Uk politics

Friday

Max Mckinley

Combing over school inspections

Ofsted reports are a waste of time. Schools are notified three days ahead of any visit from the inspectors. At my school this gives our headmaster plenty of time to bring in an army of cleaners. Every doorknob is polished; every lightbulb dusted; and every skirting board scrubbed.   The teachers themselves get a makeover. Unshaven faces and grubby suits vanish, replaced by nicely pressed trousers and perfect comb overs. They are instructed to dig out their most engaging, intuitive and intriguing lesson plans to impress the men with the clipboards. Pupils take part in the charade, too. At my school, we sit in lessons pretending to study; we know

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The race to secure the Olympics

G4S’ security arrangements for the Olympic games are turning into the story that keeps on giving, which is a good thing for journalists only, given the opening ceremony is just weeks away. The headlines this morning aren’t just about the ‘Olympic chaos’ that Theresa May tried to address when she made a statement to the Commons yesterday, but contain more revelations: staff failing to notice dummy explosives during test exercises, 18 and 19-year-old ‘yobs‘ being recruited to fill the spaces, and the firm not being penalised for failing to recruit enough staff. That last revelation is awkward for May, as she implied yesterday that there was a chance G4S could

Gordon Hector

If we don’t cough up for social care, we’ll be broke

The Office for Budget Responsibility put out its annual Fiscal Sustainabilty report yesterday. It’s got three graphs which are a wee bit scary. Here’s the first graph, showing what proportion of taxes paid and state services used comes from which age group: Speaks for itself, really. We rely heavily on the middle-aged for taxes, and spend heavily on early and later years. Look in particular at the pink lines – that’s health and long term care. Now look at graph number two: Spot where the growth is. Note the percentages are the average increases each and every year, for the next 50 years. Put the two graphs together and you

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The odd omissions from the banking inquiry

The difficult birth of the parliamentary inquiry into Libor and banking standards continued today with a controversy over which members of the Treasury select committee have been appointed to it. To general surprise, Andrea Leadsom, one of the better questioners on the committee, has been left off. This is particularly odd given that she is a former banker with real knowledge of the industry. John Mann, the pugnacious Labour MP, has also not made the cut. He has responded by labelling the coming inquiry a ‘whitewash’. What makes Leadsom’s omission particularly odd is that the Tory MP selected to join Tyrie on the inquiry is Mark Garnier, who is also

D.R. Thorpe

Macmillan’s Night of the Long Knives

One of the great goals of the pioneering Victorian explorers of Africa was to find the source of the Nile. The origins of the grievous miscalculation by Harold Macmillan of what became known as The Night of The Long Knives on Friday 13 July 1962, when he summarily sacked seven members of his Cabinet, may appear equally obscure, but can in fact be traced back to the Wallace Murder Case in Liverpool in 1931. At that time Selwyn Lloyd was a young lawyer on the Northern Circuit. Legal news in Liverpool in 1931 was dominated by the trial of William Wallace, who was convicted of the murder of his wife

Thursday

James Forsyth

Failing to build another runway is economic self-harm

The continuing failure to build another runway in the south east, let alone a new airport, is an act of economic self-harm. Trade used to follow the flag, it now follows the flight path. This makes it particularly depressing that the government is pushing back its aviation strategy yet again. As one Tory MP said to me earlier, ‘if we’re not serious enough about growth to build another runway we should just go home’. David Cameron needs to do what it takes to get another runway through. If that means moving Justine Greening, a long-time opponent of a third runway at Heathrow, from transport then he should do it. Indeed,

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The EU amuse-bouche

Tory MPs clamouring for a new relationship between Britain and Europe were given an amuse-bouche today when William Hague announced a review into the impact of the EU on everyday life. The Foreign Secretary told the House of Commons earlier that the review, which will report towards the end of 2014, ‘will present the evidence and analysis’, adding that it would be ‘for political parties to decide on their own policy recommendations’. The Foreign Office is briefing that the audit was not about identifying powers to grasp back from the EU, but many in the Conservative party certainly hope it’s the start of that process if nothing else. A study

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Lords rebels meet to kill the bill

The Lords reform rebels held a debrief today following David Cameron’s offer to the 1922 committee, I understand. The meeting, which took place mid-afternoon, was about what the rebels ‘need to do going forward to ensure that the Bill is dead’, one senior source told me. The rebels were not at all impressed by the suggestions that the Prime Minister put to backbenchers last night, and the meeting decided that offering the Liberal Democrats a smaller elected element in the upper house was a ‘Trojan horse’ by which more elected members could be added over time. The source explained that the MPs involved ‘did not want to be awkward’, but

Jonathan Jones

Cutting immigration would explode the debt

Ever wondered what would happen to the British economy if net immigration were slashed to zero? Well today’s ‘Fiscal Sustainability Report’ from the number crunchers at the Office for Budget Responsibility provides a glimpse of what such a future might look like — and it is a grim picture indeed. They’ve put together projections for the economy — and the public finances — all the way to 2062. Of course such long-term predictions should be taken with a pinch of salt. As Pete says over at ConservativeHome, ‘today’s OBR figures will probably bear as much comparison to the 2060s as the Jetsons will’. But the OBR don’t just produce one

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The battle with the Olympic censors

At 7am this morning, The Spectator’s managing director emailed me to say the new magazine is on sale at WH Smiths at Victoria station – a good sign, he said. But why shouldn’t it be? Because this week, we’re running a cover story by Nick Cohen lambasting the thuggish Olympic censors, the people who are stopping chip shops selling chips because the Olympics is sponsored by McDonald’s. And it’s still not quite clear, this morning, if that means we’ll be taken off the shelves. A few weeks ago, I was emailed advice – not from our lawyers, but from someone else in the magazine world – that The Spectator should

