Isabel Hardman

Inflation has risen for the first time in ten months, with the consumer prices index growing by 1.8 per cent in the year to April 2014, up from 1.6 per cent in March. [datawrapper chart="http://static.spectator.co.uk/09O5L/index.html"] On the surface, this looks like bad news for the Coalition, which has boasted that falling inflation shows that Ed Miliband's cost-of-living crisis is coming to an end. And certainly Labour has tried to capitalise on the rise already, with Shadow Treasury Minister Catherine McKinnell saying: 'These figures underline why this Tory-led government is wrong to be so complacent about the cost-of-living crisis.

Mainstream politicians, never known for giving a straight answer, have been giving particularly wibbly and unclear responses to one particular question today. Is Nigel Farage a racist and was what he said about Romanians moving in next door racist? Ed Miliband did pick a particularly tortured definition of what Nigel Farage had said when asked about it on the Today programme. It was a 'racial slur' but Farage is not a racist, or at least, Miliband didn't want to make politics more 'disagreeable' by accusing Farage of being a racist. But he did say that Farage was right to apologise. Helpfully, Nick Griffin pitched in to tell BBC News that Farage wasn't racist, presumably on the basis that it takes one to know one.

The Conservatives are holding another one of their road trips tomorrow, this time to Chester and Cheadle, where about 120 activists and MPs will hold a 'day of action' where they canvass and campaign in the constituency. The last one was in Enfield a few weeks ago, where the sitting MP Nick de Bois is fighting to hold onto his 1,692 majority. The City of Chester is held by Conservative MP Stephen Mosley with a 2,583 majority, while Cheadle is currently a Lib Dem seat, with Mark Hunter sitting on a 3,272 majority and the Tories in second place. Obviously these campaign days help those MPs or candidates fighting in the respective constituencies.

MPs are now in recess. Again. Cue plenty of moans about them escaping the zombie parliament and jetting off on holiday. There's not much you can do about the former, but the latter is not, as any MP will angrily remind you, quite true. If you're a type with a big majority who is a bit fonder of the Westminster game than you are of your constituents, then a holiday might be an option. But at this time of year, MPs are more likely to be found canvassing for the European and local elections, or holding extra constituency surgeries to catch up on time lost to Parliament. The Conservative whips have told MPs, via one of their many text messages that they send throughout each day, that they are expected to visit Newark three times before the by-election, and that few exemptions will be allowed.

Who gets the best deal from Pfizer's proposed takeover of AstraZeneca? On the basis of today's Business, Innovation and Skills select committee hearing with some of the key players, the answer is probably Conservative MP Brian Binley. He was very much enjoying his role in the hearing as he interrogated the boss of Pfizer, Ian Read, and his colleagues Frank D'Amelio and Jonathan Emms. Binley managed to get the best one-liners out of the session (he's got form: this is the MP who has in the past few years managed to describe his Prime Minister as a 'chambermaid' and a 'janitor'), telling the panel that they offered 'a lot of sales talk, but short on facts', and accusing Read of being a 'salesman'.

What will become of the other big coalition row that's burning away alongside free schools? David Cameron was asked today about the plans to introduce mandatory sentences for repeat knife offences, and made some very supportive noises again, which the Tories signed up to Nick de Bois' amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill think is a sign that they've made the right decision. He suggested that Nick Clegg could change his mind about it - and some have taken this as a sign that there's a compromise on the cards. The Conservatives tell me they are 'looking carefully' at de Bois' amendments, but the Lib Dems say they haven't heard of any compromise being offered and they will only accept a deal that has evidence behind it that it would cut knife crime.

Why is David Cameron so confident that he'll get what he wants from his renegotiation of Britain's relationship with Europe? Today on the Andrew Marr Show he managed to advocate Britain voting 'yes' in the 2017 referendum before he's even started changing the terms of the membership voters would be backing. His reasoning for this was firstly that 'I'm someone who has a very positive, optimistic plan for this country' (a convenient contrast with Ukip), and secondly because he has a good track record of getting what he wants in Europe.

What a funny, contradictory week it has been for Labour's campaign machine. First Ed Miliband told the Evening Standard that he had greater intellectual self-confidence than the Prime Minister - and won praise in the Spectator's leading article for being someone who does indeed have the courage of their political convictions these days. Then he seemed so confident of his policies that he chose to needle David Cameron with one of them at Prime Minister's Questions. But then he seemed to have a crisis of confidence and decided to produce a party-political broadcast that, er, didn't mention anything Labour is up to at all. When I blogged about this latest offering from Labour on Wednesday, I said it was an example of class war with wit and panache.

David Cameron may well have privately resolved that there is no cause for him to step down if Scotland votes for independence in a few months' time, as per James Chapman's scoop today. But the problem is that it is not in the Prime Minister's gift to make that decision. He may well say that he isn't going to resign, but that would have no effect on the number of letters that would be sent to 1922 Committee chairman Graham Brady demanding a leadership contest. It's not as though the Tory party will reel from the shock of Scotland leaving, then wait to see what the Prime Minister says and then if he says he's staying, they all get back to their day jobs.

The debate on the Immigration Bill has just begun in the Commons. Many MPs are still trying to decide how to vote on the proposal to render foreign-born terror suspects 'stateless'. In an attempt to persuade his party to vote with the government, Lib Dem Home Office minister Norman Baker has sent out a 'dear colleague' letter to MPs, leaked to Coffee House, in which he says he has amended the legislation to the extent that there is a 'major shift' from the Home Secretary. This 'major shift' means the Home Secretary must believe the suspect being deprived of their citizenship will be able to secure alternative citizenship from another country, and that the process can be examined by an independent reviewer.