Politics

Read about the latest political news, views and analysis

Tuesday

Steerpike

Ken Clarke: the British are not very good at being enterprising

Last night was the Spectator’s 'Deal or No Deal' event, where six panellists convened to discuss all things Brexit, and say whether they thought Britain would 'crash out' of the EU or thrive on WTO terms. Nobly representing the Remain side was parliamentary titan, and Father of the House, Ken Clarke. And while Ken was somewhat outnumbered by Brexiteers on the panel, he made a valiant effort to fend off their attacks and put forward the Remainer case. That said, Mr S noticed that one of his comments certainly did not go down well with the crowd on the night.

Steerpike

Tom Watson’s flirtation with LBC

How far the mighty have fallen. While he was once known as the decisive fixer, who was able to get things done inside Labour, deputy leader Tom Watson has largely been sidelined by the Corbyn crew. Rumour has it that the MP is now so sick of being the perennial outsider, he is even considering other career options outside of politics. Mr S has heard for example, that he is keen to move into media, specifically radio. Well, last week was his chance to have a go, as he filled in for Nigel Farage on a 6pm LBC radio slot. Watson clearly enjoyed his spell in the limelight, and made his best efforts to convince LBC to offer him a permanent gig.

Steerpike

John McDonnell vs Momentum

Oh dear. John McDonnell has found himself in hot water this morning after he declared that Labour would support Philip Hammond's budget tax cuts. Given that the Resolution Foundation claims that the tax cuts will benefit the better off, it doesn't seem like the most obvious move for anti-austerity Labour. Labour politicians have been quick to see red – with regional mayor Andy Burnham taking to social media. But the response that should worry the shadow chancellor the most relates to what Momentum – the pro-Corbyn grassroots group - will say. It seems no-one thought to tell them in advance what the shadow chancellor was planning: https://twitter.com/PeoplesMomentum/status/1057207837733122048 Watch this space.

Monday

Katy Balls

The Budget shows the Tories are now fighting on Corbyn’s turf | 29 October 2018

When Theresa May announced at this year's Tory conference that she would put an end to austerity, it's safe to say that her Chancellor hardly looked thrilled as he clapped from the front row of the hall. Philip Hammond is regarded as a fiscal hawk and rather averse to loosening the purse strings. At today's Budget, Hammond tried to get on board with No 10's ending austerity message. But in doing so, he also attempted to put some clear blue water between 'end austerity' Conservatives and anti-austerity Labour. Firstly, Hammond defined what he sees as 'ending austerity'. The Chancellor said that ending austerity meant an above-inflation increase in departmental spending. The Tory version of ending austerity also means no tax rises in the quest to do so.

Ross Clark

Hammond may regret breaking his promise to eliminate the deficit

As Nick Clegg, George HW Bush and many other politicians have proved to their cost, manifesto promises matter. How damaging, then, will Philip Hammond’s brazen abandonment of the 2017 Conservative pledge be, whereby financial discipline was supposed to 'guide us to a balanced budget by the middle of next decade'? Now, Hammond seems to be trying to tell us that running a public deficit doesn’t really matter. While George Osborne delayed and delayed the date he promised to bring the public finances back into balance, Hammond has apparently abandoned any idea of ever doing so. There is now no target for eliminating the deficit at all.

Isabel Hardman

Hammond’s Halloween Budget fails to excite

Philip Hammond held the Budget today to avoid a bunch of Halloween jokes about a zombie economy and so on. To compensate, the Chancellor brought a bunch of random sentences in fancy dress as ‘jokes’. There were inexplicable quips about poaching rabbits, a medley of toilet puns accompanying funding for keeping public conveniences open, and the strangest of all: ‘fiscal Phil says fiscal rules, OK.’ What the Chancellor hadn't dressed up, though, were the series of announcements in this Budget. They weren’t fancy. Or radical. There was some political appropriation, with Hammond trying to deal with a few Labour threats by stealing their policies.

Steerpike

Watch: Philip Hammond gets heckled

Poor old Philip Hammond. In a bid to raise some laughs during his Budget announcement, the Chancellor made a series of gags that fell somewhat flat in the Commons. But there was one big laugh in the chamber. Unfortunately for Hammond, though, it came after he made a reference to his budget next year. 'You won't be here', a Labour MP shouted out. Mr S thinks Spreadsheet Phil should have seen that one coming...

