Uk politics

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Surmountable problems for Nick Clegg

From our UK edition

Curious times, getting curiouser, for Nick Clegg. The Lib Dem leader might have thought that bringing his party into government would ensure him a triumphant reception at their conference in two weeks. But, instead, he faces a number of stories that could unsettle proceedings. Today, we hear that more Liberal Democrat councillors have resigned in what they claim is protest at the cuts being implemented by central government. What's more, a number of Lib Dem figures have added their voices to the general cacophony surrounding Andy Coulson. And that's before we consider the underlying, but most urgent, threat to the stability of the coalition: the Lib Dems' spluttering poll position. But Clegg should not be unduly concerned.

Friday

James Forsyth

First free schools will open next September

From our UK edition

Tomorrow’s Guardian front page says Michael Gove dealt fresh blow as only 20 'free schools' approved. But this is actually not a bad rate of progress. The 20 refers only to the new schools that will open in September 2011, more will open in 2012 and 2013 and so on. One would expect the numbers to increase as momentum behind the programme builds. As soon as parents see what these schools can do, there’ll be greater demand for them. Ed Balls is out tonight with a typically pugnacious statement claiming that this proves that parents don’t want free schools. But it is worth remembering that Tony Blair, a man who knows a thing or two about what the public want, goes out of his way to praise Tory school plans in his autobiography.

Peter Hoskin

Labour turn up the heat on Coulson

From our UK edition

As we drift into the weekend, Labour are stepping up their attacks on Andy Coulson. Already today, Tom Watson, Alan Johnson, John Prescott and Chris Bryant have all drawn noisy attention to the allegations made in that New York Times Magazine article about phone tapping and the News of the World – and their efforts have already pushed the story to the top of the BBC news agenda. Indeed, Bryant has even called for David Cameron to sack Coulson. Labour types will no doubt repeat that message constantly over the next few days. So far, the Tories are standing behind their comms chief. A statement from No.10 reiterated that Coulson "totally and utterly denies" the allegations made against him.

Peter Hoskin

Liam Fox rows back on carrier sharing

From our UK edition

For a while then, it looked as though Britain and France really were going to share aircraft carriers as a mesure d'austérité. But, today, Liam Fox seems to have put a block on the idea, describing it in Paris as "utterly unrealistic". He did, though, add that we could pool some of our transport planes and helicopters with the French (which sounds like the military equivalent of hitching a lift, if we happen to be going in the same direction). And Fox's spokesman has since said that there still might be "strategic co-operation across the maritime domain," whatever that means. So some sort of link-up with the French should be expected.

Patrick Nolan

What you need to know ahead of the Spending Review: the New Zealand experience

From our UK edition

This is the latest of our posts with Reform looking ahead to the Spending Review. The first five posts were on health, education, the coalition’s first hundred days, welfare and the Civil Service. International examples of public finance rescue missions Other countries can provide important lessons on what does, and what does not, work in devising a plan to bring government spending down. Several countries have undertaken major programmes of reform that have set out to restore fiscal credibility and improve the quality of their public services. Examples include New Zealand, Canada and Ireland. Reform has drawn on the experiences of senior figures from these countries, and lessons from the New Zealand experience are discussed below.

James Forsyth

Balls turns on the man he called Labour’s ‘greatest ever leader’

From our UK edition

The ever-pugnacious Ed Balls was on the Today Programme this morning denouncing Tony Blair for saying that the coalition was, broadly, right in its deficit reduction plans. As Balls warmed to his task, he started reeling off Blair’s failings—his advocacy of entry into the euro, his one-sided account of things in his autobiography and the like— and I wondered: if this is his opinion of the man he called Labour’s greatest ever-leader, what on earth does he think of the other men who have led the party?   But in all seriousness, the coalition needs to start hitting back at the ‘growth denier’ charge that Balls keeps hurling at them.

