Uk politics

Saturday

James Forsyth

David Cameron and the married couple’s tax allowance

The married couple’s tax allowance is back on the agenda. After Conservative Home’s exclusive yesterday, David Cameron has confirmed that he will introduce one before the end of this parliament. This would allow couples to share a proportion of their personal allowance, lowering the tax bill for those household where one person stays home to look after the children. Cynics will suggest that this is a good time to float a policy particularly popular with the party base given that there are county council elections on Thursday. But Cameron is a bigger enthusiast for recognising marriage in the tax system than most of his Cabinet colleagues. In opposition, George Osborne always worried that it looked like a measure designed to encourage mothers to stay at home.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Labour ignores reality with its political hunger games

There are few things more frustrating in politics than attempts to shut down a valid debate about a real social problem using the speaker's personal circumstances. Today's victim appears to be Richard Benyon, scalded for suggesting in a low-key Westminster Hall debate that Britain has a food problem. The environment minister told the debate on Wednesday that the government would set targets for helping families cut the amount of food they waste, saying: 'We all know that we ought to be wasting much less food, that food wasted means fewer pounds in our pocket, that the energy and water used to produce the food has been wasted, and that the transportation and packaging costs have been wasted.

Fraser Nelson

The report the Department for Education does NOT want you to read

One of the better policies of this government is its offering massive databases up for public scrutiny. Sunlight is the best disinfectant, argues David Cameron, and outsiders can scrutinise what the government is doing and point to flaws. With commendable openness the Department for Education asked Deloitte to look at its massive pupil database last year, which has records on half a million kids factoring in exam results, postcode, ethnicity and poverty. And also the bizarre variation in English spending-per-pupil figures which vary from £4,500 to £10,000 per pupil (odd, given that teachers operate on national pay bargaining). Crucially, Deloitte was also asked to look at spending.

Isabel Hardman

About that UKIP tax policy…

Nigel Farage was on Question Time again last night. This was hardly unusual, but what was interesting was that the UKIP leader U-turned on one of his flagship policies. When he spoke at a press lunch on Tuesday, Farage accepted that UKIP's flat tax policy was 'incomplete', but that UKIP's aspiration was to have taxes as low as possible. Last night, asked whether he still wanted a flat tax, he said: 'It was in 2010, but it isn't now, and don't tell me about manifestos: you haven't even got one!' Simon Hughes pressed him on what his tax policy was, to which he replied: 'We will have no tax on the minimum wage and a mass simplification of the tax policy, with a lower rate. We will abolish National Insurance, roll it into tax because all it is is tax anyway.

Thursday

Charles Moore

Margaret Thatcher and the missing votes

There was a startling late entry for the first volume of my biography of Margaret Thatcher. On the day after she died, I received an email from Haden Blatch. Mr Blatch’s father, Bertie, was the chairman of the Finchley Conservative Association when it selected her in 1958. I had asked Haden for information before, but he had not got round to it. Now he revealed that his father had come home from the Finchley selection meeting and explained that Mrs Thatcher had not really won the vote. Her rival, Thomas Langton, had just pipped her. Blatch senior, however, was very keen on Mrs Thatcher, and thought that Langton, who ‘was born with a silver spoon in his mouth’, would easily get in somewhere else, whereas she, being a woman with young children, would not.

Isabel Hardman

The court threat that stopped David Cameron from abolishing the 1922 committee

When David Cameron spoke at the 90th anniversary party of the 1922 committee earlier this week, he used glowing terms to praise its chairman Graham Brady and urge backbenchers to 'stick to our guns'. Anyone would think he hadn't tried to abolish it in effect by allowing ministers to attend and vote shortly after the Coalition had formed. That the Tory leadership backed down on this, in spite of winning the vote that would have introduced the change, was well-reported at the time. But one of the key things that precipitated the climbdown has been a secret until now.

James Forsyth

Things are looking up for the Tories

There’s a distinct sense of optimism in the Tory ranks today. First, there’s relief that a triple dip recession has been avoided. Dire economic news would have ended the rare outbreak of unity in the Tory party. Second, the changes to Number 10 and the newly announced policy board have gone down well with Tory MPs. Even those who have not been offered a role are pleased at this broadening of the Cameron operation; the recall of Peter Lilley to the colours has gone down particularly well. For the first time, there’s a feeling that Cameron is prepared to consult and listen to his party and that is prepared to be led. If this Tory unity can survive next week’s county council elections, then politics could get very interesting.

