Uk politics

Wednesday

The Spectator

Nick Clegg says we’re losing the war on drugs. But is there even a war?

This country is losing the war on drugs, according to Nick Clegg. The Deputy Prime Minister told the BBC’s Free Speech programme that he was frustrated that his Coalition partners were not prepared to be more imaginative on the issue, given clamour from other quarters for a new direction: ‘I don’t think we’re winning the drugs war; I think we keep banging our head against the wall and in fact I find it very frustrating that my Conservative coalition partners are not prepared to look more openly, imaginatively. You’ve got very senior police officers now coming out saying that the war on drugs is failing, that we should treat drug

Isabel Hardman

Score draw at PMQs as leaders bicker about energy bills

Perhaps David Cameron got up super-early to open his birthday presents today, or perhaps he’s a bit tired after his fortnight of party conference and reshuffle mayhem, but the Prime Minister wasn’t on top form today at PMQs. Neither was Ed Miliband, for that matter. Both men bickered about who had the best energy policy, like two kids comparing birthday presents in a playground. Neither really got in a deadly shot, with both seeming a little halting. listen to ‘PMQs: Cameron v Miliband on energy prices’ on Audioboo

Isabel Hardman

Tory cost of living drive begins in earnest

At their autumn conference, the Tories managed to get the last word in on the cost of living debate by explaining that you can’t just talk about living standards while not having a proper plan for the economy. This was all very well and good and the party leadership was confident that this was an easy sell to voters who already trust them more on the economy and continue to blame Labour. But many were worried that without the sort of retail offer that Labour had made at its conference, the Tories still wouldn’t cut through. George Osborne’s fuel duty freeze announcement in his speech was the start of what

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Pizzas banned as politicians get set for crunch press talks

It’s funny that the pizzas that ministers, advisers and lobbyists munched as they thrashed out a deal on press regulation in March have become a symbol of all that was wrong with those late-night negotiations. Today when Maria Miller decided to distance herself from the talks in Ed Miliband’s office, a source close to the Culture Secretary explained that this included ‘the Miliband office, the pizza, it was the presence of Hacked Off’. Obviously the presence of Hacked Off was more menacing than a few boxes of ham and pineapple pizza, but both have been banned from the three days of talks that the parties will now go into, ahead

Isabel Hardman

Tory ‘stick with us’ message boosted by IMF

Poor old Ed Balls. He’s been making predictions of doom that now appear to have gone too far and too fast. The latest blow to the Shadow Chancellor is that the IMF, which he went through a period of definitely liking a lot when its lieutenants started suggesting that austerity was ‘playing with fire’, has upgraded its growth forecasts for the UK by more than any other major economy. This map from the organisation’s latest World Economic Outlook illustrates rather neatly how well the IMF expects the UK to do in comparison to other European economies. Obviously this doesn’t mean that everything is fine and dandy and that everyone in the UK can

Elizabeth Truss

Our plan to fix Labour’s toxic legacy on education standards

The OECD released a report this week on education standards. It makes for grim reading: we’re bottom of the class. Those aged 16-24 in England came 22nd of 24 for literacy, and 21st for numeracy. We’re behind almost every other advanced nation in the world. What’s gone wrong? There’s a clue in the different scores by age. Young people who had pretty much their entire education under the last Labour government do worse than most older generations. The clear problem – is a decade of dumbing down led by Labour and supported wholeheartedly by the teaching unions. They made qualifications in cake decorating ‘equivalent’ to physics GCSE. They allowed calculators in

Fraser Nelson

Sorry, Maria Miller. We still won’t sign

The very fact that a Cabinet member has stood up in the House of Commons to make a statement on the future of newspapers suggests there’s something going rather wrong in our democracy. For three centuries, newspapers have not been toys in the political train set. Britain has operated on an unspoken principle of liberty, so firmly embedded in the national DNA that the separation between government and the press did not need spelt out in a constitution. Today, a medieval group known as the Privy Council (in fact, an octet of politicians) has decided to reject the newspaper industry’s plans for self-regulation in favour of politicians’ plans for press regulation.

Alex Massie

Tommy Robinson: Zionist puppet, Neocon Fraud and Wahhabist Stooge.

If you ever want a laugh, read the websites of Britain’s collection of far-right political groupings. It is worth doing so if only to remind yourself that the “threat” from right-wing extremists is often rather exaggerated. These people’s relationship with reality is neither firm enough to threaten public order nor coherent enough to win them more than a (relative) handful of deluded followers. Keep an eye on them, by all means, but let’s not make them out to be more than they are. After all, whenever the far-right does enjoy some success that success quickly evaporates. The public, when it has a chance to see these people for what they

Isabel Hardman

Diane Abbott sacked as Miliband forges loyal frontbench team

Diane Abbott’s exit from the Labour frontbench has come later than the former Shadow Public Health Minister imagined. She had planned to resign over the Syria vote, only to find, rather to her dismay, that her party leadership had taken the position she supported in the end. Behind the scenes, the briefing is that she wasn’t sufficiently loyal: she has always been in her own party rather than pulling for the team. LabourList has a fantastic quote from a party source about Abbott ‘pissing all over the tents’, rather than ‘pissing out of the tent’ as had been hoped. She did get rather cross about Syria, but she also publicly

Isabel Hardman

Another bad day for HS2 as Labour prepares ground for U-turn

If the strange mood of Tory unity over Europe is giving you the heebie-jeebies, then have a look at high-speed rail. When disunity boils over, which it is likely to do later this autumn, it will cause the party real problems. Unless, of course, Adam Afriyie decides to launch some kind of coup on HS2, in which case Parliament will probably unite to support the new line and that will be the last we hear of it. Labour is now crouching in the undergrowth, waiting for the Tory disunity to bubble over. The party hasn’t quite dropped its love of stirring things up a bit, and the disappearance of Maria

