George Osborne speaking at the Conservative conference this year. Wikileaks cables said his high-pitched voice contributed to view that he lacked gravitas. Photograph: Dave Gadd/Allstar Picture Library
George Osborne lacked gravitas before the election and was seen as a political lightweight because of his "high-pitched vocal delivery", according to private Conservative polling relayed to US embassy diplomats.
In a candid account, senior party figures told the embassy that the future chancellor had been stopped from making an emergency statement at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 in light of his weaknesses.
The striking criticisms of Osborne are disclosed in an account of the 2008 Tory party conference by Richard LeBaron, deputy head of mission at the US embassy. A Cameron insider told US officials in a private meeting that it had been decided Cameron should deliver the speech "as private party polling indicated that the public feel Osborne lacks the necessary 'gravitas'. Somewhat unfairly, party officials thought, polling indicated that Osborne was seen as lightweight and inexperienced, in part due to his high-pitched vocal delivery."
The senior Tory said Gordon Brown's warning at the Labour conference that the financial crisis meant it was "no time for a novice" had struck home. "This party insider also revealed that Brown's charge that Cameron was a 'novice' at a time of crisis had gained significant traction with voters," the cable said. "Internal Tory spot polling had found, worryingly for the Conservatives, that contrary to the general consensus, if an election were held the next day, Gordon Brown would be re-elected, albeit with a vastly reduced Labour majority."
LeBaron said of Cameron's conference speech: "If Cameron's aim was to convince the public that he has serious policies and will bring changes, then he succeeded in the eyes of much of the press. Cameron may have faced criticism that his speech failed to lay out, in specifics, the party's plans for government but no doubt he is trying to avoid the fate of previous leaders who, having set out a detailed platform far in advance of any general election, later had their best ideas taken by the Labour government." SOURCE
WikiLeaks cables reveal that Mervyn King was worried about David Cameron and George Osborne's lack of economic depth. Photograph: Graeme Robertson The head of the Bank of England privately criticised David Cameron and George Osborne for their lack of experience, the lack of depth in their inner circle and their tendency to think about issues only in terms of their electoral impact, according to leaked US embassy cables. Mervyn King told the US ambassador, Louis Susman, he had held private meetings with the two Conservative politicians before the election to urge them to draw up a detailed plan to reduce the deficit.
He said the pair operated too much within a narrow circle and "had a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics, and how they might affect Tory electorability". He also predicted that economic recovery would be "a long drawn-out process", since Britain had not been through an economic restructuring.
His apparent pressure on the Tories, a few months before the election, gives further credence to the claim that King was central in persuading leading coalition figures to back a far more dramatic deficit-reduction programme than any politician advocated during the election campaign. He has recently been criticised by members of the Bank's monetary policy committee for straying into politics.
The cables released today also disclose:
• Internal Tory polling found Osborne lacked gravitas with the public, partly due to his "high-pitched vocal delivery". As a result, Cameron, not Osborne, made the special address on the economic crisis to the party conference in the autumn of 2008.
• The defence secretary, Liam Fox, told the Americans that the Tories would be tougher on Pakistan because they were less reliant on votes from the Pakistani community than Labour.
• King believes Europe's sovereign debt crisis will accelerate political union. "Leaders in Germany and France have recognised that allowing monetary union to happen without corresponding political cohesion was a mistake and one that needed to be rectified," King told American diplomats.
• The Liberal Democrats' two top strategists, Polly Mackenzie and Chris Saunders, now both working in government, planned to run a fierce anti-Cameron election campaign, describing him as "out of touch with real life". The death of Cameron's son Ivan forced them to drop the plan since it "eliminated these vulnerabilities".
• Referring to Muslim extremists in Britain from Pakistan, Cameron told the Americans at a meeting in April 2009 that under Labour "we let in a lot of crazies and did not wake up early enough".
There is a broad expectation that the governor of the Bank of England will behave with political neutrality, and will not seek to interfere directly in macro-economic policy, the preserve of the Treasury and politicians. Yet the cables reveal he pressed Cameron for details of his deficit plan.
"King expressed great concern about Conservative leaders' lack of experience," Susman wrote in his classified dispatch to the US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, after his 16 February meeting with the governor. "[He] opined that party leader David Cameron and shadow chancellor George Osborne have not fully grasped the pressures they will face from different groups when attempting to cut spending.
"In recent meetings with [Cameron and Osborne], he has pressed for details about how they plan to tackle the debt but received only generalities in return. Both Cameron and Osborne have a tendency to think about issues only in terms of politics and how they might affect Tory electorability.
