Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
After Patricia Hewitt, Beverley Hughes and David Chaytor we are now up to 16 undead MPs: ones who have decided to stand down at the next election, but hang on a year until they can get their payoff – which is up to £120,000 depending on age and length of service. Go now, and they
So when will Iran get enough nuclear material for a bomb? In evidence to the Knesset this morning, Israeli military intelligence has suggested this could happen as early as this year. Of course, the Iranians don’t (yet) have the right missiles. There was some concern about Russians selling a S300 anti-aircraft missile to China who
Gordon Brown v Evan Davis this morning – and while most Brown interviews before 9am have a soporific effect, this one was (by Brown’s standards) a belter. The Dear Leader had come with an announcement: he is proposing a National Council for Democratic Renewal and was inviting questions on it. Davis had other questions, and
The Dear Leader did Andrew Marr this morning – I’ve just returned from a beautiful day out to watch it online and give it a quick Fisk. Here are my top half dozen points. 1. “To be honest, what I’ve seen offends my Presbyterian conscience.” Is this the first recorded use of the phrase? And
Why should Labour keep Gordon Brown as their leader? If Labour come third behind the LibDems at the Euro elections, this question is certain to be raised in public by someone. I hear that the Dear Leader has prepared an answer: green shoots. Seriously. Look, he will say, the economy is on the turn. And
I have the dubious honour of being cited by Ed Balls in a press conference as proof that the Tories are hiding a cuts agenda. I say in the Daily Telegraph that the Tories’ plan is for a 10% cut across defence, education, transport and the Home Office. In typical word-twisting fashion, Balls said it
British politics is currently suspended in one of those strange Road Runner moments, when we’ve run over the cliff but haven’t looked down. From April 2011, spending on public services will start to fall by a cumulative 7 percent over three years, according to Budget 2009. And given its fairytale economic assumptions (trampoline recovery, etc)
Angela Wallace is one of a new breed of wavering voter. ‘I’m disgusted with all of the parties,’ she says, peering suspiciously at the men with clipboards on her doorstep. ‘MPs are not like they used to be. Now they’re all as bad as each other.’ The political activists I am accompanying have a ready
The central deceit behind Budget 2009 – Alistair Darling’s trampoline recovery theory – is steadily crumbling. CoffeeHousers will remember the scam. He pretends that Britain will, from April 2011, enjoy three years of turbo-charged growth averaging 3.5 per cent a year, hence justifying his pre-election splurge. It was, in my view, an extraordinary moment –
The Telegraph tonight makes two substantial revelations. The first is that nine Cabinet members – including Alistair Darling – have charged the taxpayer for accountants to do their personal tax returns. And while the figure – £11,000 – is bad enough it’s the principle that’s damaging. This government has had millions of British taxpayers submerged
So how scared should Gordon Brown be of Caroline Flint? In my News of the World column, I warn against underestimating the wrath of Labour women. They suspect that Brown, in his anger, is now beating up on the female members of the Cabinet and are making a pre-emptive strike. Remember last summer’s rebellion: it was
Only this morning, Andrew MacKay said that he would stand for election again – but after a conversation with David Cameron he has now decided to stand down at the next election. The open meeting he held had several calls for him to go, and there was talk of a petition. The grassroots momentum was
It is typical of Michael Martin that his laughably short resignation statement contained a fundamental misunderstanding of parliament. ‘This House is at its very best when it is united,’ he said. The precise opposite is true. Gordon Brown and David Cameron’s places are precisely two sword lengths apart because it is intended to be an
Should celebrities stand to become MPs? I have just done a phone-in on Richard Bacon’s Five Live programme where I was in favour of it. My point was that voting in someone like Esther Rantzen sends an important democratic message: that the voters think the Westminster menu is uninspiring. This is an entirely legitimate means
Standard & Poor has just become the first credit rating agency to downgrade the UK from a “stable” assessment to “negative” – and given that the Tory borrowing proposals until 2014 are virtually identical to Labour’s, it is a warning that should chill Cameron. It’s feasible to fund your government with IOU notes now, with
The IMF has published its verdict on Britain – who it may very well be bailing out in the next couple of years – and a suspiciously warm phrase is up there, and being singled out by government spin doctors: “The UK government response to the global financial crisis has been “bold and wide-ranging,” adding
You might think this impossible, but there is more chaos from the Michael Martin’s office. They said yesterday that he was resigning as an MP as well as a Speaker – ergo by-election in the summer. I spoke to the SNP and to ministers about it: everyone was geared up. But now it transpires that
So Brown kicked off by praising the Speaker for “unfailing personal kindness to all members of all parties of this house.” And with a straight face too! This kindness was the problem, the way Michael Martin ushered everyone to the Fees Office to claim their Generation Game conveyor belt-style goodies. And then it got worse.
Was that it? Gordon Brown spent an hour talking about “radical action,” “radical surgery,” and the like. So what’s he doing? Setting up a committee. Or, more accurately, publishing a consultation paper on setting up a committee; one that would monitor MPs’ pay and expenses. And does anyone seriously believe it will come down harshly
But will there be a by-election? Sure, Michael Martin will step down on 21st June, but what about Glasgow North East? I know how much Gordon Brown enjoys Glasgow by-elections – and personally, I’d love another chance for the nation’s spotlight to fall in these Labour rotten boroughs. One of the worst aspects of