Uk politics

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 11 May 2011

VERDICT: An inconclusive sort of PMQs, where neither leader particularly triumphed, nor particularly sank. Ed Miliband was persistent, and more aggressive than usual, with his questions on the NHS — but failed, really, to properly discomfort the PM. Cameron dwelt lazily on the extra money going into the service, but it was enough to carry him through the session. Perhaps the most striking moment was when, during the backbench questions, Cameron pointed out that "[the Tories] were the only party at the last election to promise [real-terms spending increases for health]. If it wasn't for us, it wouldn't be happening." This is, I suspect, all part of the new drive to distinguish the two parties of government. But it will have jarred with some listening Lib Dems nonetheless.

James Forsyth

Not so flash, Dave

The papers report this morning that David Cameron has been urged by his aides to be more polite to his opponents at PMQs or risk playing into the Flashman stereotype of him as a cocky public school bully. Now, as with all advice about making PMQs a calmer affair (remember how Cameron pledged an end to Punch and Judy politics), this is easier said than done. The confrontational atmosphere of PMQs means that it is hard for those involved to resist a withering put down or to meet insult with insult. But if Cameron does learn to rein himself in, it will be a triumph for his new chief political strategist, Andrew Cooper.

Jonathan Jones

The Coffee House A-Z of the Coalition: A-F

The coalition is 1 today. Unfortunately, we can't serve jelly and ice cream over the internet — but we can write an A-Z to mark the first year of Cameron and Clegg's union. Below is the first part of that, covering the letters A to F. But, first, a little piece of political nostalgia for CoffeeHousers. A year ago today, this happened: And now for the A-Z… A is for Andrew Lansley Rap John Healey, make way for MC NxtGen. The Loughborough rapper may not be part of Her Majesty's Most Loyal Opposition, but his three-minute denunciation of the coalition's health reforms — video above — did the job better than most politicians ever could.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Today’s lesson for David Willetts

What a knotty problem David Willetts has created for himself today. Speaking to the Guardian this morning, he floated an idea to help the universities make a bit of cash: they could, he suggested, sell extra places to students who were prepared to pay exaggerated fees up front. This isn't yet government policy, and the students needn't do the paying themselves (they could be sponsored by charities or employers, for instance), but the Guardian pounced nevertheless. "Extra places at university for rich students," blared its front page headline. Not a good look for the coalition, at a time when access to university is such a general concern. Not a good look for David Willetts, who might have avoided the pitfall before him.

David Blackburn

Cameron in new war with his backbenchers

The House is united in loathing of IPSA, which explains why Tory MP Adam Afriyie’s amendment to the Parliamentary Standards Bill 2009 is proving so popular. Afriyie’s aim is ‘to simplify the way in which expenses and salary payments to Members of Parliament are made’ and attempt to limit IPSA’s costs.   The government, however, is wary of Arfiyie’s reform – sensing, perhaps, that the public might not stomach changes to the expenses system so soon after the recent scandal.   The bill’s second reading will take place this Friday and it is now understood that enough Labour backbenchers will support the motion to allow it to pass. It is rumoured that Cameron is insisting his backbenchers are whipped to defeat the bill.

Peter Hoskin

Breaking Laws | 10 May 2011

When David Laws resigned from government last year, his return was thought to be only a matter of time. Today, it is looking considerably more indefinite. Not only has Cameron been talking down the prospect of a reshuffle any time soon, but the Evening Standard is reporting that Laws has been found guilty of breaching six — six! — Commons rules related to his expense claims. No word, yet, on the details, or whether there will be any formal punishment for the former Chief Sec. But it doesn't look good for him, nor for his ministerial prospects in the short-term. Sky's Sophy Ridge tweets that certain Lib Dems are "still keen" to transfer Laws back to government "within weeks". Perhaps so — but I'd be surprised were they to pull it off.

Peter Hoskin

The press becomes the story

The power of the press has, almost from nowhere, become one of the defining leitmotifs of this Parliament. Only two years ago, the Telegraph exerted that power to (partially) clean out British politics, and won general acclaim in the process. But now, it seems, the media is more likely to have its actions attacked, or at least questioned and contained. Whether it is the Press Complaint Commissions's censure today for those clandestine Cable tapes, or the continuing hoo-hah over super-injunctions and their infraction, there is a question hanging unavoidably in the air: how much does the public have a right to know? This is a precarious political issue, not least because of the immediate problems it has thrust upon the coalition.

