Uk politics

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Getting ready for reform

Given their position in the polls, and the challenges that face the next government, it’s understandable that the Tories are turning their minds to the post-election period.  They’ve been meeting with high-ranking civil servants for months now, and have been hammering out the details and design of a cuts agenda.  But one of the most striking examples of the Tories’ preparedness is outlined in today’s Guardian: Michael Gove’s team has called in the lawyers to help draft their first education bill. From the details the Guardian gives, the prospective bill is much as you’d imagine.  For instance, it would remove some of the regulations which currently stand in the way

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Mackay and the special relationship

The news that General Andrew Mackay has quit over the government’s failure to properly equip the Afghan mission is significant. For one thing, it will have ramifications for the UK US military relationship. Mackay is the British general from whom General Petraeus feels he has learnt the most; Petraeus affectionately called him the “King of Scotland” in his Policy Exchange lecture the other week. Mackay’s departure will increase the US military’s concern about the war-fighting capabilities of the British military.

David Blackburn

Dereliction of duty

The Ministry of Defence is the subject of two very damaging stories this morning. First, there are twice as many former service personnel in prison than there were six years ago. And second, Major General Andrew Mackay, a former commanding officer in Helmand, who masterminded the recapture of Musa Qala, has resigned his commission. Mackay is understood to have been dismayed at the direction of the war and army restructuring. The Independent has the details: ‘Mackay was disillusioned with what he considered to be a failure to carry out adequate reconstruction and development in Helmand. He had said privately that British soldiers risking their lives in the conflict had been

Thursday

David Blackburn

Bercow wants Lords Mandelson and Adonis to be questioned by MPs

Speaker Bercow has suggested that prominent cabinet ministers who sit in the House of Lords should be brought before the backbenchers for scrutiny. The Telegraph’s James Kirkup has the details: ‘Mr Bercow said: “I find the fact that backbenchers have no means of directly questioning prominent Ministers of the Crown because they happen to sit in the House of Lords to be less than satisfactory,” Mr Bercow said. “That is even more true at a time when the Cabinet contains the esteemed Lord Mandelson, whose empire is of a scale not seen since the death of Alexander the Great.” He also highlighted the role of Lord Adonis. “I suspect that

David Blackburn

Will he stay or will he go now?

Over at his WSJ blog, Iain Martin reckons that Baroness Vadera’s resignation might be an indication that Gordon Brown is considering standing down. Martin writes:   ‘Throughout his troubled premiership I have been of the view that Gordon Brown will fight the looming general election. If he ducks out then history will surely judge him accordingly as a PM who was feart to face the voters, having called off the election in 2007 after turning his move to Number 10 into a coronation with no other candidates. But the resignation of Baroness Vadera makes me wonder if that view holds. Perhaps he really is considering standing down. Of course, there

David Blackburn

Can things get any worse for Brown?

Yesterday was bad enough, but today’s turning into an utter catastrophe for Brown. First, it emerged that the Tories enjoy a 4 point lead in Labour’s traditional northern strongholds, then Baroness Vadera leaves the government to work for the G20, and now another former GOAT, Lord Malloch Brown, tells the World at One that Brown was too “desperate” in his pursuit of a meeting with President Obama. Malloch Brown said: “I don’t know whether they were frantic or not, they shouldn’t have been frankly so desperate.” When handpicked former ministers make such statements it’s clear that the writing’s been on the wall for so long it’s started to fade. President

Martin Vander Weyer Martin Vander Weyer

Is Vadera about to resign?

