Uk politics

Tuesday

Daniel Korski

A counterweight to France-German power

From our UK edition

It was only a matter of time before the Franco-German drive to reshape Europe's "economic governance" met with a counter-proposal. In international politics, a powerful state or group of states tends to lead others to band together in or order to provide some form of balance. This is now happening in Europe. David Owen and David Marsh are proposing the creation of a "Non-Eurogroup" (NEG), corralling the 10 EU countries outside the Eurozone into a group. Writing for the Financial Times, they argue that such an NEG would bring many benefits. They say: "Setting up the NEG would establish rights and responsibilities for non-eurozone members, ending the long-held European position that non-membership of the euro represents a form of second-class EU citizenship.

David Blackburn

Which amendments to the NHS bill would the government accept?

From our UK edition

The Lords has been debating the Owen/Hennessy amendment to the NHS bill, which threatens to upset the coalition. Owen and Hennessy have called for the bill to be referred to an extraordinary committee, which would report by 19 December, and they insist that the secretary of state must remain ultimately responsible for services.  Lord Howe opened for the government and spoke of the need to delegate power away from the secretary of state. The he added: ‘We are unequivocally clear that the Bill safeguards the Secretary of State’s accountability. However we are willing to listen to and consider the concerns that have been raised and make any necessary amendment to put the matter beyond doubt.

Jonathan Jones

Gus O’Donnell’s resignation letter

From our UK edition

Today, Downing Street has announced that the Cabinet Secretary, Sir Gus O'Donnell, will resign at the end of the year. Here is the letter he sent: Dear Colleagues I wanted to let you know that I am announcing my retirement today, after over six years as Cabinet Secretary and Head of the Civil Service. I will be leaving the civil service at the end of the year. I am extremely proud of the fantastic work that you do up and down the country – delivering services to the public. I have been a civil servant for 32 years and remain convinced of the importance of our traditional values of honesty, objectivity, impartiality and integrity in underpinning all the work that we do.

David Blackburn

Cameron tackles internet porn with more government

From our UK edition

David Cameron is taking his woman trouble seriously. He will unveil plans to curb internet pornography at a meeting with the Mothers’ Union later today. The government will force internet users to opt in to view pornographic websites when they initially chose their internet providers. The government will also clamp down on sexualized advertising and a new website, Parentport, will be established to allow parents to report inappropriate images, articles of clothing, TV programmes etc. This is a fairly blatant pitch for the wandering female vote, which is exercising Cameroon minds at present. It’s a clear attempt to say: We’re going to help you to protect your children.

Fraser Nelson

The poverty of the poverty measure

From our UK edition

‘400,000 children will fall into relative poverty by 2015, says IFS’ we read on The Guardian’s front page today — yes, one of the most pernicious ideas of recent years is back. It’s the definition of ‘poverty’ as being figures on a spreadsheet, households deemed to fall beneath an arbitrary threshold. It’s almost entirely meaningless, and diverts energy and resources away from a real fight against poverty. I really do believe that, as ideas go, this one has damaged Britain more than almost any other over the last two decades — and it’s high time it was confronted.

Monday

Fraser Nelson

Fox in the clear?

From our UK edition

Liam Fox demonstrated today why he'll be staying in Cabinet. He's a tough, eloquent and effective Commons performer who does not fall to pieces when the going gets tough. George Osborne and Michael Gove were both on the front bench with him. One MP told me he saw Eric Pickles in the corridors, giving Fox a hug that almost killed him. All this reflects well on them: in politics, it's always worth noting who stands by colleagues, and who scarpers, when it hits the fan. Fox has, finally, made the two steps required to get on top of this scandal: an apology, and full disclosure to stop the drip, drip of allegations which was giving this story such lethal momentum.

James Forsyth

Fox defies the hounds

From our UK edition

To the joy of the Tory benches, Liam Fox has just come out swinging in the House of Commons. In his initial statement, Fox apologised to the House for allowing the lines between his personal and professional life to become blurred out of “personal loyalty to a friend.” He then conceded that Werritty had travelled on 18 overseas visits with him since May 2010 and visited the Ministry of Defence 22 times. The presence of George Osborne and Michael Gove on the front bench showed how determined the Cameroons are to indicate support for the defence secretary despite the political differences between him and them. Jim Murphy missed the target in his reply. He was overly theatrical and failed to make clear what he actually wanted answers to.

