Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Oh dear. Rather than buy votes, Gordon Brown’s £2.7bn unfunded tax cut has doubled the Tory lead in Crewe & Nantwich according to an ICM poll of the constituency for the News of the World tomorrow. Tories on 45% against Labour’s 37%, suggesting a Tory majority of about 1,000 – and a 12% swing. The
Fraser Nelson says that the 38-year-old Work and Pensions Secretary is the best candidate to succeed Gordon Brown. Already surging ahead at his department, he has the gift of sounding like an ordinary human being — and he understands the Cameron Conservative party These days, it is scarcely possible to talk politics with a member
Do you give in yet? Because Gordon Brown still isn’t through. Another speech tomorrow, to the General Assembly on the Church of Scotland at The Mound in Edinburgh. Pointedly, it’s the 20th anniversary of Thatcher’s speech there – allowing Brown to contrast his mission with her wickedness. We can expect a pious regurgitation of his goals.
Could the first major league disaster of the summer be about to break? There are rumblings about problems with the computer system marking exams. It’s to do with ETS, an American company that won the contract to run English SAT exams. The BBC has the first sniff of this – a fairly innocent problem of
We have just seen Naomi Campbell coming out of No10 – her appointment was with Mrs Brown, apparently, but she bumped into Gordon while he was there. So where does that take us in the celebrity stakes? Well, Shakira, Clooney, Beckham and Kylie have all met with our Dear Leader. This quote sprang to mind: “I think
If you’ve had enough of Brown, stay away from television or radio tomorrow morning. No10 has been hawking him to every outlet from hospital radio upwards, and, if that’s not enough, a press conference is being organised. This is the Blair run-into-fire strategy, but I suspect it won’t work for Brown because the more he
As if proof were needed that this government has lost its grip, the centrepiece of today’s Not The Queen’s Speech is a plan to lure thousands of low-paid workers into state-sponsored negative equity. The government expects the housing market to crash by up to 10%, as we know from Caroline Flint. Yet today, Brown sets
Can anyone take Labour out of this mess? I have previously dismissed the younger leaders on the grounds that they’d wait for Labour to lose, then try and get back. But with Brown’s ability to hit rock bottom and start drilling, they may be ushered forward anyway. There is never a right time, the best
Last week, I said that Cameron should embark on a “save the Brown” exercise and be dull in PMQs, so as to cast the Prime Minister a lifeline. Perhaps he agrees. He was quite flat today, and Brown quite defiant. As always, I measure them against their usual standards – but this was not the
If you missed Jon Snow monstering Alistair Darling, watch here—absolutely brilliant: and totemic. When even Mr Snow isn’t buying, then Darling has been truly rumbled. Darling’s answers were all nonsense, but here are the top Snow questions. 1) Just eight weeks since your last budget, what has changed in the economy to warrant this extraordinary
So, does this make Crewe the most expensive by-election in British history? It will cost £2.7 billion for Darling’s move to try win back votes lost from his 10p tax debacle – but the money isn’t there. So what does he do? Blithely slaps it on the national deficit. Now and again, Labour bangs on
In his highly entertaining press conference yesterday, Ed Balls referred to “low inflation.” Today’s inflation bombshell makes such a claim impossible. Against expectations of 2.6% CPI for April, the figure is 3% – the highest rise in six years. This is hugely political. The cost of living is top doorstep issue – so it’s important
Good old Ed Balls. He has just given a lobby briefing attacking Tory education plans – at least that was his plan. But he ended up speaking about everything under the sun – Cherie’s pregnancy, the wickedness of Frank Field, the hopelessness of Crewe, the errors of the 10p Budget, why Labour is “behind the
I was taken aback the other day to see a Christian Aid poster about poverty, rather than their usual agenda of climate change and anti-capitalism. Then it dawned on me: it’s Christian Aid week, where they put collection boxes in churches. But they could not resist a report today entitled “death and taxes” in which
From Prescott’s interview in Sunday Times news review, this description of his home jumps out. “Here is not a working-class hero… but an Englishman in his castle, complete with turrets, eight bedrooms, servants’ staircases and electric gates”. This recalls what Littlejohn said a while ago: “There have been times I’ve regretted ever inventing the nickname
There is a housing development in Brockley, south east London, with an extraordinary piece of graffiti. “Thanks to Gordon Brown, I will never buy a house,” it says, and in super-large lettering no less. It is not without economic rationale. Brown’s easy-money policy at the Treasury led the Bank of England to chase a dodgy
Turns out the mystery story is a Cherie Blair interview being run jointly by The Sun and The Times. The Sun promises to run the “bomshell” interview on its website at midnight. Andrew Pierce (an expert at nicking rivals’ scoops) has the lowdown in the Telegraph – Tony Blair censored his wife’s book, he says,
David Cameron talks to Fraser Nelson about his local election triumphs, admits that he is not going to ‘agree on everything’ with the new Mayor of London, and says Boris should join the queue to become PM after him The victorious David Cameron is being driven towards Buckingham Palace, the adrenaline of election success still
A good political story is about to break. Have no idea what, but Westminster’s nervous system is twitching. My only information is that it is “big, followable and with us by midnight”. Stay tuned. UPDATE: The story is “good, but not an earthquake” I am told. That’s good news for the Tories. They don’t want
Hugo Rifkind today picks up on a point in my Cameron interview where I describe how he has the ring tone from 24 on his phone. “‘It’s an in joke,’ Cameron says, impenetrably”. If this sounds baffling, it is my fault. First it’s not the theme tune but that very specific telephone ring on the