If, as the Westminster rumour mill suggests, business minister Baroness Shriti Vadera is about to resign from the Government, it is a far greater blow to the beleaguered prime minister than the loss of a PPS no one’s ever heard of over the Baroness Scotland affair, the potential loss of Lady Scotland herself, or even the refusal of Barack Obama to grant him a private audience ahead of the G20 summit. Vadera has been one of Brown’s most loyal sidekicks for more than a decade, and unlike anyone else who fits that description, she is the very opposite of a spin doctor or political hack. A City financier by background,

David Blackburn

The Tories lead in the north

Financial Times research has revealed that Labour has lost its traditional northern strongholds under Gordon Brown. Here are the details: ‘The Tories have built a narrow four-point lead in the north, eradicating the 19-point Labour lead in the region that underpinned Tony Blair’s last general election victory, the research shows. The 11.5 percentage point swing from Labour to the Tories in the north since the May 2005 poll is the largest for any region of Britain. The FT analysis suggests Mr Cameron has yet to win over fully pivotal “Middle England” voters. He has built a convincing lead among the well-off AB upper and upper-middle socio-economic groups. The Tories have

David Blackburn

From the ridiculous to the damaging

The ‘Appeal to Conscience’ World Statesman of the Year ought to be treated with more respect, otherwise the award becomes a mockery. The news that President Obama rebuffed the PM’s requests for bilateral talks at the UN or G20 meetings capped a dreadful day for Gordon Brown. A White House spokesman told the BBC: “Any stories that suggest trouble in the bilateral relationship between the US and UK are totally absurd.” To imply that the ‘special relationship is on the rocks is exaggeration, but there’s no doubt that Obama, who held bilateral talks with the leaders of China, Russia and Japan, departed from the Bush administration’s Anglo-American axis. The President

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Clegg embodies his party’s incoherence

Nick Clegg started the Lib Dem conference with an interview calling for ‘savage cuts’ in public spending and ended it with a speech trying to position the Lib Dems as the main party of the left in Britain. That pretty much sums up the strategic incoherence of this conference which has left the Lib Dems worse off than they were before.   The Lib Dems have had an awful week for several reasons. First, they haven’t done the basics well—putting Clegg up against Obama was hardly clever programming and not informing every spokesperson of policy announcements before the media was told was bound to cause trouble. (How no one thought

Lloyd Evans Lloyd Evans

Nick Clegg at the LibDem conference

What a week for the LibDems. The conference began, as always, with the sound newspapers being arranged across sleeping faces as the mass snore-in started. A few hopeful souls wondered if the LibDems might finally tell us exactly what their party is for. And LibDems went about their usual business of behaving like some cuddly cult for Terribly Nice People. Then everything changed. Out came their true colours and they started scrapping in the sand-pit like a pack of ruthless cockerels. It began with Nick Clegg’s misuse of the word ‘savage’ in reference to cuts. It got worse when Vince ‘Capability’ Cable announced a muddled new levy on million-pound houses.

David Blackburn

Government aide resigns over Scotland’s survival

Sky News reports that Stephen Hesford, who was PPS to the law officers, has resigned over the Baroness Scotland scandal. His resignation letter reads: ‘Whilst I have great personal regard for the Attorney General, I cannot support the decision which allows her to remain in office. In my view the facts of the case do not matter. It is the principle which counts, particularly at a time when the publics’ trust of Whitehall is uncertain to say the least.’ This is profoundly embarrassing for the government, who can hardly turn around and sack Scotland now. Baroness Scotland’s position is increasingly untenable. She should resign.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Banging on about Europe will cost the Lib Dems seats

In his interview with the FT, Nick Clegg says that the Lib Dems have been too “reticent” about making Europe a dividing line with the Tories. There’s little doubt that Clegg, a former MEP is an ideological pro-European. But if he starts banging on about Europe he’ll cause his party problems. The Lib Dems have several seats in the South West, one of the most Euro-sceptic regions of the county. As the European elections results there showed, when Europe is the issue the Lib Dems do badly. If Clegg really does intend to make Europe a key campaign dividing line, then the Tories will fancy their chance of picking up

David Blackburn

Gordon Brown gets something right!

