Uk politics

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Chris Grayling’s new unpaid work experience scheme

Buoyed by his department’s recent success in squashing allegations of ‘slave labour’, Chris Grayling launched a new back-to-work scheme for unemployed young people in London today. The joint pilot with the Mayor of London will put 6,000 18-24 year-olds with little or no work experience into placements with charities, voluntary organisations and social enterprises in the community which last three months. If they refuse to take part, then they will not receive their benefits. Grayling is well aware that this sort of scheme will be controversial, because it could mean young people lose their benefits if they refuse to comply. In an article in the Evening Standard, the employment minister

Sebastian Payne

Of mice and men: the options for airport expansion

Hugh Robertson was trying to stick up for the Prime Minister this afternoon when he said David Cameron was ‘absolutely a man’. He was defending the government’s decision to stay right where it is on airport expansion, against Tim Yeo’s warning that to stick to manifesto pledges and commitments in the coalition agreement on Heathrow would make Cameron a ‘mouse’. So where does this leave the various options to solve our aviation capacity conundrum? Here is a rundown of the various solutions, and who supports them: Heathrow expansion Nine years ago, Labour presented a white paper proposing a third runway at the country’s busiest airport, to be built by 2015-2020. In 2009,

Isabel Hardman

The cost of living and Cameron’s plans for victory in 2015

Conservative backbenchers are worried that the Prime Minister and his colleagues leading the Conservative party do not have a clear plan for winning the 2015 election. The Times reports today that they will try to corner David Cameron at a supper of the parliamentary party next week to ask him what his strategy is. They are also taking tips from Boris on how to win elections at a meeting of the 1922 committee. If Cameron does not divulge his strategy next Wednesday, he risks reading more hostile briefings against him in the papers from backbenchers panicked about their own job security. There are also growing concerns on the Tory benches

Isabel Hardman

Downing Street rejects Yeo’s ‘man or mouse’ threat

Justine Greening will be relieved: Downing Street has just poured cold water on suggestions the government could U-turn on a third runway at Heathrow. At the morning lobby briefing, a Downing Street spokeswoman said: ‘Their stance is as laid out in the Coalition Agreement: that’s not changed. The coalition parties have made a pledge not to have a third runway and that is a pledge that we will keep.’ She added that the government did not ‘see an argument for a third runway’ but that there was a need to ‘look more broadly at aviation policy’. It was of course unlikely that Downing Street was going to turn round this

Isabel Hardman

Justine Greening’s impossible job

It was difficult not to feel sorry for Transport Secretary Justine Greening this morning as she twisted and turned to avoid questions fired at her by Jim Naughtie on a third runway. Each time Greening thought she had escaped having to tell Radio 4 listeners whether she could remain in the Cabinet should the Prime Minister decide he is indeed a man rather than a mouse and U-turn on expanding Heathrow, Naughtie kept returning to the question: Naughtie: Let’s be clear about the third runway: is your government open to argument about it, or not? Greening: No, the Coalition Agreement is very clear that we don’t support a third runway

Monday

Isabel Hardman

The planning war of words starts again

Autumn is nearly here, so it must be time for another good row about planning, mustn’t it? Given the number of recent reports that ministers are considering relaxing green belt protection, it was only a matter of time before the Campaign to Protect Rural England lifted its head above the parapet. Today it warned the government it is at risk of ‘destroying the countryside’ if plans to develop 81,000 new homes over the next five years. Last autumn’s row over the National Planning Policy Framework was ugly, not least because it engaged Conservative ministers in battle with the CPRE and the National Trust: two organisations with a traditionally Conservative membership.

Douglas Murray

Why would Conservatives want to pass the ‘Danny Boyle’ test?

