Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman

Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.

Wednesday

Isabel Hardman

Spending review: the dividing lines

From our UK edition

listen to ‘Spending review 2013: the Coffee House analysis’ on Audioboo George Osborne loves a good dividing line: he sees it as his job to 'weaponise' policies in a way that benefits his party. So what were the key divisions that he set out in today's Spending Round statement? 1. The full package Clearly the Chancellor wanted to make Labour as uncomfortable as possible as he set out the cuts for each department. Once Ed Balls finished his response, the Chancellor started prodding him on whether Labour would match the package. 'Hands up on the Labour benches who wants to match our spending cuts?' he cried. Ed Balls suddenly became strangely interested in his water carafe and in an urgent conversation with Ed Miliband.

Isabel Hardman

Spectator Syria debate: Should the West intervene?

From our UK edition

Should the West intervene in Syria? This week's Spectator debate on this topic saw an impressive swing of opinion in the audience once the speakers had made their cases for and against intervention. All agreed that the first part of the motion debated - 'Assad is a war criminal: the West must intervene in Syria' - wasn't in doubt, but while Sir Malcolm Rifkind, Dr Wael Aleji and Dr Alan Mendoza argued that the West had a clear case for intervening in various ways, Sir Andrew Green, Dr Halla Diyab and Douglas Murray argued that intervention would not improve the crisis at all. Alan Mendoza, founder of the Henry Jackson Society, argued that the case against intervention ignored what had happened in Syria since the conflict began.

Isabel Hardman

Julia Gillard defeated by Kevin Rudd in Labor leadership contest

From our UK edition

Julia Gillard has lost a leadership ballot in the Australian Labor Party to former Prime Minister Kevin Rudd. She called the contest to bring an end to the battles in her party - and in doing so has lost her job. Before the vote, she said: 'Anybody who enters the ballot tonight should do it on the following conditions: that if you win you're Labor leader, that if you lose you retire from politics.' She added that 'tonight is the night'. But the official results, announced in the last few minutes, saw Rudd taking 57 votes, and Gillard only 45.

Isabel Hardman

Spending review dividing lines: who and what to watch

From our UK edition

One set of businesses are already feeling the pain from the successful completion of the spending review. Westminster pizza outlets have come to rely on large orders from the Treasury the night before a spending review or Budget announcement, but the deal was sealed on Sunday night, and so all was calm last night in Westminster. George Osborne still snuck in a cheeky burger and chips (and thought it a good idea to tweet a slightly unappetising picture of himself tucking in), but that was as he made his finishing touches to the speech itself, rather than an attempt to keep going through last-minute negotiations with an angry Cabinet colleague. Parliament will be buzzing, but we're unlikely to get much more detail today beyond how much each department will cut.

Tuesday

Isabel Hardman

Exclusive: partisan EU referendum campaign dampens Labour support

From our UK edition

The Tories are putting off Labour MPs from backing their Private Member's Bill on an EU referendum with an overly partisan campaign, Coffee House has learned. John Cryer, who chairs Labour for a Referendum, tells me that he won't be voting for the Bill because the Conservatives have turned it into a party political campaign to shore up their own position, rather than one that genuinely promotes a referendum. He says: 'I'm not voting for it, I'm abstaining. I think the way the Tories have approached it is very party political. I can understand it in a way because they want to be in a position where they are offering people a choice, they want to try to push other parties on that policy.

Isabel Hardman

Conservative members send ministers EU reform shopping list

From our UK edition

David Cameron will come under increasing pressure in the next few months to publish his 'shopping list' of reforms he wants from a renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe. Even those who want to know what the Prime Minister is really thinking accept that this is not a good idea, as he would neither satisfy the spectrum of views across his party, nor impress them when he returned with only 14 out of 20 demands granted (even if those 14 reforms were very impressive ones). But the Tory party has been consulting its members on the powers that they would like to see returned to national governments. I've got hold of the results, which underline how big the expectations are on Cameron to bring about big change in Europe.