"King also expressed concern about the Tory party's lack of depth. Cameron and Osborne have only a few advisers and seemed resistant to reaching out beyond their small inner circle."
In a section headed "Conservatives: not prepared", the ambassador said King had stated that "hundreds of government officials will make pleas of why their budgets should not be reduced".
A Bank spokeswoman responded tonight: "The governor has a very effective working relationship with the prime minister and the chancellor."
King's defenders would argue he was not seeking to press the Conservatives to follow a specific deficit path, but given the state of the markets it would be legitimate for him to ask them to put detailed plans in place. Arguably this scepticism over the ability of Osborne and Cameron to press ahead with a strong deficit reduction plan has proved unfounded since they have announced a programme far more ambitious than expected.
King told Susman he had fears the "Cameron/Osborne partnership was not unlike the Tony Blair/Gordon Brown team of New Labour's early years, when both worked well together when part of the opposition party, but fissures developed – for many reasons – once Labour was in power. Similar tensions could arise if Cameron and Osborne disagreed on how to handle the deficit, and the lack of depth in their inner circle would aggravate the situation."
The governor was gloomy about economic prospects, Susman reported. "It was hard to be optimistic about recovery in 2010," King argued, and noted "a double-dip recession was still a possibility".
It is known that King, in the wake of the coalition's formation, played a role in persuading the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, that major steps were needed to prevent bond traders pulling the plug on the British economy after the collapse of confidence in other debt-ridden countries, such as Greece.
Accounts of the coalition negotiations have also revealed that Osborne, in his talks with the Lib Dems, said he had the support of King for his deficit programme. But it is the first time it has been revealed King pressed for a detailed plan.
The cables also reveal King was not the only source of disobliging remarks about the Tory leadership, according to Susman.
The rightwing Conservative MP for Sevenoaks and now Conservative deputy chairman, Michael Fallon, also confided his doubts to US diplomats.
His remarks were detailed in a cable sent in October 2008 titled: "Conservative party caught flat-footed by Brown's quick manoeuvres on financial crisis, says senior Tory MP".
It stated: "The Tories' response to the crisis has been regrettably tepid … The Conservative party felt the absence of a strong shadow chancellor and the party's counter-proposals to Labour's plans have been 'all over the place'. Fallon particularly criticised Osborne's op-ed piece in the October 28 Daily Telegraph as a 'weak', almost laughable, response to the economic crisis."
Mark Tokola, the embassy's economic minister at the time, concluded: "Fallon's comments to us reflected Conservative frustration – and some grudging admiration – for prime minister Brown's skill in seizing the high ground during the economic crisis. SOURCE
Scuffles erupt at Bristol University during today’s demonstrations. Photograph: Sam FrostThe third mass protests against the government's higher education plans took place today as thousands of students took to the streets despite the freezing weather.
Large demonstrations took place in Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford and London. The Metropolitan police said 153 arrests had been made in the capital, 146 of which occurred after a group refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration in London. Windows were smashed and missiles thrown at police, who charged at protesters with batons.
Students climbed on rooftops, stormed council buildings and stopped traffic in dozens of town centres, many saying they hoped the display of feeling would reverberate in Westminster.
Earlier there had been chaotic scenes in the capital when 4,000 students marching toward parliament tried to evade what they believed were attempts by police to "kettle" them in the bleak weather.
The demonstrators responded by dispersing across the city in separate marches, leading police in cat-and-mouse chases. One "feeder" march headed into the City, while others meandered past bemused onlookers at Oxford Circus and Hyde Park Corner, and near Buckingham Palace, stopping traffic en route.
"This is one of the most bizarre demonstrations I have been on," said Michael Chessum, 21, as he jogged up Regent Street with a group of riot police in tow. "It has been a shambolic policing operation because we agreed with them beforehand that we would march along Whitehall – but the spirit and determination of the students to get their point across has been pretty impressive."
The Met denied it had intended to kettle protesters, despite evidence of metal barriers and rows of officers waiting along Whitehall. It blamed the confusion on protesters, who, the force said, had begun their march earlier than agreed. "We made sure we had a flexible plan and sufficient resources to enable people to come back to Trafalgar Square where the protest was due to be held," said Chief Inspector Jane Connors. "That is what we did, moving around London, encouraging people to come back and meet together. We wanted to minimise disruption."