So the Conservative party’s immigration minister, Damian Green MP, has introduced the idea of the ‘Danny Boyle test.’  In today’s Telegraph he argues that the Conservative party must resist ‘nostalgists promoting a better yesterday’ and that since the Olympics opening ceremony was a demonstration of ‘modern Britain’ it is therefore a ‘test’ that Conservatives must pass. And so the Labour MP Paul Flynn who described the opening ceremony of the Olympics as ‘a Trojan horse’  for the Conservative Party has been proved precisely right.  The politics of the opening ceremony have now moved from a matter of largely mob-enforced left-wing taste (criticise this and you’re a Nazi) into a test of political

Sebastian Payne

Never mind about David, we need to talk about George

It’s a familiar theme: the Tory conference is approaching, David Cameron is in trouble and knives are coming out for him. But how much of the problems are of his own making, and how many have come from the Treasury? Tim Montgomerie focuses today on No.10 (£), saying that Prime Minister must come out fighting for his own survival: ‘Gay marriage is only the latest issue that is beginning to create the dangerous impression that Mr Cameron is smaller than the events, factions and tides of public opinion that swirl around his Government. The Prime Minister is no longer seen as his own man. People wonder if he’s in command

Sunday

Isabel Hardman

May and Green put up the barricades on migration targets

David Cameron is already going to struggle to hit his target of taking net migration from 250,000 to the tens of thousands. But I understand that the Home Office is nervous that other Whitehall departments could undermine that target further, seeing immigration as one sinew that could be strained as they begin to panic about growth. Look closely, and you can see an inter-governmental battle being fought. Theresa May and Damian Green have been on manoeuvres today, highlighting the government’s progress in cutting net migration. The Home Secretary has an op-ed in The Sun on Sunday, where she also lists some of the areas which have been tightened to ‘make

Fraser Nelson

Keep our MPs in the Commons bear pit

The idea of closing the House of Commons for five years will, I suspect, be popular with those who see in this a chance to move the MPs to a lifeless, European style semi-circular chamber that supposedly encourages them to co-operate. The current Commons chamber is divided by the length of two swords, a deliberately adversarial system. It is a bear pit, rough and merciless. Personally, that’s how I like it, and that’s how it ought to stay. The idea is that moving MPs to another arena would save money as the Palace of Westminster is refurbished. But you can bet a new chamber would be kitted out in ways

Isabel Hardman

Cameron under pressure on Heathrow

David Cameron and his Liberal Democrat partners are coming under increasing pressure from Tory ministers and other senior party figures to U-turn on a third runway at Heathrow. Yesterday, in what appeared to be a bid to take over from Justine Greening as Transport Secretary, Grant Shapps became the first minister to call on the Prime Minister to drop the government’s opposition to development at the airport. Today sees the first Cabinet minister to openly voice concerns: Owen Paterson, the Northern Ireland Secretary. The Sunday Telegraph reports that Paterson has urged colleagues in Cabinet meetings to re-consider the third runway, fearing that economic growth in Northern Ireland will suffer. Within

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

Ofqual to investigate GCSE results

Labour and the teachers’ unions have had their way: there is going to be an official inquiry into the GCSE results. The exams regulator Ofqual is only investigating the English results, though, saying there are ‘questions about how grade boundaries were set in a very small number of units across the year’. In a letter to the National Association of Head Teachers, Ofqual chief regulator Glenys Stacey wrote: ‘We recognise the continuing concerns among students, parents and teachers about this year’s GCSE English results. We will look closely at how the results were arrived at. We will do this quickly, but thoroughly, so that we ensure confidence is maintained in our examinations

Alex Massie

The SNP’s Slumbering Summer – Spectator Blogs

I have it on good authority that, as matters stand, some senior figures within the SNP are concerned by the way the party has lost – or is perceived to have lost – momentum this summer. Of course, the road to the independence referendum is a long one and there’s ample time for the nationalists to up their game. Nevertheless, right now, their message is not cutting through as effectively as they would hope. That’s the subject for a column I’ve written for today’s Scotsman: Even so, the SNP’s message has become oddly blurred. What is independence actually designed to achieve? For months now, the party has reassured voters that

