James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
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It strikes me as being in both bad taste and politically foolish for Alan Duncan to suggest that Gordon Brown is “vandalising” the despatch box when he uses a thick pen to take notes during PMQs. It is bad taste because the reason Brown uses a thick, black felt-tip because he is blind in one
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Michael Gove’s speech today is another sign that the Tories are serious about raising educational standards. In it, Gove proposes a series of measures to improve the quality of teachers trained by the state. Under a Conservative government, those in state-run teacher training would not be allowed to retake the literacy and numeracy tests multipile
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The government has just lost a vote on a clause of the Parliamentary Standards Bill by 250 votes to 247. The clause would have allowed words spoken in the Commons to be used as evidence in court, undermining the independence of the legislature. The defeat of the clause is to be welcomed. There’s a real
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Michael Gove’s speech to the RSA yesterday was a summation of where the Tories stand on education. The new policy will, word has it, be in an announcement that Gove is making tomorrow. But the section in which Gove made the case for a classical department of education jumped out at me: “But the renaming
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Paul Waugh has a phenomenally important mini-scoop on his blog. He reports that last night, the chief executive of the Audit Commission Steve Bundred said: “Both political parties have pledged that whatever happens they will protect health and education. “I think that’s a big mistake. Health and education are the two services that have been
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The story in The Times today about the row over which departments are stumping up the cash for the recently announced £1.57bn social housing programme suggests that Whitehall is in chaos at the moment. One official tells the paper, “I have never known an announcement like this where money is so off the wall.” These
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Bruce Reidel chaired Obama’s review into Af-Pakl policy which makes this piece by him explaining how jihadis could take over Pakistan worth paying attention to. Here’s his scenario for how it could happen: “Extremist forces are beginning to align. The spread of their influence could come easily. To secure power, the Taliban—currently concentrated in the
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Daniel Finkelstein highlights this you couldn’t make it up answer from Ian Austin to a question about the government’s mortgage assistance scheme: Ian Austin, the housing minister, promised MPs: “The impact of the scheme is accelerating.” He said the number of families helped by the measure had risen from two to six during May. This
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One of the urtexts for understanding Conservative campaign strategy is a 2004 Times op-ed by George Osborne on what the Tories could learn from the Bush campaign. One section of it strikes me as being relevant to the question of what the Tories should do about Brown’s lies, I’m instinctively uncomfortable with using the l word
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You’re going to have to allow me one more post on Norwich North, this quote from the vice chair of the Norfolk Labour party is too good not to pass on: “John Cowan, vice chairman of Norfolk Labour Party, said: “It’s very interesting that they’ve opted for a male candidate, my preference was always going
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The word in Westminster is that the writ for the Norwhich North by-election will be moved tomorrow with the poll itself on July 23rd.
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Labour high command must be rather worried that only 50 odd people turned up to the selection meeting that chose a candidate to replace Ian Gibson and stand in the coming by-election. The fact that so few people turned up to the selection meeting suggests that the constituency party is demoralised both by how Ian
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If you have a few minutes, do read the transcript of Peter Mandelson’s exchange with the FT. Whatever you think of his politics, it is a masterclass in how to handle this kind of interview. Apart from Mandelson’s comments on spending, a couple of other things jumped out at me. Mandelson advances a new attack
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I’m not quite sure whether to give Ed Balls marks for honesty, not a phrase one writes often, for admitting that he is still in contact with Damian McBride or to say that it shows that the Brownites are loyal to each other not to any set of ideals or standards of behaviour. Certainly, Balls’
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Fraser and Tim Montgomerie report this morning that David Cameron and George Osborne are considering working together from a joint office in government much as they do now in Norman Shaw South. Undoubtedly some will worry about such an arrangement, they’ll argue that given the state of the public finances Osborne should be solely concerned
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Alan Milburn’s decision to step down at the next election is a sign of what will happen with the tightening up of the rules on MP’s outside interests; talented backbenchers who are attracted to business and see their party facing a spell in the wilderness will leave Parliament. Milburn says he is quitting so that
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Matthew Parris is spot on about the challenge facing Cameron from Brown’s statistical dodges on spending: “But Mr Cameron has a trickier task ahead than may be apparent. A desperate man, Mr Brown is now so entirely shameless that he’s planning to keep . . . dissimulating about “Labour investment” versus “Tory cuts” in the hope that
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Peggy Noonan, who used to write speeches for Ronald Reagan, has a thought-provoking anecdote in her column today: “Clare Boothe Luce told about a conversation she had in 1962 in the White House with her old friend John F. Kennedy. She told him, she said, that “a great man is one sentence.” His leadership can
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Michael Crick has news that Ian Gibson may stand in the Norwich North by-election after all. So we are faced with the fascinating possibility of seeing how an MP his national party has deemed unfit to stand because of his expenses does in an election. It would be quite ironic if the result of first
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Andrew Grice has a great scoop in The Independent today about tensions between Mervyn King and the government following King’s remarks about the need to get the debt down and the failure to consult him over changes to banking regulations. Grice quotes one Cabinet source as saying, “King is fighting a turf war with the