Uk politics

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Clegg adheres to the script on deficit reduction

What a curious speech by Nick Clegg to the CBI last night. Curious, not because it was bad — but because, in straining to give a uniquely “liberal” justification for deficit reduction and the spending cuts, the Deputy Prime Minister actually crafted an address that most Tory ministers should, and would, deliver themselves. Take his “liberal analysis” of the last decade: “On a liberal analysis, the last decade represented the worst of all worlds. On the one hand: unchecked private debt; an unsustainable housing market; an overleveraged banking sector; overreliance on City-based financial services while other regions and sectors suffered neglect. On the other: an inefficient state; central government wasting

Wednesday

Daniel Korski

Keeping the States interested

David Cameron has a good relationship with Barack Obama, which will be on display when the US president visits Britain shortly. They speak regularly and frankly and their senior advisers are in near-constant contact. The idea that the Lib Dems would foist a more “Love Actually” policy onto the coalition has come to naught. Yet Britain’s influence in Washington has waned. This is no fault of the Prime Minister. In fact, his personal diplomacy has probably slowed-down the process. Instead it has to do with structural changes in the US: the coming to power of a “pacific” President, the importance of US-China ties, the emergence of the Tea Party. As

Peter Hoskin

Laws calls for unity — but faces trouble

The personal and the political. They mesh to readable effect in David Laws’ interview with the Times (£) this morning, his first since resigning from government last year. There are the observations about his personal life, about why he concealed his sexuality and the relief of having it out in the open. And there are the political ramifications that tumble on from that. We know that Laws came close to standing down as an MP when the scandal over his expenses first emerged, but here it is revealed that, “he would have quit as an MP last week had the commissioner rejected his explanation that his Commons claims were to

Theodore Dalrymple

Against vulgarity

Where once the British set out for new fields to conquer, they now set out for new cultural nadirs to reach. And it must be admitted that, in the latter search, they show considerable ingenuity as well as determination. In the field of popular vulgarity they are unmatched in the world. Just when you think that their childish lavatorialism can descend no further, along come their future Queen’s sister’s buttocks to prove you wrong. No feeling for the person to whom the buttocks belong (if ownership is quite the relationship one has to one’s buttocks), no sense of national or personal dignity restrains them. The British are a nation of

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Cameroons livid with Ken

It is hard to overstate the fury with Ken Clarke in the Cameroon circle today. One well-informed Tory source just told me, ‘they [Cameron and Osborne] just can’t wait to see the back of him’ before pondering whether Clarke was now just too old for frontline politics. Another bemoaned that Clarke had managed both to deepen the party’s problems with women and further undermine its reputation as the party of law and order. While one more couldn’t believe how on a day when unemployment fell, two men were charged with the murder of Stephen Lawrence and the Queen and PM were marking a new era in Anglo-Irish relations, the coalition

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Cameron faces the barmy army

Ed Miliband came to PMQs hoping to turn the House into a rape crisis centre for the Justice Secretary. Quoting from Ken Clarke’s tricky Radio Five interview earlier he criticised him for distinguishing between ‘serious’ and ‘other categories’ of rape. Would the PM distance himself from his minister? Cameron claimed not to have heard the interview – conveniently enough – and pointed out that the policy is still at the consultation stage. His priority was to correct a system in which all but 6 per cent of reported rapes result in no conviction at all. Miliband plugged away, upping the stakes, widening the issue and claiming to have spotted a

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is Clarke’s fate sealed?

Ken Clarke is in the middle of a media firestorm following his comments on rape. The remarks were typical of Clarke’s dismissive attitude to the victims of crime and Downing Street is clearly furious about them. It has ruled out sacking him, but I suspect that Clarke’s fate is now sealed come the much expected March 2012 reshuffle. Clarke is of the never explain, never apologise school of politics. But Number 10 clearly want him to ‘clarify’ his remarks. I suspect that Clarke, who has been busily defending his comments, will not want to do that. This could well be the cause of the next row between Clarke and the

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 18 May 2011

VERDICT: That was probably the most straightforward PMQs that Ed Miliband will ever experience. Thanks to Ken Clarke, the Labour leader had several shots into an open goal — and most were excuted efficiently, if not skilfully. Cameron was left in an unforgiving position, and he just about hung in there, eventually mustering some sort of defence and then turning it around to Labour’s mismanagement of the criminal justice system. It was an intriguing exchange, not least because it presaged what could become a major problem for the Tories — their crime and justice policy — and how Labour might exploit it. And it was all supplemented by a set

Peter Hoskin

Clarke’s calamity

Has Ken Clarke just signed his own political death certificate? Whether you agree with his liberal sentencing reforms or no’, there’s little doubting that the Justice Secretary has just stumbled quite emphatically on Radio 5. It looked bad enough for him when, discussing an idea to cut the sentences of those who plead guilty to sex attacks, he blustered that, “No, I haven’t put this idea to women who’ve been raped because I haven’t met one recently.” But then it turned even worse when a rape victim called in to describe her tragic case: she had been dragged through the courts for almost two years in search of justice, only

Cameron must defeat Clegg and break the NHS’ monopoly

‘NHS good, private health bad’. ‘State good, market bad’. ‘Four legs good, two legs bad’. Whenever political leaders get into a tight corner they have to find allies fast. There is no time for reasoning to work its gentle magic. Basic sentiments need to be stirred and the popular favourite is usually hate. Yesterday Mr Clegg used this classic strategy to rebuild his support base. The cold-hearted Tories were at it again, dismantling that icon of compassion the NHS. In public they were declaring their undying love for it but out of sight they were promising fat profits for ‘health care corporations’ once the new law was passed. Mr Clegg

