James Forsyth

Tonight the Democratic presidential candidates are doing a debate where the questions will come from YouTube users. The almost 3,000 videos submitted are of surprisingly high-quality. The campaigns must be a little nervous about tonight. As Ben Smith points out, there’ll probably be some questions that are more direct than anything a traditional moderator would ever dare ask. (Predictably, folk have submitted videos asking Hillary if her husband has committed adultery since leaving office.) I expect we'll see a show along these lines in the next election here. What would you ask Brown, Cameron and Campbell?

Gordon Brown has just announced that they’ll be a review in to whether cannabis should be reclassified as a Class B drug. As we know, Brown only holds a review when he’s already made up his mind so we can expect cannabis to be back to being a Class B substance by the next election. Like his u-turn on super casinos last week, this is an announcement designed to demonstrate to Middle Britain that he shares its values and to deny Cameron this fertile electoral territory.

The always astute Irwin Stelzer has an interesting op-ed in today’s Telegraph on Gordon Brown’s foreign policy. Stelzer reveals that Brown has been angered by reports that he has banned the use of the phrase ‘war on terror’—which doesn’t explain why so many of his ministers are running from the phrase.  But Stelzer’s key point is about Brown’s view of what causes Islamist terrorism:   “the PM believes economic development will prove an attractive alternative to self-immolation.

If you want to get an idea of how unpopular Dick Cheney has become, consider this: 54% of American think the House of Representatives should impeach him.

Brown’s statement on the Constitution can be read here. Interestingly, he’s shot Cameron’s fox on both a national security council and giving Parliament the power to declare war—both bad ideas in my opinion. Overall, he’s been radical enough to win plaudits from Charter 88 et al but not radical enough to cost Labour any votes. So he’ll give up the right to appoint Bishops, but won’t disestablish the Church of England.

Martin Kettle has a typically astute piece in The Guardian this morning. Kettle argues that Brown is trying to pull off the Sarkozy trick of demonstrating that the best, new government is an improved and refreshed version of the old one; enough change to be different but not enough to scare the horses. Kettle also does us all a service by putting today’s poll numbers in context: “Today's 39% Labour rating will energise a party that has not stood so high in the polls for nearly two years, but 39% would have been Labour's second lowest rating throughout the eight years from John Smith's death to the run-up to Iraq.