The mood was more harmonious elsewhere, although in Brighton about 600 protesters marched through the city before trying to force their way into Hove town hall. About 100 people managed to scale the roof of a car park and threw missiles, said police, but there were no arrests. Students also scaled a roof in Liverpool, where there were two arrests. In Newcastle, students occupying a university building marched through the city centre in a peaceful event. Northumbria police said in a statement they had "nothing but praise" for the campaigners. "There were no arrests and no reports of any trouble of any kind," the force said.
Ten people were arrested in Bristol when about 1,000 protesters from both universities lit flares and pelted police with mustard. The M32 was closed when it seemed that the march might go towards the motorway.
In Birmingham, about 40 protesters broke into a council hall building, prompting a standoff with security and police. There were similar scenes in Leeds, where about 40 students occupied a university building, and in Oxford, where students invaded the county council offices.
Video footage showed protesters entering the Oxford building and walking through corridors before being ejected by police. The Conservative leader of the local authority, Keith Mitchell, said on Twitter: "County Hall invaded by an ugly, badly dressed student rabble. God help us if this is our future."
Greater Manchester police said there were five arrests in the city, but that only a "loose cordon" of officers was placed around hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered in the city centre.
About 400 students also walked peacefully through Cambridge, and, in Edinburgh, 300 protesters marched along the Royal Mile in the city and gathered at a rally outside the Scottish parliament. There was also an impromptu sit-in at Queens University, Belfast, and at the Trent building on Nottingham University's campus.
The scale and reach of this month's student protests have shocked the authorities, who fear that mobilisation against cuts could spread. Riot police were called to Lewisham town hall on Monday night when 100 protesters in the London borough tried to force their way into a meeting where councillors were voting to cut the budget by £60m. Police said arrests were made and several officers received minor injuries. The same protest groups are expected to focus on a council meeting in Camden, north London, tomorrow.
Many of the protests were organised by students occupying up to 32 university buildings across Britain. They have largely been independent of the National Union of Students. Threatened with a no-confidence vote, the NUS president, Aaron Porter, recently apologised for the union's "spineless" caution toward student activism and promised more support. SOURCE
Students run through central Bristol. Photograph: Sam Frost for the Guardian
We gather at Trafalgar Square at 12 and run. The protesters say they do not want to be kettled like last week in Whitehall. And so the students, a block of teenagers with a sound system that plays the Imperial March from Star Wars, run under Admiralty Arch and into the Mall, then past the Treasury and into Parliament Square.
Whenever we see a block of police in neon jackets we run, or are chased away, sometimes down boulevards that are closed and empty, and sometimes through traffic-choked alleys. Tourists take photos. The odd white van toots at this mass of running students. An old man shouts: "Go back to bed!"
I do not know who is leading us, but we don't stop running. The march is fracturing – people are going up different streets and getting lost. Texts come through from the front, giving information. There may be a demonstration at Topshop, or maybe at Liberal Democrat HQ on Cowley Street. But no – we just run down Piccadilly Circus and into Regent Street, then Oxford Street. "I don't feel like a protester," says a music student. "I feel like a tourist."The students dance across Aldwych, singing It Must Be Love, by Madness, before breaking again into a run down to the Embankment. It feels like kiss chase – or, when I see a policeman punch a boy out of the way, entirely without provocation, punch chase. "I'm going," says one girl. "I have a seminar."
Soon, we are back in Trafalgar Square. We have played protest Monopoly for two hours and now we have stopped. The banners – Don't Put the Kettle On, Mr Cameron and I Can't Believe It's Not Thatcher – are lowered, and the leaders climb on the plinth below Nelson's column and speak, asking the students to come back next week. If we have been running from – or to – a fight all day, we get it now. A group of boys charge a police line and fall over. A smoke bomb is thrown, then a can of beer. The police move forward to kettle the students. And above us, on the steps of the National Gallery, tourists look confused at this vision of Britain 2010, angry and fighting in the snow. SOURCE
Vince Cable: 'We have got to vote as a group, collectively, and we are discussing how we do that.' Photograph: Alexander Natruskin/Reuters
Vince Cable said today he could be persuaded not to vote in favour of his own plan to increase university tuition fees if it would help unite the Liberal Democrats.
The party's former deputy leader, now business secretary in the coalition government with the Conservatives, made the pledge as the Lib Dem high command struggles to find a common voice in the parliamentary vote on the fee rise, which is expected before the Christmas recess.
Cable's successor as deputy leader, Simon Hughes, has been pressing for the party to abstain. Nick Clegg, the deputy prime minister and party leader, today refused to say how he will vote.
