Uk politics

Wednesday

David Blackburn

Who is to blame for the Pilkingtons’ deaths?

From our UK edition

I empathise with the jurors who decided the Pilkington case: it is impossible to make sense of this senseless episode. Yet society must ensure that the tragedy is not repeated. The jury, the Home Secretary and even the Opposition, up to a point, all blamed the police. Simon Jenkins’ piece in the Guardian savages the political Establishment’s refusal to address a democratic deficit, which has eradicated local civic leadership, a status quo that leaves the police caught between being a law enforcement force and an organisation that promotes community cohesion, a dual task that it is ill-equipped to perform. ‘Monday's Leicestershire jury verdict on the Pilkington deaths was typical of British public opinion.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

The Sun shines on David Cameron

From our UK edition

The Sun's Whitehall Editor, David Wooding, has just tweeted that the newspaper will officially back the Conservatives at the next election.  Given the paper's recent editorial stance, it's hardly surprising news.  But it will still delight Team Cameron, and is a blow for Brown in the aftermath of his conference speech.  I expect we'll hear more about it shortly. UPDATE: The relevant Sun story is here, although it's still only showing the opening paragraph.

David Blackburn

Brown’s watch words to defeat

From our UK edition

Comment Central’s Alice Fishburn has collated Brown’s buzzwords. It’s revealing that derivatives of ‘choice’ and ‘change’ were used 38 times, whereas the words ‘honest’ and ‘responsibility’ were uttered twice and four times respectively. Given that the public have turned against the government’s running of the economy, Brown was unwise to concentrate on Tory-bashing rather than attempt to emphasise his honesty and sense of responsibility, but perhaps he’s given up on that front. Initially, his Goethe-inspired avowal to dream big and change the world again had me grasping for the gin; but this speech was for the hall first and the voters second, which isn't enough to avoid defeat.

Lloyd Evans

Good enough for Labour

From our UK edition

For Brown this was a doddle. He couldn’t fluff it. Expectations have sunk so low that all he had to do today was show up, try not to look too knackered, spout a few revivalist platitudes and make sure he didn’t fall over. The rebellion has stalled, the plotters are paralysed. Those who criticise won’t lead, while those who would lead won’t criticise. Mandy, like a protection racketeer within the cabinet, has enriched himself in the currency of ‘loyalty’ (which in these circumstances means a reluctance to coerce others to be disloyal), and yesterday he couldn’t contain his delight at the scale of his new-found wealth. And so Mr Brown, Mandy’s proudest protégé, appeared at 2 pm today on the Brighton seafront.

Peter Hoskin

What was in Brown’s speech for those turning away from Labour?

From our UK edition

Much like Peter Mandelson's address yesterday, Gordon Brown's speech was designed for the Labour Party members inside the conference hall.  It was effectively book-ended by two crowd-pleasing rat-a-tat lists: the first, a rundown of Labour "achievements" which received massive cheers; and the second, a disingenuous account of Tory measures "for the privileged few", designed to draw hisses and boos from the audience.  All very pantomine.  And all very fun, I'm sure, for the party faithful. But what about those voters who are turning away from Labour in their droves?  What was there for them?

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s speech: live blog | 29 September 2009

From our UK edition

1404, PH: We'll be live-blogging Brown's conference speech from 1415 onwards.  In the meantime, CoffeeHousers, your thoughts on how our PM will kick things off.  Last year, of course, he got Sarah Brown to introduce him.  Will he repeat the trick this year?  Or will he get someone else?  Mandelson, perhaps?  Or someone off X-Factor?  Or will it be nothing flash, just Gordon?  Your predictions, please... 1405, PH: Brother Massie is also live-blogging the speech here. 1410, PH: Oh, and you can watch the speech here. 1416, PH: So what will Brown actually say?  Well, his announcements on anti-social behaviour and childcare have been heavily trailed.

