Coalition

Thursday

Daniel Korski

Flotilla follies

Two groups in the Conservative party that have worried most about Con-Lib government are the social conservatives and the neo-conservatives. The latter have been particularly worried about UK relations with Israel. There is a real concern in parts of the Conservatives Party that three factors would come together to sour Anglo-Israeli relations: what the neo-conservatives see as the Foreign Office’s knee-jerk Arabism, the presence of many supposed Arabists in Cameron-Hague’s teams, and the anti-Israel bias exhibited by many leading Liberal Democrats. Whatever the truth of these allegations, they are held with considerable fervour.

David Blackburn

Will the coalition fall over Europe?

Well, well. Simon Hughes has just made firm Eurosceptic comments in the Commons. He said: ‘I'm also clear...that we need to revisit some of the decisions like the working time directive where I think we made a mistake, and there have been mistakes in the European Union. "And my great enthusiasm for the European Union and for better collaboration across Euope doesn't make me blind to things that have not gone well and where we need to do better. And overly prescriptive regulation such as the working time directive is one of those. "I don't take the view that there's only ever a one-way traffic of power from this parliament and this country [to the EU].

Wednesday

Henry Featherstone

Minimum unit pricing: NICE, but wrong

So, NICE, the body charged with ensuring cost-effectiveness in the NHS, says that alcohol minimum unit pricing is the most effective way to tackle excessive drinking and its impact on the NHS and society.  Interesting, and certainly a challenge to the new Health Secretary and his alcohol taxation review, but ultimately misguided.     Where NICE have got it right, is that there is a clear and consistent relationship between the price of alcohol and its level of consumption.  Indeed, the effects of price changes on alcohol consumption are more effective than other alcohol policy interventions, such as restricting the number of outlets, or bans on advertising or price promotion.

Fraser Nelson

The Commons’ bizarre new chemistry

It still looks like your TV set is on a horizontal flip when you see Cameron at the government dispatch box. Even more disorientating to see Chris Huhne on the front bench and Nick Clegg beside Cameron - making supportive facial gestures on areas he agrees with (pupil premium), and looking quizzical on areas on which he does not (marriage). Cameron’s performance shows that Britain has just had a tremendous upgrade in the eloquence of its Prime Minister: his performance was no better than as Leader of the Opposition, but still at a high standard. Without Brown’s henchmen leading Labour, their backbenchers were disorientated. But still rather numerous: Labour has 258 MPs, more MPs than any party which has not gone on to win the next election.

David Blackburn

Cameron must not radically change his style at PMQs

Watching David Cameron’s mannequin-like performance during the TV election debates, it became apparent just how good he is at the dispatch box. Quick witted, funny and incisive, Cameron invariably demolished Gordon Brown at PMQs. Daniel Finkelstein’s column is a must read today, bludgeoning the absurd guff about  the ‘new politics’. But Finkelstein argues: ‘David Cameron is very good at being combative in the chamber. He has won many battles. And it will seem unecessarily risky to change his style. But the prize is great. For he can be a national leader, not a party one. And he can make a reality out of the nonsense of the new politics.

James Forsyth

What to look out for at PMQs

Today is the first PMQs of the new term. Given the Coalition, the whole thing will be a bit different from what we’re used to. The leader of the opposition will, as before, have six questions. But no other MP will have more than one question.   There’ll be a couple of little things I’ll be keeping a particularly close eye on. During the opening of the Queen Speech debate last week, the front bench was so crowded that Nick Clegg was not really visible on the TV. Instead, Cameron appeared to be flanked by two Tories. It’ll be interesting to see if this leads to a slightly different seating arrangement today. I’ll also be watching to see if Clegg whispers advice to Cameron during it.

David Blackburn

Hughes in the ascendant

The indications are that Simon Hughes will become Lib Dem deputy leader. Politics Home reports that Hughes is backed by 29 of the party’s 57 MPs, which make him the outright winner in the race with Tim Farron. Hughes also received the backing of 60 percent of party activists on the Lib Dem Voice website. The Tories will be both wary and pleased at this development. Hughes is left-wing, determinedly so, and among those who favoured a deal with Labour. Rumours abound that Cable’s resignation was contrived to promote Hughes, who is also said to be livid at being excluded from government - an Ashen-faced Hughes was spied shaking his head during the Queen’s speech debate. Animus and ego make for toxic coalition politics.

