Uk politics

Friday

Alex Massie

The Philpott case is horrific; so is the attempt to hijack it for any political purpose

The sorry truth of the Philpott case is that almost nothing can be learnt from it. Everything would be so much simpler if there were clear public policy conclusions that could be drawn from the horrors of this case. But there are not. How could there be if we’re expected to mine a case like this for meaning? It is almost always a mistake to draw firm conclusions from extreme examples of any given phenomenon. The perils of the small sample size should be well enough understood by now to make this clear. It is even dafter to presume too much on the back of a monstrous case such as

Thursday

Alex Massie

David Cameron’s Legacy? Preserving the Union or presiding over the Break-Up of Britain

Politics is at least partially a matter of perspective. The same object can look very different depending upon the angle from which it is viewed. Which brings me to Brother Forsyth’s latest column. I bow to no-one in my admiration for James’s reporting and astute analysis. Nor do I dispute much of what he says in his analysis of David Cameron’s legacy. No, what’s interesting is what isn’t there. The Union. I know. Scots go on and on and on about this stuff. It is true that the Caledonian gene is strong on self-absorption. Nevertheless, I think it can reasonably be considered revealing that this type of column, written by

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Welfare Reform is this government’s most difficult but most popular policy.

I always enjoy Peter Oborne’s columns not least because his opinions are as entertaining, predictably unpredictable, quixotic and changeable as his cricket captaincy. This is not a bad thing. This week he’s back in full-on Cameron as Disraeli mode, arguing that the coalition’s reforms of education (in England, though sadly the Peter and the Telegraph refer to “Britain’s schools”) and welfare (across the UK) are so important that success here dwarfs any failure anywhere else. I think he may be right. Coincidentally, I’ve an article in today’s Scotsman that, though chiefly concerned with Iain Duncan Smith and welfare reform, makes passing reference to Gove too. These two, perhaps more than

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Key David Cameron aide to quit Downing Street

Sky News has revealed tonight that Rohan Silva, one of the Prime Minister’s key advisers, is leaving Downing Street. Silva might not be a household name but he has been a hugely influential figure there these past few years. In opposition, he worked for George Osborne before moving to work for David Cameron in government. He has been the driving force behind spending transparency, Tech City and crime maps. There have been few more pro-enterprise and pro-reform voices in this government. His departure is a big blow to Tory radicalism. One of the things that marked Silva out was a thirst for new ideas that is all too rare in

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Independent Scotland: neoliberal nirvana or Scandinavian paradise?

So, an independent Scotland. Neoliberal nirvana or Scandinavian paradise? True, these are not the only choices available but as a useful shorthand for the size of the state and its optimal take of national revenues it will do for the time being. That is, should taxes rise, fall or remain much as they are at present? What external pressures will hamper Edinburgh’s ability to set its own course, free as the wind? And, for that matter, whose dreams are most likely to be confounded and whose worst fears most liable to be misplaced? That was the subject of an article I wrote for the Scotsman at the weekend. The gist

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Over 100 Tory MPs demand EU referendum bill: exclusive details

Tory backbenchers have written again to the Prime Minister demanding legislation guaranteeing a referendum in the next Parliament. Conservative MP John Baron delivered the letter, which bears more than 100 backbench signatures, to Downing Street this morning. While its existence was reported in the Sunday papers, Baron has now spoken exclusively to Coffee House about the letter’s contents. I understand that though Baron and his colleagues working on the plan approached only backbenchers (and those include former ministers who left the government in September’s reshuffle), a number of ministers and PPSs have also approached them to express sympathy with the idea, and there are several individual letters from PPSs going

Ruth Porter

Is Boris really ready to lead the Tory party?

