Uk politics

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs: here’s how you can get half-term off with your kids

From our UK edition

Don't expect this afternoon's vote on HS2 to be the biggest insurrection of all time: it is the preparation bill and there are a number of reasons why MPs who could yet oppose the project won't cause trouble this afternoon. One is the rather technical reason that some want to support this legislation in order to secure adequate compensation for constituents whose property will be blighted until an alternative route is chosen or all three parties agree to invest in existing lines. Another is that some remain to be convinced of the case for the line: the whips have been working rather hard on this, I hear.

Charles Moore

Why Labour is getting cold feet about HS2

From our UK edition

People express surprise that Labour, having invented HS2, is now getting cold feet about it. But, as with rising energy prices, it is precisely because it invented the policy that it knows how expensive it is. Labour is like a big bank which went bust in the 2008 crisis but has somehow managed to continue trading without being either rescued or wound up. It knows how badly it did, and what a terrible state it is still in, and keeps hoping (with surprising success so far) that people won’t notice. Psychologically and politically, it is important for it to transfer blame for its own actions on to the coalition. Then it can be the prudent party at the next election, and the Tories and the Liberals can be the profligate ones.

Wednesday

Jill Forsdick

Jam set for frightening, muddy future

From our UK edition

Today's Westminster Hall debate on the sugar content of preserves was positively jammed with puns. 'The minister seems to have found himself in a sticky situation, or in a bit of a jam,' said Tessa Munt, who was quite set on raising this subject with fellow MPs. 'Jam today, please, but I would like to see jam tomorrow as well.' Does anyone give a damn about the sugar content of jam? Well, according to Munt, the government's plans to allow manufacturers to reduce the concentration below 60% risks ruining jam forever. It will mean jams that apparently are darker, duller, and muddier. According to Munt, consumer confidence in jam could be shattered forever. It would be sham jam. Sitting in the public gallery in Westminster Hall, I was terrified.

Fraser Nelson

The new press Royal Charter must be ignored

From our UK edition

The foxes have voted, and after careful deliberation concluded that they should be in charge of the chicken coop. No one should be surprised by the outcome of tonight's Privy Council meeting: a group of politicians, masquerading as the voice of crown, has just approved a Royal Charter which gives them power to set the terms under which the press operates in Britain. The decision was taken in secrecy and the newspapers are suing. It's a royal mess, but one with a very clear solution. This new Royal Charter does not force newspapers to join. It's a bizarre new club, looking for members. It must now be ignored.

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg hints at HS2 red line for 2015 negotiations

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg used his monthly press conference this afternoon to deliver a strongly worded attacked on Labour over its energy price freeze and lengthy, unsolicited defence of what the government is doing to tackle the cost of living. There were some mildly interesting points from the Deputy Prime Minister on energy bills, as he insisted repeatedly that he was a 'pragmatist' about how the money for low income and vulnerable households is raised and that talks over how some green and social taxes and levies could be removed from fuel bills were going to continue between now and the Autumn Statement.

Isabel Hardman

Labour: no change on HS2 position

From our UK edition

Yesterday marked the first reasonably good day that agitators for HS2 have had in a while. Northern business leaders started the day with a call to David Cameron to hold firm on the project, followed by Labour leader of Birmingham City Council Sir Albert Bore warning Labour of 'protracted public conflict' in the run-up to the general election if it continued to 'put out such a negative message on HS2'. This morning's Guardian story that Labour will support HS2 provided the project's chairman Sir David Higgins is given the power to bring down its costs appears to be damage limitation. But party sources are today rowing back from that line, which means Labour's support or otherwise is no clearer than it was yesterday.

Alex Massie

Peter Hitchens is wrong (on the internet!). There really is a War on Drugs.