David Blackburn

The novelty factor

Nick Clegg was run-through when he and Jim Naughtie last crossed swords. A different outcome today – the deputy Prime Minister was composed, defending the coalition’s tight agreement. Naughtie was in ‘we’re lolling in a cafe on a dusty street, a donkey brays at the dying sun' mode, and never pressed Clegg.   First, Clegg assured Naughtie that government continued without David Laws, and he echoed John Redwood’s and William Waldegrave’s point that Chief Secretary is a political job in which the author of the coalition agreement, Danny Alexander, has every chance of excelling. Naughtie didn’t mention Lib Dems’ hypocrisy on expenses, which might have shaken Clegg. CGT tapering came next.

Tuesday

Daniel Korski

Trans-Atlantic  powwow

I’m in Washington DC at a high-level seminar on trans-Atlantic relations with the “who is who” of Europe and the US, talking about issues of common concern. The Germans are here in force, as are the French, with high-ranking officials speaking about topics like Russia and Iran. Interestingly, the Brits are notable in their absence. It is probably a sign that the British government is still in transition mode, unable to explain any new policies, unready to stake out new positions. Or they may not be bothered with unofficial events such as these given the privileged access they have. But it is worth noticing nonetheless.

Max Chambers

Coming clean whilst going straight

Combating drug misuse in our prisons could be one of the best ways to cut reoffending. A prison sentence should, for a drug-addicted criminal with a  chaotic lifestyle, act as a form of respite – not just for the community, but also for the offender themselves. Yes - prison should be a place of punishment, but it should also be a chance to get clean.   An effective strategy to combat drug misuse in prisons means tackling drug smuggling and supply, while ensuring that the treatment regimes give prisoners the best possible chance of getting – and staying – clean.  The previous Government failed to do either.

David Blackburn

I’m alright Jack

Transparency is this government’s quintessence. It is a mantra to two gods. First, it is a constituent of the ‘new politics’ – that jewel over which the three partisan thieves squabble. Second, it enables the government to amputate gangrenous public sector pay.   The public sector is powerful. The previous government’s economic policy bred a bowler-hatted Leviathan. You can argue the toss whether civil servants are overpaid per se, or that their pension entitlements are grotesque in an era of budget restraint. But the government’s battle will be more brutal because the public sector is the final redoubt for the antediluvian fat-cat unionism of Simpson, Woodley and Crow, to name but three.

Monday

David Blackburn

Hague pitches it right

It would be wrong to pass comment on the loss of life on the Gaza Flotilla; the facts are not established. Israel is right to investigate convoys that it feels might be supplying Hamas with arms. But, as ever in the Middle East conflict, it must be determined whether Israel’s use of force was proportionate. Not that the answer to that question ever deters Hamas from terror or Israel from retaliation. Peace does not lie in abstract nouns. However, international law will determine the facts of this incident, and perhaps bring clarity to the divisive Gaza border issue.

David Blackburn

Stop the press! Danny Alexander didn’t break the law

There’s something Galsworthian about Danny Alexander, the man of property. A downy press secretary for the Cairngorm National Park bought a south London hovel in 1999, re-designated it his second home in 2005 when he became an MP, and the Bright Young Thing then sold it in 2007 for £300,000. The dashing Cabinet Minister's recent mortgage claims of £1,100 per month suggest an existence amid more salubrious environs – Volvos, delicatessens and Oxfam. Alexander didn't cheat his way to Cheam, or wherever he lives. ‘There is no suggestion that Mr Alexander has broken any tax laws,’ opine the authors of this morning’s expenses expose.

Sunday

Daniel Korski

Avoiding Groupthink

I hope CoffeeHouse readers will forgive the attention I am heaping on the Afghanistan War these days, but the campaign is moving into a decisive phase with a July donor’s conference in Kabul that Hillary Clinton is reportedly attending, a “peace jirga” scheduled to consider plans to negotiate with the Taliban and only a year to go before the first US combat troops begin heading home. No 10 is now letting it be known that the Prime Minister, his key Cabinet ministers, generals and aides will gather shortly to discuss the mission. A sort of condensed Obama review of the UK contribution.