Labour kept up the pressure on the Lib Dems today. The party used an opposition day debate to call on the government to publish more information on its proposals and to advertise Labour's view that the rise is being used to plug gaps left by cuts in government spending. Labour wants the white paper on higher education to be published before the house is asked to vote on it.
Cable said: "If we all abstain, then that is the position I am happy to go along with. There is an option that we all abstain together and we are considering that.
"My own personal instinct – partly because I am the secretary of state responsible for universities and partly because I think the policy is right – is very much to vote for it. But we have got to vote as a group, collectively, and we are discussing how we do that.
"My position is somewhat different, but I am willing to go along with my colleagues. We are a disciplined party: we work together. We are clearly going through a difficult period over this issue and we want to support each other."
Lib Dem MPs have been wrestling with a pre-election promise not to support an increase but now find themselves presiding over a near-trebling of fees. The coalition agreement allows them to abstain, but many feel they must be true to their promise and vote against it.
A petition signed by 104 former Lib Dem parliamentary candidates called on Cable, Clegg and their fellow MPs to abide by the pre-election pledge to avert "many more years back in the political wilderness".
Yesterday the Welsh assembly announced Welsh students would not have to pay the increase in fees regardless of where in the UK they go to university. Setting out its response to Cable's proposals, Welsh education minister Leighton Andrews said that universities could charge the £6,000 to £9,000 range being charged by English universities.
"The increase in fees for Welsh-domiciled students, whether they study in England or Wales or Scotland or Northern Ireland, will be paid by the Welsh Assembly government," said Andrews. "They will not have to find either £6,000 or £9,000 to study. The public purse will continue to subsidise them."
The Tories published research suggesting that students paying a graduate tax like that proposed by the Labour leader, Ed Miliband, would end up paying back more money than under the scheme proposed by the government. Analysis by new Tory MP Chris Skidmore suggests the poorest graduates could end up paying back £5,000 more during their working lives. SOURCE
Students from Goldsmith University protesting against tuition fees. Photograph: Graeme Robertson for the Guardian
An average day in the occupation at Newcastle University begins early. First on the agenda of each general meeting are a selection of messages of solidarity. We continue to be inundated with messages from local activists, teachers, parents, school students and academics, offering practical support and sharing advice from previous actions.
It was in such a meeting that we heard news of NUS president Aaron Porter's statement of support for the anti-cuts occupations that are ongoing in many of the country's universities and look likely to grow. A ripple of polite applause crept across our lecture theatre but in general the mood was indifferent. Compared with the times we've received emails from prominent political activists, promises of "dinner for all" from our lecturers or words of congratulations from local people, it didn't seem to matter that much.
It is our occupation's atmosphere of radical, creative discussion and collective action that might explain why Porter's apology for "dithering" in recent weeks fell a little flat. On the second National Day of Action today, and after six nights, our occupation is stronger than ever. Maintaining easy access in and out of the building has meant our space has been available for local sixth form and college students as well, providing a supportive environment for lecturers to have meetings about the cuts. We have organised our own daily educational programme, open to the public, as well as helping to allow scheduled classes to continue in our occupied space. Calls from local and national press are now almost as frequent as donations of food and blankets.
Another reason we were unmoved by Porter's statement was perhaps because his "U-turn" is a reflection of what we have experienced locally with our student representatives. They too have made new promises to support anti-cuts campaigns but we have learned through six days of successful occupation that this support, though welcome, is not vital. Like our sabbatical officers, Aaron Porter should support students engaged in peaceful direct action to defend their education. It remains to be seen how his statements to this effect will impact on those in the student movement he labels "unrepresentative" because they venture beyond the NUS blueprint for fighting cuts.
The action of occupying a university is not merely to challenge university managements to come out against cuts, nor is it only to put pressure on the coalition to stop talking misleadingly about "togetherness" when it comes to education reforms. Occupations are not just a political tactic that the NUS supports or does not. To occupy a university space is to fundamentally question what education is for, how teaching and learning is organised, whose decisions are acted upon and how those decisions are made. We are challenging relationships taken for granted and stimulating ideas for different ways of organising society. Aaron Porter should join this collective effort to re-imagine education. But this must mean he accepts what will sometimes be a muddled conversation about the way we organise and protest: we are learning a lot of this as we go along. We have not forgotten Porter's initial statements following the protests at Millbank. His condemning of "violence", without distinguishing between people and windows, felt like a lazy dismissal of radicalism full stop. The student movement needs a fighting union which can be relied upon to support and educate its members about taking all actions against cuts. Porter's recent statements reflect his response to the strength of the growing grassroots student movement. This is an encouraging reflection of our collective political potential to suggest alternatives for education and necessarily perhaps for student representation.
