Labour party

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Keeping the lights on

From our UK edition

It may have come ten years late, but Ed Miliband’s decision to bypass planning processes for nuclear plants is welcome. Britain faces unprecedented energy insecurity, with widespread power cuts predicted from 2017. Rather than trust Vladimir Putin not to turn the top-off whenever he’s feeling piqued, or to rely on the totally unreliable Colonel Gadaffi, or import energy, the government will increase nuclear output to 25 percent of national production. To achieve this, government will act with almost dictatorial reach to circumvent local communities and their right to determine the scale and scope of local construction. Expense has long been an argument against nuclear power and each of the ten proposed reactors will cost £5bn.

Alex Massie

The March of the Surveillance State

From our UK edition

Good grief: All telecoms companies and internet service providers will be required by law to keep a record of every customer's personal communications, showing who they are contacting, when, where and which websites they are visiting. Despite widespread opposition over Britain's growing surveillance society, 653 public bodies will be given access to the confidential information, including police, local councils, the Financial Services Authority, the Ambulance Service, fire authorities and even prison governors. They will not require the permission of a judge or a magistrate to access the information, but simply the authorisation of a senior police officer or the equivalent of a deputy head of department at a local authority.

Monday

David Blackburn

Electoral wipe-out

From our UK edition

The extremely well-connected Jackie Ashley makes this astonishing prediction in this morning’s Guardian: ‘Some Labour people may think I'm sounding too gloomy, but those who have been privy to recent private polling are a lot more than gloomy. This suggests that Labour could return to the Commons with just 120 MPs or thereabouts, taking the party back to 1930s territory. As ministers look for jobs to keep themselves going after politics, a Miliband move to Europe looks sensible.’ Surely it can’t be that bad? Surely? I would discount this prediction entirely but for the fact that Ashley is the best connected centre-left writer around. The figure is probably exaggerated, but even so.

David Blackburn

From maladroit to managed

From our UK edition

Labour has at last acknowledged the damage the BNP’s rise has caused them. Interviewed by Andrew Neil, Peter Hain admitted that government failure on housing and migration had heightened the BNP’s appeal, and, in an interview in this morning’s Independent, Alan Johnson elaborates on his claim that successive governments have been “maladroit” in handling immigration. “Part of its (the BNP’s) attraction is that it is raising things that other political parties don't raise. It would take the absence of a national debate as the green light to distort the debate. It has absolutely no inhibition about lying about these issues.

Sunday

David Blackburn

If you must deceive, deceive competently

From our UK edition

On 15th September, Gordon Brown finally uttered the word ‘cuts’, but he diluted the shock by pledging that frontline services would be protected. He told the TUC: “But when our plans are published in the coming months, people will see that Labour will not support cuts in vital frontline services on which people depend. Labour will not put the recovery at risk, protect and improve your frontline services first and make the right choices for low and middle income families in the country.” Today, some of those plans are published, albeit inadvertently in a document leaked to the Observer. Cuts are being planned in next year’s skills budget.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Rank desperation

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown’s suggestion for a Tobin tax would, if implemented, crucify the City of London. We are the largest foreign exchange centre in the world and that Brown is seriously suggesting hitting this industry is a sure sign he does not expect to be in government after the election. It is the proposal that a British prime Minister should be dying in a ditch to kill off given that the City generates about a tenth of Britain’s economic wealth. The kind of proposal that might be aired by a Frenchman, purely to outrage Britain. It is, of course, a trick: Brown knows it won’t be agreed because it requires the approval of every major currency-trading country – and that will never be secured.

David Blackburn

Scorching the earth

From our UK edition

Tim Montgomerie is right; Peter Oborne is at his best in the Mail today – a mix of relevant history and sharp analysis of current affairs. Like Callaghan and Major before him, Gordon Brown faces electoral defeat. Brown’s predicament is deep – consistently loathed by the electorate and the target of unhatched coups and constant intrigue. How does a prime minister defend a hopeless position? Does he govern in the best interests of the country, his party, or himself? Oborne remarks about the magnanimity of Callaghan and Major and notes that Brown has not followed their example. ‘The truth is that Gordon Brown is now governing Britain purely for partisan or even personal advantage rather than in the national interest.

