Uk politics

Saturday

David Blackburn

Making the NHS a battle ground

Lord Rennard, the Lib Dems’ former chief executive and campaign supremo, is a frequent attendee at Westminster events. He usually makes just one point: the party’s polling may be poor, but the situation can be saved. Rennard points out that the party was delivered from disaster in 1997, thanks to targeted campaigning and a successful scheme to differentiate the party from Labour and the Tories. That campaign should be the model for the next one, which Rennard believes has already begun. He has elaborated on these ideas in the Guardian. He writes: ‘I always told candidates to think as much about the psychology of Maslow’s “hierarchy of needs” as any

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Compassionate conservatism the key to gay marriage pledge

When David Cameron spoke to the Carlton Club political dinner on Thursday night, he stressed that the Conservatives must not subcontract out compassion to their coalition partners. The Prime Minister’s desire to hold this ground can be seen at the speed with which Downing Street has briefed out that it was Cameron’s personal commitment that was key to the coalition’s decision to consult on how to introduce gay marriage. The message is clear, this isn’t just a bauble for the Lib Dems for the opening day of their conference. Personally, I think that the move on gay marriage is a welcome one. (Although, the legislation must ensure that no religious denomination

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg biography claims the Lib Dems want a new coalition agreement

Lib Dem conference this year brings with it the serialisation of Jasper Gerard’s biography of Nick Clegg. The focus will be on the claims that deputy Prime Minister has promised his wife he’ll only serve one term and that senior Lib Dems are interested in a soft electoral pact with the Tories. But, to my mind, the most interesting point is that the Lib Dems are keen on a new coalition agreement to cover the second half of the parliament. Coalition insiders have always admitted that the legislation mentioned in the agreement should have been mostly passed by 2012. But the Tories have been keen to spend the second half

Friday

David Blackburn

From the archives: The doomed euro

It was doomed from the start; that’s the prognosis of those who think that the single currency’s crisis is near terminal, such are its structural and political weaknesses. People warned that it could be thus when the Euro was first launched. Bruce Anderson was among them:  Had Mr Blair been braver, he could have been in on this week’s euro euphoria, Bruce Anderson, The Spectator, 9 January 1999 The combined political will of 11 nations – or at least of their political elites – assured an easy birth for the euro. But the euphoria should not deceive us. Most thoughtful politicians and commentators throughout Euroland will acknowledge that the present

David Blackburn

Abbas pitches for a Palestinian state

As Daniel wrote this morning, the Middle East peace process has returned to the headlines. Palestinian President Abbas has called for Palestine to be granted full membership of the United Nations, adding that the Palestinians had “legitimate right” to full membership. Abbas added that he remained committed to working with Israel, but said that negotiations had reached “an impasse, a dead end due to the stubborn policies of the Israeli Government that reject commitment to reference of negotiations based on international legitimacy.” This announcement would appear to have made Britain’s diplomatic position no less uncertain. Just as before, Britain’s position will depend on the precise wording of the resolution. Even

David Blackburn

Osborne: I know what it’s like to be in business

George Osborne spoke to Telegraph’s Festival of Business this morning and he gave a speech that was dominated by the issue of growth, or rather its absence. He reiterated the tax cuts and entrepreneurial relief measures first unveiled in March’s Budget. Osborne didn’t limit himself to his list of accomplishments. It was an empathetic speech. He related his memories of the “ups and downs” of his father’s business, the drapers Osborne&Little. He acknowledged the pressures of running your own enterprise in conjunction with a busy family life; a constant struggle that is exacerbated during hard times. “I know the kinds of pressure you are under,” he said. Osborne is frequently

Daniel Korski

The Israel Palestine question

After a hiatus, the Middle East Peace Process is about to return to the international stage. The Palestinians are pushing at the UN for recognition. Nobody knows yet what they will actually ask for: full statehood or just upgrading their UN status to “non-member”. But, whatever the language of the resolution, the issue will be contentious. By some estimates, 126 states are poised to back the Palestinian request, including France, India, Brazil, Spain. The US will not support a Palestinian move, nor is Germany likely to. Britain remains undecided, hoping to help the Palestinians draft a resolution that other Europeans can sign up to. It’s not clear what Britain and

