Ed Balls has just delivered quite an odd post-Budget briefing. It was odd because he didn't really want to criticise anything. Of course, when the Chancellor has just unexpectedly announced major reforms to the pensions system, it would be foolish for an opposition to start criticising a reform that it probably doesn't quite understand. But the furthest the Shadow Chancellor would go was that it was 'underwhelming'.
The Budget today contained a host of measures that'll benefit the silver savers; those in, or coming up to, retirement. From January next month, pensioners will be able to buy pension bonds that offer a 2.8 per cent interest rate for a one year bond and a 4 per cent annual rate for a three year bond. This is far better than the rate available on the high street and will cost the government £170 million in 2015-16. It should assuage the pain, and anger, that many pensioners have felt at the government's deliberate policy of keeping interest rates as low as possible. Considering that defections from the Tories to Ukip have been particularly high among the over 60s, one has to imagine that this will have an electoral impact.
No opposition leader looks forward to responding to the Budget. It's one of the harder gigs as you get little notice of the detailed measures that may cause real rows and are scribbling feverishly throughout the statement to try to make your pre-written speech sound relevant. But it is still an achievement that Ed Miliband in his own response managed to avoid talking about anything in the Budget other than the new design of the pound coins. He started by reminding the House of Commons of how much further the Chancellor needs to go before hardworking families up and down the country feel as cheerful as the Tories. He said: 'But he did not mention one central fact: The working people of Britain are worse off under the Tories. Living standards down: month after month, year after year.
Lynton Crosby addressed the Conservative parliamentary party last night about the party's messaging for the European elections. Amusingly, I hear he told those gathered to watch one of his powerpoint presentations that while Jesus only had 12 disciples, David Cameron has 305 to spread his message. Perhaps the next Downing Street wooing event will see the Prime Minister handing out loaves and fishes to his backbenchers. After a rather off-message week, the Conservatives need their MPs to get into line and start talking about that long-term economic plan today as George Osborne unveils his Budget. One of the key words to look out for is 'resilience', which the Chancellor has already dropped into his tweets about the exciting new pound coin.
Downing Street is trying to play down Sayeeda Warsi's Eton Mess stunt on The Agenda last night. Asked what his response to her decision to hold up a front page saying 'Number 10 takes Eton Mess off the menu', the Prime Minister's official spokesman said: 'Look, I think that was in the light-hearted section of the programme. I'm not sure whether he actually caught the programme, as it happens.' He then added that the Prime Minister had 'spoken about the importance' of greater social mobility, and that the Chancellor had made similar comments to that effect yesterday. Both Warsi and Michael Gove were at Cabinet today, but the spokesman said there was no discussion either of the Etonian Problem, or of the need for ministers to stay on message.
Are voters really concerned about how many Old Etonians David Cameron surrounds himself with? Judging by the cutting remarks from Michael Gove and Sayeeda Warsi it matters a lot, but opinion polling tells a slightly different, more troubling tale about how people feel about the ‘political class’. On the Eton question, YouGov recently carried out a poll asking which characteristics they found most unsuitable for a ‘leading politician’.
The Coalition is trying to make today about childcare after announcing plenty of housing initiatives over the weekend. Announcing different policies in a drip-drip in the run-up to the Budget means they get their own limelight - and that's fine if you've got enough left in the larder once the statement itself arrives. George Osborne has learned from the 2012 Budget the art of spinning things out while leaving enough to hand out on the day - particularly giveaways that Sun readers like. But today is also about the frankly weird shenanigans at the top of the Conservative party which continued this morning with Boris Johnson's father pressing his case for the party rules to be changed so that the Mayor could be party leader.
Unsurprisingly, Michael Gove's FT interview in which he attacked the 'preposterous' number of Old Etonians around David Cameron - widely interpreted as a sally on behalf of George Osborne - has gone down like a lead balloon with the Prime Minister. I understand that Cameron had a stern word with the Education Secretary over the weekend, with one source telling me that 'he was torn a new one and given a right royal bollocking'. Cameron has made it very clear to Gove that his words were 'bang out of order' and that his aim is to focus on the Cabinet job in hand, not go on freelance missions. Meanwhile, those supporting Boris's leadership ambitions are deeply amused by the amount of energy being expended by the Osborne camp on furthering his prospects on the Tory backbenches.
George Osborne is as adept as any gamekeeper at setting little traps in every Budget and Autumn Statement for Labour to fall down. He hinted at a few in his Marr interview yesterday and they were largely the sort we've come to expect from the Chancellor on welfare and deficit reduction, but there's also speculation that he could set another trap on tax. Ben Gummer's 10-minute rule bill calling for National Insurance to be renamed the 'Earnings Tax' received a disproportionate amount of attention for what is normally simply a parliamentary device by which a backbencher can garner a little bit of attention for their hobby horse. But the reason it received so much attention was that it was made quite clear that this proposal had sympathy at the highest levels of government.
Tory europhiles don't often come out in the daylight: they normally give the impression they're frightened that their associations will get grumpy, or that their fellow MPs will try to shout them down. But today the pro-EU group European Mainstream launched their new pamphlet, In Our Interest: Britain with Europe, which takes a stance that is quite unusual in the Conservative party: it agrees with the Prime Minister's Europe strategy. The 62 MPs on the group - who include Ken Clarke, Damian Green, Richard Benyon and Caroline Spelman - didn't seem at all shifty or nervous when they gathered in Westminster Hall this afternoon to launch the pamphlet and make a positive case for Britain in Europe.
