Uk politics

Friday

James Forsyth

Ed Balls puts off public spending decisions until after the 2015 election

From our UK edition

The announcement by Ed Balls today that Labour would conduct a zero-based spending review is a cute piece of political positioning by the shadow Chancellor. It allows him to sound tough—we’ll look at every piece of public spending and see if it delivers value for money, and is an olive branch to those Blairites who still moan about how the Brown Treasury blocked this idea when Labour were in power. But the weakness with it is that it puts off these decisions until after the next election. Based on conversations with various Tories this morning, they are confident that this will make it easier for them to portray Labour as being incapable of making tough decisions on spending.

Isabel Hardman

David Cameron replies to MPs’ EU demands: exclusive extracts

From our UK edition

Three months after it was sent, the Prime Minister has replied to a letter signed by over 100 backbench Conservative MPs calling for legislation in this parliament for an EU referendum in the next. John Baron, who co-ordinated the letter, is not releasing David Cameron's response as the original message was private, too. But I've managed to get my hands on a copy from elsewhere, and here are some of the key points Cameron makes: 'As we discussed, I do believe it would be wrong to rule out any type of referendum for the future. However, I am concerned that making a legal commitment now to hold a referendum in the next Parliament without setting the exact referendum question would not be a workable, nor a sustainable, position.

Alex Massie

A One Nation Conservative Party Cannot Afford to be the Nasty Party – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

Jon Cruddas reviews Britannia Unchained in the Guardian today. As you might expect he is not overly impressed by the manifesto penned by a fistful of the Tory party's "rising stars". But Cruddas is always worth paying attention to. Anyway, his article reminded me that I'd been meaning to write something about Isabel Hardman's revealing interview with Chris Skidmore (one of the Famous Five responsible for Britannia Unchained) that Coffee House published last week. Skidmore told Isabel that: ‘The Conservative party has always had this fear of being seen as the so-called Nasty Party. I totally discount that.

Isabel Hardman

The new-look Libor is essential for London’s success as a financial centre

From our UK edition

Martin Wheatley published his final report into Libor this morning, concluding that though the rate should stay for practical reasons, it needs someone to 'press the reset button'. It would have sent a strong message out to scrap the rate and replace it with something new, but Wheatley feared that doing so would 'pose an unacceptably high risk of significant financial instability, and risk large-scale litigation between parties holding contracts that reference Libor'. In other words, a rate whose failings caused chaos in the banking world would cause even more chaos if it disappeared. The report also noted that though significant damage has been done to its reputation, there has been no noticeable decline in the use of Libor since the scandal broke this summer.

Fraser Nelson

The dangerous attraction of wealth taxes

From our UK edition

I’ve written about the deceptive attraction of wealth tax in my Telegraph column today, and I wish I was wasting my time. Once, you could say it was an idea so flawed that it stood no chance of getting into government. In the coalition era, there is no such thing.  Tory ministers will wave through an idea they regard as nuts because the Lib Dems want it, and that coalition is about compromise. Political horsetrading has supplanted rational economic debate, and if the Lib Dems want a wealth tax there is a horribly high chance that Osborne may give way — as he almost did over Mansion Tax. Not because he is weak, but because that’s how this coalition works. Here are my main points. 1. The idea of a wealth tax is superficially attractive.

Thursday

Melanie McDonagh

Labour’s three-line whip on gay marriage is illiberal

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband tells the Evening Standard today that Labour will give 'wholehearted' backing to gay marriage and says that churches and religious bodies should be allowed to conduct these ceremonies. At the same Labour has let it be known to the Standard that the party is 'highly likely' to impose a three-line whip on the gay marriage bill, though it can’t say so for certain until it knows the wording. Same as the Lib Dems, then, but unlike the Tories, who are allowing a free vote. As Mr Miliband says, 'I think whether you’re gay or straight, you should be able to signify your commitment, your love, with the term “marriage”'.

Rayhan Uddin

Andrew Mitchell and me

From our UK edition

In the summer of 2011 I was fortunate enough to land a one-week work experience placement with a government minister. It was Andrew Mitchell. It is no surprise, then, that I have been keeping a keen eye on the newspapers this past week as ‘Gategate’ continues to make the headlines. It only took a few conversations with the then International Development Secretary for me to realise that his compassionate approach towards aid was genuine. There were no cameras or microphones present as Mitchell told me of the desperate situation he had encountered the previous month in the drought-stricken Horn of Africa.

