Uk politics

Thursday

Richard Marsh

Closing cardiac units might be right, but it won’t be easy

Yesterday, Health Secretary Andrew Lansley reported to MPs on the state of the NHS. The state of the NHS, you’ll be relieved to know, is good, or at least it is in Mr Lansley’s estimation. Budgets are in surplus, waiting lists are down and, unless you are very unlucky, you won’t have to hang around for more than four hours in A&E before they see you. One thing, however, that the Health Secretary didn’t volunteer – curiously, since it was the biggest NHS news of the day – was the reorganisation of heart care for children, and the closure of three specialist surgery centres in England. This is probably just

Jonathan Jones

QE is no substitute for a growth strategy

So the Bank of England is firing up the presses again, and injecting another £50 billion of Quantitative Easing (on top of the £325 billion we’ve had so far), in a desperate bid to get the economy moving. The Bank’s certainly right that growth’s not forthcoming. GDP in the first quarter of this year was 0.2 per cent below where it was in the first quarter of 2011, and the prospects for Q2 aren’t looking too bright either — especially with the extra Jubilee bank holiday. Some are hoping that the Olympics will help brighten the picture in Q3 — David Cameron says he’s ‘confident that we can derive over

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

The battle to be the party of the armed forces

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond has the unenviable task today of announcing a cull of army units as the force is cut from 102,000 to 82,000. The Army 2020 review, the launch of which was delayed beyond Armed Forces Day last weekend, also doubles the number of reservists to 30,000. This leaves it half the size it was during the Cold War era, and the smallest since the Boer War. This is obviously deeply unpleasant for those troops whose units are being abolished. It is also uncomfortable for the Tories, who have long enjoyed the reputation of being the party of the armed forces. Tim Montgomerie tweeted this morning: ‘Biggest tax

James Forsyth James Forsyth

QCs could be the solution to the banking inquiry row

There are, though partisans don’t want to admit it, problems with both a judicial inquiry and a parliamentary inquiry into the Libor scandal and the wider culture it has revealed. A judicial inquiry would drag on and, judging by the Leveson Inquiry, there’s no guarantee that the judge would understand the industry he’s meant to be examining. But, as yesterday demonstrated, the standard of questioning at any parliamentary inquiry is going to be patchy.   John Thurso, a Lib Dem member of the Treasury select committee and one of the most respected MPs, has been out floating a compromise solution. His idea is that the Joint Committee should have the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

‘Welfare suicides’ are awful, but they’re still a red herring

One of my first jobs as a junior reporter was covering the inquest of a man who had committed suicide at the end of a legal battle against a rise in his rent. His council house had been transferred to a housing association, and the rents were set to rise by £5 a week. Like all inquests, it was a grisly affair. It took evidence from a sobbing young relative, and included the details of how he killed himself. This case was a terribly sad mess, and there doubtless should have been more support at hand for a man frightened about falling into arrears with his rent. But his death

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Inquiry debate leaves acrimonious atmosphere

Following the vote just now, there will be a parliamentary inquiry into the Libor scandal. Andrew Tyrie, chairman of the Treasury select committee, will chair it because Ed Balls has agreed that Labour will participate in it as long as it concerns about membership and the secretariat are addressed; presumably, this means that Labour will argue that as it is a joint committee of both House there should be no government majority on it. The debate, though, has left an atmosphere of acrimony behind. It was noticeable that during the vote, Ed Balls walked past George Osborne who appeared to be trying to engage him in conversation. Also when Nicola

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Osborne and Balls are playing high stakes on Libor

The exchanges between Balls and Osborne just now are some of the most heated and most personal in parliamentary memory. I suspect that Balls would now not offer to cook Osborne ‘my 14-hour pulled pork South Carolina barbecue. I’d know he, as an American aficionado, would truly appreciate it’. The cause for this row is George Osborne’s interview in the new issue of The Spectator. The following paragraphs have sent Balls into a rage: ‘If exonerating the Bank is his first priority, his second is tying this scandal to the last government. He starts by blaming the regulatory system devised by Brown and Balls for allowing these abuses to happen.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