Jonathan Portes

Another voice: Against austerity

From our UK edition

Here's the latest in our Another Voice series of posts, which give prominence to viewpoints outside the normal Coffee House fold: You can't help but notice that the UK economy isn't doing too well. Part of this is down to international developments, sure. But part – as Mervyn King said in "http://www.bankofengland.co.uk/monetarypolicy/pdf/govletter111006.pdf">his letterto George Osborne last week – is the result of "fiscal consolidation", aka spending cuts. The IMF's assessment, published a few days ago, shows both why debt has risen (lower tax revenues) and what is happening now (sharp contraction): And there's much more contraction to come: So why keep on contracting if it is affecting economic growth?

David Blackburn

The Fox hunt distracts from louring clouds

From our UK edition

The furore surrounding the defence secretary is distracting attention from some stories that are threatening the coalition’s tranquillity. Benedict Brogan reports that the Health Bill is being amended out of existence by a cabal of Lib Dem peers, a campaigned that was mooted during the party conference season. The rebellion is apparently aggravating Number 10, which understood that Nick Clegg had secured his party's support for the diluted programme which emerged after the recent "listening exercise". Labour's numerical superiority in the House of Lords means that ministers will have to be at their most mellifluous to bring the errant Lib Dems back to the fold, because Tory backbenchers are clear that they will not stomach further revisions.

James Forsyth

How Number 10 will judge Fox

From our UK edition

Downing Street is busy stressing that the David Cameron doesn't want to lose Liam Fox from the Cabinet. There is lots of talk of how the Prime Minister doesn't want to pull the rug out from under anyone. I understand that to Number 10's mind the crucial questions are whether Adam Werritty has made any money out of defence since May 2010 and if so, did Fox know about it? If the answer to both of these questions is yes, then the Defence Secretary is probably done for. But if it is no then Fox will have suffered some embarrassment but nothing more.

Jonathan Jones

Crunch time for Fox

From our UK edition

"I don't believe that wrongdoing did occur", said Liam Fox in his apology yesterday. With today's front pages dripping with accusations, Fox has some work to do to substatiate that claim. The Guardian reveals that "Political lobbyists were paid thousands of pounds to help a Dubai-based businessman arrange a secretive meeting with Liam Fox": "an invoice, seen by the Guardian, shows that Boulter enlisted the services of a lobbying firm to help him skip layers of bureaucracy and meet Fox for an urgent meeting on the 41st floor of the hotel. The invoice shows Boulter paid Tetra Strategy £10,000 for "project fees". It is understood that the fees covered fixing up media interviews and political lobbying.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

Boulter vs Fox

From our UK edition

The Liam Fox imbroglio has just started to make more sense. The original story was broken by The Guardian (of whom more later) and the main source appears to have been one Harvey Boulter, an American mogul whom Fox fatally agreed to meet in June at the suggestion of his friend Adam Werrity. It was the kind of meeting that a civil servant would never have arranged. Boulter was, to use a political term, toxic. He was being sued for blackmail by 3M, in a court case being fought in London, and after landing this meeting with the UK Defence Secretary he tried to use it as ammo.

James Forsyth

Liam Fox’s apology

From our UK edition

In a bid to save his Cabinet career, Liam Fox has just issued a statement, which he also read to the cameras, apologising for allowing ‘distinctions to be blurred between my professional responsibilities and my personal loyalties to a friend’. The defence secretary goes on to accept that he should have ensured that officials were present at meetings between him and Adam Werritty at which ‘defence and security related issues were rasied.’ He says that he has apologised to the Prime Minister for the Dubai meeting, at which Fox saw a commercial supplier with no official present. Apparently, the MoD permanent secretary will now be putting in place new procedures to ensure that this does not happen in future.

Fraser Nelson

Chris Huhne: an apology

From our UK edition

I have apology to make. I wrote on Friday that I suspected Chris Huhne's mistweet “fine, but I don’t want my fingerprints on the story” was the Climate Change Secretary briefing against a Cabinet colleague to a Sunday newspaper. This was a horrid allegation to make, suggesting that a member of Her Majesty's Government would spend his time and energy trying to ridicule a colleague for the benefit of a Sunday newspaper. I now accept that he was not. It was for the Saturday edition of The Guardian. Huhne has just fessed up to Jon Sopel the Politics Show on BBC One: “In the Eastleigh News website is a recording of Theresa May, a recording from a few months previously of the leader of UKIP, Nigel Farage and it’s exactly the same.

