Monthly Archives: April 2009

The cruellest month

Posted on April 30, 2009 | 6 Comments

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April has unarguably been the cruellest month for Gordon Brown.

Consider the following, non-exhaustive, selection of  horrors that the PM has endured over the last 30 days:

  • The resignation of Damian McBride;
  • The worst-received Budget of modern times, highlighting the bankruptcy of both the country and Labour’s claim to economic competence;
  • The exoneration of Damian Green;
  • The retreat from the “YouTube” plan for a flat per diem “signing-on” payment to MPs;
  • The greatest Commons defeat of any government for 30 years, over the right of Gurkhas to settle in the UK;
  • The lecture on economic prudence from the Polish Prime Minister (echoing last month’s similar lecture from the President of Chile);
  • The U-turn over MPs’ second home allowances.

April, remember, was to be the month of Gordon’s apotheosis as host of a triumphant G20, the launchpad for the great fightback.  But that seems a long time ago, and so it was;  April Fool’s day, to be precise.

Since the G20, it has been downhill all the way for Gordon Brown.  Almost visibly, authority has drained away from him.  The clunking fist now holds no terror for his backbenchers, who yesterday flaunted their defiance over the Gurkha issue.  His once-feared enforcers are now treated with open contempt.

Iain Dale today reports “a very reputable Parliamentary source” as claiming that “Gordon is hating being Prime Minister”.  This is no surprise; as I observed last Saturday, it is written all over his face.

The talk in the Commons bars now revolves around (a) whether he can cling on until the general election and (b) if not, who is likely to want to take up the poisoned chalice after him. 

Inevitably, comparisons with the end of the Major government are also being made.  Perhaps Gordon Brown, too, will conclude  that the best way to silence his detractors is by inviting them to put up or shut up. 

On balance, however, knowing his aversion to anything remotely resembling a scrap, I think that rather  unlikely.

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Posted in Gordon Brown, Labour Party

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Victory for decency

Posted on April 29, 2009 | 2 Comments

gurkhaA great victory for decency in the Commons this afternoon, when the Opposition defeated the Government on the rights of Gurkhas to reside in the UK.

The Government’s conduct throughout this affair has been nothing short of disgraceful; it was depressingly exemplified after the vote had been called by the sight of one of the more sinister Labour whips hanging around the entrance to the Aye lobby, looking for all the world like a bit player in The Sopranos, and attempting to intimidate the more principled Labour Members who had decided to support the motion. 

The Government now has a positive duty to return to the House as quickly as possible and explain what it proposes to do to ensure that the will of Parliament is observed.

 If people are willing to fight and die for our freedoms - as Gurkhas have over the centuries – we have an absolute obligation to look after them.

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Posted in Gurkhas

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Sticking to their principles

Posted on April 27, 2009 | 2 Comments

falklandOne of the most celebrated tourist sights of the Palace of Westminster is the statue of Viscount Falkland in St Stephen’s Hall.  One hundred years ago this very day, a suffragette, Margery Humes, chained herself to the statue and had to be released with bolt cutters; the damage to the statue’s spur and sword can still be seen.

This afternoon, on my way to the select committee, I was diverted by one of the House attendants, who told me that a demonstration was taking place in St Stephen’s.  I later discovered that a group of climate change protestors had superglued themselves to Falkland’s statue, in emulation of the feisty Margery a century ago.

Given the fame of the 1909 incident in Parliamentary history, one might have thought that the House authorities would be prepared for something of the sort. 

The protestors, after the application of copious quantities of solvent, were ultimately released and then promptly arrested on suspicion of criminal damage.

One must hope that no lasting further injury was occasioned to poor Viscount Falkland.

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Posted in climate change, Miscellaneous

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News sandwich

Posted on April 26, 2009 | Leave a comment

This article on Bloomberg.com gives a fascinating insight on life in the Downing Street bunker and I’d recommend you read it.  I particularly liked the reference to the “news sandwich” technique, apparently devised by one nervous staffer to mitigate the worst of the, by all accounts, quite savage Prime Ministerial wrath (beware flying Nokias).

The authors of the article quote Martin Farr, of Newcastle University, as observing that the Prime Minister “can be regarded almost as a Shakespearean character, in the way his career and personality have brought him to this point”.

