James Forsyth

James Forsyth

James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.

Saturday

James Forsyth

A clunking disaster

Friday marks the end of Gordon Brown’s first year as Prime Minister. Labour won’t be marking the occasion, but the Tories will which rather tells you what you need to know about how it has gone. The Times reports that Brown is planning an autumn reshuffle and hopes that unveiling an economic plan will help him regain the initiative. But it is hard to imagine this turning thing round as the voters seem to have made their minds up about Brown.  As Peter Riddell writes this morning: But the two key turning points are linked with mistakes by Mr Brown himself: the botched election decision and the 10p tax fiasco. Voters sense this: according to the Populus leader index (on a 0 to 10 scale) Mr Brown’s rating has fallen since last July from 5.49 to 3.9.

James Forsyth

WEB EXCLUSIVE: Tax the rich (more) – Intelligence Squared debate report

James Forsyth on the latest Spectator / Intelligence Squared debate There was a particular buzz of anticipation before the latest Spectator / Intelligence2  debate - perhaps because the motion would materially affect the audience. Judging by appearances, I’d wager that almost all of them paid the top rate of tax and that north of 90 percent of them earned £100,000 a year, putting them in the sights of all those who think that the rich should pay more. If nothing else, the evening was going to settle whether or not Turkeys ever do vote for Christmas. Evan Davis, the BBC’s former economics editor and now a presenter on the Today programme, was in the chair.

Friday

James Forsyth

Davis tries to explain why if 42 days is so wrong 28 is OK

David Davis has blogged today in defence of his position on 28 days, his critics are asking why he voted for that if detention without charge is so wrong. Here’s his explanation: For me, we should only be keeping someone in jail without telling them what they are charged with for as shorter period as is necessary, bearing in mind the need to protect the public. Detention without charge is a necessary evil - it must be strictly limited … My view is that 21 days has proved necessary on the basis of experience. I can also see that the police need some limited margin for error, because terrorism investigations are unique. The current 28 day limit more than allows for that. Davis concludes by saying that he can support 28 days but not a day more.

James Forsyth

We stand with Mandelson

I know this might not come naturally to Coffeee Housers but we all really should rally to Peter Mandelson’s defence. Nicolas Sazkozy is attacking Mandelson because he is a free trader, or at least more of one than the French president. Sarko also worries that Mandelson might be about to put the skids under Europe’s absurd system of out relief to farmers at the WTO talks. Protectionism is on the march at the moment, it offers false comfort to workers made nervous by the global economy. Unscrupulous politicians on both sides of the Atlantic are happy to peddle this snake oil despite knowing that more protectionism would actually restrict global growth. One of the worst recent examples of this was Barack Obama’s behaviour during the Democratic primaries.

James Forsyth

The Davis shuffle

Last night on Question Time, David Davis said: "If I was given my job back, I think I'd take it - but I don't think I'll be offered it." The general feeling in Tory circles is that David Cameron is not in any way obliged to reshuffle to bring Davis back in after he wins his by-election; a stint on the backbenches is the price that Davis pays for his stand. But things get interesting if Cameron is forced into a reshuffle. In these circumstances, the biggest question would be will Cameron bring Davis back? This is a fascinating sub-text to the whole Caroline Spelman business. If this row about her nanny cum secretary ends up forcing her out, Cameron would have to bring in a replacement or shift his team around. Would Davis then be offered a chance to come back?

Thursday

James Forsyth

Miliband won’t take no for an answer

Further to Pete’s post, David Miliband’s comments on Channel 4 tonight are a classic example of Euro double-speak: "We are ready to respond to the vote that took place in Ireland in a way that is respectful, that is calm, and above all listens to the Irish people and the Irish government." The respectful way to respond to the Irish vote and the one that listens to the Irish people is to accept that no means no. The idea that you just keep holding votes until you get the right result makes a mockery of the democratic process. PS If you haven’t already, do read Dan Hannan in the magazine this week on how the EU has resolved to never again consult the people.

