David cameron

David Cameron didn’t answer the question today at PMQs despite Ed Miliband repeating it five times. But in a rowdy chamber, it didn’t seem to matter as Tory MPs roared their approval at Cameron’s one liners. Cameron, in reference to Ed Balls’ disastrous slip on Newsnight last night, quipped ‘Bill Somebody is not a person, it’s Labour policy’. Miliband wasn’t helped by how technical the question he was asking was. It, according to Labour sources, related to something called Schedule 19 which governs the taxation of share purchases made by hedge funds through investment banks. Now, Labour will argue that it illustrates their general point that the Tories are the party of ‘Mayfair hedge funds and Monaco tax avoiders’.

The education secretary gave Durham Free School (DFS) until 3 February to make representations showing why it should not have its funding agreement ended. Nicky Morgan now has the school’s response: a detailed explanation of why the DfE’s threat to close the school is unfair, disproportionate and wrongheaded. The academy trust has also served notice that it may apply for judicial review.  A critique of Ofsted’s behaviour throughout this affair has also been drawn up, saying that the chief inspector, Sir Michael Wilshaw, may have misled a commons committee.

Gordon Brown is holding an adjournment debate on the union this evening, which comes after an Ashcroft poll which shows precisely what danger the union is in. If today’s polls were tomorrow’s election result, the SNP would have 55 out of 59 seats in Scotland. It's even set to lose Coatbridge, where it picked up 67pc of the vote at the last election. Yes, all this will help the Tories in the short term: Cameron needs the SNP to destroy Labour in the north and the SNP need Cameron in No10 – remember, their political model is based on grudge and gripe. Without a villain, Alex Salmond won't have a pantomime. But back to Brown. He designed devolution to kill off the Tories in Scotland – he succeeded, but has ended up with the SNP instead.

In the run-up to the Greek election, European figures were adamant that there wasn’t as much to worry about as people thought. They argued that Syriza wouldn’t come close to winning a majority and that it would have to do a coalition deal with Potami who would end up moderating its demands. This complacency was misplaced. Syriza came within a whisker of a majority and then formed a coalition with right wing nationalists, the Greek Independents, who agree with Syriza on very little other than the need to end EU-imposed austerity. Politically, it is very hard to see how the Greek situation can be resolved. Syriza’s entire rationale as a political movement is to renegotiate the terms of the Greek bailout.

Isabel Oakeshott has gone to such lengths to get close to David Cameron for the biography she is helping Lord Ashcroft write that she has even been pictured following him on his jogs. Now David Cameron’s nemesis Ashcroft has given an insight into what readers can expect from the tome. Speaking at the Political Book Awards, Ashcroft, who was a sponsor of the event, had a choice use of words to describe the biography of the Prime Minister. 'I hope that next year with Isabel Oakeshott that we may have one of the books up there for 'Political Book of the Year'. As most of you know we are writing the obit... Ah sorry David, the biography.' Mr S hears that the final chapter won't be written until the election result is known.

Napoleon notoriously preferred his generals to be lucky — and on that score at least, he would have approved of David Cameron. The triumph of the Syriza party in Greece presents him with a glorious opportunity to solve the European question that has bedevilled the Tories for so long. Europe’s difficulty is Cameron’s opportunity. The European elite has been shaken by the scale of Syriza’s victory. Just a few weeks ago, Cameron was arguing in private that Greek voters, who remain overwhelmingly pro-EU, would ultimately not back a party that was intent on a confrontation with the eurozone authorities.