Because I spent the weekend moving house and being depressed by events in Cardiff I did not attend the Scottish Conservative's spring conference in Edinburgh. A dereliction of journalistic duty, perhaps, but also, well, life takes over sometimes. In truth, I didn't worry about missing the conference. Attending these things can be dangerous. Like journalism, politics attracts a grim number of copper-bottomed, ocean-going shits but also, like journalism again, a greater number of decent, public-spirited, optimistic folk than you might imagine. Most politicians, most of the time, are in the game for most of the right reasons. Speaking to these people has its uses but, also, its dangers. Before you know it you end up liking them.
HS2 needs to happen, and faster. That’s the conclusion of David Higgins’s report on High Speed 2 out today. As well as backing up the government’s key arguments for the project on capacity grounds — not speed, which he says is a ‘by-product’ — the chairman of HS2 Ltd has made some recommendations for improving the project. Here are the key things you need to know about the Higgins report: 1. Extension to Crewe should happen in Phase One Higgins suggests that the first phase of HS2 should include another 43 miles of track from Birmingham to Crewe. This would be brought forward from Phase Two and built by 2027, providing better connections to Stoke, Shrewsbury and Chester among others.
And it doesn't matter who you are. Conservative, Labour, Liberal, Nationalist, Green or UKIP it's all the same. The BBC is hopelessly prejudiced against you. As it should be. Why only this morning we see Owen Jones complaining that, contrary to what the Daily Mail would have you believe, the BBC is instinctively biased against the left and Lesley Riddoch suggesting the corporation is reflexively biased against the very idea, let alone the prospect, of Scottish independence. Well, up to a point. But asking whether the BBC is inclined to the left or right is the wrong question. It is a kind of category error. Adding up the number of (presumed) right-of-centre - or Unionist - journalists or presenters on the BBC and supposing this "proves" anything is a fool's mistake.
Sir David Higgins wants the northern end of HS2 built quicker, as a means of selling the benefits of the 'north-south' line to those who remain sceptical about the new line. You can read his full report on High Speed 2 here, but it's worth considering the position of one of the biggest groups of sceptics too. Labour has repeatedly said that there is no blank cheque for HS2, and Ed Balls frequently deploys the line as a way of showing that he really is very fiscally responsible these days. Balls said yesterday on Marr that Labour would support the high speed rail bill at second reading but that if the costs rose above £50 billion, then he would have to think again.
George Osborne was on Andrew Marr this morning announcing support for a new garden city at Ebbsfleet in Kent and the extension of Help to Buy on new build homes until 2020. The Tories hope that these policies will show both that they are planning for the long term and that they are supporting aspiration. But what struck me as most significant was Osborne’s response when told by Marr that he was sounding more like a Liberal Democrat than a Conservative. He instantly replied, ‘Conservatives believe in lower taxes, Liberal Democrats want to put taxes up.’ We already know that Osborne believes that the rest of the deficit can be cleared without any more tax increases and this reply suggests that the Tories will run in 2015 as the only party that won’t put up taxes.
Simon Jenkins has written a bizarre piece in the Evening Standard. As well as answering that, I’ll explain a few others things about it. Unfortunately, he has completely misunderstood the basics of the universal free school meals fiasco. He writes: ‘Gove decided, by a deal with Nick Clegg, that running every school meant insisting every child have a “proper meal”. The order went out over Christmas. Gove would be first to admit he has never run a whelk stall and was surprised to discover that schools were having trouble becoming Jamie Oliver academies overnight… Comrade Stalin himself would have warmed to the tears of gratitude.’ Where to start?!
Viviane Reding is a bit of a favourite among UK ministers. The European Commissioner for Justice has a knack of making such a good case for reform of Europe with her interviews and policies that Conservatives - and indeed Ukippers - are quite content for her to intervene as often as possible. This week, she's got another cunning plan that eloquently makes the case for reform of Europe - and ministers will be standing up to her again. Reding is expected to publish the second annual EU Justice Scoreboard on Monday: it's a league table of all the EU member states' justice systems. At first glance, this sounds like a nice idea: compare the independence and efficiency of different justice systems to encourage under performing countries to improve.
Ed Miliband, leader of the Labour party: 'The death of Tony Benn represents the loss of an iconic figure of our age. 'He will be remembered as a champion of the powerless, a great parliamentarian and a conviction politician. 'Tony Benn spoke his mind and spoke up for his values. Whether you agreed with him or disagreed with him, everyone knew where he stood and what he stood for. 'For someone of such strong views, often at odds with his Party, he won respect from across the political spectrum. 'This was because of his unshakeable beliefs and his abiding determination that power and the powerful should be held to account. 'He believed in movements and mobilised people behind him for the causes he cared about, often unfashionable ones.
The former Labour Cabinet Minister, author and long-serving MP Tony Benn has passed away today, aged 88. In 2009, our deputy editor Mary Wakefield interviewed Benn about the financial crisis and the basic decency at the heart of all human beings. Here is the article in full. I’m standing in Tony Benn’s front garden, on my way out but dawdling, reluctant to leave. Once I’m back on my bike I’ll be in Broken Britain again, snarling at the buses. But right now I’m still in Benn-land, where all people are kindly and the future is bright with mutual concern. Even the outside of Benn’s house reflects the decency within.
[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_13_March_2014_v4.mp3" title="James Forsyth discusses Gove vs Boris" startat=722] Listen [/audioplayer]From the moment he took his job, Michael Gove knew that he would make energetic and determined enemies. The teachers’ unions, local councillors and even his own department all stood to lose from his reforms — and all could be expected to resist them. What the Education Secretary did not expect was hostile fire from those who should be his friends. At the start of the coalition, Gove and Nick Clegg were allies. With a moral passion rarely seen in British politics, they used to argue that social mobility should be the centrepiece of the government’s reform agenda.
