uk politics Archives

Wednesday

26 Sep 2012

Alex Massie

Shock Development: Scottish Labour Grows Up, Repudiates Own Past – Spectator Blogs

Whisper it sceptically but something interesting may have happened in Scotland yesterday. It might even turn out to be an important something too. Even more remarkably, this was all because of a speech given by Johann Lamont, leader of Labour’s bedraggled Scottish troops. I know, it all sounds too astonishing to be true. Be that as it may, Lamont’s speech in which she argued it’s time for Scotland to cease living on “the never never” and admit there will, probably, soon be a choice between raising taxes and cutting services was a rare move towards reality. Lamont’s address was the kind of thing sarcastic types are supposed to call “brave”

Tuesday

25 Sep 2012

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg’s Proalition speech

Nick Clegg will round off this week’s Liberal Democrat conference with an announcement that neatly illustrates the ‘proalition’ phase that the government is in at present. In his speech this afternoon, he will tell delegates that every year seven child who does not meet required standards in English and Maths will qualify for catch-up tuition. For every child falling behind, a school will receive £500, which they can do what they wish with. Around 110,000 pupils are expected to benefit from this premium. I understand that the money was a specific request that the Liberal Democrats made as part of the negotiations over the English Baccalaureate. They argued – and

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Tories and Lib Dems may not be bound to vote together on press regulation

Brighton was touched with a smidgen of stardust this evening as Steve Coogan surfaced with the Hacked Off pressure group. Having previously appeared as a public face for press reform, the comedian spoke to stress his role in the campaign is not a personal one, despite not being a ‘strong campaigning person’: ‘I’m just here to give voice to those who do feel strongly about this, having had their privacy invaded and the press behave in quite a despicable way and an abusive way — those people who haven’t got the wherewithal to be here. I’m speaking on their behalf. Clearly there are examples of where the press have exceeded their

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: leadership defeated on Justice and Security Bill

As predicted earlier, the Lib Dem leadership has just suffered an embarrassing defeat on the conference floor this afternoon on a grassroots motion on the Justice and Security Bill. The wrecking amendment which removed the call for parliamentarians to defeat the legislation received just a smattering of votes, and the overall motion was carried unamended. During the course of the debate, the amendment received support on stage from Julian Huppert, Alistair Carmichael and Tom Brake. That MPs were turning up to oppose the party’s grassroots is not a good sign: remember that the pause in the Health and Social Care Bill came about because of a groundswell of anger within

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: rebellion brewing on ‘secret courts’

The Liberal Democrats do love a good policy motion, and the tradition at most party conferences is for the attending media circus to stay well away from the debates and votes on the conference floor as they are rarely game changers. But this afternoon, the party’s leadership could face its first defeat on the conference floor when delegates debate a motion on the Justice and Security Bill from 5pm. The motion itself says the proposals for closed court hearings ‘did not form part of either the Liberal Democrat or Conservative manifestos in 2010, nor the Coalition Agreement’, and calls on Lib Dem MPs and peers to press the government to

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: police remain unhappy about Mitchell and elected commissioners

‘I can see there are several journalists here, so we might as well get Andrew Mitchell out of the way’. Channel 4’s Michael Crick decided to kick off his lunchtime fringe session with the big political row brewing far away from the Brighton Centre. Irene Curtis, president-elect of the Police Superintendents’ Association, began by venting her frustration that the matter remained ‘unresolved’, highlighting the integrity of the police force and its officers as her key concern. Sir Hugh Orde, president of the Association of Chief Police Officers, took the view that there is little else for police to say since the officer has accepted Mitchell’s apology. But like the other

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Oakeshott calls for Cameron to take one for the team on universal benefits

Nick Clegg’s attack on universal benefits such as the winter fuel payment and free bus passes this afternoon was a nice little morsel of red meat to his party, as he said it would be ‘difficult to explain’ a failure to reform these payments when other benefits are being slashed. He told the World at One: ‘My own view is for the future that it would be very difficult to explain – and it would be quite interesting if you could ask the Labour party for this, because they appear to be saying that at a time when people’s housing benefit is being cut, we should protect Alan Sugar’s free

Melanie McDonagh

The one thing worse than universal benefits? Means-testing them.