Isabel Hardman

The only thing that remains of the Snooper’s Charter is unlikely to need legislation

Even though Nick Clegg made a big song and dance this morning on LBC about blocking the Snooper's Charter, there is still a bit of confusion in Westminster about whether he has actually driven the fatal stake through its heart. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said this morning that discussions are still 'ongoing', while some of those fighting the legislation on the Tory benches were a little worried that what the Deputy Prime Minister actually said was that he was killing bits of the Bill that upset people the most, not the whole thing. This is what he told Nick Ferrari this morning: 'Well look, what people have dubbed the "snooper's charter", I just have to be clear with you, that's not going to happen.

Isabel Hardman

GDP relief leaves spotlight on a Labour party under pressure

Westminster has felt rather muted over the past few weeks: it may well continue to do so today, but for good reasons. That the first estimate of Q1 GDP figures recorded growth of 0.3 per cent means Labour spinners have to work much harder on falls in certain sectors in order to get their points across, and that George Osborne and David Cameron can relax, knowing they've just been gifted more good feeling in their party until at least the local elections. After the building tension over today's figures came a really rather good anti-climax. This means that the spotlight remains on Labour, and not the Conservative party. Len McCluskey's intervention yesterday - slapped down by Ed Miliband as 'reprehensible' - is just one of a number of cracks appearing in the party's unity.

Jonathan Jones

No triple-dip: GDP up by 0.3%

The UK seems to have avoided a triple-dip recession. According to today's estimate from the Office for National Statistics, the economy grew by 0.3 per cent in the first three months of 2013. But it is important to remember that this is just a first estimate, with a margin of error of ±0.7 points. So today's figure could still be revised down to show a triple-dip, or revised up to show stronger growth. This still leaves GDP 2.6 per cent below its pre-recession peak, five years after the downturn hit.

Sebastian Payne

The View from 22 — Sex and success, Conservative vs. Labour unity and the two-wheeled tyranny of cyclists

What do Margaret Thatcher, Sheryl Sandberg and Angela Merkel have in common? They are the ultimate alpha-female icons, according to Alison Wolf. In this week's Spectator cover feature, Alison examines the ultra-competitive female elites who are pulling ahead and leaving the rest of the 'sisterhood' behind. On this week's View from 22 podcast, the Spectator's deputy editor Mary Wakefield discusses with Alison what makes an alpha female, why they are only interested in alpha males and how feminism is response for this new divide. Melissa Kite and Gary Lingard also debate whether the world now revolves around cyclists. In this week's magazine, Melissa argues that beautiful country paths should stop be turned into tarmac cycle routes.

James Forsyth

A rare mood of unity descends on the Conservatives

The idea that ‘loyalty is the Conservative party’s secret weapon’ was always dubious. Benjamin Disraeli, for instance, made his name attacking a sitting Conservative prime minister. This, though, did not stop him becoming arguably the party’s most celebrated leader. But in recent years, the ‘loyalty’ adage has become a joke — one that has taunted leader after leader as they struggled to deal with an increasingly rebellious party. The party changed leaders four times in the eight years between 1997 and 2005. In these opposition ‘wilderness’ years, changing a leader was the closest to power that Conservative MPs came. Leadership plotting gave an odd sense of purpose to their presence at Westminster.

Leah McLaren

My battle with Britain’s mean, ineffective immigration system

When I first came to this country nearly a decade ago, Britain wanted immigrants like me. Back then you could get a visa just for being creative. It was called the ‘Artist, Writer, Composer Visa’ — a Blairite flight of fancy if there ever was one — and all you had to do was fill out a form proving that you’d made a name for yourself in your country of origin in one of those three disciplines. The application, as I recall, made a point of including conceptual artists and sculptors. I’d published a novel in Canada, so I was in. It was that easy. Thinking about it now makes me want to weep. Back then, Britain was more upbeat. There were jobs in the media and journalists still had expense accounts.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Cameron keeps his friends close, but now he’s drawing his MPs closer

