Uk politics

Saturday

Melanie McDonagh

Galloway and religion

From our UK edition

A few years ago, The Spectator, in an inspired notion for the Easter issue, asked a number of prominent individuals whether they believed in the Resurrection. And among the surprises was George Galloway, who replied emphatically in the affirmative: ‘Yes, I believe in the Resurrection. I believe God restored the life of Jesus of Nazareth and took him to his bosom. The example of suffering and sacrifice followed by vindication is central to my religious belief.

James Forsyth

Galloway’s ugly politics

From our UK edition

Helen Pidd’s report of George Galloway’s victory in Bradford West recounts what happened just after he had arrived back from the count: 'Galloway climbed on top of a grey car and was handed a megaphone to preach to the assembled faithful. All praise to Allah!" he yelled, to jubilant cries of "Allah Allah!" And on it went. "Long live Iraq! Long live Palestine!" ' First of all this suggests that enthusiasm for Galloway wasn’t, as some are suggesting, driven by his opposition to austerity but by his sectional appeal. Second, it is a depressing reminder of what is happening to British politics. There’ll be a lot of ink spilled in the next few days on the limitations of Britain’s political parties.

Peter Hoskin

A question of motivation

From our UK edition

Flitting through the opinion pages this morning, there's one headline that stands out far more than any other. It's on Charles Moore's column for the Telegraph, and it reads, ‘Even I’m starting to wonder: what do this lot know about anything?’ What follows underneath is effectively a catalogue of the ‘small things’ that may accumulate and cause voters to question both the coalition's motives and its ability. I'd recommend that you read the article in full, but here is one passage from it that deserves highlighting. It concerns Francis Maude's jerry can line: ‘But now that I have heard the Conservatives’ private explanation, which is being handed down to constituency associations by MPs, I begin to feel angry.

Friday

Douglas Murray

Behind Galloway’s grin

From our UK edition

George Galloway has tragically demonstrated that sectarian politics are now alive and well in Britain.  The other week Ken Livingstone appeared at a London mosque and promised to make London a ‘beacon of Islam’ and last week went on to dismiss Jews as unlikely to vote Labour because they are ‘rich’. Now we see Galloway flying in to one of the country’s most divided areas to sweep the Labour party aside in what he has termed ‘a Bradford spring.’ Much can — and should — be said about this depressing, and predictable, turn of events.  But for now I’d just like to make two quick observations. The first regards the ‘Bradford spring’ phrase.  This cannot be allowed to go uncommented upon.

Catherine Lillycrop

Lansley’s biscuit bill

From our UK edition

If Andrew Lansley thought he could rest easy after passage of the Health Bill, then he's in for a rude awakening. Yesterday, the shadow Cabinet Minister Jon Trickett busted Lansley's department for spending £109,017 since January this year to supply its employees and visitors with free refreshments — aka, tea and biscuits. Naturally, Labour aren't telling the whole story here. The amount being spent has declined under the coalition, from £194,000 for the equivalent period in 2010, to £137,000 in 2011, to that £109,017 figure now. But, still, it's another classic example of waste during a time of austerity.

Fraser Nelson

This is what politics has become

From our UK edition

George Galloway’s victory last night is a reminder of a wider problem in British politics: the low regard in which all main political parties are held. By-elections can throw up quirky victories, usually ironed out in the general election. There won’t be an army of Galloway’s marching on parliament at the next election. It’s like Glasgow East: a classic Labour safe seat-cum-‘rotten borough’ taken for granted (and ignored) for so long that the ruling party’s apparatus had atrophied. Like John Mason in Glasgow East, Galloway won’t last long.    But the same phenomenon which took Galloway to victory last night, and humbled the main parties, is also at work in Scotland.