The Tory fight for Lords reform

Last night a group of Liberal Democrat and Conservative MPs met to discuss Lords reform. Public outbursts from the Conservative backbench have so far focused on opposition to the bill and the programme motion that the whips are trying to impose on the legislation, but the group of pro-reform MPs, who have informally dubbed themselves the Democratic Majority, are optimistic that the legislation will make a successful passage through the House of Commons. There are 27 Conservatives on board at the moment along all the Lib Dems, standing up the list of 100 MPs that the rebel leaders claim to have among their number. Ringleader Jake Berry, a member of

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Ed’s ahead with banking inquiry

Low party interest parading as high political principle. That was the theme of today’s PMQs as the party leaders clashed over the scope and nature of the inquiry into the Libor scandal. David Cameron’s pungent language was intended to reflect public anger at the banks. He spoke of ‘spivvy and illegal activity’ in the City, and he promised that crime in financial centres would be pursued as rigorously as crime on the streets. One of the grandest of Tory grandees, Nicholas Soames, warned him that new regulatory mechanisms mustn’t be allowed to damage the City, ‘which remains a vital asset for our country.’   And he was followed by the

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Bob and Bollinger banking

This is the memo from Bob Diamond, released yesterday, on which many of this afternoon’s questions at the Treasury Select Committee will hinge. It records a conversation with Bank of England Deputy Governor Paul Tucker, and is worth reproducing in full here: Further to our last call, Mr Tucker reiterated that he had received calls from a number of senior figures within Whitehall to question why Barclays was always towards the top end of the Libor pricing. His response was ‘you have to pay what you pay’. I asked if he could relay the reality, that not all banks were providing quotes at the levels that represented real transactions, his

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Bob’s long afternoon at the crease

This afternoon’s rather lengthy Treasury Select Committee hearing with Bob Diamond suggests that Ed Miliband might be on to something with his calls for a judge-led inquiry. We were two hours into the session when John Thurso remarked: ‘If you were an English cricketer, I suspect your name would be Geoffrey Boycott… You’ve been occupying the crease for two-and-a-half hours and I’m not sure we’re a great deal further forward.’ If Boycott were watching, he’d remark that his mother could have batted away the majority of the questions thrown to Diamond with a stick of rhubarb. This committee meeting provided the former Barclays chief executive with a pretty flat pitch.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Exclusive: Osborne, ‘They were clearly involved’

After a subdued PMQs, the politics of the Libor scandal has just been ratcheted up another notch. In an interview with The Spectator for this week’s issue, George Osborne has said that those around Gordon Brown ‘were clearly involved’ in the discussion about how to keep Libor down during the 2008 financial crisis. In the interview, George Osborne gives short shrift to Barclays’s accusation that the Bank of England urged it to get its Libor down. Osborne stresses that this change has been ‘specifically addressed, not just by our own investigators at the Financial Services Authority but also in the US Department of Justice and they are not people who

Tuesday

Dominique Lazanski

An internet filter would be counterproductive

Following Claire Perry’s campaign for porn prohibition, the Department of Education has now launched a consultation on parental internet controls. For those of you unaware of the policy proposals, it is something we should be concerned about as it poses a very real threat to our internet freedoms. This year, Perry held an independent inquiry on online child protection. The report, released in April, recommended that internet users who wish to view pornography should have to opt-in to it. In other words, there should be default blocking of legal content by internet service providers unless users request this block be turned off.  From a technical point of view, the introduction

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron hints at Coalition split on EU review

