Uk politics

Saturday

Fraser Nelson

A lesson for all new MPs

From our UK edition

Ed Miliband has given a surprisingly good speech this morning: free from all the junk language that his older brother has a weakness for. But he raises an interesting question: Why did Gisela Stuart win in Birmingham Edgbaston? Why did Karen Buck win Westminster North? Why did Andy Slaughter win in Hammersmith? Might it have been because all three of these politicians were, at one point, thorns in the flesh of their government? That they all at times campaigned, on principle, against the Labour government? As I said in The Times yesterday, the German-born Ms Stuart was a committed foe of the EU Constitution - who denounced it, and the Lisbon Treaty, as loudly as she could.

Kate Maltby

The equality dilemma

From our UK edition

Spare a thought for poor Theresa May. Judging by the reaction so far, she now faces the unenviable task of shouldering almost everyone’s preconceptions about Tory women in government – with Caroline Spelman, Baroness Warsi and the lower-profile Cheryl Gillan for back-up. She will no doubt continue to disappoint feminists and irritate reactionaries, and she will do so while responsible for the notoriously unwieldy Home Office, which has rapidly taken over from the Department of Health as the ministry where political careers go to die. Representation in politics does matter. It is not unreasonable to claim, as Katharine Viner did in Thursday’s Guardian, that “democracies simply don't work unless they represent those they govern”.

Daniel Korski

Building on the coalition’s good start

From our UK edition

A week in, and I am loving the Conservative-led government. The new line-up of Secretaries of State is very impressive and, though a few solid Tory politicians missed out on Cabinet posts, the inclusion of the Liberal Democrat bench has swelled the government’s talent quota. David Cameron has infused No 10 with energy and purpose. You can just feel the umpf. As the former MP John Gummer said, there is now “smile on the face of Britain”. Foreign Secretary William Hague’s trip to the US set the right tone by calling the UK-US link “an unbreakable alliance”.

Peter Hoskin

Ed Balls follows Ed Miliband’s lead

From our UK edition

So fraternal rivalry it is, then, as Ed Miliband prepares to announce his leadership bid at a Fabian Society conference today. And, reading his interview with the Guardian, it's clear that Ed Balls is soon going to follow suit. Two Eds, two leadership bids, and much shared rhetoric about "listening" to voters. But the similarities don't end there. The passage where Ed Balls argues in favour of "progressive universalism" – a welfare system which stretches to the middle classes – echoes an interview that Ed Miliband gave to the Guardian in March. Both claim that it's important to make sure tax credits and other benefits reach those higher up the income scale. And both claim that Tory plans to trim back the welfare state are damaging to this goal.

Friday

David Blackburn

Stephen Timms MP stabbed

From our UK edition

The Sun is reporting that former finance minister Stephen Timms has been stabbed during a surgery at his constituency office in East Ham. A 21 year-old woman is being detained. Timms has been taken to hospital. His condition is not thought to be life-threatening. More to follow.

Peter Hoskin

Hurd weighs in on the 55 percent debate

From our UK edition

Plenty of eyes on the Tory grandees at the moment.  I mean, the right of the party isn't exactly delighted with the LibCon coalition - so the search is on for figureheads to lead the resistance.  Which is why Andrew Neil's interview with Douglas Hurd on Staight Talk this weekend is worth paying attention to. As it happens, Lord Hurd is quite complementary towards David Cameron and his role in organising the coalition.  Here's the actual quote: "I think it was a brave thing to do.  It might have gone terribly wrong, but he went straight for it and he was completely straightforward in saying this is what this is, and eventually he won what he wanted.  I think it was an act of courage and of skill, those two things which create a good politician...

Peter Hoskin

Who will be Labour’s cuts candidate?

From our UK edition

As Guido and Jim Pickard have pointed out, Liam Byrne's article in the Guardian today reads like the launch of a leadership bid.  But if it is, then it's not a well-judged one.  Amid some sensible points about Labour's demise, there's too much "if we'd have done what I said" bravado which, I imagine, won't go down well with the party faithful right now.  A bit like pouring vinegar on an open wound. But it's worth considering another angle to a Byrne leadership bid.  A couple of weeks ago, I wondered whether Brown's departure would also take Labour away from the "investment vs cuts" dividing line of the past decade, towards a more responsible contribution to the fiscal debate.

