Uk politics

Sunday

Steerpike

Moggmentum comes to Tory conference

From our UK edition

After a lacklustre policy announcement on tuition fees followed by a disappointing turn on the Marr show, Theresa May's Conservative conference has not got off to the best of starts. However, as MPs fume about their leader's failings, members are at least managing to get excited about one Tory politician... Step forward Jacob Rees-Mogg. This afternoon Moggmentum hit Tory conference. Eager conference attendees started queuing for a Jacob Rees-Mogg fringe event on Brexit an hour before it began. With half an hour to go, the queue was so long it blocked the entrance to the conference centre. Security staff then had to bend it so that the fire exit was not blocked by Mogg's many admirers. Unfortunately the room was too small to cater for the sheer demand for Mogg.

Matthew Taylor

Sunday shows round-up: Is Boris Johnson unsackable?

From our UK edition

Theresa May – We've listened on student fees The Prime Minister marked the start of the Conservative party conference (and her 61st birthday) with a customary appearance on the Andrew Marr Show. First on the agenda was the announcement of a change in the government's policy on university tuition fees. May stated that she wanted to raise the threshold at which students start to pay back their loans, and that she intended to scrap a planned increase in level of fees to a maximum of £9,250 a year. Marr accused the Prime Minister of presiding over a screeching U-turn: https://youtu.be/IOnfnAKbifU AM: The policy that you stoutly defended for years, which ended up with £9,000 a year fees for students, did that work? Was it a failure as a policy?

Fraser Nelson

Burma, Kipling, Sinatra and Boris – the anatomy of a non-scandal

From our UK edition

I’m an admirer of Brian Cox so I was struck by a tweet of his yesterday, where he seemed to have encountered a scientific formula for the Antichrist. ‘If you removed all that is good in Britain, leaving only blimpish sludge, and emptied the residue into one man.’ It turns out that he was referring to the Foreign Secretary. The story in question was one where the Guardian claimed that Boris Johnson had ‘recited part of a colonial-era Rudyard Kipling poem’ in a Buddhist temple. The story was written to mislead the reader into thinking that Boris had read a poem in public in Burma, causing upset to guests. In fact, he’d been reminded of the Road to Mandalay, a poem that has inspired musicians (from Sinatra to Robbie Williams) for generations.

Steerpike

David Mundell’s Boris Johnson jibe

From our UK edition

Conservative party conference kicks off today and already a few common themes are beginning to emerge: how to win back younger voters, May's vulnerable position and Boris-bashing. After Ruth Davidson used an interview with the Times to suggest that the Foreign Secretary needed a reality check, her Scottish comrade David Mundell has today joined in on the fun in a fringe event. Speaking on a panel of Scottish Conservative MPs discussing how the party could better connect with young voters, Mundell was asked whether BoJo could be the answer. His reply? 'I do recall that Boris Johnson once stood as rector of Edinburgh university. You can look at the results of that.

Alex Massie

Why young Britain is repelled by the Tories

From our UK edition

Of all the difficulties Theresa May faces, the importance of denying the truth may be the most acute. There are certain things a prime minister cannot say; certain fabrications that must be insisted upon because political expedience cannot withstand too much daylight. Mrs May, then, must pretend her position is secure and that, contrary to the expectations of her party and the country, that she will lead the Conservative party at the next general election, whenever that may be. If this makes her seem modestly ridiculous then so be it; the alternatives are even worse. Even so, some fictions would be better abandoned. Last week the prime minister was asked if the Conservative party needed to revisit the ‘modernising’ agenda that, in part, Mrs May was once a part of.

Steerpike

A cold front for the Tories in Manchester

From our UK edition

It's Theresa May's birthday and the Prime Minister is set to spend it in Manchester where Conservative party conference kicks off today. Alas, rather than celebrate, May finds herself in a perilous position – as MPs on all sides on the party go on the offensive whether it's over Brexit, tuition fees or Boris. To add to the Tories' woes, they are been given a less than friendly reception in the land of the northern powerhouse. On top of a banner calling for Tories to be hung, anti-Tory protesters have today descended on the area surrounding the conference centre. Here are some of the delights on display: https://twitter.com/Mike_Fabricant/status/914094055428063233 https://twitter.com/pplsassembly/status/914455353630347264 https://twitter.

