Uk politics

Saturday

David Blackburn

Inadequate stress test inspires anti-EU sentiment across Europe

From our UK edition

Yesterday’s European Banking Authority (EBA) stress test was supposed to restore confidence in the euro and Europe’s beleaguered financial institutions; it has had the opposite effect. Investors and market analysts are preparing for ‘Black Monday’ after only 8 banks failed the test and must now raise £2.2 billion between them to stave off ruin. A respected estimate by Goldman Sachs expected at least 15 banks to fail, requiring £29 billion to recapitalise. As the Spectator’s business blog reported yesterday, analysts feared that the EBA’s test would not be sufficiently stringent, and so it came to pass.

Friday

David Blackburn

From the archives: When Gordon loved Rupert

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown graced the political stage with a rare cameo this week – if half an hour of deluded invective masquerading as reasoned piety qualifies as a cameo. Brown would have you believe that he had nothing to do with Rupert Murdoch. This following piece by Peter Oborne says otherwise.   The murderous intent of Gordon Brown, Peter Oborne, 20 April 2002 This Friday a triumphant Gordon Brown flies to New York for a business conference. The Chancellor and his colleagues perhaps see the trip as a well-earned break.   In No.10 Downing Street there is a temptation to take a more jaundiced view, and interpret it as a quick exit.

David Blackburn

At the PM’s pleasure…

From our UK edition

Here is the list that James referred to earlier in full: Guests to Chequers from May 2010 to present Government guests and senior media guests: Danny Alexander MP and Rebecca Alexander Lord Ashdown Tony Baldry MP Greg Barker MP and George Prassus Lord Terry Burns and Lady Ann Elizabeth Burns Rebekah Brooks (June 2010 and August 2010) Brigadier Ed Butler and Sophie Butler Ian Cheshire and Kate Cheshire Ken Clarke MP and Gillian Clarke Nick Clegg MP Sir Sherard Cowper-Coles Brigadier James Cowan Air Chief Marshall Sir Stephen Dalton Alan Duncan MP and James Dundeath James Fergusson Stanley Fink and Barbara Fink Daniel Finkelstein and Nicky Finkelstein Liam Fox MP and Jesme Baird Sir Christopher Gent and Lady Kate Gent Michael Gove MP and Sa.

James Forsyth

Cameron comes clean

From our UK edition

Later on today, Downing Street will reveal all of David Cameron’s meetings with newspaper / media proprietors and editors since the election. This is a welcome move, transparency is the best disinfectant and by getting the information out there it will end speculation about precisely how close he was to various people in News International. But one detail has already leaked out and will cause controversy: Andy Coulson was a guest at Chequers several months after he quit the government. In some ways this is no great shock, Coulson — as Cameron said at last Friday’s press conference — is a friend of the Prime Minister and someone whose advice Cameron valued hugely.

David Blackburn

Murdoch atones

From our UK edition

Sky News reports that Rupert Murdoch is set to apologise for the activities of the News of the World in a newspaper advert to be run tomorrow. It will read: ‘We are sorry. The News of the World was in the business of holding others to account. It failed when it came to itself. We are sorry for the serious wrongdoing that occurred. We are deeply sorry for the hurt suffered by the individuals affected. We regret not acting faster to sort things out. I realise that simply apologising is not enough. Our business was founded on the idea that a free and open press should be a positive force in society. We need to live up to this.

Daniel Korski

Multi-speed Europe

From our UK edition

Britons are becoming increasingly eurosceptic, according to YouGov. I have previously predicted that could leave the union; but there is another option. Following the eventual resolution of the euro crisis, the EU may evolve into a much more asymmetric arrangement, with a small group of European states integrating in some areas, while other states remain outside. On the surface, this does not look like anything new. The EU already has many different levels of integration. The Schengen agreement and the euro are examples of this and the Lisbon Treaty holds out the idea of more such multi-speed arrangements. However, after the euro crisis, these will be different from those that have gone before.

