Peter Hoskin

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

To avoid or to confront?

From our UK edition

Give Brown's government half a chance and they'll bang on about "Tory cuts" and "Same old Tories" like it's going out of fashion.  So, predictably, Labour figures have been making merry over three stories from the past couple of days: George Osborne's attack on "inflexible" public sector pay deals; Dan Hannan's remarks about the NHS; and, now, Edward Garnier's suggestion that the hunting ban should be repealed.  According to Liam Byrne, the "mask has slipped" from those nasty, old Tories.   All this keys into an issue that the Cameroons will have to face up to over the next few days, weeks and months.  Should they go out of their way to avoid fuelling the Labour attacks?

Peter Hoskin

Why the “Tory toff” attack will struggle come election time

From our UK edition

The Whip column in today's Sun suggests that Labour may reheat the "Tory toffs" attack come election time: "LABOUR’S 'below-the-belt' propaganda department is already planning its main attack for the General Election. They aim to paint Tory leader David Cameron and Shadow Chancellor George (formerly Gideon) Osborne as rich toffs who haven’t a clue how ordinary voters live. The campaign will make huge posters of those cringe-making student photos of the two men in Oxford University’s drunken, bar-trashing Bullingdon Club and ask: 'Do you want these men to run Britain?' Trouble is that the famous snap with Dave in his ghastly white-lapelled dinner suit has been removed from public gaze on grounds of 'personal copyright'.

Monday

Peter Hoskin

The Tories still need some catchier phrases

From our UK edition

Bruce Anderson has some straightforward, but crucial, advice for the Tories in his Indy column today: "Needless to say, [providing an analysis of the downturn] is not enough. It never is, in politics. The Tories must also come up with some catchy 'phrases: their equivalent of "boom and bust". William Hague has made a start. "Gordon Brown promised to abolish boom and bust. He has kept half his promise.' Having invented the phrases, it is vital to go on repeating them. Often, it is only when the politicians are sick of repeating themselves that the voters at last begin to notice." In October last year, I said that the Tories needed to be "blunter" - meaning that they needed to cut the waffle, and come up with some catchy phrases to counter those which Brown repeats ad nauseam.

Peter Hoskin

Brown urged to make “difficult choices” on spending

From our UK edition

Over at the Progress website, a bunch of Labour MPs - including Peter Hain - have set out their "visions" ahead of the Budget.  Broadly speaking, they're all more or less in favour of further "fiscal stimlus" for one sector of the economy or another, but there are some alternative viewpoints too.  By far the most interesting is Mark Todd's article, entitled: "Some radical thinking and difficult choices are needed to nurse the public finances back to health".

Peter Hoskin

Osborne gets bolder on spending cuts

From our UK edition

And so the Tories continue to ramp up their rhetoric on spending cuts.  On the day that the Institute for Fiscal Studies again warns of the hole in our public finances, George Osborne has claimed that a Tory government would the look at the public sector's "inflexible" three-year pay deals.  Paul Waugh has all the key quotes, but this passage sums up the tone of Osborne's message: "I haven't ruled out further tax rises although I will work hard to avoid them. I think where the bulk of the strain needs to be borne is on spending restraint. I think the current spending plans pencilled in by the government of a 1.1 per cent growth in future years, albeit that sounds quite tight is not tight enough given the fiscal situation we have to face.

Peter Hoskin

An expensive cabinet

From our UK edition

Is any MP, save those frugal few, immune from expenses controversy?  After the revelations about Geoff Hoon's housing arrangements yesterday, the latest name to emerge is that of the Chancellor.  Sure, we at Coffee House have been quite warm towards Alistair Darling recently, for his struggle against Brown's worst excesses.  But this seems excessive in itself: "Alistair Darling has claimed thousands of pounds in expenses on his family home while renting out his privately owned London flat and living in a grace-and-favour apartment in Downing Street, it was reported last night.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

A frugal MP?!