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Half a plan for social care

The delayed white paper on social care will be published today, but don’t expect it to clarify much about how pensioners can cover their care costs. The document itself will announce loans administered by councils offering nominal interest rates to prevent elderly people having to sell their homes to cover the cost of their care. That loan would be paid back once that person dies and the house is sold. But Labour’s Andy Burnham was out and about this morning pointing out that the white paper ‘is half a plan’. He’s right: the most important part of the reforms is missing. The paper will reiterate ministers’ support for a cap

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The real rebel problem

The post-match analysis of last night’s vote on the House of Lords Reform Bill shows the Prime Minister has a bigger rebel problem on his hands than he might have initially thought. It is true that there is a significant hardcore within the Conservative party of rebels who happily defied the whip on the other big rebellion of this Parliament – October’s vote on holding a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. But that group only accounts for 57 per cent of last night’s rebels. The 81 in October did not simply increase by 10 to 91 last night. The table below shows that there were 39 MPs

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Fun for the hooligans at PMQs

Ed Miliband is at his best when at his quietest. He began Prime Minister’s Questions today by repeating a question put to David Cameron shortly before the last election. ‘Why do you want to be Prime Minister?’ Cameron had replied: ‘Because I think I’d be good at it.’ Great surges of Labour mirth greeted that quotation. When the noise died away, Miliband turned to the Prime Minister politely. ‘Where did it all go wrong?’ Cameron was like a man facing the downdraft of a helicopter. But he weathered the onslaught and responded forcefully with a list of government achievements. Two million taken out of tax. A cap on benefits, immigration

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron tries to calm troubled waters at the 1922 committee

By tradition, David Cameron stands outside meetings of the 1922 waiting to be summoned in. This meant that several late-arriving rebels had to walk past him on their way in. By and large, things were fairly cordial. But there was some tension at various points. Cameron started with a tribute to the Chief Whip, which got the MPs banging the desks. Some are taking this as a signal that Patrick McLoughlin is to be retired in the reshuffle. But those present thought it was more of a public admission that the whipping problems of the last few weeks have not been caused by the Chief but by Number 10 and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Miliband gets under Cameron’s skin at PMQs

Ed Miliband enjoyed Prime Minister’s Questions today. For the first time, he tried to bully Cameron. His questions were all designed to get under the Prime Minister’s skin. Once he had got the requisite rise, he joked about Cameron: ‘The redder he gets, the less he convinces.’ In a sign of what the general election could be like, Cameron’s response was based on Labour’s record in office. He declared ‘we will never forget what we were left by the party opposite’ and ‘never forgive them for what they did’. Miliband, for his part, concentrated on the recession and the Tories’ decision to cut the top rate of tax. Perhaps, the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s attack on Jesse Norman will backfire

Jesse Norman became the hero of the hour yesterday afternoon when the government admitted defeat against the Tory rebels and dropped the programme motion on Lords reform. Norman was keen to claim the victory for his rebel operation, making an early intervention to say: ‘Let me make it clear from the Conservative benches that the very substantial opposition from within the Conservative party, not just that from Labour, was responsible for the withdrawal of the motion. That should be perfectly clear and reflected in the record.’ As leader of the rebel camp, and a member of the 91 who voted against the second reading of the Bill late last night,

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The free-school ‘scandal’ ignores parents and pupils

The Guardian has published a piece on school reform which perfectly expresses the attitude which has condemned children of lower-income parents to dismal education for years. The introduction of the story goes as follows:   There are around 10,600 empty school places in Suffolk. Or, to put it another way, if 10 average-sized secondary schools were closed down, there would still be a place for every child living in the county who needs one. Which made it somewhat surprising, therefore, when the Department for Education approved four free schools in the county, with a further two in the offing. ‘The Suffolk free school scandal’, as local campaigners are calling it…

Tuesday

Gordon Hector

Making work pay

‘Making work pay’ – it’s the phrase du jour of welfare reform. It’s not always clear, though, how it is actually achieved. One part of the equation is looking at how earnings, taxes and benefits interact at the lower end of the income scale. As people earn more, they’re entitled to fewer benefits, and have to start paying higher taxes. This creates what’s known as a ‘withdrawal rate’ – the percentage of any extra income lost to this combination. When people talk about the ‘poverty trap’ or work not paying, this is often what they’re referring to: because if people don’t get to keep much of the money, their incentive

Matt Cavanagh

A U-turn on international students would be welcome

If you have been confused over the last couple of days by the mixed messages emerging from Downing Street about the government’s policy on international students, you are not alone: the same applies to many figures inside Whitehall.  The Sunday Times reported a Number 10 source saying David Cameron is ‘definitely considering a change in policy’, ‘fearing the UK could lose billions if students are caught up in the pledge to reduce net migration to below 100,000 by 2015’. The Mail followed up the story in its leader on Monday, endorsing it but suggesting it would be a mistake – and blaming it on the Lib Dems. But since then

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron’s leadership is bruised by Lords rebellion

‘Shouldn’t we just go home?’ the SNP’s Pete Wishart asked Sir George Young this evening after the Leader of the House revealed the government was dropping its programme motion on the House of Lords. ‘You know it’s all over. They know it’s all over,’ he added. But they didn’t go home, and the Commons has just voted in favour of the second reading 462 votes to 162. Early reports suggest that there were 86 Conservative MPs who defied the whip, which would make this the biggest rebellion in this parliament. Nick Clegg paused from trying very hard not to grimace on the front bench to cheer as Mark Harper told