James has already highlighted the latest batch of expenses revelations – which include Barbara Follett and her private security patrols; Keith Vaz and a handful of refurbished properties; and Margaret Moran and a £22,500 dry rot treatment. As you’d expect, it’s just the thing to make your blood boil on a Saturday morning. Beyond that,
They just don’t get it, do they? Listening to Harriet Harman being interviewed on the Today Programme just now, and she’s sticking to the kind of response pioneered by Sir Stuart Bell last night. The emphasis, as this quote shows, was on evasion and blame-shifting: “My judgement is this: our system does not have the
So far as the Government is concerned, there’s no good time for these expense details to be released. But now; now is just about the worst time they could have feared. Just as the Smeargate story is losing most of its urgency – with the resignation of Derek Draper from LabourList today – here’s another
Ben Brogan charts the growing debate about the future of the Labour party in his Telegraph column today. I’d suggest you read the whole thing, but it’s this passage which stood out to me: “Plans are afoot for a gathering in the coming weeks that will bring together Cabinet ministers, Labour grandees, policy thinkers, and
So what’s going on? As Matt blogged last night, and details in his cover piece today, Labour leadership plots are certainly a-brewing; most probably involving Charles Clarke. While Dizzy has unearthed signs that the 2020 Vision project – founded by Clarke and Alan Milburn back in the pre-Gordo era to, ahem, offer “direction” to the
The politics of the Government’s plan for Royal Mail are becoming more and more confused. The latest signs from Downing Street are that they may make one or two concessions to the backbench rebels, but that they’ll stick with the main thrust of the part-privatisation package. Yet Nick Robinson points out another option that may
Live coverage from 1200. 1201: And we’re off. The DUP’s Gregory Campbell asks what further assistance Brown can offer the devlved regions to help them during the recession. Brown: “We will continue to offer real help now”. 1203: Cameron kicks off: “A series of U-turns…”. Then asks whether these are “signs” that the “government is
It’s reshuffle rumour time, I’m afraid, with a few of today’s papers carrying stories about whom Brown might ditch and promote in the aftermath of the local elections. Much of it centres on Jacqui Smith, who appears to be the favourite to get the chop. And there’s also some chat about Hazel Blears getting demoted
Gordon Brown loves hiding behind numbers. He does it almost every PMQs – when he reels off the usual tractor production statistics – and he has done it in every Budget he’s been involved in, either as Chancellor or Prime Minister. My guess is that he hopes to cover up not only how bad things
Brace yourselves. Gordon Brown has hit YouTube with another video message for his adoring public (watch it after the jump). To be honest, it’s not a bad as his last comedy effort – he’s stepped out of the bunker, for a start, and there’s less rictus grinning – but it’s hardly going to set the
Oh, how difficult life is for a Prime Minister who’s lost pretty much all his political capital. Almost every major Commons vote becomes a potential landmine, threatening to blow a premiership apart. And so it is with the Government’s plans for Royal Mail. As today’s Times reports: “David Cameron holds Gordon Brown’s political life in
There’s plenty of noteworthy stuff in Rachel Sylvester’s column this morning – Hazel Blears getting the “hairdryer treatment” from Gordon Brown; Downing Street overruling Cabinet ministers who wanted to “resolve” the Gurkha issue; and confirmation that a “Blairite” could stand as a stalking horse candidate after the local elections – but nothing more so than
Hm. Whom to believe? In one corner, we have a source telling the Sunday Mail that the chief whip and Downing Street enforcer, Nick Brown, has drawn up a hit-list of “lazy” (aka rebellious) Labour MPs, who could well be whacked (aka deselected) ahead of the next election. Allegedly on that list are eight of
Nick Clegg does seem to be keeping busy. After his excellent work during the Gurkha vote, which incorporated the first outing of the Clegg-Cameron coalition, today’s Telegraph contains this revelation: “Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has privately authorised secret approaches to unhappy Blairites, trying to persuade them to join the Lib Dems instead of
One of the opportunities that the resurgent Labour infighting presents the Tories is to portray the Government as too caught up in dirty politics to deal properly with the economic crisis. It’s a message that keys directly into the “headless chicken” charge, and it’s boosted by stories like this, via today’s Indpendent: “The Government’s £200m
Brown’s dwindling authority has become the issue du jour. Despite what Downing Street is saying, the matter isn’t even up for question. After the bizarre YouTube expenses fiasco, and the defeat over Gurkha settlement rights, Brown has pretty much lost any meaningful control over his party. And, as if to ram the point home, there’s
Over at Comment Central, the Times pair of Danny Finkelstein and Philip Collins – who, for my money, have written perhaps the two finest comment pieces for a UK newspaper so far this year (Finkelstein on Israel; Collins on Brown’s political positioning) – have published their exchange on whether Brown will go before the next
Ben Brogan writes a very useful article in today’s Telegraph, outlining the preparations that the Tories are making for government. He details some of the meetings between shadow ministers and top civil servants; the advice that Michael Heseltine has given the Cameroons (“don’t bother with special advisers”); and William Hague’s directives for the Foreign Office.
There’s little more to add to this alarming snippet from the Daily Mail, except to say that the publication of MPs’ expense receipts looks set to become the most damaging scandal of Gordon Brown’s premiership: “Three Labour MPs are said to be terrified that the release of their expenses claims will expose them as adulterers
Good news. The Lib Dem motion to extend equal settlement rights to all Gurkhas has just been passed in the Commons, by 267 to 246 votes. Nick Clegg, too often a figure of fun in Westminster, deserves a great deal of credit over this. By contrast, Gordon Brown positioned his government on the wrong side
