James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
From our UK edition
Nearly everyone in Westminster says the same thing when you ask them if there will be an election early in 2009: Brown should call one but he won’t. The thinking goes that the worst probable result for Labour early next year is a narrow Tory majority and the best one is Labour as the largest
From our UK edition
This Christmas is the last occasion when Barack Obama will have time to reflect and think at his own pace for the next four, and probably eight, years. It offers him a brief gap between the crazed schedule of the campaign — last year he was campaigning on Boxing Day — and the pressures of
From our UK edition
This story seems almost too good to be true: Peter Mandelson is, apparently, going to make a guest appearance on Strictly Come Dancing tomorrow night. The Belfast Telegraph reports that: “The Secretary of State for Business is expected to take to the dancefloor alongside celebrities Lisa Snowdon, Rachel Stevens and Tom Chambers to wow the
From our UK edition
The Daily Mirror is, to put it mildly, obsessed with David Cameron’s social background. But Paul Routledge demonstrates an alarming lack of knowledge when he fumes that: “Deregulating the City, so bankers could steal the cash and get rich was [Thatcher’s] idea. Cameron is hard-wired with them. They’re his tribe. He gets his money from
From our UK edition
At his press conference this morning, Gordon Brown said that he would reply to David Cameron’s letter about meeting with the civil service in due course. It is an improvement on a spokesman’s answer last weekend that, “The prime minister is in Afghanistan, so it is not top of his list of priorities” But it
From our UK edition
The enmity between the Blair and Brown camps seemed to be perfectly captured by the fact that Charlie Whelan had to resign after Mandelson’s first resignation. The Blairites were convinced that Whelan had leaked the story and the principle of an eye for an eye and a tooth for tooth demanded that Whelan go too.
From our UK edition
One of the political winners of the last quarter of this year has been Ed Miliband. He gave one of the best speeches of the conference season and then was promoted in Brown’s reshuffle to one of the sexiest portfolios in government. James Macintyre in his predictions for 2009 says: “Ed Miliband will emerge as the
From our UK edition
Westminster is in awe of Peter Mandelson’s power. There is no doubt that he has almost unparalleled access and a remarkably wide-ranging remit; as Rachel Sylvester noted he sits on 33 of 39 cabinet committees. But it seems there are still some Brownites who are not yet ready to welcome him into the inner circle.
From our UK edition
In 2004, George Osborne wrote a piece for The Spectator setting out ‘The 13 keys to Number 10’. It was adapted from one of those American guides that predict who will win presidential elections. In 2004, Osborne predicted Tory victory using it but that was more due to some scoring decisions that were based more
From our UK edition
This press release from the Tories just landed in my inbox: Commenting on Harriet Harman’s comparison of Gordon Brown to Superman, Shadow Cabinet member, Chris Grayling, said: “Gordon Brown is the Lex Luthor and not the Superman of British politics. He gets us into a deep mess and all his ideas about how to get
From our UK edition
How the Tories can get back on the front foot was the talk of the Christmas parties and bars of Westminster last night. There’s a general feeling that even though the Tories lead in the polls and the political fundamentals favour them, they are not doing as well as they should be and that they
From our UK edition
Gordon Brown is in Iraq today, avoiding the final PMQs of term, so we have Harman versus Hague again. Contrary to what people expected, Harman has held her own in these encounters. The Tory benches could certainly do with cheering up today, though. 12:05 Harman starts off with condolences for the family of the British
From our UK edition
The latest ICM poll for the Guardian has the Tories dropping below forty percent. The party is down seven points on last month at 38 percent but it is still five points ahead of Labour. The Lib Dems are on 19. It seems that it is doubts about their economic competence which is pulling the
From our UK edition
Labour insiders have been busy pouring buckets of cold water over al the chatter about an early election. They clearly realise how damaging any suggestion that the Prime Minister is playing this crisis for partisan advantage would be to their prospects. Certainly, the one who told Ben Brogan, “No chance. There’s more chance of getting
From our UK edition
Iain Dale has heard from a friend of his in the ad trade that Labour is buying up advertising space for January. This is going to take the rumours about an early election to the next level following on from The News of the World story that never was about election planning meetings in Downing
From our UK edition
There’s a lot of talk in Westminster at the moment about the parallels between now and 1992. Those who think that Brown can win the next election argue that 1992 shows how a governing party can win in a downturn and from behind. But looking at the polling from 1992, which admittedly got the final
From our UK edition
David Cameron’s speech this morning was a clever and important piece of political positioning. By calling for the full force of the law to be brought to bear on those in the City who have acted illegally, Cameron is moving to defuse the idea that the Tories are on the side of the bankers not
From our UK edition
The cost to the taxpayer of public sector pensions and how much more generous they are than private sectors ones is going to become an increasingly big political issue in the coming years. The deal that Alan Johnson brokered with the public sector unions back in 2005 ducked pretty much all of the tough issues
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If anyone doubts the crazy excesses of the quango culture read the Mail on Sunday’s report on Ken Boston, who has finally resigned as head of the Qualifications and Curriculum Authority over the SATS marking debacle. Boston was paid more than seven times what his predecessor was. What on earth was the justification for this
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In Britain there is no transition period for a new government to bed down in. Instead, the leader of the opposition becomes Prime Minister as soon as they have been to see the Queen after their party has won an election. Since the 1960s oppositions have had discussions with civil servants in the lead up