Uk politics

Friday

Isabel Hardman

The party of little tykes

From our UK edition

Whose fault is it that the Tory party is so rebellious? Some think it's the beastly backbenchers, while others argue it's the Tory leadership. I was amused to watch a beaming Brian Binley lead David Cameron into the 1922 committee on Wednesday, given the backbencher was only recently penning an angry letter to the press about how the Prime Minister was ruining everything. There will always be people like Binley in every party, and Downing Street has made very clear that it would answer his desire for a move to the right by staying firmly in the centre ground. But are there really are so many other Conservative MPs who started out as thorns in the flesh from their first day in Parliament?

David Blackburn

David Cameron should explain why Europe isn’t working

From our UK edition

Philip Collins knows a thing or two about speech writing; but I can’t help thinking that his assessment of what David Cameron should say about Britain and the EU is misguided. Perhaps it’s his Labour blood, but he is fascinated with ‘those in Mr Cameron’s party who are obsessed with Europe in general or frightened of UKIP in particular’. Collins’ analysis seems to suggest (or hopes?) that Cameron’s speech will be primarily for Bill Cash et al. But the speech is the first step to a referendum renegotiating Britain’s position in the EU. The primary audience must be the public – Mrs Bone rather than Peter Bone. Therefore, its content should be about people rather than politics. What might David Cameron say?

Isabel Hardman

An electric fence to keep the City of London’s light from dimming

From our UK edition

The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards was conceived in those tumultuous days following the first Libor revelations. At the time, some hoped that its report would lay the blame squarely at the feet of a certain former city minister. But the cross-party committee of peers and MPs has produced a sober report this morning which makes for relatively comfortable reading for those Labour politicians whose regulatory system saw the birth of Libor rigging as it does not name them. It is slightly less comfortable for the Coalition, which now has to consider whether to beef up its existing plans for banking reform. It doesn't contradict the spirit of the Vickers reforms, but it does go further, calling for an 'electrified' ring fence between the retail and investment arms of the banks.

James Forsyth

The Mitchell row could plunge the Met into an even bigger crisis

From our UK edition

That Andrew Mitchell no longer has confidence in the Metropolitan Police Commissioner escalates this scandal. I understand from those close to Mitchell that he was particularly concerned by Bernard Hogan-Howe’s declaration a few days ago that he had seen 'nothing that causes me to doubt the original account' contained in the police logs. He felt that this risked prejudging the police’s own investigation into the matter. One other aspect of this affair is where it leaves the relationship between the police and those Cabinet Ministers they protect. After the Mitchell incident, many of them made their displeasure known. David Cameron’s own security detail were seen wearing ‘toffs and plebs’ cufflinks at Tory conference.

Fraser Nelson

No, Mr Bond, I expect you to settle out of court

From our UK edition

Right now, there are about 60 assorted cases of people trying to sue Britain's intelligence services. Is that because our spies are unusually wicked, cavalier or brutal? Or because they may be caught in a legal trap with the laser beam of the human rights lobby moving ever-closer to their vitals? I argue the latter in my Telegraph column today, effectively a defence of what is wrongly described as 'secret courts'. For some years now, a game of British spy-catching has been going on. The rules are simple. Say a bomb goes off in Pakistan this Christmas and the police round up suspects with their, ahem, usual care and attention. They are all released, without charge. But it is now standard operating procedure to sue the Brits - especially if one had spent some time in London.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Iain Duncan Smith doesn’t support a welfare cash card

From our UK edition

Those nasty Tories, they're at it again. Now they're trying to stigmatise benefit claimants by giving them special welfare cash cards so they can't buy booze or cigarettes with their child benefit. That Dickensian Iain Duncan Smith was talking about the value of such a card on the lunchtime news, and has caused a bit of an uproar. Except they're not planning to do anything of the sort. I've just spoken to a source close to the Work and Pensions Secretary, who has completely refuted the idea that he's going to bring a card in. The only hint he was making was that some vulnerable claimants such as people struggling with drug addictions might be better helped by a card, not every benefit claimant. The source says: 'This is not something that is being considered, it is not in the pipeline.

Isabel Hardman

Why the Tories aren’t worried about the benefit wars

From our UK edition

The government has just published the Welfare Benefits Up-rating Bill, and everyone's pointing to polls which underline their own point about whether limiting the rise in benefits payments to 1 per cent is going to play well with voters. Labour types are brandishing the Independent/ComRes poll, which says 'a surprising high 43 per cent disagree' that the government is right to cap the rise at 1 per cent. What they aren't mentioning, of course, is that 49 per cent think the government is right: so hardly a resounding rejection of the policy. On the right, there's a Populus poll for the Conservative party which tests Labour's argument that support for the Bill drains away when voters hear it includes in-work benefits. Respondents were asked to agree or disagree with a series of statements.

