Robert Colvile

The symptoms of a broken society? (Photo: Reuters)

The crisis has yet to end, but it’s already clear that the shocking and moronic rioting of the past few days will have significant long-term consequences. Having pored over the coverage in the press and elsewhere, here are some initial predictions/observations:

1) Things just got a lot tougher for George Osborne. The riots will depress the economy, damage confidence and deter foreign investors. More to the point, the police just got added to the Armed Forces as an area where cuts are looking increasingly like a hostage to political fortune (Boris is already beating the drum on this, as Peter Hoskin points out on Coffee House). You can still make the case for them intellectually, but electorally? Hardly.

2) The criminal justice agenda has lurched… Read More

Spot the Lib Dem...

A bravura performance in the House of Commons – not from David Cameron, but from Nick Clegg, who is managing to spend the entire time staring at the ceiling, twiddling his thumbs, and generally projecting the air of a man absent-mindedly considering his shopping list. It conveys, with overwhelming clarity, the idea that this statement – and this scandal – have absolutely nothing to do with Clegg and the Lib Dems, and that as far as he’s concerned, his dear friend Dave can go hang.

What a contrast to George Osborne, the invisible man of the crisis, who looks – as my colleague Daniel Knowles put it on Twitter – like someone who has had his favourite pet kitten kidnapped and thrown off a cliff.

Ed Llewellyn (R) talks to Oliver Letwin in David Cameron's office

So, the pack has the scent of a fresh kill – John Yates has admitted that Ed Llewellyn, David Cameron’s chief of staff, was the “senior Downing Street official” who apparently warned Scotland Yard not to tell the Prime Minister about Neil Wallis’s appointment, for reasons of deniability. This after Llewellyn also failed to pass on warnings from the Guardian about Andy Coulson’s fitness for office.

Suddenly, Mr Llewellyn has become the story – but hold on a minute. What John Yates actually said was that he offered to brief Mr Llewellyn (rather than the Prime Minister) on what exactly the technical terms involved meant, ie what the exact scope of the inquiry would be. I don’t… Read More

As we await the appearance of the Murdochs in front of the select committee, an intriguing subplot is playing itself out: the defenestration of John Yates.

During his appearance, Sir Paul Stephenson essentially sought to absolve himself of all blame for the Metropolitan Police’s travails – to the extent that it was hard to understand why he’d even needed to resign in the first place. His only sin, it appeared, was trusting the statements made to him by John Yates. It was Yates, he said, who assured him there was nothing to the hacking claims made by the Guardian. Then Dick Fedorcio, the Met’s head of press, twisted the knife further, when pressed about the appointment of Neil Wallis, insisting that it was – yes – John Yates who had vetted Wallis, and assured him (Fedorcio) that there was nothing to worry… Read More

Hand up or handout? Development Secretary Andrew Mitchell visits Pakistan in the aftermath of the recent flooding (Photo: AFP)

David Cameron claimed at PMQs today that Britain is right to maintain – and increase – its spending on international aid. But Sue Cameron’s Notebook this morning in the Financial Times will make for uncomfortable reading:

“Should David Cameron, prime minister, execute another of his elegant U-turns – this time on the large sums going to poor countries riddled with corruption? Certainly pressure for him to think again about foreign aid is growing. The latest blast comes from Sir Edward Clay, our former high commissioner to Kenya. In a powerful paper for the House of Lord… Read More

Not to modern tastes: only a tiny fraction of the population are members of the main political parties (Photo: Rex Features)

At first glance, Maurice Glasman and Christopher Shale don’t have an awful lot in common. One is a hard-bitten Jewish community organiser and Left-wing academic from Walthamstow, the other was – until his untimely death recently – a high-flying businessman who ended up as David Cameron’s constituency chairman.

Yet both were united by a passion for transforming the fortunes of the disadvantaged – not just the dispossessed of Rwanda, or the lowest-paid in London, but Britain’s political parties.

Reading the full text of Shale’s ‘Operation Vanguard’ memo (as obtained by Guido)… Read More

Choosing his words carefully: Vince Cable (Photo: Reuters)

Earlier today, Vince Cable was heckled at the GMB conference in Brighton for warning the unions against mass strikes. Cue the usual murmurings about the prospect of general strikes, mass disruption and calamity for the economy.

Yet there’s something really strange here. As Cable pointed out – in arguing against the tougher strike laws that Boris Johnson has called for with increasing urgency – strikes are at “historically low” levels. In fact, that’s an understatement: as I pointed out a few weeks ago, days lost to strike action are at their lowest level since records began.

The unions, then, should be less relevant than they’ve ever been – especially at a time of uncertainty when people don’t want to… Read More

Say it ain't so, Andrew... (Photo: Geoff Pugh)

Very worrying words from Andrew Lansley in his editorial on NHS reform in today’s Telegraph: “We will empower patients to take part in decisions about their cases,” he says, “guided by the principle that there should be no decision about me, without me.” Quite right. But then he continues (my italics): “Power should be devolved from Whitehall to the front line and town halls…”

Uh oh. Lansley seems, in these three short words, to have accepted Evan Harris’s idea that local councillors should be co-opted on to the new GP consortia. A connected proposal is that the consortia should be mapped on to council boundaries.

Theoretically, the idea of elected accountability is a good one…. Read More

Boris Johnson missed out on London 2012 Olympics tickets (Photo: PA_

When Britain landed the Olympics, we were promised that the result would be a surge of interest in sport and healthy living. Instead, the Games have quickened our interest in quite another topic: higher mathematics. All across the country yesterday, those lucky enough to have received Olympic tickets – or rather, to have had mysterious deductions made from their bank accounts – were trying to work out what it meant.

“I think it’s either cycling and basketball, or table tennis and two football matches,” said one friend, who had bid for tickets worth £1,200 and been charged £386. Another – a high-flying statistician – had sat down and worked out that her family’s bill meant they were going… Read More

Ready to rumble: David Cameron and Barack Obama prepare for a spot of whiff-whaff (Photo: AFP)

Apparently, when David Cameron and Nick Clegg played tennis together – just the once – the Lib Dem was struck by how much more competitive his Tory colleague was. But it’s no surprise: political alpha males just can’t help showing their dominance on the sports field.

That’s why it was so interesting to see Cameron and Barack Obama take to the ping-pong table. It was probably the only moment of the whole state visit (in front of the cameras, at least) that we had a chance of seeing their real selves shine through.

Sure, they lost to a couple of schoolboys. But look at the glints in the eye… Read More