James Forsyth

Whatever you do in Brighton, don’t mention journalists

From our UK edition

Labour activists don’t have much in common with Republican activists but they seem to agree on one thing: the media are loathsome. The hostility towards journalists from the delegates this week reminds me of being at Republican gatherings in 2008. When someone stood up at a fringe meeting yesterday and introduced themselves by saying ‘I am not a journalist’ they received a spontaneous and sustained round of applause. There is a perception that the media are biased and beneath contempt. Undoubtedly this is due in part to Andrew Marr’s inappropriate question to Brown on Sunday morning. But there is something deeper at work, a belief that the press are preventing the party from getting its message out.

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s uncertainty over a TV debate exemplifies his moribund premiership

From our UK edition

So what's the story with Brown and the leaders' TV debate?  There were reports, weeks ago, that the PM was going to use his speech today to, ahem, "challenge" his opposite numbers to a debate, but then Sky intervened and Downing Street fell silent.  Last we heard, Brown was veering towards a debate, but was still uncertain about the timing of it all. Now, this morning's FT reports that Brown "spent hours on Monday night agonising" over whether to mention a televised debate in his speech today.  Nick Robinson has followed that up by saying that the relevant passage has been removed from the speech.  If Brown does finally accept a debate, Robinson writes, then he may attach a set of demands which will slow the whole process down.

David Blackburn

Brown is either fleet-footed or indecisive – he cannot be both

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown delivers the most important speech of his life this afternoon. Whether that speech can even check the march of the seemingly inevitable is doubtful, but his best chance is to express an alternative strain of personality from the severe and serious man the electorate plainly dislike. Jim Naughtie and Neil Kinnock debated the alleged disparity between Gordon Brown in public and Gordon Brown in private. Kinnock repeated the line that, behind closed doors, Brown is a barrel of laughs, a near dilettante, and he sang the usual ‘if you could see him through my eyes’ chorus.

Monday

David Blackburn

Labour want Blair to hit the campaign trail

From our UK edition

Tom Watson has told the Times that Tony Blair should hit the campaign trail "if he fancies it". There have been rumours that both Blairs will campaign at the next election, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Brownite has publicly implored the former PM to return to the fold, and perhaps it's a measure of the Brown camp's increasing desperation that they are prepared to bury the hatchet. I've no doubt that Blair will answer the call, he would have done so had no call come. His input will be valued by a party that grew accustomed to victory under his leadership, even if he only inspires false self-confidence. But, after 12 years of government and the catastrophic Brown premiership, I doubt whether even Blair can avert the inevitable.

James Forsyth

Mandelson: If I can come back, we can come back

From our UK edition

You would have got long odds on it in the 1990s, but Peter Mandelson is now a conference darling. His hugely hammy performance delighted the hall and earned him a prolonged standing ovation. Since he has returned to British politics, Mandelson has sought to deliver enough good lines to write his own story. He deliberately inverted Tony Blair’s quote about choosing the Labour party and rallied the audience by saying ‘If I can come back, we can come back.’ He flirted with conference before confirming that the car scrappage scheme would be extended before wrapping up with a string of attacks on the Tories and a declaration that “this election is up for grabs.

Peter Hoskin

Brown is drinking in the last chance saloon (again)

From our UK edition

Oh joy.  Alan Simpson's ultimatum to Brown today gives me an opportunity to update this list: 20 April, 2008 "The Prime Minister, who is battling a growing rebellion over his abolition of the 10p tax rate, has been given until the end of the summer to turn things round by backbenchers angry at a string of image and policy failures." (here) 24 May, 2008 "It is that Mr Brown be given until the end of July to prove himself and restore morale. If by then things have not improved, ministers, MPs and influential figures in the unions believe the only solution may be to send a delegation of his closest political friends – perhaps including Ed Balls, the Education Secretary, and Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary – to urge him to go.

Peter Hoskin

Does Miliband the elder represent Labour’s future?

From our UK edition

Danny Finkelstein's right: there are some surprising results in today's ComRes poll for the Independent.  The one which catches my eye is that David Miliband would be the most successful alternative leader at reducing the Tories' poll lead.  Along with Jack Straw, the poll suggests, he would make Labour the largest party in a hung parliament. Now, I'm frequently surprised at how popular the elder Miliband remains in Labour circles.  But - after the failed coup of last year, the banana and Heseltine moments, and that disastrous trip to India, among other embarrassments - I'd assumed that that popularity wouldn't stretch to more general voters, and that, say, Alan Johnson would do more for Labour's chances.  Maybe not, it seems.

