Uk politics

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

When it comes to global warming, rational debate is what we need

We had a sell-out debate on global warming at The Spectator on Tuesday and, as I found out this morning, the debate is still going on. The teams were led by Nigel Lawson and Sir David King, and I was in the audience. I tweeted my praise of Simon Singh’s argument as he made it: it was a brilliant variation on the theme of “don’t think – trust the experts”. He seems to have discovered the tweet this morning, and responded with a volley of five questions for me. Then David Aaronovitch weighed in, followed by Simon Mayo. At 8.35am! I had the choice between replying, or carrying on with

Charles Moore Charles Moore

Exclusive: the man who saved the Zurbarans

The drama over Durham’s Zurbaran paintings has reached an extraordinary conclusion — and one that is revealed exclusively in this week’s Spectator. The protest against the Church of England’s proposed sale had snowballed into a national campaign, with Jeremy Hunt calling for them to be “enjoyed by the public.” Today we can disclose that they have been bought for £15 million — by an investor (and Spectator reader) called Jonathan Ruffer, who has decided to gift them back to the church. Here, for CoffeeHousers, is Charles Moore’s interview with him for the magazine: ‘It’s the pearl of great price,’ says Jonathan Ruffer. Like the merchant in the Gospel, he is

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Things are getting fraught inside the coalition as AV vote looms

Relations between the coalition partners are fraught at present, more of which in the column tomorrow. The main cause of this tension is the AV referendum which is pitting the two sides against each other in an increasingly bitter fight. But even by recent standards, Chris Huhne’s response to the Tory chairman Sayeeda Warsi’s claim that AV would help the BNP is dramatic. As Patrick Wintour reports, Huhne has accussed Warsi and the No campaign of indulging in an ‘increasingly Goebbels-like campaign.’ This latest riposte follows Huhne’s letter at the weekend which made clear that the No campaign’s tactics were threatening the existence of the coalition. The next nine months

Toby Young Toby Young

David Miliband’s never-to-be-made best man speech

Good afternoon. I’d like to thank you all for coming to this godforsaken hell hole – sorry, I mean, Ed’s constituency. Believe it or not, I once expressed an interest in becoming the Labour MP for Doncaster North, but as soon as Ed heard about it he tossed his hat into the ring. Funny that. I’m going to start by reading a few telegrams from people who couldn’t be here today. [Reading]: “Dear Ed, Thanks for your kind invitation, but I’d rather stick pins in my eyes.” [Looking up]: That’s from my wife, Louise. [Reading]: “Dear Ed, I’m happy to pick up the tab. You can pay me back when

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Mundane duties interrupt Field Marshal Cameron

Cameron was at pains to disguise it, but his impatience finally gave way at PMQs today. What a contrast with the last 24 hours. The nemesis of Gaddafi, the terror of Tripoli, the champion of the rebels, the moral conscience of the West, the world’s latest and greatest international tyrant-buster had to return to earth, and to the House of Commons, to deal with enterprise zones, disability benefits, carbon trading price structures and all the belly-aches of the provincial grockles who put him where he is. What a chore. Ed Miliband had a pop at him on police numbers. The Labour leader asked a clear and simple question. ‘Will there

James Forsyth James Forsyth

An explosive session

This PMQs will be remembered for the Cameron Balls spat. As Cameron was answering a question from a Labour MP, he snapped at Balls who was heckling him, shouting ‘you don’t know the answer, you’re not properly briefed, why don’t you just say you’ll write to her’. A visibly irritated Cameron shot back, ‘I wish the shadow Chancellor would shut up and listen for once’. At this the Labour benches erupted, their aim at PMQs is always to get Cameron to lose his temper and they had succeeded. Cameron then produced a brilliant comeback, saying that Balls was ‘the most annoying person in British politics’ and ‘I suspect that the

