Labour party

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Miliband may be punished for his contempt for Clegg

Ed Miliband’s hand of friendship has to be one of the shakiest body parts in British politics. Sometimes it’s extended to the Lib Dems, sometimes it’s not. Sometimes it’s extended to Nick Clegg, sometimes it’s not. Sure, the Labour leader does appear to have finally settled on a position: that he will only shake the hands of a Cleggless Liberal party. But that has come after constant wavering on his part, and could well be subject to change. I mention this now because of a claim in Rachel Sylvester’s column (£) today. I’m not sure whether it has been made before — but it neatly encapsulates how Miliband has lurched

Monday

James Forsyth

Lansley faces the music alone

A weary-looking Andrew Lansley has just finished answering MPs’ questions following his statement announcing a delay to the coalition’s NHS reforms. The statement left us none the wiser as to what is up for review in the listening exercise the coalition is about to undertake. What it did demonstrate was both Lansley’s encyclopedic knowledge of the NHS: he seemed to know the GP who was leading the consortium in the area of every MP who questioned him: and his inability to clearly explain the purpose of his reforms. Indeed, if it had not been for a question from John Redwood the point that these reforms are meant to free up

Alex Massie

One More Trip on the SNP-Labour Fantasy Coalition Merry-go-round

Crivvens, the idea of an SNP-Labour coalition refuses to die. Here’s Iain Macwhirter in the Herald: The rule seems to be that, in Scottish politics it’s easier to work constructively with parties you don’t agree with than with parties you do. Labour and the SNP now agree – independence aside – on most of the big issues, such as NHS privatisation, comprehensive education, free university tuition, more powers for Holyrood. But unfortunately they hate the sight of each other. Could they ever bury their differences? Most polls suggest that this is the coalition partnership Scots would most like to see. A grand coalition, perhaps, against the Tory cuts. Scotland’s two

James Forsyth

Hardly a model of good government

What is going on with the government’s health reforms is highly unusual. Normally, once a bill has gone through second reading and committee stage in the Commons there are very few changes made to it. But the coalition is considering some fairly significant changes to the Health and Social Care Bill in a bid to make it more politically palatable. It is hardly a model of good government.   This state of affairs provides ample opportunity for Ed Miliband to land some blows on the coalition, as he did in this morning’s speech delivered — symbolically — at the RSA, the new home of Blair’s former policy chief Matthew Taylor.

Saturday

Gordon Hector

Trouble over the NHS reforms – inevitable or not?

Was the stooshie over health reforms inevitable? From much of the coverage, you’d think it was always going to end in tears, as people line up to criticise Lansley and rumours about Number 10’s search for a dignified exit strategy (£) swirl around the Westminster village. But it didn’t have to be like this. For a start, the basic idea is one that should be easy to sell to the public. Matthew Parris has pointed out (£) that people intuitively look to their GP as the route into healthcare. It shouldn’t be hard to convince the public they should lead commissioning. It’s been difficult mainly because the health professionals aren’t on-side.

Friday

David Blackburn

An election jam in Leicester spells trouble for Clegg

Nick Clegg is campaigning in Leicester today, ahead of the local election. The Labour party has just confirmed that Sir Peter Soulsby has stood down as MP for Leicester South today to seek election as the town’s Mayor. A happy coincidence? Probably not. Labour are already running a coherent campaign in Leicester. Michael Crick points out that the by-election will fall on 5 May, together with the local council elections, the Mayoral election and the referendum on the alternative vote.  A party spokesman has opened new parliamentary candidate Jonathan Ashworth’s (who used to work for Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband) campaign by saying: ‘Both Peter and Jon will offer the

James Forsyth

A shameful episode

Libby Brooks’ piece in The Guardian today is shameful. Writing about the violence that followed last weekend’s march, she  argues that the ‘relevant question is not whether or how to condemn those acts – but if any coherent agenda lies behind them and how important it is for that to sit neatly with the agenda of the whole’. She even quotes approvingly the idea that the violence can be beneficial as it might push the government to do a deal with the moderate elements of the movement and wants us to remember that ‘the vast majority of damage on Saturday was sustained by property, not persons (84 people were treated

