Peter Hoskin

A passage in Rachel Sylvester's column today quotes two Labour figures - one a Downing St adviser and the other a "normally loyal minister" - effectively accepting the "headless chicken" charge that the Tories aim at Brown & Co: “The long succession of announcements may have diminishing returns,” a Downing Street adviser admits. “We're burning up money, which can't go on, and the frenetic activity makes us look like headless chickens.” A normally loyal minister is even franker: “Gordon is behaving like the Leader of the Opposition rather than the Prime Minister. It's all tactics rather than strategy. He makes an announcement, gets the headline then moves on when what really matters is making sure it works.

Good work from the Tories today, who are finally taking the fight to Labour over Government waste.  Out of fear of the "Tory cuts" attack, they've tended to shy away from highlighting just how much taxpayers' cash this Government flushes down the fiscal plughole.  But no longer.  The report released by George Osborne and Francis Maude today is a clear and unabashed attack on Brown's spending record - there's even a "Roll-call of waste" - and it contains some sensible sounding methods for controlling spending under a Tory administration, including greater accountability for wasteful civil servants.  Whether the proposals will translate to government remains to be seen, but the message is encouraging - and refreshing - enough.

Just taking a Sunday stroll through this week's magazines, and thought I'd flag up the Economist's special report on the future of finance.  Plenty of worthwhile stuff in there - but this passage on how, historically, early warning systems have been ignored jumped out at me: "Some would seek to limit the ebb and flow of confidence with early warnings, as if financial busts were a hurricane or an outbreak of plague. Gordon Brown, Britain’s prime minister, would like to see the IMF cast in that role. History suggests that such schemes do not work. People enjoy booms. Walter Bagehot, an editor of The Economist in the 19th century, observed that “all people are most credulous when they are most happy.” Whatever Mr Brown says now, politicians like booms too.

One of the great political losers of the past six months has been David Miliband.  Only last August, he was launching his attempt on the party leadership and Polly Toynbee was feting him as Labour's best chance for a bright future.  But shares in the Foreign Secretary started plummeting in the wake of those infamous banana and 'Heseltine' moments.  And, after his disastrous visit to India - during which he embarrassed himself and, by extension, the UK on the world stage - one wonders whether he's got any political capital left at all.

Over at ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie has an intriguing post on what Eric Pickles hopes to bring to the role of Tory party chairman.  Here's a snippet: "An aide to the new Party Chairman tells me that this visit communicates two of the big themes that Eric Pickles wants to characterise his tenure at CCHQ: graft (he promises to match the sacrifice of volunteers) and a focus on the LibDems.  With opinion polls pointing towards a perhaps decisive increase in the Tory lead some party strategists are recommending a significant shift of battleground resources into unseating Liberal Democrat MPs.  Eric Pickles is a big advocate of the lovebombing tactic.

Read Sam Coates's latest blog post and despair.  Turns out, certain Tory backbenchers had bashed out a "gentlemen's agreement" over expenses with the Government.  The idea was that they were going to vote with Brown to block the publication of MPs' expenses on a "receipt by receipt" basis.  But thanks to David Cameron whipping his MPs against the Government's proposals - and thanks also to Brown's panicked climbdown over the vote  - their plans have been scuppered.  Good. Sometimes it's just plain astonishing how quickly MPs will jettison their duty to the public, and their loyalty to the party, when the issue of expenses comes up.

I'm delighted to welcome Alex Massie to our team of regular bloggers on Spectator.co.uk.  Alex is a seasoned journalist who's gained a devoted following on the blog he set up back in April 2007 - The Debatable Land.  Now that blog's been ported over here, and you can follow it by heading to this address: http://spectator.com/alexmassie.  What will you come across?  Quite simply, some stunningly incisive writing - on everything from British and American politics to cricket.  Perhaps the best place to start is Alex's own introductory post here.  Do check it out.