Daniel Korski

When will the government be mugged by reality?

From our UK edition

One of the most interesting questions is whether the Tories and the Lib Dems will be able to move from the talking points to the action points. Besides Ken Clarke, Francis Maude and William Hague none of the ministers have any previous government experience. They know government from the outside, from the sidelines, from parliamentary questions but not from the inside. It will be really interesting to see how the Cameron-Clegg government copes not just with the issues where they can set the agenda - like police reform - but where the Goverment is mugged daily by reality - like Pakistan or Yemen. I suspect they will find Labour acted not so much out of incompetence but in desperation. They will also find that because a government wills something does not make it so.

Peter Hoskin

Why fraternal rivalry will be good for Labour

From our UK edition

With the Sun reporting that Ed Miliband is going to stand for the Labour leadership, it's probably a good time to dig out Anne McElvoy's profile of the Miliband brothers for the Sunday Times last month. To my mind, its opening neatly encapsulates the choice between the wonkish one and the slighty-less-wonkish one that Labour may have to make: "When David and Ed Miliband were teenagers, their north London household rang to the chatter of some of the most prominent left-wing names of the era: Tony Benn, Tariq Ali, the ANC leader Joe Slovo and the late Michael Foot. David, one regular guest recalls, would sit 'absorbing it all' and asking interested questions of the grandees.

Daniel Korski

Government, Russian-style

From our UK edition

Правительство, в русском стиле Britain is being governed by a duumvirate. Britons may not understand how two-headed government works; but Russians should have no trouble at all. They have long been accustomed to a two-headed form of government. Perhaps at the next UK-Russian summit, the quartet of Cameron, Clegg, Putin and Medvedev can swap tips. Clegg’s importance to the Conservative-Liberal government will transform the previously honorific role of deputy Prime Minister. He will retain the right to fire Liberal Democrat ministers, if not directly then by threatening to remove their party whip.

Peter Hoskin

In the foothills of Brown’s debt mountain

From our UK edition

After the sunshine of the Downing St rose garden, the gloom of the public finances. This morning's newspapers are full of stories about the tax hikes and spending cuts that our coalition government is looking to introduce. The Sun and the Times dwell on yesterday's forecast for a rise in VAT. The Guardian outlines possible cuts to middle-class benefits. And there's plenty more besides. Two articles, though, are particularly indicative of the tensions that the government will face.  Interviewed in the Sun, David Cameron has to go on the defensive about tax rises; insisting that "The Conservative party is still a low-tax party, a tax-cutting party – and that's in the agreement.

Thursday

David Blackburn

Labour must recognise the scale of its defeat

From our UK edition

Will Straw was on the news this afternoon, arguing that Labour had lost only a small "doughnut" of seats around London and in the south. As John Rentoul notes, some doughnut: Labour was annihilated in England. David Cameron’s swift reform of the Conservative party was built on recognising the scale of defeat. Few on the Labour side have yet done so, including David Miliband, who clings to the spurious consolation that it could have been worse. In a piece for the Guardian, John Denham is candid about a share of the vote that was markedly lower than John Major’s in 1997: ‘Most obvious is just how catastrophic our defeat was.

David Blackburn

Hammond: Crossrail will stay

From our UK edition

Philip Hammond was quietly brilliant as Shadow Chief Secretary to the Treasury and it would have been a travesty if he was excluded from the Cabinet. Having avoided assuming the mantle of ‘the most hated man in England’, Hammond has been handed the poisoned Transport brief. A popular saying about frying and pans and fires comes to mind as he will tasked with renewing Britain’s congested roads, baleful airports and Victorian railways amid austerity. Still, he could have been sent to Northern Ireland. Hammond’s first announcement has been to confirm George Osborne’s pledge that the £16bn Crossrail project will not be cut.

