Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Every financial collapse in the City you can normally be traced back to a testosterone-sodden trading floor where young men believed a little too much in their own hype. Britain is in the unusual position that both our economic and political collapse can be traced to the same gang – the ones that Gordon Brown
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Let’s rewind back to this morning, and Ed Balls’ appearance on the Today progamme. It was such a classic demonstration of distortion and buck-passing, that we’ve decided to give it a fisk, Coffee House style. Here’s the transcript, with our thoughts added in italics: James Naughtie: Talking about bad behaviour, there’s been a bit of
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I’m interviewing Kate Barker at 4pm this afternoon as part of The Spectator’s ongoing inquiry into the causes of the recession. She is a member of the Bank of England’s Monetary Policy Committee, so she has to regulate what she can say and when she says it. But she’s kindly agreed to be interviewed today,
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The McBride affair may have a dangerous side-effect – and that is blackening the name of special advisers. I am in the minority position of wanting to see more of them in Whitehall, and here’s why. McBride’s problem was his behaviour, not his status. The current suggestion that the real problem is his SpAd status
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One can only imagine what went through Alistair Darling’s mind last weekend, as the scale of the McBride affair became evident. In his Budget next Wednesday, the Chancellor faces a political mission which was already next to impossible before the email story broke. Now his task has become downright laughable in its scale. To produce
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Well the “statement” is in – not so much from Tom Watson as from his lawyers, Carter-Ruck, who are complaining about Iain Dale’s article in the Mail on Sunday which claimed that Watson was copied into those emails. Here is the statement: “We have today been instructed by government minister Tom Watson, MP for West
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I hear Tom Watson is about to make a “personal statement” which should clear up how much he knew about Red Rag and Damiangate. Last time I looked, Guido didn’t have any crosshairs trained on him – but we’ll see. UPDATE: He isn’t going to resign, I’m told. But expect a statement tonight.
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So, has the spin operation worked? McBride’s quick depature had three objectives. 1. Close down the story. This seems to have worked: today’s news doesn’t have many more developments. If tomorrow’s papers have nothing new, then Damiangate may not last until Wednesday. This would be, in the circumstances, the best possible outcome for Brown as
From our UK edition
McBride’s resignation statement is in, and true to character he has decided not to skulk off home apologetically. It was all the wicked Guido, he says. ‘All I was doing was having a bit of a laugh with my mate Derek. As an upstanding member of the community, I am morally sickened that the wretched
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So what was Damian McBride planning in those emails? I can give you a glimpse of what the News of the World* has tomorrow – it’s an outline of the various dirty tricks discussed by McBride and Derek Draper, and it was far more developed than what has so far been claimed. The smears –
From our UK edition
So, it’s happened. The News of the World has confirmed that Damian McBride has quit – and I understand that it will tomorrow publish the emails at the centre of the storm. The logic for the resignation is clear. McBride broke two cardinal rules for spin doctors: 1) Never become the story, and 2) Never,
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I woke up to a text message this morning from a friend in Whitehall. “I see Mc**** is in the doodoo”. An expletive preceded by “Mc” can only refer to one person – and indeed, as James and Pete have blogged, Damian McBride is back in the news with his redoubtable emails. I said a
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The old wartime poster ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has been reprinted recently and is turning up in the strangest places around Westminster. I have seen it on an MP’s desk and emblazoned on the cufflinks of a Treasury civil servant. It certainly captures the sense that we are undergoing an economic blitz, and acknowledges
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What’s the difference between a banker and a pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four. So ran one of Vince Cable’s jokes when he presented the British Press Awards last week – but there is a crucial flaw. He reckoned without the financiers running an exchange-traded business fund named iShares. It is a
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Was it remarkable that George Osborne rejected laissez-faire economics in his speech yesterday? A CoffeeHouser, Marcus Cotswell, asks why I didn’t pick up on it in my summary yesterday. It is a very good point, and perhaps one worth addressing in a post rather than a comment. The Tories have never, ever believed in laissez-faire
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So, whither Tory economic policy? It was George Osborne’s turn to discuss it today, and, overall, it’s very good news. The shadow chancellor’s speech appears to be a rejection of Brownite rules-based economics. Inflation targeting was not enough to prevent the crash, and Osborne appears to say he’d empower the Bank of England governor to
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Labour’s agony about how to attack the Tories continues. Is Cameron a spivvy PR man? A lightweight, unqualified for the job? Or is he actually an alright bloke; the acceptable face of an unacceptable party? The problem with the latter argument is that you accept that Cameron and Osborne are good things. But it’s the
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Sky News’s coverage of the recession has today taken on a powerful new dimension: a ” debt counter”, starting today, counting in real time how much extra debt Gordon Brown is saddling the public with during the financial year 2009/10. It started at zero at 7am and it’s rising at £4,800 a second as per
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Ed Balls isn’t quite sure how to attack the Tory ‘Swedish schools’ policy. But a story in today’s Observer about a Tory councillor sounding off about it gives him a chance to try. The words issued are from Jim Knight, but I put them below and by thoughts interspersed. “Once they know the truth about
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Good old Alistair Darling is on manouevres again. Normally, Chancellors stay quiet before the Budget but he has admitted to the Sunday Times that there will not (surprise, surprise) be an economic recovery starting in July as he predicted last October. “We must be realistic about this,” he says. “I think it will be the
