. Go to college. Do an apprenticeship. Get a job. But just choose the dole? We’ve got to offer them something better than that.’ The party is clear this afternoon that this will be a fully fleshed-out pledge in the Conservative manifesto, and that it is linked to Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood’s review of training and education for under-25s. The benefits that could be docked for young people

Isabel Hardman

Labour set the test for this Conservative conference – but Cameron passed

David Cameron is an essay crisis Prime Minister. He works best when his back is against the wall. And this conference he had a last-minute test set for him which he had to step up to. That test was set by the Labour party last week, with its focus on the cost of living, and Cameron passed it. His speech was written with clever flourishes and turns of phrase – ‘the land of despair was Labour, but the land of hope is Tory’, ‘Abu Qatada had his very own May Day this year’ and ‘I’ve got a gesture of my own for Ed Balls’ – but it was also dominated

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron skips conference announcements to boast about Tory record

Normally when a Prime Minister gives a speech to a party conference, the ‘line’ for the next day’s newspapers is pretty clear. A policy announcement means it’s easy to write the introduction to the story, which is supposed to sum up what happened in under 25 words. But David Cameron’s speech today could only really be summed up as ‘Today the Prime Minister gave a speech on all the things he’s done and asked for time to finish the job’. His speech had no policy announcements in it, other than a hint that under-25s could lose their benefits unless they were ‘earning or learning’. This is an impressive bet by

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Don’t be seduced by Labour’s quick fixes, let us finish the job

One of the striking things about the extracts of David Cameron’s speech that have been briefed so far is that the Conservative Prime Minister is having to respond to a number of key themes of Ed Miliband’s conference last week. Labour should be pleased that it has set the agenda for this conference season, not just spooking ministers on the cost of living, but also forcing a defence of business and profit from the Prime Minister. Ed Miliband’s row with the Mail has also overshadowed the conference. The Prime Minister will say: ‘We know that profit, wealth creation, tax cuts, enterprise… these are not dirty, elitist words – they’re not

Tuesday

1 Oct 2013

Isabel Hardman

‘Generation Rent’ policy is first victory for Number 10 policy board

When the Number 10 policy board was formed, many dismissed it as a sop to angry backbenchers that would have no real power. It lost one of its biggest figures, Jesse Norman, after the Syria vote, and I reported a few weeks ago that there were concerns the members weren’t gelling all that well. But today, buried in Eric Pickles’ speech to conference, was a line that represented the first solid policy from the board. Pickles said: ‘We are supporting new family-friendly tenancies in the private rented sector.’ Some listening might have missed this, but Coffee Housers will recognise the policy, because we first reported it last year. It was

Sebastian Payne

Eric Pickles pictures the horrors of a Labour government

Eric Pickles has a vivid imagination. He set out to remind the Conservative faithful today the dangers of letting Labour back into office, and why they, not the Tories, are the real nasty party. He painted a picture of where Britain might be if we were living under a Labour coalition: ‘Labour would have quickly lost the confidence of the markets for failing to tackle the deficit. Mortgage rates would have soared, and after that, taxes too. The Chancellor, Ed Balls, would be extending his so-called “mansion tax” to ordinary family homes…the Business Secretary – Unite’s Baron McCluskey of Mersey Docks – would be abolishing Margaret Thatcher’s trade union reforms

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove’s evangelical education afternoon

Michael Gove has only just started speaking to his party conference, but already he has made a powerful, emotive case for the moral value of his education reforms. The education section of the afternoon programme has resembled an evangelical Christian outreach event where people give their ‘testimonies’ about how they came to faith. It had a former US teaching union leader, George Parker, explaining how he was ‘born again’ as a reformer, and how he repented of the days he spent time and money defending bad teachers and opposing performance-related pay. He was followed by Mark Lehain from the Bedford Free School, and a parent of a pupil at the

Isabel Hardman

Jeremy Hunt aims for the moral high ground on the NHS

Jeremy Hunt has an unusual way of delivering a forceful speech. He pulls a worried, frowny face, and speaks in a special growly sort of voice when he wants to criticise his opponents, but doesn’t shout, or indeed really raise his voice at all. Today he delivered a particularly forceful speech to the Conservative conference on why the Tories are the ‘party of the NHS’. He used that phrase ‘our NHS’ that Andy Burnham likes to deploy as part of his emotive pitch to voters on the health service. Hunt used the same emotive pitch today, arguing that Labour placed ideology above what works for patients, and that it failed

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson, Cameron loyalist

During his speech, Boris Johnson frequently looked down at his notes and then looked a little surprised, as though he hadn’t expected half the content to be there. This wasn’t his strongest speech, but it was clear that among all the jokes about large boring machines, the murder rate in Brussels and other quips that he’s used before, there were two serious messages that the Mayor wanted to convey to the conference. listen to ‘Boris: ‘It’s time to cut the yellow Lib Dem albatross from around our necks’’ on Audioboo The first was a very serious policy-focused message, and therefore delegates got a little bit bored when Boris was delivering

Steerpike

Tory conference: for hardworking shoppers

Normally party conference exhibitions are made up of stalls from special interest groups on high-speed rail, trade unions, campaigns for responsible drinking or real ale, and some confusing stands advertising big companies with a large TV in the middle. But every year at the Conservative party conference, delegates enjoy a shopping spree, as well as being chased down by someone with a petition clipboard. There’s the Harvey Nichols stand: A nice rugged country Tory shirt stall: And a jumper stall: As well as evening wear, should you find yourself without something to wear at tonight’s receptions in the Midland Hotel: As for Tory attack dogs, well, they’ve got an entire

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s class war: only snobs dislike my Help to Buy

