Uk politics

Thursday

James Delingpole

Ukip are playing it safe – so they’ve rejected me

From our UK edition

So farewell then £80,000 salary, £150,000 expense account, secretary, team of assistants, constituency office, first-class travel, immunity from prosecution, Brussels blowouts, ludicrous pension and all the other perks I’d been so looking forward to enjoying from May next year onwards. Ukip has decided that it doesn’t, after all, want to have me as one of its MEPs. The rejection came as a bit of a surprise, I must say. When the party chairman, Steve Crowther, rang to break the news, I felt rather as Brad Pitt might on being turned down for a mercy shag he’d proffered Ann Widdecombe. No offence intended to Ukip — I think they’re great people and a very necessary prick to the Westminster bubble.

Isabel Hardman

Labour’s uninspiring response to A Level results

From our UK edition

During silly season, bored journalists often entertain themselves by reading rather than deleting the slew of pointless press releases that land in their inboxes. Today's winner was going to be a pitch that opened with the dangerous phrase 'Good Morning, I hope you are well?' (always a sign the PR is sending this release to a very long list of hacks they've never spoken to) went on to suggest a story about grooming and beauty tips for Coffee House. But then Labour's press office sent through a  release full of such wisdom and careful crafting that it could only have gone through several committees and possibly even PLP votes to perfect.

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: John Prescott celebrates

From our UK edition

John Prescott took to Twitter today to congratulate all the pupils receiving their AS and A-level results  today. His message to them? To all those waiting for #ALevels! Get one of these for your #ALevelsJumpForJoyPics #PrezzALevels pic.twitter.com/mTVuQjIG3P — John Prescott (@johnprescott) August 15, 2013 He certainly doesn't look like your average A-level celebrator, as seen in the Daily Mail, Telegraph et al. Perhaps Comrade Gove ought to add trampolining to his newly reformed PE curriculum.

Wednesday

Harry Cole

Labour’s ‘cost of living’ eggacy

From our UK edition

‘Well the cost of living can’t be that high if people can waste eggs’, chortled many a wag today as silly season exploded all over Ed Miliband’s face and jacket. As reported, the shell-shocked Labour leader was in South London to talk about the rising cost of living under the Tories, but had his media appearance poached by a protester hurling a dozen eggs at him. Giving Miliband the benefit of the doubt for a moment, how have living costs risen? Let's take a piece of random household expenditure, something that immediately springs to mind. Eggs, say. Wholesale cost of eggs in the UK (pence per dozen) Source: https://www.gov.

The Spectator

Interns, stop whingeing!

From our UK edition

In this week's Spectator, Brendan O'Neill turns on unpaid interns who complain about their lot, arguing that they should instead be paying their employers for the opportunity. He attacks the argument that unpaid internships hit working class young people the hardest, when these placements will encourage self-drive, rather than self pity. O'Neill writes: It speaks volumes about the parlous state of modern history teaching that these interns so liberally refer to themselves as ‘slaves’. Anyone who had been taught properly about the Roman era, or about black slavery in early America, or about the Holocaust, would know that there’s rather more to being a slave than being asked by a gruff boss to buy him a hazelnut latte.

Alex Massie

David McLetchie’s decency served the Tories well but they need bolder leadership now.

From our UK edition

David McLetchie, who died this week aged only 61, was a politician who, in style and manner, rebuked those cynics who presume - lazily - that politicians go into politics to advance causes that have nothing to do with the public good. This may seem ironic given that his own stewardship of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party was abruptly curtailed by a row over the misuse of parliamentary taxi warrants but there you have it. That "scandal" was, as Bill Jamieson reminds us today, typical of life at Holyrood: a micro-tempest in an espresso cup. Like the "scandals" that brought down Henry McLeish and Wendy Alexander it now seems embarrassingly trivial. Officegate, Taxigate, Giftgate: never before had this tedious suffix been so abused.

Isabel Hardman

Tories and Lib Dems pass on will donation to contain row

From our UK edition

So both the Lib Dems and the Tories have yielded to the inevitable, and passed on the Joan LB Edwards donation to the Treasury. Their responses were swifter than even critical friends might have expected. The Lib Dems were first out of the starting blocks in the race to the moral high ground by announcing they'd be writing a cheque to the Treasury. But before Nick Clegg even had time to start recording a new autotune version of 'I'm Sorry' about how 'we took a donation that we couldn't possibly keep (but frankly could have done with given the state of the party coffers)', the Tories decided they had to do the same. So that's that, row contained and moral high ground reached by both parties. Except stories like this never do politics any favours at all.

