Uk politics

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Sir John Major is right about education and privilege in modern Britain

Sir John Major is, of course, correct. It is depressing, though perhaps not surprising, that the British upper-middle-classes – that is, those educated privately – still dominate what he termed the “upper echelons” of “every sphere of British influence”. Depressing because no serious person can sensibly believe that talent is restricted to the minority of people educated in Britain’s excellent private schools. But unsurprising because elites – I use the word dispassionately – have a natural tendency to do whatever it takes to maintain their elite status. Ed West is right about this. Still, Major’s remarks were hardly, as has been claimed in some right-of-centre quarters, “an attack” on private education.

Monday

James Forsyth

Can the Tories become a mass membership party again?

In the average Tory seat, only around 0.5% of Tory voters are Tory members. Grants Shapps, the Tory chairman, wants to change this. He’s written to every Tory MP asking them to take charge of a push in their seat to raise this percentage to 3. If this drive succeeds, Tory membership would rise to 800,000 plus. Opinion among Tory MPs on this move is divided. Some think that the era of the mass membership political party is over. Others, though, argue that increasing membership is doable—even if Shapps target is a tad too ambitious. There is also the issue of how the Tories can increase their presence in areas

Sebastian Payne

Rebutting #govevreality — a video of untruths and lazy thinking

The blob strikes again. A video called Gove vs Reality is doing the rounds, taking pot shots at Michael Gove’s education policies, or ‘challenging his assumptions and the evidence he advances to support his approach’ as the producers put it. It’s had nearly 50,000 views so far, but is there any truth in it? With absurdly dramatic music, handpicked headlines and sound bites from the likes of Tom Watson, one might think that Michael Gove has been a complete disaster. Well, not surprisingly, there are a few untruths in the video: Gove has taken too many ‘urgency pills’ — shock, a minister who wants to get something done! As Matthew

Sunday

James Forsyth

How ‘Help to Buy’ helps the Tories

Few images are more seared in the Tory consciousness than that of Margaret Thatcher handing over the keys to people who had brought their council house under ‘right to buy’. The image seemed to sum up the aspirational appeal of Thatcherism. I suspect that there’ll be a slight homage to these images when Cameron meets some of those that the government’s ‘Help to Buy’ scheme is helping onto the housing ladder tomorrow. Number 10 wants to show that the full scheme, which has only been running for a month, is already being used by a large number of people. The economics behind ‘Help to Buy’ might make many on the

Saturday

James Forsyth

There mustn’t be a north / south divide when it comes to fracking

Michael Fallon, who among his many roles is the minister in charge of fracking, has told the Telegraph’s Jame Kirkup that ‘right across the South’ people should prepare for fracking coming to a neighbourhood near them. Considering that fracking will bring with it jobs, growth and cheaper energy this is good news. But it is also good news because it should prevent a north / south fracking divide. There was a danger that fracking would appear to be something that the Tories were happy to have happen in the north but not in their own southern backyards. The former Tory Cabinet Minister Lord Howell’s call for fracking to be concentrated

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Friday fury in the lobbies

MPs have just voted on the first set of amendments to James Wharton’s #LetBritainDecide bill. There is still a great deal more debate to be had in the Chamber, but based on this morning’s offering, it’s not worth clearing your diary for this report stage, unless you enjoy filibustering and mischievous use of obscure parliamentary procedure to delay a bill. This morning we had a geography lesson from Mike Gapes about the populations of each of the overseas territories, an account of the ‘grilling, gruelling’ debate that Martin Horwood enjoyed at a school in his constituency, and a debate about what it is that the people of Gibraltar take joy

Alex Massie

Commemorating the First World War is not a festival of British Nationalism

You should never, these days, under-estimate peoples’ ability to be outraged – outraged, I tells you – by the most innocuous event. Never. There are, after all, a depressing number of chippy morons in this country. Even so, I confess to being surprised by the hostility with which plans to commemorate the First World War have been met. At least in some quarters. I had thought, naively it is now clear, this commemoration would be uncontroversial, what with the First World War being, by any reckoning, an episode of some seriousness and consequence. That’s hardly to say that the war’s arguments have been settled. Far from it. Interpreting or understanding

Sebastian Payne

Is Nigel Farage losing his touch?

Is Nigel Farage’s magic disappearing? On Question Time last night (his 15th appearance in four years) the Ukip leader was taken to task by an audience member who asked him to ‘stop scaremongering the majority of people’ — followed by the kind of rousing cheer that Farage himself used to draw. The Tory defence minister (and former TV anchor) Anna Soubry finished off the attack with an impassioned defence of immigration, in language that Farage usually uses to attack it. This left him flummoxed. Here’s what she had to say: ‘You do not talk facts, you talk prejudice. You scaremonger, you put fear in people’s hearts. Times are tough, we

Isabel Hardman

How Tory Euroscepticism has changed

In just over half an hour, MPs will flock to the Chamber to watch the report stage and third reading of the Wharton Bill. I explained yesterday that there will be a chunk of Tories  who find themselves forced to support Adam Afriyie’s call for an early referendum because it is a UKIP ‘red line’, but there is little good feeling about it. One MP, who was going to back the amendment for those reasons, told me this morning that he’d decided to abstain because the amendment does not help the eurosceptic cause at all. Before #LetBritainDecide reaches fever pitch in the Commons, though, it’s worth considering how that eurosceptic

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs flee dreaded ‘Europhile’ tag to Adam Afriyie referendum bill bid