Isabel Hardman

Francis Maude strikes conciliatory note in stand-off over senior civil servants

From our UK edition

Francis Maude's latest plan to get the civil service working more effectively sounds very sensible: so sensible, in fact, that it's a wonder it has taken so long. The problem is that he currently can't be as sensible as he'd hoped when it comes to appointing senior civil servants. The headline announcement is that the government has published the personal objectives of 15 permanent secretaries, along with those for Sir Bob Kerslake and Sir Jeremy Heywood. The worst performing 10 per cent of those civil servants will be identified and put into a programme of performance management. Ministers will also have more involvement in assessing their permanent secretaries' performance. All very sensible. There's some interesting detail in the individual plans that's worth looking at.

James Forsyth

Grant Shapps launches Tory target seats campaign

From our UK edition

If the Tories are to win a working majority at the next election, they are going to have to take seats off Labour. Even if the Tories won every single Liberal Democrat seat they are targeting — something that is highly unlikely to happen, they would still only have a majority of one. Doing this after five years of austerity government is going to be extremely difficult. The Tory strategy for it, involves boosting the party’s vote among groups that the party traditionally underperforms with. Tellingly, Grant Shapps is launching the Tory target seats campaign today in a Hindu temple in Harrow West, a seat where the Tories underperformed last time; the Labour majority there actually went up in 2010.

Nick Cohen

If they can frame a Chief Whip, they can frame anyone

From our UK edition

Lord Denning was perhaps the most beloved judge of the 20th century. He even inspired a Lord Denning Appreciation Society. But I and many others found something sinister behind his charming Hampshire accent. We noticed that his professed concern for the victims of injustice never extended to the victims of police fit-ups. In 1980, he heard an appeal by the Birmingham Six, the men falsely convicted for the IRA’s massacre of drinkers in two Birmingham pubs in November 1974. The six were suing the police for damages for the beatings they said they had received. Although it was not a full appeal, Denning understood the implications, and rejected the claim: 'Just consider the course of events if their action were to proceed to trial ...

Laura Sandys

We need a recipe to solve food poverty

From our UK edition

At Prime Minister’s Questions yesterday, the Opposition touted food banks as evidence of Britain’s regression into a Dickensian era. With 128,000 visitors passing through the Trussell Trust’s doors last year, today was not the first Wednesday on which the Government has been blamed for more children going hungry and more families struggling to put food on the table. But why are food banks multiplying at a rate of three a week and are they really a workable solution? One answer is that organisations such as the Trussell Trust can now place their leaflets in jobcentres. In addition, unlike under Labour, food banks can now receive referrals from a range of sources such as Community Nursery Nurses, Headteachers, and Health Visitors.

Isabel Hardman

Mitchell row could make MPs think again before criticising a colleague in trouble

From our UK edition

Tory MPs - and the occasional Lib Dem, too - were flocking around Andrew Mitchell in the Commons yesterday to show their support for the former chief whip. He is enjoying a new wave of support in his party, rather than languishing as persona non grata on the backbench. But the picture is still not clear. Mitchell himself admitted that he swore during the exchange with the police: less politically toxic, perhaps, than 'pleb', but swearing at a police officer is still something that can land you with a fine in a Magistrates Court. And there are two other police officers who claim the chief whip said both words. Another person who has not emerged unscathed from this row is Sir Jeremy Heywood. He reviewed the CCTV footage himself, but seems not to have noticed that there were no witnesses.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

We may soon know the truth about the Andrew Mitchell incident

From our UK edition

The plot is rapidly thickening around the whole Andrew Mitchell and police incident. By the end of this matter, I suspect several reputations will have been severely damaged. The email allegedly sent by a police officer, who was posing as a member of the public and an eyewitness to the incident, to his local MP John Randall is a quite remarkable document. It is well worth reading in full just to see the level of detail involved. Those close to Mitchell stress that he is more interested in clearing his name rather than returning to the Cabinet or seeking legal redress. But I understand that this whole scandal might well reach a denouement quicker than anyone currently expects.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron promises Tory MPs strong 2015 offer on Europe

