Tories

David Cameron will set out his case for air strikes against IS in Syria to the Commons late next week. Cameron is, as I say in my Sun column today, immensely frustrated by the current British position of only bombing Islamic State in Iraq and not Syria. But he knows that it would be politically back breaking for him to lose another Commons vote on a matter of war and peace, so is proceeding cautiously.   But last night’s UN resolution has strengthened Cameron’s hand. Even before that, 30 Labour MPs were certain to back Cameron on this issue and another 30 were highly likely to. With a UN resolution

After Heidi Allen gave a barnstorming maiden speech last week criticising her own party over tax credit cuts, the Tory MP has found herself in the firing line within her own party. Mr S’s colleague Isabel Hardman writes in today’s Times that a number of Tory MPs are even refusing to speak to her over concerns that ‘her careless talk could cost them their majorities’. Now to make matters worse, it appears that even journalists are struggling to work out which side Allen is on. Word reaches Steerpike that a producer for a national radio station — thought to be one of the BBC’s radio stations — contacted the Labour party to ask if they would put

Given that Ivan Massow failed to be picked as one of the four final candidates in the race to be the Conservative candidate for London mayor despite a flashy campaign, it’s safe to say that Massow still has some work to do when it comes to mastering how to succeed in politics. So Mr S was surprised to hear that the business mogul is now assisting Zac Goldsmith with his campaign. Speaking at Josh Spero’s Second Hand Stories book launch party at Bonhams, Massow said he was working with the Conservative mayoral candidate when it came to the policy side of things: ‘I’m working with Zac. I speak to him a lot but

For all the leadership positioning, one of the striking things about Tory conference in Manchester was the level of agreement about what the party’s strategy should be. There was almost no one calling for the party to move right. Instead, the emphasis was on how the party could expand its electoral coalition. Boris Johnson and George Osborne may have very different styles, but the argument of their speeches was essentially the same: the Tories have to show that they are the party for low paid workers. This determination to look for new converts, which was the defining feature of David Cameron’s speech too, is a product of the election campaign.

Political party conferences have, in recent years, felt like an empty ritual. They used to be convened in seaside towns, so grassroots activists could find affordable accommodation. Now they are usually held in cities, so lobbyists can find better restaurants. Activists have been supplanted by members of the political class who are charged £500 a ticket. In the fringe debates, speakers face a volley of questions from people paid to ask them — on pensions, subsidies for green energy and the like. Politicians spend all day talking to journalists, and real politics vanishes. This year, however, politics has returned. The protesters who shrieked and spat at anyone entering the Tory

This speech was authentic Cameron. It was the most modernising speech that he has given since becoming Prime Minister and an attempt to reposition the Tories as the party of ‘true equality’. It was a return to the approach that characterised his leadership before the financial crash of 2008. Traditional Tory thinking has always been that if you work hard you get on, that you can pull yourselves up by your bootstraps. But this speech argued that for some people in society this simply isn’t true, that they find their opportunities blocked at every turn. Cameron cited the example of a black girl who had to change her name to

Although Michael Dugher is now Labour’s shadow culture secretary, his predecessor Chris Bryant is still keeping a close eye on the issues. He took part in a panel discussion on the future of the BBC as part of the Labour fringe. During the talk Bryant was asked about reports last week that Channel 4 is to be privatised. The news broke after a government official was photographed entering 10 Downing Street with a document about privatisation proposals. Bryant says the document is proof that the government have ‘been fibbing throughout the summer’ about Channel 4. He says that they have lied to him when he asked questions concerning the channel’s future:

This morning Ruth Davidson, leader of the Scottish Conservative and Unionist party, outlined the extent to which she agrees with Nicola Sturgeon, leader of the Scottish National Party. Both wish Scotland, and indeed the United Kingdom, to remain a member of the European Union. It is true, as Ms Davidson noted, that the SNP oppose even holding a referendum on the terms of British membership but it is also the case that, at least notionally, each wish, or are on record as desiring, a broadly comparable set of EU-wide reforms. Now, as Mark Wallace rightly observes, Davidson’s case for continued EU membership is a purely practical one. The emotional and

David Cameron might not be remembered as the best prime minister in modern British history but he will probably be remembered as the luckiest. Jeremy Corbyn’s election as leader of the Labour party is proving worse — or, for the Tories, better — than anyone could have imagined. His wrecking ball is busy destroying everything that was built by Labour’s modernisers. He does not lack authenticity, belief and passion — but his beliefs are ones which would be more at home in a 1920s plenary meeting of the Moscow Soviet than in contemporary British living rooms. The Chancellor sees Corbyn’s leadership as a chance to further blacken Labour’s name. The

After the 72 hours that he has had, I suspect that Jeremy Corbyn is quite relieved to have got through his exchanges with David Cameron unscathed. The evening news tonight will be far better for Corbyn than it was yesterday. Corbyn, who was making his debut at the dispatch box, began by announcing that he wanted to change the style of PMQs and that he had got members of the public to email in questions. He proceeded to ask Cameron half a dozen of them. Cameron, who could hardly attack the question in these circumstances, answered respectfully and with only the odd jab at Corbyn which will have been a

Was there ever a more unilluminating political idea — for voters rather than practitioners — than triangulation? For those readers so pure and high-minded that they have not followed politics for 20 years, I should explain that triangulation came from Bill Clinton, was imported by Tony Blair, and is now practised by David Cameron. Clinton’s adviser, Dick Morris, put it thus: ‘The President needed to take a position that not only blended the best of each party’s views but also transcended them to constitute a third force in the debate.’ The Tories’ adoption of the Living Wage is the latest example. This concept, almost as mystically bogus as the medieval concept

Labour’s verification process has been under a lot of scrutiny in recent weeks as more and more Tories have claimed they have successfully joined as a supporter of the party in order to vote for Jeremy Corbyn and ‘condemn Labour to years in the political wilderness’. Labour insist that they have a crack team successfully weeding out non-Labour supporters from the genuine new joiners. This is a point that they seem rather keen to make known. Today the party’s press office has tweeted the Tory MP Tim Loughton to tell him that his application has sadly been declined: Thanks for your donation to the Labour Party @timloughton. However as a

Over the weekend, CCHQ selected the four Tory candidates for London mayor who will proceed to an open primary in September. Playing it safe they opted for experience over celebrity, with Andrew Boff, Zac Goldsmith, Syed Kamall and Stephen Greenhalgh all chosen. This means both Sol Campbell and Ivan Massow have not been selected. While the footballer has been notably quiet since the news, Massow appears to be taking it less well. The businessman — who is openly gay — has issued a statement on his Facebook page in which he speaks of his disappointment. In this, Massow — who once accompanied Margaret Thatcher to Tory conference — asks if his history