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband’s big policy problem

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband's speech in Manchester next week is going to be one of the toughest gigs of the party conference season. As James writes in his column this week, the Labour leader needs to give the country a glimpse of what he would be like as Prime Minister. Alan Johnson agrees: in a piece for the Guardian today, the former shadow chancellor says Miliband has 'to do more to demonstrate that he is a leader'. Johnson writes: 'But he knows better than anyone that an opinion poll lead is not enough. In any case, the same polls still show David Cameron being preferred as prime minister. While I don't believe that a prime minister who is more popular than his party can deliver an election victory, it does suggest that Ed Miliband has to do more to demonstrate that he is a leader.

James Forsyth

Harriet Harman: Labour mustn’t match Tory spending plans at the next election

From our UK edition

The spotlight is shifting from the Liberal Democrats to Labour ahead of the party’s conference. But I suspect that at least one theme from Brighton will be carried on to Manchester: what to do about the coming spending review. In The Spectator this week, Labour's deputy leader Harriet Harman makes clear that she is adamantly opposed to Labour repeating Gordon Brown’s 1997 trick of promising to match, at least initially, Tory spending plans: ‘Our argument against the Tories is that the scale and pace of their deficit reduction is self-defeating and hurting the economy and therefore making less money available. So we have got a fundamental economic critique — we would not be signing up to doing the very thing we think is hurting the economy.

Alex Massie

Life in Modern Britain: Charity Duck Edition – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

A typical tale of nitwittery from modern Britain. And this, of course, is one of the problems with localism: it means giving more power to local councillors. That's still, on balance, a risk worth taking even though so many of them seem so utterly devoid of common sense. Quackers council chiefs have banned a bow tie-wearing duck from collecting cash for charity - unless it gets a permit. The bird - called Star - wears a dickie bow and waddles alongside his owner Barrie Hayman raising money for sick youngsters. Star and Barrie regularly visit businesses collecting cash from the public - already raising £6,500 for a children’s hospice.But Mr Hayman has now been told by several councils that his sidekick could be deemed 'irritating' and needs a permit. Mr Hayman [...

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Lib Dem conference: The significance of the Paddy Ashdown appointment

From our UK edition

The only line of Nick Clegg’s speech that drew whoops from the hall was the announcement that Paddy Ashdown was returning to run the 2015 general election campaign. The enthusiasm was testament to the affection that the grassroots of the party still have for their former leader. The appointment tells us several intriguing things about the internal state of the Liberal Democrats. That Clegg felt the need to announce who was running the next election campaign at this conference, more than two years out from the date of the next general election, shows he’s keen to do everything he can to demonstrate that he is going to lead the party into that election.

James Forsyth

This Lib Dem conference was about two subtly different speeches

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg’s conference speech wasn’t designed to be a barn burner. Instead, it was meant to tell the party that there’s no turning back, that they now have to become a Liberal, centrist party of government. The Clegg camp believes that up to 3 million of the 6.8 million votes they won at the last election might be gone for good. So, the party needs to go and find new voters. They believe these are to be found in the centre ground among those who don’t want to, as he put it, to ‘trust Labour with their money again’ and have doubts about whether the ‘Tories will make Britain fairer’. As one influential Lib Dem remarked to me earlier, this positioning would undoubtedly be the right strategy for a new political party.

Isabel Hardman

Key lessons from the Liberal Democrat conference

From our UK edition

Now the Lib Dems have finally reached the end of their autumn conference in Brighton, here's a summary of the most important points from the week: 1. The Lib Dems will struggle to work with Ed Balls in the event of a possible Lib-Lab pact in 2015. Nick Clegg made this clear in his speech this afternoon, repeatedly attacking the shadow chancellor by name. 2. Nick Clegg wants to pull his party with him into demonstrating that coalition works.

