Uk politics

Sunday

James Forsyth

The Tories’ new line on Europe

From our UK edition

Tim Montgomerie has the scoop that the Tories will not hold a referendum on Lisbon if it has been ratified by the next general election. A vote on Lisbon once it had been ratified would only have had moral force so the Tory policy shift is not a betrayal of Euro-scepticism. However, the party will seek a ‘manifesto mandate’ to begin negotiations to repatriate powers. The challenge for the Tories is to persuade the other member states to allow Britain to take back powers.  As Tim says, the Tories will need a savvy negotiator with strong Euro-sceptic instincts to take charge of this process. To my mind, Theresa Villiers, a former MEP who knows her way around the European system and is a strong Euro-sceptic, would be ideal for this task.

James Forsyth

Until Ashcroft is clear about his tax status, the press will make a mountain out of everything he does

From our UK edition

I have long thought that the secrecy surrounding Lord Ashcroft’s tax affairs is a strategic liability for the Conservative party. The Conservatives should be able to say if their party vice-chairmen is domiciled in this country for tax purposes. Indeed, openness about this point should be a condition of him holding the position. The Observer today has a front page story about Ashcroft’s involvement in William Hague’s trip to the US. But even given my concerns about Ashcroft, I fail to see the evidence produced as particularly worrying. We know that Ashcroft has flown members of the shadow Cabinet around before—David Cameron even took a flight back from the 2007 Rugby World Cup final in Paris on an Ashcroft plane.

Fraser Nelson

Miliband, Sting, Marr and breakfast

From our UK edition

I'm midway through the Andrew Marr show - did the papers and am going back on in a bit to nod appreciatively at Sting - and the main topic is Miliband as EU Foreign Secretary. That Banana boy is being spoken of is not a compliment. The person they want in that job will be a cipher who will obey the orders of the ministers and visit cities that only Robin Cook* would have heard of. But it wil keep him out of the running to challenge Ed Balls for the Labour party leadership. Sting is banging on about how "we need the winter" and it is somehow under threat from global warming. The pity is that this nonsense can stop a guy buying his album. But it does sound quite good  - we heard him rehearsing. Anyway, I wonder if I will be next to Harman?

Saturday

Daniel Korski

Even in Afghanistan, an election needs at least two candidates

From our UK edition

Just when the US administration thought it had turned a corner in Afghanistan by persuading Hamid Karzai to allow a run-off in the presidential elections, things look uncertain again. Having returned from a trip to India, President Karzai's election rival Abdullah Abdullah looks set to announce he will boycott next week's second round of voting. Such a decision could either be the prelude to a resolution of the crisis, or set the stage for political crisis. It is more likely going to be the latter.

Rod Liddle

According to Smith and McNulty, MPs, not taxpayers, are the victims of the expenses scandal

From our UK edition

You have to admire the magnificent, brazen, blank-faced nerve of Jacqui Smith - the former Home Secretary who could not be entirely sure where her home was. Appearing on Question Time on Thursday, her demeanour flitted between confected contrition and self-righteous indignation – always, at the end of every sentence, coming to rest on the latter. Jacqui, you will recall, claimed that her second home was her proper four-bedroomed family home in her constituency, Redditch, and that her main home was a room rented in her sister’s house.

Marjorie Ellis-Thompson

Reward for failure

From our UK edition

My postman and me - aside from the fact that we both come out in hives whenever we hear the words ‘reform’ and ‘modernisation’, which have both ceased to have genuine meaning under ‘new’ Labour we know what it’s like to have Adam Crozier as a boss.  For Alexander (my postman) he is a remote figure, seen on TV or caricatured in cartoons passed around by protestors. He is Britain’s highest paid public servant and got a £15K bonus after only two months in the job, which is probably as much as some of the staff make. I encountered him at Saatchi &Saatchi. Within six weeks he was trying to close down Cause Connection, the unit established to promote ethical or cause related marketing.

David Blackburn

Commanders on the ground were concerned about helicopter shortages

From our UK edition

The Mail has obtained a memo sent to the MoD by Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe. He warns that helicopter shortages would cost lives; tragically, he was prescient. The Mail is not publishing the complete memo, which contains sensitive information, but Lt. Col Thorneloe wrote: ‘We cannot not move people, so this moth we have concluded a great deal of administrative movement by road. This increases the IED threat and our exposure to it... The current level of SH (support helicopter) support is therefore unsustainable... and is clearly not fit for purpose.

