Uk politics

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: ‘What a penetrating insight into the affairs of state’

A mood of giggles and mischief descended on PMQs today. David Cameron is in America – attempting to cure insomniacs by explaining Tory Euro-scepticism to them – and his role was taken by Nick Clegg. Harriet Harman, a notoriously sluggish debater, stood in for Ed Miliband. It’s said that when Harman trained as a solicitor she conceived such a high regard for the law that she went into politics instead. Today she seemed as effervescent as last week’s Prosecco. She droned through a series of pre-scripted gags and less-than-sparkling jibes. This was one of her feeblest ever performances on the front bench. She started by mocking David Cameron for posing in a London bus while in New York. ‘That’s something he hasn’t done here.

Sebastian Payne

Exclusive: Nigel Farage says yes to Dorries and backs joint Tory and Labour Ukip candidates

Following Isabel's revelation that the newly-reinstated Nadine Dorries will be pursuing an electoral pact with Ukip, Nigel Farage reveals he is open not just to Dorries' advances but also those of other Conservative and Labour MPs. Speaking on this week's View from 22 podcast, the Ukip leader says: 'If Nadine Dorries' association come to me and say they've passed a resolution, and they want her to run as a joint candidate in 2015, I will go and ask my local association how they feel but my inclination would be, why not? What on earth is wrong with doing this? 'I would also say this could apply to other Tories too.

Jonathan Jones

Unemployment rises… or does it?

Today's job statistics are, as usual, mixed — and even a touch confusing. Last month, the headline was that the unemployment had risen to 2.56 million. This month, we're told that it's risen again — to 2.52 million. How can both be right? Because the point of comparison is not the previous month, but the previous quarter. Still, the fall in employment and rise in unemployment is really last month's news, not this month's. As ever, it's worth remembering the margin of error of all these estimates, which dwarfs the quarterly changes — so we don't actually know whether they rose, fell or stayed the same. But there are some trends that we can identify.

Isabel Hardman

Nadine Dorries: I want to be a joint Tory/Ukip candidate

Nadine Dorries has given an interview to The Spectator this week in which she reveals that she will be holding talks with her constituency association about a joint Tory/Ukip endorsement for the 2015 election. She tells the magazine 'I will be having that kind of conversation with my association', and adds: 'There are members in my association who approached me recently who are confused. They have always been Conservative and will never change their allegiance but feel very much as though they have a huge amount of empathy with Ukip. I feel it would be a travesty if Ukip came in and took the seats off our councillors or indeed me when actually their policies and their beliefs are very much Ukip.

James Forsyth

Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman play a cautious game at PMQs

There was a rare moment of unity between the Tory awkward squad and the Whips at PMQs today. The awkward squad relished brandishing copies of a Liberal Democrat leaflet promising an In/Out referendum. CCHQ, for its part, has been keen to give this leaflet more attention. Clegg tried to dismiss it, but did he declare that a referendum on the EU is now a matter of ‘when not if’. A while back, Tory ministers used to feel rather guilty when their backbenchers took pop after pop at Clegg. But today the Tories on the front bench did not look at all displeased today when five Tory backbench questions attacked the deputy Prime Minister. The Tory leadership has concluded that the best way to unite the party is to encourage them to attack their coalition partners.

Nick De Bois

David Cameron is right to be relaxed about tonight’s EU vote

It simply isn’t correct to claim that the Conservative Party is at odds over a possible vote on legislation paving the way for a referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union. The Prime Minister has adopted a relaxed attitude to both the upcoming amendment to the Queen’s Speech and the Draft EU Referendum Bill – encouraging a free vote for backbenchers and ministerial parliamentary aides. He is entirely right to be relaxed. The Conservative Party in Parliament is united in their belief that the British electorate deserves an In/Out referendum on the EU.

Isabel Hardman

Forget the nasty party: this is the Angry Party

Even those who like to specialise in the inner workings of the mind of a Tory backbencher are rather baffled by the twists and turns of the party this week. But amid all the turmoil, there has been one very important change. Backbenchers are no longer just angry with the leadership. They're also angry with each other. The Conservative party can, at the best of times, resemble a bunch of ferrets fighting in a sack, but until this week the ferrets have all been scratching and biting one victim. Now they're scrapping with one another. As James reported last night, the eight key Eurosceptic factions of the party met yesterday morning to discuss their tactics and ended up splitting five to three over whether to continue to push David Cameron.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Will the draft EU referendum bill calm Tory tensions?

