Uk politics

Wednesday

Alex Massie

British politics returns to normal: Blue vs Red with Yellow on the touchline – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

British politics is returning to normal. The two-party system is back. That, it seems to me, is the chief conclusion to be drawn from this year's conference season*. The opposition have been supplanted by Labour and we're back to the familiar sight of watching the Conservatives and Labour knock lumps out of one another. It is not just that the Lib Dem conference seems to have taken place months ago (though it's partly that) but that the guest list for the next general election has been agreed and Nick Clegg's party isn't on it. The Liberal Democrats? Who they? For a long time now, the government has been weakened by the failure to resolve the tensions at the heart of the coalition.

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: David Cameron gives a clear explanation for the first time of what the government is doing

From our UK edition

The Cameroons are leaving Birmingham with a spring in their step. David Cameron’s conference speech was the best he has delivered in years. He finally got off the mat and took on Labour’s argument about 50p and him being out of touch. His willingness to engage Ed Miliuband on his claim that he is writing cheques to millionaires was a refreshing sign of confidence in the power of Tory arguments about the relationship between the state and the individual. Crucially, Cameron — for the first time — gave a really clear explanation of what his government is doing. He linked together education reform, welfare reform and his economic measures as part of a broader effort to make Britain more competitive.

Fraser Nelson

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s rally-style speech

From our UK edition

This was one of David Cameron's optimism speeches, a recession-era variant of his 'let sunshine win the day'. It was pretty short of announcements, which is understandable given the lack of any good news. Instead he focused on essential optimism of the Conservative message: that this is a party which places faith in people, not in governments. And he wanted to spell out what that means, confronting Labour's criticism of his party (and himself) head-on. His speech was full of praise for 'buccaneering' Britain, a nation whose ability to take on the world was reflected in the Olympic medals table. That there is no problem we can't solve, if we can persuade the Queen to parachute out of an aircraft to raise a laugh we can do anything.

Alex Massie

David Cameron to Ed Miliband: Come and have a go, if you think you’re hard enough – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

For months now, David Cameron and his government have been pursued around the ring. Chased by Labour and harassed by events they have often been caught on the ropes. Off-balance and out of position Cameron has struggled to respond to Labour's jabs. No wonder he's behind on points. The Prime Minister's speech to the Conservative party conference this morning was a counter-attack. Cameron has had enough of running; now he means to stand in the centre of the ring and trade blows with the opposition. It will be a rare old tear-up. Those who say this was a speech delivered to his party, not his country are, I think, mistaken. This was Cameron's clearest declaration of principle in years. A pugilistic defence of his ideas and his politics.

The Spectator

Conservative conference: David Cameron’s speech, full text

From our UK edition

In May 2010, this party stood on the threshold of power for the first time in more than a decade. We knew then that it was not just the ordinary duties of office that we were assuming. We were entering into Government at a grave moment in the modern history of Britain. At a time when people felt uncertainty, even fear. Here was the challenge: To make an insolvent nation solvent again. To set our country back on the path to prosperity that all can share in. To bring home our troops from danger while keeping our citizens safe from terror. To mend a broken society. Two and a half years later of course I can't tell you that all is well, but I can say this: Britain is on the right track.

Alex Massie

Dr Liam Fox on what voters want: anything but the truth?

From our UK edition

Dr Liam Fox is no dummie so I'm not sure quite what he means when, as reported by Isabel, he told Tories gathered at a Carlton Club fringe event: What I want is to see us keeping faith with the British people and I want to see us having a slogan at the next election which says ‘Back to a Common Market’, back to an economic and trading relationship with Europe that parks all the political interference in the running of our economy, our workplace, our legal system and all the other things that we don’t like.’ How, pray, is this going to work? Dr Fox surely knows that much of the "interference" to which he objects are laws, directives and other regulations designed to improve, broaden, manage or otherwise regulate the Common Market of which he is so enthused.