Glad it’s not just my opinion.

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Posted in Gordon Brown

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Red card?

Posted on April 25, 2009 | 2 Comments

The Times reports that an unnamed Government minister has placed a large bet at 66-1 that Labour will not win the next general election.

It also informs us that there is nothing in the Ministerial Code to prevent ministers betting against their own party at elections.

In this respect, the Code is considerably less rigorous than the Rules of the Football Association, which provides:

A Participant shall not, either directly or indirectly, bet, or instruct, permit or enable any person for the Participant’s benefit to bet, on the result, progress or conduct of a Match or Competition in which the Participant is participating or in which the Participant has any influence, either direct or indirect. 

The Times comments:

 The bet will, however, raise eyebrows in Downing Street because it suggests a lack of confidence in Brown’s ability to beat David Cameron at the election, due by June next year. 

Um, yes, quite.

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Posted in Labour Party

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Can’t Gordon be more like Leo?

Posted on April 25, 2009 | 1 Comment

st-asaph-cathedral

This afternoon, we went to St Asaph for the enthronement of Bishop Gregory.  The cathedral was full, the choir in fine voice and the organist on top form.

Before delivering his final blessing, the new bishop recalled the words of Pope Leo X, who reportedly declared on his accession: “Since God has given us the papacy, let us enjoy it.”

The bishop, who had previously told us how daunted he felt by the heavy responsibility that had passed to him, hastened to assure us that he did not propose to emulate the excesses of Leo, one of the worst popes ever, but nevertheless fully intended to enjoy his time at St Asaph.

Driving back, I reflected that Gordon Brown would do well to take a leaf out of Bishop Gregory’s book, and Pope Leo’s too.  He clearly is not enjoying being Prime Minister; he always looks thoroughly miserable.  And it’s nothing to do with the economic crisis; he’s looked thoroughly miserable since day one.

In this respect, he stands in contrast to both Tony Blair and Margaret Thatcher, who, irrespective of the problems they faced, always seemed to be enjoying the prime ministerial role tremendously.

Perhaps – probably, indeed – Gordon is just one of nature’s unhappy people.  Perhaps he couldn’t lighten up, even if he tried. 

But it does seem a dreadful pity that, having attained the highest office in the land and achieved his lifetime’s ambition, he is so obviously having  such a bloody awful time.

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Posted in Gordon Brown, Margaret Thatcher, Tony Blair

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Go now

Posted on April 25, 2009 | 3 Comments

Guido reports this petition on the No 10 website.

When I first looked at it yesterday, it had 3,100 signatories.  At the time of this posting, it has over 5,300; impressive growth in just one day.

Among the signatories are HM the Queen, M Mouse, C Clark MP (sic) and David Jones.

I suspect that at least three of those are impostors. 

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Posted in Gordon Brown, Guido

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Scrap value

Posted on April 24, 2009 | Leave a comment

Peter Mandelson has urged voters to give the Government time to show that its Budget measures were the right decision for the country:

“Judge us by results, judge us on delivery, judge us by where we are in a year’s time and when you can look back and say ‘They took the right decisions, they were tough, they were responsible and they were fair’ and then see where we stand in a year’s time.”

The Institute for Fiscal Studies however, has already delivered its judgment on Mandelson’s flagship car scrappage scheme. It was politely but comprehensively shredded by Thomas Crossley, IFS programme director:

“This is not a strong environmental measure. While new cars have lower emissions per mile, they may be driven more and there are environmental costs associated with their production. As fiscal stimulus, this measure benefits one industry. Many new cars are not produced in Britain, though some foreign made vehicles will contain British components. A significant fraction of cars of this age are scrapped each year, so there is scope for a large part of the subsidy to go to replacements that would have occurred anyway. The measure should cause some households to bring forward a vehicle replacement. This will mean fewer sales later. The government hopes that this will occur after the economy has picked up.”

Which, if the IFS is correct, is likely to be some considerable way ahead.

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Posted in economy, Peter Mandelson

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Doesn’t add up

Posted on April 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

darlingThe Institute for Fiscal Studies, the country’s leading economic think tank, has comprehensively demolished Alistair Darling’s budget, less than 24 hours after its delivery.