Isabel Hardman

Nicky Morgan interview: EU rebels can’t have anything to do with the Labour frontbench

From our UK edition

Theresa May took just 15 seconds to sack Nicky Morgan as Education Secretary. Morgan’s revenge has taken a little longer. First, she criticised the Prime Minister’s expensive trousers, but once she’d apologised for that, the Loughborough MP then set herself up as something far more troublesome in the long-term than a fashion critic. Not only is she a prominent campaigner against a Hard Brexit, Morgan is also the chair of the Treasury Select Committee, one of the most powerful backbench operations around. When we meet in her Commons office, Morgan is busy planning how to make the government’s life uncomfortable through a series of select committee hearings and through a series of amendments to the EU Withdrawal Bill which have landed ministers in a spin.

James Forsyth

Theresa May’s unconvincing performance on the Andrew Marr Show

From our UK edition

This morning has been a reminder of how difficult this conference will be for the Tories. Two policies were announced overnight and neither have landed well. Theresa May then delivered a nervy performance on the Andrew Marr Show that will have done little to reassure Tories that she can turn things round. On tuition fees, the Tories have announced a freeze in their levels. It is hard to understand the politics behind this. It raises the salience of the issue without coming up with a solution. Those who went Labour because of their policy of abolishing fees won’t be won over by this. The other policy announcement is more money for George Osborne’s old Help to Buy scheme. But this doesn’t deal with the fundamental housing problem, a lack of supply.

Fraser Nelson

The lady’s not for quitting: Damian Green on Theresa May

From our UK edition

Even Damian Green seems to find it odd that he’s the second most important person in the government. When asked, the First Secretary of State plays down his influence — in fact, he plays down most things. When David Cameron wanted the Tories’ immigration policies out of the spotlight, he put Green in charge of them. And when Theresa May wanted someone she could trust to be her deputy after the disastrous general election, she chose one of the few people in the cabinet whom she can call a friend. The pair have known each other since Oxford, and now talk face-to-face every day. When we meet in his magisterial cabinet office headquarters, he talks about her with enthusiasm.

Tom Goodenough

Conservative party conference, day one: The Spectator guide | 1 October 2017

From our UK edition

The Conservative party conference is underway. In the days after the doomed snap election, Theresa May didn't look as though she would make it this far. But the Prime Minister has clung on. Here are the highlights to look out for on day one: Party conference: 10.30 - 12.30: Meeting of the National Conservative Convention. Alexandra Suite, Midland Hotel  14.00 - 14.50: Welcome to Conference: Conference Chairman; Conservative Party Chairman; First Secretary of State 14.50 - 15.45: Delivering a fairer future for young people: Secretary of State for Education; Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government 15.45 - 16.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Ruth Davidson and Boris Johnson have so much in common. Why the bad blood?

From our UK edition

Boris Johnson and Ruth Davidson are two of my favourite Tory politicians: both energetic, eloquent, optimistic, pro-immigration and – in general - liberal conservatives. Both have proven track records of winnng voters in parts of the country that had been inhospitable to Tories. Both are advocates of conservatism for explicitly progressive reasons: but because it’s the best way of helping those who need help most.  So I’ve never worked out why there seems to be a firth of bad blood between them. We saw it in the Brexit campaign: it seemed, as times, that the main reason Ruth joined the Wembley Brexit debate was the joy of giving Boris a kicking.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May’s tense conference

From our UK edition

A few weeks ago, Theresa May seemed surprisingly stable as Tory leader, given the mess of the snap election. Her cabinet had finally stopped squabbling about Brexit and Conservative backbenchers were largely backing her to continue. But on the eve of party conference, things don't look so great. Firstly, the Cabinet unity has disappeared again. The Prime Minister's Florence speech opened up a war of bids for her attention from Brexiteers and Brexitsceptics alike, all of whom believed that the Prime Minister is so malleable on policy that she just needs to hear the same thing over and over again before she believes it.

James Forsyth

Theresa May needs to show some urgency

From our UK edition

Tomorrow is Theresa May’s birthday. But as I say in The Sun this morning, Tory activists won’t be giving her presents. Instead, they’ll be letting her know what they think went wrong with the election campaign. My information is that Theresa May won’t apologise for the campaign. But she will make clear that she intends to accept the recommendations of the report by former party chairman Eric Pickles and the 1922 chair Graham Brady into the election debacle. But May needs to do more than begin to repair relations with her party. She needs to speak to the country too. At Labour conference last week, Jeremy Corbyn painted the Tories as tired, out of ideas and clinging to power for power’s sake.