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Coalition’s NHS battle turns personal

David Cameron’s ‘love for the NHS’ is a critical part of his political persona. It is, his advisers believe, what proves that he is a different kind of Tory. So it is remarkable that Nick Clegg is questioning it in semi-public. In a speech to Lib Dem MPs and peers last night — that Clegg would have known was bound to leak, he criticised politicians — eg, the Prime Minister — who express their love for the NHS but take advice from people who see NHS reform as a chance for private companies to make big profits. What makes this intervention all the more remarkable is that Downing Street has

Tuesday

Nicholas Mackey

When Dublin trembled

On 17 May 1974 — 37 years ago today — I was a 19-year-old student at Trinity College Dublin, celebrating the end of term in the Pavilion Bar near the sports fields. The summer exams were still to come, but we were carefree; the main subject of conversation was whether we could organise a disco party later on. Then, a little after 5.30 p.m., everything changed. First, all about us seemed to shiver, as if there were an earth tremor. Then, just as it occurred to me that Dublin did not generally suffer tectonic stress, there was a deafening bang that seemed to go on for an age. Somebody shouted:

David Blackburn

Clegg’s great rejuvenator falls a little flat

‘Constitutional reform is a waste of time, pure and simple. It never actually achieves its avowed end of reconnecting the voters with democratic institutions,’ wrote John McTernan, the former advisor to Tony Blair, recently. There are signs that the current government agrees.   Nick Clegg has unveiled the next stage of his constitutional reforms today by revealing draft plans to reform the House of Lords. The coalition speaks in unison in public: the Cabinet discussed reform last and apparently there was “very strong support for the proposals around the table”. But dissenting voices must have sounded in private.   The inestimable Rachel Sylvester reveals (£) that Clegg’s draft is very

Peter Hoskin

An historic moment

There is something incredibly resonant about the images of the Queen arriving in the Republic of Ireland this afternoon. You have probably heard the facts by now — that she is the first British monarch to do so for 100 years, and the first since Irish independence — but they are no less striking. Against a backdrop of terror threats and of Britain’s participation in the country’s bailout, Queen Elizabeth II is making some kind of history today. It is also, as Ed West says in a thoughtful post over at the Telegraph, a time for remembrance. He suggests that we remember the 300,000 Irishmen who fought in the Great

Daniel Korski

Fox letter: storm in a fair trade, biodegradable cup

David Cameron probably let out a sigh when he was informed that yet another letter from Liam Fox had been leaked to the press. And when the Defence Secretary called No 10, as he undoubtedly did, to do his now-familiar Captain Renault routine, the Prime Minister can be excused for feeling a little frustrated. For the debates that have occurred in consequence miss a number of key points. The PM believes in overseas development – believes it is right, believes it is useful. No doubt he may find it useful to “decontaminate” the Tories but would not have been willing to spend 0.7 percent of GDP for something he did

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s personnel issues

The past fortnight has been instructive in just how little control David Cameron has over the make-up of his Cabinet. Every choice he makes, it seems, has to be weighed against the fragile balance of the coalition, as well as against the internal divides of the two coalition parties themselves. I mean, Vince Cable calls the Tories “ruthless, calculating and thoroughly tribal” — only the latest of a series of provocations — and his position doesn’t look precarious in the slightest. Chris Huhne is mired in a scandal that may still terminate his political career, and yet there is little indication that the scythes of Downing Street are moving to

Peter Hoskin

Inflation bites back

  Good job we didn’t unravel the bunting after last month’s inflation figures. Because today we discover that CPI inflation rose again in April, by 0.5 percentage points, to 4.5 per cent — its highest level since October 2008. That drop in March does look like a blip after all. Even with RPI inflation continuing to fall (by 0.1 percentage points), we seem to have returned to a grim, upwards trajectory. Most forecasters predict that inflation will keep on rising for the rest of this year, outstripping wage growth along the way. The squeeze on living standards continues: We have dwelt on the political problems this creates for Osborne before,

Monday

James Forsyth

Leak shows that Fox objects to plans to spend more on overseas development

A second letter from the Defence Secretary to the Prime Minister has leaked out. Tomorrow’s Times reports on a note that Liam Fox sent to the Prime Minister opposing the government’s plan to legislate for Britain to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on overseas development aid. It won’t come as a huge surprise to anyone that Dr Fox is sceptical of aid spending. But for another letter from him to the PM to reach the press will further strain relations between the MoD and Downing Street. There will be those in the Cameron circle who think that it is not a coincidence that both of the missives that have leaked out have

David Blackburn

Labour’s apparent shift on free schools

As I wrote on Friday, there is a sense that some on Labour’s benches want to soften the party’s education policy. It seems that the first subtle shift may have come over the weekend. Total Politics’ Amber Elliott reports on a Fabian Society meeting where Andy Burnham apparently dropped his blanket opposition to free schools. Amber writes: ‘Speaking at the Fabian Society conference at the weekend, Burnham signalled that he is not against free schools such as the one former-No10-strategist-turned-teacher Peter Hyman is setting up. Labour blogger Anthony Painter tweeted from the conference: “@andyburnhammp supports Peter Hyman’s free school as a Labour alternative to the Tory concept. But also says