This from Ben Brogan: “I’m told Mr Obama’s interest in British politicians fluctuates with the polls: when Mr Brown was in a hole and David Cameron was flying high, the Obama mob were keen to maximise time with the Tory leader. With every poll that passes showing Mr Brown sliding backwards, does that reduce the
So here it is. The day when Barack Obama succeeds George Bush to become to the 44th President of the United States of America. James has already written a preview of Obama’s inaugural address – but if you want to squeeze in some extra relevant reading ahead of 1700 GMT, then you could do worse
There’s a doom-laden air around Westminster today, neatly captured by Fraser’s post earlier. Will the fresh injection of £billions of taxpayers’ cash do anything to help? Few have any hope, let alone certainty, that it will – and that includes the Government. Gone is the “we’ve saved the banking system” bravado of a few weeks
As a respite from all the reshuffle talk (don’t worry: There Will Be More), it’s worth flagging up this passage in Peter Oborne’s Mail article today. “To give one example of RBS’s suicidal carelessness among many, it is owed some £2.5billion by the Russian oligarch Leonid Blavatnik which will never be seen again. Next month,
And here they are, courtesy of ConservativeHome: New to the Shadow Cabinet The Rt Hon Kenneth Clarke QC MP Shadow Secretary of State for Business, Enterprise and Regulatory Reform Mark Francois MP Shadow Minister for Europe New Shadow Cabinet responsibilities Alan Duncan MP Shadow Leader of the House of Commons Chris Grayling MP Shadow Home
The reshuffle rumours keep flooding in. Iain Dale’s list has Theresa May going to shadow work and pensions; Caroline Spelman to Local Government, Nick Herbert to Environment; Dominic Grieve to Justice; Chris Grayling to Home; and Alan Duncan as shadow leader of the Commons. So far, May, Grayling, Herbert and Duncan have been confirmed. Spelman and Grieve match with what we’re hearing in
What’s my take on the return of Ken Clarke? Hm. I guess it’s summed up by four-and-a-bit words: let’s wait and see. A wishy-washy response, I know, but so much depends on whether Cameron’s got himself Clarke the Angel or Clarke the Devil that it’s hard to talk about success or failure in advance. Apparently,
Given his, ahem, prescience on these matters, it’s worth flagging up Robert Peston’s latest blog post. He suggests that the Government’s next set of measures to prop up the ailing banking industry, expected Monday, won’t involve the establishment of a state-run “bad bank,” as had been mooted. Instead we can expect the “mother of all
Harriet Harman’s idea of imposing a legal obligation on public bodies to narrow the gap between rich and poor has the potential to be a dangerously regressive measure. With that in mind, we should welcome the suggestion in Andrew Grice’s Independent article this morning that it doesn’t have the backing of the Government: “The second
There’s been a lot of garbage spoken about social mobility in the past few days – almost all of it from the government. But if Tories need reminding that Alan Milburn – the new social mobility czar – gets it, then they should read his interview with Alice Thomson and Rachel Sylvester in today’s Times.
The Standard’s Paul Waugh flags up a new YouGov poll on attitudes to a third runway at Heathrow. Do check out Paul’s blog for some intriguing below-headline findings (i.e. it seems that men are much more in favour of the project than women), but here are the main numbers: Among Londoners For a third runway — 35 percent Against
Great timing by Dave with his environmental proposal today. After the Heathrow announcement yesterday, talk of a greener national infrastructure by the Tory leader is sure to irk a few Labour MPs, and could set the political dividing lines in his party’s favour. What’s more, the Tory policy idea – a £1 billion “investment” in
Sounds like Lord Digby Jones, the former trade minister, gave a fiery performance during his select committee appearance earlier. This quote on his experience of the civil service is simply too good not to reprint: “I was amazed by how many people frankly deserved the sack – and yet that was the one threat they never worked under, because it
After John McDonnell’s suspension from the Commons today, it’s time for another installment of Rebellion Watch. Truth is, numerous Labour MPs aren’t behind the Heathrow proposal – indeed, Brown’s said to be pretty much the only Cabinet member who truly supports it – but they’re being won over, for now, by the prospect of it
Just to point out an important post by Sam Coates over at Red Box. Turns out the House has chosen today, when the airwaves are dominated by the Heathrow announcement, to publish an audit of MPs’ expenses (pdf here). I’ll leave you to check out the details in Sam’s post, but it’s now looking less
What to make of Peter Mandelson’s latest idea to prop up the car industry, as splashed by today’s Times? Basically, the plan is that the Bank of England will use taxpayers’ cash to back the loans offered by finance companies to potential car buyers. And the hope is that this will free up credit and stimulate demand
There’s plenty of hoo-haa about David Miliband’s “‘War on Terror’ was wrong” article in the Guardian today. But, truth be told, it’s probably less significant than it first appears. You see, Miliband the Elder is talking rhetoric – he’s simply saying that the phrase ‘War on Terror’ was the wrong one to use because of
With the debate over whether Cameron should bring back Ken Clarke raging away in Westminster, we’ve put together this list of prominent commentators who have publically come out for or against the idea – along with links to their articles on the matter. All for posterity’s sake, you see. Do let us know in the
Looks like Ed Balls isn’t the only one who’s trying out Brownies based on Tory spending commitments at the moment. Health Minister Ben Bradshaw is doing his best to spread the idea that the Tories would cut health spending, despite Cameron’s commitment to “protect” real terms increases in the health budget. He tried to push the Brownie in a
Plenty of Tory reshuffle speculation swirling around the Westminster washbowl today, but this from Ben Brogan is worth highlighting: “News just in: Cabinet ministers heading for PMQs seem to think that Iain Duncan Smith is about to be brought back to the Shadow Cabinet to take on James Purnell. Must be a spot of fun