There’s nothing, but nothing, easier than for politicians to sound off about universal benefits, and sure enough, Nick Clegg was complaining on the World at One today about the iniquity of, as he says, paying for Alan Sugar’s bus pass. He was being asked about the sustainability of universal benefits and perks following Don Foster, one of his MPs, grumbling about it being absurd that someone like him is entitled to a winter fuel allowance. Mr Clegg went on to make clear that as part of the coalition deal for this parliament there wouldn’t actually be any fiddling with things like the fuel payment for oldies, but after that, these

Douglas Murray

Lib Dems in Brighton: the prattling of the pointless

Are there any words in the English language more soporific or depressing than: ‘Liberal Democrat Party Conference’? My paucity of blogs in the last few days can be put down solely to this fact. Even the many fascinating and disturbing things occurring in the world are somehow made damp by the knowledge that this annual general meeting of the bogus is going on. I suppose it comes down to one thing in particular. There is simply no purpose in the Liberal Democrats. There never has been. It is just a collection of people who for various reasons – understandable dislike of the other parties, hilarious opportunism or simple ignorance –

Alex Massie

Schools Do Furnish A Nation – Spectator Blogs

Also elsewhere today, I’ve a piece for the Scotsman arguing that Andrew Adonis was the third-most important person in the Blair-Brown governments and that, by god, Scotland could do with some of his reforming zeal too. Most sensible people in England agree academies have been a success (though there’s still a long way to go); unfortunately most people in Scotland seem to think there’s precious little need for reform. This complacency is unwarranted. Adonis has written a memoir – Education, Education, Education: Reforming England’s Schools – that should be read by every MP and MSP. It’s probably the most important political book of the year. I know suggesting Scotland might

Alex Massie

This Scotland Small? Why, Yes, Actually It Is – Spectator Blogs

Saturday’s Rally for Independence in Edinburgh was such a non-event that, as best I can discover, Getty Images doesn’t even have any pictures of the march. Hence the tat illustrating this post. But, in a way, that’s the point. A march that even on the most generous estimate attracted no more than 10,000 people is a flop. This is so even if those who were present enjoyed themselves and thought it a braw occasion. They’re not the whole audience for this kind of caper. I write about this at Think Scotland today: Watching foorage of Saturday’s march for independence in Edinburgh I found myself contemplating Hugh MacDiarmid’s waspish assertion that

Isabel Hardman

Leaked Lib Dem briefing: ‘We have no evidence our tactics are working’

Lib Dem internal documents leaked to the Spectator warn that the party has no branding strategy, staff ‘lack research literacy’ and campaigns are based on ‘received wisdom’ rather than any evidence that current tactics are working. I’ve been passed a presentation seen by aides close to Nick Clegg, staff at Lib Dem HQ, MPs and SpAds over the past few months which is damning about the party’s preparations for 2015. These slides cannot have made particularly comfortable reading for staffers and parliamentarians: (Click on each image to view a larger version) The presentation paints a picture of a party operation where ‘staff lack research literacy and capacity to analyse data properly’,

James Forsyth

Lib Dem conference: The morning after the Vince before

Vince Cable’s speech yesterday setting out how he thinks there’ll be another hung parliament was a significant moment. It was clear last night, that it had placed in peoples’ minds the question of whether Cable was more likely to hold Lib Dem seats than Nick Clegg and whether he would be able to better exploit a second hung parliament. This has added to the importance of Nick Clegg’s speech tomorrow. I understand that on Wednesday Clegg will be forceful rather than apologetic, it will be a book end to his sorry over tuition fees. He intends to use it to set out where he is taking his party. The Liberal

Sebastian Payne

Can Andrew Mitchell hold on following dining and police log revelations?

