Fraser Nelson

Now that Johann Lamont has quit as leader of Scottish Labour, bookies are now taking odds on her successor. Four of the eight most likely candidates are Westminster MPs and third-favourite is Gordon Brown himself. He's struggling to find a role nowadays, and there's not much demand for him in the international speaker circuit. His role in the referendum campaign was seen, by some, as decisive. So is it now time for him to settle down to a new fiefdom? He has some support. Here is Michael Connarty, Labour MP for Linlithgow and East Falkirk, on BBC Radio Scotland this morning:- "People are talking about Gordon Brown as leader. I think he should lead us into this next election. I think that Gordon has shown he is a Scottish voice, he is a voice for Scotland.

[audioplayer src="http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_23_January_2014_v4.mp3" title="Charlotte Leslie and James Forsyth join Sebastian Payne to discuss the NHS." startat=1410] Listen [/audioplayer] As someone who believes that a Labour government would be a calamity for Britain, I ought not to mind the recent fuss about NHS Wales. Yes, it is a disaster – as the Daily Mail has been cleverly highlighting. And it has been run by Labour for 15 years, so they're guilty as charged. Jeremy Hunt, the Health Secretary, makes this point powerfully today. But if the English NHS is much better by comparison to Wales, it’s not because of him, nor because of David Cameron. It’s because of Tony Blair.

Ever the insurgent, Nigel Farage decided to give his post-Clacton interview to BBC Sunday Politics today rather than Andrew Marr show. He would have regretted fairly soon: the line of questioning was all about Ukip policies, which are notoriously flimsy. What about Patrick O’Flynn’s idea for a SamCam tax on luxury goods? Farage dropped it, but said today there was nothing to drop. He once said on Telegraph TV that the NHS should be run by businessmen – is that Ukip policy? There’s a “very strong argument” for that, he said, but was it policy? He didn’t say. Lucky the BBC’s current inability to beam in an interview in to his studio from Britain (as opposed to Afghanistan) cut him short. The audio, or what little there was of it, is below.

listen to ‘Podcast: Ukip's Clacton victory’ on audioBoom.

Every Conservative should wish the Liberal Democrats a successful conference in Glasgow this week and not from any misplaced sense of coalition loyalty. The poor souls are on a pathetic 7 per cent in the polls, against 23 per cent in the general election. The Tories' embrace has proven toxic for them. Yes, it was daft of Nick Clegg to agree to the (absurd) Tory ring fencing of health at the expense of his tuition fees pledge - and yes, he has paid the price for this historic misjudgement. Did he think people would ever forget his making promises like this one?

It’s odd to see David Cameron’s tax pledge being denounced as profligate, even in publications like the Financial Times. The Prime Minister has always been a moderate on tax, and remains one now. He has astutely positioned his promise to rise the 40p threshold as a giveaway, which makes sense politically. But the truth is a little more complex, and I look at it in my Daily Telegraph column today. Under Labour, every year was a ‘giveaway’ insofar as tax thresholds increased with RPI inflation. David Cameron has, in effect, decided to bring back this policy. If this is a craven tax bribe for Middle England then it is one that Blair and Brown made every year in office.

The Tory MP Brooks Newmark has quit the government - after having been tricked into sending “inappropriate messages” on WhatsApp to a journalist posing as a 20-year-old Tory activist. As the Sunday Mirror puts it:- As part of a series of exchanges, he sent a graphic picture exposing himself while wearing a pair of paisley pyjamas No laws were broken and the paisley pyjamas at least show that some Tory traditions are being upheld. He's not standing down as an MP - as we know, sending such pictures need not end a political career (Labour's Chris Bryant says this increased his majority). But it doesn't help a ministerial career: Newmark is out as civil society minister.  He becomes he second Tory to quit in a day.

James Forsyth interviews Defence Secretary Michael Fallon in this week's Spectator. You can read the full interview here. Here are five key points from the piece: 1. A ‘new Battle of Britain':  ‘We’ve had attacks on the streets of London, on our transport system, at Glasgow Airport, the murder of Lee Rigby – how much more evidence do you need that this is a very clear and dangerous threat to our way of life and to all the democracies of the west.  This is a new Battle of Britain.’ 2.