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
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
And so the wheels fall off. As the Times discloses this morning, Alastair Darling’s Big Idea to bring forward capital spending projects looks like it just ain’t happening. The thinking was that £billions of this spending could be funded via the Private Finance Initiative – which Brown’s always liked, because of its “Buy Now, Pay Later”
This article in today’s Guardian gives us a good idea of what to expect in the forthcoming Budget. Basically, even if Brown ‘n’ Darling don’t reveal the full horror of the situation, things are still going to look decidedly messy – more borrowing to fund a “second emergency package of tax and spending measures”; a
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
One of last year’s most memorable political quotes came courtesy of Frank Field, always one of the Good Men of Parliament. In the aftermath of the Derek Conway affair, he lamented “…it is difficult to think how much lower our collective reputation might sink among voters generally.” It sounded true enough at the time. Under
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’
I wonder what Downing Street made of Alastair Campbell’s plea to Spurs manager Harry Redknapp in the Thunderer column this morning: “Redknapp at least had the good grace to look embarrassed as he shook [Burnley manager, Owen] Coyle’s hand, and the post-match phone-ins were flooded with Spurs fans saying that they didn’t deserve to win.
…we’re in recession, as the economy shrunk by 1.5 percent in the final quarter of 2008. Details here.
Well done the Treasury Select Committee, who are today calling on Brown ‘n’ Darling to release quarterly accounts showing just how much the banking bailout is costing the taxpayer. It’s an absolutely crucial demand – not just for the sake of accountability and transparency, but also to reassure creditors and investors that the Government has
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
An article in today’s New York Times captures the mounting fear and loathing with which the UK economy is regarded. Here’s how it begins: “LONDON — An island nation that bulked up on debt and lived beyond its means. A plunging currency. And a financial system edging toward nationalization. With the pound at a multidecade
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
As Iain Dale pointed out earlier, one of the more mystifying aspects of PMQs was Brown’s claim that his MPs would have a free vote on expenses measures, despite strong reports to the contrary. To clear things up, Number Ten has since revealed that the vote has been abandoned. It remains to be seen what
Welcome to Coffee House’s live blog of PMQs today. As always, things will kick off at 1200, so stay tuned from then. 1204: Here’s the Dear Leader. After condolences, he gives a welcome to President Obama: “The stress that President Obama places on action…” First question from Douglas Carswell, and it’s an important one: “Why is the PM
Two striking passages from Alice Miles’ article in the Times today, demonstrating the rising pessimism in Labour ranks: “Clarke’s return kills ‘toffs’ and it kills ‘novice’,” said one adviser this week. “You look at that team now and you think, ‘yes’.” And that was an adviser to Mr Brown speaking. And, “I don’t know why
Remember how promising things sounded in the wake of the Derek Conway affair last year? All the party leaders had basically the same message – This Can’t Happen Again – but it was Cameron who refined it into something of a driving philosophy, with his talk of a “new politics” which stands against the political class.
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.
Welcome to Coffee House’s live blog of Barack Obama’s inauguration. Obama’s at Capitol Hill now, and the ceremony will start shortly. Stay tuned, and keep refreshing the page for updates. PH: Plenty off security concerns surrounding events today. In a bulletin yesterday evening, the FBI said they have reason to believe a Somalia-based Islamist group
Courtesy of Sky, here’s live footage of Barack Obama’s inauguration: Read Coffee House’s live blog here.