The measures announced by Darling, says the IFS, will fill only half of the projected deficit of £90 billion by 2017 -2018; to address the deficit will cost every family £2,840 extra every year in additional taxes or public spending cuts.  Furthermore, it will take until 2032 before national debt falls below 40 per cent of national income, the level that Gordon Brown pledged not to breach in those long-lost days of prudence.

The full scale of the impact of the downturn on the economy was made clear by IFS director Robert Chote, a man not given to hyperbole, who said:

“Taking the PBR and Budget forecasts together, the Treasury’s assessment of the fiscal damage wrought by the current economic and financial crisis is breathtaking.

“Put simply, the Treasury forecasts now imply that the crisis has dealt a permanent hit to the Exchequer costing around 6.5 per cent of national income or £90 billion a year in today’s money – from a combination of lost tax revenues and higher social security costs.”

Coming, as it does, from a completely independent, hugely respected body, this criticism could scarcely be more damaging to the Government.  Brown and Darling have a £45 billion black hole in their budget, which will need to be filled by whichever party wins the next general election.

But that’s something Gordon and Alistair would prefer you not to think about, just now.

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Posted in Alistair Darling, economy, Gordon Brown, Labour Party

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Too late to moan

Posted on April 23, 2009 | 1 Comment

The Labour strapline for the budget was “you cannot cut your way out of recession”.  Gordon Brown used the phrase at PMQs and Alistair Darling repeated it in the budget statement, as did a succession of Labour talking heads on TV and radio all afternoon.

Paul Murphy also, perhaps unwisely, decided to  deploy the formula, quoted in today’s  Daily Post:

“It is only right that at this time the Government tightens its belt alongside families and businesses, but we cannot cut our way out of recession, as many of our opponents would propose, particularly on spending on frontline services.”

The Welsh Assembly, however, has received a revenue budget reduction of £216 million, only partially compensated for by a Barnettised increase of £46 million, and a capital budget reduction of £200 million.

 That’s not a cut?

 Plaid Cymru are, peculiarly, bleating badly about this.  But they chose their Assembly coalition partners, so it’s a bit rich to moan now.  When the Labour ship goes down, they must expect to go down with it.

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Posted in Alistair Darling, Gordon Brown, Labour Party, Paul Murphy, Plaid Cymru

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Pips squeaking

Posted on April 22, 2009 | Leave a comment

There was a time, not so long ago, when I used to feel quite sorry for Alistair Darling.  Here was a man who had acceded to one of the great offices of state, only to find that he was little more than a puppet, his strings pulled by the great puppet-master next door. 

His personal authority was virtually nil.  He was in office, but not in control of his powerful department.  That remained the fiefdom of its former incumbent.

However, over the months since Gordon’s anointment, it has become increasingly clear that Darling is now entirely reconciled to his surrogate status.  Indeed, he appears almost at peace with it, his demeanour being one of impassive,  Zen-like calm. 

Today, he stood at the dispatch box, utterly composed, reading out a list of figures so terrible, so thoroughly frightful, that they would have engendered the severest anxiety in anyone unable to achieve the state of nirvana that Alistair has attained:

Our own figures for public sector net borrowing will be £175 billion this year, or some 12 per cent. of GDP. From 2010, as the economy starts to recover, and the measures announced in November and today take effect, borrowing will fall to £173 billion, then £140 billion, £118 billion, and then £97 billion. As a share of GDP, our borrowing will be 11.9 per cent. of GDP next year, and then, as we move towards balance, 9.1 per cent. in 2011-12, then 7.2 per cent., and then 5.5 per cent. in 2013-14.

This was way, way beyond anything that anyone had anticipated, infinitely worse than the projections Darling announced only last November.  And, indeed, the rest of his speech was full of such appalling statistics that Members were left gasping.

There was, as I anticipated, something small for pensioners and, yes, some funny business with tax credits.  But there was little cheer for Labour.  No fiscal stimulus, because Mervyn King had put a stop to it.  Virtually no giveaways.  Just bad, bad news, for the country as a whole, and particularly for the Labour backbenchers. 

They sat mostly silent and unanimated, save for the briefest of visceral, tribal cheers when Darling announced the 50p tax rate on incomes over £150,000.  Harriet Harman’s face creased into a vindictive and incongruous smile at that point.