David Blackburn

Boris’s star turn

From our UK edition

By rights, Labour ought to walk next year’s mayoral election. But all is not going to plan. The latest polls put Boris ahead; one conducted at the end of last month even had him 7 points clear. Labour's problem is Ken Livingstone. As Jonathan found recently, a full fifth of Labour voters in London say they would prefer Boris to be mayor rather than Ken, an extraordinary statistic. Livingstone is also seen as dishonest in comparison to Boris. His opportunism often contributes to that perception — for instance, his attempt to tar Boris with the filthy Murdoch brush earlier this week was the most transparent piece of hypocrisy. Andrew Gilligan has more news on that front; news that illustrates why Boris also leads Ken in the charisma stakes.

James Forsyth

Brooks resigns

From our UK edition

Rebekah Brooks has finally resigned this morning. Her departure was actually expected yesterday, in the morning indications were given that she would quit that afternoon. My understanding is that the thinking at News International was that if she was still in her job when she attended the select committee hearing on Tuesday, she would just be monstered. But this strategy was thrown into confusion when the Murdochs themselves were compelled to attend. But this morning, the decision has clearly been taken that she has to step down before facing parliament. Her departure was in many ways inevitable. But it does remove the last fire break between this scandal and the actual Murdoch family.

David Blackburn

Murdoch prepares to fillet Brown

From our UK edition

“He got it entirely wrong.” That is Rupert Murdoch's response to Gordon Brown’s singular account of his relationship with the Murdoch press. "The Browns were always friends of ours,” Murdoch added in an interview with the Wall Street Journal, in which he promised to set the record straight on the “lies uttered in parliament” when he appears before a select committee next Tuesday. It is going to be a moment of the most gripping political theatre. Murdoch also uses the interview to defend News Corp’s handling of the phone hacking crisis. He concedes that ‘minor mistakes’ have been made, but, fundamentally, all is well with the Kingdom.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Another self-inflicted wound by Murdoch

From our UK edition

The Murdochs have done a reverse-ferret and now will attend the Culture select committee on Tuesday. The harm done to their reputation by their initial refusal is yet another self-inflicted wound. It was clear, given how previous select committee inquiries on these matters had not received proper answers from various representatives of News International, that parliament would do everything it could to compel their attendance. Indeed, both the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister had gone on the record to say they should attend before the Murdoch’s curt letters saying they wouldn’t were dispatched. Their appearance on Tuesday will, I suspect, now become the focus of this story in the UK. The weekend papers will be full of previews of it.

James Forsyth

Parliament versus Murdoch, part two

From our UK edition

The Culture, Media and Sport Select Committee has responded to Rupert and James Murdoch rejecting their request to give evidence to them, by issuing a summons. My understanding is that parliament cannot compel them to attend because they are not British subjects. But others think that as long as they are in the country they can be forced to come to parliament. That a select committee chaired by Margaret Thatcher’s former political secretary is prepared to issue this summons shows how much the standing of the Murdochs has changed in the past ten days. MPs are pretty much united in their fury that News International figures failed to give proper answers to previous select committee hearings on this matter.

David Blackburn

Coalition’s crime worries ease, but concerns remain

From our UK edition

The British Crime Survey is published today and the Home Office had prepared for the worst. For months now, figures close to Theresa May have been expressing their fear that the combination of Ken Clarke’s liberal prisons policy and economic hardship would cause a rise in crime for which the Home Office, graveyard for so many political careers, would be blamed. Today’s figures will have eased their disquiet somewhat, insulating them from Labour’s critique that police cuts are endangering society. The headline is that crime in England and Wales has remained stable over the last year, except for a 14 per cent spike in domestic burglaries according to the British Crime Survey and an alarming 35 per cent increase in domestic violence.

James Forsyth

Ed Miliband: Murdoch’s spell has been broken

From our UK edition

I have an interview with Ed Miliband in the latest issue of The Spectator, conducted the evening before yesterday's Parliamentary debate on News Corp and BSkyB. Here's the whole thing for CoffeeHousers: Rupert Murdoch’s hold on British politics has finally been broken. The politicians who competed to court him are now scrapping to see who can distance themselves fastest. As the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, says when we meet in his Commons office on Tuesday afternoon, ‘The spell has been broken this week and clearly it will never be the same again.’ Miliband and his staff have just heard that the government will support their motion calling for Murdoch to withdraw his bid for BSkyB.