Friday

Daniel Korski

Even under the Tories, President Blair will be our man in Brussels 

From our UK edition

In his column, James asks the key question about Tony Blair’s candidature for President of the European Council: what would it do for the Tories and Britain’s foreign policy. William Hague clearly thinks it would be a bad thing and has been lobbying against Blair’s candidacy.   The Shadow Foreign Secretary is letting his anti-EU, anti-Labour views cloud his judgement. Let me explain. If the Tories win, Labour will be in the doldrums, a shadow of its former self. The idea that the party will mount a challenge to a Conservative government by rallying around an EU-focused Tony Blair is unbelievable. Romani Prodi may have jumped from an EU job to the top of Italian politics, but Britain works differently. Peter Mandelson is the exception, Roy Jenkins the rule.

James Forsyth

Free the universities to participate in and mould policy debate

From our UK edition

Politics in this country lacks a proper ideas infrastructure. One of the major reasons for this is that the universities play so little part in policy making and the broader policy debate. Vernon Bogdanor has an important piece on the reasons for this in this week’s New Statesman. His argument is that the bureaucratisation of the education system and the emphasis that the research assessment exercise puts on the rapid production of research has led to an emphasis on an intellectually uninteresting scholasticism in the social sciences. Bogdanor believes that the way to get the universities contributing usefully to policy debates is to free them up from government control, to let them become more independent and therefore intellectually creative.

Caroline Fitzner

Is privatising the Royal Mail viable?

From our UK edition

Over the summer, as the postal crisis mounted, the government argued that adverse market conditions deterred potential investors. Regardless of the ongoing industrial dispute, the government maintain that Lord Mandelson’s bill will not be reintroduced unless conditions improved. According to the Guardian, Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, believes that there is still demand in the public sector to buy the Royal Mail, providing the CWU accepts modernisation and ends the strikes. ‘Ken Clarke, the shadow business secretary, has held talks on the sale of Royal Mail with potential bidders, and the party believes there is still a desire in the private sector to take over the company.

James Forsyth

Don’t be fooled by Kelly’s 60 minute rule

From our UK edition

Next week is going to be dominated by Sir Christopher Kelly’s scheme for reforming MPs’ expenses and allowances. The party leaders are trying to force these reforms through, believing that it would be disastrous for the reputation of politics if MPs don’t accept these reforms in full. But the leaks about what Kelly will propose suggest that some of his ideas are ill thought-out and should not be accepted in full. Take the proposal that all MPs whose constituency station is within 60 minutes of a London train station will not be allowed to claim support for a second home. But this ignores the time it takes an MP both to get to his constituency station and to get from a London station to the Commons.

David Blackburn

Efficiency savings are no match for budget cuts

From our UK edition

Jack Straw has abandoned what he described as “simply unacceptable” efficiency saving recommendations. This is self-evidently the correct action, as the proposals would have endangered the processes of our democracy for a negligible saving. Everyone, even the Prime Minister, though grudgingly on his part, recognises the need for cuts. Efficiency savings are part of this process - £5bn a year is wasted by the NHS on middle management alone. However, there is a danger that Civil Servants will make counter-productive and paltry efficiency savings in an attempt to ward off substantial budget cuts.

Daniel Korski

The Rabbi speaks

From our UK edition

Poland's Chief Rabbi, Michael Schudrich, told the Today programme that Michael Kaminski is, as far as he knows, not an anti-semite today - though the Jewish leader made clear he "could not read his heart", and thought Mr Kaminski's teenage views extremist. The rabbi's words will further fuel the spat between David Miliband and William Hague. Expect the Shadow Foreign Secretary to renew his calls today for an apology to be issued to Kaminski. Expect the Foreign Secretary to ignore this and find support, including from within the Jewish community, to his charges against Mr Kaminski and his accusation that the Tories mingle with madmen. Both parties think the fight is important. Miliband thinks he has stumbled upon political cryptonite to the Tories' electoral superpowers.