Peter Hoskin

The Tories shouldn’t gloat about Galloway’s victory

From our UK edition

An unedifying week in politics keeps on getting worse. The Tories have this morning sent out a press release headlined ‘Warsi: If Labour can’t win in Bradford, how can they win a general election?’ The full quotation follows further on: ‘If Labour can’t win one of their safe seats in these tough economic times and in a tough week for the Government, how can they win anywhere? Not in half a century has an opposition come back from such an appalling result to win a majority at the next general election.   This tells you everything you need to know about Ed Miliband’s weak leadership.’ It's characteristic of much of the Tory reaction to George Galloway's victory in Bradford West.

James Forsyth

The pressure is now back on Ed

From our UK edition

This morning’s front pages are simply awful for the government: every single one is critical of Downing Street. But this morning everyone in Westminster is again talking about Labour and the pressure on Ed Miliband. The Bradford West by-election has, at least for the moment, changed the subject away from pasties and petrol. Bradford West was a sensational result. Galloway, the former Labour MP, increased the Respect vote by more than 17,000 votes. For Labour to lose a by-election now is a major blow. They seemed to have had no answer to Galloway’s demagogic, sectional campaign. It will be little consolation to them that the Tory vote also collapsed, their share of the vote dropping by more than twenty percent.

Peter Hoskin

George Galloway is an MP again

From our UK edition

‘This represents the Bradford Spring!’ said George Galloway after triumphing in the Bradford West by-election last night. So, let's get this straight: comparing his victory in one of the many fair elections held in this country each year to the dangerous and fragile struggle for democracy across the Arab world? Yep, that's right — and it leaves a nasty, bitter tang in the air. But we shouldn't be one bit surprised. Bluster, exaggeration and provocation are, after all, what Galloway does best. And now he will be able to do these things in Parliament for the first time since May 2010, when he was deposed from the Bethnal Green seat.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Cameron needs a proper party chairman

From our UK edition

Normally, when a Tory government is in trouble, the party chairman is sent out to put themselves between the bad story and the Prime Minister. But Baroness Warsi and Lord Feldman have been noticeable by their absence in the past few days. As Paul Goodman points out, it has been Michael Fallon — not either of the chairman — who has been touring the broadcast studios trying to hose down this story. This whole episode has been yet another reminder of why Cameron needs a proper party chairman. The party chairman needs to be solid under fire, a good media performer and, for reasons that Tim Shipman explains, an MP. Various names are being touted in Westminster.

Toby Young

The new generation of Tory rebels

From our UK edition

There's a new member of The Spectator family, and she's called Spectator Life. This is our new quarterly magazine focusing all the more civilised aspects of life — the arts, culture, travel, etc — and it comes bundled in, for free, with the main magazine. The first issue is available on newsstands this week, but, so you can try before you buy, here is one of its more political articles: an overview of the new generation of Tory rebels, by Toby Young. The Unwhippables, Toby Young, Spectator Life, Spring 2012 On the night of the great Tory rebellion over Europe, David Cameron had good reason to think that Zac Goldsmith wouldn’t join in.

James Forsyth

Davis takes the opportunity to strike

From our UK edition

The fuel tanker strike is fast turning into a critical moment. The government, which has surprisingly few friends in the media, desperately needs something to move the story on from pasties and the politics of class. Cameron, also, has problems with his own side. On the World at One today David Davis, deliberately, hit Cameron where it hurts. He accused the Cabinet of looking like “they’re in a completely different world". One thing that the post-Budget opinion polls have shown is just how shallow support for the coalition is: there’s still no sense of who Cameron’s people are. But I suspect that if this strike is beaten, then the Tories will tick back up in the polls and it will be Ed Miliband who is facing questions about party donors.

Peter Hoskin

Choice — easy to talk about, a slog to deliver

From our UK edition

The birth of the White Paper on public service reform was a tortuous business — but, now it's been out for several months, the government is keen to make the most of it. David Cameron is launching an ‘updated’ version today, with a few new proposals contained therein. He also has an article in the Telegraph outlining those ideas, including the one that seems to be getting the most attention: draft legislation to give people a ‘right to choose’ their public services. It feels like both an important and potentially inconsequential moment all at once. Enshrining choice in the laws of this land is a powerful symbol that people shouldn't have the state's idea of ‘good’ foisted upon them.

