Uk politics

Wednesday

Matt Cavanagh

ONS blunder lets ministers blame falling real incomes on immigration

Yesterday the ONS published a report showing average disposable incomes at their lowest level since 2003. This is difficult news for ministers: as Isabel pointed out, concerns about the cost of living – stagnant wages and rising prices – are one of the main reasons given by voters in recent polls for turning away from the Conservatives. Imagine, then, how pleased ministers must have been when they saw that the ONS had thrown them a lifeline: the chance to blame it all on immigration. The ONS report discusses the effects of wages and prices, and then adds that ‘finally, sustained population growth led to incomes being spread across a greater

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Osborne’s policy gymnastics

It’s been a few weeks at least since George Osborne’s last U-turn, so it must be time for another one, mustn’t it? Today’s launch of the Funding for Lending Scheme is being hailed as another change of course from the Chancellor as it signals the slow death of the National Loan Guarantee Scheme. The Sun’s editorial this morning compared George Osborne to a gymnast, and said he was the ‘master of the U-turn’. The NLGS has only lent £2.5bn of the £20bn that it was allocated so far for small and medium businesses, and the FLS, which allows banks and other financial institutions to borrow at below market rates, is

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Immigration and the cost of living

The average disposable income is at its lowest point since 2003, according to figures released this afternoon by the Office for National Statistics. The statistics for the first quarter of this year show that take home income was an average of £273 a week, while real incomes per head fell by 0.6 per cent to £4,444 in Q1, which is the lowest since 2005. The ONS points to rising prices as the primary cause of these falls, and there are obvious points to be made here about the cost of living. It’s currently one of the major reasons voters are giving for turning away from the Conservative party, and Labour’s

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Tough love’ and fitness to work

By some quirk of planning, Channel 4 and BBC Two ended up showing two very similar programmes last night about the mess of the assessments that determine whether a sick or disabled person is able to work. The most haunting of the stories told last night was Panorama’s case study of a man who had died of heart failure while contesting a decision declaring him fit to work. The assessor who had initially referred Stephen Hill to a doctor for urgent medical attention was the same person who paradoxically declared him fit to work. A potted history of incapacity benefit is not kind to either Labour or the Conservative party.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Court rejects Qatada’s bid for freedom

Abu Qatada has just lost his bid in the High Court to be released from prison immediately. He had tried to argue that it was a breach of his human rights to be held in prison ahead of the court hearing in October which will decide whether he should be deported to Jordan to face terror charges. But at today’s hearing, Lord Justice Hughes and Mr Justice Silber dismissed the radical cleric’s application for a judicial review. This is obviously a relief for the government right now as Qatada was pressing for release with immediate effect, which would have meant he was a free man during the Olympics when security

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

A not-entirely-comprehensive spending review

There are more rumblings this morning on the shape of the next comprehensive spending review, this time at grassroots level within the Liberal Democrats. The Times reports threats from former Lib Dem MP Evan Harris that any attempt to sign up to a traditional spending review will trigger an emergency motion at the party’s autumn conference. The leadership is already well aware of this issue: I blogged last week that a senior party figure had told me that the £10 billion of welfare cuts that George Osborne has predicted are necessary over the next spending review period are ‘just not going to happen’. Clegg and co know that the Lib

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

London, the Olympic ghost town

London is quieter than usual this week in spite of the Olympics, with many commuters staying at home or fleeing the country while the Games take place. That’s a good thing for the transport system – clearly Justine Greening and Francis Maude’s ‘remoding’ advice had its desired effect – but retailers and tourist attractions are reporting a lower-than-usual footfall as a result. The Financial Times reports that the 100,000 Olympic visitors lags behind the 300,000 typically expected in the capital, with the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions pointing to a drop of up to 35 per cent in tourists. Ministers will be hoping the ghost town effect won’t impact negatively

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Borismania takes hold

Boris Johnson has had a fantastic few days. On Thursday he drove a crowd in Hyde Park wild with his Mitt Romney banter. On Saturday he charmed the public with his thoughts on the Olympic opening ceremony (‘People say it was all leftie stuff. That is nonsense. I’m a Conservative and I had hot tears of patriotic pride from the beginning. I was blubbing like Andy Murray.’) Today, in between talking about glistening otters (which in itself is a feat: a politician getting away with talking about how wonderful it is to see semi-naked women in central London and not sounding like a dirty old man), he has emerged as

Jonathan Jones

Briefing: the Libor review

‘It is clear that urgent reform of the Libor compilation process is required,’ says Martin Wheatley of the Financial Services Authority. Hardly a revelation: it’s been clear since Barclays was fined for its part in the manipulation. Some were even pushing for reform back in 2008, such as the then-president of the New York Fed (now Obama’s Treasury Secretary) Tim Geithner. But it is significant that Wheatley is saying this now, as he’s been tapped by George Osborne to lead a review of how Libor is set. The FSA hardly has much credibility on this — even Mervyn King is keen to pass the buck to them — but Wheatley

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The government has little power over the empty seats scandal

The papers today are full of empty seats at the Olympics. This morning, a Downing Street spokeswoman tried to take a glass-half-full approach, saying the empty seats were ‘disappointing’, but adding that the Prime Minister was ‘satisfied’ that Locog was working to resolve the issue. Locog carried out a review at the weekend which found that the seats were in accredited areas rather than those allocated to sponsors. The accredited areas are set aside for ‘members of the Olympic family’, an unpleasant phrase that denotes representatives of the IOC and of the sporting federations,  as well as coaches, athletes and athletes’ families. The different options available are: – Give the

Nick Cohen Nick Cohen

Green Party Candidate: Give me more money!