Peter Hoskin

David Miliband strikes for the middle ground

From our UK edition

It must be quite satisfying for the David Miliband campaign that they can commission a YouGov poll and get all the results they would have wanted. According to the Guardian, MiliD has a signigicant lead when it comes to which candidate is the "most effective alternative to Cameron". But it's this finding that is the most significant:   "The poll of 2,907 people, conducted between 25-27 August, also found that David Miliband enjoys a strong lead among voters who abandoned Labour – a key battle in the leadership campaign. He has a 25% lead over his brother among these voters on who would be the best alternative to Cameron, and a 27% lead as the candidate most likely to persuade people to vote Labour.

Thursday

David Blackburn

A question of judgement

From our UK edition

Up until today, the Hague-Myers story was confined to scurrilous rumour on Guido’s blog and the occasional cautious article in the Telegraph or the Mail; the rest of the media were uninterested. But, as James notes, Hague’s two extraordinarily frank statements, particularly yesterday’s impassioned denial to ‘set the record straight’, have forced the issue into the mainstream political debate. The personal always becomes political. What of William Hague’s judgement? John Redwood condemns Hague’s ‘poor judgement’ in personal matters before going on to cast aspersions on his policy judgements, particularly those relating to the EU.

David Blackburn

Brown’s plan for the future

From our UK edition

Mr Blair’s former breathless lover will form the fully staffed Gordon and Sarah Brown Foundation, paid for by lucrative speaking engagements, which the Spectator revealed some weeks ago. He has accepted three pro-bono appointments - joining Queen Rania of Jordan’s Global Campaign for Education, working on a new programme to bring the internet to Africa and joining the board of Tim Berners Lee's World Wide Web Foundation. He will also continue to write on the plight of the world’s poor. Presumably, he won’t now be seeking a spot at the Shadow Cabinet table. Like Blair, Brown’s ambitions are global. I can’t criticise Brown for any of this – they are all worthy causes close to Brown’s heart.

David Blackburn

Darling: bankers’ super tax failed

From our UK edition

Honesty is an attractive though rare quality in a politician, and Alistair Darling’s self-awareness and morose delivery always grabs attention. Last night, the former chancellor told a conference of bankers that the 50 percent levy on bonuses over £25,000 was a failure. The FT reports him saying: ‘I think it will be a one-off thing because, frankly, the very people you are after here are very good at getting out of these things and . . . will find all sorts of imaginative ways of avoiding it in the future… what I wanted to do was send a message to them that we all live in the same world together.’ Darling’s is a curious definition of failure.

James Forsyth

The Today Programme has its Hague cake and eats it too

From our UK edition

The Today Programme this morning demonstrated the problem with putting out an official statement on your private life: it makes the media feel that they have official sanction to discuss the matter. There were three separate discussions of Hague’s statement on the programme this morning. In a classic case of the BBC trying to both have its cake and eat it, one of the segments spent several minutes debating whether they should be talking about the matter at all. Hague’s problem is that the press is now obsessed with this story; it isn’t going to let it go even after this extraordinarily personal statement.

Peter Hoskin

“The worst-written memoir ever twittered by a serious politician”

From our UK edition

That's how Bruce Anderson sums up Tony Blair's book in a caustic piece for the magazine. Here's the whole review for the benefit of CoffeeHousers: 'It is bizarre. As he often demonstrated in the House of Commons, Tony Blair knows how to use words. He could also have mobilised a team to help him write his memoirs. Instead, it is all his own work, and the words mutinied. This book is not just badly written. it is atrociously written. For almost 700 pages, Tony Blair stumbles between mawkishness and banality. Prime ministers send soldiers into combat. Some of those soldiers are killed. That is a subject which would lead the least sensitive of men to reach into their souls and craft language out of emotional depth. This is Mr Blair's version.

Peter Hoskin

Coulson under the spotlight again

From our UK edition

The New York Times Magazine's article about phone hacking at the News of the World comes, it must be said, a little out of the blue. It's over a year since the story last exercised printing presses in the UK – and a year, too, since David Cameron's communications chief, Andy Coulson, was hauled in front of MPs to explain what happened under his editorship of the paper. Back then, he distanced himself from the dubious methods of some Screws reporters, saying that he was neither aware of, nor complicit in, any phone hacking. And, in the absence of any countervailing evidence, the process left Coulson with a few light bruises, but no real scars. But today's article contains material that could put the heat on Coulson once again.