David Blackburn

Dangerous efficiency savings

From our UK edition

The Times reports that the Ministry of Justice has produced proposals to close polling booths, hire fewer employees, raise candidate’s deposits and introduce telephone and email ballots in the hope of saving, wait for it, £65million – less than half of Manchester City’s summer transfer spending. In exchange for that trifling sum, the MoJ is prepared to chance the quality of democratic processes. Increasing candidate deposits may preclude minority parties from standing. Fewer electoral staff will increase the possibility of widespread counting errors, occassionally labelled 'malpractice' in other areas.

Thursday

James Forsyth

Blair’s campaign falters

From our UK edition

A contact just back from Brussels tells me that the putative Blair candidacy, which I wrote about this week, is in trouble. Apparently the supporters of Jean Claude Juncker, the Luxembourg PM, are frank that the purpose of his candidacy is to polarise the field with him—Federalist, anti-Iraq—on one side and Blair on the other. In typical EU fashion, the compromise candidate will then be looked for.   Blair’s problem is that he is the high-profile front-runner. He is the man everyone is either for or against and in a selection that is decided by consensus that person rarely gets the job. In the meantime, the Dutch PM Jean Peter Balkenende, who I am told Merkel favours, is neatly tucked up on the rails ready to break through when there is a gap in the field.

James Forsyth

Is the army funded to its target level?

From our UK edition

During the TA debate yesterday, Bob Ainsworth tried to explain why the government had ended up making the cut in the first place. One of the reasons Ainsworth advanced was that recruitment for the regular army had been stronger than expected. But the army remains below its target strength. The exchange between Fox and Ainsworth suggests that the army isn’t actually funded to what is meant to be its full strength: “Dr. Fox: For the sake of clarity, we know that more recruits have come forward than expected, but the Army is still below the target level set by the Government. Is the Secretary of State telling us that the Army is not funded for its establishment figure? Mr.

David Blackburn

Should MPs be given a free vote on Kelly’s reforms?

From our UK edition

No, was Harriet Harman’s answer. With a very peculiar turn of phrase, the Leader of the House said that MPs would “have their say” without having a free vote, which is perhaps a recognition that there will be much chuntering in the bar after the whipped vote. With an eye on gentrification, Harman recently abolished ‘the stocks’ and invented the ‘Court of Public Opinion’. The public will, reasonably, be up in arms if freeloading MPs are seen to wriggle out of new proscriptions. Additionally, the argument that ‘normal employees do not control the terms of their employment, why should MPs?’ is powerful. A free vote is a risk the government will not but should take, as should the other parties.

David Blackburn

Road to perdition

From our UK edition

It is another black day for Gordon Brown. The financial news from America, contrasted with continuing decline here, indicts Brown’s recession strategy. Playing the long game, Osborne is being vindicated, and Guido is correct that the ongoing UK recession negates Labour’s attack line on Osborne: the novice has trumped the alleged master. More damaging though is the resurfacing of Damian McBride and the ‘omerta’ of Brown’s inner circle, with its sordid and cynical connotations. The news that Nadine Dorries will receive £1,000 from McBride reflects poorly on the Prime Minister. Worse still, there is possibly more to come – Dorries has two suits outstanding, against Number 10 and Derek Draper respectively.

David Blackburn

Once again, Britain stands alone

From our UK edition

It’s fortunate that pluck and stoicism are fundamental British characteristics and that we are at our best when backs are to the wall. Figures published today suggest that the US economy grew by an annualised 3.5 percent in the third quarter. Britain is now alone among developed countries in fighting a shrinking economy. So much for Mr Brown’s confidence last autumn and Alistair Darling’s growth forecasts. Even Italy is doing better. One crumb of comfort for Labour is that the American consumer has regained confidence thanks to government stimulus: sales of manufactured goods, such as cars covered by the government scheme, are up by 22.3 percent. This should have global consequences that benefit Britain.

David Blackburn

Welcome reforms, but they do not provide the complete answer

From our UK edition

Baroness Royall has confirmed the Eames inquiry’s recommendation that the House of Lords has its own standards watchdog, following allegations that four Labour peers offered to amend laws for specific companies in return for substantial sums of cash. Whilst this move is welcome, the more pressing issue is how to redress financial strains on members, which tempted corruption originally. Whilst a separate review will examine the options for a system of financial support, current reforms are merely concentrated prescriptions. James Landale revealed today that the amount claimed for overnight accommodation will be reduced, though peers will have to provide claim receipts (for the first time, incredibly).