David Blackburn

Brown’s new dividing line ignores that banks are our route to salvation

From our UK edition

Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will launch their umpteenth fight back today by talking tough on banks and bonuses. They hope to prove the Conservatives are interested solely in “helping their rich friends”. The Times has the details: ‘The Chancellor will tell the party conference in Brighton that legislation to be introduced in the next few weeks will scrap automatic year-after-year bonuses and stop executives getting payouts unless they can prove they are deserved. Bonuses will be deferred over a period so that they can be clawed back if they are not warranted by long-term performance.’ This is not a dividing line.

Fraser Nelson

Either debt goes up, or goes down. It really is that simple.

From our UK edition

Last night, I appeared on an hour-long phone in on Five Live listening in amazement as Angela Smith and Barry Gardiner defended Brown. You’d be amazed the lines the Labour MPs are being sent out with: that the shallow media is personality-based, but real people know that Brown did a great job on the economy. Seriously. That Brown’s fiscal decisions have somehow saved us all – rather than bankrupted us all. They are suggesting that the idea of 9% Labour cuts was a Treasury speculation, when it is a hard plan contained in the Budget.

Sunday

David Blackburn

Mandelson: I would work with the Tories

From our UK edition

The Conservative party’s seizure of the progressive agenda and the rhetoric of liberal democracy suggests that Cameron intends to build a broad coalition. But how large would the Tories’ tent be? Peter Mandelson reveals that he would have no trouble “serving his country” under a Conservative government. ‘In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, the business secretary said he would be willing to put his “experience at the disposal of the country”, if Labour lost power. “As I grow older, I can imagine more ways of serving my country than simply being a party politician,” he said.

Friday

Fraser Nelson

Question Time conundrum

From our UK edition

I was a panelist on Question Time last night, and it started me thinking about how they will handle the BNP episode – which I expect fairly soon. Make no mistake, a Question Time slot is as big for the BNP as winning seats in Europe. When I was on the campaign trail with them for a cover story in June, I noticed how they would refer to Question Time as a goal – almost as much as getting to Brussels. It represents one thing: the political mainstream. With two MEPs and almost a million voters the BNP have a legitimate claim to that Question Time panel. For them, it is totemic. It will be an historic moment – and one which could work to the BNP’s favour.

Peter Hoskin

Ben Bradshaw’s advice for Brown

From our UK edition

It's the question that won't go away for Gordon Brown: should he - will he -  take part in a televised leaders' debate?  On this weekend's Straight Talk, Andrew Neil takes the opportunity to quiz Ben Bradshaw about his views on the matter.  Here's how the Culture Secretary responds: "I don’t think [Brown]’s got anything to lose by doing that ....  My advice to him would say, I think you’ve got the arguments, you’ve made the right decisions, you could demolish that guy." Like Mandelson's interventions before now, Bradshaw's advice will slightly raise the pressure on Brown to take part in a debate.  But the first half of it also chimes with what a lot of Labour folk are saying around Westminster.

Peter Hoskin

Brown ignores the small issues which precede the “big choices”

From our UK edition

James has already highlighted the New Statesman's interview with Gordon Brown, but it's worth flagging up this passage as well: "Again and again, throughout our interview, Brown refers to the next election as being about 'big choices', not the small issues, which he says the Conservatives would prefer. 'What was the latest thing? The cost of food in the House of Commons?' he asks, referring to David Cameron's recent gimmicky pledge to cut public spending by reducing subsidies on MPs' food. This theme of 'big choices', say Brown's aides, is one he is likely to pursue in his conference speech and beyond." To my mind, this exemplifies one of the main reasons why Brown will struggle to be trusted on the issue of the public finances.

David Blackburn

Eureka!

From our UK edition

Brown's pursuit of Obama through the UN canteen has finally paid dividends: PoliticsHome is reporting that Barack Obama will hold bilateral talks with Gordon Brown later today. After yesterday's negative headlines, Obama was always going to make a gesture that indicated how much he valued Brown; but from the Prime Minister's point of view, the damage has already been done.