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Tony Blair, freelance statesman

From our UK edition

Say what you like about Blair, but he is something of a political entrepreneur. He detects a gap in the market and fills it: he did with New Labour in the mid-1990s. And he detects a trend in the globalised world: a system where governments don't matter so much and power is held by a global elite. This, CoffeeHousers, is what he's up to with his memoirs. He is presenting himself in new incarnation, a statesman without a state, able to move without being tied down to an electorate. There's a very revealing passage in his book where he talks about Condi Rice: “She is a classic example of the absurdity of people with experience and capacity at the highest level not having big political jobs after retirement from office,” he writes.

Peter Hoskin

Hague statement on Christopher Myers

From our UK edition

William Hague has just released this statement: “I feel it is necessary to issue this personal statement in response to press and internet speculation over the last ten days.

 Earlier this year a Sunday newspaper began questioning whether my marriage to Ffion was in trouble, and last week another media outlet asked whether there was a statement about our supposed separation. This seemed to be linked to equally untrue speculation surrounding the appointment of Christopher Myers as a Special Adviser.

 Christopher Myers has demonstrated commitment and political talent over the last eighteen months. He is easily qualified for the job he holds.

David Blackburn

The education battle opens

From our UK edition

Michael Gove has announced that 32 schools will open as Academies at the start of the new term. More schools are set to open over the next academic year, but it is a disappointing figure. However, it could’ve been worse – I’ve heard rumours that as few as 10 schools would adopt Gove’s reforms. The figure of 32 is at the upper limit of recent estimates knocking around Westminster. Disappointing it may be, but slow progress is unsurprising. These are radical steps and teachers are hesitant in the face of change. Blair’s original academy reforms were frustrated in part by teachers and governors eager to preserve the status quo. However, first Blair and now Gove are committed to an attritional struggle with the recalcitrant Educational Establishment.

Ed Howker

Blair: the sex scenes

From our UK edition

Not just a Prime Minister, not just a global statesman, in A Journey Tony Blair also demonstrates he knows how to treat a girl: CHERIE: "I DEVOURED HER LOVE" "…that night she cradled me in her arms and soothed me; told me what I needed to be told; strengthened me; made me feel that I was about to do was right … On that night of the 12th May, 1994, I needed that love Cherie gave me, selfishly. I devoured it to give me strength. I was an animal following my instinct, knowing I would need every ounce of emotional power to cope with what lay ahead. I was exhilarated, afraid and determined in roughly equal quantities." ANJI HUNTER: "SEXY - WITH DEVASTATING EFFECT" "Anji was my best friend.

David Blackburn

The Mirror backs ‘The Special One’

From our UK edition

The ballot has opened and the Mirror has joined the mounting chorus in favour of David Miliband. They say of Miliband: ‘We believe he has the intellect, talent and experience to take on the Tories - and eventually become PM.’ Their timing is odd, given that Fleet Street and Westminster are currently captivated by Tony Blair’s memoir. But it is also a neat coincidence that Blair’s journey ends on the day that his apparent heir’s begins. As Tim Montgomerie notes in today’s Times (£), the Tories fear David Miliband because he is the only Labour leadership candidate who asks: ‘What would Tony do?’ It goes deeper than that.

Ed Howker

Blair’s contempt for the left

From our UK edition

In tomorrow's papers the reviewers will compare 'A Journey' to those "real-life" misery memoirs that seem to be publishing catnip. It is not inaccurate to conclude that this is tale of one man's struggle in an abusive relationship, and all the more unstatesmanlike for it. The tiny details of the relationship between TB and GB fascinate me. Brown is the one, Blair admits, who coined the soundbyte "tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime" for example. However, by far the most interesting aspect of the book is Blair's barely disguised hatred of the Labour left and, most of all, the left-wing intellectuals. So here, very quickly are some of his key quotes about today's leading left-wing Labour figures. Tony Blair, it is reasonable to conclude, does not like the Labour Party one bit.