2015 general election

Thursday

James Forsyth

Will Cameron’s renegotiation efforts be boosted by the Out campaign’s troubles?

David Cameron is in Holland and France today trying to pave the way for the renegotiation of the terms of Britain’s EU membership. Number 10 believe that now the referendum is definitely happening, the bill for it was published today, they can get other countries to engage with Cameron’s concerns. As I say in the column this week, Cameron’s renegotiation strategy has become clearer in recent weeks. Rather than trying to address every concern about EU membership, he is – as one Cabinet Minister told me – going to ‘focus on three or four big things and make a really big push on them.’ The fact that Iain Duncan Smith

Martin Bright

Tony Blair has long been an irrelevance in the Middle East peace process

Following months of speculation, Tony Blair has finally announced he is standing down as the Quartet Representative to the Middle East after eight years in the post. It is tempting to ask whether anyone will notice. His time in the job has been marked by a stagnation of the Peace Process, a hardening of the position of increasingly belligerent Israeli governments and a growing distrust among the Palestinians. Tony Blair himself had long become an irrelevance in negotiations. The truth is that Blair was hamstrung from the moment he took the job (immediately after he stood down as Prime Minister in 2007). He was never a ‘Peace Envoy’, although there was

Sebastian Payne

Podcast: defeating Isis, the Queen’s speech and Cameron’s EU negotiations

Defeating Isis is a task that neither America nor Britain are particularly keen to take on. In this week’s View from 22 podcast, Andrew Bacevich and Douglas Murray discuss what Western countries can realistically do to take on the group and which countries America and Britain should work with. Should Iran be considered a potential partner? And even if America was more keen to take action, would it be successful? Isabel Hardman and James Forsyth also discuss this year’s Queen’s Speech and the government’s legislative agenda for the next year. Was it a very Tory speech, or does it show that David Cameron is sticking to the centre ground? Does the absence of a British Bill of Rights show that Cameron is conscious

Wednesday

Christopher Snowdon

The new ban on ‘legal highs’ is unworkable. The government doesn’t even know what it’s banning

The man in the pub’s solution to the ongoing panic about legal highs is to ban them. ‘Ban ‘em all! S’obvious, innit? I can’t believe politicians haven’t thought of it already. Yeah, go on, I’ll have another…’ Here’s the thing. It is obvious and politicians have thought of it already. The reason that it never went from the idea stage to the planning stage is that it isn’t as simple as that. Previous home secretaries such as David Blunkett and Charles Clarke didn’t baulk at the idea because they were lily-livered pussy cats with libertarian tendencies. They rejected it because it’s a bad idea, not just illiberal but also unworkable.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Boris Johnson makes his first intervention in the House of Commons

Boris has finally spoken. Intervening on his Tory colleague Cheryl Gillan, who was complaining about a lack of funding for rural public services and transport, the new MP for Uxbridge said ‘Will she not agree that in fact her constituents get a superb service from Transport for London?’ He thanked the government for its continued investment in London transport. Boris will continue to work as Mayor and focus on these duties. But it will be interesting to see what non-London interventions he makes before stepping down in 2016.

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

SNP MPs rebuked for clapping in the Chamber. Will Tory and Labour hecklers be next?

The SNP have done a rather good job this afternoon of uniting the rest of the Commons against them by indulging in the shameful practice of – brace yourself – clapping in the Chamber. This is on top of trying to turf Dennis Skinner out of his preferred seat to the extent that the octogenarian Labour MP was too upset to come up with a terrible joke to crack during the Queen’s Speech festivities in the Commons. This truly is the sort of dramatic shake-up of Westminster that we were promised. Speaker Bercow intervened after one particularly pointed bout of applause from the nationalist benches. He told them to respect

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The first day of the Parliamentary session posed several challenges for Labour

The first day of the Parliamentary session always has a slightly back to school feel to it. There are two, traditionally, witty speeches that are full of in jokes. The leader of the opposition then makes a speech that mixes the serious with humour and the Prime Minister replies in kind. But today won’t be remembered for the jokes but the shifts in Labour’s position that Harriet Harman attempted to execute. First, she confirmed that Labour would now support the EU referendum. But then, more surprisingly, she announced that Labour was ‘sympathetic’ to Tory plans to reduce the benefits cap, the amount that an able-bodied family without anyone in full

