Uk politics

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Doctors pass motion of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt. Good.

The health service that employs you is under more scrutiny than ever before, with shocking cases of bad care, ‘never events’ and serious lapses crawling out of the woodwork. The regulator that was supposed to keep an eye on all of this is under attack, not just for missing it, but also for apparently deciding not to publish what details it did know, and then deciding to withhold key names implicated in a ‘cover-up’. So what, in its eternal wisdom, does the trade union representing you do? The British Medical Association, which has always managed a veneer of respectability over and above many other public sector unions, today passed a

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Leaked letter shows ministers trying to calm tensions on marriage tax breaks

Ministers are clearly mindful of the potential damage that Tim Loughton’s amendment to the Finance Bill calling for tax breaks for married couples could cause. This is one of those issues that could become a rebellion if it is poorly-managed by the leadership, or equally could be a bit of a damp squib if enough backbenchers are reassured and feel they should show loyalty to George Osborne. David Gauke has sent out a letter to Tory MPs trying to do just that. This ‘dear colleague’ message, which I’ve been passed, tells backbenchers that the Chancellor will announce the details of a transferable tax allowance ‘in due course’, which is what the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories must tread carefully in NHS battle

It is clear now that we have reached a tipping point where it is no longer enough to repeat ‘I love the NHS’ or swear allegiance to Danny Boyle’s Olympic caricature of the health service. So what now? Labour and the Tories are scrapping over who still really, truly loves the health service: the latest round of revelations about the Care Quality Commission have allowed the Conservatives to ask questions about the culture and attitudes of both the health service and of the Labour government that led it. Labour, meanwhile, points out that Andrew Lansley is also alleged to have leaned on a whistleblower, something the former Health Secretary denied

Sunday

James Forsyth

Cable talks going to the wire

The Treasury is keen to downplay any sense of drama surrounding the spending review. On Marr this morning, George Osborne declared that he was ‘confident’ that he and Vince Cable would agree the BIS budget ‘in short order.’ He emphasised that the differences between them were not that large. Indeed, I’m informed that the differences between Treasury and BIS are over capital not current spending, making them easier to resolve. Osborne and Cable have only begun to speak directly in recent days. Up until Thursday, Osborne had been leaving the negotiations to Danny Alexander. Despite Osborne’s protestations, it looks like the BIS budget will go down to the wire. Cable

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

All three parties should publish ‘red lines’ for 2015 coalition negotiations

Both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg delivered speeches to their party faithful today about being realistic about 2015. Miliband’s speech, briefed as ‘tough’, was the latest in his series of attempts to tell voters that they can trust him: he wouldn’t borrow more than this government… well, no more ‘day-to-day spending’, which is his way of saying he would actually borrow more for capital projects. Clegg wanted to tell his councillors that they can’t see May 2015 as the month when they all get to breathe a sigh of relief and return to their local authority fiefdoms without any of the inconvenience of their party being in national government too.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Borrowing figures and what really keeps politicians awake at night

There was a moment in the last Budget statement where George Osborne revealed that the deficit was – just – lower in the year to April 2012 than the previous 12 months. He made it by a whisker. Today, the statisticians have revised their opinion and said borrowing for that financial year was  is up slightly – by £300m to £118.8bn. It’s a tiny change, well within a rounding error. And, of course, could easily change again. The extra borrowing was £12.7bn in May, down from £15.6bn last May. Factor in the £3.6bn transferred from the Quantitative Easing programme, and the deficit can be knocked down to £8.8bn. It all depends

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Marriage tax break revolt size could hinge on newly-knighted Sir Edward Leigh

The 42 ‘Alternative Queen’s Speech’ bills laid by Peter Bone and Philip Hollobone are very useful for the Lib Dems, as they can use them to argue that this is what a Tory majority government would look like. A source close to Clegg says they serve as an example ‘for any members of the public who want to see what having Liberal Democrats in government will get you’: i.e. stopping the Tory right from getting its way on legislation. The party’s press office has started a Twitter hashtag called #toryqueensspeech and is retweeting some of the best suggestions. It’s almost as if the Lib Dems never dabbled with potty and