From our UK edition

Just in case you've completely lost the faith in our political class, it's well worth reading the profile of Philip Hollobone in today's Independent.  Hollobone, remember, is the Tory MP who claims less than a third of the average annual expenses claim in the Commons.  How does he manage it?  Mainly by not hiring staff, and by keeping things pared down.  This passage is a good taster: "'It's quite simple,' [Hollobone] says, before starting up some rickety stairs. His work room is suitably spartan. Empty computer boxes sit in the corner. The whiff of damp from the dark patches on the wall fills the air. A chipped, dark table sits in the room's centre. The walls are bare, save a lonely print of Winston Churchill.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

Why we should worry about Pakistan

From our UK edition

The footage the Guardian have of a girl being flogged by Taliban fighters in Swat valley, Pakistan, is a difficult watch.  As one man hits her, she screams out and begs "Either kill me or stop it now".  Quite simply, it's sickening, and utterly indicative of the barbarism of these Islamists.  It's indicative, too, of how entrenched the Taliban are in Pakistan.  According to the Guardian's source, they are encouraging the circulation of this footage as some sort of statement of intent.  Given recent events in Pakistan, you sense that the Taliban's influence in that country is spreading, just as this video is spreading from mobile phone to mobile phone.  And that's something we in the West should certainly worry about.

Peter Hoskin

Two narratives for the crunch

From our UK edition

In today's New York Times, David Brooks sets out two "general narratives" on the cause of the financial crisis - the "greed" narrative and the "stupidity" narrative.  According to the greed narrative, we're in this mess because the financial sector swelled beyond control.  While the stupidity narrative asserts that "overconfident" bankers just didn't have clue what they were doing. Why does this matter?  Well, because whichever narrative we subscribe to (or, rather, whichever we subscribe to more; I don't think they're mutually exclusive) should determine how we deal with the crisis.  As Brooks puts it:   "The greed narrative leads to the conclusion that government should aggressively restructure the financial sector.

Peter Hoskin

Waking up to spending cuts

From our UK edition

There's an intriguing post by Allegra Stratton over at the Guardian's politics blog.  In it, she cites Fraser's ten reasons for a Tory government to cut public spending,  and suggests that there's a "growing number" of Labour folk who are thinking similarly: "...this camp – I suppose you can call them "Blairites" – do not see any contradiction in demanding [a stimulus in the next Budget], followed swiftly by a longer term pledge to bring down the level of spending by the state. They are not thinking of one-off chops (appealing as a surgical removal of £25bn on Trident or £4bn on two new aircraft may be to some) or money saved on "waste", the gift that keeps on giving. Instead, they are erring on calling for more frugal ways of doing fewer things.

Peter Hoskin

Politicians take note: expenses controversy makes you less popular

From our UK edition

Uh-oh.  The grassroots have spoken, and it seems Eric Pickles has taken a hit for his recent car-crash performance on Question Time.  ConservativeHome's latest shadow cabinet ratings have the party chairman's approval rating dropping a full 20 percentage points - from 70 percent in February to 50 percent in March. Of course, Eric Pickles' TV nightmare pales in comparison to the controversy that Jacqui Smith's got herself mired in, and that's reflected in a separate survey by Politics Home, also released today.  Their PHI100 'performance tracker' gives the Home Secretary the lowest score ever achieved by a member of the Cabinet.

Peter Hoskin

Why Brown shouldn’t expect a significant bounce

From our UK edition

Let's face it: Brown's having his moment in the sun.  The content of the G20 communique may have been awfully thin (see Fraser's must-read analysis here), but it's delivered backslaps from Obama; some big, headline-grabbing numbers; and an opportunity for our Dear Leader to play the statesman.  And it seems to have worked.  Despite a few qualms here and there - and a surprisingly combative interview with Alistair Darling on the Today Programme - the overall tone of the papers is positive, and you'd expect Labour to get a poll boost on the back of it.  Well done, Agent Brown.  Mission accomplished. And yet, to my mind, the sun will fade soon enough for our PM.  There are three main reasons to think that any bounce will be limited in duration and size.

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

Does Brown’s G20 statement contain the mother of all Brownies?

From our UK edition

Brown's just delivered his statement to close the G20 summit, and it's all about the big numbers.  That $1 trillion injection into the global economy made an appearance, but it paled beside Brown's claim that "we're in the middle of a fiscal stimulus that is worth about $5 trillion by the end of next year".  Hang on.  Brown was talking about a $2 trillion stimulus only yesterday, so where's the extra $3 trillion coming from?  I haven't seen details yet, but Brown's rhetoric - "Our central banks have pledged to make expansionary policies as long as they are necessary, and in whatever ways they see fit" - seems too guarded to suggest that the French, Germans and others have been convinced to introduce further stimulus to their economies.