David Blackburn

“It started in Germany…”

Bugger the Bundesbank — that seems to be ECB President Jean-Claude Trichet’s current raison d’être. The ECB, together with other global central banks, yesterday agreed to provide dollar funding to ease the mounting liquidity crisis in European banks, largely caused by American banks curtailing interbank lending in anticipation of another crisis. This unorthodox action runs contrary to the wishes of the German Bundesbank, adding to the pre-existing strain between the ECB and the German establishment over bond purchasing, tension that was epitomised by the resignation of Jurgen Stark last weekend. Obviously, central banks do not take this action every day and it is yet another indication that crisis is now impending.

Thursday

Daniel Korski

Cameron’s Libyan gamble

It is conventional wisdom that David Cameron won’t get much of an electoral bounce from the Libya intervention, despite emerging as a bold and competent interventionist. People, the argument goes, are tired of warfare. A senior figure in Tony Blair’s No 10 told me yesterday that he did not think the PM would earn a lot of kudos, because with all the problems at home there is less tolerance for overseas adventurism. But this narrative overlooks a number of key points. First, the success of the operation has dealt with the charge that the government is less competent than it pretended to be. This was a serious charge, as the

David Blackburn

The last of England

Martin Vander Weyer’s column in the latest issue of the magazine is essential reading. It features five current stories from the business world. The Vickers report, Martin says, will merely offer the same poor service for consumers at a greater cost. Martin also notes, as he did two weeks ago, that American banks are winding down their lending to European counterparts in anticipation of a crash, and adds that American politicians are keen to paint Europe as the bogeyman for their financial ills, conveniently ignoring the failure of Obama’s hugely expensive stimulus. Martin also touches on unemployment and the Eurozone crisis. His final vignette is a parable for our troubled

Nick Seddon

Time to recognise that the hospital is dead

For many years, it has been Government policy to move healthcare out of hospitals and into community units and homes, and concentrate specialist surgeries in centres of clinical excellence. This is politically contentious: former Secretary of State for Health Patricia Hewitt was closing local maternity units, but she had to deal with the humiliation of Ivan Lewis, a minister in her department, fighting her changes in his own constituency. But the time has finally come to break our national addiction to hospitals. In a report published today by Reform, Professor Paul Corrigan, who was a health special advisor to Tony Blair, argues that “the old model and concept of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

What the riots mean for Ken Clarke

The more we learn about the riots, the more it is becoming clear that experienced criminals were responsible for a lot of the looting. The Standard reports today that in London a quarter of those charged in relation to the riots had already been convicted of ten or more offences. What remains to be seen is if these hardened criminals instigated the riots, or simply took advantage of them. The involvement of these veterans of crime demonstrates the need both for better work on rehabilitating prisoners and for longer sentences to keep habitual criminals off the streets. The problem with Ken Clarke is that he, admittedly partly for budget reasons,

Clarissa Tan

Britain sues the ECB

As the EU debt drama continues unspooling like a perversely watchable soap opera (the FT’s Neil Hume describes it as ‘eurozone crisis porn’), an intriguing sub-plot has emerged: Britain is suing the European Central Bank. The Treasury is unhappy with an ECB move to limit the kind of euro-denominated products that can pass through UK clearing houses, suspecting it’s a bid to shift financial activity from London to Paris/Berlin. So it’s taking legal action, the first of its kind by an EU member state. This is not the first UK-EU disagreement that has surfaced in recent months, underlining the tensions between Britain and the Continent as financial centres across Europe

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Downing Street’s boundary review problem

