Peter Hoskin

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Field declares his interest in the Speaker’s job

Seems like the CoffeeHousers' choice for the Speakership is thinking about taking on the job after all.  Here's the headline-grabbing snippet from Frank Field's article in the Telegraph today: "The next Speaker will only be the most powerful in our history if he or she is elected on a programme that points to how we can best shape the next phase of our Parliamentary development. I have been asked whether I will throw my hat into the ring. I am thinking about that, as I accept there may be too many colleagues on my own side who would block any such possibility. I am spending the next 10 days or so developing the details of a programme which lays the basis for transforming the contract between voters and Parliament, and the House of Commons and the Government.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

The CoffeeHousers’ choice

So the votes are in, and Frank Field is the CoffeeHousers' choice to be the next Speaker of the House of Commons.  He secured 36.5 percent of the vote in our poll - well ahead of Sir George Young, who finished in second with 13.7 percent.  The worry is that David Cameron will have inadvertantly scuppered Field's chances, by quoting one of the Birkenhead MP's more acerbic comments about the Government in PMQs today.  But I doubt that will put off his supporters - they've already established a "Frank Field for Speaker" Facebook group...

Peter Hoskin

Put your questions to Theresa May | 20 May 2009

Theresa May - the Shadow Work and Pensions Secretary, and MP for Maidenhead - has kindly agreed to another Q&A session with Coffee House. Just post your questions for her in the comments section below.  And on Sunday we'll pick out the best five or so and put them to her.  She'll get back to us with answers a few days later.

Peter Hoskin

‘Twas the toffs wot done it

Many, myself included, thought that Gordon Brown might use Michael Martin as a sacrificial lamb; a means of suggesting that the Government is doing "everything it can" on the expenses scandal, as well as to deflect attention away from their own misdemeanours.  But signs are he's playing a more devious game than that.  Here's the evidence... Exhibit A: the Labour chief whip, and key ally of the PM, Nick Brown, has just said that Martin is "one of us" and that "the establishment" forced him out.  Rather than subtly claiming credit for the Speaker's departure, it seems that Downing Street is passing the buck.  And onto the "establishment," whoever they might be.   Throw in Exhibits B and C, and we get a clearer picture.

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 20 May 2009

Stay tuned for live coverage of PMQs from 1200 onwards.  A perfect opportunity for a round of Brown bingo, methinks. 1201: And we're off.  He kicks off by paying tribute to the Speaker, praising his 30 years of "public service", and saying that Michael Martin has shown "unfailing kindness" to MPs on "both sides of the House".  Hm. 1203: Not good from Brown, as he stumbles over some numbers relating to Royal Mail.  Laughter rings around the House, and the Speaker has to intervene - he singles out Cameron. 1205: Here's Cameron now.  He also pays tribute to Martin, saying that "everyone wants to thank him for his public service." 1206: A punchy start from Cameron: "PM, you said that a general election would bring chaos - what does he mean?

Peter Hoskin

Play Brown bingo

This is brilliant. Yesterday, I wrote that someone should put together a "bingo card" of Brown's stock phrases (updated in the wake of the expenses scandal) - and, this morning, CoffeeHouser Craig Harris emailed me to say he'd done just that. You can download his version by clicking here . Now our Dear Leader's public appearances will never be the same again...

Peter Hoskin

Darling gets adamant

Aside from all the talk about the Speaker in this morning's papers, it's worth reading Alistair Darling's interview with with the Times.  What do we learn?  Nothing much - but the adamant defence he puts up for his Budget growth forecasts is quite striking in itself: "I am not going to change my forecasts," he said. "I remain confident that we will see a return to growth at the turn of the year." The politics of this is fairly interesting.  If you remember, the last time Darling concoted some dubious growth statistics - albeit even more dubious ones, in last year's PBR - he started backtracking quickly enough in the face of public ridicule.  Not so this time; which suggests he may actually stick close to these growth forecasts in the PBR later this year.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s press conference – live blog

Right, let's try again. Hopefully this will be a more substantive live blog than the one covering Michael Martin's 33-second special earlier.  Stay tuned from 1730 on. 1732: You can watch it live here.  There's still no Brown yet, so you'll have to put up with Downing Street muzak for now. 1735: Right, here's Brown now.  He kicks off saying that the Speaker (remember him?) has chaired a meeting between the party leaders on expenses, and will reveal what came out of that shortly. 1737: Now Brown's reeling off his plans for expenses.  He says that we need "immediate action" - which kinda contradicts his "wait for the Kelly Review" stance of last week.

Peter Hoskin

The ins and outs

A brief post to point out that Vince Cable and David Davis have ruled themselves out of the running for the Speaker's job (while Sir Alan Beith has ruled himself in). Might influence your thinking for our poll on who should be the next Speaker.

Peter Hoskin

Mapping expenses

Just to flag us this excellent "heat map" of MPs' expenses over at MSN.  It imposes a constituency-by-constituency colour scheme on the whole UK, so you easily can see which MPs have been claiming the most.  You can even click on a constituency to get a more detailed breakdown of the corresponding expense claims. Now, I know it's too simplistic to think that the highest expense claims (in this case, the deeper shades of red on the map) are automatically the "worst" or most dubious.  But I still believe that this kind of feature should be made easily available on the Parliament website.  In the end, transparency and the promise of public scrutiny will be the best ways to prevent more parliamentary scandals of the type we've seen recently.

