Uk politics

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

CofE takes aim at payday lenders. But what about the banks?

From our UK edition

Does Christmas have to start with a payday loan? No, according to the Church of England. The Church has unveiled its annual advertising campaign this morning, posing this very question to the residents of Manchester. As usual, the CofE is worried Britons are becoming ignorant about the origins of Christmas. As one of the adverts (pictured above) from Christmas starts with Christ shows, the aim is to remind Britain of the religious nature of the festive season as well as urging people not to go into debt to finance Christmas. But are the payday loan companies the only companies the Church should be worried about? In a recent Barometer column, we compared the cost of borrowing of £200 from Wonga to the high street banks.

Isabel Hardman

Airports Commission focuses on new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick

From our UK edition

In the past few minutes, the Airports Commission has published its interim report. It's the first big opportunity for there to be a political row over aviation capacity since the government kicked the issue into the long grass, and Sir Howard Davies' shortlist in this interim report certainly provides some opportunities for a row. The shortlist as it stands does not include Boris Johnson's favoured Estuary Airport, instead favouring new runways at Heathrow and Gatwick. The Commission will now consider a 3,000 metre runway south of the existing runway at Gatwick, and two different runways at Heathrow: a 3,500 metre runway to the northwest of the airport, and a 6,000 metre runway to the west which could be run as two separate runways.

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Briefing: The Davies Airport Commission

From our UK edition

What’s happening? Tomorrow, former CBI economist Howard Davies will release an interim report on the options for expanding Britain’s airport capacity. Some of the possibilities Davies has been considering include developing the regional airports (possibly with a High Speed rail element), building a new giant hub airport in the Thames Estuary, expanding capacity at Gatwick or Stansted Airports, or building a new runway at Heathrow. What will Davies say tomorrow?

The Spectator

Should Gatwick Airport have a second runway?

From our UK edition

What’s the future for British airports? Earlier this month, The Spectator hosted a lunchtime discussion sponsored by Gatwick Airport with MPs and policymakers who had come to test its thesis: that expanding London’s second airport is the most sensible way forward, as it would boost competition while causing a fraction of the noise pollution. The debate was chaired by Andrew Neil. Also present were Fraser Nelson, editor of The Spectator, political editor James Forsyth, client services director Melissa McAdden, Kwasi Kwarteng MP and the Institute of Directors' Simon Walker. Andrew Neil opened the discussion by asking Stewart Wingate if he expected the Davies report was moving in the direction of a third runway at Heathrow.

Isabel Hardman

The Labour split on planning and housebuilding

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband's housebuilding announcement today is rather a re-heated announcement of his conference pledges on housing. Eric Pickles has already set out on Coffee House his belief that these new ideas are 'more of the same high-tax and top-down policies that led to their housing boom and bust'. The announcement certainly allows for a bit of a knockabout between the two parties, neither of which has much to boast about when it comes to housing, but there's one point that's worth noting about the Labour leader's announcement today.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May: We need to restrict free movement rights

From our UK edition

Ministers don't comment on leaked reports, as Theresa May said on the Today programme this morning, but they can jolly well make clear what they think of them, especially if those leaked reports are quite helpful to calming Conservative backbench grumbles. The Home Secretary didn't distance herself from the leak in the Sunday Times that she wants a 75,000 cap on the number of EU migrants per year, and repeated David Cameron's call for reform of freedom of movement, saying: 'What the Prime Minister has said and what I said is that in looking at reform of the EU we need to look at this whole question of the arrangements of new countries that come in, so-called accession countries.

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

Nadhim Zahawi’s child benefit call is rare outburst from No10 policy board

From our UK edition

Number 10 was quick to pour cold water on Nadhim Zahawi's suggestion in the Mail on Sunday that child-related welfare benefits should be restricted to two children per family (for new births only), with a source saying that 'this is not government policy and is not supported by the Prime Minister'. But aside from whether this is a good policy or not, Zahawi's intervention is interesting as it marks a significant departure from the way the Number 10 policy board, of which he is a member, works. Zahawi has only recently joined, but his colleagues on the board have been instructed to be entirely discreet about their work.