But she shouldn’t have been so pleased.  Her colleague had just confirmed that Labour had not abolished boom and bust and had broken a key election pledge.  The economy, it was now known beyond doubt, had been trashed by her own party: damaged so badly that it will take the best part of a generation to repair.  Jobs are disappearing by the thousand daily.  Businesses are folding.  Lives are being ruined.

And yet she, too, in her own strange way, was happy.  Alistair had just confirmed the death of New Labour.  Class warfare was reopened.  The red flag had been hoisted.  The pips would squeak again.

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Posted in Alistair Darling, economy, Gordon Brown, Harriet Harman

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Led with his chin

Posted on April 22, 2009 | 1 Comment

When cornered by David Cameron on the economy (as  he regularly is these days), the Prime Minister has a habit of referring to the Leader of the Opposition as Norman Lamont’s chief economic adviser on Black Wednesday  (which is, in fact, untrue). 

I rather doubt, however, that he will repeat the taunt after this exchange at today’s PMQs:

Mr. Cameron: In terms of the recession, will the Prime Minister confirm that, far from this being “not as bad as the 1980s” or “not as bad as the 1990s”, we are now, in Britain, in the deepest recession since the second world war?

The Prime Minister: I am glad that the right hon. Gentleman has asked that question. In the early 1990s, interest rates went up to 15 per cent. In the early 1990s, inflation went up to 10 per cent. In the early 1990s, the Conservatives did nothing when people were worried about their mortgages. In the 1990s, they did nothing when people became unemployed. And who was the chief economic adviser to the Chancellor at the time? None other than the Leader of the Opposition.

Mr. Cameron: Perhaps on another occasion we can talk about some of your chief advisers and what they have been up to. It is about time this Prime Minister realised that as well as bringing the country to the brink of financial bankruptcy, he has brought his party to moral bankruptcy.

What the Hansard transcript does not convey is the deafening roar that went up after the first sentence of Cameron’s riposte.  The Prime Minister was made to look an idiot.  His backbenchers didn’t like it.

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Posted in Damian McBride, David Cameron, Gordon Brown

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In the slow lane

Posted on April 21, 2009 | 1 Comment

broadbandYesterday, in DCMS Questions, I raised with the Secretary of State, Andy Burnham, the proposal in the interim Digital Britain report that there should be a Universal Service Commitment to broadband at a minimum speed of 2 megabits per second by 2012; wasn’t this a very unambitious target, I asked, when speeds of 50 mbps were already available in urban areas, and didn’t it mean that rural areas were likely to fall further behind? 

The Secretary of State’s answer was, I felt, unconvincing:

“These are primarily matters for the Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform, but Lord Carter is looking at them closely in the context of the final “Digital Britain” report, and I will ensure that the hon. Gentleman’s comments are brought to his attention. In any universal service obligation it is important that all parts of the country are able to benefit; indeed, that is the purpose of such a commitment. It has an historic potential to ensure that, as with postage and telephony, all citizens of this country have access to the highest quality communications infrastructure -and that applies to all parts of the United Kingdom.”

Well, apparently it doesn’t apply to all parts of the UK.  In this morning’s Telegraph, Lord Carter, the author of the report, acknowledges that he has already accepted that a large part of the country will not enjoy the fastest broadband:

 There will “certainly be 25-30 per cent of the country where there will be no economic case for building a next generation fixed network,” he says.

In some areas, faster broadband could be delivered using mobile, wireless and satellite networks, he says. 

By past standards, 2 mbps is pretty fast and, if mobile broadband can be made ubiquitous, speeds of up to 7.2 mbps can theoretically be made available. 

However, with broadband speeds in towns and cities of 50 mbps and rapidly rising, a mobile-based service is umlikely to be sufficient to cope with the bright new multimedia future Lord Carter enthuses about:

 “There is an international appetite for super-fast broadband. When most of our online activity is videocentric as opposed to datacentric, we’ll be in a different world. And that videocentricity is going to come in under five years. In less than 10 years, we will be in a complete ‘on demand’ television world.”

 Not if you live in rural North Wales, you won’t. 

The Country Land and Business Association (CLA) has already come out fighting:

“This digital urban/rural divide is getting out of control. It is time for the hyperbole to stop and for Government to consider the damage it is doing to rural areas and, in particular, businesses.