Boris needs to pay attention. As James Allen said, ‘Circumstances do not make the man, they reveal him.’ Given his colourful character, discussion so far about Boris’s leadership potential has focused on the man himself; but politics is about being in the right place at the right time, as Churchill would attest. Unprecedented levels of national debt, a stagnant economy, a healthcare system that isn’t delivering, a Eurozone that may yet collapse into meltdown, a chronic housing shortage, endemic low productivity and a state that has stretched its tentacles into so many areas of people’s lives it is proving extremely difficult to disentangle – these are just a taste of

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Trenton Oldfield: why I disrupted the Boat Race, and what it achieved

Trenton Oldfield has written in this week’s Spectator that he won’t be attending today’s Boat Race but just in case, we learn today that Royal Marine Commandoes will be patrolling the Thames with thermal imaging equipment to look out for copycat stunt artists. Whatever it cost to imprison Oldfield will be as nothing compared to the cost of discouraging his epigones – real, or imagined. Having made such an impact, what does Oldfield think now? In this week’s View from 22 podcast, he has what we can fairly call a sparky debate with Douglas Murray, a contributing editor for the Spectator. It’s not for the faint-hearted. Here’s an extract:- listen

James Forsyth James Forsyth

George Osborne won’t be moved

Today’s Sunday Telegraph front page has sparked off a flutter of speculation about whether George Osborne might be moved as Chancellor. I suspect that the short answer to this question is no. Osborne and Cameron are inextricably linked and to move him would be akin to the Prime Minister declaring that both his political and economic strategies have been wrong. He would not long survive such an admission. I also sense that Osborne’s stock in the parliamentary party is recovering from the battering it took with last year’s Budget. The fact that this year’s Budget was doorstep-ready, has survived the Labour and media onslaught and gone down relatively well with

Saturday

James Forsyth

What Tory MPs want and what the Tory party needs

Matthew Parris’s column in The Times today is a good counter-blast to the idea that all Tory backbenchers are craving more policies that are bolder. As Parris points out, many of those defending seats against Laboour don’t want that. Indeed, if you had left it to these MPs I very much doubt that the government would have cut the 50p tax rate. He is also right that the desire to remove David Cameron—as opposed to grumble about him—is extremely limited. It is, though, as one senior MP pointed out to me earlier, worth noting that most Tory members of the Cabinet are in extremely safe seats. It is hard to

Thursday

Bruce Anderson

Eric Hobsbawm: a life-long apologist for the Soviet Union

In last week’s Spectator, Sam Leith reviewed Eric Hobsawm’s Fractured Times. Our ex-political editor and drink critic Bruce Anderson thinks Leith has missed a basic point about Hobsbawm’s career. Here is Anderson’s riposte in full: In his review of Eric Hobsbawm’s ‘Fractured Times’ (Spectator, 23 March). Sam Leith misses the basic point: the basic treason. Throughout his career, Professor Hobsbawm was an apologist for the Soviet Union. This was forgivable in the 1930s, During that desperate decade, many thoughtful people despaired of liberal democracy and believed that they had found solace in Moscow. But after 1945, as the evidence mounted, Eric the Red kept the faith. Towards the end of his life, he said

Alex Massie Alex Massie

Scotland’s War on Clothes: Be Careful What You Wear

Welcome to Scotland, a land where freedoms of expression and other liberties are treated so seriously that the police and prosecuting authorities would never dream of monitoring and judging the clothes you wear. If that sounds like fantasy it’s because, alas, it is. Yes, this is now a country in which wearing the “wrong” kind of t-shirt will land you in court and, as likely as not, result in you being convicted of a breach of the peace. For real. I draw your attention toa recent case at the High Court of Justiciary and the opinion delivered by Lord Carloway (a man who, it might be noted in passing, thinks

Wednesday

Sebastian Payne

Fifty years on from Beeching and Britain’s railways are better than ever

On 27 March 1963, ‘The Reshaping of British Railways’ was published. Better known as the Beeching Report, the paper was a seminal moment for Britain in the twentieth century. Dr Beeching’s report (and subsequent axe) recommended the closure of 5,000 miles of tracks and 2,363 stations, with 67,000 jobs lost. Most of Beeching’s initial suggestions were eventually implemented and our railways were changed forever. Beeching is still a controversial figure. The trade unions, then and now, paint him as a mad axeman who destroyed a noble institution and the livelihoods of thousands of railway men. No wonder one ‘Dr B. Ching’ is still lampooned in Private Eye every week. But