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 30 March 2011

VERDICT: What happened there, then? The Prime Minister often has a confident swagger about him when it comes to PMQs — but today it went into overdrive. He simply couldn’t conceal his glee at taking on Eds Miliband and Balls; the first over his appearance at the anti-cuts demonstration, the second for just being Ed Balls. It was a little bit Flashman from the PM, perhaps. Yet, on this occasion, it also helped him sail through the contest more or less untroubled. Aside from the theatrics, the serious talk was reserved for whether the coalition should help arm the rebels in Libya. The PM’s official position was that we shouldn’t

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Danny Alexander’s duty

In the aftermath of the Budget, the Lib Dems were keen to let it be known that the idea of a windfall tax on North Sea oil companies to pay for ending the fuel duty escalator was Danny Alexander’s idea. But, as Andy Sparrow notes, this claim has ended up causing them some problems. In the chief secretary’s native Scotland, where the Lib Dems are already worrying about a humiliating set of election results on May 5th, the idea has not gone down so well as it has south of the border. The Scotsman reports,  that Lib Dems in Scotland have been scornful of the move. The Lib Dem MP

Peter Hoskin

Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton to marry

A scoop-and-a-half for the Doncaster Free Press, who were first with the news of Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton’s wedding date. It is 27 May, lest you hadn’t heard already, and will take place at a country hotel near Nottingham. Here’s what the Labour leader tells the paper: “‘This is going to be a fantastic day for us both and I feel incredibly priviliged to be marrying someone so beautiful and who is such a special person. It’s the right time for us to do this and I’m really looking forward to a lovely day. ‘We’re going to have a party in Doncaster when we get back from honeymoon —

Tuesday

David Blackburn

It’s happening in Monterrey

Nick Clegg is in Mexico, striving to build a trade relationship. The Guardian reports that Clegg will address the Mexican Senate, in Spanish. He will concentrate on praising the education sector, which he hopes to export. There are also plans to open British universities to affluent Mexicans, and Clegg is being accompanied by four universities vice chancellors and David Willetts. At the moment, trade between Britain and Mexico, the world’s 14th largest economy, is negligible – Clegg claims that Britain accounts for less than 1 percent of rapidly developing Mexico’s imports. There are huge opportunities to expand. UK Trade and Investment has 3 dedicated offices in Mexico and it is

Peter Hoskin

Memo to Johann Hari: this government isn’t planning to “pay off our debt rapidly”

What is the biggest lie in British politics? According to a new post by Johann Hari, it’s that our debt is at dangerously high levels. “As a proportion of GDP,” he writes, “Britain’s national debt has been higher than it is now for 200 of the past 250 years.” He makes some pugnacious points that will have you nodding enthusiastically, or groaning wearily, depending on your political persuasion. But he also undermines his argument right from the off, in his description of the Big Lie itself. Here it is: “Here’s the lie. We are in a debt crisis. Our national debt is dangerously and historically high. We are being threatened

David Blackburn

Allowing localism to flourish

David Orr, Chief Executive of the National Housing Federation, and 551 local councillors have written to the Times (£) warning that short-term cuts to care charities will bequeath deeper medium-term costs. They say: ‘Local councils face a difficult spending situation. However, cutting services for the vulnerable does not make financial sense. Without early identification and support, vulnerable individuals will reach crisis point as their needs become more severe, leading to greater pressure on acute health services, the criminal justice system and carers.’ The spending settlement in local government is stringent and some services are being necessarily affected: even model councils like Reading have cut some of its education services. But

Monday

David Blackburn

Cameron’s Libyan double standard

After the Libyan blood money scandal at the LSE, inquiries were bound to be made about other universities. Robert Halfon, the Conservative MP for Harlow, has exposed how Liverpool John Moores University (LJMU) agreed to contracts with Gaddafi’s Libya worth at least £1,272,000.00. (He has since been threatened with a defamation suit for pointing this out, but that’s for another time.) He raised the issue in parliament and the Prime Minister replied: ‘I think that there are lessons to be learned. As I have said, I think that it was right (of the previous government) to respond to what Libya did in terms of weapons of mass destruction, but I

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Another phase in Gove’s revolution

Michael Gove has just finished announcing to the Commons his proposed replacement for Educational Maintenance Allowance. The new scheme is more targeted than the old one that went to 45 percent of those who stayed in education post-16. Interestingly, it will be administered by the schools and colleges themselves. Gove’s argument is that it is these institutions that are best equipped to know which student needs how much money to support them staying in education. This drew predictable opposition from the Labour benches which wanted a top down, national scheme. On top of this discretionary fund, every student who is receiving income support will receive £1,200 a year. This new

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Clegg’s new direction?

