Uk politics

Wednesday

Henry Featherstone

An early warning system for healthcare

From our UK edition

Every few years we unearth another hospital scandal in which we discover, all too late, that many patients have needlessly died.  On the face of it there is no common theme to these failures: the bug clostridium dificille at Stoke Mandeville, possibly similar infections at Maidstone & Tunbridge Wells; emergency admissions at Mid-Staffordshire, and possibly poor hygiene at Basildon & Thurrock. But, as The Sun points out today, it seems that the Department of Health was warned in the strongest terms about flaws in the healthcare oversight mechanism. It is astounding that there is no system of performance improvement in the NHS.  But suppose there was.

David Blackburn

The Tory wobble is over, for the moment

From our UK edition

The media are obsessed with a Tory crisis. And why not? It’s a good story. The Telegraph is cheerleading the circus. It gave exhaustive coverage to the absurd hen-fight in Westminster North; on Monday it reported on more ‘rumblings and grumblings’ in the shires; yesterday, their subject was David Cameron’s heavy handed response to the ‘backwoodsmen’; and today Simon Heffer collates these events into the conclusion that ‘even if  Mr Cameron doesn’t see how disenchanted the public is by its lack of lack of choice and his lack of definition, many of his MPs do. The ride is about to get rocky.’ By accident or design, the Telegraph’s analysis is consistent. If there is such a thing as ‘Cameronism’ it is conflicted.

James Forsyth

The Tories needed to be negative

From our UK edition

There is only one way the Tories can lose the election and that is if it becomes a referendum on them rather than a choice between them and the government. We are in such an anti-politics moment that the electorate is unlikely to give a positive endorsement to any politician or political party. This—not the poor choice of photo—was the real problem with the Tories’ opening ad of the year: it invited voters to judge Cameron in isolation. Cameron is the biggest asset the Tories have but he is their biggest asset when contrasted with Gordon Brown. This is why I think Daniel Finkelstein is wrong to argue that the Tories should eschew negative campaigning. They need to remind voters what the alternative to them is. Danny is critical of the Tory death tax campaign.

Daniel Korski

What can Cameron learn from Obama’s situation?

From our UK edition

President Obama was going to be different. He was going to learn from Jimmy Carter's failures. He was going to avoid Bill Clinton’s fate. Like his well-run campaign, Obama's tenure in the White House was going to be cool, calm and effective. If Clinton failed by sending an over-cooked healthcare reform to Congress, Obama would succeed by leaving the details to lawmakers. If McCain's campaign was psychodrama, Obama's administration was going to be all collegiality.    It did not work out that way and now the knives are out for Obama's team. First there was Ed Luce's piece in the Financial Times. Now Leslie H. Gelb, a veteran DC insider, comes out and says it: the President must change key personnel now.

David Blackburn

Purnell’s ‘empowerment’ pledge falls flat

From our UK edition

James Purnell envisages a society of ‘empowered’ voters left to make decisions for themselves. It is an attractive concept – individual responsibility displacing state directives will save money and, providing those running the institutions are competent, improve public services. Writing in the Times, Purnell acknowledges that these concepts can become lost in the abstract terms in which they are expressed. What a pity he didn’t take his own advice - his article is an extended abstract noun. Not that it’s all bad. What power is there for parents who can’t afford to move close to a good school, he asks.

Tuesday

David Blackburn

Branson’s comments are nectar to the Tories

From our UK edition

Sir Richard Branson may often personify a leering joke, but, as Steve Richards observed this morning, this election is descending into a personality contest. Branson remains a symbol of British entrepreneurial success: his endorsement is crucial and I expect to see this story splashed across the right-wing tabloids tomorrow. The Standard quotes Branson saying: “I believe the UK's record budget deficit does pose a serious risk to our recovery. “It would be damaging if we lost the confidence of the markets through delayed action and saw interest rates have to go up steeply. “We are going to have to cut our spending and I agree with the 20 leading economists who said we need to start this year.

David Blackburn

Much to do if Britain is to manufacture its way out of trouble

From our UK edition

The City had hoped that Britain would export its way out of trouble. Dream on City Boys: Britain’s trade deficit is £7.3bn. It is perverse that the Thatcher government is blamed for manufacturing’s decline. Certainly, deficits were a feature of the Thatcher years but Labour came to power with a £1.8bn trade surplus and the gap has widened every year thereafter; Britain was £56bn in the red by 2006. With a possible inflation crisis louring in the distance, precipitated in part by weak sterling and a dependency on imports, British manufacturing needs to be stimulated. John Redwood has a typically incisive post:       ‘It is quite possible to make things in Britain, make them well and make a profit.