“Lord Carter talks of a video-centric world. In reality we have a world where social and economic deprivation is growing because of a lack of access to fast internet connections.

“The economy is being divided because many rural businesses simply cannot compete with their urban rivals. School classes are split because of some children’s inability to do set homework online. Communities are being divided because people are seeking to move to a home that has broadband.”

The CLA is, of course, right.  Lack of broadband at acceptable speeds will soon be as synonymous with deprivation as a lack of a telephone service or mains electricity.

Lord Carter, with respect, is being much too sanguine.  I hope that he will rethink  the broadband section of his report before its final publication.

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Posted in Broadband

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Softening up

Posted on April 20, 2009 | 4 Comments

Long gone are the days of budget purdah, when the Chancellor would cloister himself away for weeks on end prior to emerging from No 11 clutching his red box.   Ken Clarke brought an end to that tradition.

However, no budget in recent years has been more heavily trailed than this year’s, which is also the latest in recent memory.  You can read about it here and here and here.  And if you want to see the Chancellor making a brave pre-budget face of the downturn, you can view his viral YouTube video here.

All this authorised leaking has been done for one very good reason: you get the electorate used to the idea of bad news, rather than hit them with it on budget day.  So when Alistair Darling announces the £15 billion “efficiency savings” (not spending cuts, you understand), the £160 billion public sector borrowing, and the estimate of a decade to sort out the public finances, it won’t seem too bad.

Instead, attention will be focused (Labour hope) on the metaphorical rabbit Darling pulls out of the hat on budget day.  There’s bound to be one, at least; there always is.  Expect some apparent largesse for pensioners or some funny business with tax credits.

But remember what happened when Gordon Brown announced the 10p tax band in his 2007 budget.  Hailed as a triumph by his back benchers, who waved their order papers in immoderate glee, it was later shown to be an enormous con when the Red Book was examined.

That’s the way it is with Labour budgets; there is always a legion of devils in the detail. 

And this year, given the bombed-out state of the economy, it is likely that the Chancellor will be obliged to be even more creative than usual.

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Posted in Alistair Darling, economy, Gordon Brown

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Unhappy omission

Posted on April 19, 2009 | 1 Comment

Last night, I attended the annual dinner of the British Ring of the International Brotherhood of Magicians, whose president this year is Old Colwyn’s Trevor Lewis.  I’ve always been a big fan of magic and occasionally go, as a guest, to the meetings of the North Wales Magic Circle in Rhyl.

Yesterday’s dinner, at the Kinmel Arms, Abergele, was very well attended by magicians from all over the country.  We were entertained by the combined Bangor and Holyhead male voice choirs, the Irish magician Quentin Reynolds and Trevor’s old friend, Ken Dodd.

Ken delivered what was, by his standards, a very brief performance.  It started at 11.45 p.m. and finished at 1.00 a.m. – little more than a warm-up for a man who can routinely do two or three hours without breaking sweat.

Ken was, as usual, hilariously funny.  He is probably the last of the great comedians from the music hall tradition still performing, but his humour has lost none of its speed, energy or freshness.  At the age of 81, he is, quite simply, a phenomenon.

Today’s Independent contains the paper’s latest Happy List of “100 people who make Britain a better and a happier place to live”.  Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t include any politicians.  A couple of comedians, Peter Kay and Josie Long, are, however, listed. 

Kay, asserts the Indy, is “now simply Britain’s best comedian”, which is a pretty controversial statement, given that taste in comedy is highly subjective.  Personally, I find Michael McIntyre even funnier than Kay and am surprised he hasn’t made the list.

I am astonished almost to the point of outrage, however, to find that the name of Ken Dodd OBE has been omitted from the Happy List.  For heaven’s sake, a list with such a title could almost have been created specifically in his honour.

For over two generations, Ken Dodd has entertained the country with a zany brand of comedy that is uniquely British.  He can sing pretty well and is also a competent ventriloquist.  What’s more, his signature tune is, ironically,  Happiness, which he belted out last night to the accompaniment of the entire audience.

Ken’s omission from the Happy List is an extremely grave matter and, frankly, devalues the rest of its content.  I trust that the Indy will rectify it in 2010.

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Posted in Miscellaneous

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