Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
Politicians always speak about the NHS with passion. It is our national religion. So today Louise Bours, Ukip’s health spokeswoman, adopted the demeanour of a Pentecostal preacher, addressing her party conference at such a high volume that MPs gathered in the House of Commons chamber could probably hear her as she pledged to work with
Quite naturally, the mood in the hall at the Ukip conference in Doncaster is far more upbeat than anything Labour could muster. This is an insurgent party on the brink of getting its own MP and that is spooking the Conservatives no end. So the party with a realistic chance of taking power next May
Ukip’s party conference is underway in Doncaster. The party is hoping for an event that runs more smoothly than last year, where Nigel Farage sacked Godfrey Bloom for hitting a journalist and calling women ‘sluts’. It certainly has more in its favour this time around, with Tory defector Douglas Carswell to address the conference ahead of
Today’s Cabinet meeting agreed the following motion on attacking Isis in Iraq. Note the stipulation that attacks on Isis in Syria be subject to a separate vote in the House of Commons Here is the motion in full: That this House: Condemns the barbaric acts of ISIL against the peoples of Iraq including the Sunni,
The 1922 Committee meets at 2pm today, and William Hague will address it. The meeting was originally arranged to discuss the post-referendum settlement for Scotland and England, and English votes for English laws, but Iraq may well dominate the session given tomorrow’s recall. Those MPs who weren’t sufficiently fortunate or troublesome to have been invited to the
Number 10 has just confirmed that Parliament will be recalled on Friday to vote on a motion authorising British involvement in air strikes against Isis in Iraq. A spokesman said: ‘The Speaker has agreed to the Prime Minister’s request to recall Parliament this Friday to debate the UK’s response to the request from the Iraqi
There are many reasons why Labour conference felt flat this year, and many of them are out of the party’s control. It cannot help that its MPs and a number of its delegates are tired after an energetic Scottish campaign. It cannot help that the Scottish campaign saw a level of engagement in politics that
Labour conference has now finished. Today was better than the others, but the delegates still struggled to show their enthusiasm when Ed Miliband reappeared on the stage this afternoon. Three people gave him a standing ovation. The mood at this conference really has been flat. At a fringe run by the Fabian Society last night,
Yvette Cooper today reiterated her pledge to scrap the Tories’ net migration target as she addressed the Labour conference. Her speech contained the obligatory admission about their party’s past mistakes that Cooper and her colleagues must repeat whenever they talk about immigration, but the Shadow Home Secretary also suggested that the current government is still
MPs are still waiting to hear confirmation that Parliament is being recalled on Friday, although many have been told to expect a sitting to discuss military intervention against Isis. The chances are that it won’t be announced until the Iraqi Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi has made a formal appeal for British involvement, and the Labour
Andy Burnham has just delivered the best speech from a Labour MP at conference. Taken from the autocue, it was emotive, stirring, tribal, and just what delegates needed. It seemed to have taken rather a number of lessons from the ‘Yes’ campaign in Scotland in that it was relentlessly negative about the threat that the
Why does Ed Miliband think memorising a speech is more important than convincing voters that Labour really can be tough on the deficit? It wasn’t just his performance yesterday, in which the Labour leader failed to communicate key passages on the economy and immigration (James has them here), but the lack of candour from anyone
Parliament is expected to be recalled on Friday to discuss British military intervention against Isis. David Cameron will hold talks with his Iraqi counterpart today, with Haider al-Abadi expected to make a formal request that Britain join the military action. Labour is staying supportively non-committal at the moment, with Ed Miliband saying again on the
Whether or not Ed Miliband’s speech was a success depends on what sort of aim he had for it: heave Labour over the general election line using his party base, or reach out to wavering swing voters by arguing that Labour has the ability to govern in the challenging circumstances that it finds itself in
Ed Miliband, due to address Labour conference shortly, is to announce a £2.5 billion NHS Time to Care Fund for thousands more nurses, doctors, caseworkers and midwives. Time to Care will get its money from a £1.1 billion clampdown on tax avoidance, a mansion tax on properties worth more than £2 million and US-style fees
What will happen now that the US has launched airstrikes against Isis in Syria? Even though there is no requirement for Parliament to be consulted, it is very difficult for the British government to join without some form of debate and vote in the House of Commons. And this means that a recall of Parliament
How does Labour win back the working class voters who’ve abandoned it? This question, part of the soul searching the party fell into when it lost the 2010 election, has gained even greater currency since the Scottish referendum. This evening Michael Dugher and John Denham had a stab at answering it at a conference fringe.
Normally the default response in the Labour party to a rough couple of weeks is to blame the Shadow Cabinet. They’re not pulling together, they’re thinking about their own future leadership prospects rather than backing Ed Miliband and so on and so forth. But while the Shadow Cabinet is looking weak this week at their
One thing that made Ed Balls’ speech to conference look a little less impressive was the barnstormer of an address from Len McCluskey to the hall shortly before. Delegates loved it, and not just because the Unite leader was saying the sorts of things that they wanted to hear. He was also passionate and interesting.
One of the curious traditions of Labour conference is that directly after the Shadow Chancellor’s speech, hard copies of his wise words are sold outside the conference hall. Any fiscally responsible Labour types trying to make difficult decisions about how to spend their money might be best advised to keep their £1 in their pockets