Susan Hill

Jeremy Corbyn’s older supporters should know better

From our UK edition

Now, the government seems entirely focused on Brexit, and of course it is important, but there are many other matters to sort out and I don’t mean internecine squabbles. Poverty. Housing. Schools. Holes in the road. I understand why many young people are turning away from us. But not why some older ones who should have more sense are Corbynistas. I met some people in their sixties, higher-educated, cultured, thoughtful, intelligent and quite well-heeled, who actually said that not only Jeremy Corbyn but his far-left allies were a good thing. They have lived long enough to know how it actually pans out for ordinary citizens in Marxist countries, and the way their economies always tank, yet still promote a government of the far left here.

Charles Moore

Juncker’s EU vision won’t end well

From our UK edition

You can see why Theresa May said in Florence that the British wished the European Union well in its plans for greater integration, while choosing a different path ourselves. There is no point in causing antagonism over what we cannot prevent. But in fact greater European integration will do great harm to all Europeans, including us. The rise of AfD in the German elections was caused almost entirely by Mrs Merkel’s extraordinary decision to admit a million Middle Eastern migrants in a year. The spread of the Schengen area — proposed by Jean-Claude Juncker — combined with recrudescent migrant pressure can only confirm freedom of movement as the impossible issue of our time.

Ross Clark

The first 100 days of Corbyn

From our UK edition

Many assume that if an election were held soon, Jeremy Corbyn would win. But what if, say, the government fell in 2020 and Labour won a working majority? At 71, Corbyn becomes Britain’s oldest prime minister since Churchill, and at first is one of its most popular. His appeal grows as he takes on some of the country’s favourite demons. Few listen to the protests of water and electricity shareholders as their stakes are seized — most are focused on their own bills, which surely will come down now. There are cheers at Victoria Station as the news flashes across screens that Southern Railway is to be nationalised. At hospitals, medical staff are filmed applauding as PFI contracts are terminated and taken on by the NHS. Stock markets show an upwards blip.

Friday

Stephen Daisley

Slugs, melts and centrist dads: How to talk like a Corbynista

From our UK edition

Are you considering a career in Labour politics but fear you may be left behind amid all the exciting changes the party is undergoing? Maybe you want to be a part of the Jez revolution but can’t get your head around the ever-developing terminology.  Perhaps you are eyeing up a safe seat but aren’t sure which paramilitary cell's endorsement would most impress the selection panel.  Help is at hand with this guide that takes you through the key terms of Corbynspeak.  Centrist dad: Anyone old enough to remember when Labour was a political party and not an evangelical tent ministry. Owns more than one pair of chinos and only uses Facebook to post ‘FFS’ with links to Owen Jones pieces. Centrist dads just don’t get how politics works in 2017.

Fraser Nelson

Spectator Briefing: A new battle of ideas

From our UK edition

When I started out as a political journalist, I was always thrown by the word 'policy'. To most people it sounded so dull and wonky whereas for me, it was – and is – easily the most exciting aspect of politics. How to fix the NHS, tackle poverty, solve the housing crisis, make state schools as good as private schools? This is what Westminster should be about: a battle of ideas. So we're introducing a forum for this battle: Spectator Briefing, where we'll seek a variety of voices and go into greater depth than would be suitable for Coffee House. There will be graphs, more links to PDFs and we'll summarise some of the best original research. We'll also publish policy podcasts. As ever with The Spectator, we'll aim to keep it punchy, useful and to the point.

Katy Balls

Introducing Ukip’s new leader – a former Lib Dem who takes inspiration from the AfD

From our UK edition

Ukip have just announced their new leader – and it's not who you would expect. Anne Marie Waters – the far-right anti-Islam candidate – has been beaten to first place by a former Lib Dem candidate named Henry Bolton. Bolton, who won with 30pc of the vote, used his acceptance speech to make clear that Brexit is Ukip's priority: 'Brexit is our core task however, it is not the end of the line.' Outside of Ukip circles, Bolton is a relative unknown. A former soldier, Bolton is a one-time Lib Dem member who has worked as an EU common defence strategist.

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Don’t be fooled by Corbyn’s ‘socialist snake-oil’

From our UK edition

Finally, Theresa May has – in her speech marking the Bank of England's independence – offered the defence of capitalism ‘that the country has been waiting to hear’, says the Daily Telegraph. It’s about time, argues the paper, which accuses Jeremy Corbyn of ‘selling a vision of socialism’ to an audience too young to remember the 'grim' seventies. This makes it vital that the Tories fight back. The ‘intellectual case’ for capitalism is an ‘easy’ one for the party to make. But what about the moral argument? Margaret Thatcher spoke with a ‘deep confidence’ in the free market. And while it’s true that May is no Thatcher, our current PM could still learn a thing or two from her predecessor.