Uk politics

Tuesday

Sebastian Payne

Ken launches his negative campaign

From our UK edition

A dark, damp and freezing cellar beneath Waterloo station isn't an obvious choice for launching a political campaign — but that's where Team Ken officially kicked off their Mayoral bid last night. Various prominent lefties were brought into the Old Vic Tunnels to warm up for the man himself. Eddie Izzard was also present to fill in the gaps and keep everyone engaged until the bar opened. Most of the policies discussed have already been made public, but there were a few new, colourful additions. Ken pointed out that Transport for London purchases energy at half the normal price, so why don't they buy more and sell it back to ordinary Londoners? An inexperienced, local government-run energy firm is just what Londoners need, after all.

Peter Hoskin

Tax transparency is a triumph for Osborne

From our UK edition

Transparency marches on, and what a joy it is. According to the newspapers today, George Osborne will tomorrow turn Ben Gummer MP's call for tax transparency into government policy. And so we will all get statements detailing just what our tax pounds are spent on. To use the example being bandied around this morning, a £50,000 earner will learn that they contribute £4,727 towards welfare payments. As James put it at the weekend, George Osborne tends to have both economic and political motives behind his actions — and the two are present, if almost indivisible, here. No doubt the Chancellor hopes that taxpayers, on seeing where their hard-earned ends up, will be keener for cuts in both spending and taxation.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Yes to new roads, no to a pensions raid

From our UK edition

New roads in Britain are badly-needed, but who should bear the costs? Motorists, says David Cameron — and his speech today is a move in the right direction. No tolls would be slapped on existing roads, so motorists are free to drive as freely as they do now. But if they want a shortcut, they'll have to pay for it. What I'm uneasy about is Cameron trying to raid our pension funds to help subsidise this. There are many ways to raid pension funds — QE is one. The National Association of Pension Funds estimates that a scandalous £130 billion has been wiped from the value of our collective pensions because Sir Mervyn's Magic Money Machine is artificially lowering interest rates.

Jonathan Jones

Support for scrapping the 50p rate grows, but why?

From our UK edition

Will Wednesday’s Budget herald the end of the 50p tax rate? It’s looking increasingly likely, with today’s Telegraph claiming that Osborne will replace it with a top rate of 45 per cent. Leaving the economic arguments aside, the consensus is that this will prove an unpopular move that could damage the Tories. Tim Montogmerie tweets that ‘if the post-Budget headlines are about 50p then Tories have a political problem’. The New Statesman's George Eaton writes that it ‘would do more to retoxify the Tory brand than any other measure’. But how dangerous a move is it? Certainly, scrapping the 50p rate doesn’t poll well. Yesterday’s YouGov poll found 60 per cent opposed and just 27 per cent in favour.

James Forsyth

The coalition needs to get a move on

From our UK edition

David Cameron’s speech today says all the right things about infrastructure. But the test will be whether Cameron forces these changes through the system.   Already, the planning reforms have been held up by a lengthy consultation. The government will respond to this consultation this week. But that won’t be the end of the matter. For even after the government has set its plans before parliament, there’ll be a ‘transition’ period between the old rules and the new ones.   All of which is a reminder that if Britain, and especially the capital, is going to get the extra airport capacity it so desperately needs, then decisions will have to be taken soon.

Peter Hoskin

A significant moment for the minimum wage

From our UK edition

Here are some numbers for you: the adult rate of the national minimum wage will be raised, this October, by 11p to £6.19 an hour, but the separate rates for 16-17 and 18-20 year-olds will be frozen, at £3.68 and £4.98 respectively. I mention this not just because these figures were announced today, but also because it's the first cash freeze in any of the rates that we've seen since 2005 (and even that was when the 16-17 year-old rate was kept at the same level after its very first year of existence): The question is, what now? The government is defending the freeze by saying that, ‘Raising the youth rate would not benefit young people if it meant it was more difficult for them to find a job’ — and rightly so.

Peter Hoskin

Where will Cameron’s road proposal take us?

