Uk politics

Thursday

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.

Peter Hoskin

Afghanistan overshadows Cameron’s America trip

From our UK edition

Afghanistan, what now? After a week of death and retaliation in the country, it appears that a car bomb has been detonated on the runway at Camp Bastion — probably aimed at the visiting US Secretary of Defence, Leon Panetta. A spokesman has since said that ‘at no point was anyone on board Mr Panetta's plane at risk,’ but it certainly highlights the dangers attached to his visit. What chance, now, that he will be successful in his goal of ‘easing tensions’? The incident cropped up very briefly in David Cameron and Barack Obama's press conference just now.

Lloyd Evans

Nick rises to Harriet’s limp challenge

From our UK edition

Basketball in America. Netball at PMQs. Harriet Harman, Labour’s venerable form-prefect, took her leader’s place today and lobbed a few rubbery missiles at the PM’s under-study, Nick Clegg.  It came down to arithmetic. Even if Hattie had stormed it at PMQs she had no hope of reviving her extinct career. But Clegg has it all to play for. He was ready for it too. Assured, combative and well-briefed, he filled his replies with fresh, punchy rhetoric. (Mind you, his match-fit performance should be credited to his party activists. Clegg must have spent the last 22 months fielding nasty questions from chippy wonks at Lib Dem constituency meetings.)  Hattie tried to upset him by accusing the coalition of ‘throwing women out of work.

Jonathan Jones

Unemployment’s high, but at least it’s stopped rising

From our UK edition

So, new jobs figures out today. Which do you want first: the bad news, or the kind-of-alright news? The bad news is that employment’s showing no signs of growth: the total number in work has been stuck at 29.1 million since it fell there in the summer. It’s a touch better than the trough of 28.8 million we hit at the end of 2009, but still half a million below where we were when the recession hit. And we’re showing no signs of getting there any time soon: And the not-so-bad news? Unemployment’s slightly down on last month, which was slightly down on the month before. It’s not a big drop — well within the margin of error — and the number of unemployed still stands at 2.7 million, so this doesn’t exactly count as good news.

Fraser Nelson

The Bond Bubble’s getting bigger

From our UK edition

George Osborne is planning to launch a 100-year bond, says the FT — a sure sign that the Bond Bubble is getting even bigger. These devices are usually used by American universities: the California Institute of Technology issued one at 4.7 per cent, MIT did one at 5.6 per cent, and a few American companies have tried at 6 per cent. The Mexcians sold a billion bucks' worth of century bonds a while ago at 6.1 per cent, so it would only be a matter of time before HM Treasury — a world leader in, ahem, novel debt vehicles — was going to do the same. The US Treasury Borrowing Advisory Committee suggested that the Fed does this last month. It’s not quite as crazy as it sounds: in today’s yield-starved environment you can get away with anything.

Peter Hoskin

Cameron and Obama, sans yellow mustard

From our UK edition

Above is what they call the ‘raw video’ of David Cameron's and Barack Obama's trip to a basketball game last night. It's the unrefined version of what Downing St hopes will be refined, packaged and sent to your television screen at hyperspeed: images of the PM and the President dressed casually and chatting away as the game goes on. Like I said yesterday, it's political theatre — designed to benefit both men. They were then both interviewed at halftime, which you can watch here.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Cameron lands in America

From our UK edition

David Cameron’s plane has just landed in Washington. The next few days should provide him with a set of images that will portray him as a significant figure on the global stage. The Obama administration is giving Cameron the full works: a huge event on the White House lawn and the kind of banquet that is normally reserved for heads of state. This is an arrangement that benefits both sides. The Obama re-election campaign wants to foster the sense that the President is friends with a Conservative British Prime Minister given that their Republican opponent in the fall will accuse him of being a left-wing radical. I suspect, though, that Downing Street will be rather worried that the arrests of Charlie and Rebekah Brooks could overshadow the opening day of the visit.

Peter Hoskin

IDS’s important call for ‘social value’

From our UK edition

It's the same for celebrities and policymakers: talking about marriage gets you headlines. Hence why the newspapers have concentrated on Iain DuncanSmith's remarks today that ‘marriage should be supported and encouraged’ by the state. But there were two other parts of IDS's speech — and the ‘social justice strategy’ document behind it — that I found more arresting. The first was his incisive attack on the Gordon Brown approach to fighting poverty (define it statistically and then massage the statistics so that they work in your favour), which deserves repeating: ‘First, we have seen a social policy overwhelmingly focussed on moving people above the income poverty line. A laudable ambition surely?

