uk politics Archives

Sunday

2 Sep 2012

Osborne reveals his new strategy for growth

The contours of the coalition’s autumn growth offensive are beginning to emerge. The impasse that existed before the summer appears to have at least eased. On Marr this morning, George Osborne announced that the Treasury is now working on plans for a small business bank which will please Vince Cable who has been pushing for this for a long time. At the same time, Osborne also backed more airport and runway capacity in the South East and announced that the government will announce further measures to simplify the planning system. His message: ‘we have to do more and do it faster’. In line with this approach I understand that Vince Cable

Friday

31 Aug 2012

Isabel Hardman

GCSE row will rumble on

‘If concerns are expressed, we look into them. We’ve done that.’ When Glenys Stacey appeared on Sky News this evening after Ofqual finally published its initial report into the gradings of the GCSE English exams, she had an air of finality about her. What the chief executive of the regulator was trying to suggest, as she discussed the report’s findings with the presenter, was that this was the end of the row. Even though Ofqual’s report said the problem with last week’s GCSE results was not that the papers taken in June had been marked too harshly, but that those sat in January were marked too generously, this is not the

Isabel Hardman

Treasury: We did not leak the Budget

It’s easy to forget that the Budget took place five long months ago when it is still being unpicked and argued over now. The Treasury Select Committee published the responses from the government and the Office for Budget Responsibility to its report on that Budget today, and it includes a curious denial from the Treasury. Andrew Tyrie and his colleagues on the committee had criticised the amount of pre-briefing and leaking of the budget that took place in the weeks before George Osborne stood up in the Commons, arguing that ‘coalition government is not a justification for budget leaks’. This is what the Treasury said in response: No Treasury officials,

Sebastian Payne

Can Alex Salmond regain his lost momentum after Britain’s summer of fun?

Alex Salmond has gone rather quiet this summer. Before Britain’s season of fun, the SNP leader appeared unstoppable in his quest for Scottish independence, but the Diamond Jubilee and Olympics have halted Salmond’s momentum. The Mayor of London crystallised this feeling yesterday during one of his #askboris sessions on Twitter: ‘The Scots are never going to vote for independence…these games have done for Salmond…vote Hoy’ The SNP retaliated today, with Kenneth Gibson MSP lambasting one ‘Boris Johnston’: Commenting on Boris Johnston’s claims that the Olympics will have an effect on how Scotland votes at the referendum for independence, SNP MSP Kenneth Gibson, said: “The more Boris speaks out against independence, the better it

Isabel Hardman

GCSE reform details due in coming weeks

Exams regulator Ofqual is due to publish its findings on the gradings in the GCSE English paper today. The afternoon is yawning along, though, and there’s still no sign of the report, so while you’re all waiting with bated breath, here’s an update on the wider picture on GCSE reform. Michael Gove rather shocked the rest of the coalition government earlier this summer when his plan to abolish GCSEs and replace them with a two-tier O level-style exam system appeared on the front page of the Daily Mail. Since then, he and his advisers have been deep in negotiation with the Liberal Democrats on what an acceptable reform might look

Jon Mack

Was the new squatting law necessary?

Squatting in residential properties became a criminal offence today under the Legal Aid Sentencing and Punishment of Offenders Act 2012, with a penalty of 6 months’ imprisonment or a £5,000 fine. The new offence applies where a person knowingly trespasses in residential premises with the intention of living there. Potentially it could happen to any of us who own or rent a house or flat. Some people even fall prey to squatters when they simply leave the country for an annual holiday. Justice minister Crispin Blunt told parliament that the new law ‘will bring relief to those whose lives are blighted by having their homes occupied.’ This comment demonstrates two fundamental

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem MPs are still remarkably loyal to Clegg

Nick Clegg may or may not be thrilled that Paddy Ashdown has urged party members to stand by their leader after Lord Oakeshott’s rather vicious attack on him yesterday. It depends slightly on the Deputy Prime Minister’s reading of history: as Tim Montgomerie observed last night, the endorsement of a former party leader can sometimes seem like a death knell. It is interesting, though, that it was Lord Oakeshott who launched the first public attack on Clegg’s leadership (that is, if you discount the helpful suggestions from ex-MP Lembit Opik). Not surprising, of course: the party’s former Treasury spokesman in the Lords is not known for delicacy when it comes