Peter Hoskin

Cameron sets out the bounds of Lib Dem assertiveness

Our coalition government was forged one year ago tomorrow — and we shall have more on that then. But the Sun has already marked the occasion by publishing an interview with David Cameron today. It is a wide-ranging sort of conversation, touching on everything from the Prime Minister's workload ("every day feels like a week") to the shelf life of the government ("five years"), although much of it is unsurprising. It does, however, contain one or two useful insights into how the coalition's game of give-and-take is going to operate from now on. First up, Cameron's insistence — contra Clegg — that the Lib Dems should not be portrayed as a "moderating influence" on his party.

Daniel Korski

The Dame departs

Pauline Neville-Jones was a first. She was one of the first women in the Foreign Office to climb the department's male-dominated ladder, serving as Lord Tugendhat's chef de cabinet at the European Commission, obtaining the coveted post of Political Director and eventually becoming JIC Chairman. She led the British delegation at the Dayton Peace Accords and she probably thought she would be the first British National Security Adviser. But it was not to be. Her usefulness to the Prime Minister seems to have been mainly in opposition, where she could add a voice of knowledge to a Shadow Cabinet with very little governmental experience. The Tory Green Paper on National Security was all the more serious for her drafting it. But it was not always easy.

Hamish Macdonell

A leadership contest might be just what the Scottish Tories need

That's it, the full house. Alex Salmond has seen off all three main opposition party leaders before the Scottish Parliament has even convened for the first time in this new session. Yesterday afternoon, Scottish Conservative leader Annabel Goldie joined her Labour and Liberal Democrat counterparts (Iain Gray and Tavish Scott) in standing down. The Conservatives did not do quite as badly as either of the other two opposition parties in the election – they went down two seats, from 17 to 15 – and many will see that as the reason Miss Goldie delayed her resignation for a few days, to work out of she could continue. But, in reality, Miss Goldie always seemed destined to resign after this Holyrood poll.

Monday

James Forsyth

Credit where it’s due

One of the worries of Tory modernisers about the coalition back in May last year was that the Tories would end up being seen as being responsible for all the tough but necessary stuff, eg deficit reduction, while the Lib Dems would claim the cuddly stuff, for example the pupil premium — a policy that was in both the Tory and Lib Dem manifestos.   David Willetts in a piece in the Telegraph today, taken from a speech he’s giving tonight, makes this point anew in the context of the new, frostier coalition relations: “This agenda is shared, so it would be a mistake to get into a game of identifying Liberal measures and Tory ones in a perpetual trade-off.

Daniel Korski

Can Lansley stay?

The Prime Minister, it seems, is now finally accepting what everyone else has been saying for a long time: that the NHS reforms were dangerous and would hurt the government. If Nick Clegg forced a re-think — even one that is supported by many Tories — then he may, in the end, play a greater part in delivering the next election for Cameron's party than many triumphalist right-wingers now realise. For CameronCare was badly-timed, poorly-delivered and strikes at the heart of the PM's message that the Conservative Party can be trusted. Large-scale reforms need time. Time for people to accept a problem. Time for people to accept the solution.

James Forsyth

The Lib Dems’ hostage situation

Norman Lamb’s comment on the Daily Politics about the Lib Dems having become a "human shield" for the government sums up the mood on the Liberal Democrat benches. Lamb went onto wonder whether this was inevitable: "Whether that's inevitably the case for the junior partner I don't know... But we are in this for the long term." The bad news for the Liberal Democrats is, I fear, that it is. On Friday I was having a discussion with a senior Labour figure who was explaining how the party was now going to concentrate its fire on Cameron not Clegg.

Fraser Nelson

The gulf between public opinion and Westminster opinion on Europe

It's Europe Day today, where the flag of the EU will be flown by 26 of its 27 member states. David Cameron is refusing to join in* — and rightly. Why celebrate an institution to which the British public is hostile? I've always found it strange that Euroscepticism is caricatured as a fringe, minority position when the polling evidence is so overwhelming. The European Commission anxiously monitors this, conducting identical polling in all member states — the largest poll in the world. The results are never publicised in Britain because they make clear the depth of public hostility. We have dug a few out, from the Eurobarometer data archives, and print them below.