Yesterday the Prime Minister made a point of showing his backbench how very willing he was to listen to their concerns about the European Union. Today, as he gave evidence to the Liaison Committee, David Cameron made a point of suggesting his Liberal Democrat coalition partners are a little less willing when it comes to reviewing the EU’s powers.  Asked when he would launch the balance of competencies review, which will examine the impact of EU law on Britain, the Prime Minister said: ‘I hope that we will be able to start the process before the summer, but we need to seek full agreement before we launch it.’  He added:

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Diamond does not last forever

Bob Diamond’s resignation with immediate effect as chief executive of Barclays gives plenty of people in Westminster the scalp they were looking for. Labour had called for Diamond to go after the Libor scandal surfaced. The Lib Dems had called for Diamond to resign, with Vince Cable threatening to use as a last resort his powers to disqualify directors. In fact the Lib Dems have been so focused on getting Diamond out that I understand they have been intentionally avoiding the brewing row between Labour and Tories about the parliamentary inquiry, headed by Treasury Select Committee chair Andrew Tyrie. Diamond’s resignation statement to the stock exchange was not exactly dripping

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Clegg: I feel lobotomised in government

Nick Clegg gave a rather sombre speech to the CentreForum summer reception last night. Addressing the guests from a pulpit in the vaulted cloisters of Westminster Abbey, as the rain poured down outside, the Deputy Prime Minister admitted he felt ‘lobotomised’ in government. It was actually a clumsy attempt to praise the work of the Lib Dem-aligned think tank in helping the party retain its brain by dreaming up new policies when the constraints of Coalition might otherwise prevent it, but it did not go down well with those listening. Andrew Neil tweeted that Lord Steel, who he was standing next to at the event, had rolled his eyes at Clegg’s turn of

Monday

Isabel Hardman

A fresh deal and a fresh settlement

Pressure has been building all weekend for the Prime Minister to give some form of concession to his eurosceptic backbenchers in his statement on the outcome of the Brussels summit. James blogged shortly before David Cameron stood up in the Commons that Tory MPs were being reassured that they were going to like what they would hear him, which a pro-European MP suspected would be ‘feeding a beast with an insatiable appetite’. This is the meat the Prime Minister threw to the eurosceptics: ‘Far from ruling out a referendum for the future, as a fresh deal in Europe becomes clear, we should consider how best to get the fresh consent

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron’s position on Europe grows clearer

David Cameron’s position on Europe is becoming clearer. ‘Fresh settlement, fresh consent’, the soundbite he kept using, is simply a euphemism for renegotiation followed by a referendum. It seems that this renegotiation will span the next election. Indeed, it will start as soon as a new EU treaty is proposed. In response to a question from Peter Lilley, Cameron said he will try to use any forthcoming treaty to attempt to bring powers back to this country. Those close to Cameron say that the plan is to get as much back before the next election and then accelerate the process as soon as there is a treaty negotiation under a

Clarissa Tan

Sir Mervyn and money-fixing

Is manipulating interest rates really as shocking to the Chancellor and the Governor of the Bank of England as they make it out to be? The Libor and Euribor fixing scandal has shown several bankers at it, yet this weekend there were suggestions that at least some of these bankers thought that the regulators, the Bank of England and even the Treasury were aware of the scam – and had a shared interest in keeping the official borrowing rate down so as not to spread panic. This reminds us what an extraordinary situation the Old Lady of Threadneedle St finds herself in. On Friday, Governor Mervyn King lambasted banks and

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameron feeds the eurosceptic beast

Nick Clegg won’t be sitting next to the Prime Minister in the chamber for today’s statement on the EU Council. He has, I’m told, got other meetings to attend. This absence might be for the best given what Tory MPs are planning to ask Cameron. As Isabel revealed earlier, a string of Eurosceptic backbenchers are planning to push the Prime Minister to go further than he did in his Sunday Telegraph piece. Number 10 is also expecting a question from Liam Fox. Tory MPs are being reassured that they’ll like what they’ll hear from Cameron on a referendum. It does seem that the statement will be firmer than what William