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The Tories can steal voters Labour has abandoned

Russell Brand made a good point on Question Time last night. If a party derives half of its funding from a group of people, it’s not going to do anything to annoy that group. He was speaking in the (incorrect) premise that the Tories are bankrolled by the banks, bit his overall conclusion was spot on. Ed Miliband’s Labour Party takes about 80% of its funding from the trade unions, which distorts the way it sees the world. With each major battle, Labour is not becoming the party of change. It is becoming the party of the bureaucratic empire, anxious to strike back. This opens up new electoral territory, which

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Backbench row looms on tax break for married couples

The Tory leadership held one of its election strategy meetings yesterday at Chequers. The Prime Minister and his colleagues will have been reassured that their party certainly seems to be turning its face towards 2015, with some of David Cameron’s fiercest critics preferring to get behind the campaign for James Wharton’s referendum bill. I look at some of the ways Cameron and his colleagues are trying to repair relationships in my Telegraph column today. But Tory anger comes in waves, and there’s one racing towards the shore that, according to backbenchers, has a great deal to do with the party’s chances with its core vote at the next general election.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Owen Paterson’s thoughtful GM revolution

Bravo to Owen Paterson for making such an extensive and detailed case for the value of genetically-modified crops today. That he gave this speech to Rothamsted Research at all is provocative, but if you read it in full, you will find a thoughtful and far more equivocal argument than the debate surrounding it suggests. The Environment Secretary did not, as some of his critics would have us believe, say that GM crops will solve all the world’s troubles and answer all the problems facing intensive farming. Instead, he said: ‘I believe that it’s time to start a more informed discussion about the potential of genetically modified crops. A discussion that

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

CQC row marks new level in ‘party of the NHS’ battle

That former Care Quality Commission chief executive Cynthia Bower resigned so quickly from her current job after being named as one of the three executives involved in a discussion about covering up the Commission’s failings simply underlines what an appalling mess this case has been from start to finish. The names were withheld ostensibly because of data protection, but when they appeared, it was clear that this was about another sort of protection. Perhaps this will be the tipping point against unaccountable NHS managers and inspectors staying safe whatever their failings. Jeremy Hunt certainly seemed to think that it could be, tweeting: ‘Pleased to receive CQC letter naming the individuals involved. Clear sign

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Osborne offered to reopen wealth taxes debate in exchange for more welfare cuts

The next few days in Whitehall are going to be dominated by the remaining bits of the spending review. The Treasury remains confident that it will wrap everything up with relative ease, BIS seems to be the only department still causing genuine concern. But given that Cable is the left tent peg of this coalition that is a major problem. But there are, I understand, going to have to be some cuts made that the coalition would rather have avoided. This is, in large part, due to the fact that because of Nick Clegg’s veto Osborne got £6 billion less out of welfare than he wanted. I understand that Osborne

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Hail Caledonia: Fantasy Justice and Offensive Behaviour at Football. The Horror Continues.

Two years have passed since the SNP won its landslide election victory, leaving Alex Salmond master of all devolved territories. Two years notable for the absence of significant legislative achievement. Given the consequences of government legislation this is not necessarily something to be regretted. Nevertheless, Mr Salmond is no FDR or LBJ (again, a good thing too you may say). The exception to this record of legislative lethargy is, of course, our old friend the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communications Act. Readers may recall that I am no fan of this illiberal, pernicious, dismal piece of legislation (my most recent post on it is here). Nothing that has

