Here’s the first in our series of posts looking back over the mistakes made by Brown in his first year as Prime Minister. Later in the week, you’ll be able to vote on which mistake you think is the worst. 21 March, 2007. With the words “A Budget for Britain’s families, for fairness and the future,” Brown had just finished his
Over on his superb blog, Benedict Brogan indulges in a bit of interesting speculation: does David Davis want to be Speaker? It seems crazy – and probably is – but there could still be something in this. After all, the smart money’s on Michael Martin stepping down soon. Whilst Davis’s actions have both establised him as an independently-minded MP and won him support from across the
I’d recommend you head over to Stephen’s blog, where he flags up his latest Times article: “Social Mobility disappeared with the grammar schools”. It’s a great response to Brown’s speech yesterday. But it should also be required reading for Ed Balls, who has an unfathomable aversion to some of our most successful academic institutions.
Another week, another great column from Rachel Sylvester. It contains venomous quotes aplenty (e.g. one cabinet minister: “We’re all doomed … We might as well ring the removal vans to take us out of office.”), and some important observations about Labour donors. Here’s the key passage: “I bumped into one rich businessman, who has given
We’ve made the point before that Brown’s fortunes are largely wedded to the state of the economy. After all, he took all the credit for its buoyancy during his time as Chancellor. So he seems to be the best candidate to take the blame now things have gone awry. The worry for Team Brown is that things
It’s been just over a week since we asked CoffeeHousers to put forward their questions for David Davis. We’ve since picked out the best ten, which have now been put to the former shadow home secretary. He’ll get back to us over the next couple of days. The CoffeeHousers whose questions were chosen can e-mail me
Welcome to a new feature on Coffee House – one we’re calling CoffeeHousers’ Wall. Every Monday, we’ll put up a ‘wall’ post and – provided your writing isn’t libelous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no topic, so there’s
If you want to quantify the power of David Davis’ campaign for civil liberties, then there’s always this news story in today’s Standard. Apparently, two other MPs offered to step down – and force by-elections – in sympathy with the former shadow home secretary. They were only prevented from doing so when Davis told them “there should
Oh dear. It looks as though Brown’s speechwriters have got it wrong, wrong, wrong for his address on social mobility today. Rather than setting out what policy wonks call a “progressive vision”, it dwells all too acrimoniously on Margaret Thatcher, and tries to lay the blame for poor social mobility at her feet. As I
As Paul Waugh’s reporting over at his essential blog, it seems like the row between Shami Chakrabarti and Andy Burnham is at an end – and all because of a smartly-worded letter that the culture minister sent yesterday. In it, he expresses some regret for his previous statement, and outlines his actions in terms of
At the suggestion of Lord Justice Richards, Gordon Brown has confirmed he’ll delay ratification of the Lisbon Treaty until after the result of Stuart Wheeler’s court case against the Government. We should hear the verdict next week and, according to Brown, that “fits in with [the Government’s] timetable.” However, Wheeler has since confirmed that he’ll
With the EU having just threatened further sanctions against Zimbabwe, I’d recommend you read Peter Oborne’s powerful article in this week’s magazine. In it, he describes the terrible civil strife experienced under Robert Mugabe, and suggests that the UN, in particular, has failed to act accordingly. Here’s the bottom line: “Zimbabwe is a perfect test case for the new
Over at Comment Central, Danny Finkelstein’s posted a couple of no-holds-barred quotations from Labour MPs: “Our Leader is utterly useless. If you asked him which of the two doors from this room he was going to exit from he would be incapable of choosing. And if someone else chose the door for him he wouldn’t
After David Davis’ resignation, Henley was under threat of becoming the forgotten by-election. But things are hotting up there today, with David Cameron threatening to sue the Lib Dems over some of their campaign methods. Cameron claims the Lib Dems have misrepresented the Tory candidate John Howell’s views on a local hospital. And then there’s the Lib Dem magazine
Although he hasn’t quite stepped out and declared that he hates all existing grammar schools, Ed Balls’ latest speech contains the strongest clue yet that that’s how he feels. Here’s the relevant passage: “I accept that selection is a local decision for parents and local authorities. But I do not accept that children in secondary
The news coming out of the EU summit in Brussels is less than encouraging. Apparently, the various representatives are preparing themselves for months and months of negotiation over the Lisbon Treaty. And that includes the Irish. Their Prime Minister, Brian Cowen, had this to say: “It is necessary for Ireland to have time now to analyze last week’s
Here, thanks to HM Treasury, is footage of Alistair Darling’s speech at Mansion House last night:
The Daily Mirror has returned to pinning cycling misdemeanors on David Cameron. But, as Adam Boulton & Co. point out, the Tory leader has a very good alibi for their latest charge…
In the wake of Alistair Darling and Mervyn King’s speeches at Mansion House last night, most of the papers are majoring on the sorry state of our economy. Both Darling and King indicated that this is the worst shape it’s been in for around 15 years, and warned that there’s worse to come. For the
Kelvin MacKenzie confirms in his Sun column today that he won’t stand in the Haltemprice & Howden by-election: “…the clincher for me was the money. Clearly The Sun couldn’t put up the cash — so I was going to have to rustle up a maximum of £100,000 to conduct my campaign as candidate for the Red