Uk politics

Friday

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband needs to talk about 2015, not what he would do now

Ed Miliband’s speech to the Scottish Labour conference is another illustration that he intends to depict ‘One Nation Labour’ as the answer to so-called Tory divisiveness. Miliband told the conference: ‘As leader of the Labour Party [I] will never seek to divide our country and say to young person in Inverness or the older worker laid off in Ipswich desperately looking for work, that they are scroungers, skivers or somehow cheating the system.’ But in the context of today’s Independent story about Labour planning to go into the next election committed to higher spending than the Tories, a story which Ed Balls crossly contested on the radio this morning, what

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Fitch downgrades UK credit rating

Fitch’s announcement that it is downgrading the UK’s credit rating to AA+ isn’t as politically explosive as the downgrade from Moody’s in February, as it was inevitable that once one major ratings agency dropped the AAA, the others would follow like dominoes. The bigger story will be when all agencies have dropped the rating. Fitch said this afternoon that the reason for the downgrade was that ‘the fiscal space to absorb further adverse economic and financial shocks is no longer consistent with a ‘AAA’ rating’. The agency forecasts that general government gross debt will peak at 101 per cent of GDP in 2015/16, having previously warned that failure to turn

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Tories keen to exploit Labour’s Southern Discomfort in local elections

David Cameron’s local election kick-off speech today notably contained no reference to UKIP, but 12 mentions of Labour. The Conservative leader and his colleagues concerned with campaigns are on a damage-limitation exercise about the party’s chances in the local elections, and as well as taking the attack to Labour on the policy front – arguing that the Tories have freed councils from Labour’s restrictions, kept council tax down and reduced local government waste – a plank of their strategy involves attacking Labour’s prowess in southern council seats. The key phrase which you can expect to hear whenever there is evidence that the Labour campaign is faltering in the south is

Nick De Bois

The scattergun Snooping Bill won’t help tackle crime, or protect people

Over a year ago, the Government proposed to increase the available powers of surveillance – giving authorities the ability to monitor every British citizen’s internet activities. It is claimed that such powers are essential to keep pace with tackling crime and terrorism; even though such proposals were ditched by the last Government. Their plans faced substantial opposition across Parliament, from the public, internet experts and civil liberties groups. Interestingly, the Government’s current plans bear little difference and continue to face similar oppositions. A Joint Committee of both Houses of Parliament, alongside the Intelligence and Security Select Committee conducted pre-legislative scrutiny of the Communications Data Bill. Both committees expressed clear concerns

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Is Gove’s school reform genie out of the bottle?

Will Michael Gove’s reforms outlast him? They are perhaps this government’s single greatest accomplishment. Within three years it has gone from legislation to a nascent industry, and much of it on display at yesterday’s Spectator education conference, which the Education Secretary addressed. But towards the end, he raised an important point: how much of this agenda is due to his personal patronage? Is the school reform genie out of the bottle? He thinks so. I disagree, and explain why in my Telegraph column today. Here are my main points, with some highlights from yesterday’s conference. 1. The energy and thoroughness of the Gove reforms are remarkable, and go way beyond

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Govt keeps Snooping Bill campaigners in the dark

It’s not looking good for the Snooping Bill. The legislation is currently being re-written after serious concerns were raised with the first draft, but I’ve got hold of a letter from privacy campaigners which accuses the government of failing to hold the public consultation that was one of the conditions laid down in the damning report that killed off the first draft. The letter, from Big Brother Watch, Liberty, Open Rights Group and Privacy International, expresses fears that meetings between the organisations and Home Office ministers could be used as evidence that ministers have been consulting on the new legislation. It says: ‘In evidence to the Joint Committee it became

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

A ‘lurch to the left’ or a wise appointment?

One interesting decision that Ed Miliband made this week was to appoint Karen Buck as his PPS, following the long-planned departure of John Denham. Tory MPs have told me they were very quickly given ‘lines to take’ on how this represented a big ‘lurch to the left’ on the Labour leader’s part. CCHQ is right that Karen Buck is on the left of her party: as a shadow welfare minister she pushed for the party to oppose the £26,000 benefit cap when Liam Byrne’s official line was to leave it be (one he later reversed). But the line to take conveniently forgets that one of the principal purposes of a PPS

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband shouldn’t dismiss husky-hugging out of hand

Today’s Ipsos MORI finding that voters can’t see Ed Miliband as Prime Minister underlines how much hard work the Labour leader really has to do. The poll for the Evening Standard found 66 per cent of those asked didn’t believe he was ready to rule the country, against 24 per cent who did. He is also polling behind his party, with 58 per cent disagreeing that Labour is ready to form the next government against 29 per cent who do. As the general election draws closer, voters will find their minds focus more on this question of whether they can imagine the party governing rather than simply on Labour as

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove: Unions need to do a better job

Cometh the Gove, cometh the angry trade union representative. It was inevitable that the Education Secretary would have at least one exchange with someone from one of the two largest teaching unions when he took questions from the floor at today’s Spectator education conference. Gove spoke powerfully without notes on his vision for education, and then in conversation with Andrew Neil, attacked those he believed had low expectations for certain pupils. He said: ‘There are wonderful people in teaching and I want to empower them. This is, I think, a tremendous opportunity for teachers. But there are some in the teaching profession, I’m afraid, who won’t take yes for an

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

The date George Osborne’s vultures are circling over

It was only last week that a Tory MP was warning Coffee House of the dangerous impact that high levels of public debt can have on growth. Today that theory is fighting for its life, with the authors of the Harvard paper that developed it in the first place in the firing line for an error in a spreadsheet. If you haven’t been following the Reinhart and Rogoff row, here’s a quick catch-up: a paper from two professors and a doctoral student at the University of Massachusetts published this week argues that Carman Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff of Harvard were wrong to reach the conclusion they did about a 90%

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral was the right funeral

Today was a moment in our island story. The longest serving Prime Minister of the 2oth century was laid to rest with due ceremony. Watching the coffin move down to St Paul’s and the service itself, I was struck by how right it was that it was a ceremonial funeral. A private affair would not have done justice to the legacy of our first, and only, female Prime Minister. It was noticeable that the much talked-about protests along the route failed to materialise. But it should be stressed that today’s service was not a political affair. The eulogy was not about her policies but her faith and her understanding of

Jonathan Jones

Has the jobs recovery stalled?