From our UK edition

Are we facing ‘toll road UK’, as the Mirror suggests this morning? That is certainly a possibility arising from David Cameron's plan to allow private firms to bid for chunks of Britain's motorway system — but I wouldn't get too excited just yet. It's a very distant possibility at the moment. After all, just note the details of the story. The routes that the coalition has in mind are very significant ones, but they still add up to only 3 per cent of the national network — ‘toll road UK’ may be pushing it. And then there's the fact that nothing has been entirely decided yet. We're told that, ‘The Treasury and the Department for Transport will carry out a feasibility study with a view to reporting back to Mr Cameron in the autumn.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Taleb in 30 minutes

From our UK edition

Nassim Taleb, the Lebanese-American academic whom we interviewed in The Spectator last month, is the subject of a Radio Four profile by The Economist's Janan Ganesh that was first aired last Monday but will also be on Radio 4 at 21:30 this evening. David Willetts is interviewed, saying that Taleb's work underlines the folly of long-term forecasts because ‘the big events that shape the world today are those which no one predicted four or five years ago’. The discovery of Shale gas, for example, could utterly change Britain’s energy requirements. Taleb’s heroes are Burke and Popper: his emphasis is on the need for humility, on how hard it is for any government to know what’s going on in society.

James Forsyth

Downing St plans to boost construction

From our UK edition

In the last few months, there’s been a distinct change in the attitude of the Tories at the heart of government. They are now far more cognisant of just how difficult it is to drive change through the government machine. It is no longer just Steve Hilton and Michael Gove complaining about this, but Osborne and Cameron too. The Chancellor’s particular frustration at the moment is over the pace of planning reform. Osborne and his brains trust believe that simplifying the planning rules is one of the things that they could do to both give the economy a short term stimulus, by encouraging more construction, and improve its long term prospects. But the coalition is making slower progress on the matter than Osborne would like.

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

Is Andrew Lansley’s time finally running out?

From our UK edition

A few months ago, I was invited to speak at the Health Service Journal conference, and hugely enjoyed meeting various reformers from within the NHS (and, of course, their enemies). One representative from the NHS Confederation pointed out that in most countries which were run by coalitions, the junior party was always given control of health — because nothing good can ever come from it. When things are going well, you hear nothing. When flu epidemics strike, then health is a horrible brief. A good point, which David Cameron may be taking to heart. Patrick Hennessy reveals in tomorrow’s Sunday Telegraph that Cameron is mulling a pre-Olympics reshuffle which would replace the hapless Lansley with a Lib Dem.

Fraser Nelson

The man behind the Budget

From our UK edition

In today’s Telegraph, I profile Rupert Harrison, chief economic adviser to George Osborne and the man who’ll do more than anything else (including his boss) to shape next week’s Budget. In the British political system, special advisers are given very little attention — even though the best of them are more influential than the average Cabinet member. The Treasury’s vast power, assembled by Brown, is still there. That can’t be said for Osborne: he spends half his time in Downing St, and is sufficiently detached from the Budget process that he felt able to take a couple of days’ holiday in America last week to jump in the motorcade and press some presidential flesh.

Friday

James Forsyth

Labour miss out the details

From our UK edition

Labour's launch of its new youth jobs policy has been rather overshadowed by Harriet Harman's inability to explain the costing behind the policy on the Daily Politics earlier: not a good look for a party trying to show that it is fiscally credible. But more interesting than the number behind the policy is how it marks an attempt by Labour to toughen up its position on welfare. Those young workers who have been out of work for a year will have to take one of these minimum wage jobs or have their benefits docked.



 On the Labour front, the interview with Ed Miliband in the Times today is also worthy of comment.

Peter Hoskin

Cameron and Obama bargain over fuel

From our UK edition

No wonder David Cameron and Barack Obama were being so chummy: they both knew that they could help each other. The Times carries an intriguing story (£) on its front page this morning, about how the two men discussed a plan to get fuel prices down in the UK and the US. The idea is that both countries — and perhaps more — would release some of their oil reserves. And so supply would go up, and prices would come down. As would our reliance on the oil-rich countries of the Middle East. Apparently, we're some distance from a deal yet, but you can see why both the PM and the President would want one to be struck — and soon.