Sebastian Payne

Conservative conference: Owen Paterson says yes to shale gas and no to wind farms subsidies

From our UK edition

‘We will only improve the environment if we improve the economy.’ Owen Paterson demonstrated the government's new environmental mantra at a Policy Exchange fringe event this evening, discussing how we can build a sustainable green economy. The new Environment Secretary said that he will only pursue technologies that will make a positive contribution to the economy: ‘We should not be frightened of major projects brought in to improve the economy, because by improving the economy, we generate the funds to improve the environment. And if we are imaginative we can also bring the two together. The two are, empathically,not mutual exclusive.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: David Cameron to warn that Britain must ‘do or decline’

From our UK edition

David Cameron's speech today to the Conservative party conference will be deeply personal, and deeply challenging. I understand that the Prime Minister is going to weave in stories from his own life: pushing his late son around in his wheelchair, and his late father's own story. He will say: 'It’s only when your dad’s gone that you realise – not just how much you really miss them – but how much you really owe them. My dad influenced me much more than I ever thought.' These this-is-who-I-am details will help the Prime Minister talk about his vision for the Conservative party, and his vision for the country too. It's not dissimilar to the approach Ed Miliband took in his own speech last week.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: Liam Fox on what voters want

From our UK edition

As Liam Fox addressed a packed Carlton Club fringe this evening on a mezzanine floor in the ICC in Birmingham, a round of loud singing broke out on the floor below. The Prime Minister had appeared at another reception, and guests were cheerily singing 'happy birthday' to him. As the PM celebrated his birthday, his former defence secretary was dispensing advice just a few metres above his head on what the Conservative promise on Europe should be in 2015.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron must beware of hitting his dream ‘striver’ voters

From our UK edition

Now that the Tories have at least agreed within their own party that they can find £10 billion of further cuts to the welfare budget, they are starting to ramp up the rhetoric on why it's fair to do this, and how they can achieve it. Yesterday, Chancellor George Osborne said this: 'Where is the fairness, we ask, for the shift-worker, leaving home in the dark hours of the early morning, who looks up at the closed blinds of their next door neighbour sleeping off a life on benefits? When we say we're all in this together, we speak for that worker. We speak all those who want to work hard and get on.' Today, David Cameron described the sort of person that he thinks the Conservatives don't speak for as he fleshed out some of his thoughts on where the next round of welfare cuts might fall.

Jonathan Jones

IMF: Anatomy of a downgrade

From our UK edition

Growth forecast downgrades should come as no surprise these days, but when they come from the IMF they naturally command a fair bit of attention. In fact, the IMF's downgrades for annual GDP change — to -0.4 per cent in 2012 (from +0.2) and +1.1 per cent in 2013 (from +1.4) — simply bring them into line with the consensus. The below graph shows how the average of independent forecasts for 2012 growth has changed over the last few  months: Given that the ONS shows the economy having contracted by 0.7 per cent in the first half of this year, the IMF's forecast of a 0.4 per cent contraction for the whole of 2012 implies slight growth of about 0.2 per cent in the second half. And, as always, growth downgrades have a nasty knock-on effect for George Osborne's deficit plans.

Alex Massie

Scottish Tory Leader to Scots: Drop Dead – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

These days, alas, the only time the leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party makes it onto the front pages of the nation's newspapers is if she's made some almighty blunder. Sadly, Ruth Davidson's speech to a fringe meeting in Birmingham this week was a calamity. That's the subject of my latest Think Scotland piece: Ruth Davidson's suggestion, made during an appearance at a fringe event in Birmingham this week, that, in effect, most Scots spend their lives suckling on the government teat is not, I'm afraid, a helpful one.