Fraser Nelson

Cameron and the truth about debt

In Tampa, the Republican conference has heard a line of powerful speakers talk about government debt in compelling and urgent way. There’s a contingent of eight Tories out there, led by party chairman Sayeeda Warsi, but I doubt they’ll be taking many notes. The finely-honed attack lines that the Republicans are coming out are more use to Labour than to the Tories. Take the below, from Paul Ryan’s speech on Wednesday. ‘They’ve run out of ideas. Their moment came and went. They were elected in the middle of a crisis, as they constantly remind us, but they’re now making it worse. They have added £11,000 of debt for every man,

Thursday

30 Aug 2012

Isabel Hardman

A little bit more advice for George Osborne

George Osborne returned from his summer holidays this week to find a cacophony of advice for him on how to boost the economy, as well as advice that his boss David Cameron should sack him as Chancellor in his planned reshuffle. He quickly torpedoed one piece of wisdom generously offered by Nick Clegg, saying the Lib Dem leader’s plans for a wealth tax could ‘drive away the wealth creators and the businesses that are going to lead our economic recovery’. Anyone eagerly expecting Osborne to lose his job in the next few weeks will be disappointed, but the Chancellor will continue to come under pressure, and not just from those

Matt Cavanagh

Net migration starts to fall – but the real questions remain unanswered

The latest immigration figures published by the ONS today, for the calendar year 2011, show net migration falling for the first time under the coalition – but nowhere near fast enough to give ministers confidence that they will hit their target by 2015. The ONS estimates that immigration last year fell by 25,000, and emigration rose by 11,000, resulting in a drop in net migration of 36,000 – from 252,000 to 216,000. This is in line with my earlier prediction, though the ONS warn that the fall is not statistically significant, and the target of 100,000 still looks a long way away. It is worth noting that despite ministers’ rhetoric,

Wednesday

29 Aug 2012

Isabel Hardman

Tory MP: Cameron is a chambermaid to the Lib Dems

Yesterday David Cameron was a mouse, and today he’s a chambermaid, according to another one of his imaginative backbench MPs. Brian Binley, the Conservative MP for Northampton South, has written a fierce blog in which he tells David Cameron that he doesn’t need a reshuffle that will simply amount to ‘re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic’: he needs a change in direction and a re-think. Binley attacks the way the Prime Minister relates to the Liberal Democrats in government, saying: My point is that Mr Cameron should never have hitched his star to any of the self-indulgent lunacy that has been characteristic of the unreasonable demands of his coalition

Isabel Hardman

Drop in workless households suggests welfare reform could be starting to work

Could we be starting to see the first fruits of the coalition’s welfare reforms? The Office for National Statistics reported today that the number of workless households has fallen for the second year running. It found that just under 18 per cent of households have no adults in work, a fall of 0.8 percentage points from last year. Between April and June 2012 there were 3.7 million households in the UK where no-one was working, down 153,000. Garyling and his colleague in the Work and Pensions department Iain Duncan Smith will also be buoyed by the news that the number of households where no adult has ever worked also fell by 26,000

Ryan Bourne

Would a wealth tax work?

Roll up, roll up! The biannual Lib Dem half-baked tax policy circus is in town! Last time, the so-called ‘mansion tax’ show never lived up to its billing, as ringleader Clegg tried juggling too many ideas. We had the mansion tax, tycoon tax, new stamp duty bands and the more noble income tax threshold rise to watch. Now, it seems, the spectacle is back – with the big beasts of the Liberal Democrats prowling the airwaves to push for a new wealth tax to ensure the rich ‘pay their fair share’. Unlike the mansion tax, this policy suggestion would not, we are told, be a permanent feature – but rather