Gordon Brown is expected to offer to decommission one of Britain’s four Trident submarines as part of nuclear non-proliferation discussions at the UN today. The Times has the details: ‘Mr Brown will signal tomorrow that he is ready to negotiate at a meeting of the UN Security Council on nuclear non-proliferation. It follows President Obama’s decision to ditch the US missile defence shield in Eastern Europe. That move, and Russia’s delighted response, has bolstered hopes that a new non-proliferation treaty could be agreed next spring. Officials travelling with the Prime Minister to New York insisted that there was no question of surrendering Britain’s independent nuclear deterrent. They claimed that current

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Tories cock-a-hoop about Lib Dem disarray

Every Tory I have spoken to this week has said the same thing, ‘aren’t the Lib Dems having a terrible time.’ The Tories are particularly happy because they see the Lib Dems’ credibility on economics taking a battering thanks to the total confusion over Cable’s proposed new tax on million-pound homes. They also think that the new Lib Dem policy will hurt the Lib Dems in a lot of the Southern seats the Tories are trying to win—Richmond, Winchester, Meon Valley and Taunton—as well as in three way marginals like Hampstead and Kilburn.   The other thing that is putting a smile on Tory faces is the Lib Dems downgrading

David Blackburn

Is bad publicity really better than no publicity?

The Liberal Democrat’s party conference is the one occasion when they are guaranteed what they need most: publicity. This year has seen them dominate the headlines, albeit negatively. Unashamedly public in-fighting followed Nick Clegg’s extraordinary pronouncement about “savage cuts”. Steve Webb’s rejection of Clegg’s plans to tighten up ‘middle-class benefits’ and Charles Kennedy’s thinly veiled call to arms against the proposed abolition of the pledge to abolish tuition fees were minor squabbles compared to the Mansions tax debacle. Yesterday, I suggested the proposal was sensible; it isn’t. In theory it’s not a bad idea for a targeted super tax (a fiscal expedient necessary for tackling Brown’s deficit), but the Lib

David Blackburn

Are the knives out for Vince?

This morning it emerged that Julia Goldsworth, the Lib Dems’ communities’ spokesman, who nominally supervises local taxation, knew nothing of the mansion tax until hearing it announced over the radio. The Guardian’s Allegra Stratton writes that Goldsworthy’s disclosure proves that Clegg and Cable run a ‘duopoly on leadership’. Cable is not as popular within his party and resentment is building on the frontbenches. Andrew Neil reports that a private meeting of Lib Dem MPs rounded on Cable and his “suicidal” mansion tax. Also, Stratton was informed by one frontbencher that “Clegg will have to sack Vince” after the election. Cable has begun to resemble the court’s jester rather than its

David Blackburn

The love that dare not speak its name

The Conservatives’ unrequited love for the Liberal Democrats receives attention this morning. The Times’ Rachel Sylvetser points out that in reality, away from dreams of government and official opposition, the Lib Dems have everything to gain by giving in to David Cameron’s and Eric Pickles’ serenades: ‘They set themselves up as the party of honesty, who will tell the truth about fiscal restraint, but on the issue over which they have most control — the role they would play in a hung Parliament — they offer only obfuscation. They define themselves constantly in terms of the other two parties, then when it comes to the crunch they refuse to say

David Blackburn

Can Lady Scotland survive?

The BBC understands that the UK Border Agency is expected to find Attorney General Baroness Scotland to be in “technical breach” of the rules on employing migrant workers and faces a fine. This is a civil, not a criminal offence and a government source made it clear that the Baronesses’ resignation is not being sought. But can the government’s senior law officer, who oversaw the drafting of the very legislation that has undone her, retain her position? Her resignation may not be sought, but it’s telling that Macavity’s yet to comment on this development. I suspect that Lady Scotland will ‘consider her position’.

Monday

David Blackburn

A dish served better cold

 A great piece of digging by the FT’s Jim Pickard: ‘In theory we won’t know the exact line-up at Labour Party Conference until the weekend. But I have it on good authority that David Miliband won’t be talking until Thursday – at which point most sane people will have packed up and gone home. Could this be some kind of punishment for his banana-wielding “disloyalty” at last year’s conference? Perish the thought.’