By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter I’m afraid this is one of those mornings for taking stock of the Coalition. If you feel that both parties will benefit from a relatively harmonious working relationship, as I do, then it’s not looking good. Not only do we have the intra-Coalition spat of all intra-Coalition spats—the suspension, for […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If they tuned in, what might the Tory leadership have learnt from the first of Nick Clegg’s weekly appearances on LBC radio? Not much that they wouldn’t have known already. Some of the stand-out points included: Voter anger… Almost all of the questions put to Mr Clegg by callers were, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter "Mutual assured destruction, or mutually assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Damian Green is giving a speech to Bright Blue, this evening, entitled “What modern Conservatism will mean in 2015”. But there’s already some ado about its passages on Europe, specifically those which attack the “fantasy” idea of Britain restricting its involvement with the EU to free-trade only. Some of the […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter A cursory glance at today’s papers, and you might feel rather cynical about the Coalition’s prospects. There’s news of yet more tension between the Conservatives and the Lib Dems: Nick Clegg has told Theresa May that he will block her proposed web-monitoring plans. And, alongside that, the Times’s Rachel Sylvester […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Have the Tories snubbed the Lib Dems over the future of Trident, as the Guardian suggests today? Downing Street would certainly have us believe not. According to them, Philip Hammond’s announcement of a £350 million contract aimed at renewing our nuclear deterrent is all part of the Coalition’s plan. “As […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. November's edition of Standpoint magazine, which is released on Thursday, carries an article by Mark Littlewood, currently the Director General of the Institute of Economic Affairs, and formerly the head of media for the Liberal Democrats from 2004 until 2007. In his article, Mr Littlewood advocates a pact between free […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Yesterday, in PMQs, David Cameron announced that “we will be legislating so that energy companies have to give the lowest tariff to their customers.” It was an announcement that made, for instance, the front cover of today’s Times. Industry spokespeople described it as a “big moment”. Except there’s a problem, […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Judging by the words drifting from the conference stage this morning, the Tories are eager to cause a bit of intra-coalition mischief over business policy. First, in the run-up to George Osborne’s speech, Amber Rudd introduced Michael Fallon as the “real Business Secretary”. And then Mr Fallon went on to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter George Osborne deals a double whammy to supporters of property taxes in the Mail on Sunday today: Pow! "We are not going to have a mansion tax, or a new tax that is a percentage value of people’s properties". Biff! New Council tax bands would be a "tax snoopers […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Q: Ask Lib Dems who their favourite Tory is, and what seems to be the most common response? A: Ken Clarke. Q: Ask Lib Dems what their least favourite reshuffle appointment was, and what seems to be the most common response? A: Chris Grayling. I probably don’t need to explain […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Last week I wrote about the sharp end of coalition: the concessions that could be made to the Lib Dems in return for certain Conservative policies. But there’s also the soft end: those areas where the two parties might, and should, happily cooperate with each other in future. And, for […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter I know I'm getting to this a bit late, but was last week's reshuffle a Coalition-friendly reshuffle of the sort I discussed recently? On paper, it doesn’t look like it. The Lib Dems will surely be pleased with some of their appointments: Norman Lamb’s move to Health, the return of David […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Oh dear, it’s that word again. The b-word: “bigot”. According to a press release sent out earlier, Nick Clegg was all set to use it during a reception to promote equal marriage, this evening: “The Deputy Prime Minister is expected to say: ‘Continued trouble in the economy gives the bigots […]
Okay, the picture to the right may be slightly overdoing it — but I still think that Nick Clegg deserves some defence from his critics. They’re at it again today, from all sides, after yesterday’s hasty proposal for a new wealth tax. The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail both contain particularly virulent editorials attacking, respectively, the Deputy Prime Minister’s “immature and […]