Saturday

David Blackburn

David Laws resigns

It was inevitable, but this is hugely regrettable as Laws is a star performer and I feel he has been the victim of a media gay-hunt that belongs to a bygone era. The sums of money involved are slight in comparison to some, and there are arguments that other ministers should resign for having committed similar or worse offences and for having shown markedly less contrition. But it is refreshing that a minister would resign over a personal transgression with haste and dignity.  His successor is understood to be a Lib Dem, probably Chris Huhne or Jeremy Browne. Huhne made his money working on hedge funds so he is a more or less a like for like replacement.

David Blackburn

The transparency revolution

David Cameron has made his first podcast since becoming Prime Minister. There are a couple of noteworthy points: he didn’t name-check any Lib Dems (a slight if perhaps telling oversight); and he reiterated his call for a ‘transparency revolution’, allying accountable public services with a new style of open politics. The coalition will 'rip-off the cloak of secrecy... and rebuild public trust in politics.'  Oh the difference a day makes. Recorded on the train down from Yorkshire yesterday, pithy catchphrases such as ‘by the time we've finished, they (politicians) will have far, far fewer places to nowhere to hide’ sound a little insensitive today. But I’m nit-picking. It’s an excellent spiel: clear, direct and contrite.

Daniel Korski

Organising for national security

Four weeks into the new government and the National Security Council machinery is still being put in place and ministers are still getting read into their briefs. The visit by William Hague, Andrew Mitchell and Liam Fox to Afghanistan was important, despite the brouhaha over the Defence Secretary’s comments. Such a visit was simply not imaginable under the Brown government. On the other hand, insiders say there is no real difference yet from the NSID committee that Gordon Brown created and the National Security Council that David Cameron has convened - except that the latter meets weekly, producing a torrent of tasks for officials. Permanent Secretaries are meeting regularly to support the NSC, but the subordinate structures are still not in place.

David Blackburn

Can he stay or must he go?

Paul Waugh and Matthew D’Ancona are debating whether David Laws will stay or go. D’Ancona is plain that Laws must go; Waugh wonders if this is an ‘Ecclestone moment’ and that Cameron and Clegg will dig in. John Rentoul agrees with Waugh. Laws’s situation looks bleak, and Andrew Grice concludes that Laws is no longer master of his fate. But it is not hopeless and Laws can survive. Laws is indispensible to the coalition - especially with left-wing Lib Dems Menzies Campbell and Simon Hughes increasingly intent on dissent. Second, who would replace him? There’s more talent on Virgin TV than there is on the blue and yellow benches, and the government cannot afford instability at the Treasury with the emergency budget looming.

David Blackburn

The Treasury Secretary, his secret gay lover and the coalition’s first scandal

Even a general election could not shorten the expenses crisis’s shadow. The Telegraph has the scoop that David Laws apparently abused the second home allowance between 2006 and 2009, claiming tens of thousands of pounds for rooms owned by his long-term partner. MPs have been banned from leasing accommodation from their partners since 2006. Spice is added to the scandal in that Laws escaped exposure during last year’s witch hunt because he did not disclose that his landlord, James Lundie, was also his lover. Laws and Lundie have been involved since 2001; their attachment was kept secret from family and friends. Laws’s defends his actions as being designed to guard against revealing his sexuality.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Cameron creates cover for cuts

David Cameron's speech today was, in many respects, the one he needed to make: the clean-break speech, which trashed Labour's record on the economy while also outlining how the coalition would deliver us to the sunny uplands. As it happens, it was also quite effective: a blend of policy specifics and punchy rhetoric.  And while we'd heard many of those specifics before – corporation tax cuts, reduced regulation, carbon capture, etc. – they cohered here as they rarely have done before. The most earcatching apsect of the speech, though, was the emphasis Cameron placed on government intervention.  Yes, there was a solid core of small state fundamentals.