James Forsyth

The Labour attack machine has lost its teeth

If you want to know how much Labour’s political skills have atrophied just consider how it has failed to land a hit on the Tories—and David Davis in particular—over their stance on civil liberties. Take the Tory position on removing the DNA of all those who have been charged but not convicted of a crime from the national database. On Tuesday, Gordon Brown claimed in his speech that if DNA had not been retained from these people, "8,000 suspects who have been matched with crime scenes since 2001 would in all probability have got away, their DNA having been deleted from the database. This includes 114 murders, 55 attempted murders, 116 rapes, 68 other sexual offences, 119 aggravated burglaries, and 127 drugs offences.

James Forsyth

Burnham gets more than he bargained for

Andy Burnham’s comments about David Davis and Shami Chakrabarti were a cheap shot and unworthy of this office. They also typified the cack-handed way in which Labour has responded to the Tories on civil liberties—more on that later. Davis hit back hard in the papers this morning and Chakrabarti has escalated the issue with a threat of legal action: "I look forward to your written apology as I'm sure does Mrs Davis. If on the other hand you choose to continue down the path of innuendo and attempted character assassination, you will find that the privileged legal protection of the parliament chamber does not extend to slurs made in the wider public domain." Having to produce a written apology would be a severe embarrassment for Burnham.

James Forsyth

The Tories should take the poor out of tax

The Telegraph’s excellent Tories in Power series continues today with a splendid piece by Tim Montgomerie. Tim argues that: “The Tories' next moral target should be the taxation of low-income workers. Income tax is taken from many poor families, churned through an expensive bureaucracy and then returned in benefits. It would cost £44 billion to take approximately 14,000,000 people out of the tax system altogether. The Conservative government doesn't have to set a timetable, but it would be the greatest of missions; as radical and just as Margaret Thatcher's sale of council homes. It would sow panic in Labour's heartlands. The difference between freezing public spending and growing public spending at the same rate as Labour is £12 billion a year.

James Forsyth

Does Brown need some holiday reading?

Alistair Horne has a delightful piece in today’s Independent reflecting on the dinner he went to with George W. Bush and what politicians learn from history. I was particularly struck by this anecdote: But probably the best read of any, not only in history, was Harold Macmillan. To fight the "Black Dog" of depression, he would regularly lock himself away for hours at a time to read. He claimed to have re-read the whole of George Eliot during the Suez Crisis of 1956. One wonders if what the Prime Minister needs to do right now is to kick his shoes off and read some fiction. As Iain Martin has long argued, a holiday might help Brown get back to somewhere near top form.

Wednesday

James Forsyth

Muslim women moved out of camera shot at Obama rally

The absurd accusation that Barack Obama is some kind of Muslim Manchurian candidate has caused his campaign some political discomfort. But it is still disappointing in the extreme to read in The Politico that two women wearing headscarves were moved from behind the podium at an Obama rally in Detroit so that they would be out of camera shot.   Volunteers moved the women and the campaign has moved quickly to apologise for their behaviour. “This is of course not the policy of the campaign. It is offensive and counter to Obama's commitment to bring Americans together and simply not the kind of campaign we run," an  Obama spokesman told The Politico.

James Forsyth

Clegg should go to David Davis’s constituency immediately

Nick Clegg should be on his way to Haltemprice & Howden right now with the aim of canvassing for David Davis on the first day of his campaign. Clegg’s aim should be to cause as much mischief as possible by fanning the flames of any Tory splits story. If Clegg appeared with Davis before Cameron then the press pack would start sniffing around this story.

James Forsyth

Is Finkelstein fighting the last war?

Few columnists in Britain provoke as often or as brilliantly as Daniel Finkelstein does. But I think Danny reveals himself to be fighting the last war in his piece today. He argues that the Tories should not differentiate themselves too much from Brown as that would be an electoral risk. He writes that: “The only way of satisfying the demand that [Cameron] stands for something would be to leave the centre ground. He is better off leaving that demand unsatisfied.” This suggests that Danny does not believe that there is an electorally popular, reform Conservatism that can be sold to the public. To my mind, this is both defeatist and wrong. The polls all suggest that the public believe that Labour has not delivered and will not do so.