Isabel Hardman

Focusing on borrowing means mutually-assured humiliation for Labour and the Tories

From our UK edition

Strangely, both sides at Treasury questions today wanted to talk about something that does their own party no favours at all to mention. The Labour whips had sent their loyal backbenchers out in force to ask about Friday's borrowing figures, while George Osborne and Conservative colleagues were very happy indeed to talk about how much the Opposition would have to borrow, too. Labour wanted to tell off the government for borrowing more. The government wanted to remind Labour that it would borrow even more.

Isabel Hardman

Sir Mervyn King to Mark Carney: You’re Worth It!

From our UK edition

Sir Mervyn King held an emotional farewell with the Treasury Select Committee this morning ahead of his move from the Bank of England to the House of Lords. Committee chair Andrew Tyrie was as keen to recruit him as a supporter of banking reforms going through Parliament in the future as he was to grill the outgoing Governor: in fact, all the of the MPs on this often incisive committee were reasonably gentle with the man known as Merv the Swerv. As part of his farewell, he gave some advice to his successor which sounded a little bit like a L'Oréal advert: 'Well, I have no intention of giving public advice, but if you really insist, really insist… it's very simple: he should be himself.

Isabel Hardman

Snooper’s Charter could resurface after 2014 Budget

From our UK edition

There's talk this morning of the intelligence budget taking a cut in tomorrow's spending review announcement, but what about the legislation that the spooks say they really need to do their jobs properly? The row about the Communications Data Bill has calmed a little in the past week or so, but that's not to say that those pushing the proposals have given up. I understand that though the bill's Conservative proponents accept that Nick Clegg really will not be moved, they don't think this is the end of the road for the legislation in this Parliament. Instead, figures close to the talks are mulling introducing it after the 2014 Budget. Why then? 'It's the last chance the Lib Dems would have to introduce a mansion tax that would come in for this Parliament,' explains one source.

Monday

Isabel Hardman

Michael Gove’s fantasy Labour education team

From our UK edition

Michael Gove and his colleagues have enjoyed poking Labour on education policy recently. His catty letter exchange with Stephen Twigg last week left Twigg with the victory for style with a supremely bitchy reply, while Gove won on substance (largely because he asked whether Labour's education frontbench possessed any). Today he tried to assemble his own fantasy Labour education team as he took questions from MPs in the House of Commons chamber. Kate Hoey gave him a forthright prod about the delay in a school converting to an academy in her constituency. Gove didn't really answer her question, instead saying: 'I'm very grateful to the honourable lady.

Isabel Hardman

Doctors pass motion of no confidence in Jeremy Hunt. Good.

From our UK edition

The health service that employs you is under more scrutiny than ever before, with shocking cases of bad care, 'never events' and serious lapses crawling out of the woodwork. The regulator that was supposed to keep an eye on all of this is under attack, not just for missing it, but also for apparently deciding not to publish what details it did know, and then deciding to withhold key names implicated in a 'cover-up'. So what, in its eternal wisdom, does the trade union representing you do? The British Medical Association, which has always managed a veneer of respectability over and above many other public sector unions, today passed a motion of 'no confidence' in Jeremy Hunt as Health Secretary.

Isabel Hardman

Leaked letter shows ministers trying to calm tensions on marriage tax breaks

From our UK edition

Ministers are clearly mindful of the potential damage that Tim Loughton's amendment to the Finance Bill calling for tax breaks for married couples could cause. This is one of those issues that could become a rebellion if it is poorly-managed by the leadership, or equally could be a bit of a damp squib if enough backbenchers are reassured and feel they should show loyalty to George Osborne. David Gauke has sent out a letter to Tory MPs trying to do just that. This 'dear colleague' message, which I've been passed, tells backbenchers that the Chancellor will announce the details of a transferable tax allowance 'in due course', which is what the Chancellor himself told a recent Cornerstone dinner.

Isabel Hardman

Tories must tread carefully in NHS battle

From our UK edition

It is clear now that we have reached a tipping point where it is no longer enough to repeat 'I love the NHS' or swear allegiance to Danny Boyle's Olympic caricature of the health service. So what now? Labour and the Tories are scrapping over who still really, truly loves the health service: the latest round of revelations about the Care Quality Commission have allowed the Conservatives to ask questions about the culture and attitudes of both the health service and of the Labour government that led it. Labour, meanwhile, points out that Andrew Lansley is also alleged to have leaned on a whistleblower, something the former Health Secretary denied yesterday.