From our UK edition

Before I headed off on honeymoon I took a pop at Peter Hitchens' rather odd assertion that there was no such thing in this country as the War on Drugs. Mr Hitchens duly responded on his Mail on Sunday blog and this in turn deserves a response. Even a belated one. First, an apology: I rather regret suggesting Mr Hitchens is a nitwit. That was unnecessary. I do think his argument - impeccably sincere as it may be - runs towards nincompoopery but since we all hold beliefs other people consider idiotic we might do well, at least occasionally, to recall the usefulness of treating the man and the ball as separate concerns. Nevertheless, I can't say that I'm much persuaded by Hitchens' rebuttal. This may not surprise either of us.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Energy bosses boost Tory tortoise in energy row with green taxes pledge

From our UK edition

Like all good select committee hearings where MPs are grilling some unsuspecting witnesses on something they've decided to be very angry about, this hearing of the Energy and Climate Change committee took a very long time. It has been cut off for the time being from Ofgem's evidence by a series of votes in the Commons, but here's what we've learned from this first mammoth hearing in any case. The first is that the MPs clearly read Iain Martin's memo in the Telegraph about show trial-style select committee hearings. Only Ian Lavery managed the kind of fury that all members of these committees normally feel it necessary to manufacture, and even that was just a bit of a lecture rather than a rage.

Alex Massie

Theresa May’s grubby little warning: an independent Scotland will be out in the cold

From our UK edition

It is a good thing that government ministers come to Scotland sometimes. It is a bad thing that they insist on opening their mouths when they do. Earlier this year we endured the spectacle of Philip Hammond making an arse of himself; today it has been Theresa May's turn to make one wish cabinet ministers would, just occasionally, contemplate the virtue of silence. The Home Secretary was in Edinburgh to warn that an independent Scotland would be a dangerous place. It would, in fact, be left out in the cold. It would not, you see, be part of the English-speaking-world's Five Eyes intelligence-poolling network. The UK, United States, Canada, Australia and New Zealand will continue to share information. Little Caledonia will be left on the outside, all forlorn, friendless and at risk.

Isabel Hardman

Tristram Hunt tries to needle Lib Dems with troublemaking teacher debate

From our UK edition

Opposition Day debates from Labour are often rather boring, with a frontbencher getting very angry about energy bills (one of their favourite topics for opposition day debates), and three backbenchers pulling stern faces at the lonely minister whose job it is to reply. But tomorrow's debate is being billed as a 'box office' encounter (which says a lot about the sort of thing people in Parliament get excited about) between the party's new Shadow Education Secretary Tristram Hunt and Michael Gove. Up to this point, Labour attempts to attack Gove have been about as effective as trying to scratch a diamond with a pin.

Isabel Hardman

The private polling behind Labour’s energy bill swagger

From our UK edition

A select committee meeting with the Big Six firms would attract attention in any year when the companies had announced such eye-watering price rises. But it is the political frisson added by Ed Miliband's energy price freeze pledge that makes this afternoon's hearing quite so interesting. Labour had a swing in its step anyway as it feels it has successfully spooked the Coalition parties, but it carried out private polling last week, seen first by Coffee House, that underlined this. 70% of voters surveyed by YouGov for Labour thought the government should introduce a price freeze, with 17% rejecting it.

John Redwood

Do we really need HS2? I’m not convinced

From our UK edition

The Secretary of State for Transport asked for my views on the capacity argument for HS2. I thought I would share them with you. To establish that HS2 is needed on capacity grounds the government has to be able to demonstrate three main points. Firstly, that the current West Coast Main Line (WCML) is full or nearly full. Secondly that there are no easier or cheaper ways of adding significant capacity to the WCML or providing an alternative to tackle any future capacity problems. Thirdly, that the high forecasts of likely passenger growth and use of HS2 are realistic. I remain to be persuaded on each of these three matters. The government has been coy about current usage of the WCML.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers need to re-energise wavering Tories on HS2 as well as Labour

From our UK edition

Ministers' attention is now firmly focused on arguing that to abandon HS2 would be a sign that Labour is 'playing politics with prosperity', as Transport Secretary Patrick McLoughlin is set to say later today, or 'abandoning the North'. Yesterday the Prime Minister slipped in a joke about Ed Balls being absent from the Commons because he was trying to work out what his party's policy should be on the new line. Today Julian Smith is batting for CCHQ, predicting that 'if Labour oppose HS2 they'll be dismissing the long-term future of the country for a short-term political gamble'. As James explained last night, this is all part of an attempt to 'smoke out' the Opposition.

