Andrew marr show

It was no expenses spared last night at One Great George Street to toast the departure of long-time Andrew Marr Show editor Barney Jones. Most ‘leaving dos’ in journalism involve a few beers down the Dog and Duck but Aunty was an extremely kind benefactor, providing fine wines and canapés as well as music from Nick Lowe across three of the most expensive function rooms in Westminster. Three cheers for the licence fee! Ed Miliband and George Osborne were there, alongside half the cabinet including Danny Alexander and Michael Fallon. Andrew Mitchell and David Davis plotted in the corner while Harriet Harman and Peter Hain represented Labour.

Today, on the Andrew Marr show, Ed Miliband repeated his porkie that David Cameron plans to reduce state spending to 1930s levels. When he first made this bizarre and obviously untrue claim, even your baristas here at Coffee House didn’t have 1930s spending data to hand. Now we do, so the extent of his deceit can be laid bare. The above graph (which you can explore by moving your cursor over the lines) shows total UK government spending, adjusted to today’s money. At £720 billion, the level of state spending in 2020 under George Osborne's plans will be almost ten times higher the levels of the 1930s.

The evolution of Ed Miliband's Labour Party continues today with a letter in the Observer from candidates demanding that the party renationalizes the railways to lower the fares. It would be popular in commuter towns, they say – no wonder, as this would pass the costs from commuters to the general taxpayer. When challenged about it on this morning's Andrew Marr show, Miliband didn't rule it out. 'We're looking at all the options,' he said. His only concession was that he is 'not going back to old-style British Rail,' - he plans a new form of state intervention.

George Osborne and Ed Balls have gone head-to-head in the media – the former in The Sun on Sunday and the latter in The Sunday Mirror. The two also appeared on the Andrew Marr Show. Neither man said anything new, at least not in terms of the grand narrative, which is scarcely surprising because the electoral cycle is at the stage where new ideas do not have time to gestate. This is especially true of the chancellor. Osborne has been under pressure to raise the threshold at which people pay the 40p rate. Osborne made it very clear to Andrew Marr that the government’s tax threshold reforms had benefited 25 million people; indeed, he spoke of his pride about this reform and reiterated that it suits 40p rate payers as well as low income earners.

Is it useful to have Vladimir Putin on your side or not? One would have hoped anybody in the UK Government would have considered this question before, apparently, asking for the Russian President’s help in their battle with the Scottish nationalists over independence. Many people saw President Putin’s intervention in the Scottish independence debate on the Andrew Marr Show yesterday morning. Far fewer, however, are aware of the rather murky background to the exchange between Putin and Marr which seems to have preceded it. For the record, this is what the Russian President said in response to a question from Marr about Scottish independence: ‘It is not a matter for Russia, it is a domestic issue for the UK.

In the words of Andrew Marr, that was an extraordinary interview. Ed Miliband kicked off Labour's conference today with an interview one can only assume was meant to show his personal side. Instead, I imagine it will reinforce the perception he is a tad weird.

It’s been a strange summer. After a stroke, holidays are not what they used to be. We went to Juan-les-Pins for a week in a hotel. It seemed perfect because it had beaches for the family, and at nearby Antibes there is a great little Picasso museum for me to haunt. It has the best drawing of a goat ever made. My daughters and wife doggedly manhandled me across hot sand into and out of the water and I enjoyed that. But being surrounded by so many fit people running, cycling and swimming was a little dispiriting. Mind you, I’ve always been useless at holidays. I hate being too hot. I hate lying around on grit (rebranded as ‘sand’). I hate airports. I hate long car journeys. My idea of a good break involves a bracingly cold northern city and some good art galleries.

Boris Johnson makes a tricky interviewee. He's charming, vague, witty and able to turn the conversation to his advantage with his ornate language and humour. If all else fails, he does something with his hair. But today the Mayor of London met his match with the equally charming and witty Eddie Mair on the Marr Show. Mair confronted him not just with persistent questions about his ambitions, but also clips from this week's documentary on Johnson which appeared to show him discussing whether to hand over the details of a journalist to his friend Darius Guppy so Guppy could have him "physically assaulted." Mair then moved in for the kill.. "And you, having heard that, tell your friend that that you will supply the address. What does that say about you, Boris Johnson? Making up quotes.