Saturday

Isabel Hardman

All three parties should publish ‘red lines’ for 2015 coalition negotiations

From our UK edition

Both Ed Miliband and Nick Clegg delivered speeches to their party faithful today about being realistic about 2015. Miliband's speech, briefed as 'tough', was the latest in his series of attempts to tell voters that they can trust him: he wouldn't borrow more than this government… well, no more 'day-to-day spending', which is his way of saying he would actually borrow more for capital projects. Clegg wanted to tell his councillors that they can't see May 2015 as the month when they all get to breathe a sigh of relief and return to their local authority fiefdoms without any of the inconvenience of their party being in national government too.

Friday

Isabel Hardman

Borrowing figures and what really keeps politicians awake at night

From our UK edition

There was a moment in the last Budget statement where George Osborne revealed that the deficit was - just - lower in the year to April 2012 than the previous 12 months. He made it by a whisker. Today, the statisticians have revised their opinion and said borrowing for that financial year was  is up slightly - by £300m to £118.8bn. It's a tiny change, well within a rounding error. And, of course, could easily change again. The extra borrowing was £12.7bn in May, down from £15.6bn last May. Factor in the £3.6bn transferred from the Quantitative Easing programme, and the deficit can be knocked down to £8.8bn. It all depends on how you cut the figures.

Isabel Hardman

Marriage tax break revolt size could hinge on newly-knighted Sir Edward Leigh

From our UK edition

The 42 'Alternative Queen's Speech' bills laid by Peter Bone and Philip Hollobone are very useful for the Lib Dems, as they can use them to argue that this is what a Tory majority government would look like. A source close to Clegg says they serve as an example 'for any members of the public who want to see what having Liberal Democrats in government will get you': i.e. stopping the Tory right from getting its way on legislation. The party's press office has started a Twitter hashtag called #toryqueensspeech and is retweeting some of the best suggestions.

Isabel Hardman

Backbench row looms on tax break for married couples

From our UK edition

The Tory leadership held one of its election strategy meetings yesterday at Chequers. The Prime Minister and his colleagues will have been reassured that their party certainly seems to be turning its face towards 2015, with some of David Cameron's fiercest critics preferring to get behind the campaign for James Wharton's referendum bill. I look at some of the ways Cameron and his colleagues are trying to repair relationships in my Telegraph column today. But Tory anger comes in waves, and there's one racing towards the shore that, according to backbenchers, has a great deal to do with the party's chances with its core vote at the next general election.

Thursday

Isabel Hardman

Owen Paterson’s thoughtful GM revolution

From our UK edition

Bravo to Owen Paterson for making such an extensive and detailed case for the value of genetically-modified crops today. That he gave this speech to Rothamsted Research at all is provocative, but if you read it in full, you will find a thoughtful and far more equivocal argument than the debate surrounding it suggests. The Environment Secretary did not, as some of his critics would have us believe, say that GM crops will solve all the world's troubles and answer all the problems facing intensive farming. Instead, he said: 'I believe that it's time to start a more informed discussion about the potential of genetically modified crops. A discussion that enables GM to be considered in its proper overall context with a balanced understanding of the risks and benefits.

Isabel Hardman

CQC row marks new level in ‘party of the NHS’ battle

From our UK edition

That former Care Quality Commission chief executive Cynthia Bower resigned so quickly from her current job after being named as one of the three executives involved in a discussion about covering up the Commission's failings simply underlines what an appalling mess this case has been from start to finish. The names were withheld ostensibly because of data protection, but when they appeared, it was clear that this was about another sort of protection. Perhaps this will be the tipping point against unaccountable NHS managers and inspectors staying safe whatever their failings. Jeremy Hunt certainly seemed to think that it could be, tweeting: 'Pleased to receive CQC letter naming the individuals involved. Clear sign NHS is changing.