Uk politics

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Osborne banks the recovery – and whacks his critics

From our UK edition

A few months ago, colleagues of George Osborne were worried the Chancellor risked 'banking the recovery' too early. If they're still worried about that, then Osborne certainly isn't. Today he's delivering a speech attacking economic pessimists who he says can be proven wrong: 'Our nation's best days lie ahead'. He will say: 'The evidence increasingly shows that monetary policy, broadly defined and effectively deployed, can work but with two caveats. Banks need to be well capitalised so that the monetary transmission system is working. And there needs to be credible fiscal policy.' His speech will also characterise what 'proponents of secular stagnation' argue for: 'further fiscal stimulus and higher government debt'. Who is the Chancellor talking about here?

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron: Trust me to change EU, not Ukip

From our UK edition

David Cameron launched his party's European and local elections campaign in Manchester today. After weeks of polarised debate between Nick and Nigel, the PM had a task in suggesting that there could be some nuance between In and Out which involves a bit of shake-it-all-about. He repeated his line that both the Lib Dems and Ukip took an 'extremist' stance on the EU, saying: 'Looking at the other parties, there are effectively two extremist camps. One says: “we love the European Union.” The other says: “we hate the European Union.” One says: “we want things to stay the same.” The other says: “let’s just walk away from the EU.

Steerpike

Hilary Benn squashed by 720,479 packets of Jammie Dodgers

From our UK edition

For months now the Tories and Labour have each been trying to out-do the other by revealing embarrassing examples of spending. Labour has generated the odd story about pot plants, biscuits and tellies by using written parliamentary questions to get departments to spill the beans. Eric Pickles’s Department for Local Government has never played ball and replies by flagging up how much Labour spent in government; thereby reminding the public of those Halcyon days. Yesterday's response to one of Hilary Benn’s questions was a classic of the genre: ‘Hilary Benn: To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government what his Department's (a) catering and(b) hospitality budget was in (i) 2012 and (ii) 2013.

Charles Moore

Why Maria Miller should not have resigned

From our UK edition

Maria Miller’s forced resignation is a disgrace. No iniquity was proved against her. Over her expenses, I suspect her motive was innocent: she was trying to work out childcare with her parents in a way compatible with the weird rules, rather than plotting larceny. The parliamentary committee probably understood the circumstances fairly. The press anger was confected because of our (justified) dislike of the post-Leveson Royal Charter. We keep complaining that MPs are ‘marking their own homework’, forgetting that this is exactly what we have done ourselves — incredibly indulgently — for all these years, whenever people have complained about our behaviour. Besides, it is constitutionally wrong for MPs not to mark their own homework. We elect them.

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: Can William Shakespeare save the union, plus Maria Miller’s resignation

From our UK edition

Did William Shakespeare invent Britain and can he save it? On this week’s View from 22 podcast, Fraser Nelson debates this week’s Spectator cover feature with the SNP’s Westminster leader Angus Robertson. Do the English and Scots have many cultural values in common? Are there any other countries contemplating splitting up who are so similar? Is there a political disconnect between the two countries, or is the ‘No’ campaign simply losing the debate? James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman also discuss Maria Miller’s resignation and what it means for David Cameron. Was she pushed out of her job or did she jump? Has the Prime Minister's reputation and judgment been damaged by supporting her for too long? Will there be any long-term effects for the government?

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Michael Fabricant sacked: what about other HS2 opponents?

From our UK edition

It's difficult to know what astonished people more about Michael Fabricant's sacking: that he has lost his job or that he was still in a role that required some semblance of collective responsibility. Shortly after assuming the role of Vice Chair of the Conservative Party, he called for a pact with Ukip. Some of his tweets have raised eyebrows. He said it was 'about time' that Maria Miller resigned.

Isabel Hardman

Andrea Leadsom joins the Treasury

From our UK edition

After excited rumours flew around the Conservative party that she was finally getting a promotion, Andrea Leadsom has been confirmed as the new Economic Secretary to the Treasury. She was on the Number 10 policy board, but should have risen much sooner - had she not offended George Osborne by suggesting that he should apologise to Ed Balls for these comments to the Spectator about the Libor scandal. Offending the Chancellor is the political equivalent of getting a black spot from a pirate. But now Leadsom has the promotion she deserves, having impressed in a number of roles. She co-founded the Fresh Start Project, which visits European capitals making the case for reform of the EU and feeds back to the Foreign Office.