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg’s 2015 slogan: you can’t trust Ed Balls with your money

From our UK edition

Like the whole of this Liberal Democrat conference, Nick Clegg's speech to delegates did the job, but didn't exactly lift the roof from the Brighton Centre. Those watching were happy: they applauded warmly and laughed at all the jokes (which hasn't always been the case this week in Brighton), and they were utterly overjoyed when the Deputy Prime Minister announced that Paddy Ashdown will chair the party's 2015 general election team. He told members to 'go for it', and raised two laughs when he quoted Jo Grimond, saying that he could 'see generations of Liberal marching towards the sound of gunfire. And yes, I see them going back to their constituencies to prepare for government.

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg: ‘Vote Labour if you like protest politics’

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg's speech this afternoon will include a big push for his party to accept that they are a party of government, not of protest and that coalition is a good thing. He made some choice comments to that effect in an interview with regional journalists, which the Birmingham Post has covered. Clegg said: 'There are a group of people - they are perfectly free to do this in a free democratic society - who like to throw stones from the sidelines, who like to be associated with causes where there’s never a difficult decision needs to be made, who don’t actually like parties being in government. And who always scream ‘betrayal’ when any party goes into government. In other words, people who like protest but not the reality of power.

James Forsyth

Lib Dem conference: Is Jo Swinson the answer to the Lib Dems’ women problem?

From our UK edition

Jo Swinson has just given what, by my count, is her third platform speech of the conference. All of them have been competently delivered and got her message across. She has an impressive ability to carry the hall with her. One can see why so many of those around Nick Clegg view her as the solution to the Lib Dems’ women problem. At the moment, all five of the party’s Cabinet ministers are men. Given her qualities as a communicator and her age—she’s 32, one would be tempted to tip Swinson as a future leader. But her seat is a problem. Her majority in East Dunbartonshire is only a touch over two thousand with Labour in second place.

Alex Massie

Who Cares About Andrew Mitchell’s Boorishness? – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

I've avoided commenting on Andrew Mitchell's problems with police officers and gates because, damn it, the whole affair has been saturated in so much stupidity that it scarcely seemed to warrant further examination. But James Kirkup has pushed me over the edge. He asks if David Cameron "trusts the word of the police who guard his house". Break. Give. Me. A. Never fear, however, because the indomitable lobby is on the scent and determined to pursue the Prime Minister on this, even to the ends of the earth itself: Sadly, I can't tell you the answer, because the PM's not saying; ministers are also being told by No 10 not to answer questions on all this.

Alex Massie

Shock Development: Scottish Labour Grows Up, Repudiates Own Past – Spectator Blogs

From our UK edition

Whisper it sceptically but something interesting may have happened in Scotland yesterday. It might even turn out to be an important something too. Even more remarkably, this was all because of a speech given by Johann Lamont, leader of Labour's bedraggled Scottish troops. I know, it all sounds too astonishing to be true. Be that as it may, Lamont's speech in which she argued it's time for Scotland to cease living on "the never never" and admit there will, probably, soon be a choice between raising taxes and cutting services was a rare move towards reality. Lamont's address was the kind of thing sarcastic types are supposed to call "brave" or "bold". That is, mad. Actually, it was quite brave not least because Lamont must have known that Tories would probably praise what she had to say.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Lib Dem conference: Nick Clegg’s Proalition speech

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg will round off this week's Liberal Democrat conference with an announcement that neatly illustrates the 'proalition' phase that the government is in at present. In his speech this afternoon, he will tell delegates that every year seven child who does not meet required standards in English and Maths will qualify for catch-up tuition. For every child falling behind, a school will receive £500, which they can do what they wish with. Around 110,000 pupils are expected to benefit from this premium. I understand that the money was a specific request that the Liberal Democrats made as part of the negotiations over the English Baccalaureate.

Sebastian Payne

Lib Dem conference: Tories and Lib Dems may not be bound to vote together on press regulation

From our UK edition

Brighton was touched with a smidgen of stardust this evening as Steve Coogan surfaced with the Hacked Off pressure group. Having previously appeared as a public face for press reform, the comedian spoke to stress his role in the campaign is not a personal one, despite not being a ‘strong campaigning person’: ‘I'm just here to give voice to those who do feel strongly about this, having had their privacy invaded and the press behave in quite a despicable way and an abusive way — those people who haven't got the wherewithal to be here. I'm speaking on their behalf.  Clearly there are examples of where the press have exceeded their brief.