I understand that Number 10 will lean on Cabinet ministers not to object to what the boundary review does to their seats. This is an intriguing development because at least three Tory Secretaries of State are deeply unhappy with the proposed changes to their constituencies. It’ll be fascinating to see whether Downing Street can persuade them to hold their peace on the matter. Their disquiet reflects broader grumbling throughout the Tory parliamentary party. All sorts of conspiracy theories are doing the rounds. Number 10 needs to move quickly to offer some reassurance to nervous MPs. If the boundary review’s plan is to be made agreeable to the Tory parliamentary party,

Jonathan Jones

Wooing women the Tory way

Back in June, Melanie McDonagh wrote that “the Tories are desperate to regain the female vote”. Today’s Guardian scoop, a government memo on the need to better appeal to women, proves she’s right. In places, the document reads as if it were written by a group of men to whom women are very much from Venus. They are careful to spell out the revelation that “of course women’s views differ as much as men’s”, and their response to discovering their weakness was apparently to find whoever they could in Number 10 without testicles and ask what they were doing wrong. However, it does at least show that the government recognises

James Forsyth James Forsyth

A brutal no score draw at PMQs

Cameron and Miliband went six rounds on the economy at PMQs. Miliband tried to portray Cameron as just another Tory who thinks that “unemployment is a price worth paying”. Cameron, for his part, wanted to paint the Labour leader as someone whose policies would send Britain tumbling into a sovereign debt crisis. At the end, it felt like a bit of a no-score draw. Interestingly, Cameron stressed that “every week and every month, we’ll be adding to that growth programme”. We’ll have to see whether he’s talking about more small-bore measures, or something bigger on infrastructure investment. Labour had a new tactic today, trying to fact-check all of Cameron’s answers

David Blackburn

Clegg sounds a dire warning on the economy

Nick Clegg gave a speech on the economy earlier this morning. As Tim Montgomerie notes, Clegg came close to admitting that the economy is nearing crisis. He said, “The economic context is much worse than before. Yes, facts have changed” and added that the “government is not blind to deterioration in economic environment”. These warnings tighten a knot in already sick stomachs; but, with the Eurozone mired in a crisis that is fast becoming existential, banks under mounting strain, rising unemployment, widespread talk of further Quantitative Easing and the very public internal debate in the coalition about the need for tax cuts, Clegg’s comments don’t come as a great surprise.  He also introduced

David Blackburn

A report to worry the two Eds?

The Institute for Fiscal Studies enjoys quasi-divine status in Westminster: chancellors and their shadows bother it for its blessing, and Budget Day is never complete until its judgment has been passed. Both parties have bent a suppliant knee before the institute in the past, but the IFS became particularly important to Labour after it declared last autumn that George Osborne’s policies to be ‘regressive‘. This is why the IFS report on the tax system, released today, is important. The review, conducted by Sir James Mirrlees, is a damning indictment on tax system that has fallen from 5th to 95th in the World Economic Forum’s tax competitiveness rankings. Mirrlees’ findings have far

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Miliband: We can’t spend our way to a new economy

David Cameron and IDS have been promoting the Work Programme this afternoon and they reiterated that jobseekers must learn English to claim benefits if their language difficulties are hampering their job applications. It’s another indication of the government’s radical approach to welfare reform. Aside from that, the main event in Westminster today was Ed Miliband’s speech to the TUC. Miliband was widely heckled by the Brothers, especially when he told them: “Let me just tell you about my experience of academies as I’ve got two academies in my own constituency. They have made a big difference to educational standards in my constituency and that is my local experience of that.” The Tories

Jonathan Jones

Inflation target missed again

Today’s inflation figures remind us of the trouble the Bank of England will have if – as most analysts suspect – it embarks on another phase of Quantitative Easing. CPI inflation was 4.5 per cent in the year to August, and RPI at 5.2 per cent, both up a touch from July.  CPI inflation has now overshot the Bank of England’s 2 per cent target for 60 of the past 75 months. It has been at more than 3 per cent since the start of 2010. As a result of last month’s figure, Governor Mervyn King wrote his now-standard letter to George Osborne to “explain” why inflation is above the