Alex Massie

War from the ground up and the limits of modern government?

From our UK edition

Emile Simpson's War from the Ground Up, hailed by no less an authority than Michael Howard (the historian, not the politician) as a Clausewitz-for-our-times, is on my "to read" list. So I was interested to discover that he's the latest subject of the Financial Times's reliably excellent "Lunch with the FT" feature. The whole article merits attention but among the good bits is this: As a young soldier in the Prussian army, Clausewitz fought at a time when the whole conception of conflict was being revolutionised. In the late 18th century, war was not unlimited: the great powers would try to defeat the enemy on the battlefield to gain an advantage but they rarely knocked out other states.

Isabel Hardman

The Coalition parties can’t hold on to Joan Edwards’ donation

From our UK edition

An argument over a will is just the sort of thing this slow-moving summer needs. Today's row isn't between two factions of a family, but the two parties in the Coalition and the Daily Mail, which reports that a donation from a Mrs Joan LB Edwards was split between the two parties when her will suggests she wanted it donated to the government, rather than political parties. The paper's report quotes a section of her will, which it says it has seen: 'I bequeath all my estate both real and personal to… whichever government is in office at the date of my death for the government in their absolute discretion to use as they may think fit.' The parties are arguing that the donation was passed on out of the blue and that they did everything properly their end.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Why the happy Tories can’t relax after Labour’s bad summer

From our UK edition

Last December, after one of the most brutal PMQs this Parliament has seen, David Cameron was walking through the corridors of the Palace of Westminster to address a 1922 Committee meeting. Ed Miliband had subjected the Prime Minister to a real savaging, and Labour backbenchers had loyally joined in, raising a constituent's suicide and describing Cameron's government as ‘grandeur for the few, the workhouse for the many'. It had been a bleak session. Heading for Committee Room 14, the Prime Minister bumped into a junior minister, who was keen to reassure him that everything would come out in the wash. He told Cameron that 'they can go for the emotional attack, and we can always come back at them with statistics'.

Sebastian Payne

The Home Office immigration vans – successful and popular with the nation?

From our UK edition

Are those Home Office vans targeting illegal immigrants universally disliked? The outcry from when the vans first took to the streets — notably #racistvan on Twitter — would suggest so but new polling from YouGov shows a disconnect between what those in politics and media think and the rest of the country. Over half of those polled this week support the vans, up eight points when last questioned in July: Two thirds also stated they disagreed that the vans were racist, up five points since the last batch of polling, while only 34 per cent thought they were offensive and stupid. The campaign group Liberty were certainly offended; they were disgruntled enough to commission their own van.

Isabel Hardman

Party donations highlight risk to Labour of union link reform

From our UK edition

The Electoral Commission's latest release on donations to political parties in the second quarter of 2013 are quite handy for the Tories. Firstly, there's the caveat that no party really benefits from discussing funding because everyone ends up looking a little bit grubby, and because the only thing grubbier and more unattractive to voters would be full state funding of political parties, then this will always be a grubby-looking business. So of course there are donations from big business to the Conservative party (although the biggest individual donor to the Tories was in fact a woman who wanted to donate money to the 'government of the day' in her will, which meant her legacy was divided between the two Coalition parties).

Alex Massie

Nate Silver on Scottish independence: Alex Salmond has “no chance”

From our UK edition

Nate Silver, in Edinburgh to punt his new book, appears to have annoyed some Scottish nationalists today. The "polling guru" (according to all newspapers everywhere) has told the Scotsman that he thinks Alex Salmond's merry bunch of nationalists have 'no chance' of prevailing in next September's independence referendum. It is true that Scottish politics is not Mr Silver's area of special expertise. It is also true that I am not sure his views are necessarily all that important. They do not carry top-weight in this handicap. I am not sure they merit being treated as some sort of Oracular revelation.