As a slogan, ‘give me more money’ is an unlikely election winner. Nevertheless, Peter Cranie came close to trying it at the hustings for the leadership of the Green Party in Manchester on Friday. At the start of the above clip, a member of the audience asked what wage the contenders would take. Pippa Bartolotti purred that she wanted the Greens to spend party funds on campaigns not individuals – a sentiment to win elections with. But then it was easy for Ms Bartolotti to be selfless because she had a career in business before going into politics. Cranie was more cautious. He explained that he earned £29,000 as a

Steerpike Steerpike

Judo diplomacy

While the ladies’ beach volleyball is exciting Boris ‘glistening otters’ Johnson and the peeking Prime Minister, another event could be about to get very political. President Putin is set to arrive in town on Thursday: yes there will be bilateral meetings, but he’s really here for the judo. At a time when UK/Russian relations are particularly low, one Russian Embassy source jokes that perhaps diplomacy should be a little more hands on and that Putin should challenge fellow judo fan William Hague to a match. Sadly this will remain a pipe-dream, which is just as well – we would not want Hague’s old judo partner – Lord Sebastian Coe –

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Planning reform is an easy way of helping the economy

‘Desperate Treasury to water down planning laws,’ blasts the Telegraph today, making it quite clear that it’ll oppose any effort by the government to return to planning reform. Those Tories who were uncomfortable with the original proposals are also making clear that they haven’t changed their position. The new national planning policy framework was announced this spring. Those who helped craft this compromise are privately stressing that it is simply too early to tell whether further changes are needed. But I still think there is a good chance that the Treasury will push for more planning reform this autumn. First, it is something that it genuinely believes would help the

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

RBS next in line for Libor heat

The Guardian has published an interview on its site with Stephen Hester in which the RBS chief executive predicts his bank is facing a huge fine for its part in the Libor fixing scandal. He says: ‘RBS is one of the banks tied up in Libor. We’ll have our day in that particular spotlight as well.’ Hester can to a certain extent afford to be upfront about what is coming down the line for his bank. Even though it was clear from the start that there were other banks wading around in this swamp, Barclays took the majority of the flak as the first one to be fined. There might

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Ministers consider further planning reform

Today’s papers are stuffed full of Olympic reportage rather than analysis of the GDP figures. But down in the bowels of Whitehall, a list of policy options to try and boost economic growth are being drawn up. Decisions on what to do will be taken after the Olympics but I understand that further planning reform is currently on the list. The coalition announced a new national policy planning framework in the Spring. But it was not as radical as George Osborne and the Treasury wanted it to be: opposition from heritage groups like the National Trust and various environmental organisations led to it being watered down. With the economy shrinking

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Osborne needs to give the Lib Dems sleepless nights on supply-side reform

Ed Balls is doing very well out of the GDP figures that were released on Wednesday. The Shadow Chancellor is right to say that George Osborne is not yet doing the right thing with the economy. But that doesn’t mean Balls’ solution is the right one. Cuts should have been only one side of the deal, but as Iain Martin points out in today’s Sunday Telegraph, the other side which should have kickstarted growth – supply-side reform – is not forthcoming because Osborne and Cameron are afraid of offending the Lib Dems. Similarly, James says in his column today that too often attempts to strike a balance between the supply-side

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Osborne seizes on S&P ratings relief

You’d think that after the bad economic news of the past week, George Osborne might have reverted to submarine mode as soon as he possibly could, moving quietly under the cover of the Olympics. But this afternoon he has stuck a periscope up with this message: the world has confidence that Britain is dealing with its economic plan. It’s a bold statement to make after Wednesday’s GDP figures, and Labour has already mocked him for doing so, but Osborne is responding to the announcement overnight by Standard & Poor’s that the UK will continue to enjoy an AAA credit rating. The ratings agency said: ‘We project that, despite recent weakness,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Using the Olympics to turn a corner

I suspect there’s a certain relief in Downing Street today. First, the opening ceremony passed off pretty well; no one is talking about G4S this morning. Second, Standard and Poor’s has reiterated Britain’s AAA credit rating despite the negative GDP figures this week. The government is hoping that the Olympics will help it turn the corner from the negative economic news of recent months. Over the next week or so, we’re going to see what one minister described to me as ‘the government’s industrial strategy’ in action. The Global Investment Conference at Lancaster House is meant to showcase the benefits of investing in Britain for specific sectors. The aim is

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Unqualified teachers haven’t ‘irreparably damaged’ the private sector: why do state schools deserve anything different?

The furore surrounding the news – which James broke on Coffee House this afternoon – that academies will now be able to employ teachers who are not qualified was so brilliantly predictable that we could have written the unions’ press releases for them. Christine Blower of the National Union of Teachers slammed it as a ‘clear dereliction of duty’ and a ‘cost-cutting measure that will cause irreparable damage to children’s education’. Blower and her union colleagues are not clear why education will be so badly damaged by this, though. Top schools in the private sector regularly employ staff who have gone through no formal training at all. But parents have to

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Academies to be allowed to employ teachers without formal training

The pace of reform in education has been stepped up again today. The model funding agreement for all new academies has now been changed by the Department for Education to remove the requirement for all teachers to have Qualified Teacher Status. Any existing academy will also be able to change its funding agreement to include this new freedom. This change might sound technical but its importance is that it means that academies will now be able to employ people who have not gone through a year of teacher training. Previously, an academy couldn’t have employed, say, James Dyson to teach design without him having done a year in a teacher