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s headlines take shape

From our UK edition

Word is that the G20 summit is closing in on $1 trillion package of measures for the global economy.  Nick Robinson breaks it down thus: -- Increased IMF funds: $500bn -- Increased IMF Special Drawing Rights: $250bn -- New Trade Finance package: $200bn No it's not the same sort of "fiscal stimulus" that Brown and Obama have been pusing for over the past few weeks, and I'm still curious about how how much of it will be "new" money.  But it looks like Brown will achieve two of his main objectives: to come out of today claiming to have arranged something major, and to snare some nice headlines with big numbers in them.  Stay tuned for more later.

Peter Hoskin

Killing off the “do nothing” charge

From our UK edition

Seems like the Tories are trying to kill of Gordon Brown's "do nothing" charge once and for all.  After David Cameron went out of his way, in PMQs yesterday, to point out that the attack has hardly helped Brown - and is only indicative of the PM's love for dividing lines - it was telling to hear George Osborne repeat the analysis on this morning's Today programme.   But why put in the effort if it's doing Gordon little good?  Perhaps the Tories are worried about it after all?  I rather think that they've come to see it as an annoyance; something that - however ineffective and disingenous it may be - is lingering like a bad smell.

Peter Hoskin

4 hours and 35 minutes to win hearts and change minds

From our UK edition

So here it is.  The day that Brown has been banging on about for the past few months; the day of the London Summit.  And how are things looking?  Slightly uncertain, I'd say.  Despite weeks of behind-the-scenes negotiations, tensions remain, and there's not enough of a consensus to suggest that all is done and dusted.  This was made abundantly clear by Angela Merkel and Nicholas Sarkozy's joint press conference yesterday - a bold and telling sign that the Franco-German contingent isn't all that happy with les Anglo-Saxons.  According to the FT, Downing Street has been trying - frantically, one imagines - to broker a deal overnight.  But, even so, it seems Brown has got to make some concessions today or change some minds.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

What Brown hopes to sweep under the G20 carpet

From our UK edition

George Osborne got it right yesterday - Lord Myners needs to provide a convincing response to Sir Tom McKillop's letter or resign.  But, as of yet, we've had neither outcome.  Indeed, all we've heard is a denial from Alistair Darling that the latest revelations make Myners' position unsustainable, and some waffle from Gordon Brown about how Fred Goodwin's pension is now a matter for UKFI.  There have been similar evasions in the case of Jacqui Smith. You've got to wonder whether Brown hopes the G20 will make these issues go away, or whether he's purposefully holding off until after the festivites are over.  If it's the former, then it's a dubious approach.

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 1 April 2009

From our UK edition

Stay tuned for PMQs coverage from 1200. 1200: And here's Brown, fresh from his meeting with Obama.  He welcomes the US President on "behalf of the people of the UK".  And then: "I'm proud that we're hosting the G20 meeting". 1202: Brown bats off a question about Lord Myners by effectively saying that the matter of Fred Goodwin's pension is in the hands of the UKFI. 1203: Good start from Cameron.  "Before getting on to the G20, I'd like to bring up the matter of MPs' expenses.  MPs may groan, but I'm fed up with politics being dragged through the mud."  Cameron calls for quicker reforms and a meeting between the party leaders.  This is encouraging stuff.

Peter Hoskin

Press conference shock: Brown and Obama will do “whatever is necessary”

From our UK edition

Brown and Obama's joint press conference sure was a slog.  For all his polish when it comes to setpiece speeches, Obama waffles on when questioned - and Brown's probably even worse.  Downing Street will be pleased enough, though.  The US President seemed to go out of his way to refer to his "personal friendship" with "Gordon".  And at one point he even claimed: "I agree with everything Gordon's said".  No DVD-related snubs here, then. As for actual substance, there was very little.

Peter Hoskin

Protesting the protesters

From our UK edition

Danny Finkelstein has the final word on the anti-consumerism and anti-capitalism protests going on today:  "I think that [the anti-consumerists] have looked back at 5,000 years of human history - at pestilence and famine and disease and degradation, at genocide and civil war, at fear and loathing, at bigotry and ignorance, chauvinism and dictatorship - and concluded that our biggest problem is... shopping. ... Instead [progressives] should start with an acceptance that in the long violent saga of mankind we have rarely done anything as benign as going shopping, rarely devised anything as socially advantageous as property rights and the rule of law, rarely enriched the poor or enhanced lives as we did by creating capitalism.