Back to Basingstoke
Though it would be easy this week to discuss only Maria Miller’s resignation, so much ink has already been spilt on that, and it feels as if we have been through this storyline so many times before, that I’m going to focus instead on some of the other news which has caught my eye this week.
But I can’t resist just a couple of comments. First, Prime Ministers really are placed in a pretty unenviable position in these situations. Like Premier League chairmen supporting an embattled manager, or Chancellors denying their intention to devalue, there is nothing Prime Ministers can do but express their complete confidence in a Minister until the moment arrives when they have to be cut adrift (at Prime Minister’s Questions on Wednesday David Cameron repeatedly failed to answer the “Was she pushed?” question).
Secondly, Downing Street needs to tighten up its news management. It’s almost as if Cameron took his own words literally when he said last week, with reference to Miller’s apology, “We should leave it at that.” The story spiraled out of control this week, and Number 10 seemed unable to grip it.
Economic news
Good news on the economy has not been in short supply recently, but even so George Osborne must have been particularly pleased when the IMF, not always his greatest fan, forecast this week that the UK economy would grow 2.9% in 2014, up from an estimate of 2.4% as recently as January, and compared to a figure of 1.5% this time last year. The IMF forecast for 2015 is 2.5%. This is the highest growth forecast for any G7 country. Interestingly, these figures are 0.2 percentage points higher than the OBR figures that the Chancellor presented in his 2014 Budget Statement last month.
Bad week to bury good news
The better news on growth was somewhat swamped by the Miller story, but so too was an interesting speech by Ed Miliband on regionalism. The opposition leader said that a Labour government would hand £20 billion back to councils in England to spend on transport, housing and employment. There would also be a Minister for every English region. Local authorities would have to bid in partnership with, for example, LEPs and universities for the funding.
Whatever the merits of the approach, it is interesting that Labour is thinking about regionalism again. Apart from the avowed economic motivation, Labour is also looking ahead to the period after the Scottish referendum this autumn. Win or lose, there is almost certain to be some further measure of devolution to Scotland, which may raise concerns again in the North-West and especially the North-East about the “imbalance of power” between the home countries and the regions of England. Offering more power over economic development makes sense in that scenario.
2010 – A Good Vintage?
David Cameron obviously thinks so. The three beneficiaries of Maria Miller’s demise (Sajid Javid, Nicky Morgan and Andrea Leadsom) were all first elected at the last election. All, surely, have further to rise.
James Acheson-Gray
Managing Director (London), APCO Worldwide