David Blackburn

MPs, porkies, pigs and scum

From our UK edition

The headline might almost be word association, but when it comes to Twitter the devil makes work for idle thumbs. Guido points out that tweets cannot be edited once posted. Labour whip David Wright has previous with labelling the Tories ‘scum’, and he maintains that on each occasion he has fallen victim to a would be Lisbeth Salander, who uses their genius to post inane political slurs in no more than 147 characters. Either that or he’s artless at deceit.     CCHQ scent blood and Eric Pickles is gunning for Wright’s head. He has written a letter arguing that Wright has breached the ministerial code. I can see this row running on and on, as there is a lot of bad blood between the two parties.

David Blackburn

Short term or long term inflation?

From our UK edition

The news that the CPI rose to 3.5 percent doesn’t seem to have affected the markets, but the cost of living is soaring. Mervyn King has written to Alistair Darling predicting that inflation will fall back to the benchmark 2 percent over the course of the year, and that the current explosion is a result of short term factors such as the restored VAT rate, a 70 percent rise in oil prices and the depreciation of sterling. David Blanchflower is right: inflation may eat a little of Brown’s debt mountain and it will help those who now hold negative equities on houses. But it does precious little else that is positive, especially as wages are unlikely to follow suit in this climate.

Fraser Nelson

Cutting it with the Fink

From our UK edition

I couldn't let today pass without a response to Danny Finkelstein. We do agree on the ends, but not the means. And, as he says, this debate mirrors one about the methods of reform. So, let¹s go through his points. 1. 'I am afraid I think Fraser overestimates (a lot) how politically difficult this is all going to be. And how personally painful for a lot of people. And how technically difficult.' Painful, yes, but necessary ­ and it will be resented if Cameron is not straight about the cuts he will have to make. But how painful? Gordon Brown¹s great intellectual victory is to persuade the Tories that 'cuts' can only mean frontline services cut ­ so (as Brown once said) 10% cuts 'mean schools close and hospitals close.

Monday

James Forsyth

Why Adeela Shafi didn’t get a namecheck

From our UK edition

There is real jumpiness in Tory circles at the moment about the prospects of more candidate disasters. So eyebrows were sent upwards when David Cameron failed to name check Adeela Shafi in a section of his speech this morning which mentioned many of the Muslim candidates standing for the party. The omission seemed surprising as Shafi was one of the people who spoke in the prestigious slot just before the leader’s speech at Tory conference in 2008 and is, I think, the only female Muslim candidate standing for the Tories. The assumption was that she had not been mentioned because of the recent stories about her financial problems. But the Tories tell me not to read too much into her not been included on the list, pointing out that the list was not exhaustive.

James Forsyth

The three Tory pin-ups are brave

From our UK edition

The three voters who have agreed to be featured in the Tories’ new ads are brave folk. I would wager a considerable amount that right now there are a whole slew of people digging into their pasts hoping to find some piece of evidence to discredit them. It might not be appealing but it is how politics is done. Remember how the American media hammered ‘Joe the Plumber’, the man who confronted Obama about his tax policy and the McCain campaign tried to turn into a poster boy for those worried about Obama’s economic policies, for owing income tax and not having the right kind of plumbing license. Just last weekend, ‘Joe’ was complaining about how the McCain campaign had used him and the whole experience had “screwed up” his life.

Peter Hoskin

The Tories’ new poster campaign is a massive improvement over the last

From our UK edition

I know there's a danger of expending too many words on poster campaigns, so just a quick post to flag up the designs the Tories launched this morning.  There's one of them above, and two more based on the same theme - "I've never voted Tory before, but..." - which you can see here. To my eyes, at least, they're a massive improvement over the last, graveyard poster: refreshingly positive, while also attacking The Way Things Are Now.   Now, I know there are CoffeeHousers who liked the Death Tax poster precisely because it got down 'n' dirty, taking the fight to Labour.  But, despite their sunnier front, these latest posters will also hit Labour where it hurts.  After all, one of the ideas that Brown & Co.