Isabel Hardman

Cheery silly season puts Tories on even keel

From our UK edition

Even if Help to Buy is contributing to a bubble rather than the sensible restructuring of the economy that politicians promised before they started trying to scale that particular mountain, there are still reasons to be cheerful about the economy for the Tories this morning, on top of the delight offered yesterday by Chris Bryant's antics. The Guardian's ICM poll finds today that the Conservatives' approval rating on economic competence has risen to 40 per cent from 28 per cent in June. Labour has only crept up five points in comparison, from 19 per cent to 24 per cent. There are clearly all sorts of reasons why the party shouldn't be hanging out the bunting for 2015 just yet (Paul Goodman has a good post on this here).

Sunday

James Forsyth

Why Ed Miliband is being so quiet this summer

From our UK edition

Labour’s failure to fill the summer news vacuum has now become a news story in itself. Ed Miliband comes back from holiday to find the Sunday papers full of stories about Labour grumbling, shadow Cabinet reshuffles and the like. But there’ll be no dramatic return by Miliband. There are no plans for big set piece speeches or a whistle-stop tour of Britain. One reason why Miliband himself has been so quiet this summer is that conference is already dominating his, and his team’s, thoughts. As I say in the Mail on Sunday today, they view conference as crucial to their efforts to persuade the country that Miliband is Prime Ministerial. It’ll be at this conference that they’ll begin to roll out the policies on which Labour intends to fight the next election.

Saturday

Sebastian Payne

Tories go on the economic attack — Labour would cost Britain £50 billion

From our UK edition

Would Labour destabilise Britain’s fragile economic recovery? The Tories are keen to convince the nation that Labour would, ahead of Miliband's expected offensive on the state of the economy and the cost of living. Positive growth forecasts, increasing construction and export figures  all add to the perception that the economy is on the up; but, as I discussed earlier this week, the mood in the country is still cautious and many people are struggling to make ends meet. Treasury minister Sajid Javid tackles this problem in the Telegraph today.

Friday

Alex Massie

Scotland’s disgraceful educational apartheid

From our UK edition

Scottish teenagers received their exam results this week and, for the seventh consecutive year, the pass-rate for Highers increased. So did the pass-rates for all other exams: the Advanced Highers success rate marched past 82 per cent while a scarcely credible 98.9 per cent of all Standard Grade exams were passed. Cue the annual debate over grade inflation and dumbing down. Actually, the best academic evidence (compiled by Durham University researchers) suggests grade inflation, while real, is less of an issue in Scotland than it is in the rest of the United Kingdom. It also distracts attention from the real issue. Which remains that far too many children in far too many parts of the country leave school without having had a proper shot at realising their potential.

Wednesday

Jerry Hayes

Can we have an honest debate about sex crimes?

From our UK edition

It really is time that we had an honest debate about sex crimes. But in the present climate I wonder if it is possible. Over the next few days there will be howls of rage from women's groups about comments by a prosecutor that a thirteen year old girl's behaviour was sexually ‘predatory’. I am not going to make the mistake of commenting on a case when the only information I have are clips from the newspapers. So let me deal with the generality. Is it ever appropriate to use such words in a court case involving rape or sexual assault? The common sense answer must be 'yes'. I have been prosecuting and defending rape cases, sometimes involving very young children for over thirty years.

Tuesday

Alex Massie

Yes, stay-at-home mothers have made a “lifestyle choice”

From our UK edition

Blimey, George Osborne has got something right! Astonishing scenes. Suppose the government thought it a good idea for us to eat more bananas and, recognising that bananas have become extremely expensive, offered those of us struggling to afford bananas a modest subsidy to make it easier to purchase bananas. We might reasonably object to this on the grounds that the government should not be in the business of subsidising bananas but it would be strange if those people with no desire to purchase bananas complained that the problem with the banana-subsidy is that it does not cover the purchase of apples. That, essentially, seems to be the complaint from "stay-at-home" mothers appalled by the Chancellor's attempt to make childcare for working parents marginally more affordable.

Sebastian Payne

The King’s School merger will go ahead unchallenged — Labour should be celebrating

From our UK edition

The battle for The King's School is over, and Labour has lost. As reported in today's Newcastle Chronicle, North Tyneside Council met yesterday and voted against pursuing a judicial review of the new Kings Priory Academy in Tynemouth. After threatening to halt the merger of the independent King's School and state Priory Primary School since May, the council has accepted that it is on the wrong side of parents and the local community. The council is not celebrating the arrival of a new state school. The Labour mayor of North Tyneside, Norma Redfearn, said of the decision: 'I have been in education for years and I can’t believe how this process has taken place.