Alex Massie

Scottish independence: an exemplary or cautionary foreign policy Rorschach Test?

From our UK edition

The eyes of the world are upon us. Or so Scottish Nationalists like to say. Whae's like us? There is some truth to this even if you think unseemly all the boasting we heard about the number of foreign journalists attending, say, the launch of the Scottish Government's White Paper on independence. It's all a bit Sally Field for me. A kind of cringe, if you will. What's less frequently said is that almost all foreign governments would prefer Scotland to vote No. "We all prefer the status quo" one western diplomat told me recently. "That's just the way states operate." Known things are preferable to unknown things, even if the unknown things might be fine. Which brings me to Lord Robertson of Port Ellen's speech to the Brookings Institute yesterday.

Sajid Javid

Sajid Javid: How I became a Conservative

From our UK edition

Although I joined the Conservative Party during my time at Exeter University, it was my upbringing and early life that shaped my political consciousness. Abdul-Ghani Javid (or, as he was known to me, Dad) arrived in the UK in 1961 at 23 years of age. His family lost everything during the partition of India and their move to Pakistan, so my father’s motivation was quite simple – he wanted to work in Britain and provide the means for his brothers back in Pakistan to be educated. Disembarking at Heathrow with a £1 note in his pocket (which his father, touchingly but mistakenly, had said would see him through his first month in the UK), my father made his way up north and found a job in a Rochdale cotton mill. Happy to be employed, he nevertheless strived for more.

James Forsyth

Sajid Javid is the new Culture Secretary

From our UK edition

Sajid Javid is the new Culture Secretary. Javid has impressed as a junior minister at the Treasury. He has learnt the political ropes fast despite only becoming an MP in 2010 and having done very little in politics before that. Javid’s appointment will please modernisers and the right alike. The right will be pleased that this Eurosceptic, Thatcherite has made Cabinet. Modernisers will be pleased that the Tories have their first Muslim male Cabinet Minister. Javid comes with a back-story that is all too rare in British politics. He is the son of a bus driver and was the first person in his family to go to university. His father, an immigrant from Pakistan, was nicknamed ‘Mr Night and Day’ because he worked so many jobs to make end meet.

Isabel Hardman

Maria Miller: Who could replace her?

From our UK edition

Who are the ministers who could replace Maria Miller? Some of the muttering over the past few days has been about the Prime Minister's desire to keep women in the Cabinet, and Miller herself boasted of being the only mother in the Cabinet. [audioboo url="https://audioboo.fm/boos/2059892-maria-miller-on-her-resignation"]Maria Miller: Resigning is ‘the right thing to do’[/audioboo] There are many mothers, fathers, men and women in the Tory party who have bright careers ahead of them. If the PM feels he needs a woman, he could promote Nicky Morgan, currently shining at the Treasury.

James Forsyth

Maria Miller had no choice but to resign

From our UK edition

Listen: Fraser Nelson, James Forysth and Isabel Hardman discuss Miller's resignation listen to ‘Podcast special: Maria Miller resigns’ on Audioboo Maria Miller has bowed to the inevitable and resigned. For days now, it has been clear that Miller's Cabinet career was essentially over and the question was when, not if she went. By quitting this morning, she has resolved the issue before PMQs today. Yesterday showed the political price the government was paying for keeping Miller in place. The IMF's prediction that Britain would grow faster than any other G7 economy was totally overshadowed by Miller's expenses. I suspect that if last Thursday, Miller had bent the knee and thrown herself on the Commons' mercy, she would have given herself a fighting chance of survival.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Miliband’s moment of decision, does he call for Maria Miller to go?

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband faces a big decision tonight, does he use PMQs tomorrow to call for Maria Miller’s resignation. So far, he has limited himself to saying that Cameron has questions to answer about how this whole business has been handled. But if Miliband went for it at PMQs, it would keep this story going for yet another day. It would also fit Miliband’s argument that Cameron is a Prime Minister who ‘stands up for the wrong people’. Set against this, though, is the question of whether it is in the interests of any party to get into a row over expenses. Tory MPs are quick to point out that five Labour MPs—and no Tories or Lib Dems—have been found guilty of expenses fraud by a court and sent to prison.

