James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
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Today’s papers contain two stories that will make you laugh. First, there’s the news that Damain McBride is on a shortlist of three for the job of “Business and Community Manager” at his old school, Finchley Catholic High School. The Sunday Telegraph reports that the salary for the post is £22,000 a year. The fact
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Simon Walters’ Mail on Sunday story about the possibility of Brown stepping down in January so as to avoid being voted out later in the year is going to set tongues wagging. Although there are no named sources in the piece, Walters knows the lay of the Westminster land so well that he wouldn’t be
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The Gordon Brown interview in The Guardian is revealing about the man. As Fraser noted earlier, Brown takes the opportunity of the interview to lie again about his spending plans. He also does the classic Brown trick of saying he won’t use his children for political gain even as he has them come in and play as
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The BBC is reporting that Scotland Yard will investigate some MPs and Peers over their abuses of the expenses system. The Met is refusing to say who is under investigation but the BBC says that it “understands Labour MPs David Chaytor and Elliot Morley are among those under scrutiny” and “that Parliamentary standards inquiries into
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Reading about Khamenei’s speech at Friday prayers, it is clear that the situation in Iran has now reached a critical phase. The Supreme Leader has put his authority on the line with his demand that the protests now cease. As he put it, “street challenge is not acceptable”. If they continue tomorrow and the crowd
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One of the few arguments Peter Mandelson is reported to have lost since returning to British politics, is how to present the argument about cuts. Mandelson was, apparently, in favour of making cuts and then claiming that any further cuts would endanger front-line services. This would have gone some way to acknowledging the fiscal reality
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John Rentoul is right that many of those who agitated for a sixth inquiry into the Iraq war will not be satisfied until an inquiry returns the verdict that they want, namely that the lying bastards lied to take us to war. Any inquiry that does not come to this conclusion is taken as proof
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Donald Macintyre has a fantastic essay on the Brown-Mandelson relationship in this week’s New Statesman. Two things in it stand out. First, Blair cautioned Alastair Campbell against going back into government but encouraged Mandelson to do so: “Blair’s advice, similarly solicited by Alastair Campbell, whom Brown also offered more or less any job he wanted,
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This post from Alastair Campbell is fascinating and shows just how much Brown’s authority has slipped: “I had a brief chat with Ed Balls, unaware that he had said on TV yesterday morning that his ‘personal’ view was that the Iraq inquiry should have been more open than the one announced by Gordon Brown. As
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When Michael Martin announced that he was stepping down as Speaker, there was a general feeling that the House needed a substantial figure to step into the job, someone who could command the respect of the House and—just as importantly—the country. Well, it looks increasingly like we are going to get Margaret Beckett. Beckett is
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If you want an idea of just how strongly the press have rumbled Brown on his Labour investment versus Tory cuts line, read this blog from the Financial Times’ Jim Pickard about PMQs. Here’s an extract: “Unfortunately it showed the prime minister at his worst. No one will be fooled by his attempt to create
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A new poll out from Politics Home shows that the Balls and Brown attempt to claim that the next election will be a choice between Labour investment and Tory cuts isn’t doing Labour any favours. When asked which party is being most honest about tax and spend, Labour came third on 16 per cent behind
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This morning’s story in The Times about how the Tories won’t oppose Tony Blair becoming President of Europe if the post is created can be read on two levels. The high-minded one is that Blair as a pro-American, economic liberal is as good as it is going to get from a British perspective so why
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The scenes from Tehran have been inspiring and show that democracy is changing the shape of the Middle East, says James Forsyth. But the immediate decision facing President Obama is what to do about Iran’s fast-moving nuclear programme It was what the West had long dreamed of seeing in Iran. The largest rally in Tehran
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The New York Times’ excellent Iran blog flags up the fact that the Iranian government are now clamping down on reporters: “Iranian authorities are restricting all journalists working for foreign media from firsthand reporting on the streets. The rules cover all journalists, including Iranians working for foreign media. It blocks images and eyewitness descriptions of
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The New York Times is running an excellent rolling news blog on the situation in Iran; I’d recommend it to everyone. Interestingly, Moussavi—the defeated candidate—is saying he would accept a re-vote: ‘In his first public appearance since the elections three days ago, Mir Hussein Moussavi, the defeated presidential candidate, told supporters at the rally in
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An email lands in my inbox, directing me to this story in yesterday’s Scotland on Sunday: “Just weeks after McBride was forced to resign after writing an e-mail suggesting that Conservative leaders be smeared, insiders say the former special adviser is actively working for ministers again. Downing Street last night insisted McBride had not returned.
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Peter Mandelson dominates the Sunday newspaper; it seems that everyone has a long profile of him. But the best anecdote is in Jonathan Oliver’s Sunday Times piece: One aide recalls the recent humiliation of a junior member of the cabinet: “We were called into Mandelson’s huge office. Peter said to my minister, ‘You look dreadful,
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Frank Field is right that the new Speaker must be able to “command support amongst all the parties here at Westminster, including their own.” Field, who would make a fine Speaker, is right that it would be inappropriate for him to run unless he can gain considerable Labour support over the next couple of days.
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Elections in Iran are neither free nor fair. Even before anyone started campaigning, the Iranian theocracy had barred any candidate they perceived to be a threat to the Islamic revolution from standing. So, it is not surprising that there appears to have been considerable interference with the voting process to give Ahmadinejad victory in the