John McTernan

Andy Coulson leaves Number 10 in January (Photo: Reuters)

A fortnight ago I raised the question of how Andy Coulson had managed to pass the Developed Vetting (DV) screening that I had received. The line from Downing Street was that Coulson had been vetted by a private company. Odd. And not an answer. On Wednesday, during David Cameron’s bravura performance in the Commons, the mystery deepened. The Prime Minister refused to name the company involved.

Yesterday we found out more. It turns out that Andy Coulson, Press Secretary to the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom, was cleared to a medium level of clearance. A Cabinet Office spokesperson said:
He had ’security check’ level of security clearance which most officials in No 10 and most special advisers would be subject to. The only… Read More

Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson in 2003 (Photo: BBC)

The biggest danger in today’s Select Committee hearing is not that the witnesses will avoid answering questions because there is an ongoing police investigation. There is an easy response to that tactic. Committee members should politely note “telling the truth to us can’t possibly prejudice a police inquiry” and then repeat the question.

No, the real danger is the clash of cultures. The Commons has a verbal, inquisitorial style all of its own. Directed by MPs against each other it finds out weakness and reveals strengths, but it has theatrical overtones that tend towards grandstanding. Combined with too much watching of US TV shows with their flashy court room scenes, an unwieldy style emerges that is the opposite of forensic. Today’s meeting should be… Read More

The Prime Minister and Rebekah Brooks, former NI chief executive

Memo to: Prime Minister
From: Political Secretary

This has not been our finest hour. Or should I say 336 hours. For the last fortnight we have been following, not leading. That has to change. Or we will be defined by this crisis. We have to go back to basics.

First, establish leadership. This has always been your strongest suit. You look and act like a leader. Even in opposition it was clear to the public you could stand confidently on the national and international stage. It was why you could forge the coalition the country needed. It’s why you have altered course successfully on key policies and not been damaged by it. It’s the key choice we want to pose between you and Ed Miliband at the next election – he fails the… Read More

David Cameron speaks on public service reforms (Photo: Getty)

I want a revolution in public services. I want an end to the public sector monopoly on provision. So here’s my vision. In one major service we need to have 90 per cent of services provided by small business, private contractors – not monolithic providers, whether government or private sector. In another key service we need faith-based providers. Churches play a huge role in British life. Time to let them into service delivery. My target? A third of provision in that service switched to them.

Radical? Actually, not at all. Nine out of ten visits to the health service are to GPs. And what are they? Private practitioners who provide contracted services for a fee. As for faith-based organisations, the Church of England and… Read More

Number 10 must have vetted Andy Coulson thoroughly (Photo: Getty)

“Have you seen Mr McTernan drunk?”

“How do you think he manages his money? Does he gamble?’

“And when he’s drunk, what’s he like with his children?”

These were the questions my friend felt able to repeat to me after he was interviewed by the Security Service.

Before you start at No 10 you need to be security cleared or DV-ed (Developed Vetting which allows routine and unrestricted access to material marked “top secret”). Part of this process is nominating three people as referees – and you have to provide a mix of people who have known you over time, and people who have seen you in social and professional contexts. At first your mates think it’s a bit of a joke, and they’re… Read More

The police's role will come to light (Photo: Stephen Lock)

At first sight, Ed Miliband’s demand for a full public inquiry into the News of the World phone hacking scandal looks like a major breach of a political strategy that has dominated British politics for thirty years – whatever you do, keep Murdoch sweet. From Thatcher through Blair to Cameron it has been an iron law that a good – indeed respectful – working relationship with News International was critical to electoral success. But too many on the Left have been paranoid about the influence of Rupert Murdoch. He is, at core, a bold businessman and an inkie, a newspaper man. To these lefties Ed’s calm, clinical questions at PMQs will seem a long overdue declaration of war on an evil… Read More

Karl Rove revolutionised the Republican Party (Photo: AP)

The Conservative Party is in crisis. That much is clear from the widely publicised report on its declining membership levels by Christopher Shale, the Tory activist and friend of David Cameron who died at the weekend.

Mr Shale wrote: “If one asks Tory voters, as I have done many times over the years, to complete the sentence, ‘I should join the Conservative Party because…’ there is no compelling response. If there was I’d have heard it by now. There is not. The claimed benefits – the right to attend party conference, take part in selecting our MPs, and so on – are of zero interest to most current, let alone potential, members.”

The truth is that public disaffection and disengagement aren’t just Tory problems – they… Read More

Alan Milburn called the NHS reforms a 'car crash' (Photo: Brian Smith)

There’s a story going round the NHS that at the darkest moment in the reform process one of Cameron’s advisers phoned Alan Milburn: “No 10 here. What would you do, if you were us?” “I wouldn’t have started what you’re trying to do”, he replied. Pause. “I know, I know.” Pause. “But what would you do?”

Now, after his piece in today’s Telegraph, Milburn’s profound disagreement with the coalition’s reform strategy is out in the open. His devastating critique of how and where the Government have gone wrong is a series of pinpoint surgical strikes on David Cameron’s reputation as a reformer:
Many in both camps inside the Coalition consider the U-turn a triumph. But it has the… Read More

Penelope Cruz - a long term ambition. Much like weekly bin collection

My long-term ambition is to have dinner with Penelope Cruz. I don’t say this for sympathy, or understanding, or even for help (though that would obviously be appreciated). I say it simply to illustrate what a long-term ambition really is – a long-held, never-to-be-achieved dream. And I mention it because the phrase has just entered the Government’s lexicon.

If there is one policy associated with Eric Pickles it is weekly refuse collection. Why on earth he cares, I don’t know; it seems an obvious candidate for his second most famous policy, ‘localism’. But anyway he does. In his view it’s as fundamental as habeus corpus:
It’s a basic right for every English man and woman to be able… Read More

Ed Miliband has outplayed the Tories on council housing (Photo: PA)

Last week the Tories exposed a flank; today Ed Miliband is punishing them mercilessly. I’m not talking about the NHS reforms, or the U-turn on sentencing. No, Cameron’s Tories have slipped up in a way that Margaret Thatcher would never have – they have made a catastrophic error in their policy on council housing.

Grant Shapps has discovered that there are a handful of people in social housing with earnings over £100,000 a year. He is outraged and he’s going to legislate to give councils the power to evict them. But just pause for one minute. If they earn that amount of money, couldn’t they just buy their council house? So, if threatened with eviction all that will happen… Read More