Isabel Hardman

Miller and Macleod ‘flag up’ row that could have flagged

From our UK edition

Maria Miller's PPS Mary Macleod seems to have been trying to emulate what Jeremy Hunt's former aide Rob Wilson (now PPS to the Chancellor) did for his boss as Culture Secretary in trying to round up support for the minister. The problem is that while Wilson operated below the radar, with his work only surfacing when he got a bit over-enthusiastic and asked them to tweet nice things about Hunt as Health Secretary when his real troubles were long gone, Macleod was rather less subtle and her text messages soliciting support and alleging a witch hunt ended up on Guido's blog quicker than a 32 second Miller apology. The really silly element in MacLeod's message and her subsequent media appearances is that she is accusing the media of a 'witch hunt' over 'Levesen'.

Sebastian Payne

Briefing: Maria Miller’s marginal critics

From our UK edition

Day five into the Maria Miller debacle and the calls for her resignation keep on coming. As Isabel reported earlier, more MPs are starting to break cover. Many of the critical Tories are speaking to the press anonymously, but some have been more vocal, especially the younger MPs who sit in marginal seats - who are more conscious of the slings and arrows of outraged voters. Here’s a breakdown of some MPs who have criticised Miller publicly and what their motivations might be: Esther McVey ‘I can honestly say it wouldn’t be how I would have made an apology’ The Employment Minister is widely tipped for promotion in the near future.

Isabel Hardman

Immigration Bill row looms closer to Commons

From our UK edition

The Commons is in legislative limbo at the moment, waiting for the Queen's Speech, which has just been delayed another day to 4 June. But one thing that could well keep MPs rather well occupied before then is the Immigration Bill, which suffered a defeat in the House of Lords last night - as predicted on Coffee House. The defeat was on Lord Pannick's amendment which proposes setting up a committee of MPs and peers to consider whether plans to render foreign-born terror suspects 'stateless' should go ahead. Peers clearly did think it reasonable, as they backed it 242 votes to 180. The Bill will have its third reading on 6 May, before returning to the Commons for consideration of Lords amendments. This is where it gets fun.

Isabel Hardman

More Tory MPs break cover on Miller

From our UK edition

Tory MPs now feel it's acceptable to pile in on the Maria Miller row and offer their views. Mark Field has just told the World at One that her apology to the Commons was regarded as 'unacceptably perfunctory'.

Isabel Hardman

Curious lack of support for Miller in Cabinet

From our UK edition

Senior 1922 Committee members are quite surprised by the suggestion that tomorrow's end-of-term meeting with the Prime Minister represents the deadline for the Maria Miller problem to be resolved. But while you won't find a Tory backbencher who thinks the impact on the public of this story is negligible - one tells me that 'whatever happens now, we are losers' - there's an interesting attitude among Miller's own Cabinet colleagues. They had long suspected that she was vulnerable in any forthcoming reshuffle anyway, with one describing her as 'a bit quiet' in meetings and another suspecting that she was 'damaged goods' after Leveson and with the media after her anyway.

Alex Massie

Alas poor Jeremy Browne, the man who loved this government not wisely but all too well

From our UK edition

Poor Jeremy Browne. Sacked for believing in the government in which he served*. Then again, no-one claims politics, or life, is fair. So it is good to see Mr Browne taking his revenge. He has written a book and been speaking to the papers, telling the Telegraph that: "Our lack of self confidence and our willingness to be defined as being a party of timid centrists rather than bold liberals means people look at us and may be reassured that we will be a brake on the other two, but that's hardly a reason to vote for us. "Nick Clegg took a risk to take us from being party of protest to party of government, but we look like we've turned into a party of protest in government. "We are the diluting agent. The party shows resilience and fortitude given the battering we have had.

Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson: Maria Miller is being hounded

From our UK edition

As backbenchers apparently gang up on Maria Miller, she's seen Conservative and Lib Dem colleagues trying to defend her - and dampen down Esther McVey's comments - on the airwaves this morning. Boris Johnson told the Today programme that he felt Miller was being hounded (although he didn't give a view on whether she should go): 'I don’t know the facts of the case in great detail, but it seems to me she is being hounded quite a lot and my natural sympathies go out to people in hounded situations – how about that. I feel, there she is, she’s being hounded, I think what you need is [to] sort it out by having a proper independent system of evaluating what is owed and you cannot let the MPs do it themselves. Nemo iudex in causa sua is our motto.