Sebastian Payne

Despite the improving economy, George Osborne is still unpopular

From our UK edition

Now that the economy is recovering and George Osborne has overtaken Ed Balls in the polls for having the best economic policies, he may be forgiven for wondering if wider rehabilitation is next. The Chancellor's allies have long seen him as the man who will succeed David Cameron, perhaps in 2018, and imagine that his problem — looking too young — will remedy itself and that his personal popularity will recover along with the economy. Today's polls suggest this isn't happening - at least, not yet. While the Chancellor's professional reputation is recovering from the omnishambolic 2012 budget his personal reputation is still pretty low.

Friday

James Forsyth

If we don’t want prisoners to have the vote, then we’re going to have to leave the European Court of Human Rights

From our UK edition

David Cameron’s declaration that prisoners "damn well shouldn't" have the right to vote is a reminder that this issue hasn’t gone away. Cameron was emphatic that the final verdict on this question should rest with the British parliament not the European Court of Human Rights. But this is not the current situation as Cameron admitted with his line that “we need to clip [the court’s] wings". But it is hard to see how Cameron can do that while keeping Britain under the jurisdiction of the court. The attempt to reform the court that Ken Clarke launched as Justice Secretary didn’t get very far. So, it is hard to see what other option there is beyond removing Britain from its jurisdiction.

Isabel Hardman

What is the big Ukip plan?

From our UK edition

Today's announcement that migrants cannot claim benefits if their English is so bad that they are unemployable looks suspiciously like another attempt by ministers to reassure fears about the end of those transitional controls on Bulgarian and Romanian migrants. And that is, in turn, an attempt to reassure Tory MPs that the government has done everything it can to keep Ukip at bay. But what is the Tory plan for Ukip? It needs to work out how to fight Nigel Farage's party in the European elections, how to pre-brief the European elections (presumably by talking up Ukip's chances so much that any result looks like a disappointment), and how to stop the inevitable post-European elections panic.

Thursday

Alex Massie

The Dumbest Dog in the World

From our UK edition

That's Duggy Dug, the latest champion of the campaign for Scottish independence. For some reason Brian Cox - the actor, not the physics professor - has decided to put his voice to this cringetastic calamity. Duggy Dug (even the name is grim) is not, mercifully, part of the official Yes campaign which, given his plainly limited mental capacity, is probably just as well. His argument is so stupid - and misleading - that one wonders if Duggy Dug is actually a Unionist fifth columnist. Then again, he's not much more embarrassing than some of the members of the Scottish parliament whose grasp of elementary concepts would be considered astonishingly weak if such disappointments still had the power to disappoint or astonish.

Isabel Hardman

George Osborne thickens his welfare dividing lines

From our UK edition

We already knew that welfare would be a key dividing line for George Osborne at the next election. He set up the dividing lines in the emergency budget and comprehensive spending review in 2010, and they have largely stuck, which is a testament to the Chancellor's skill as a strategist. But at today's Treasury Select Committee, Osborne thickened those dividing lines with Labour by saying that the welfare budget must take another billions of pounds' worth of cuts. It was the language that Osborne used, as much as anything else, that revealed how the 2015 debate will pan out. He said: 'My view is that welfare expenditure cannot be excluded from the difficult decisions that need to be made.

Sebastian Payne

Five things you need to know about Ipsa’s final report on MPs’ pay

From our UK edition

The Independent Parliamentary Standards Authority has released its final report on MPs' pay today. It's pretty much what was expected — a big salary bump, paid for by cutting back expenses and pensions, to start in the next Parliament. This is what you need to know: MPs' pay will a take one-off hike to £74,000. Ipsa says this is to 'address the historic shortfall’. This is a 11 per cent rise based on what they’re paid today, or 9.26 per cent on top of a previously announced inflation-linked pay rise. After this, MPs’ pay will track average earnings — going up or down based on what's going on rest of the country. Less generous pension scheme.

Frank Field

The first two years of life are more important for social mobility than schooling

From our UK edition

Much is prattled on about social mobility. Practically the whole emphasis, however, is put on schools. Yet by the time most children reach school, life’s race for many of us has been determined. The report I wrote for the Prime Minister published in December 2010, The Foundation Years: preventing poor children becoming poor adults, had this as its main conclusion. Drawing on all the evidence we have available to us, the report suggested that the very first stages of life, in pregnancy, and during the first two years, are crucial as to where most children will end up in adult life. Using one of the national cohorts, Leon Feinstein showed that, probably at 3, but certainly at 5, the life destinations of children are clearly marked.

