James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The police were long known as the last unreformed public service. Police reform was regarded as just too difficult by politicians of all parties. Even Margaret Thatcher flinched from it, giving the boys in blue an inflation-busting pay increase after winning the 1979 election. But Theresa May and Nick Herbert appear determined to follow through
Before David Cameron’s trip to Berlin later today, George Osborne appeared on the Today Programme to emphasise that in the event of a Eurozone banking union, Britain would require safeguards. Given the importance of finance to this country, Cameron and Osborne can’t accept anything that creates a two-tier single market for financial services. The
The debate over the Union provides Ed Miliband with a political opportunity. He is the only one of the three major party leaders whose party plays in both England and Scotland. The Tories only have one seat north of the border and the Lib Dems fear that they might lose all of their seats in
When David Cameron reshuffles his top team, one of the questions he’ll have to answer is what relationship he wants between the Conservative party and the coalition government. The Liberal Democrats have a deputy leader in Simon Hughes and a party president in Tim Farron who are quite often used by their leadership to try
Whitehall sits and waits. Normal politics is continuing, squalls over whether the apprentice stewards at the Jubilee were taken advantage of and the next stage in the Warsi saga have dominated today, but everyone knows that the big story is unfolding — albeit, at an unpredictable pace — on the continent. There are, at the
As the Jubilee celebrations draw to a close, attention once more returns to events in Europe. There’s a distinct sense among politicians, and especially coalition ministers, that what is happening there will change British politics in a huge way. As one senior MP said to me over the weekend, if a country leaves the Euro
One of the issues that David Cameron is contemplating at the moment is the timing of the reshuffle. I hear that he devoted a considerable chunk of last week to thinking about the structure he wants for the government. The pressing matter that has been delaying the move is doubts over whether certain ministers
In a bid to make Tory MPs feel more involved, Downing Street is inviting small groups of them to see Andrew Cooper, David Cameron’s director of political strategy, and Stephen Gilbert, the PM’s political secretary. Patrick Rock, who acts as the political liaison to the civil service run policy-unit, also attends. The first of these
This morning there’s an odd disconnect between the joyful Jubilee coverage in the papers and the grim economic news inside them. The Eurozone crisis appears to be once again reaching one of those moments when there’s an expectation that something will have to give. The Germans are coming under even more pressure than before to
The next few days will see David Cameron doing what he does best: looking the part. Whether it is the Jubilee celebrations or the Olympic torch relay, Cameron can be relied upon to know — or look as if he knows — what is expected of him as Prime Minister. Cameron’s natural ease is his
The warning by Mario Draghi, the president of the European Central Bank, that the euro is ‘unsustainable unless further steps are undertaken’ is about as stark as they come. I’m informed that what Draghi is pushing for behind the scenes is for the ECB’s remit to be expanded to include Eurozone financial policy. This would
Sean Worth was one of the buccaneers of the Downing Street policy unit. But as the civil service began to take a hold of it, Worth was sent over to the Department of Health to help Andrew Lansley see the NHS reforms through. It was also thought that Worth, an expert on social care, would
Minutes after Jeremy Hunt finished giving evidence at Leveson, Number 10 stated that he would not be referred to the independent adviser on the ministerial code. Hunt would have settled for this result at the beginning of the day. But Labour is sure to point out that the reason Hunt was not referred to him
Robert Jay, the Leveson Inquiry QC, is taking a different approach with Jeremy Hunt than he has most other witnesses. He is subjecting the Culture Secretary to an old-fashioned court-room examination full of references to the precise timings of Hunt’s actions. Hunt’s main line so far is that he now understands the quasi-judicial process far
It has become the conventional wisdom in Westminster that Jeremy Hunt’s career will turn on his appearance before the Leveson Inquiry tomorrow. Friends of Hunt have today been arguing that the Inquiry’s focus should be on how he carried out the quasi-judicial role. They are saying that once appointed to it, Hunt behaved — unlike
Today’s award for hyperbole goes to Ken Clarke. He has just told the Leveson inquiry that, ‘The power of the press is far greater than the power of parliament.’ Given that parliament can still make the law of the land, this is a rather absurd statement. (Though, I do regret that parliament has given away
There was a telling moment in Michael Gove’s testimony to Leveson yesterday, when he applauded Rupert Murdoch for The Sun’s campaign against the Euro: ‘Gove: Other politicians recognised that the campaign which the Sun and others ran to keep us out of the single currency was right, and I think if we’re reflecting on other
Nick Clegg wants to make social mobility his big theme in office. This is an ambitious target and one unlikely to be motivated by electoral consideration given that visible progress on this front is unlike to be achieved by 2015. The publication of the former Labour minister Alan Milburn’s report, commissioned by the coalition, into
Michael Gove’s appearance at the Leveson Inquiry has set the heather alight in Tory and journalistic circles. There is, among those who fret about the dangers to free speech created by the current mood, relief that someone has set out the case for liberty so clearly and without apology. While among Tories there is a
No government likes to u-turn, and particularly not on a Budget measure. So, tonight’s changes to the VAT regime proposed by the Budget for Cornish pasties and static caravans are embarrassing for the coalition. It is also worth noting that they have come after they have taken most of the political heat they were likely
