Peter Hoskin

So here's a new controversy for politicians to get mired in: select committee absenteeism.  Today's Times has a double-page spread naming and shaming some of those politicians who "routinely skip" the meetings of committees they belong to.  Last year, for instance, Nadine Dorries went to just 2 percent of the Innovation, Universities, Science and Skills meetings (UPDATE: Dorries offers an explanation on her blog); Bob Spink likewise.  You can find a more detailed roll call here.   Now, I'm not going to comment on individual cases.  MPs, including those mentioned above, may well have solid reasons for not attending (cf, Nadine Dorries: "This committee is chaired by someone not fit").

Give Brown's government half a chance and they'll bang on about "Tory cuts" and "Same old Tories" like it's going out of fashion.  So, predictably, Labour figures have been making merry over three stories from the past couple of days: George Osborne's attack on "inflexible" public sector pay deals; Dan Hannan's remarks about the NHS; and, now, Edward Garnier's suggestion that the hunting ban should be repealed.  According to Liam Byrne, the "mask has slipped" from those nasty, old Tories.   All this keys into an issue that the Cameroons will have to face up to over the next few days, weeks and months.  Should they go out of their way to avoid fuelling the Labour attacks?

Bruce Anderson has some straightforward, but crucial, advice for the Tories in his Indy column today: "Needless to say, [providing an analysis of the downturn] is not enough. It never is, in politics. The Tories must also come up with some catchy 'phrases: their equivalent of "boom and bust". William Hague has made a start. "Gordon Brown promised to abolish boom and bust. He has kept half his promise.' Having invented the phrases, it is vital to go on repeating them. Often, it is only when the politicians are sick of repeating themselves that the voters at last begin to notice." In October last year, I said that the Tories needed to be "blunter" - meaning that they needed to cut the waffle, and come up with some catchy phrases to counter those which Brown repeats ad nauseam.

Just in case you've completely lost the faith in our political class, it's well worth reading the profile of Philip Hollobone in today's Independent.  Hollobone, remember, is the Tory MP who claims less than a third of the average annual expenses claim in the Commons.  How does he manage it?  Mainly by not hiring staff, and by keeping things pared down.  This passage is a good taster: "'It's quite simple,' [Hollobone] says, before starting up some rickety stairs. His work room is suitably spartan. Empty computer boxes sit in the corner. The whiff of damp from the dark patches on the wall fills the air. A chipped, dark table sits in the room's centre. The walls are bare, save a lonely print of Winston Churchill.

Brown's just delivered his statement to close the G20 summit, and it's all about the big numbers.  That $1 trillion injection into the global economy made an appearance, but it paled beside Brown's claim that "we're in the middle of a fiscal stimulus that is worth about $5 trillion by the end of next year".  Hang on.  Brown was talking about a $2 trillion stimulus only yesterday, so where's the extra $3 trillion coming from?  I haven't seen details yet, but Brown's rhetoric - "Our central banks have pledged to make expansionary policies as long as they are necessary, and in whatever ways they see fit" - seems too guarded to suggest that the French, Germans and others have been convinced to introduce further stimulus to their economies.

George Osborne got it right yesterday - Lord Myners needs to provide a convincing response to Sir Tom McKillop's letter or resign.  But, as of yet, we've had neither outcome.  Indeed, all we've heard is a denial from Alistair Darling that the latest revelations make Myners' position unsustainable, and some waffle from Gordon Brown about how Fred Goodwin's pension is now a matter for UKFI.  There have been similar evasions in the case of Jacqui Smith. You've got to wonder whether Brown hopes the G20 will make these issues go away, or whether he's purposefully holding off until after the festivites are over.  If it's the former, then it's a dubious approach.