Peter Hoskin

The politics of Osborne’s co-ops

From our UK edition

There's plenty of buzz this morning about George Osborne's new policy proposal: allowing public sector workers to run schools, job-centres, hospitals and other services as cooperatives. James Crabtree, Tim Montgomerie and Spectator.co.uk's very own Martin Bright have exhaustive posts on why this might work in practice. It is, as they all suggest, pretty radical stuff.   But it's also clever politics.  It is something which appeals directly to people on the left (like Martin), as well as public sector workers.

Peter Hoskin

Will Brown’s next interrogators be the public?

From our UK edition

So what next for the new, more human, Gordon Brown (as seen on TV)?  Well, according to today's Times, there are some ministers who want him to take the show on the road.  The idea is to let voters tackle Brown directly - but about the topics Piers Morgan kinda skipped over: the economy, MPs' expenses, Afghanistan, and all the other big stuff.  And the hope, in turn, is that this "masochism strategy" will make the public respect Brown more. Would it work?  Well, just like the Morgan interview and its wider impact, that's something which is difficult to pre-judge from the confines of Westminster.

Sunday

Fraser Nelson

The best publicity Brown is ever likely to get

From our UK edition

Brown is very lucky to have a friend in Piers Morgan. He did him a great service in the ITV interview tonight - and while it would have made CoffeeHousers nauseous (if they watched it), it will be the best television the PM will get this year and probably ever. Mark my words: the Labour Party will not produce anything that shows Brown in such a sympathetic light. It was powerful, I'd say, because it was not party political propaganda: Morgan genuinely likes Brown and did his utmost to project the human side of him. Those hours of coaching from Alastair Campbell paid off. He kept smiling in a credible way - telling anecdotes in exactly the way that he does, in private, when he's trying to charm people.

Peter Hoskin

The Tories take the fight to Labour over social justice

From our UK edition

Statistics about educational inequality in this country always tend to shock and dismay in equal measure.  And this latest piece of research from Michael Gove's office is no exception: "New analysis by the Conservatives shows that just 45 pupils on Free School Meals (FSM) make it to Oxford or Cambridge each year. One top London private school gets an average of 82 Oxbridge admissions a year – almost double the number of FSM admissions. One leading independent girls’ school produces the same number of Oxbridge entrants as the entire FSM cohort.  Just 1 per cent of FSM pupils go on to a Russell Group university." Just to be clear, the overall Oxbridge intake is about 6,000 students a year.  So 45 pupils on FSM represents 0.75 percent of that.

David Blackburn

Ashcroft returns fire but the ‘scandal’ rolls on

From our UK edition

Lord Ashcroft looks like a man not to cross and he will do anything to protect his privacy. He faces down criticism with complete silence, patient before turning on his detractors. According to the Sunday Times, Ashcroft has attacked Labour over its ‘smears’ about his tax status. His tone is derisive but his intention is clear: back off. He has obtained documents held by the Labour party, detailing its strategy to expose Ashcroft. One activist wrote: ‘Think the Guardian most likely to go for it.’ Smart chaps these Labour wonks. Sure enough, the front page of the Observer trails an interview with Eric Pickles, who is ‘frustrated’ by his deputy’s obfuscation.

Fraser Nelson

Cameron steps up his game

From our UK edition

There’s something about a trip to Scotland that brings out the best in Tories giving speeches, and David Cameron lived up to the occasion the other evening. He reprised his social justice passage – easily the best part of his 2009 conference speech. Listing how Labour has made the rich richer and poor poorer, and how the Tories are the party of Wilberforce etc. Promising a “radical zeal” Conservative party – Amen to that. “Some people will say 'you can't do things like that.  You can't afford to take those risks.' I say with so little money and so much failure we can't afford not to.” That’s the spirit.  “Those cuts are coming: make no mistake they are Gordon Brown’s cuts,” he added.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Cameron brings some clarity to the table

From our UK edition

Maybe it's just a slow Saturday, but the Conservatives' latest WebCameron video (see below) strikes me as one of the most effective yet. The pitch is straightforward: make an appeal to people who voted New Labour or who "have never voted Tory before".  So things like Sure Start and the minimum wage get a namecheck. But, aside from that, it's striking just how clearly and unequivocally Cameron sets out Tory commitments such as recognising marriage in the tax system. Indeed, the passage on the "root causes of our social breakdown", and how the Tories would deal with them, harkens back to his powerful address at the party conference.  Only, this time, it's a bit more conversational.  And there's a greenhouse in the background.