Friday

David Blackburn

Hain’s hollow rhetoric 

From our UK edition

This week’s interviewee on the BBC’s Straight Talk with Andrew Neil is Peter Hain. One of the topics for discussion is Labour’s disengagement with its core vote and the rise of the BNP. Hain admits that this can be ascribed to Labour’s failings and Westminster’s disengagement with voters. Certainly, Labour’s failure on housing and migration has been a major factor in Griffin’s rise. But there is nothing to suggest that Labour has the political strength to re-engage. Even after the recent furore, there have been no new initiatives on housing or migration, just pitiful contrition in the place of action. Hain’s outright refusal to share a platform with the BNP and engage with its arguments is a case in point.

David Blackburn

Quantatitive Easing is an affront to democracy

From our UK edition

Readers of the Spectator will know George Trefgarne’s work, and today he delivered an important report on the dangers of Quantitative Easing. I urge Coffee Housers to read the speech. It provides an interesting and relevant insight into historical precedents for the policy and how to manage it, and gives a balanced analysis of the current policy’s pros and cons. Trefgarne concurs with Mark Bathgate’s critique. There is little evidence that QE has stimulated money supply, as banks are using the cash to re-balance their lop-sided books. QE is funding the government’s debt habit. The IMF estimates that QE has reduced the benchmark 10-year interest rate on government debt by up to 1%, currently standing at 3.5%.

Thursday

David Blackburn

Leaked minutes reveal a party short on ideas and low on confidence

From our UK edition

It’s worth flagging up the minutes of a regional Labour Party meeting, dated 2 November, that have been leaked to Iain Dale. The first stand out passage shows the Labour Party’s reliance on Barack Obama as a source of inspiration: ‘Claude[Moraes MEP] has been to Washington DC where Obama administration key players made it clear they don’t want to have to deal with a Eurosceptic Tory Government here as they want to be able to deal with the EU as a whole.’ Iain argues that the claim has no basis in fact. But, as Daniel Korski pointed out recently, it is clear that the US administration would prefer to work with an assertive and united EU, not one embroiled in internal squabbles.

Fraser Nelson

Labour and the KGB

From our UK edition

How close were Labour and the Soviets during the cold war? At the time, many newspapers were on the hunt for links - but allegations were hard to prove. Today, the Spectator tells the story from the horse's mouth - Anatoly Chernyaev, the Kremlin's link man with Labour in the 70s and 80s. Unbeknown to his visitors - Michael Foot (who welcomed Brezhnev as 'comrade') and even Charles Clarke (who comes out of this quite well) Chernyaev was keeping a diary. It shows how various Labour visitors begged for help - after all, Labour and the Soviets had a common enemy: the Conservatives. They said so in terms. Edward Short, as Harold Wilson's deputy, said: "if you, the Communist party of the Soviet Union, want a Labour government in Britain then help us". It goes on like this.

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Vaclav Klaus signs the Lisbon Treaty

From our UK edition

According to the BBC's Laura Kuenssberg, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty. As James wrote this morning, Cameron has not broken any promise concerning a referendum because there was no such pledge except under circumstances that have passed; but Cameron must now detail how he intends to repatriate powers and obtain an opt-out from the Social Chapter. What is peculiar is how this has become a story about the Tories breaking pledges. It should be nothing of the sort. That 'honour' lies squarely with Brown and Blair. Labour's mock-outraged line that Cameron has '"reneged on his cast-iron guarantee" defies belief; it's incredible, brazen and unmistakably wrong.

James Forsyth

One in five children live in jobless households

From our UK edition

The Guardian reports this morning that, “One in five – two million – British children now live in households where neither parent has a job.” This is an incredibly worrying statistic. The evidence suggests that worklessness is corrosive and soul-destroying. A child growing up in a workless household will, for obvious reasons, tend to have limited ambitions and opportunity. Obviously, as the economy recovers this number should go down — the recent rise indicates that many of these parents have been laid off in recent months. But even before the credit crunch really kicked in, there were more than 1.8 million children living in workless households.

Monday

Alex Massie

Referendum Delayed: 2012 to be the new 2010?