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Ed Balls ties himself in knots

The Most Annoying Figure in British Politics™ is spread absolutely everywhere today: in the newspapers, on Twitter and, most notably, in interview with the New Statesman’s Mehdi Hasan. The interview really is worth reading, not least because it pulls out and probes some of Ball’s arguments, both for himself and for Labour’s fiscal reasoning. Guido has already dwelt on the former — “I’m a very loyal person,” quoth the shadow chancellor — but what about the latter? Three things struck me: 1) Oh, yeah, there was a structural deficit. The Big News here is probably Balls’s admission that Labour did run up a structural deficit (i.e. a deficit that remains

Wednesday

Toby Young

David Miliband’s never-to-be-made best man speech

Good afternoon. I’d like to thank you all for coming to this godforsaken hell hole – sorry, I mean, Ed’s constituency. Believe it or not, I once expressed an interest in becoming the Labour MP for Doncaster North, but as soon as Ed heard about it he tossed his hat into the ring. Funny that. I’m going to start by reading a few telegrams from people who couldn’t be here today. [Reading]: “Dear Ed, Thanks for your kind invitation, but I’d rather stick pins in my eyes.” [Looking up]: That’s from my wife, Louise. [Reading]: “Dear Ed, I’m happy to pick up the tab. You can pay me back when

James Forsyth

An explosive session

This PMQs will be remembered for the Cameron Balls spat. As Cameron was answering a question from a Labour MP, he snapped at Balls who was heckling him, shouting ‘you don’t know the answer, you’re not properly briefed, why don’t you just say you’ll write to her’. A visibly irritated Cameron shot back, ‘I wish the shadow Chancellor would shut up and listen for once’. At this the Labour benches erupted, their aim at PMQs is always to get Cameron to lose his temper and they had succeeded. Cameron then produced a brilliant comeback, saying that Balls was ‘the most annoying person in British politics’ and ‘I suspect that the

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 30 March 2011

VERDICT: What happened there, then? The Prime Minister often has a confident swagger about him when it comes to PMQs — but today it went into overdrive. He simply couldn’t conceal his glee at taking on Eds Miliband and Balls; the first over his appearance at the anti-cuts demonstration, the second for just being Ed Balls. It was a little bit Flashman from the PM, perhaps. Yet, on this occasion, it also helped him sail through the contest more or less untroubled. Aside from the theatrics, the serious talk was reserved for whether the coalition should help arm the rebels in Libya. The PM’s official position was that we shouldn’t

Peter Hoskin

Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton to marry

A scoop-and-a-half for the Doncaster Free Press, who were first with the news of Ed Miliband and Justine Thornton’s wedding date. It is 27 May, lest you hadn’t heard already, and will take place at a country hotel near Nottingham. Here’s what the Labour leader tells the paper: “‘This is going to be a fantastic day for us both and I feel incredibly priviliged to be marrying someone so beautiful and who is such a special person. It’s the right time for us to do this and I’m really looking forward to a lovely day. ‘We’re going to have a party in Doncaster when we get back from honeymoon —

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Iain Gray’s Remarkable No-Man Band

Meanwhile, STV have a poll asking punters who they think would make the best First Minister. The results are almost entertaining: Don’t Know – 37% Alex Salmond – 30% None of Them – 16% Annabel Goldie – 9% Iain Gray – 7% Tavish Scott – 2% Remember that the same poll has Labour and the SNP neck and neck (38% to 37% on the constituency vote and 35% each on the list vote) and so, by my calculations, fewer than one in five Labour voters will tell pollsters their so-called leader is the best man to head the government after this election. Mr Gray complains that the SNP are a

Alex Massie

Dogs Will Not Lie Down With Cats.