Peter Hoskin

Clegg contra the British Establishment

From our UK edition

In some ways, Gordon Brown's absurd speech yesterday evening felt like the crest of a wave. It's not that the phone hacking scandal has gone away — far from it. But the initial surge of political activity and spite has abated, having achieved many of its immediate goals: the end of the BSkyB bid, a judge-led inquiry, and so on. Now, our politicians are entering the second phase of this crisis, which will be more about the wider picture and less about News International specifically. There was a hint of this in Nick Clegg's interview with the Today programme earlier, a preview of a speech he is delivering later today. The Lib Dem leader admitted that he sees the phone hacking scandal as an "opportunity" to "clean things up" more generally.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Brown’s version of events

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown’s speech in the House of Commons just now was remarkable. It was completely deluded, one of the most one-sided versions of history you’re ever likely to hear. Abetted by the Speaker, Brown spoke for what must have been at least half an hour trying to justify his record in office and depict himself as someone who was prepared to take on the Murdoch empire, which he certainly was not while News International was supporting Labour. Rather than acknowledging—as Ed Miliband and Peter Mandelson have—, that Labour got far too close to News International and was too scared of it, he presented an entirely self-serving version of history. To the fury of the Tory benches, he ignored that he and Sarah Brown assiduously courted Rebekah Brooks.

Jonathan Jones

Britain’s euroscepticism hardens

From our UK edition

With the European financial crisis rumbling on, anti-EU sentiment in Britain is deepening. Two polls — one by YouGov for PoliticsHome and the other by Angus Reid — show that 50 per cent of the public would vote for Britain to leave the EU if there was a referendum.   Of course, this is nothing new. Brits have long been the most eurosceptic of Europeans, as Fraser noted a couple of months ago. In fact, we're the only country where more people think our membership of the EU is bad than think it's good: The hardening of eurosceptic sentiment does seem to be due to current events: 34 per cent say that the Greek crisis has made them more favourable towards us leaving.

Daniel Korski

Will the defence budget rise, fall or stay constant post-2015?

From our UK edition

As British helicopters pound away at Libyan targets, another battle is being waged inside the Ministry of Defence’s fortress-like building. The fight is over the post-2015 budget, and it is an arduous one. After the uniform-creasing settlement the MoD got in the Spending Review last year, the Prime Minister said in the House of Commons on 19th Oct 2010 that while the precise budgets beyond 2015 would be agreed in future reviews, his “own strong view” was that the MoD would see “year-on-year real-term growth in the defence budget in the years beyond 2015.” So far so good — the MoD budget may have to fall now, in line with other departments, but at least it will increase post-2015. Or will it?

Peter Hoskin

The OBR warns of a fiscal storm

From our UK edition

The Office for Budget Responsibility's 126-page Fiscal Sustainability Report really oughtn't make for electrifying reading. But it does. What Robert Chote and his gang of number-crunchers have done is to gaze into our fiscal abyss, and summon up forecasts so that the abyss can gaze back into us. I mean, look at the graph above. On the OBR's account, our country's debt burden could well rise from around 70 per cent of GDP now to over 100 per cent in 50 years time. It is a perturbing trajectory, to say the least. But, before we go any further, we should slap all kinds of health warnings across this. Long-term forecasting is, by its very nature, an uncertain science — and there are plenty of uncertainties in the OBR's work.

Lloyd Evans

A day like no other

From our UK edition

Was there ever a PMQs like this? The mood was like a revolutionary court. On the central issue – the judge-led inquiry into the hacking affair – there was general agreement. But the doors of justice have been flung open at last and hosts of other crimes are rushing in to receive an airing. Ed Miliband arrived convinced that he had a killer question for Cameron. Assuming his favourite expression of indignant piety he asked about a specific warning given to Cameron’s chief of staff last February that Andy Coulson, when News of the World editor, had hired an ex-convict to bribe the cops. The effect was feeble rather than fatal. ‘It wasn’t some secret stash of information,’ said Cameron.

James Forsyth

News Corp withdraws its bid for BSkyB

From our UK edition

Two things struck me about PMQs today and the Prime Minister’s statement on the forthcoming public inquiry. First, the Prime Minister took a very different approach to Andy Coulson than he did at his press conference last Friday. Today, all the emphasis was on how angry Cameron would be if the assurances given to him turned out to be false.   The second was that Cameron rowed away from suggesting statutory regulation of the press. He stressed that he favoured ‘independent’ not ‘statutory regulation’. This should be more acceptable to the press.