From our UK edition

David Cameron's appearance before the 1922 committee was designed to reassure his party, and he tried to do this by promising them that the Conservative party would be strong on Europe in 2015. It has been a hard term, and today's PMQs was savage, so the Prime Minister decided to start his speech by telling them to think about the Conservative party's record in government. He touched on welfare, on schools, on the NHS - in particular mixed sex wards and waiting times - and income tax. He is clearly looking forward to the next election, too, as he mentioned the appointment of Lynton Crosby, to cheers from those listening, as well as attacking the Labour party. He also told the MPs about the importance of a strong and united Conservative party.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Labour stage a relentless attack on Cameron

From our UK edition

A fascinating PMQs. Labour staged one of the most carefully orchestrated attacks on David Cameron they’ve ever mounted. It was relentless. Ed Miliband kicked off by asking the PM about the six fold rise in food-bank dependency. Cheekily, Cameron praised Miliband for applauding the volunteer spirit. ‘It’s what I call the Big Society.’ Miliband gave him the ‘withering disbelief’ look which he practises in the mirror. He then revealed that two out of every three teachers ‘know a colleague’ who has given food or cash to famished children. Cameron shrugged this aside and replied that he wanted to do the most for the poorest.

Alex Massie

Is this the nastiest Conservative MP in Britain? – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

Despite strong competition, Alec Shelbrooke is the new front-runner for the coveted title of Nastiest, Most Stupid Tory MP 2012. Here's what he proposes: Mr Shelbrooke has drafted a Bill that would change the law to allow welfare payments to be made on a new “welfare cash card” whose use could be restricted by the Government. "Introducing a welfare cash card on which benefits will be paid, claimants will only be able to make priority payments such as food, clothing, energy, travel and housing. The purchase of luxury goods such as cigarettes, alcohol, Sky television and gambling will be prohibited,” Mr Shelbrooke told MPs. I wonder how many poor people, far less people on welfare, Mr Shelbrooke encounters. Some, presumably.

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband might talk a good game on food banks, but he’s still wrong

From our UK edition

David Cameron made a perfectly good stab at explaining what the government is doing to support families who are struggling at Prime Minister's Questions today. He said: 'I agree with the right hon. gentleman that we need to do more to help the poorest in our country. That is why we have lifted the personal tax allowance and taken 2 million of the lowest paid people out of tax altogether. Let us take someone who is on the minimum wage and works full time - because of the tax changes that we have made, their income tax bill has been cut in half. I would also make this point: because of the decisions that we made in this government to increase the child tax credit by £390 ahead of inflation, we have helped those families with their bills and we will continue to do more in the future.

James Forsyth

PMQs: Labour attacks Cameron as the leader of a ‘Dickensian Britain’

From our UK edition

PMQs started off in a very consensual manner as Ed Miliband asked some worthy questions on Afghanistan. But this quickly changed when Miliband moved onto food banks. The Labour leader attempted to paint food banks as a consequence of the coalition’s policies. When Cameron mentioned the ‘Big Society’, Miliband shot back that ‘I never thought the Big Society was about feeding children here in Britain.’ A string of Labour MPs then made similar attacks on Cameron. One even waved a suicide note left by a constituent affected by changes to disability benefits. The question is whether the picture of, to quote one Labour MP, a Dickensian Britain with ‘grandeur for the few, the workhouse for the many’ rings true. I don’t think it does.

James Forsyth

Andrew Mitchell’s next step could be an international job

From our UK edition

The Westminster grapevine is buzzing with the latest rumours about the truth of ‘pleb-gate’. There are legal limits to what we can say. But a few things seem certain. Andrew Mitchell’s friends believe he is on the cusp of vindication. On the Today Programme just now, David Davis called for him to be returned to high office as soon as possible. Davis also claimed that Mitchell had not been able to handle the matter in the way that he wanted to because of constraints imposed on him by people around the Prime Minister. One lesson of the Mitchell affair is that the only person who can really defend a politician when his integrity is under attack, is the politician himself.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Improve human rights by quitting Strasbourg court, Tory Bill of Rights advisers argue

From our UK edition

As expected, today's report from the Commission on a Bill of Rights offered little. With a membership evenly split between Tory and Lib Dem nominees, it was set up to fail. Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, who resigned from the Commission in March, tells me that this problem was exacerbated by the way in which it was run: it was barred from discussing either the European Court of Human Rights or the Convention. He says: 'The Commission was not able to have a productive discussion because of the determination of the civil service to produce an artificial argument'. Attention now moves to what the Conservatives will say about the matter in their manifesto.