Uk politics

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

The Romneyshambles road show

David Cameron broke with Downing Street tradition today by meeting Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney. But Romney might now be wishing that, like François Hollande, he’d been snubbed by the Prime Minister until the elections were over. He started his day with forgetting Ed Miliband’s name, calling him ‘Mr Leader’ instead when the two met. That wasn’t too bad: it’s not as if British people, or indeed the media, can remember what the Labour leader is called half the time, anyway. But once in Downing Street, he decided to get out a spade and dig a rather large hole for himself in the back garden (which he accidentally described as

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The problem isn’t that Osborne is too political but that Number 10 isn’t political enough

There’s been a lot of attention over the past few days as to whether George Osborne is too political. But what should really worry Tories is not how political George Osborne is, but how unpolitical Number 10 is. There are far too many Tories who think that politics is something you do in opposition not government. This view is profoundly mistaken. As I say in my column this week, city mayors were a major plank of David Cameron’s vision for reviving England’s cities. Yet all but one of the mayoral referendums were lost. Why? Because voters were never shown that mayors wouldn’t just be another politician. The Number 10 machine

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Warsi cleared of expenses allegations

The Lords Commissioner for Standards has cleared Baroness Warsi of allegations that she wrongly claimed expenses for staying rent-free with a friend. Now that this has been cleared up, and Sir Alex Allan has already exonerated her from any allegations of impropriety for allowing a business partner to accompany her, Warsi has a clean slate to present when it comes to September’s reshuffle. The Prime Minister said that the Conservative Party co-chair would lead a ‘big summer of campaigning for the Conservative Party’ in the run-up to the police commissioner elections, but that still leaves the door open to a new task in the autumn. Paul Waugh reported yesterday on

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Lib Dems block further welfare cuts

One popular prediction swirling around Westminster this morning is that part of the Government’s response to the GDP disaster will be to cut more money from the welfare budget. After all, George Osborne told MPs in his Budget statement that there would need to be a further package of £10 billion cuts in welfare spending over the period of the next spending review, and the IMF has made similar noises, too. But I understand that this is not going to happen because the Liberal Democrats will not let it go through. Sources are emphatic that those at the top – Nick Clegg, Danny Alexander et al – have blocked the

Priti Patel

France shows up Labour’s economic plan

Yesterday’s economic news reminds us of the need for the Government to continue to focus relentlessly on getting our economy moving – dealing with the debt crisis, boosting bank lending to the real economy, and ensuring sustainable long-term prosperity through radical economic reform. One of the key planks of the Government’s reforms is to make Britain’s tax system more competitive, ensuring that Britain is open for business, that we are a dynamic and an attractive place to invest in and to work in. Cutting corporation tax to the lowest rate in the G7 is one element of this plan. Cutting the top rate of income tax to level the playing

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The post-GDP sleeve-rolling begins

David Cameron is using the Olympics today to strike a more upbeat tone after yesterday’s GDP gloom. The Prime Minister is speaking at 10am at a global investment conference to pitch for business from 180 chief executives from around the world. Cameron will tell the conference that he is ‘determined that Britain will be on of the great success stories’ in rebuilding its economy, and will say: ‘There will be no more passionate supporter of Team GB than me. But I’ve got a job to do this summer. And a big part of that job is to get behind British business… and do everything I can to help secure the

Wednesday

Benjamin Fry

The straightforward solution for mental health treatment

Yesterday Nick Clegg published an ‘implementation framework’ for the government’s  mental health strategy. This follows his announcement in February 2011 of a ‘No Health without Mental Health’ policy, which has not been delivered and is now fragmenting under the changes being implemented to the commissioning structure of the health service. I have a special interest in this subject. About four years ago the failure of both the NHS and the private sector to deliver moderately competent mental health treatment (to me) nearly killed me; I was very ill with complex PTSD. The cost to the state of my death (in the absence of other resources and leaving behind a family

Jonathan Jones

How big are the cuts so far?