David Blackburn

The death knell for Unionism in Ulster?

From our UK edition

Last Thursday was a dreadful night for the Unionists in Ulster. Six months of unionist divisions, dissent and defections culminated in a near decimation of the Unionist vote. There was an 8.7 percent against the DUP, whose self-induced crisis was embodied by Peter Robinson’s humiliating defeat. The Ulster Unionists have been eradicated. Slyvia Hermon was one of many to resist Sir Reg Empey’s pact with the Tories and overall there was a 2.7 percent swing against the party. Infighting will prevail. The anti-Conservative Michael McGimpsey is apparently in the mix to succeed Empey. Blame must be apportioned to the Conservatives’ efforts to create a non-sectarian centre-right alliance in Ulster.

David Blackburn

Miliband storms ahead. Whither Ed Balls?

From our UK edition

Amazingly, given his penchant to procrastinate, David Miliband’s leadership bid is flying. High profile endorsements fly-in – former defence secretary and arch-Blairite John Hutton is the latest. Miliband is out on the stump, canvassing the opinions of former voters. Ed Balls, by contrast, looks tentative and there is no doubt he’s losing ground.   Iain Martin has an excellent post on the Labour leadership contenders and concludes that Miliband is not yet the complete package. I agree. Bananas aside, Miliband’s chief problem is that he expresses himself in meaningless abstractions. Think Tanks and cosmopolitans adore the terminology, voters don’t – The Big Society was A Big Flop.

Peter Hoskin

Reform? Looks more like gerrymandering

From our UK edition

Much ado about this 55 percent proposal – whereby that proportion of the House, rather than just over 50 percent, would be required to vote down a government – and rightly so.  But, as so often, Iain Martin says all that needs to be said.  Here's a snippet from his must-read post: "It is rather stretching things to try and present this piece of proposed gerrymandering as 'Political Reform.' It is actually designed to ensure that even a walk-out of the whole Lib Dem parliamentary group couldn't actually bring down this government. This would weaken parliament and strengthen the hand of the executive considerably - when it is only weeks since both parties were talking of doing the opposite.

Peter Hoskin

The emergency Budget will be the true measure of this coalition

From our UK edition

So who agrees with the economists forecasting that VAT will rise - perhaps to 20 percent - this year? I'm not normally one for making predictions but, as far as I can tell, this one seems pretty likely. Various politicos have been leaning towards this measure over the past year. And the new government will need quick ways to plug the fiscal gap while spending cuts filter slowly through the system. Problem is, it might make Vince Cable's silly attacks during the election look even sillier in retrospect. Oh well. This opens up the wider question of how the coalition will rebalance our public finances. The Lib Dems have said they'd do it only via spending cuts, while the Tories were aiming for a 80:20 split between cuts and tax rises.

Daniel Korski

Let the reforms begin today

From our UK edition

David Cameron and Nick Clegg want their coalition government to be seen as a reforming government. They can begin showing their seriousness today, as they fill out the junior ministerial posts in their government. Rather than appoint a slew of ministers, parliamentary secretaries etc, they should keep to one Secretary of State and one junior minister for each Department. Don’t listen to me; take the advice of such radicals as Sir John Major and Lord Douglas Hurd, who wrote in The Times in June 2009: "There are too many ministers. The total could be reduced by about a third. Only Cabinet ministers need parliamentary private secretaries. The Treasury should remain with two ministers, both in the Cabinet ....

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson

Reasons for real hope amid the misplaced optimism

From our UK edition

Today's civil partnership between two men who look uncannily like each other will, I suspect, be remembered as a festival of misplaced optimism. Cameron overdid it a little, making out that this was his ideal outcome. It seems rude to point it out, but there were two podiums in that rose garden because he flunked the election (see Tim Montgomerie's superlative report for details). The cost of his failure to win is having to do a deal with Nick Clegg. The country didn't vote for a new politics: the Lib Dems did worse than last time, so polls show most voters would have preferred Cameron to have formed a minority government. This is an alliance designed to stop Cameron fighting an election again soon, and repeating last week's jarring experience.