The last few days have seen the Tory party losing its collective head. Number 10 hopes that the publication of a draft referendum bill will begin to restore order. If this bill had been published by the leadership a week ago, it would have looked like a bold move. Today, it appeared panicky. But it is now out there, and any Tory backbencher who comes high up in the private members bill ballot on Thursday has a chance of guiding it through. I suspect if a vote could be won on second reading, the parliamentary dynamics of this debate would change yet again. What’ll be intriguing is to see how much the Tories campaign on this. David Cameron has already sent out an email to party supporters.

Isabel Hardman

Diane Abbott to turn Labour’s attention to a ‘crisis of masculinity’

Diane Abbott has been thinking long and hard of late about how Labour responds to the family. She offers the next instalment of her ideas in a speech to think tank Demos on Thursday, and will argue that rapid social and economic change has caused a 'crisis of masculinity' in Britain which manifests itself. Coffee House has been offered a preview of that speech, which marks a significant shift in the way Labour talks about the family. Abbott believes the Conservatives have occupied this debate for too long, and wants her party to make families and fathers a priority. As a single mother and a left-wing feminist, her intervention is an attempt to reclaim this territory.

Isabel Hardman

DCMS permanent secretary Jonathan Stephens to leave post

Jonathan Stephens, permanent secretary at the Culture, Media and Sport department, has today announced he is moving on, after a cross-Whitehall effort to shift him, I have learned. Stephens, who James reported at the weekend was looking ripe for a move, announced his departure in an internal email to staff this afternoon. I understand he is moving to a behind-the-scenes role in another part of Whitehall. He was one of the last hangers-on from the Blair government, along with Sir Nicholas Macpherson at the Treasury, having worked at DCMS since 2006. His departure means DCMS can appoint a permanent secretary who those involved in Whitehall reform hope will help shoulder the department's heavy burden more effectively.

Isabel Hardman

Not all eurosceptics are asking for more from the leadership

The Tory MPs who are unhappy with Number 10's offer of a draft EU referendum bill have been making the most noise this morning, but there have been some interesting shifts in position from some hardline eurosceptics in the past few hours. Douglas Carswell, who is about as independently-minded as you can get, has come out all guns blazing in favour of the Prime Minister's plan. He writes on his blog: 'For several years, I have been agitating for the Prime Minister to offer an In / Out referendum. He's now offering one. Cameron deserves much more credit for being the first Prime Minister in a generation to offer us the chance to vote to quit the EU. Not even Mrs Thatcher came anywhere close! 'So, I can tick that off my list.

Melanie McDonagh

Let’s hope Vicky Pryce’s book does teach us about prison

The departure of Chris Huhne and Vicky Pryce from prison yesterday has its lessons for us all, on how to make the most of adverse circumstances. Certainly that’s the happiest view of the news that Vicky Pryce is to publish a book about her experiences, called Prisonomics… yep, usefully echoing the title of her previous book, Greekonomics. That one had the merit that Ms Pryce knew quite a bit about the subject, as a Greek and an economist; but her two months at the soft end of the penal system in East Sutton Park prison in Kent may not give her much of an insight into the condition of women in, say, Holloway, where she spent remarkably little time before being moved.

Isabel Hardman

Tory EU turmoil allows Labour and Lib Dems to develop strong message discipline

The dizzy behaviour of the Tory party on Europe is allowing its opponents to develop an incredibly strong message discipline. This is ironic because the Labour party has its own European fault lines running through it, its own backbenchers calling for a referendum, and even some calling for a referendum bill before Cameron gets in. But the Conservative to-ing and fro-ing on the subject enable both parties to say that instead of arguing about Europe in the House of Commons, they plan to 'focus on jobs and growth'. Norman Lamb made this point on the Today programme, saying: 'The Lib Dems' focus is on jobs and growth.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Tory leadership publishes draft EU referendum bill in a panic, and fails to convince backbenchers

David Cameron was trying to work out how on earth to deal with the latest Europe row in his party. He heard them demanding legislation in this parliament for a referendum in the next, and this evening, after nearly a year of letter-writing and speeches, he announced that the Tory party will publish a draft bill doing just that. They still can't get it through Parliament through the government channels, so they'll be putting it up for any willing backbencher (of which there are many) to adopt in the Private Member's Bill ballot. Figures close to the Prime Minister were hinting to Tory MPs this evening there would be a move for legislation, but they were taken by surprise when, just a few hours later, the announcement was made that the draft bill will be published tomorrow. So is this it?