Peter Hoskin

Michael Martin’s statement – live blog

Get ready for a little bit of history, as Michael Martin becomes the first Speaker to be pushed out of office in 300 years.  We'll have live commentary of his "resignation" statement from 1430 onwards.  Stay tuned.  1418: Sky News are reporting that Martin will announce he's stepping down in June. 1434: Martin has begun speaking to a packed House. 1435: He says he's going to relinquish the office of Speaker on Sunday, 21st June, in order to "maintain unity" in the Commons.  The next Speaker will be elected the day after. 1435: And, erm, that's it. 1437: Incredibly short statement from Martin - businesslike and unemotional.  I imagine he'd have found it difficult to say much more after his embarrassing performance yesterday.

Peter Hoskin

Martin’s resignation: a necessary first step

So that disgraceful statement didn't change anything after all: Michael Martin is set to resign.  Or, rather, he's been pushed.  If this was entirely his decision, then I think he'd probably have mentioned it before the House yesterday.  Either way, he's going now - and few tears will be shed around Westminster or around the country as a whole.  The healing process, as they say, can now begin in earnest. But will it?  I imagine we'll see a fevered round of Speaker Spin first.  If Downing Street inflicted the final, fatal, knife wound on Martin - as is quite likely - then you can expect subtle noises about how the Government are doing "everything it takes" to clean up the system.

Peter Hoskin

Divide and be conquered

This anecdote in Rachel Sylvester's column really does say a lot about our Dear Leader: "[Gordon Brown] makes gestures to different factions rather than leading from the front. A few weeks ago, he set up a weekly strategy meeting involving Peter Mandelson, Alastair Campbell and Philip Gould - the Blairites refused to go when they discovered that he was planning a separate session the following day with Ed Balls and the old 'Brownite' cabal. After a standoff, the two sessions were eventually merged. As one Cabinet minister puts it: 'Gordon has got to the top by fixing the Labour Party machine, but you can't fix the electorate. They want a vision.'" Brown's reliance on dividing line politics is hardly news, but some of the ways it manifests itself are still pretty astonishing.

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Ditch Martin – but don’t forget about the other bad apples

Another thought about the Speaker's performance: it was so utterly disastrous that David Cameron really does have to join the calls for him to go.  So far, Tory frontbenchers have been relatively cautious when talking about Martin's suitability for the role - their strongest comments came courtesy of William Hague - but it's making less and less political sense for them to maintain that approach.  In the current environment - no, in any environment - they shouldn't risk creating the impression that they're ambivalent about this major roadblock to parliamentary reform. But I would repeat that, amid all the justified anger over the Speaker's incompetence and arrogance, he shouldn't be made the sole fall-guy for this whole mess.  Yes, he cultivated a rotten system.

Peter Hoskin

An absolute disgrace

Well, that was embarrassing and disgraceful in equal measures.  Michael Martin's statement was stuffed with the rhetoric of "taking responsibility", and there was much puff about "restoring trust", but he remained evasive and aloof.  His grand plan?  Convening a meeting between the party leaders - something that they can, should and have already done themselves - and, erm, that's it.  When it came to calls from the backbenches for him to resign - and there were plenty of those - he just repeatedly dismissed Douglas Carswell's motion as an "early day" one, rather than the more pressing "substantive" alternative. Early day, substantive, whatever - I can't see the Speaker surviving this.

Peter Hoskin

Esther Rantzen MP?

So, it's been confirmed: Esther Rantzen is going to stand for Parliament as an independent.  One thing she hasn't said is what seat she'll run for - although it's expected to be Luton South, currently held by the disgraced Margaret Moran. Is Rantzen's kind of intervention the first of many?  I wouldn't be surprised.  After all, if you're someone with popular appeal, who is set apart from the political process, then there's never been a better time to put yourself forward.  More importantly, though, is this a good or a bad thing?  I'm naturally wary of the celebritisation of politics.  But, then again, this could be just the thing to reinvigorate our democracy, and get people to the polling booths.

Peter Hoskin

A significant intervention

Flicking through this morning's papers, it's difficult not to be struck by the Sun's frontpage call for for election: 'In the name of God, go!'  It's also difficult not to sympathise with it.  Sure, not all MPs are fiddling their expenses.  There are some, probably a majority, who are decent and hard-working.  But, in this case, the public perception is everything.  And the public's faith in their political representatives has completely broken down, and I'm sure they'd jump at the chance to have their say, and rebuild that trust, via the ballot box.  Throw in Gordon Brown's personal predicament - as a PM who has lost the confidence of his party - and there's a strong case for an election.  Now.

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Your Sunday morning fisk

Watch him run! Gordon Brown is desperately trying to play catch-up with Cameron this morning, with an article on expenses in the News of the World.  Is it disingenuous?  You betcha.  So I've done a little fisk: I will do all that's needed to fix mess By PRIME MINISTER GORDON BROWN, 17/05/2009 I AM appalled and angered by this week's revelations. PH: Shocked and appalled; when one emotion just won't cut it. Appalled because at all times people should expect the highest standards from people in public life. Angered because I was brought up to believe you did the right thing - and that trust, integrity and honesty are the most precious assets of all.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Brown looks to overtake Cameron on expenses

So the race to go further, faster, harder on expenses continues, with news in the Guardian this morning that any Labour MP who has "made improper expenses claims" will be "automatically deselected" and prevented from standing in the next election.  They also report that Brown has given his ministers until Monday to have their expenses claims for the past five years "lodged with the parliamentary authorities and ready for publication". Despite the obvious political positioning cum catch-up effort (as the Guardian warns us, Brown's expected to give a "major TV interview" on Monday), I guess we should welcome these measures in principle.