Steerpike

Adam Afriyie’s fantasy government

From our UK edition

It's a shame that Adam Afriyie now seems to be a busted flush when it comes to his leadership ambitions. The Tory MP had succeeded not just in designating his fantasy cabinet, but also the lower ministerial ranks. Mr Steerpike hears that at the height of his plotting, he sidled up to fellow Conservative James Gray in a lift to tell him that his talents were not being appreciated by the Prime Minister. Then he added, comfortingly, that though he couldn't offer him a place in his Cabinet, he'd definitely be able to do something at Minister of State level. Gray did not want to give a comment to Mr Steerpike, but presumably he was delighted to have been considered at all by the great man.

Isabel Hardman

Labour denies Heathrow U-turn

From our UK edition

Spectator readers won't have been particularly surprised by the FT's story that Ed Miliband is dropping his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow: James reported that the Labour leader was softening his stance on aviation back in November: 'Miliband is also determined to avoid a head-on collision with his shadow chancellor. Having put Balls back in his box over HS2, he now seems to be softening his opposition to a third runway at Heathrow. This extra runway is something which Balls regards as vital to Britain’s economy and which the pair fell out over in government.' But if that softening is continuing apace, Labour isn't ready to go public with it. I've spoken to a party source this morning who said: 'FT suggestion Labour is changing its position on Heathrow is wrong.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

It’ll take more than one vote for Britain to leave the EU

From our UK edition

What would the exit negotiations look like if Britain voted to leave the EU? Well, Open Europe tried to give us an idea today hosting a war game sketching out what would happen next. (Seb wrote about their work on the renegotiation earlier). It left me with the view that there would be a second vote on the proposed exit terms. If Britain does vote out in a referendum, it is then—under Article 50—a member of the EU for two years while it tries to negotiate an exit deal. I suspect that the package would be, despite the UK’s trade surplus, relatively ungenerous.

Isabel Hardman

Miliband demands party leaders block pay rise tomorrow

From our UK edition

After his suggestion of cross-party talks on MPs' pay at PMQs today, Ed Miliband has just upped the stakes by suggesting that the three party leaders meet Sir Ian Kennedy of Ipsa tomorrow to set out their opposition to the pay rise. His letter, which you can read in full below, reminds Cameron that he said at noon that 'my door is always open to the right honourable gentleman', and adds: 'The public expect us to resolve this now and not wait until 2015. it only undermines confidence and trust in our political system if the uncertainty about MPs' pay is allowed to continue. 'Therefore I believe the three party leaders should meet Sir Ian Kennedy tomorrow to make clear our view that we cannot go ahead with the current proposition.

Sebastian Payne

War gaming a better EU deal for Britain

From our UK edition

What will happen when Britain sits down to negotiate a new relationship with the European Union? The Open Europe think tank decided to find out with ‘war games’ in Westminster this morning. Expert negotiators representing the UK, EU Commission, Germany and France among others tried to figure out how a new Europe could be built that works for everyone. Tory MP and member of the No.10 Policy Unit Andrea Leadsom ably batted for the UK, based on the principles in her Fresh Start manifesto. Not surprisingly, she clashed with France, Germany and the EU Commission representative John Brunton.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: The snarling between Cameron and Balls enters fresh territory

From our UK edition

Christmas is here. And Ed Miliband’s script writers have already got their present. The sack. Really, he seems to have let them go. At PMQs he was reading out insults that pre-date Nicholas Parsons. Out of touch, complacent, the plaything of millionaires. Cameron can fight off such jibes his sleep. Tory backbenchers asked questions full of happy economic tidings. Conservative constituencies are alive with commercial euphoria. New investment, new apprentices, new customers. It’s all thanks to this wise and decisive government. Cameron duly lapped up the credit. Peter Lilley revealed his personal remedy for the proposed pay hike for MPs. ‘Re-table the Boundaries Commission report!’ he advised. In other words fewer MPs with higher salaries.