‘Osborne’s austerity is killing the recovery.’ It’s a familiar refrain, one that we hear every time there’s bad economic news. And, sure enough, today’s terrible GDP stats have sparked yet another rendition. Take this, for example, from the TUC’s Brendan Barber: ‘The government’s austerity strategy is failing so spectacularly that is has wiped out the recovery completely.’ But very rarely is that austerity quantified. Just how big are these cuts that have supposedly crippled the British economy? Well, according to the latest ONS figures, total managed expenditure stayed roughly flat in the coalition’s first year, before being cut by just 1.8 per cent in real terms (£12.6 billion) in 2011-12. But this

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The work experience Chancellor

Lord Oakeshott has just sparked some outrage by arguing on the World at One that George Osborne, who he described as a ‘Chancellor on work experience’ should be replaced by Vince Cable. He said: ‘I do think that George Osborne, he’s got no business experience, he’s never worked outside politics, and you know, he’s doing surprisingly well for a Chancellor on work experience, but really in a torrid time like this I think we do need the absolute best people available.’ A now-backbench Lib Dem peer announcing he would like to see a Lib Dem leading the Treasury team isn’t exactly the most surprising revelation. But what was interesting was

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Olympic strike averted

The PCS decision to call off the strike scheduled for tomorrow lessens the chances of a logistical nightmare of a start to the Olympics. It also means that the government’s challenge to the strike won’t be heard in court. Both sides are claiming victory in the dispute. Government sources are claiming that the union has backed down in the face of public opposition to an Olympic strike and the union is saying that it has won a promise that a certain number of new posts will be created. But the mere fact that this strike almost happened on such a low turnout will strengthen the hand of those in government

James Forsyth James Forsyth

GDP figures show the economy needs fundamental reform

Today’s GDP figures are far worse than expected. They mean that the economy has now shrunk for three consecutive quarters. The figures have destroyed the optimism created by the fact that employment and tax revenues are rising. Politically, these figures are undoubtedly a blow to the coalition. Labour is out trying to pin the blame for the continuing recession on the government’s economic policy. The Treasury is countering that the figures confirm that ‘the country has deep rooted economic problems’. In a sign, though, of how serious the GDP fall is, the government is conspicuously avoiding suggesting any external reasons for it — such as the Eurozone crisis, the weather

Jonathan Jones

GDP down 0.7% in Q2

The ONS’s first estimate of GDP in Q2 of 2012 shows a 0.7 per cent fall on Q1. It’s worth remembering that this is just a preliminary estimate and subject to revision later, but that’s a very big drop — the largest since the beginning of 2009 — driven largely by a big 5.2 per cent contraction in the construction sector. The ONS does point out that the extra Jubilee bank holiday will have hurt the economy, as will the record rainfall in April and June — but don’t expect Osborne to highlight this, for fear of a repeat of the ridicule he experienced for pointing to snow and the royal wedding

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The blue vs yellow fight to make green policy

Ed Davey has managed to win his first major battle as Energy Secretary – against the might of the Treasury, no less. James blogged earlier in the week that the battle between Lib Dem and Tory on cutting subsidies for onshore wind generation would be a test of how well the coalition is actually working, and this morning’s report in the Financial Times that George Osborne and Davey have managed to find a compromise is an illustration of that partnership in action. The newspaper reports that the dispute became so heated that Nick Clegg and David Cameron intervened to hammer down a final agreement. In the blue corner, Osborne was concerned not just by

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Back to tax basics

David Gauke was only elected in 2005, but it’s impossible that he can’t remember the Back to Basics campaign, and how well that moral campaign worked out for the Conservative Party. Its 1993 launch precipitated revelations of all kinds of non-traditional behaviour in the party, from affairs to cash for questions. Had the Exchequer Secretary who bears the outstanding achievement of being named Tax Personality of the Year thought about the damningly long list of revelations that the Major government had to endure, he might have thought twice before declaring that it was ‘morally wrong’ to pay your plumber or cleaner cash-in-hand. The problem with Gauke’s moralising was so obvious