Sebastian Payne

Tony Blair to step down as Middle East peace envoy

Reports are coming in that Tony Blair is set to stand down as a peace envoy to the Middle East. AP is reporting that the former Prime Minister has tendered his resignation to the Quartet on the Middle East — consisting of representatives from the US, EU, Russia and the UN — and will leave in June. Blair has worked for the Quartet for several years, joining on a wave of publicity and hope in 2007. But with the collapse of the US-led peace talks last year, as well as continual questions about his business links, his efforts to bring peace to the region have been doomed. Given that Blair’s foreign policy reputation is already toxic

Hugo Rifkind Hugo Rifkind

Trying to ban legal highs? Expect a bad trip

Keep an eye on the government’s ban on legal highs. The Conservative ­manifesto pledged to outlaw all the horrible chemicals kids smoke and snort for fun these days, on account of them being easier to get hold of than the straightforward, honest illegal narcotics we had when I were a lad. Certainly they’re worth banning, but I’m on tenterhooks to see how they’ll go about it. Chemical compositions are easily tweaked, meaning there’s no point in specifically banning a substance, because another not-quite-identical one springs up days later. Banning substances intended for human consumption won’t work, either, because these things all claim on the packaging that they aren’t. One of

Sebastian Payne

Podcast special: the 2015 Queen’s Speech

In this View from 22 special podcast, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the first Conservative Queen’s Speech in 19 years and the government’s legislation plans for the next 12 months. We discuss the challenges David Cameron will face trying to pass these bills, as well as the traps for the Labour leadership contenders.  You can subscribe to the View from 22 through iTunes and have it delivered to your computer or iPhone every week, or you can use the player below:

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Yvette Cooper snaps up six more MP supporters for her leadership campaign

Six more Labour MPs have endorsed Yvette Cooper as leader: Coffee House has the names exclusively. Emily Thornberry Ian Austin Jim Cunningham Karen Buck Lyn Brown Steve McCabe They’re an interesting mix, ranging from Londoners like Karen Buck, Lyn Brown and Emily Thornberry to those with seats in the Midlands, such as Ian Austin, Jim Cunningham and Steve McCabe, and helps the Cooper campaign’s claim to have nationwide support, rather than backing from MPs in certain parts of the country. It is also interesting that Buck, who served as Ed Miliband’s PPS towards the end of the last Parliament, has backed Cooper, along with Austin, who was exposed as one

Steerpike Steerpike

Queen’s Speech Tory slogan bingo

Anyone would think that those drafting the Queen’s Speech might have had a bet on to see how many Tory soundbites they could shoehorn in. Apparently the Queen’s government will ‘adopt a one nation approach’, with a nod to ‘supporting aspiration’. Of course, her ‘government will continue with its long-term plan’. It could have been a Cameron election stump speech. The biggest grin of the day came from George Osborne when Her Majesty uttered his favourite slogan: the ‘northern powerhouse’. But it wasn’t the silly sound bites that are getting the most attention. Despite all the policies and the coming austerity, all anyone seems to be talking about is psychoactive

Steerpike Steerpike

Will Dennis Skinner take a pop at the SNP?

He may be a national treasure, but it’s safe to say that Dennis Skinner’s annual crack during the Queen’s Speech have been a bit lame of late. The veteran MP always makes a joke in the silence as Black Rod enters the Commons chamber. Last year we had ‘Coalition’s last stand,’ in 2013: ‘Royal Mail for sale. Queen’s head privatised.’ In 2012 we were treated to the particularly laboured: ‘Jubilee Year, double-dip recession, what a start!’ Skinner is currently involved in a turf war with the SNP over the seat in the Commons he claims he has occupied for the last 44 years. ‘That’s 44 years too long,’ say the charming

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Cameron will struggle to get human rights reform past parliament at any stage

