David cameron

Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech. Anyone who thought he meant it must now be crying out, ‘Je suis un right Charlie!’ Hardly had the march finished than the Prime Minister had rediscovered his other side: the one which reacts to terror by threatening yet more surveillance, more state control. He has promised to revive, in the Conservative manifesto, the ‘-snooper’s charter’ which would allow the state to retain indefinitely information about every email we ever send, every telephone call we ever make. Not only that. He added a further measure: he wants to ban all kinds of encrypted communications which the security -forces struggle to decipher.

David Cameron and George Osborne addressed Tory MPs this evening. The meeting was to update the Tory parliamentary party on the economy and its place in the party’s election strategy. Cameron told them that whatever the question was, the answer was that you can only have it with a strong economy and urged them to repeat this message as much as possible. He said, ‘Boring is good’. Addressing the assembled MPs, Osborne emphasised that the economy was the heart of this debate. He argued that this was first time since 1992 that Labour and the Tories had gone into an election with different spending planes. Most of the questions were fairly loyalist.

Why have the Conservatives left out immigration and the NHS - two of the three issues that voters consistently cite as the most important in forming their decision about who to back in the General Election - out of their list of six priorities? Among the deficit, jobs, taxes, education, housing and retirement there is no room for the health service, immigration or Europe: which also tend to be the things David Cameron and Ed Miliband fight most vehemently over at Prime Minister’s Questions. Labour is very pleased about this, and is pretending to be very cross that the Prime Minister is ignoring the NHS.

I don’t always agree with Peter Hitchens but this is by far the best piece I’ve seen on the political reaction to the Paris attacks. As far as Cameron, Miliband and Clegg are concerned, we must all sign up to these shibboleths: The attack was nothing to do with Islam. Almost all Muslims, here and abroad, found those attacks repugnant. The attacks were perpetrated and supported by a minuscule number of people who can simply be defined as 'terrorists'. Immigration and multiculturalism were in no way contributory causes of either the Paris attack or the attacks which we might experience in the future or have suffered in the past. All four of those easy, expedient, shibboleths are palpably wrong.

Unsurprisingly, David Cameron has this afternoon said he won’t take part in the TV election debates if the Greens are no included in one of the line-ups. Currently the proposal is for Cameron vs Miliband, then Cameron vs Miliband vs Clegg, then Cameron vs Miliband vs Clegg vs Farage. The Greens have been excluded, as have the SNP and Plaid Cymru. This is the exchange between the Prime Minister and ITN’s Tom Bradby: Me; 'Time is running out; are you saying you are not going to go in as it stands unless at least the Greens are in?' Him; 'Correct.' — tom bradby (@tombradby) January 8, 2015 Why is Cameron so anxious about the Greens all of a sudden?

There were very few smiles at Downing Street this afternoon as a mustard clad Angela Merkel spoke of a 'moving moment'. Yet that steely resolve had to crack eventually and with the final question at her joint press conference with David Cameron, the German Chancellor's perma-frown turned into an impish grin for just a split second. Scolding ITV's Tom Bradby, Mrs Merkel announced that she 'never answered speculative questions' and she certainly would not be starting today, danke very much. 'I think the policy of not answering speculative questions will make all press conferences much shorter in the future', piped up David Cameron, seeing a chance to wrap things up. 'Another excellent German invention'.

Today Angela Merkel will meet David Cameron in Downing Street. She will tell him what she can do – and what she cannot do – to help keep Britain in the EU. Yet she might like to begin by telling him what she plans to do to keep her own people behind the EU project, for in Germany the Eurofederalist consensus is being challenged like never before. In Germany, as in Britain, the most emotive issue is immigration. In Germany, as in Britain, people are scared to discuss this issue frankly, for fear of being branded racists. And now a new movement has emerged to fill this vacuum: Patriotische Europaer Gegen die Islamisierung des Abendlandes, aka Pegida – Patriotic Europeans Against the Islamisation of the West. Who are Pegida? What do they want?