Thursday

Fraser Nelson

Go on, George — scrap the 50p rate

From our UK edition

Will George Osborne scrap the 50p tax in next week's Budget? Whispers to this effect have been getting louder, and now the Guardian is saying that it will come back down to 40p, and it makes a lot of sense. As I argued in my Telegraph column a fortnight ago, this is the perfect time to do it. Axing the tax paid by 1 per cent of the population will be unpopular with the remaining 99 per cent, so if Osborne is going to take a political hit he should do so now. Anecdotal evidence of its harmfullness has been getting stronger: multinational companies saying they can't persuade people to relocate to Britain, and early figures suggest a drop in tax from the rich in 2010-11.

James Forsyth

How mayoral elections can strengthen the Tories

From our UK edition

The most important political changes are those that will not be reversed. I think that both directly elected mayors and police commissioners fit this mould. I can’t imagine voters choosing to cede the ability to hold power to account that these positions will give them. Tellingly, more people in London now favour independence for the capital than want to scrap the office of mayor. Police commissioners and mayors also provide the Conservatives with a massive opportunity to rebuild the party in urban Britain, as I argue in my column this week. The Conservatives have little chance of gaining overall control of the council in, say, Leeds. But they could win a mayoral poll there.

Sebastian Payne

Hodge’s new nemesis: Sir Jeremy Heywood

From our UK edition

Margaret Hodge subjected senior civil servants to a fierce ear-boxing this morning. She accused them of trying to avoid the scrutiny of her Public Accounts Committee, and declared the current doctrine of ministerial responsibility unfit for the 21st century: ‘The senior civil service needs to acknowledge that we live in a different world from the world in which ancient conventions could prevail. Everybody wants greater transparency and accountability.’ Hodge also said she ‘has been rattling the cage too much for some’ and detailed some of the resistance she’s encountered.

Tim Leunig

Right to reply: Why QE isn’t a disaster for pensioners

From our UK edition

The best of all possible worlds for the pension industry is a buoyant economy. Workers have enough money to save, share prices rise and dividend growth is robust. Interest rates are positive in real terms so annuities are good value. The economy ground to a halt in 2008. The overwhelming priority for everyone is to get growth going again. Without growth the services that pensioners depend on — such as the NHS — will struggle. Traditionally, governments cut interest rates and raise spending to get the economy moving. The Bank of England has cut interest rates as much as possible and the government deficit remains very high. We have exhausted conventional policies, and yet the economy is not growing.

Fraser Nelson

The questions Alex Salmond can’t answer

From our UK edition

Should Scotland be independent? I’d have thought that only a few people — most of them Scottish — would care enough about the question to come to a debate hosted by a think tank, but the Policy Exchange fight club was packed last night. The sole nationalist was the SNP’s Pete Wishart, allied with Sir Simon Jenkins making his English Nationalist points. Sir Malcolm Rifkind spoke against the motion, with yours truly his support act. As you might expect from a London audience, those opposed won easily. But two things struck me. The first is Sir Malcolm’s eloquence. He was brilliant, better than Salmond, a reminder of what was cut dead in the 1997 election — perhaps never to grow again.

Jonathan Jones

Cameron dines with Obama… and Clooney

From our UK edition

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mX6mT0kpoyQ The Camerons weren’t the Obamas' only big-name guests at the State Dinner last night. They were joined by a host of stars including Warren Buffett, Richard Branson and George Clooney, who’s just returned from war-torn Sudan. In their speeches (above), the two leaders had very warm words for each other. Of Cameron, Obama said: ‘In good times and in bad, he’s just the kind of partner that you want at your side. I trust him. He says what he does and he does what he says.’ And the PM returned the compliments: ‘There are three things about Barack that really stand out for me: strength, moral authority and wisdom.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

The significance of Clegg’s PMQs win

From our UK edition

Nick Clegg’s assertive performance at PMQs today was a demonstration of the fact that he now feels more confident than he has since his failure in the AV referendum. The deputy Prime Minister doesn’t crouch defensively at the despatch box anymore, and he brushed off some rather good one-liners from Harriet Harman. She joked that the only thing the deputy Prime Minister stands up for these days is the PM entering the room.   Clegg and his team feel that things are looking up for them, that they are setting the agenda. Even the Lib Dem’s lowly poll rating isn’t dampening their mood.   So, what does this change mean for the coalition? Senior Tories claim to be delighted that Clegg is happier, claiming it makes him easier to deal with.