I’m fonder of wacky political hypotheticals than the next fellow but even I draw the line at Sunder Katwala’s assertion that some people can see a path towards a Labour-SNP coalition in Edinburgh. This is splendidly creative but also, alas, untethered to reality. The party leaders – apart from the Green’s Patrick Harvie who has been excluded, perhaps unfairly – gather for their first debate tonight. You can, my friends, watch the drama here. You will notice that Labour-SNP relations are chilly. There is not the slightest reason to suppose that either party would have any interest in governing in partnership with the other. Who is going to tell Iain

Monday

James Forsyth

Boris’s remarkable ability to infuriate Labour

Today’s Commons ding-dong on the riots that followed Saturday’s march was real, politics of the viscera stuff. The Labour benches were furious about Boris’s comments in today’s Telegraph that ‘Balls and Miliband will feel quietly satisfied by the disorder’ and that they ‘will be content to see the police being unfairly attacked on all sides’. Yvette Cooper was so angry that when she tried to read out this section from Boris’s column that she couldn’t get the words out. Boris and Yvette, both Balliol graduates, have previous. But it was still striking quite how angrily Cooper heckled May as she refused to condemn Boris’ comments. It was all further evidence of

James Forsyth

Another phase in Gove’s revolution

Michael Gove has just finished announcing to the Commons his proposed replacement for Educational Maintenance Allowance. The new scheme is more targeted than the old one that went to 45 percent of those who stayed in education post-16. Interestingly, it will be administered by the schools and colleges themselves. Gove’s argument is that it is these institutions that are best equipped to know which student needs how much money to support them staying in education. This drew predictable opposition from the Labour benches which wanted a top down, national scheme. On top of this discretionary fund, every student who is receiving income support will receive £1,200 a year. This new

James Forsyth

Clegg’s new direction?

Perhaps the most interesting political story of the weekend was Nick Clegg’s political mentor, Paddy Ashdown rejecting the idea that the Lib Dems should be equidistant between the two main parties in an interview with The Times: ‘I don’t want to go back to using the word ‘equidistant’ because the world has changed.” He predicts that Labour will look increasingly like “a bunch of superannuated students shouting from the sidelines.’ There are two schools of thought in the Lib Dems about their approach to the next election. One has it that the party must appear equally prepared to do a deal with either of the main parties in the event

Peter Hoskin

Clegg weaves more divides between himself and Miliband

“He’s elevated personal abuse into a sort of strategy.” So says Nick Clegg of Ed Miliband in one of the most noteworthy snippets from his laid-back interview with the FT today. Another sign, were it needed, that Labour’s animosity towards the Lib Dem leader is mutual — if they won’t work with him, then he almost certainly won’t work with them. And a sign, perhaps, that the coalition is keen to undermine Miliband’s claim to post-partisanship (or whatever). Labour constantly criticise Cameron for being more Flashman than statesman. Now the same charge is being levelled at their leader too. Elsewhere in the interview — as George Eaton details over at

Alex Massie

Ed Miliband’s Delusions

Perhaps I’m being a little unfair on Ed Miliband but, no, I don’t think I am. Perhaps he’s not in denial. There again, he gives every impression of being a man who still doesn’t understand why Labour lost the last election. Every so often there’ll be a nod to the notion that government spending cannot increase by several points above inflation every year but this is lost in the candyfloss of reassurance he serves (not sells, obviously) to Labour’s most devoted supporters. The occasional aside that some spending restraint or retrenchment might be necessary seems dutiful; the thrust of speeches suggests his heart lies elsewhere. That’s fine. It’s not an

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Signs of nerves from the Lib Dems

Judging by today’s reports, it’s fear and self-loathing in Lib Dem Land. And it’s not just that one of their Scottish candidates has quit the party in protest at its, ahem, “draconian policies” and “dictatorial style”. No, according to this insightful article by Melissa Kite and Patrick Hennessy in the Sunday Telegraph, there are more manoeuvrings going on than that. Here are some passages from it, by way of a summary: 1) Chris Huhne, waiting in the wings. “Mr Huhne, who ran Mr Clegg close in the last Lib Dem leadership election, has told colleagues privately that he would be interested in leading his party in the future.” 2) A