Isabel Hardman is assistant editor of The Spectator and author of Why We Get the Wrong Politicians. She also presents Radio 4’s Week in Westminster.
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On the subject of politicians using language effectively, the funniest quote of today has to go to Green leader Natalie Bennett, who told the World at One today that: ‘On occasion when I need to shift large quantities of goods around, I use the car club.’ listen to ‘Natalie Bennett on flying and using a
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Into each day, outrage must fall. Today Iain Duncan Smith has performed the service of upsetting everyone by telling Sky News that zero-hours contracts should be rebranded ‘flexible-hours contracts’. The Work and Pensions Secretary said: ‘I think, with respect, the media and others have got this completely wrong, the flexible-hours contracts I’m talking about which are
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What will Ukip do with the £1.3 million donated by Express chief Richard Desmond? The party cannot plough the money directly into its fight in South Thanet because strict spending limits apply on fights in seats during the short campaign. But it can spend it in other ways to promote the party, and of course
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Believing your own hype is a dangerous thing in politics (and elsewhere). So is falling for your own spin. Spin is a message you craft that bears a tenuous link to the truth but is the line you want others to believe. You say it because something else is true, but it doesn’t suit you.
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One of the Ukip manifesto pledges that’s making certain types a bit grumpy today is a pledge to abolish the Department for Energy and Climate Change. Unite has said that this ‘beyond barmy and would create chaos’. Unite is a union and is naturally keen to support the jobs of those who work for DECC
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The Tories have another election broadcast out tonight that builds on the message of their manifesto: that they are for hardworking blue-collar people and that if you want sunshine, vote Tory. To that end, every outside shot in the film is bathed in sunlight, and everyone is in a pretty good mood: laughing as they
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The Lib Dems are launching their manifesto this morning. In keeping with their whole slightly bizarre national campaign, which has seen Nick Clegg touring the country apparently completing a Bucket List of fun things he’d like to do before a bruising election result, the launch appears more like a birthday party than stage-managed political event.
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The Conservatives have sent out a campaign email from David Cameron this evening promoting their key manifesto pledges. You’d expect that: now’s the time to galvanise activists’ support. But there is one line in there that jars: ‘Everyone earning the Minimum Wage lifted out of income tax altogether.’ This isn’t true. Cameron was quite careful
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David Cameron has just presented a smart Conservative manifesto with a solid speech. He didn’t quite have as much fire in his belly as Ed Miliband did yesterday, but what he did have was a clear sense of purpose, articulated well within the speech and the document. The document opens by telling any voters who might be reading
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Ed Miliband gave a good, forceful, well-received speech at Labour’s manifesto launch this morning. It couldn’t have been anything else, given how close we are to polling day. There were some very well-delivered moments, particularly when it came to zero hours contracts and non-doms. The peroration was particularly energetic, with the Labour leader saying: ‘Over
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Labour’s manifesto launch today sees the party seeking to confound expectations. Even though the party would prefer to fight a comfortable election campaign on the NHS, the fact remains that no party has won when behind in the polls on both the ratings of its leader and on the economy. And so the first page
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Towards the end of last week, the Tories were looking a bit miserable. Their slow response to Labour’s non-coms announcement, coupled with a ‘dead cat’ response from Michael Fallon which made the party look rattled and unpleasant had left the Conservative campaign looking unusually disorganised and slow-witted. But ministers have tried to pick things up,
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With every policy launch during an election campaign, it is worth asking why a party has chosen that policy and why it is launching it on that particular day. This is generally because answering those questions helps you work out what message a party is trying to send and whether they are on the defensive
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Tony Blair gave a speech at Labour HQ this afternoon, I understand, which rather puts paid to the claim that he was doing the very minimum required of the former Prime Minister to help his party. I hear from those present that it was a very upbeat address, in which Blair told Labourites he was optimistic about
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Are the Tories throwing dead cats into the election debate? This question only makes sense if you recall Boris Johnson’s 2013 description of a strategy deployed by an ‘Australian friend’ of his: ‘To understand what has happened in Europe in the last week, we must borrow from the rich and fruity vocabulary of Australian political
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You might be forgiven for expecting that a Defence Secretary giving a speech on defence during an election campaign would involve an announcement about his party’s defence policy. And Michael Fallon did ‘announce’ something today, which is that the Tories would commit to four nuclear submarines, updated missiles and warheads in a renewal of the
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Nigel Farage is in Great Grimsby today, campaigning with Ukip candidate Victoria Ayling. The last Ashcroft poll focusing on Great Grimsby put Ukip behind Labour by one point, and that was in December 2014. Farage started his day at the docks before visiting a local fish market, to highlight the problems that the European Union’s
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Ed Miliband will tomorrow pledge to abolish the non-domicile rule which allows very wealthy people to avoid paying tax on much of their income. The Labour leader will say: ‘There are people who live here in Britain like you and me, work here in Britain like you and me, are permanently settled here in Britain,
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David Cameron took the stage at an election rally in Wadebridge, Cornwall this evening. He was surrounded by supporters waving placards. From the pictures, it seems there was a real sense of excitement about the Conservative party. But here are a couple of photos taken from a perspective that’s a bit, er, different. The PM
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It is rather fashionable at the moment for those involved in politics to moan about what a boring election campaign this is shaping up to be, and how the only excitement will be once polls close and the results start rolling in. But interestingly fewer voters than you might think agree with this view. YouGov