Isabel Hardman

Afriyie amendments wait hopefully for supporters as whips plot EU referendum bill success

Adam Afriyie’s sleepless nights are over. His amendments to the European Union (Referendum) Bill are now down and waiting hopefully for signatures. The MP claimed at the weekend that he had cross-party support for his call for an early referendum, but currently only two names – Afriyie’s and Keith Vaz – feature on the paper. Given the ambitious MP’s attempt to shake things up in the Conservative party didn’t have quite the desired effect, it will be interesting to see which MPs still think it worth signing these two amendments, which add 23 October 2014 as the referendum date to the legislation. The newly beefed-up whips office may not see

Isabel Hardman

Labour lurched towards honesty in its reshuffle

Labour types are pretty grumpy that yesterday’s far-reaching reshuffle of their ranks is being billed as another ‘lurch to the left’. The reality is a little more complex: the party hasn’t lurched to the left so much as lurched towards being honest about what it believes. This was what Ed Miliband did in Brighton two weeks ago. He didn’t suddenly discover, with a jolt, that he was a socialist: he just started being more honest about that. Liam Byrne, Stephen Twigg and Jim Murphy were moved not because they were hopeless performers, but because they were never really given a chance to perform. What was Labour’s policy on free schools?

Monday

Alex Massie

Small Reshuffle in Britain; Not Many Dead

First things first: a reshuffle in which only one cabinet minister is sacked redeployed is a reshuffle in name only. It means the action – if you can call it that – is confined to the replacement of ministers of whom most of you have never heard with other MPs of whom you are most likely equally ignorant. A day of low drama in Westminster then. Secondly, ejecting Michael Moore from the Scotland Office is not, I think, a reflection on his performance. If he was an accidental Secretary of State whose elevation to the cabinet was the result of David Laws’ disgrace, Moore still carried out his duties diligently

The Spectator

Reshuffle: the full list of jobs | 7 October 2013

In Rob Wilson – PPS to George Osborne Gavin Williamson – PPS to the Prime Minister Judith Jolly – whip in the House of Lords (LD) Anna Soubry – Parliamentary Under Secretary at Ministry of Defence (Con) Tina Stowell- Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Kris Hopkins –  Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Wayne David – PPS to Miliband (Lab) Amber Rudd – assistant whip (Con) Claire Perry – assistant whip (Con) Gavin Barwell – assistant whip (Con) John Penrose – assistant whip (Con) Karen Bradley – government whip (Con) Douglas Alexander – chair of General Election strategy, as well as shadow foreign secretary (Lab) Emma Reynolds – shadow minister for Housing, attending shadow cabinet (Lab) Gloria de Piero

Isabel Hardman

Andy Burnham’s last stand

The details of the government reshuffle are currently being hammered out at the 8.30 Downing Street meeting. But as MPs and ministers nervously wait for the call from the Number 10 switchboard, Ed Miliband will be plotting his own changes to his top team for later this week. And as key Shadow Cabinet members such as Liam Byrne look vulnerable, one shadow minister who is holding on with all he’s got is Andy Burnham. The Shadow Health Secretary is very popular with the party’s grassroots, but he is also politically vulnerable because of his connections to the previous Labour government. But though Ed Miliband failed to publicly back Burnham at

The Spectator

As it happened: Government and shadow cabinet reshuffle

The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats undertook reshuffles today. As it happened, here is how Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Sebastian Payne reported the day’s events. You can see a list of who’s in and out here. 1839:  So in the end three reshuffles that could have toiled on all week are pretty much wrapped up by the end of play. Here are our top lines from tonight’s Evening Blend: All three parties reshuffled their frontbench ranks, with a cull of the Blairites in Labour and jobs for rising stars and allies of George Osborne for the Tories. …while Nick Clegg showed his brutal side by sacking popular Home

Sunday

James Forsyth

Female and northern MPs charge your phone, the reshuffle is on

There are two more government resignations ahead of tonight’s reshuffle. John Randall, the deputy chief whip, has gone as has Chloe Smith, the Cabinet Office minister. Randall’s retirement has been overdue for a while now in the opinion of many in Downing Street. There is irritation at the way he put pressure on David Cameron to get rid of Andrew Mitchell during the plebgate affair. His departure and the expected elevation of several whips—Nicky Morgan and Karen Bradley are both in line for promotion—paves the way for a freshening up of the whips’ office. Chloe Smith quitting is going to tempt everyone to dust off the footage of that Paxman

Isabel Hardman

Will Number 10 policy team get reshuffle boost?

As the reshuffle heaves in to view, plenty of names are in the frame for promotion, both on the backbenches and junior ministerial ranks. Some of those names include members of the Number 10 policy board, chosen for that role because they were all deemed to be talented individuals. This means they are also considered rising stars and suitable ministerial material. But I’ve heard that the PM’s thinking is to leave the policy board well alone, partly because its members have already had their promotion, and others still languishing on the backbenches deserve a chance too. In a coalition, you don’t have as much luxury to promote every promising MP

Isabel Hardman

Chloe Smith and John Randall quit government ahead of reshuffle

In the past few minutes, Deputy Chief Whip John Randall and Cabinet Office Minister Chloe Smith have quit the government ahead of an expected reshuffle this week. James outlined some of the movers and shakers in his column today, and we will bring you full details of the departures and moves as they come, although the word from Downing Street is that there will be no more departures tonight. Smith had the distinction of being able to announce her own departure on Twitter, saying she decided last month:- Stepped down as Minister,proud of record.Told PM of my decision in Sept:my constituency work has always mattered most http://t.co/kfsf8ZE2Xk — Chloe Smith