This movement is bigger than Aaron Porter. It is bigger than the universities and bigger than the project of an occupied lecture theatre. In the north-east, the impetus for actions so far has come primarily from school and college students. This energy is in turn spreading across the wider community. This fightback will continue with or without Aaron Porter's support. It is simply too serious now to dwell for any length of time on what could be more empty promises. We are busy organising, occupying and reimagining what we want education to be. In short, we have got more pressing things to do. SOURCE
Student protests: a street-level view Link to this video The third mass protests against the government's higher education plans took place yesterday as thousands of students took to the streets despite the freezing weather.
Large demonstrations took place in Brighton, Birmingham, Bristol, Manchester, Newcastle, Oxford and London. The Metropolitan police said 153 arrests had been made in the capital, 146 of which occurred after a group refused to leave Trafalgar Square at the end of the demonstration in London. Windows were smashed and missiles thrown at police, who charged at protesters with batons.
Students climbed on to rooftops, stormed council buildings and stopped traffic in dozens of town centres, many saying they hoped the display of feeling would reverberate in Westminster.
Earlier there had been chaotic scenes in the capital when 4,000 students marching toward parliament tried to evade what they believed were attempts by police to "kettle" them in the bleak weather.
The demonstrators responded by dispersing across the city in separate marches, leading police in cat-and-mouse chases. One "feeder" march headed into the City, while others meandered past bemused onlookers at Oxford Circus and Hyde Park Corner, and near Buckingham Palace, stopping traffic en route.
"This is truly one of the most bizarre demonstrations I have been on," said Michael Chessum, 21, as he jogged up Regent Street with a group of riot police in tow. "It has been a shambolic policing operation because we had agreed with them beforehand that we would march along Whitehall – but the spirit and determination of the students to march and get their point across has been pretty impressive."
The Met denied it had intended to kettle protesters, despite evidence of metal barriers and rows of officers waiting along Whitehall. It blamed the confusion on protesters, who, the force said, had begun their march earlier than agreed. "We made sure we had a flexible plan and sufficient resources to enable people to come back to Trafalgar Square where the protest was due to be held," said Chief Inspector Jane Connors. "That is what we did, moving around London, encouraging people to come back and meet together. We wanted to minimise disruption."
The mood was more harmonious elsewhere in the country, although in Brighton about 600 protesters marched through the city before trying to force their way into Hove town hall. About 100 people managed to scale the roof of a car park and threw missiles, said police, but there were no arrests. Students also scaled a roof in Liverpool, where there were two arrests.
In Newcastle, students occupying a university building marched through the city centre in a peaceful event. Northumbria police said in a statement they had "nothing but praise" for the campaigners. "There were no arrests and no reports of any trouble of any kind," the force said.
Ten people were arrested in Bristol when about 1,000 protesters from both universities lit flares and pelted police with mustard. The M32 was temporarily closed when it seemed that the march might go towards the motorway.
In Birmingham, about 40 protesters broke into a council hall building, prompting a standoff with security and police. There were similar scenes in Leeds, where about 40 students occupied a university building, and in Oxford, where students invaded the county council offices.
Video footage showed protesters entering the Oxford building and walking through corridors before being ejected by police. The Conservative leader of the local authority, Keith Mitchell, said on Twitter: "County Hall invaded by an ugly, badly dressed student rabble. God help us if this is our future."
Greater Manchester police said there were five arrests in the city, but that only a "loose cordon" of officers was placed around hundreds of demonstrators who had gathered in the city centre.
About 400 students also walked peacefully through Cambridge, and, in Edinburgh, 300 protesters marched along the Royal Mile in the city and gathered at a rally outside the Scottish parliament. There was also an impromptu sit-in at Queens University, Belfast, and at the Trent building on Nottingham University's campus.
The scale and reach of this month's student protests have shocked the authorities, who fear that mobilisation against government austerity cuts could spread. Riot police were called to Lewisham town hall in south London on Monday night when 100 protesters tried to force their way into a meeting where councillors were voting to cut the budget by £60m. Police said arrests were made and several officers received minor injuries. The same protest groups are expected to focus on a council meeting in Camden, north London, tonight.
Many of the protests were organised by students who are occupying as many as 32 university buildings across Britain. They have taken place largely independently of the National Union of Students. Threatened with a no-confidence vote, the NUS president, Aaron Porter, recently apologised for the union's "spineless" caution toward student activism and promised more support. SOURCE