The number of people in work in December to February was 29.698 million — lower than last month’s 29.732 million and representing a very slight 2,000 quarter-on-quarter fall — according to today’s figures from the Office for National Statistics. Of course, 2,000 is just a 0.008 per cent drop, and since the margin of error for that change is ±139,000, the quarter could yet turn out to have been one of reasonable jobs growth. But in today’s figures, the lack of employment growth, while the economically active population continued to expand, meant that the unemployment level rose by 70,000 — its biggest quarter-on-quarter rise since September to November 2011. The

Steerpike Steerpike

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral unites the political class

Where there has been discord, Mrs Thatcher’s funeral brought harmony. From my seat in the gods at St. Paul’s, I watched as Westminster’s lesser mortals gathered in front of the altar to shoot the breeze in the hour before Lady Thatcher’s coffin arrived. Gordon and Sarah Brown were first to arrive. They plonked themselves down, but soon jumped up to chat to a passer-by. Quick as a flash, Ed Miliband and his wife Justine pinched the Browns’ vacated chairs. Time rolled by, and Miliband found it impossible to shake the shadow of his old master as he walked around the nave. How’s that for art imitating life? The pews soon

The Spectator

Margaret Thatcher’s funeral: in words and pictures

The first reading, by Margaret Thatcher’s granddaughter, Amanda: Ephesians 6:10-18 Finally, my brethren, be strong in the Lord, and in the power of his might. Put on the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to stand against the wiles of the devil. For we wrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against spiritual wickedness in high places. Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that ye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to stand. Stand therefore, having your loins girt about with truth, and having

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Lion-hearted crowds cheer the Iron Lady

When I arrived at St Paul’s at 6 o’clock this morning, a line of people, around 40-strong, had already set up camp with union flags (and one Canadian flag, too) opposite the church courtyard. The police officer drawing to the end of his night shift told me they had been there all night. Later, as the hearse left the Palace of Westminster, the pavements opposite were packed. Yes, there were some people who turned their backs, and others who held placards decrying Thatcher’s legacy. This video from the Guardian shows some of them chanting ‘waste of money!’ as the procession approached. As Thatcher’s friend Conor Burns has been repeatedly saying for

The Spectator

Sir John Hoskyns: the Margaret Thatcher I knew

Sir John Hoskyns was head of Margaret Thatcher’s Policy Unit from 1979 to 1982. In a Q&A with The Spectator, he describes what it was really like to work with her, and how David Cameron could learn from the late Prime Minister. In 1977, you wrote the Stepping Stones Report, which looked at the fundamental problems holding Britain back in the pre-Thatcher era. If you were to write a sequel, what would you focus on? There’s no snap answer – at least from a bystander. Stepping Stones, and our ‘Wiring Diagram’ were written for  a particular crisis for the British economy. I had been working on an analysis of the problem since

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: We’re all Thatcherites now

David Cameron is giving a reading at Margaret Thatcher’s funeral later today, but this morning he gave his eulogy on the Today programme. He made the quite striking observation that ‘we’re all Thatcherites now’. In one sense this is quite an obvious comment: as countless commentators have observed over the past week and a half, Margaret Thatcher didn’t just change the way the Conservative party viewed economics and the state, she also changed the way Labour sold itself as a party. Cameron said: ‘I think in a way we’re all Thatcherites now because – I mean – I think one of the things about her legacy is some of those

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Exclusive: George Osborne on GOV.UK winning Design of the Year

One of the government’s lesser known reforms, the GOV.UK website, has just been named as the 2013 Design of the Year. Before the coalition, the public sector was represented online by nearly 1,000 websites. Under the auspices of the Government Digital Service — a newly recruited band of nerds based outside of Whitehall — GOV.UK has been an attempt to reboot the government’s web presence with a slicker site under a single unifying brand. This award suggests that the project has been a success. Up against tough competition from the Shard and Olympic cauldron, the win is a triumph for the GDS. George Osborne is certainly keen to tout it,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Was today’s conservatory revolt really necessary?

Eric Pickles did manage to avert a defeat in the Commons on plans to let homeowners build extensions and conservatories without planning permission, but it’s worth asking how on earth the government managed to get in the position where its backbench was so worked up on a policy like this in the first place? The amendment, tabled by Lord True and approved by peers – would have allowed councils to opt out of the new freedoms. And 18 Tory MPs – John Baron, Andrew Bingham, Bob Blackman, Tracey Crouch, Nick de Bois, Zac Goldsmith, Philip Hollobone, Stewart Jackson, Julian Lewis, Anne Main, Caroline Nokes, Matthew Offord, Mark Pawsey, Sir John Stanley

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove the evil overlord strikes again

Michael Gove is at it again. Today he’s taken it upon himself to ‘heap further misery’ onto teachers with ‘reckless’ plans that would damage children’s education. At least, that’s what the NASUWT teaching union would have you believe. The Education Secretary has in fact published advice for schools on performance-related pay, which they can use from September of this year. It means that coasting teachers won’t get automatic pay rises based solely on length of service, and that good teachers who put extra effort in will get pay rises. So the unions appear to be outraged not on behalf of their entire membership, but on behalf of those teachers who