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg’s pre-conference salvo

This year more than ever, Nick Clegg is looking around for a policy to ensure he does not, to quote Nye Bevan, go naked into the conference hall when his party meets in Brighton. He does not have Lords reform to rouse his party ranks, the grassroots are nervous about the threat of an extra £10 billion in welfare cuts and there’s a row brewing on airports that will at some stage move from grumpy sniping to something rather uglier. So in his interview with the Guardian, the Liberal Democrat leader decided to talk tax, calling for a ‘time-limited contribution’ from the wealthiest in society. That this was a pre-conference

Bernard Jenkin Mp

How to improve confidence in the honours system

Every honours list throws up some controversy or other, such as whether a knighthood is linked to a political donation (a media favourite) or can be interpreted as some kind of political favour. Despite this, the Public Administration Select Committee took evidence which suggests that the honours system is broadly popular (81 per cent) and trusted by the public (71 per cent). This does not mean that the honours system is politically uncontroversial, with some MPs regarding it as corrupt and class-based, with others regarding the relationship with the Queen and the Empire Order as distinctly British and something to defend. (The present prime minister just restored the British Empire

Tuesday

28 Aug 2012

Isabel Hardman

Chris Grayling’s new unpaid work experience scheme

Buoyed by his department’s recent success in squashing allegations of ‘slave labour’, Chris Grayling launched a new back-to-work scheme for unemployed young people in London today. The joint pilot with the Mayor of London will put 6,000 18-24 year-olds with little or no work experience into placements with charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises in the community which last three months. If they refuse to take part, then they will not receive their benefits. Grayling is well aware that this sort of scheme will be controversial, because it could mean young people lose their benefits if they refuse to comply. In an article in the Evening Standard, the employment minister

Sebastian Payne

Of mice and men: the options for airport expansion

Hugh Robertson was trying to stick up for the Prime Minister this afternoon when he said David Cameron was ‘absolutely a man’. He was defending the government’s decision to stay right where it is on airport expansion, against Tim Yeo’s warning that to stick to manifesto pledges and commitments in the coalition agreement on Heathrow would make Cameron a ‘mouse’. So where does this leave the various options to solve our aviation capacity conundrum? Here is a rundown of the various solutions, and who supports them: Heathrow expansion Nine years ago, Labour presented a white paper proposing a third runway at the country’s busiest airport, to be built by 2015-2020. In 2009,

Isabel Hardman

The cost of living and Cameron’s plans for victory in 2015

Conservative backbenchers are worried that the Prime Minister and his colleagues leading the Conservative party do not have a clear plan for winning the 2015 election. The Times reports today that they will try to corner David Cameron at a supper of the parliamentary party next week to ask him what his strategy is. They are also taking tips from Boris on how to win elections at a meeting of the 1922 committee. If Cameron does not divulge his strategy next Wednesday, he risks reading more hostile briefings against him in the papers from backbenchers panicked about their own job security. There are also growing concerns on the Tory benches

Isabel Hardman

Downing Street rejects Yeo’s ‘man or mouse’ threat

Justine Greening will be relieved: Downing Street has just poured cold water on suggestions the government could U-turn on a third runway at Heathrow. At the morning lobby briefing, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘Their stance is as laid out in the Coalition Agreement: that’s not changed. The coalition parties have made a pledge not to have a third runway and that is a pledge that we will keep.’ She added that the government did not ‘see an argument for a third runway’ but that there was a need to ‘look more broadly at aviation policy’. It was of course unlikely that Downing Street was going to turn round this

Isabel Hardman

Justine Greening’s impossible job

It was difficult not to feel sorry for Transport Secretary Justine Greening this morning as she twisted and turned to avoid questions fired at her by Jim Naughtie on a third runway. Each time Greening thought she had escaped having to tell Radio 4 listeners whether she could remain in the Cabinet should the Prime Minister decide he is indeed a man rather than a mouse and U-turn on expanding Heathrow, Naughtie kept returning to the question: Naughtie: Let’s be clear about the third runway: is your government open to argument about it, or not? Greening: No, the Coalition Agreement is very clear that we don’t support a third runway