Perhaps the most interesting political story of the weekend was Nick Clegg’s political mentor, Paddy Ashdown rejecting the idea that the Lib Dems should be equidistant between the two main parties in an interview with The Times: ‘I don’t want to go back to using the word ‘equidistant’ because the world has changed.” He predicts that Labour will look increasingly like “a bunch of superannuated students shouting from the sidelines.’ There are two schools of thought in the Lib Dems about their approach to the next election. One has it that the party must appear equally prepared to do a deal with either of the main parties in the event

Peter Hoskin

Clegg weaves more divides between himself and Miliband

“He’s elevated personal abuse into a sort of strategy.” So says Nick Clegg of Ed Miliband in one of the most noteworthy snippets from his laid-back interview with the FT today. Another sign, were it needed, that Labour’s animosity towards the Lib Dem leader is mutual — if they won’t work with him, then he almost certainly won’t work with them. And a sign, perhaps, that the coalition is keen to undermine Miliband’s claim to post-partisanship (or whatever). Labour constantly criticise Cameron for being more Flashman than statesman. Now the same charge is being levelled at their leader too. Elsewhere in the interview — as George Eaton details over at

Sunday

James Forsyth

Why Cameron is so keen on start ups

Cabinet ministers were relatively relaxed about yesterday’s march against the cuts—and rightly so. It did not make a sea-change in British politics and merely served to underline the lack of a credible alternative to what the coalition is doing. But what does worry ministers is where the growth is going to come from in the economy. The corporation tax cuts and the planning law changes are designed to help big business. But what the Prime Minister is more interested in is small businesses; hence tomorrow’s launch of Start-Up Britain by the Prime Minister. The scheme is designed to offer help—both technical and financial—to those looking to start a business. The

Peter Hoskin

Signs of nerves from the Lib Dems

Judging by today’s reports, it’s fear and self-loathing in Lib Dem Land. And it’s not just that one of their Scottish candidates has quit the party in protest at its, ahem, “draconian policies” and “dictatorial style”. No, according to this insightful article by Melissa Kite and Patrick Hennessy in the Sunday Telegraph, there are more manoeuvrings going on than that. Here are some passages from it, by way of a summary: 1) Chris Huhne, waiting in the wings. “Mr Huhne, who ran Mr Clegg close in the last Lib Dem leadership election, has told colleagues privately that he would be interested in leading his party in the future.” 2) A

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

How much are we still paying for Brown?

The story today of a pregnant woman being downgraded so Gordon Brown and his six aides could travel business class from Abu Dhabi to London may ring a bell with CoffeeHousers. We revealed last August that Brown has a taste for freebies, and that he was offering himself for $100,000 at speaking and award-giving engagements. For an extra $20,000 he would throw in his wife, Sarah. The Mail on Sunday reports that one of the pregnant woman’s co-passengers was “livid, asking why it was necessary for all of [Brown’s team] to be travelling business — and if it was being paid for by the taxpayer.” He raises an interesting point.

Saturday

James Forsyth

Miliband is marching to the wrong drum

Ed Miliband’s decision to address today’s anti-cuts march is a strategic mistake. It makes him look like the tribune of an interest group not a national leader. He’ll also be tarred by association, fairly or not, if these scuffles we’re seeing turn into anything more serious. In his speech, Miliband tried to place the march in the tradition of those for female emancipation, civil rights and against apartheid. But this rhetoric doesn’t work as, given Miliband’s commitment to the Darling plan, we are talking about relatively modest differences about the pace of cuts. One other thing that was striking about the speech is Miliband’s attempt to accuse Cameron of practicing