Peter Hoskin

Another European mess for the coalition to deal with

Financial meltdown. As Ben Brogan says this morning, it tends to concentrate the mind. And so it is with the coalition, after days of infighting and spiteful diversion. The meltdown is not our own, of course, but that of the Greeks. And although much will be said by Conservative and Liberal Democrat politicians about how "there, but for the grace of George Osborne," etc., the real issue for them is simply this: how much are we in for? If Greece requires another bail-out, how much British money might be involved? Osborne himself – speaking across the news channels yesterday – has set out out a firm line. "We certainly don't want to be part of any bail-out of Greece," stresses the Chancellor.

Sunday

David Blackburn

Sectarianism breathes again in Ulster

Can Tom Elliott lead the Ulster Unionists? That’s the question commentators in Northern Ireland are asking, after the party suffered yet another reverse at the polls. Elliott was elected leader on a landslide in September and he is already under pressure, seemingly powerless to arrest the decline of the once dominant force in Northern Irish politics. He is visibly rattled, as the clip above proves. It was probably a reaction in the heat of the moment, but one that should alarm for those Tories who still seek an alliance with the UUP.* It was hoped that the scale of Elliott’s victory would unite the fractious party. But the divisions that characterised Sir Reg Empey’s leadership have intensified under Elliott. The factions are many and various.

Hamish Macdonell

Salmond sees out his rivals

Two down and one to go: that’s the score among the opposition leaders in the Scottish Parliament as the parties continue to sift through the wreckage left by the SNP tsunami last week. Iain Gray, the Scottish Labour leader, didn’t wait long. He announced he was quitting on Friday afternoon, even before the full extent of Alex Salmond’s landslide victory was officially declared. Mr Gray will stay on until the autumn but will go then to allow someone else to start the unenviable task of picking Scottish Labour up from its disastrous performance last week. Yesterday Tavish Scott, the Scottish Liberal Democrat leader, told his parliamentary party that he was resigning too.

Fraser Nelson

The Tories’ intellectual dishonesty over the NHS

Why should Cameron ditch the Lib Dems? Coalition has made his party more radical, more electorally successful – and the worst ideas in the Cabinet come from men with blue lapels. Take Andrew Lansley. His press release today would have been shocking had it come from a Lib Dem, and denounced as dangerous leftist nonsense that renders the government's overall message incoherent. Ed Balls' arguments against cuts have routinely been challenged in Coffee House. So we can hardly be expected to applaud when his arguments are plagiarised by a Tory. The hapless Lansley, whose needless and complex heath reform bill has stalled, is today trying to win back the initiative by attacking Balls and Miliband from the left.

James Forsyth

Why Clegg will get his way on NHS reform

On Andrew Marr this morning, Nick Clegg made clear that changes to the NHS bill are his new priority. He said that there would be ‘substantial’ changes to it and declared that ‘no bill is better than a bad bill.’ I suspect that Clegg will get what he wants on the NHS bill. When I spoke to one senior Clegg ally after the AV vote, I was told that Number 10 is ‘conceding everything to us in that area.’ My source went on to say that because of the Tories’ traditional weakness on the the NHS, the Tories ‘are mortally afraid of a row over the NHS with us on side and them on the other and rightly so.’ The NHS, though, was the only area where Clegg appeared to be setting a new tack.

Peter Hoskin

Huhne on the rack

It may not be reflected in the popular vote, but politics is still mostly about the Liberal Democrats this morning. We have Ed Miliband's latest sally for their affections. We have the usual veiled threats and dread innuendo from Vince Cable. And then there's the weird, but piercing, accusation on the cover of the Mail on Sunday: Chris Huhne pressurised others – and, specifically, a constituency aide – to take speeding points on his behalf, as he didn't want to lose his driving licence. The accusation, it is said, is inspired by rumours spread across Westminster – and now by testimony from Huhne's former wife. While, for his part, the Energy Secretary is denying it all. Whomever you believe, the story has flared up at an intriguing time.