Peter Hoskin

Will Obama and Cameron discuss a faster pullout from Afghanistan?

From our UK edition

The political theatre of David Cameron's trip to America will have Downing Street drooling. The PM is, today, not only going to become the first world leader to fly aboard Air Force One with Barack Obama, but then they're also going to take in a game of basketball together. It's a carefully calibrated blend of statesmanship and down-to-earth-ship that will suit both men. Obama, because it might appeal, in some way, to conservative voters ahead of this year's presidential election. Cameron, because, well… does Ed Miliband do this sort of thing? The theatre carries over into print too, with a joint article by Cameron and Obama in today's Washington Post.

Jonathan Jones

A Lib Dem alternative to Beecroft

From our UK edition

When the Beecroft report’s recommendation of ‘Compensated No Fault Dismissal’ was first leaked back in October, Norman Lamb was one of the strongest Lib Dem voices to speak out against it, describing it as ‘madness’. Back then, he was Nick Clegg’s chief of staff. Now, thanks to Chris Huhne’s resignation and Ed Davey’s promotion, he’s in an even better position to prevent this ‘madness’: Employment Minister in the Department for Business. As James has said, the Lib Dem MPs are unanimous in their opposition to Beecroft’s proposals, and until recently it didn’t look like they would be translated into policy at all.

Monday

Sebastian Payne

Ken just can’t escape his tax knot

From our UK edition

After several months on the back foot, Boris looks ready to sink Ken's campaign for good. The cries of hypocrisy have been growing louder and louder since the revelation that Ken has been filtering his six-figure income through a limited company to avoid thousands in tax. Ken has waited two weeks for the story to build up before making an official response on the Andrew Marr show yesterday: 'I am in exactly the same position as everybody else who has a small business. I mean, I get loads of money, all from different sources, and I give it to an accountant and they manage it.' He's not wrong but it doesn't address why Ken has a small business in the first place. Ken is not a corporation with employees and assets — it's just him and his wife.

James Forsyth

Cameron’s Human Rights quandry

From our UK edition

The combination of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights is, I predict, going to give David Cameron an increasing number of headaches in the coming months. As Fraser wrote yesterday, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky’s principled resignation from the coalition’s Commission on the British Bill of Rights has revealed that this body was never really serious about dealing with the problem. The exposure of this Commission as merely a holding device will add to the pressure on the Prime Minister to clarify what he actually intends to do about the problem.

Jonathan Jones

Eric Joyce apologises to his victims

From our UK edition

Following his arrest for attacking fellow MPs in the Strangers' Bar of the House of Commons, Eric Joyce has resigned from the Labour Party and made a personal statement in the House this afternoon:.

Fraser Nelson

Cameron’s sub-prime thinking

From our UK edition

You’d think the American sub-prime crisis would have taught politicians the world over not to try to rig the housing market. But no, David Cameron is back on it today — about how to ‘unblock’ the system so the debt geyser starts to gush again. ‘The problem today is that you have lenders who aren’t lending, so builders can’t build and buyers can’t buy,’ says the Prime Minister. ‘It needs the government to step in, and help unblock the market.’ The idea that lenders may not lend because they feel the housing market may fall, and people may be unable to repay, is instantly dismissed. He speaks as if debt is the solution, and unavailability of debt is a self-evident problem.

Peter Hoskin

How Mervyn King’s role has changed

From our UK edition

A week devoted to Mervyn King and his eight-year reign at the Bank of England sounds like pretty turgid stuff. But, already, the series that has started in the Times (£) this morning — building up to an interview with the man himself — is anything but. Here, for instance, is a snippet from one of its articles, by David Wighton, on how Mr King reacted to the crumbling of Northern Rock: ‘As the plight of Northern Rock and other banks worsened, Sir John Gieve and Paul Tucker were urging Sir Mervyn to act, but he would not budge. “He mocked them as ‘crisis junkies’ and more or less accused them of enjoying it,” one former official says. Sir Mervyn took a different approach.