Keith Cooper

There’s more to fixing the NHS than chasing A&E waiting times

NHS workers used to enjoy hearty backslaps for their ‘jolly hard work’ to bring down accident & emergency waiting times. Such praise was delivered by the Labour government’s chief nursing officer at a conference I covered back in 2003. Back then, talk was of shrinking queues rather than impending ‘A&E crisis’. Nurses should congratulate themselves, she beamed, for helping speed patients through casualty in fewer than four hours. This apparent success was just the beginning, if this graph, circulated in a campaign e-mail by Labour’s shadow health secretary recently, is to be believed: ‘This is what three years of David Cameron running the NHS looks like: a crisis in A&E,’

Nick De Bois

The Snooper’s charter threatens Britain’s burgeoning technology boom

Ministers are still mulling how they can collect communications data, and while quite rightly the debate about the ‘Snooper’s Charter’ centres on the threat to individual privacy, opponents also forget the threat such legislation would post for the UK’s economic recovery. With good reason this Government has prided itself on being the most technologically friendly ever. Be it via the development of Tech City, the Future Fifty, the Enterprise Investment Scheme, reforming intellectual property or even the Entrepreneur Visa – the Government is ensuring that the UK becomes a place where internet-based start ups and established technology companies want to come and do business. However, there is a risk that

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove kindly warns Stephen Twigg: people think you’re weak

What a lot of fun Michael Gove is having with Stephen Twigg’s latest policy pronouncements. The Education Secretary has written a fabulously long letter to his Labour shadow following up on Monday’s speech with 36 questions. He charmingly writes: ‘I am sure your speech was the result of a well-thought-through reflection on schools policy and all of the above questions were considered, and fully addressed, in preparation for your announcement and so you will be able to reply promptly and put to rest the idea, which more and more people are regrettably succumbing to, that Labour schools policy is a confusing, uncertain and incoherent assemblage of sops to the trades

Alex Massie Alex Massie

The Supreme Court Mothballs the British Army

The British Army may never go to war again. Not because it is under-resourced and over-stretched but because, as of today, it may no longer be able to afford casualties. That, at any rate, is one thought prompted by the Supreme Court’s extraordinary – to my mind – ruling that dead soldiers’ families can sue the ministry of Defence for damages. According to the Supreme Court justices, the MoD may have been negligent in its “duty of care” and, consequently, the families may sue the government for failing, apparently, to safeguard the human rights of soldiers killed in Iraq (and, presumably, elsewhere). The court dismissed the MoD’s suggestion there might

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The Tories are still flummoxed by social media

The Tory party is currently offering a campaigning masterclass on James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill. As Coffee House revealed last night, any member of the public can sign up to co-sponsor the backbench legislation, and the party has spent a great deal of time squaring backbenchers on the wording of the bill to prevent further amendments clogging it up unnecessarily. And MPs continue to tweet about #letbritaindecide, #labourdoesn’ttrustpeople, #onlytorieshavetheanswer or perhaps #itweetthisbecausemywhipaskednicely. But how easy is it to replicate this sort of slick campaign with other policies? When it comes to more conventional legislation and policy rows, the Tories are struggling to work out how to get their message across,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

George Osborne’s Mansion House minefield

George Osborne is expected to respond to the Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards’s final report in his Mansion House speech this evening. The report is hefty and packed with recommendations, but there are two areas where the Chancellor will find himself treading a particularly tricky path. Both the proposal to defer bonuses and introduce a criminal offence of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank are designed to encourage responsibility and a greater regard of the consequences of bad behaviour. But Osborne will know that they also pose a threat to the success of the city. He will need to consider what effect deferring some remuneration for up to

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

What the Banking Commission report says about…

…bad bankers The commission wants to encourage greater personal responsibility, through making it clear with whom the buck stops for each key area within a bank, and sanctions including a criminal offence of reckless misconduct in the management of a bank. The report emphasises that it would be rare to secure a conviction under this offence, but that it would apply ‘in cases involving only the most serious of failings, such as where a bank failed with substantial costs to the taxpayer, lasting consequences for the financial system or serious harm to customers’. It also recommends that the PRA and FCA be able to put banks into ‘special measures’, where