In case you’ve been wondering what that strange feeling of tension in the air across the country is, the #LetBritainDecide bill returns to the Commons tomorrow for its report stage and third reading. There is, actually, rather a lot of valid tension – in as much as a backbench bill that will never become law can create valid tension – over the legislation this time around. The first reason is that Labour’s Mike Gapes has tabled a fantastic series of amendments to try to wreck the bill, which join his fantastic series of amendments that he tabled at committee stage. The second is that there are many more Tories planning

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Why Cameron’s NHS lines didn’t quite work at PMQs today

Though the NHS made a welcome change from endless bickering about energy bills at today’s PMQs, the exchanges were just as unedifying. There is very little gain in the sort of fact war that David Cameron and Ed Miliband tried to indulge in, as there is no killer fact that can silence an opponent on the NHS. Instead, the exchanges descended very quickly into ‘let me give the right honourable gentleman the facts about the NHS under this government’, ‘we have a Prime Minister too clueless to know the facts’ and ‘once again, the right honourable gentleman is just wrong on the facts’. Each man used his own ‘simple facts’

Isabel Hardman

Pritchard row refreshes second jobs debate

Mark Pritchard is vigorously denying the Telegraph splash this morning, which alleges that he boasted of being able to use his political contacts to set up meetings. He says he is consulting his lawyers. But aside from the eventual outcome of this row, it has allowed Labour to reignite the debate about whether MPs should have second jobs anyway, with a Labour party spokesman saying last night that ‘every passing scandal and further investigation only goes to reinforce why Ed Miliband was right earlier this year to call for new rules and new limits on MPs’ outside earnings’. Miliband made that call in the middle of the Falkirk row as

Alex Massie

Russell Brand is right about one thing: he is a twerp.

Oh for the love of God, he’s back. Russell Brand, Britain’s sophomoric revolutionary-in-chief, has written another call-to-something. At least this one is shorter than his previous manifesto. Alas it makes no more sense. What is interesting about Brand is not novel and what is novel is not interesting. Tom Chivers is right to note that: But those of you who are bothered, the Russell Brands and Occupy Wherevers of the world, don’t pretend that the political system doesn’t offer anything for you. It does. It offers lots and lots of things. The trouble is, most people don’t want it. Almost every time someone says “mainstream politics isn’t giving the people what they

Alex Massie

I see no ships (on the Clyde)

The sorry truth of the matter is that Glasgow has been in decline for a century. 1913 was the city’s greatest year. Then it produced a third of the railway locomotives and a fifth of the steel manufactured anywhere in Britain. Most of all, it built ships. Big ships and many of them. A ship was launched, on average,  every day that year. In 1913, 23% of the entire world’s production of ships (by tonnage) was built and launched on the river Clyde. It was an astonishing achievement and the high-water mark of Scottish industrial prowess. Ship-building, more than any other industry, became part of Glasgow’s essence. The locomotives and

Isabel Hardman

Another rotten culture, another political risk on the NHS

The allegations of a cover-up at Colchester General Hospital suggest something rotten in a culture, once again. The police have been called in by the Care Quality Commission to investigate claims that documents about patients’ care were falsified and that managers bullied staff into doing this so that cancer care at CGH could meet its targets. Bernard Jenkin, the local MP, placed great emphasis in his interview on Today on the problems with culture in the NHS, which Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt is trying to resolve with a series of reforms to NHS leadership. But there will inevitably be a row about the role of targets in this scandal as

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Tea at 22: An exclusive glimpse inside the Number 10 policy board with Margot James

I am delighted to reveal the first of our ‘Tea at 22’ films: a series of short video interviews with Westminster personalities in the Spectator’s 22 Old Queen Street offices. This week I spoke to Margot James, member of the Number 10 policy board and one of the stars of the gay marriage debate, about how the party is developing its manifesto. Here are some key points: James denied Westminster rumours (revealed in the Spectator’s politics column) that the policy board members weren’t getting along, and explained how the board develops manifesto and government policy. She revealed that she is currently working on ideas to improve ailing town centres. The

Isabel Hardman

Labour stays stubborn over Falkirk

Labour is standing firm over Falkirk, even though senior figures such as Johann Lamont and Alistair Darling are sufficiently worried by the allegations still emerging to call for a new investigation. This morning Caroline Flint was sent out in a stern mood to bat for the party, with the Shadow Energy Secretary telling Radio 4’s Today programme that the party wouldn’t publish its internal reports, but that it had already taken ‘firm action’. She said: ‘The current position is this: when reports were made to the party about concerns about the Falkirk selection, the party was suspended and put in special measures. Ms Murphy, who was one of the candidates

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Why Boris Johnson’s ‘slow and feeble’ attack on aviation policy isn’t so bothersome

‘Let’s have it every 90 seconds!’ shouted Boris to the CBI this afternoon as he played a series of clips of loud and quiet plane engines. He wanted to illustrate that ‘quiet’ planes would not make another runway at Heathrow palatable, and he used his customary strong language in attacking the government’s position on aviation policy. ‘End the dither, cut the cackle,’ the Mayor of London told the conference, urging the government to rule out a ‘toxic’ third runway by Christmas. While he’s trying to be loyal, the Mayor seems to have a special licence to attack the government on aviation. Today he said that ‘you can’t blame British business

Isabel Hardman

May sails through TPIMs statement with disapproving attack on Yvette Cooper

Aside from having to explain her government’s policy on clothing that might be used as a disguise, Theresa May did pull it out of the bag, again, in that statement on Mohammed Ahmed Mohammed’s TPIM. Her short speech at the start wasn’t anything to write home about, simply setting out the bare bones of what was being done to find the terror suspect. But it was in her response to Yvette Cooper that the Home Secretary really got her eye in. She took a rather disapproving tone to answer Cooper’s questions, telling her that she was wrong to suggest that TPIMs were in some way a watering down of Labour’s