David Cameron and the Tory party appear to be emerging from a period of marriage counselling that has gone particularly well. The leader is making more of an effort with his backbenchers generally (James examines this in his column tomorrow), and tomorrow's papers bring yet more news of reconciliation. The Prime Minister is beefing up his political policy operation by appointing a panel of bright and impressive MPs to help him, and promoting Jo Johnson to be his head of policy and a Cabinet Office minister. Those MPs aren't just impressive, though: some of them, including Jesse Norman and George Eustice, are also rebels. This is a big gesture to say that the troubles of the past year and a bit should go behind the party now as it gets in shape for 2015.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Miliband’s NHS torment

Back to business at PMQs. Our ailing NHS, and its many-headed crises, were today’s key battle-ground. We hear of sick people being parked in ever tinier and more humiliating confinements: corridors, trolleys, airing cupboards, pill depositories, laundry baskets, spare gaps between drinks’ machines. All these locations, and worse, are currently sheltering patients awaiting the healing touch of some NHS miracle-worker. Today Miliband told us of a pop-up ward which has been raised, like a Punch and Judy tent, in the grounds of some calamity-hit hospital. Plenty of ammo there to chuck at the PM. But Miliband couldn’t bring any colour or vitality to his arguments. He used percentages and numbers instead. Rather unwise.

Alex Massie

Do the Americans want Britain to renew Trident?

What is the point of Britain's nuclear deterrent? If it is an insurance policy it is a remarkably expensive one that might not, in any case, ever be honoured. I suspect that, more importantly, retaining an independent [sic] nuclear capability is a psychological crutch for politicians who fear that leaving the nuclear club would somehow make it harder for Britain to remain a member of the Top Nation club. And perhaps it would. This is not necessarily a trivial thing. It would change the way we think of ourselves and might, in some sense, be considered an admission of defeat or as some kind of retreat. No Prime Minister wants to be the guy remembered as that guy and this, plus other institutional pressures helps make the case for replacing Trident. But at what cost?

James Forsyth

How David Cameron is improving his relations with Tory backbenchers

There has been a rare outbreak of unity in the Tory party in recent weeks. It is the product of several factors - the bonding effect of honouring Margaret Thatcher, the influence of Lynton Crosby and a growing sense on the Tory benches that Labour are beatable. Another important element of it is that David Cameron has found a better way to interact with his own MPs. As one senior Number 10 figure told me, ‘Rome wasn’t built in a day. But for the first time, I think, we have a proper systematic way of engaging with the party.’ One element of this is more serious policy discussions with MPs. Indeed, I understand that Number 10 is now trying to systematically involve MPs in policy making.

Isabel Hardman

Wisecracking May announces new treaty with Jordan for Qatada deportation

So in spite of great excitement beforehand, Theresa May didn't confirm that the UK will seek a temporary withdrawal from the European Convention on Human Rights. Instead, she announced a new treaty - a mutual legal assistance agreement - with Jordan in order to enable Abu Qatada's deportation. This wasn't nearly exciting enough for Tory MPs, who started demanding that the UK ignore the Convention and jolly well put Qatada on a plane today. May decided the best way to respond to this would be to crack a joke using Mark Reckless' surname while explaining to him why the government must abide by the laws to which it is currently subject.

Isabel Hardman

Theresa May tries to calm Snooping Bill nerves

It seems the Home Office is growing a little bit nervous about its flagship Communications Data Bill. I understand that Home Secretary Theresa May took time out of an Abu-Qatada-packed day yesterday to ring internet service providers to try to give reassurances about the legislation. As I explained yesterday, there's a growing sense in Westminster that this Bill won't survive. Many backbench Tory MPs tell me of a rumour sweeping their party that it is already dead. Other sources involved in the negotiations suggest that there's a possibility that the Home Office might jettison the more controversial parts of the legislation in order to get the darned thing through.

Isabel Hardman

Ministers mull dramatic measures to succeed in Qatada battle

When Theresa May makes her statement on Abu Qatada to MPs today, she will be expected to give further details on plans reportedly mooted by the Prime Minister to temporarily withdraw Britain from the European Convention on Human Rights. This is a high-risk strategy for two reasons. The first is that by so clearly involving himself in the process, the Prime Minister risks being damaged by the fallout from another failed attempt to get Qatada out. The second is that a temporary withdrawal from the Convention, even to remove a hate preacher than all agree should have left this country long ago, will send Cameron's Liberal Democrat coalition partners into orbit. The PM held a meeting with May, Justice Secretary Chris Grayling and the Attorney General Dominic Grieve yesterday.