Freddy Gray Freddy Gray

The People’s Assembly is sound and fury signifying nothing

Haven’t you heard? Today is the official launch of the People’s Assembly, a grassroots movement to amplify ‘progressive opinion’ in the public square. Think Arab Spring, but for Brits who don’t have quite as much to rage about. It’s being launched by Owen Jones, Mark Steel, Caroline Lucas, and other such luminaries. The main thrust of their campaign seems to be against cuts. ‘It’s springtime for opposition to the nightmare of austerity,’ says Jones, deftly combining metaphors. ‘The People’s Assembly offers the one thing missing from British politics: Hope.’ Hope and change! Springtime! Who doesn’t want that? The trouble is, I’m not so sure that actual people agree with the People’s Assembly’s founding premise. Polls often

Steerpike Steerpike

Liberal Democrat spinners spin away the past

A conundrum for ambitious Liberal Democrats who have seen their CVs blighted by the scandal surrounding former party Chief Executive Lord Rennard. Though the portly peer denies all allegations of sexual impropriety with a stream of female staff, that has not stopped party hacks and flacks, both past and present, tinkering with their résumés. With his all-encompassing role as Chief Executive and general overlord of the party for nearly two decades, a reference from Rennard must have seemed like a golden ticket on CVs in the endless revolving door between politics and lobbying. One doyen of spin giggled over lunch this week that he has faced a large surge in

Darius Guppy

Who points the finger? Darius Guppy offers a defence of Boris Johnson

Eddie Mair has more front than Harrods. Consider this: a member of the British Media, Mr Mair, berates another former such member, Boris Johnson, for making up quotes! What planet are you living on, Mr Mair? Making things up is what people in your profession do for a living! The Leveson Inquiry focuses on one particular scandal – but hacking into voicemails is among the least of the crimes committed by a metier which is almost single-handedly responsible for the cultural degradation of an entire nation. Next, Mr Johnson, a politician, is criticised for lying to another politician, Michael Howard, all the while his interviewer feigning horror and surprise. Again, Mr

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Exclusive: the police have offered to HELP Trenton Oldfield protest at the 2013 Boat Race.

Trenton Oldfield, the Australian who was fished out of the Thames last year when disrupting the Oxford-Cambridge Boat Race, is now out of prison and has written a piece for tomorrow’s Spectator about his experiences. In it he reveals that the Metropolitan Police have offered to help him protest at the 159th Boat Race taking place this weekend. This is what he has to say: ‘Throughout the week, via lawyers, I have received some elegantly crafted emails from Scotland Yard’s Liaison Gateway Team (‘a small unit of officers dedicated to facilitating peaceful protest’). They ask how they can help me organise a protest at the university boat race this year.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

David Miliband quitting UK politics

David Miliband is quitting the House of Commons to go and work for the International Rescue Committee in the United States, the Daily Mirror has revealed this evening. Friends of both Miliband brothers have long thought that David, who expected to win the Labour leadership contest in 2010, was not really prepared to serve under Ed. David’s departure confirms that. I also suspect, as John Rentoul points out, that David had realised that he was never going to be Labour leader. Ed Miliband’s position is so secure that it is pretty much a certainty that he’ll lead Labour into the election. It was also always highly unlikely that Labour would

Sebastian Payne

Could a digital and more transparent NHS prevent another Mid Staffs scandal?

Digital politics is all the rage. Take what Rachel Sylvester described in today’s Times as ‘digital Bennism’ — an online movement that is becoming increasingly influential to the Labour party’s campaign methods. And in the forthcoming Spectator, I’ve a piece discussing why policymakers are adopting internet-centric ideals to challenge the traditional way of doing things. The government’s digital ventures were discussed at Policy Exchange this afternoon. Rohan Silva — David Cameron’s senior policy advisor — said the government’s digital work is the ‘most radical thing people haven’t heard of’. Silva contrasted Labour’s strategy of using IT to ‘gather ever-more information and power for the government’ with the current mission to

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Leveson: Don’t be frightened by the state

If David Cameron had any sense, he would stand up in the Commons and say “I am withdrawing the Royal Charter. The law officers have assured me that Lord Justice Leveson, though a fine judge in many respects, did not understand the Human Rights Act. He failed to see that the courts would almost certainly find that his plans to force newspapers and websites to join his regulator by hitting them with punitive fines were unlawful in practice. My problem is that too many in Parliament cannot see it either. “There is a madness here in Westminster; a fanaticism which I, as a traditional Tory, find distasteful. I do not