Isabel Hardman

Reshuffling the whips won’t solve Cameron’s rebel problem

One of the biggest problems that David Cameron faces at the moment is discipline within his own party. He was astonished by the size of the rebellion on the second reading of the House of Lords Reform Bill, which he had expected to be much smaller. He is now considering what to do with the many talented Conservative rebels as he approaches the September reshuffle: does he promote some more of those who revolted over Europe, but leave the Lords rebels languishing in career Coventry for a little longer? The Guardian carries a story by Nick Watt which suggests Cameron isn’t just going to tackle bad behaviour by keeping rebellious

Isabel Hardman

The IMF’s ‘too far, too fast’ warning

There is great excitement in some circles at a paper from the International Monetary Fund which has emerged in the past 24 hours. This piece of research warns that cutting government spending too quickly can weaken economies permanently and lead to even deeper recessions. It says: The analysis in this paper shows that withdrawing fiscal stimuli too quickly in economies where output is already contracting can prolong their recessions without generating the expected fiscal saving. This is particularly true if the consolidation is centred around cuts to public expenditure – likely reflecting the fact that reductions in public spending have powerful effects on the consumption of financially-constrained agents in the economy

Friday

Sebastian Payne

Farage eyes working class Labour vote

One of the solutions Tory MPs are mulling over now the boundary reforms are dead in the water is some sort of partnership with UKIP to boost the party’s chances in 2015. As many as 60 per cent of Conservative activists are reported to favour such a pact. But David Cameron has yet to show any sign that he’s warming towards the party he once described as consisting of ‘loonies, fruitcakes and racists’. If he is not careful, Cameron’s hand may be played for him. The Eurozone crisis may finally come to a head, which could lead to a soar in UKIP’s popularity. The Prime Minister might then have to broker a

Isabel Hardman

Forget school sports: the Paralympic row could be far more toxic

The Paralympic flame is now burning in Trafalgar Square ahead of the Games’ opening ceremony on Wednesday. As it was lit, Boris Johnson encouraged London to ‘re-ignite the spirit of the Golden Games’ for the Paralympics, which London looks ready to do, given the record sales of 2.3 million tickets (a lesson in endurance and determination to succeed in spite of many obstacles in itself, given the quality of the Locog website that sells those tickets). As with the Olympics, even though the Paralympics are not about politics, they still offer an opportunity for some to make political points. During the first Games, the arguments focused largely on school sports

Fraser Nelson

How mini jobs could support people back into work

Remember when we used to laugh at Germany’s economy? Gordon Brown loved to contrast its sclerotic labour market with booming Britain. That was in the boom years. As Warren Buffet said, when the tide goes out you can see who is swimming naked – and today Britain looks as naked as a prince on a billiard table while Germany celebrates unemployment at near-record lows. We know where we went wrong, but it’s time for us to learn where Germany went right.  It’s main insight was that the problem is a supply of willing workers, not a supply of jobs. There’s no point borrowing cash to create vacancies if you can’t

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Why do the Lib Dems love leaflets so much?

Polling analyst Mark Gettleson has a fascinating piece of research on ConHome today about the implications for the Conservatives of a collapse in the Liberal Democrat vote in 2015. In summary, it will be bad news for the Tories. Gettleson argues that in seats where the Lib Dems come third, those who had supported the party did so on the basis of national political messages. He says: ‘It is with these voters that an obvious left-right split becomes important – more precisely a Labour vs Coalition one. While Liberal Democrat voters who feel favourably towards the Coalition may well stick with Mr Clegg rather than leap to the defence of

Fraser Nelson

QE — the ultimate subsidy for the rich

It’s official: Quantitative Easing has marked the biggest transfer of wealth to the rich of any government policy in recent documented history. The Bank of England released an analysis today, which was rejected as being an underestimate by the former government pensions adviser Ros Altman. But it was shocking enough, and the strongest point was made by the brilliant Ed Conway, economics editor of Sky News, who put it into a graph who would benefit from a QE-inspired boom in asset prices described by the Bank of England  today. “10th” means the richest tenth of the population, and so on. This is our new graph system: hover your mouse over each