James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
While we wait for the local election results, I’d thoroughly recommend reading this morning’s columns by Mary Ann Sieghart, Iain Martin and Martin Bright. The three of them, brilliantly distil what has gone wrong for Gordon Brown. Sieghart, reminding us of what we have been missing since she’s stopped writing regularly for The Times’s op-ed
Today, The Evening Standard formally threw its support behind Boris Johnson for Mayor. Here’s the conclusion of their very solid editorial: This paper believes that the key issues in this contest are honesty and competence. On both, Mr Livingstone falls down badly. His broken promises and the irregularities surrounding some of his closest associates –
Last week, The Daily Mirror reported that Alan Johnson would be made the chief whip and the government front man in a post-May day reshuffle. Now, Kevin Maguire’s New Statesman column passes on word that Stephen Carter tried to persuade Johnson to take the job of deputy Prime Minister. Johnson would certainly be a good
If you’re voting in London tomorrow, you are going to be given three ballot papers—one for the mayoralty, one for the constituency section of the London assembly and one for the proportional vote. In the mayoral vote, you can vote for a first preference—we’d recommend putting a tick next to Boris—and a second preference. If
Like Fraser, I thought that David Cameron went on the wrong topic today. But I think the bigger mistake the Tories might be making is in trying to turn 42 days into a trial of Brown’s political strength. Regardless of what one thinks about 42 days, and a good case can be made both ways,
If Livingstone loses on Thursday and the Labour vote slumps elsewhere in the country, the headlines for Gordon Brown will be dire and he’ll be plunged further into the mire. But in this crisis there will be a brief window of opportunity for him. The press will be in full ‘government in crisis mode’ and
Over at the Red Box, Sam Coates has a very handy guide to what the parties are claiming would constitute success for them in Thursday’s elections.
Reading Kate Hoey’s ‘clarification’, which Fraser just posted, this sentence jumped out at me. I will be voting for my party and Labour candidates on Thursday. Note, no mention of Ken. Now, considering that everyone who votes in London on Thursday will have the opportunity to vote on three ballot papers—one for Mayor, one for the constituency
This morning, Boris Johnson announced that Kate Hoey would be his advisor on sport and the Olympics, making Hoey’s attempt to pass off her planned appearance with Boris at a ballet school in her constituency as nothing unusual appear distinctly disingenuous. Hoey’s status in the Labour party is now uncertain. Boulton and Co reports that
After Nick Clegg yesterday, it was David Cameron’s turn to do The Today Programme pre-local election interview this morning. John Humphrys was in particularly combative form, interrupting at every opportunity. But the whole technique descended into farce when Humprhys asked Cameron if he had failed to meet his promise to end Punch and Judy politics.
Fred Kagan, one of the architects of the surge, sets out how he thinks we should measure progress in Iraq in the latest Weekly Standard. The whole piece is worth reading but this point jumped out at me: “Much has been made of the inadequacy of the Iraqi Security Forces’ performance in Basra. If the
At the risk of getting ahead of ourselves, an occupational hazard of punditry, there are some interesting thoughts out there about what Gordon will do on May 2nd if the polls are right. Ben Brogan argues that what the Prime Minister needs is a “political henchman”, someone who can both give him political advice and
The last Monday YouGov poll for the Evening Standard has Boris on 46 percent to Ken’s 35. Once the second preferences are factored in, Boris leads Ken 55 to 45. If you still haven’t decided who to vote for, do read Matt’s piece in the magazine on why Boris is the right man for London.
Gary Duncan has an important piece in this morning’s Times keying off Reform’s report on social mobility. As Gary writes, “The realities behind Mr Brown’s rhetoric on poverty are a lot less impressive than his boasts of being the best friend of the disadvantaged imply. The stark truth is that after a decade of Labour
Jackie Ashley’s column this morning makes the good point that by this time next week the commentariat could be praising Gordon Brown’s resilience and fighting qualities. The silver lining to the current spate of bad news stories for the Prime Minister is that expectations for Labour’s performance in the elections this week are now so
The three press endorsements of Ken Livingstone that have appeared in recent days have one overarching theme in common: a complete lack of enthusiasm for Livingstone. The Observer even urges its readers to withhold their first preference votes from Ken to send him a message. Its backing comes with heavy caveats. Indeed, one would not
David Cameron’s appearance on Andrew Marr has not made much news but it was, to my mind, one of Cameron’s most impressive performances to date. Two of the most common criticisms you hear of Cameron in Tory circles is that he doesn’t show enough passion and that he doesn’t offer voters enough concrete reasons to
Reading the extracts from Lord Levy’s book in The Mail on Sunday one is struck by just how determined Levy appears to cause maximum damage to Brown. We’re told that Blair thought that Brown couldn’t beat Cameron, was a liar and was responsible for stoking up the cash for honours affair. On top of this, Levy
All the opinion polls show that neither Boris nor Ken have much chance of winning the London Mayoralty on purely first preference votes so the race is going to be determined by second preference votes from people whose candidate failed to make the run-off. The largest of these groups will be Lib Dem supporters. No
Back in the summer of 2007 when Gordon Brown was riding high in the polls, there was a small but significant ‘Tories for Brown’ movement. It was comprised of those who thought David Cameron lightweight and were drawn towards Brown by his seriousness and belief in the moral value of work. Now, ‘Tories for Brown’