1232, PH: Darling’s started. Stripey tie and gloomy face… 1233, JGF: Darling looks nervous and uncomfortable. His tone is sombre. 1235, PH: Darling expects the economy to start growing “by the end of this year”. 1236, PH: Darling’s giving the global spiel, letting us know how much exports have fallen in Germany and Japan… 1237,
Kicking off any minute now… 1201: And we’re off. First question from David Simpson, asking what scrapping the Barnett Formula would mean for the regions. Brown says spending allocations “based on need” and that he thinks that’s right. 1203: Derek Twigg pushes Brown to “ensure” that all information relating to the Hillsborough disaster is released
You know the score by now – Alistair Darling’s Budget statement will barely represent what’s actually in the Budget. Even the Red Book itself will try to hide all the Brownian ruses and deceits, great and small, in the fine print and appendices. Here at Coffee House, we’ll be doing our best to catch the
Of course, Darling’s big forecasting error in the PBR was his claim that the UK economy would start recovering by the third quarter of this year. But, ahead of today’s Budget, it’s worth highlighting the borrowing forecasts he’s made. As Robert Peston indicates in his latest blog post, a year makes an awful lot of
Hm. There’s some speculation ’round Westminster that Darling may be gearing up to apologise during his Budget statement tomorrow. Indeed, as Jonathan Isaby pointed out earlier, the bookies are even offering odds on us hearing the S-word – and those odds are getting shorter by the hour. At first, I wasn’t convinced. After all, Brown seems
The polls sure are volatile in the wake of Smeargate. The weekend brought hefty leads for the Tories of 17 and 19 percent. Yesterday, an ICM poll recorded a 4 percent drop in support for Cameron & Co, although they remained 10 points ahead of Labour. And, today, the latest Ipsos-MORI political monitor shows a
The official response to the latest government security blunder – captured in the last line of this snippet from the Sun – is straight out of Yes, Minister: “CULTURE Secretary Andy Burnham left a briefcase containing confidential documents on a train yesterday. The minister’s blunder triggered a security breach alert after he arrived at London’s
One of the questions doing the rounds in Wesminster today is whether Alistair Darling’s £15 billion of efficiency savings represents all – or most of – the fiscal tightening that will be in Wednesday’s Budget. So far, the reports coming out of the Treasury are inconclusive, although it’s worth pointing out this passage in the
So Wednesday’s Budget will feature some £15 billion of spending cuts. Here’s how the Times reports the latest bit of early information: “The Treasury has already said it is seeking efficiency savings of £5 billion by 2011. Mr Darling is expected to say that should be extended by a further £10 billion over the following
More and more details are emerging about this week’s Budget, including this eyecatching snippet in today’s Sunday Times: “Darling is also considering new postelection tax rises, which could include beefing up the planned supertax on higher earners. Last year the chancellor announced the introduction in 2011 of a 45% top rate of income tax for
Seems like Guido had his crosshairs trained on some other Labour insiders. Tomorrow’s Sunday Times and News of the World are both running stories which implicate other members of Brown’s coterie in the plot to smear top Tories. According to the NotW report, a new email reveals that Ray Collins – the general secretary of
It’s been a week and a bit since we asked CoffeeHousers to put forward their questions for Eric Pickles. We’ve since picked out a selection, and they’ve now been put to the Tory chairman. He’ll get back to us next week. Anyway, here are the questions: Hugh How would a Conservative government reform the expenses
Martin Kettle has some very sensible advice for Gordon Brown in the Guardian today: “Proactive leadership is badly needed, not for Labour’s cause, but for the cause of politics. Brown should bring the publication of MPs’ receipts forward. The Commons should take the hit now, as part of an active strategy, rather than wait for
So CoffeeHousers can make their own minds up: P.S. Classic moment when a guy walks in shot at 0:13.
So here it is. Brown has finally uttered the S-word over Smeargate. This is how the indispensable PoliticsHome reports it: Speaking in Glasgow, the Prime Minister said: “I am sorry about what happened. I have said all along when I saw this first I was horrified, I was shocked and I was very angry indeed.”
Matthew Parris’s notebook in the Times today contains an anecdote which deserves repeating: “Twenty years ago a political aide working at the heart of the office of the leader of the Conservative Party was exposed as having dispatched a wholly inappropriate communication. It was to a woman who had written complaining to Margaret Thatcher about
And so the day begins with reports that the government may be in line for additional trouble and embarrassment. First, there are murmurings that more smear emails might be about to hit the public domain – and ones which could, in the words of the Times, “gravely embarrass ministers and undermine attempts to portray Mr
Sure, he wears his politics on his sleeve, but the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire has not done himself credit during Smeargate. James picked up on his blog post at the weekend, which made merry with one of the slurs against Cameron. And now his column today contains this line: Correct me if I’m wrong, but I’d
On the twentieth anniversary of the Hillsborough Disaster, the footage of a policeman beating a woman attending a vigil in memory of Ian Tomlinson (see above) is especially resonant. If the police service recaptured any of the public’s faith in the years since 1989 – and that’s a huge if – then you feel that