Steerpike

Philip Hammond’s worst Budget gags 2018

Ever keen to show that there’s a man lurking behind the Spreadsheet, Chancellor Philip Hammond usually uses his Budget speech to crack a few jokes, and try to convince the country he possesses a sense of humour. This year was no exception, but whether he managed to achieve anything close to comedy, Mr S will leave readers to decide. Here are the best (yes, these were the best) and worst gags from his Budget speech this year: 1. ‘I’m sure like me, many Members of the House keenly remember the last Budget that was delivered on a Monday. It was 1962. I was six years old. Tensions between Russia and the United States were rising. And a former foreign secretary turned Chancellor delivered a budget amid cabinet revolt.

James Kirkup

How Cameron’s misreading of Merkel led to Brexit | 29 October 2018

It is impossible to overstate Angela Merkel’s significance, to Germany, to the EU, and to Britain. Others are better qualified than me to talk about the first two of those, but as she announces her (slow, deliberate) departure from office, I offer a thought about Merkel and Britain, which is that the modern history of Britain’s European policy has been a story of misunderstanding Angela Merkel, and therefore Germany. This story starts in 2005, when David Cameron stood for the Tory leadership. As a moderate, he was keen to woo the Right, especially on Europe. So he promised to pull the Tory MEPs out of the European People’s Party grouping in the European Parliament.

James Forsyth

Why a no-deal Brexit would require an emergency Budget

Brexit overshadows this Budget. The story this morning has all been about Number 10 saying that the Budget won’t change in the event of no deal, in apparent contradiction of what Philip Hammond said yesterday. In truth, no deal would—obviously—have consequences for the public finances but the government’s initial reaction would be to try and stimulate the economy. Whatever anyone says now, no government would respond to no deal by taking demand out of the economy. So, yes there would be an emergency Budget. But it would be expansionary, not contractionary. It is not just Brexit though that has left Hammond with limited room for manoeuvre.

Steerpike

Justine Greening’s leadership campaign gathers pace

If anyone is wondering who is No 10's least favourite MP today, Mr Steerpike's money is firmly on former education minister Justine Greening. The Remainer MP has been a thorn in Theresa May's side as of late, but she ramped up the disloyalty this Budget day, when she told told ITV's Good Morning that she would quite like to take over Theresa May's job: https://twitter.com/GMB/status/1056865480177319937 Greening has been hinting for some time that she considered herself leadership material. In August this year, the MP released a set of professionally shot videos and photographs which had all the hallmarks of a personal campaign.

The Spectator

Live: Budget 2018 – Philip Hammond announces the end of austerity

Philip Hammond has delivered his final Budget before Brexit. The Chancellor said that the era of austerity is coming to an end as he pledged extra cash for no deal preparations and slapped a digital services tax on tech giants such as Facebook and Google. He also revealed that the OBR has upped its growth forecast to 1.6 per cent for 2019/20. Here are the key announcements: Government abolishes the use of Private Finance Initiatives Extra £420m to repair potholes An extra £20.

Sunday

Steerpike

Philip Hammond’s scheduling problem

Budget day is upon us and it's safe to say that expectations have been set rather low when it comes to Philip Hammond's big moment. The Chancellor has said he plans to remain a fiscal hawk – and warned that there will be a brand new Budget in the new year should a 'no deal' Brexit occur. Perhaps then it's little wonder that the schedulers at the BBC don't seem to regard the event as a showstopper event. In fact, the Times's Patrick Kidd wonders if they are trying to send a message. During BBC2's Budget coverage, BBC1 will be showing 'Money for Nothing', 'Flog it!' and 'Pointless': By around 5pm, the channels could be in sync...