David Cameron has decided to stall on human rights reform for now, partly because the Tories couldn’t quite work out how to get the reforms they wanted, and partly because the Prime Minister knew that he had a rebellion in his own party on his hands, opposition from almost all other parties bar the DUP, who Sam Coates explains in the Times have said they are unlikely to give their backing to the bill in the early part of the parliament. Opponents of big changes to human rights legislation within the Tory party are not surprised by the delay. They also don’t think that it is likely to pass at

Sebastian Payne

2015 Queen’s Speech: the new bills announced

Her Majesty has just delivered the first Conservative Queen’s Speech in 19 years — or as David Cameron described it, a ‘One Nation Queen’s Speech from a One Nation Government’. Here are the key pieces of legislation the government will be looking to pass over the next 12 months. Full Employment and Welfare Benefits Bill (and related legislation): To freeze the main rates of the majority of working-age benefits, tax credits and child benefit. Pensioners and extra costs relating to disability will be protected. The benefit cap will be reduced to £23,000 per year. A new Youth Allowance for 18-21 year olds will be introduced, with stronger work conditions. Automatic entitlement

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Will Nick Clegg’s response to the Queen’s Speech mean anything at all?

Could there be a sadder sight today than Nick Clegg, intervening on behalf of his now tiny ‘minor party’ in the Queen’s Speech debate? The Lib Dem leader is responding to this afternoon, his first intervention since the general election, and plans to use his slot to complain that the Tories are already turning their backs on the ‘clear thread of liberalism’ that his party installed in the government. He will say: ‘So it is dispiriting – if pretty unsurprising – to see how quickly, instead of building on those achievements, the new Conservative Government is turning its back on that liberal stance.’ The ex-Lib Dem leader will add that

Sebastian Payne

What to expect in today’s Queen’s Speech

The new parliament officially begins with the grand State Opening of Parliament ceremony today. The Queen will deliver the first Conservative Queen’s Speech in 19 years this morning, outlining the topics her government intends to legislate on over the next year. Plenty of details have appeared in the press already, with numerous reports suggesting that it will be ‘one-nation’ speech, with a blue-collar tinge. But what will actually be in the speech, and what’s expected to be missing? EU referendum: as per the Conservative manifesto, the government is likely to introduce a bill for a referendum on Britain’s EU membership (again) — to take place before the end of 2017. Numerous reports have suggested that

Tuesday

James Forsyth

Cameron tries to bring the campaign into government

Tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech will be almost cut and pasted from the Tory manifesto. Partly, this is because Number 10 believes that the Salisbury convention dictates that the House of Lords will not block policies that have a manifesto mandate. But it is also because the Tories wish to carry on in office where they left off in the campaign. They believe that continuing with both the message and the discipline they exhibited in the election is crucial to their future success. This desire to bring the campaign into government can be seen in Cameron’s latest staff appointments too. Giles Kenningham, who has been in charge of the highly effective CCHQ

Isabel Hardman Isabel Hardman

Chris Bryant interview: Labour has to speak to voters ‘at the end of the line’

Chris Bryant is haunted by Labour’s general election defeat. He has taken his former colleague Douglas Alexander’s office, and Commons staff have been appearing to collect the former Shadow Foreign Secretary’s computers. ‘They were referring to the computers as “the defeated computers”,’ he says. ‘Politics is quite brutal.’ The defeated computers are a sad symbol of Labour’s loss: Alexander was one of Labour’s many election chiefs, but is now just an ex-MP. But Bryant, who says he did feel in his gut that Labour was going to lose, still seems rather chipper. Perhaps it’s because he is now Shadow Culture Secretary, and is facing John Whittingdale, who has been tasked

Sebastian Payne

Michael Gove: Tories will not be forgiven for ‘fudging’ the EU referendum

Michael Gove’s gusto has returned after his elevation back to top level of the Cabinet. On Friday evening, the Justice Secretary spoke to Hampshire Conservative activists and members of the AECR group in the European Parliament. In his first speech since joining the Ministry of Justice, he acknowledged the role Daniel Hannan MEP has played in fighting for the upcoming EU referendum and said the government has to deliver ‘fundamental reform of our relationship with the European Union’ — and not just for Britain’s sake: ‘The exertions that the Prime Minister will devote to that task are driven not just by a desire to get a better deal for Britain,