James Forsyth

James Forsyth

James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.

Cable and Willetts: the house-trained ministers?

There are few worse insults for a minister than to be called ‘house trained’. It implies that the vested interests of your department have you under their thumb. So, Vince Cable and David Willetts should be rather alarmed that one notoriously left-wing academic is boasting that they pretty much are. In an article in Times

Someone has got to win the next election

It is easy to make a case for why all three main parties should do badly at the next election. After five years of austerity, who will vote for the Tories who didn’t in 2010? And how will they stop those dissatisfied with the compromises of coalition from sloping off to Ukip? As for Labour,

The coming Tory split over Europe

The news that Labour will abstain on the EU referendum bill is proof that they know that voting against it would be politically harmful. It also means that it’ll be easier for them to swing behind a referendum before the next election. I suspect that between now and the next election, the referendum pledge will

Stephen Hester’s departure: who would want the RBS job?

I do not envy the search committee tasked with finding a new CEO for RBS after Stephen Hester’s departure. The bank is an anomaly, publicly owned but supposedly run at arms’-length from government. However, when banking controversies hit, as they so often do, they hit RBS hardest as it is majority-owned by the taxpayer. I

Ed Balls: Labour will include pensions in its welfare cap

Ed Balls has just told Andrew Neil on the Sunday Politics that Labour will include pensions in their welfare cap. This opens up a major dividing line with the Tories who have been clear that George Osborne will exclude pensions from his spending cap. I suspect that Balls and Ed Miliband will now be badgered

The political centre just moved, to the right

Today must count as one of the most encouraging days for the centre right in British politics in recent times. Labour’s apparent abandonment of universal child benefit is a massive blow to the 1945 settlement. It is akin in significance to when Labour began to accept the privatisations of the Thatcher era. Now, there’s no

Why Cameron’s warning on Syria leaves me feeling nervous

David Cameron’s Commons statement today contained two blunt warnings. In a significant escalation of the argument over communications data, he warned that ‘we will suffer’ if we don’t make progress on the matter. He also declared that not intervening in Syria could boost extremism and mean that the situation there becomes a ‘tragedy for us

James Forsyth

The significance of Ed Balls’s speech, and what it means for Ukip

Ed Balls’s speech today is significant for two reasons. First, it implied that a Labour government in 2015 would not spend more on current spending. But, rather, it would borrow more to fund higher capital spending—what Gordon Brown used to calling ‘borrowing to invest’. This, I take it, means that a 2015 Labour government wouldn’t

Telegraph reveals full extent of allegations against Patrick Mercer

I suspect that there’ll be a few MPs and peers nervously waiting for 9pm on Thursday night. For this is when the Panorama special on parliament and lobbying, which has already caused Patrick Mercer to resign the Tory whip, will be broadcast. Today’s Telegraph contains details of the accusations surrounding Mercer. The paper alleges that

Patrick Mercer resigns Tory whip ahead of Panorama programme

Patrick Mercer has resigned the Tory whip. But despite his repeated and outspoken criticisms of David Cameron it is nothing to do with the Prime Minister. Rather, Mercer appears to have been embarrassed by a Panorama/Daily Telegraph investigation. In a statement, Mercer has said that he is considering legal action over the coming programme which,

The Boris bandwagon picks up more speed

Hardly a day goes by these days without a story about Boris Johnson and the Tory leadership. Yesterday, it was Andy Coulson’s revelation that David Cameron believed Boris Johnson would be after his job once he’d been London Mayor. Today, it is The Economist talking about ‘Generation Boris’, the more libertarian inclined voters who the

Why it’s not the 1990s all over again for the Tories

The last twenty four hours have been a reminder of David Cameron’s poise as a national leader. He has the ability to project a sense of resolve and calm. Before this vile attack in Woolwich, all the talk in Westminster was of Cameron’s difficult relationship with his own party. Despite a fortnight of good economic