James Forsyth

Barack Obama appears happy to help a leader in a spot of bother

Barack Obama just threw a protective arm around David Cameron at their joint press conference, stressing that ‘you have to see if you can fix what's broken in an important relationship before you break it off '. The instant retweeting of this line by the Tory leadership’s communications channels  shows just how grateful they are for Obama’s verbal support for Cameron’s EU strategy. It is also worth noting, as they have gleefully tweeted, that Obama’s words also appear to be an endorsement of renegotiation as an approach. But does this actually matter? I suspect not. On this issue, Tory MPs are more worried about what their associations are saying and the concerns of their former voters than those of the President of the United States.

Isabel Hardman

Obama warns Britain that leaving the EU would be an isolationist step

President Obama took care this afternoon when asked about an EU referendum to give as nuanced an answer as possible. He emphasised repeatedly that this was a matter for the British people. He also affirmed Cameron's 'basic point that you probably want to see if you can fix what's broken in a very important relationship'. Tory eurosceptics might be a little less impressed by this endorsement of Cameron's strategy, but what they will be really unhappy with is the impression Obama gave that he believes an exit from Europe would be a sign that Britain is becoming more isolationist.

Isabel Hardman

How will the Tory leadership deal with MPs wanting a UKIP pact?

Nigel Farage says his party is in talks with a number of Conservative associations about a joint endorsement with UKIP. He told the Daily Politics today that 'there is no doubt that there are Tory associations, and one Labour that I know of, who are saying "look, the law was changed two years ago, there is a provision now, that one candidate can have the endorsement of two political parties, i.e. two logos on the ballot paper"'. Farage added that 'there are associations out there that I believe want this'. Freshly returned to the Tory benches, Nadine Dorries made the case for this in yesterday's Sun on Sunday.

Isabel Hardman

Childish childcare bickering continues

Last winter, the surest way to get a Lib Dem to ring you back was to mention the words 'boundary changes'. Better still to write a piece criticising the party's decision to scupper the reforms as a revenge for the collapse of Lords reform, and no matter whether it was late at night or early on a Saturday morning when all normal people are still hiding under their duvets or sitting self-consciously in independent coffee shops, the Lib Dems would ring very quickly indeed. The same thing is happening now over the plan to relax childcare ratios. This morning I wrote as a throwaway comment that the party was blocking a reform that it had initially given the nod to. Oh no, came the very swift Lib Dem response.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron needs to become a man with a plan

'I'm a man with a plan,' David Cameron told the Conservative party conference in 2008. Now the Prime Minister is struggling to give the impression he does have a plan for dealing with the Europe problem in his party: and he needs one, because things are going to get a lot stickier. The furore around tomorrow's Queen's Speech amendment is in many ways rather amusing because however backbenchers, PPSs and ministers vote, it doesn't change a thing outside the Commons chamber. It simply says the Tory party wishes there had been an EU referendum bill in the Queen's Speech. For all the criticisms that he's running behind his party on this, it is fair to say that the Prime Minister has learned from his mistakes in past Europe votes.

Sunday

Sophie Moullin

US universities beat the best of British: on teaching and social mobility

The combined endowments of the three top US universities alone is more than Britain's entire defence budget. Luckily the risk of American invasion is still one of graduate students seeking a cheaper option, with old-world charm and brand name. But the days of Oxbridge and the Russell Group holding ranks with the 'new money' Ivy League are numbered. Not just because more money funds more, and better, research. But because US universities also use that money to do a better job finding, investing in and nurturing potential – potential often still excluded in the UK. They show that excellence need not mean elitism, and that’s a lesson the British academe needs to learn if it is to continue to compete globally.