James Forsyth

Conservative conference: Michael Gove’s facts on the ground

From our UK edition

The speed with which Michael Gove is going about his education reforms means that he is creating facts on the grounds, facts which Labour will—I suspect—have to accept by the next election. Parents with children at new free schools and academies are not going to vote for a party that is going to abolish their child’s school. For example, the mother of a child at a Birmingham free school—Geraldine Henry—spoke at Tory conference today in favour of free schools. I expect that Henry would never have expected to find herself speaking at a Tory conference but she clearly felt compelled to come and promote and defend her son’s school.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: Michael Gove indulges in his favourite sport of trade union-bashing

From our UK edition

As I was running the daily leaflet gauntlet at the entrance to the Tory conference this morning, a man thrust a flyer for the Trade Union Reform Campaign in front of me, saying hopefully 'trade union bashing?'. He clearly hadn't got Robert Halfon's memo about not bashing the unions, and neither had Michael Gove when he addressed delegates a few minutes ago. He indulged in his favourite sport and took direct aim at the teaching unions, claiming that some union secretaries had told him not to praise high-performing schools as it risked making other schools feel uncomfortable: 'How can we succeed as a country when every time we find success and celebrate it there are those who say 'no, someone might feel uncomfortable'.

Fraser Nelson

The Spectator debate: George Osborne isn’t working: we need a Plan B

From our UK edition

Today’s downgrades from the IMF have overshadowed the Tory conference and pose an awkward question: if George Osborne’s policies were working, wouldn’t they be working by now? Is it time for a Plan B? It’s the biggest issue in British politics right now and we at The Spectator are bringing together two former Chancellors to discuss it with Andrew Neil chairing it. I thought that Coffee Housers might be interested in some details. Alistair Darling is becoming the most powerful critic of Osborne’s policies. Ed Balls’ attacks can be written off as his usual snarling but Darling is more considered and his arguments carry more weight as a result.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: Boris Johnson’s speech won’t leave Cameron in a cold sweat

From our UK edition

Tory party members were queuing for half an hour to get into the Mayor of London's box office speech this morning. Even Ken Clarke struggled to get a seat in the nosebleed section of the Symphony Hall. It was the perfect hype for Boris' campaign to become the anointed next leader of the Conservative party. But as Boris burrowed his way through his speech, joking and punning, sending the floor into paroxysms of laughter in one very cleverly-written passage about the filmmaking industry in Soho, it became obvious that this wasn't a performance that is going to leave David Cameron in a cold sweat as he prepares his own speech tonight. Boris' speech was actually rather tame. Yes, he's brilliant at jokes. He sent grumpy hacks into fits of laughter.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: David Cameron moves Tories to the common, not the centre, ground

From our UK edition

It's David Cameron's birthday today, but when James Naughtie suggested on the Today programme that Boris Johnson be sent to a remote country as ambassador, the Prime Minister sounded as though Christmas had come early, too. You could almost hear Cameron's mind whirring as he considered which country might deserve the Mayor of London. As well as answering questions on the man who last night continued his pitch to become the next Tory leader, Cameron was asked where he was taking his party currently.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Conservative conference: Home Affairs Committee member expresses concerns about police commissioners

From our UK edition

I had the pleasure of chairing a fringe event hosted by the Howard League for Penal Reform today on young people and the criminal justice system. The focus for the event was how police and crime commissioners can change the way young offenders are treated. Home Office minister James Brokenshire was very keen to assert that PCCs should be 'ambitious' in their plans for dealing with young people. But Home Affairs Select Committee member James Clappison was a little less optimistic, particularly about whether the government is actually pushing hard enough for these commissioners to be a momentous change to policing.

Fraser Nelson

Conservative Conference: Boris delight

From our UK edition

You could tell this was the Boris Johnson show because people were smiling when they queued, smiling as they listened and smiling as they left. The mood in the conference hall had been completely transformed: it was as if this were comedy night, and we were waiting for the Prince of Political Standup. He was introduced via a Bond-style video, and made an extraordinary entrance which I tried to record on my iPhone. The quality is not Emmy-winning, but it may give some sense of the mood:- Boris thanked everyone for the Olympics, hailed London as the world’s greatest city and then walked his very fine line of support for Cameron. He did not say that Cameron is brilliant, as we all know by now that he doesn’t think that.