James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The latest PR Week scoop about what is going on in Downing Street has revived my suspicions about who is doing the leaking. The story says that Gordon Brown is obsessed with Andy Coulson, the former News of the World editor who is now the Tory’s chief spinner, and blames him for his current troubles.
Perhaps, the oddest event of 2007 was the non-reaction to Israel’s strike on Syria. One would have thought that Israel bombing a target deep inside Syria would have sparked off a major international incident. But it did not. As The Spectator reported at the time the Israelis, the Syrians and the Americans all wanted to
If Labour does as badly as the polls suggest it will on May 1st, one of the few options left to Gordon Brown will be to reshuffle his cabinet. Today’s Mirror predicts that this will see Alan Johnson become the government front man and chief whip while Hoon moves to BER and John Hutton to
As ever, Martin Bright’s column in the New Statesman is well worth reading. Here’s the key paragraph: “Brown and his poll-obsessed allies may find some comfort in the latest figures, but there is rebellion in the air. It is important to remember that he does not have the authority of an electoral mandate to face
During the kerfuffle after the Jacqui Smith told The Sunday Times that she wouldn’t feel safe walking the streets of London her aides made great play of the fact that she had recently gone to get a kebab in Peckham albeit with security detail in tow. Now, Boulton and Co are reporting that three men
Jonathan Powell’s essay on the Northern Ireland peace process in the May Prospect sets out his position on talking to terrorists with complete clarity: “To argue that al Qaeda and the Taleban are different and that therefore you can’t talk to them is nonsense. Of course they are different, but terrorists are terrorists. What they do
Hillary Clinton did not have to wait until 3 a.m. for the call telling her that she had won the Pennsylvania primary. Within an hour of the polls closing, the news networks had declared her the winner and by the end of the night she had secured a double-digit lead, handily beating the spread set
I must admit to mixed feelings at the news that Number Ten will fly the flag of St George tomorrow. On the one hand, it’ll be an impressive sight and compared to the dog’s dinner of devolution is hardly likely to tear at the constitutional fabric. On the other, Downing Street is the home of
This morning, The Sun offers an enthusiastic endorsement of Boris Johnson proclaiming that he ‘has the energy and the imagination to give this great city what it needs.’ Meanwhile, in an interview with The Times Brian Paddick is scathing about Ken Livingstone declaring “I just don’t trust Ken Livingstone”. Paddick goes onto say, “The thought
There’s a certain amount of Blair nostalgia in the Labour party at the moment as Gordon Brown struggles at Number Ten. That feeling is only going to be heightened by Rachel Sylvester’s column in the Telegraph this morning which contains this great bit of reporting: “When [Blair] heard his anointed successor announcing with a dramatic
Rosa Prince, who is owning this whole (non) endorsement story, has spoken to Kate Hoey about what happened and it seems she genuinely is sick. But the rest of Hoey’s explanation is hard to credit: “Boris told me last week he was visiting the ballet school – it’s a great project so I said I
Labour are going through a wobble at the moment—which might turn into a collapse on May 1st—and the leadership desperately needs the party to close ranks and MPs to stop making critical statements, on or off record, that fan the flames of the whole government in meltdown story. But here’s the rub: having spent ten
The Washington Post has an important story this morning about how China is failing to live up to the promises it made on press freedom when it was awarded the Olympic games. “Wang Wei, executive vice president of the Beijing Olympic Organizing Committee, told reporters in 2001 that the news media would have “complete freedom
Over on Americano, I’ve just posted some thoughts on when Hillary might decide to drop out and how the Obama campaign practises the ‘old politics’ even while denouncing it. There’s also reaction to Obama saying that McCain would be a better president than Bush.
One of the more remarkable things about the row over the abolition of the 10p tax rate is the level of insubordination that the Prime Minister is letting Parliamentary Private Secretaries get away with. Just look at this string of quotes from The Sunday Times: “Derek Wyatt, a junior aide to Margaret Hodge, a culture
“When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added. I always thought that summed up his style. Such was his eagerness to get on to business that he had no time for the 20 seconds it would take to pass round the jug and the
The story of Vladimir Putin and Alina Kabayeva, the 24 year old gymnast turned MP, is bizarre. On Thursday, the newspaper Moskovsky Korrespondent alleged that Putin was to leave his wife, who he has been married to since before Miss Kbayeva was born, to marry the gymnast. On Friday, Putin denied the story, the editor
The tensions between Gordon Brown’s old team and his new recruits is bound to be exacerbated by the revelation in the Telegraph that Stephen Carter is earning £180,000 a year and his secretary as much as £70,000. This means that Carter is paid as much as the PM and his secretary is paid more than
It wasn’t just the presidential candidates and the president that Gordon Brown met on the DC leg of his trip. Here, via Playbook, are the other folk that he saw: “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington yesterday with a collection of government, media and advocacy luminaries including David
Under the headline ‘The Real Rate of Inflation’, The Daily Mail launches its new Cost of Living Index. The idea is to show that the Consumer Price Index’s 2.5 percent rate does not reflect the actual cost of living. The Mail finds that the price of food is up 15.5 percent, with the price of