Daniel Korski

Fox would lead anti-coalition Tories

From our UK edition

So far, the Prime Minister seems to be playing down any potential fallout from the crisis dogging Liam Fox. No 10 seems to be saying "if the Defence Secretary goes, it won’t be such a big issue". Much remains to be seen about the Defence Secretary’s career – and he may survive the crisis that is currently engulfing him. But it looks increasingly hard for him. Evidence is emerging daily that Adam Werritty was somehow a member of the Defence Secretary’s team, closer to Fox even than junior ministers. And there may be more trips to be uncovered and more meetings that he joined. He was, for example, spotted at the Tory conference last week. To survive the next 48 hours, Fox will need to show enormous contrition at the despatch box.

Peter Hoskin

Fox on a knife edge

From our UK edition

Another deluge of awkward news stories for Liam Fox this morning, with almost every paper providing new details for our consideration. The Observer has video footage and emails which suggest that Adam Werritty was indeed a close participant in the Defence Secretary's meetings with foreign dignitaries and businessmen. The Sunday Telegraph quotes Fox as saying that "I have absolutely no fear of complete transparency in these matters," but adds a warning from Whitehall sources that he "could be gone within days". And, perhaps most concerning of all, a senior MoD type tells the Independent on Sunday that "[Werritty] appears to have been involved in arms contracts all over the place". The story is now taking on a dangerous, two-tone complexion for Fox.

Saturday

Daniel Korski

How safe is Fox?

From our UK edition

This weekend's gossip is all about Liam Fox and his ministerial future. Ministers and journalists are calling each other, weighing the evidence, trying to find out the latest gossip. Nobody should underestimate the Defence Secretary's fight — he is an alumni of the school of hard knocks. But two things go against him. First, having annoyed many colleagues — not least in No 10 — not everyone is rushing to his defence, as they did during the suspicions that dogged William Hague. No.10 has now given him its "full backing," but, as history shows, that can mean anything from support to sayonara. David Cameron would prefer not to reshuffle his Cabinet, that's clear.

James Forsyth

Cat-flap, day five

From our UK edition

‘Cat-flap’ is the story that just won’t go away. A report in today’s Guardian claims that the whole story may have been lifted from a speech made by Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party. One colleague of May’s tells the paper that "Not only has Ms May been caught out making up stories about the Human Rights Act for cheap laughs, she has been plagiarising her clap lines from the UK Independence party." In the grand scheme of things, this is hardly the most serious charge. There’s just enough truth to the cat anecdote for May to have some ground to stand on and most Tories, understandably, want to see the Human Right Act scrapped.

Daniel Korski

The problem with using soldiers to advance women’s rights

From our UK edition

Mariella Frostrup, fresh from interviewing Nick Clegg in Cheltenham, writes about women's rights in Afghanistan in The Times (£). Her pithily-titled piece — "Women's rights in, before troops out" — makes the case that British forces cannot withdraw from, and the government should give no development assistance to, a country where the plight of women is so terrible and declining. It is hard not to sympathise with Frostrup's point. During my own time in Kabul I witnessed plenty of examples of female subjugation, and was glad the West was present to help address some of these problems. Western policymakers were, at the time, eager to portray the entire mission as a morally good, progress-guaranteeing task.

Peter Hoskin

Fox hunt

From our UK edition

This is one Fox who doesn't have the benefit of a hole to bolt into. He is on open ground, and exposed even more this morning by fresh revelations surrounding his relationship with Andrew Werritty. A business card and a self-aggradising title, that certainly smelt of impropriety. But now we're talking about sensitive business meetings arranged by Werritty, and attended by both him and Fox. It's a whole different level of concern. And it leaves Fox in a most difficult position. The FT has the full story, but basically Werritty arranged for Fox to meet a group of businessmen in Dubai looking to transfer "communications technology" to the Libyan rebels. One of the suits present at the meeting tells the paper that, "His business card looks very official.