Alex Massie

Life after Scottish Independence: lower taxes, lower spending, no free lunches

From our UK edition

Every so often a report is published that cheers you up. Not because it contains any particularly good news but simply - that is to say, selfishly - because it appears to support notions you've held for some time. So trebles all round for the Institute for Fiscal Studies whose latest report on life in Scotland after independence is published today. Sponsored by the Economic and Social Research Council, the report concludes that 'an independent Scotland could face pressure between [a] need to lower tax rates and [the] need to fix its public finances'. Well, yeah. Some of us have been making this kind of case for some time now. It's just scaremongering, apparently. Except, of course, it is not. I've never supposed an independent Scotland must fail.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

European Council statement: Leaders seize opportunity for economic ding dong

From our UK edition

Why did the Prime Minister give a statement in the Commons on the outcome of last week's European Council summit? Though he is expected to report back to MPs each time one of these jamborees takes place, David Cameron didn't really have a great deal to tell them other than the tantalising suggestion that the leaders had made progress on cutting red tape and the declaration that 'the EU is changing'. It was hardly one of those statements where Cameron can wave a budget cut or some other great policy victory at MPs.

Sebastian Payne

Bring back EMA — another unfunded Labour policy

From our UK edition

Tristram Hunt is on a crusade — to find Labour an education strategy. In today’s Daily Mirror, the new shadow education secretary takes a punt by offering up some fresh ideas, including a pledge to bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance for 16 to 19 year olds in further education. When it was canned in 2011, the EMA scheme had an annual budget of £560 million so how would Labour fund its return? By cutting back winter fuel allowance from rich pensioners: ‘Mr Hunt also wants to bring back the Education Maintenance Allowance to help teenagers from the poorest backgrounds stay in education. This could be paid for by stripping the wealthiest pensioners of the winter fuel allowance.

Isabel Hardman

Off colour Ofgem?

From our UK edition

Ofgem is the energy market regulator that is supposed to be examining what it is that is going well or badly in the market. But it doesn't seem to be doing the greatest job. This week we will hear more details about the annual competition test announced by David Cameron at PMQs last week, but the problem is that Ofgem has only just concluded an examination of this anyway. That review of the retail energy market took two years and published a series of rule changes in June 2013. The changes were designed to address 'widespread consumer confusion over energy tariffs, poor supplier behaviour and lack of transparency which is stifling competition'.

Freddy Gray

Can you trust a government report on the alternatives to HS2?

From our UK edition

As Britain's train lines suffer in the wake of St Jude, the political storm over high speed rail continues to rage. The government and Labour are playing footsie with each other. Labour's somewhat left-field idea to re-open the Grand Central Railway — at an estimated cost of £6 billion, compared to £43 billion for HS2 — has been matched by a fear-mongering government statements about the implications of not building a high speed rail line. The coalition's 'updated business case' claims that, if Britain did not pursue the high-speed solution, a 'patch-and-mend job' would be necessary, which would be almost as expensive and mean 14 years of weekend closures.

Alex Massie

Russell Brand: an adolescent extremist whose hatred of politics is matched by his ignorance

From our UK edition

So, I recommend a trip to Sri Lanka. Wonderful place. Go now before everyone else does. Being (almost entirely) offline for a couple of weeks is a blessing too. But even good things come to an end. Which brings me to Russell Brand. Fair play to the New Statesman. Their decision to ask Brand to "edit" an issue has brought them all the publicity they could have hoped for. It would be churlish to begrudge the Staggers that. Celebrity sells. Or, at least, wins attention. Which is fine. Plenty of people seem quite enthused by Brand. Even if they disagree with his diagnosis of contemporary ills they enjoy the sight of a "professional commentariat" that is supposedly discombobulated by Brand's invasion of their turf.