Matthew Taylor

Sunday Roundup – Philip Hammond – A ‘no deal’ Brexit would mean a new budget

With the Budget due on Monday, today's highlights have come chiefly from the leading Treasury figures of the two major parties. Sophy Ridge was joined this morning by the Chancellor of the Exchequer. Hammond, who is known to be wary about the UK's impending departure from the EU's economic framework, told Ridge that tomorrow's Budget would not be the last we'd hear from him if the Brexit negotiations break down: [embed]https://twitter.com/RidgeOnSunday/status/1056476173675520000[/embed] PH: If we were to leave the European Union without any deal - I think that's an extremely unlikely situation, but of course we have to prepare - then we would need to take a different approach to the future of Britain's economy.

Charles Moore

Violent metaphors in politics are nothing new

There is much shock professed about the metaphors used to describe Mrs May’s political plight — talk of the ‘killing zone’, or her being stabbed, and worse. I feel this shock myself, but in fact such metaphors are routine in politics and almost always have been. Think, for example, of Harold Macmillan’s ‘Night of the Long Knives’ — arguably more tasteless, since it compared a cabinet reshuffle with a Nazi murder spree. The real reason it seems shocking in this case surely, as it did when John McDonnell favourably invoked people who wanted to lynch Esther McVey, is that it is men speaking about a woman. On this, old-fashioned chivalry and modern feminism agree.

Saturday

Noreen O’Donovan Hage

It makes sense to keep Northern Ireland inside the customs union

Sir: What James Forsyth calls ‘the EU plan’ to keep Northern Ireland in the customs union after Brexit (‘The Irish problem’, 20 October) would no more ‘ease Northern Ireland away from the UK and push it more towards Dublin’s orbit’ than it has already done itself through numerous legislative differences. With regard to social issues such as abortion and same-sex marriage, Northern Ireland is far closer to the Republic (as it once was) than to the rest of the UK. It would therefore be no great stretch to avoid awkwardness of land border checks (and respect the spirit of the Good Friday Agreement) by having such checks at the sea ports.

James Forsyth

Will Hammond take this Budget opportunity?

Monday’s Budget comes at a delicate point in the Brexit negotiations. I say in The Sun this morning, that a bolder government and Chancellor would turn this timing to their advantage. They would use this Budget to give a preview of what the UK would do in the event of no deal. No deal planning shouldn’t just be about logistics, but about how the UK would respond economically to this challenge. Philip Hammond could announce that if it is ‘no deal’ the UK would slash to zero tariffs on manufactured goods from all around the world, bring in complete tax relief on all business investment for the next three years and cut capital gains tax. The EU, which doesn’t want a hyper-competitive economy 26 miles off its coastline, would notice.

Friday

Zuzanna Mroz

Take it from a trans person: Corbyn is wrong about self-ID

If there’s one thing trans women really don’t need in our lives, it’s bollocks – but that’s exactly what the Labour Party is offering us. Last week, Jeremy Corbyn used a speech at the Pinknews Awards to announce that it is now official Labour policy to give literally any person the right to self-declare their legal gender – something that would make the process of changing one’s gender as simple as ticking a box on an administrative form.

Simon Mcvicker

The Chancellor must not betray business with another attack on the self-employed

The Conservatives used to be known as the party of business. Theresa May still seems to be trying to keep up the pretence, saying in her conference speech that the Conservatives are 'a party that believes in business'. But the proof is in the pudding, and this pudding is turning sour. Fast. The Budget rumour mill is in overdrive that Chancellor Philip Hammond will use the Budget to extend the government’s disastrous changes to self-employed IR35 tax law from the public sector to the private sector. However Theresa May’s speechwriters may spin this, it would be the final nail in the coffin of the Conservatives’ small business credentials. Let me explain. IR35 is essentially a tax law introduced to stamp out ‘disguised employment’.

Cindy Yu

The Spectator Podcast: has Brett Kavanagh cost Democrats their midterm victory?

Somehow it has already been two years into a Trump presidency, and America is facing midterm elections. Will Democrats win in a landslide? We also delve a little deeper at the political faultlines behind the Jamal Khashoggi story – is Turkey taking advantage of his death? And last, is the use of wild animals in circuses really the great injustice that campaigners say it is? America is going to the polls again. This November, the House of Representatives and a third of the Senate are facing re-election in the mid-terms. Some predict that the Democrats will win in a landslide and retake control of the currently Republican Congress. But Freddy Gray, editor of Spectator USA, writes in this week’s cover that the Democrats aren’t in for such an easy ride.