James Forsyth

A show of strength

Neil O’Brien and Richard North’s Downing Street petition, demanding that Brown abandon ratification of the Lisbon Treaty, is now the third most popular live petition on the Downing Street site. There are currently 15,507 signatures on it which is pretty remarkable considering that it has only been up for just over 24 hours. I think the record for one of these petitions is the 1.7 million plus who signed the road pricing petition. If this one got anywhere near that it would show Brown the strength of feeling on this issue.

James Forsyth

Progress in Iraq

Perhaps the most under reported story of recent years is the turn around in Iraq. In this country, there is no constituency for charting the progress there—both main political parties and most of the media just wish Iraq would go away. But the news from there is too important to ignore. I’d urge everyone to read this tour d’horizon from Robert Reid, the AP bureau chief in Baghdad who has been reporting from Iraq since 2003. His judgement is that “Iraq is by almost any measure safer today than at any time in the past three years” and that “Signs are emerging that Iraq has reached a turning point.

James Forsyth

An innocent at Home

Dominic Grieve, the new shadow home secretary, tells James Forsyth that he won’t ‘resort to soundbites’. But is this a sensible approach for a modern-day politician? Dominic Grieve’s office answerphone is struggling to keep up with events - the caller has reached ‘the office of the shadow attorney general and the Conservative spokesman on community cohesion,’ it says. No mention of his new role as shadow home secretary. Some Conservatives wish the answerphone was right. Even normally loyal Cameroons struggle to envisage going into the next election with Grieve as shadow home secretary. They’d rather he was a stopgap measure. Certainly, few would have named Grieve as part of the Tory’s strongest bowling attack a fortnight ago.

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Blears blunders?

The news that Hazel Blears has had a computer with sensitive material on it stolen from her constituency office is acutely embarrassing for the government, coming as it does on the same day as Gordon Brown’s big speech on security and liberty. It is also further grist to David Davis’s mill. Blears has done sterling work at the DCLG. But if the information on the computer was improperly stored, then her position is going to be rather precarious.

James Forsyth

Are the Tories in good health?

The Telegraph is running an excellent series on what the Tories would do in power. Yesterday, Jill Kirby wrote about the Tories and family policy, and this morning Anthony Browne turns the spotlight on the Tory approach to the NHS. Health policy under Cameron has been, to put it mildly, uninspiring. The Tories' main aim seems to have been to neutralise it as a political issue and keep the BMA on side. The result is a policy that reeks of producer capture. One of Browne’s main points is that the Tories must not succumb to the short-term political temptation of opposing the closure of every hospital or local doctor’s surgery.

James Forsyth

Tell Brown to abandon ratification

Neil O’Brien and Richard North have submitted a petition to the Downing Street website stating that: We the undersigned petition the Prime Minister to Respect the result of the Irish referendum and abandon the attempt to ratify the Lisbon Treaty You can sign it here. If hundreds of thousands of people put their names to it, then it will refocus media attention on the story.

Monday

James Forsyth

And the winner is… | 16 June 2008

We got lots of good responses to our request for ideas as to how David Davis can keep his cause in the news. The champagne goes to a Coffee Houser called James for his suggestion of an Inconvenient Truth-style documentary; it has already caught the eye of one Tory staffer. But I’d also like to give a honourable mentions to Drew for his suggestion of a Haltemprice Freedom March echoing the Jarrow Crusade. James and Drew, if you post your addresses in the comments—we won’t publish them—we’ll pop your prizes in the post. Many thanks to everyone who took part, the suggestions by James and Drew are reprinted in full below: James June 14th, 2008 6:35pm A documentary - like inconvenient truth - based on a slide show from David Davis.