From our UK edition

So, it seems that dreams of a referendum next year have been dashed. 2010, once the Year of the Referendum, will now be plebiscite-free. No referendum on the Lisbon Treaty and no referendum on the Act of Union either. This my be good news for voters but it's tough on hacks who'll need to find something else to write about. But, for a moment, let's consider some of the implications of this. I'll leave the Lisbon question to one side for now and reiterate my suspicion that Labour, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats are helping, not hindering Alex Salmond, by agreeing to delay nay referendum until after the next Holrood elections. Granted, the SNP may not remain the largest party, nor form even a minority ministry in Edinburgh after the 2011 election.

David Blackburn

Nanny knows best

From our UK edition

Does Professor David Nutt's dismissal concern the impossibility of relaxing drugs legislation, or the relationship between experts and ministers? David Nutt was sacked because he spoke the unspeakable and criticised the government for failing to acknowledge the self-evident scientific truth that horse-riding, especially after quaffing sherry, is more dangerous than taking ecstasy and dancing maniacally in a night club. As Bruce Anderson notes in today’s Independent, it is impossible to have a rational debate about drugs. The politics of narcotics always trumps evidence.

Sunday

Alex Massie

To hell with Alan Johnson, the Tories are just as moronically authoritarian as Labour

From our UK edition

I don't think that government ministers should necessarily listen to the advice they're given by independent, expert authorities. That is, the government is and should be free to decide that, whatever the merits of any given piece of independent analysis the larger, more general, interest is best served by rejecting that advice. So there's nothing wrong with Alan Johnson sacking Professor David Nutt. That's his prerogative. But we have our own views and interests too. And we may fairly say that Johnson is a fool and that Nutt's recommendation, shared by his colleagues at Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, that Cannabis should be reclassified at a Class C, not Class B, drug is eminently sensible.

Friday

Daniel Korski

Even under the Tories, President Blair will be our man in Brussels 

From our UK edition

In his column, James asks the key question about Tony Blair’s candidature for President of the European Council: what would it do for the Tories and Britain’s foreign policy. William Hague clearly thinks it would be a bad thing and has been lobbying against Blair’s candidacy.   The Shadow Foreign Secretary is letting his anti-EU, anti-Labour views cloud his judgement. Let me explain. If the Tories win, Labour will be in the doldrums, a shadow of its former self. The idea that the party will mount a challenge to a Conservative government by rallying around an EU-focused Tony Blair is unbelievable. Romani Prodi may have jumped from an EU job to the top of Italian politics, but Britain works differently. Peter Mandelson is the exception, Roy Jenkins the rule.

Caroline Fitzner

Is privatising the Royal Mail viable?

From our UK edition

Over the summer, as the postal crisis mounted, the government argued that adverse market conditions deterred potential investors. Regardless of the ongoing industrial dispute, the government maintain that Lord Mandelson’s bill will not be reintroduced unless conditions improved. According to the Guardian, Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, believes that there is still demand in the public sector to buy the Royal Mail, providing the CWU accepts modernisation and ends the strikes. ‘Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, has held talks on the sale of Royal Mail with potential bidders, and the party believes there is still a desire in the private sector to take over the company.

Daniel Korski

The Rabbi speaks

From our UK edition

Poland's Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told the Today programme that Michael Kaminski is, as far as he knows, not an anti-semite today - though the Jewish leader made clear he "could not read his heart", and thought Mr Kaminski's teenage views extremist. The rabbi's words will further fuel the spat between David Miliband and William Hague. Expect the Shadow Foreign Secretary to renew his calls today for an apology to be issued to Kaminski. Expect the Foreign Secretary to ignore this and find support, including from within the Jewish community, to his charges against Mr Kaminski and his accusation that the Tories mingle with madmen. Both parties think the fight is important. Miliband thinks he has stumbled upon political cryptonite to the Tories' electoral superpowers.

Alex Massie

The Nonsensical Neather Plot

From our UK edition

Conspiracies are all the rage these days. And since this has turned into Immigration Week here one might as well address the Neather Brouhaha. This, British readers will need no reminding, refers to the uncovering of the nefarious New Labour plan to destroy Britain and spike the Tories' guns forever by destroying this green and pleasant land and turning it into a multi-cultural hellhole. We are led to understand that this was indeed a deliberate plot, apparently borrowed from the Democrats' presumed determination to make the United States a Spanish-speaking Banana Republic. The evidence [sic] for this rests upon two paragraphs from an article written by a former government speechwriter.