Jonathan Jones

Measuring well-being: a tough but important job

‘If you treasure it, measure it.’ So Gus O’Donnell said when addressing the All Party Parliamentary Group on Wellbeing Economics in November. Well, the government has decided it treasures our well-being, and so is determined to measure it. It’s an incredibly tricky task — as I’ve noted before — but it’s a significant step forward that the Office for National Statistics has at least begun to try, and has finally started collecting a wealth of well-being data. In April, the ONS began asking people four questions to measure their subjective well-being on a scale of one to ten: Overall, how satisfied are you with your life nowadays? Overall, to what extent do you feel

Shiraz Maher

Tony Blair’s legacy on tackling extremism

It may be unpopular to say, but there is reason to be charitable to Tony Blair and his latest warnings about Islamist extremism. The former Prime Minister gave afascinating interview to Charles Moore in yesterday’s Telegraph where, inter alia, he talks about the challenge of militant Islam. ‘The West is asleep on this issue,’ he tells Moore. Blair has been more vocal and unequivocal on the issue than almost any other politician in recent years. He notes that the success of his Africa Governance Initiative faces ‘this threat above all others’. Failed states in the Horn of Africa have accentuated this, while one of the unintended consequences of the Libyan revolution

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

1,200 extra troops to calm Olympic concerns

Ministers held their daily Cobra meeting this morning to check the progress of the Olympic preparations, with just three days before the opening ceremony. Following the meeting, Jeremy Hunt released a statement – about 15 minutes after the Crown Prosecution Service announced the latest charges in its phone hacking investigation – which started by describing how London 2012 ‘remains very much on track’. The statement continued to describe the arrival of the athletes, praise for the organisation of the Games from International Olympic Committee president Jacques Rogge, and the rising numbers of staff provided by beleaguered security firm G4S. Anyone who wasn’t immersed in the phone hacking charges might still

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Why Miliband doesn’t need to agree with Nick

Ed Miliband’s comments in the Independent today were clearly based on the assumption that Nick Clegg will not be around if and when it comes to negotiating a possible Lib-Lab coalition in 2015. Vince Cable has already thrown his fedora into the ring to be the next Liberal Democrat leader, and Miliband backed the calls for a change of chief in his interview today. ‘I would find it difficult to work with him,’ he said, when asked about Clegg. Clegg cannot go from being Deputy Prime Minister in one government to Deputy Prime Minister in the next: it would look ridiculous. A coalition with Labour would also not suit Clegg’s own political

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The coalition trial of strength

The coalition is most fragile when both party leaders feel that they have a point to prove to their own side. We are, post the Lords reform rebellion, in one of those moments. Nick Clegg has to show the Liberal Democrats that he’s no push-over, that he’ll exact something from the Tories for the death of Lords reform. In the last few days the Clegg circle have been suggesting that not only will there be no boundary changes if there is no Lords reform but that the deputy Prime Minister also has fresh resolve to fight the green agenda’s corner in government. For his part, the Prime Minister is trying

Jonathan Jones

Briefing: HSBC, money laundering and Lord Green

What’s HSBC done wrong? Put simply, HSBC was not rigorous enough in preventing money laundering through its banks. Last week, the United States Senate’s Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released a damning report finding that HSBC had ‘exposed the US financial system to a wide array of money laundering, drug trafficking, and terrorist financing risks due to poor anti-money laundering controls’. In particular, the committee criticised the way HSBC treated its Mexican arm. HSBC Mexico, the report says ‘operated in Mexico, a country under siege from drug crime, violence and money laundering; it had high risk clients, such as Mexican casas de cambios [bureaux de change] and US money service businesses; and it offered high