David Cameron has just been interviewed by Sarah Montague on Radio Four, who rather put him through his paces. She teased out an interesting position he is adopting to the growing concern about his Help to Buy mortgage subsidies. He defends himself by saying he will liberate those ‘trapped’ in rented accommodation and casts his critics as cold-hearted rich kids. listen to ‘Cameron: ‘Spending should bare the brunt of deficit reduction’’ on Audioboo

Monday

30 Sep 2013

Sebastian Payne

William Hague’s plan to reunite the right

William Hague is the man with a plan to deal with Ukip at next year’s European elections. At a fringe event hosted by the Conservatives in the European Parliament group this evening, Hague urged the assembled MEPs to take a tough message to the country, making sure they know what the Tories have done to reform and enhance our relationship with the EU. As James Forsyth suggested in the Spectator last week, the message the Tories need to adopt is part carrot, part stick, to unite the right. The Foreign Secretary seems to have listened to his advice. On the the electoral carrot, Hague suggested a pact was needed with the

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson, Tory counsellor-in-chief

Boris Johnson is difficult to pigeonhole, but at Tory conferences he seems to be taking the role of counsellor-in-chief, cheering up party activists with a slew of jokes and slights on other ambitious colleagues or indeed his party leader. As ever, there were two huge queues outside the auditorium this evening for his event on London, and some of the only truly sincere and excited-sounding applause when he (eventually) arrived. And there were jokes – ‘Ukip if you want to – David Cameron’s not for kipping. Not unless, obviously, he’s at his sister-in-law’s wedding’ and the definition of ‘Milipede’ being some sort of left wing insect – that left them

Isabel Hardman

How easy is Nigel Farage to squeeze?

Nigel Farage can’t come into the Conservative conference secure zone, but is hovering around the metal barriers at fringes and receptions. The Tories are trying to squeeze him out of the frame as they hold their annual jamboree, but they aren’t succeeding terribly well: today’s news is full of speculation about a Tory/Ukip pact, even though Farage has been talking about this for years (see James’s interview with him in the Speccie). But beyond this conference, all the parties are interested in – and worried about – how on earth they can squeeze Farage effectively when it really matters. The ‘squeeze message’ is one that parties deploy in the days

James Forsyth

George Osborne is back in the Tory leadership race

If the next Tory leadership election is a marathon, George Osborne fell down at mile six with that 2012 Budget. Most of those watching assumed that was the end of him. But Osborne got up, dusted himself down and started making his way back through the pack. Today’s speech showed that Osborne thinks he’s now back in that race. It was littered with the personal pronoun. It included a tribute to his parents who founded what Osborne called a small manufacturing company’ which the rest of us call Osborne and Little, the up-market wallpaper merchants beloved of the interior designing classes. It also showed off his acid sense of humour,

Fraser Nelson

We’ll balance the books!! (By 2020) George Osborne speech analysis

You have to hand it to George Osborne: he’s great at turning massive setbacks to his advantage. He pledged to get rid of the deficit over one parliament, now he’s boldly saying he’ll do it over two. Be had said he’d sort out the economy over five years (after all, Britain won a world war in six) but now – in a well-delivered and well-received speech – he’s solemnly declaring that we’re ‘not nearly finished’ and he should be re-elected to finish the job. So to prove it, he had a new plan for 2018-20: a new deficit pledge. As ever with Osborne, it’s political. He calculates that Ed Miliband plans

Sebastian Payne

View from 22 podcast special: the return of George Osborne

Fraser Nelson thinks it was the ‘language of someone happy with the economy’. James Forsyth saw it as renewed hope for leading the Conservative party. On this special View from 22 podcast, we analyse George Osborne’s speech to Tory conference this morning; whether the economic measures mentioned were sensible and what it says about the Chancellor himself. You can subscribe to our podcast through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer every week, or you can use the embedded player below: listen to ‘Spectator Podcast: @frasernelson and @jamesforsyth discuss Osborne’s speech’ on Audioboo

Isabel Hardman

Breaking: George Osborne wants to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this Parliament

George Osborne is currently giving his speech to the Tory conference, which is being well received – particularly impressive in this flat hall. He focused initially on the argument that fixing the economy is the way to solve the cost of living crisis. But his MPs will also be heartened that he didn’t stop there. The Chancellor has just told the conference hall that, provided the savings can be found, he wants to freeze fuel duty for the rest of this parliament. This announcement came at the end of a passage on the sort of people the Conservatives want to stand beside: the factory and warehouse workers that the Chancellor

Isabel Hardman

The north-south rebrand won’t stop HS2 becoming the new symbol of Tory disunity

There was no chance the Conservatives could come to Manchester, with a row over the future of high-speed rail raging, and not make a big thing of the proposed new railway line. But as I explained in my Telegraph column last week, the party knew that a little crafty rebranding wouldn’t go amiss, and so when Patrick McLoughlin spoke to conference this morning, he placed as much emphasis on the uniting power of the new ‘north-south’ line as he did on the economic or capacity-based arguments that the government have focused on so far. He said: ‘So here in Manchester I am proud to support HS2 – the new north-south

Isabel Hardman

George Osborne focuses on big picture and trust to undermine Labour

How can the Conservatives deal with Labour’s attack on the cost of living? As I explained last week, the party believes that the best way to address the opposition’s focus on living standards is to talk about the bigger picture rather than the ‘footling little things’. Senior Tories I’ve spoken to in the past week are very confident indeed that because they enjoy the trust of voters on the economy, while voters still blame Labour for the mess, they don’t need to worry about the strategy that Ed Miliband has adopted. One senior figure remarked to me this weekend that ‘Labour has mis-fired: when we’ve got such a poll lead