Peter Hoskin

Fuel for the political bonfire

From our UK edition

Pasties and jerry cans — who'd have thought that yesterday's politics would descend into a roaring debate about two such innocuous items? And still the hullabaloo goes on. Most of today's front pages lead with one or both of the stories, although I'd say it's the jerry cans that win out overall. Thanks to Francis Maude's suggestion that ‘a bit of extra fuel in a jerry can in the garage is a sensible precaution to take,’ we're seeing headlines such as ‘Pumps go dry as ministers provoke panic’. As with the pasty row, which James discussed yesterday evening, the political dangers of this stretch far beyond the actual matter at hand.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The politics of pasties

From our UK edition

The row over the so-called pasty tax is a proxy. It is really a row about whether David Cameron and George Osborne get what it is like to worry about the family budget each week.   In truth, I suspect that they don’t. But I think the same probably goes for Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg and the vast majority of journalists. Most of the politics of class in Westminster, as opposed to the country, is the narcissism of small difference.   The best thing the coalition could do now is hold its nerve. The Budget did reveal that support for it is shallow. But, as one leading pollster said to me yesterday, if they handle the tanker strike right, they’ll be ahead again by May — the next time anyone is voting in an actual election.

Fraser Nelson

Revealed: the grey recovery

From our UK edition

Are pensioners doing their bit for the recovery? The agenda of ‘intergenerational fairness’ has arisen in response to the idea that they are not, and ought to be taxed more. Daniel Knowles has made the case, in our cover story this week. Carol Sarler responds to him. In the leader, we reveal some data hitherto undisclosed: the way the oldies are responding to the recession. They're working as never before — the below graph shows (stripping out foreign-born workers) the change over the past decade: Between 2001 and 2011, all the employment increase for UK-born people was from pension-aged workers, while working-age employment dropped. This challenges the idea of the over-65s as a burden on the rest of society.

Peter Hoskin

Your guide to Osborne’s fiscal rules

From our UK edition

George Osborne's two fiscal rules have been around since his very first Budget, delivered almost two years ago, so they're hardly news. But they do underpin much of what he's done since, including last week's statement, so they're also worth knowing about. Fraser touched on ome of the detail in a post last weekend, but here's a supplementary guide for CoffeeHousers: 1) The deficit rule. This is the one that seems to cause the most confusion, perhaps because it has often been simplified — wrongly — as something like ‘eliminate the deficit by the end of this Parliament’. Fact is, the ‘end of this Parliament’ doesn't come into it.

Jonathan Jones

Pasty wars

From our UK edition

David Cameron earlier: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mCovGqMiZyA And Labour's response: https://www.youtube.com/watch?

Jonathan Jones

A plan that could change the face of future Budgets

From our UK edition

‘I’ve never seen a government document with a Laffer curve in it before’, declared Ed Balls last week. Well it looks like he might be seeing a lot more of them, if George Osborne gets his way. Yesterday, as James noted, the Chancellor told the Treasury select committee that: ‘I think the Treasury can now, and I've asked this to happen, start undertaking some real research into dynamic scoring, and what the broader economy effects are of changes to taxation’. Now, it’s hard to get all that excited about something with a name like ‘dynamic scoring’. It was never going to make the front pages, especially when there’s a ‘pasty tax’ to get worked up about.

Matt Cavanagh

Riots report undermines the Tory diagnosis, but spreads itself too thin

From our UK edition

After last August’s riots the debate became quickly polarised. Were socio-economic factors like unemployment to blame, or was it all down to the individual choices of the rioters? David Cameron and other Conservative ministers knew which side of this debate they wanted to be on. They had been taken by surprise by the riots, initially failing to realise how serious things were, but when they got back from their holidays they set out a clear and confident line, brushing off most questions about links to the state of the economy or youth attitudes, and condemning the riots as ‘criminality pure and simple’. The soundbite was deliberately simplistic; Conservative ministers’ actual views were more complex.