Andrew Mitchell’s future as Chief Whip is not looking bright thanks to two stories in today’s papers. The first is from the Times, which reports (£) that Mitchell went for two expensive outings on the ‘long and hard day’ the incident occurred. At lunchtime, the Chief Whip visited the Cinnamon Club – a £50-a-head Indian restaurant in Westminster. Later on, after Mitchell rode off from the Downing Street altercation, he visited a Tory private members’ club — the Carlton Club in St — as a guest speaker at a private dinner. Neither will chime with most people’s perception of a long and hard day. The second story comes from the Telegraph,

Monday

24 Sep 2012

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Tim Farron on Labour

Tim Farron, the Lib Dem president, underlined his popularity with grassroots as he jogged up to the stage at the Independent’s fringe event to the fervent cheers of activists. They were eating out of his hand as he answered questions for an hour with Steve Richards. Farron threw his weight behind Nick Clegg as leader, praising the Deputy Prime Minister’s ability to remain a warm and engaging man in spite of the trials of his job. But he blew pretty cold on his leader’s tuition fee apology, emphasising that it was a ‘totemic’ issue, and arguing that Lib Dems would be wrong to expect this to be a ‘turnaround’ for

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Senior figures attack ‘potty’ eurosceptics

One of the areas Conservatives and Lib Dems are more than happy to distinguish themselves on is Europe, although the issue always gets far less attention at Lib Dem conference than it does at Conservative gatherings. A Conservative might find this odd: surely a party so wholeheartedly in favour of Britain remaining within the European Union would want to make the case for why Europe is so wonderful. Instead, senior figures today attacked Conservatives who want Britain to leave the European Union as ‘potty’. In a fringe this lunchtime, Lord Oakeshott told the audience that a referendum on Britain’s membership of the EU was not necessary as the electorate could

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Paddy Ashdown hits out at opinion polls, Tories and pessimism

Polls don’t and shouldn’t matter to Liberal Democrats, so says Paddy Ashdown. The ex-Lib Dem leader managed to whip activists into a yellow-tinged frenzy this afternoon at a packed out polling discussion. Ashdown refuted that his party has been smothered with an ‘atmosphere of political gloom’ and ordered the rank and file to ‘ignore these polls and get on with the politics’. However, an overview of Times/Populus polling on voting intentions presented at the discussion highlighted how the Lib Dems’ fortunes have changed since the election: Ashdown insisted this is nothing to worry about, citing Margaret Thatcher as an occasionally unpopular leader who was still able to win elections. With

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Vince Cable attacks the “headbangers”

Never a man to avoid confrontation, Vince Cable decided to tackle gossip about his conversations with Labour head on when he appeared on stage at the Lib Dem conference this lunchtime. He has ‘excellent communications with politicians across the spectrum’, he joked, then reached into his pocket for his phone, joking that he had a message from Ed. He followed the same pattern as Tim Farron in criticising Labour’s record in government, just to make clear that the Lib Dems are fervently independent, rather than hankering after partnership with one party or another. But it was interesting that the majority of mentions for other parties in the Business Secretary’s speech

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Danny Alexander reaffirms support for Osborne’s Plan A

Danny Alexander had reason to be very chuffed this morning when his party gave its overwhelming support to a motion he tabled, praising George Osborne’s Plan A for the economy. The motion also welcomed the recent infrastructure announcements from the government, underlining that these investments were possible as a result of the government’s ‘hard-won fiscal credibility’. This motion was about reminding Liberal Democrats of the cause the coalition had united over, and the Chief Secretary to the Treasury took care to present Labour as the villains in this, insisting that ‘Labour is wrong on the economy’. But that didn’t stop some activists pushing a rival amendment — which was overwhelmingly

James Forsyth

Lib Dem conference: The battle for the soul of the Liberal Democrats

The Liberal Democrats are a party facing an identity crisis. During their many years in opposition, they had a slight all things to all men quality. But now they are in government, they are rapidly becoming defined in the public mind. How to respond to that is a question that they have been grappling with for the past two years. In a packed and over-heated fringe meeting last night, Nick Clegg’s former director of strategy Richard Reeves provided his answer—which is, although more starkly stated, the leadership’s. Reeves’ argument is that the party should become a Liberal party of the radical centre. In other words, he wants to take off