From our UK edition
We’ve just launched a blog celebrating the 180th anniversary of the Spectator. You can check it out here. At the moment, there are two posts up – an introduction and a look back at the 1711 Spectator – and there’s plenty more to come over the next few weeks.
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For those who want to know what a U-turn looks like, the Guardian has a scanned copy (pdf) of Alistair Darling's 10p tax letter to John McFall.
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A quick update to Fraser's post - the 10p tax rebels, lead by Frank Field, have withdrawn their amendment to the Finance Bill in the wake of Alistair Darling's statement. The rebellion has officially fizzled out, and Brown can draw a sigh of relief. However, our Prime Minister shouldn't get too excited - as Fraser warned, the U-turn's unlikely to wash with voters.
From our UK edition
It's St George's Day today, so – if you haven't already – do check out the special articles from the latest issue of the Spectator, and have your say on England in this Coffee House thread. There's also plenty of relevant coverage in today's papers, including a Jack Straw article for the Daily Mail. Here's what the Justice Minister has to say: "One of the things which makes me most angry are people who try to claim the St George's flag for the far Right... ...It wasn't owned by any political party - least of all the BNP. It was about England. Anyone proud to be English is equally proud of St George and what, down the ages, his myth and his flag have come to represent for this nation within the United Kingdom.
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Even spell-checker's rebelling against Gordon Brown. On the Labour website earlier: "excellance for all". It's been fixed now, but not before some quick-thinking types captured screen grabs.
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How should Brown deal with the 10p tax band issue? That's the question that was put to Politics Home's group of 100 political insiders today. In answer - some 62 percent of repondents believe he should help low income earners by raising the threshhold at which people start paying tax. By contrast, only 10 per cent thought the 10p tax band should be reinstated in the next Budget. How would CoffeeHousers advise the Prime Minister?
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Team Brown’s clearly spooked by the 10p tax rebellion (and so it should be – as Jackie Ashley pointed out yesterday, the repercussions could be massive). The evidence? Well, the Prime Minister called Angela Smith all the way from America, to prevent her from resigning; he struck an unusually conciliatory tone in last night’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting; and now there’s the news that Alistair Darling is to personally meet with concerned backbenchers ahead of next week’s vote on the Finance Bill. But will the rebels be swayed by all this? Quite possibly. If this Government’s good at anything, it’s putting the screws on its members.
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Now this is an odd one. In spite of the 10p tax row – and the very public dissent by some Labour figures – the latest Guardian / ICM poll sees the Tory lead cut significantly. Cameron & Co. score 39 percent (down 3 on last month); Labour are on 34 percent (up 5); and the Lib Dems on 19 percent (down 2). They're figures which may give our beleaguered Prime Minister cause for optimism. But – as Political Betting remind us – this is only one poll. The headlines remain poisonous for the Government, and if the 10p tax rebellion escalates – as well it might – then ground could be lost just as quickly.
From our UK edition
The latest Evening Standard / YouGov poll is in, and it records another encouraging lead for Boris. The results in full – Boris is on 44 percent (down 1 from last week); Livingstone’s on 33 percent (down 2); and Paddick’s on 12 percent (up 2). When second preferences are allocated, Boris snares 53 percent to Ken’s 47 percent. It should be remembered, though, that other polls – including one in yesterday’s Sunday Times – have things much closer. If Livingstone’s going to claw back some of the lost ground, he could do without headlines like that plastered across the Standard’s front page – “Ken’s adviser is linked to terror group”.
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Three Line Whip have been tracking a bit of mayoral election drama this morning. On the way to Boris' campaign event today, Rosa Prince disclosed that a "special guest backer" would be unveiled - someone whose identity would drop a "bombshell" on Westminster. Then Jonathan Isaby revealed both that the backer's Kate Hoey and that she's decided not to appear. Apparently she's "really ill", although Isaby reckons it's because she could have been kicked off the Labour benches. It's hard to know who'll win out of this. It's a little embarrassing for Team Boris that Hoey didn't pitch. But, then again, we now know that a prominent Labour MP was prepared to publicly back the Tories' man.
From our UK edition
The Labour infighting is becoming bloodier by the day. Remember Ed Balls' call for party unity last week? Well – in a letter to today's Times – Charles Clarke responds with an astonishing personal attack on Balls. Here's Clarke's invective in full: “Sir, Ed Balls’s extraordinary interview with you (April 18) is most revealing and provokes a response. His injunctions about the “indulgent nonsense” of “private briefings against the Labour leader” certainly come from one who is well acquainted with this kind of activity. Such things do discredit politics and take us back to the days of faction and party-within-a-party that were so damaging in the 1980s.
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David Miliband has been a busy media figure recently. After his quasi-manifesto in the Times, he's now penned an article for the News of the World. In it, he echoes Ed Balls' recent call for party unity: “We know what will ensure defeat. First if we try to do too many things and don't do enough of them well. Second, if we don't follow through the things we have started. Third, if we worry too much about our opponents. Fourth, if we argue among ourselves, failing to defend each other and our leader. Fifth, if we water down our core convictions. Gordon Brown has strong values and convictions. The route to victory needs us to do more.” The problem for Labour is that Balls' and Miliband's articles could actually foster more divide.
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BOOKS If you're looking to keep up-to-speed with all things Web 2.0, then you could do worse than read Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody. Like, say, Wikinomics, it's replete with information about the power of the internet and mass-collaboration. However, it also pays attention to the problems of the new, social dynamics. Perhaps the key text on all of this. MUSIC It's been out for a month-or-so now, but Muse's live album Haarp is still a frequent port-of-call on my iPod. Like marmite, the Devonshire three-piece are a love-hate thing – their angsty, bombastic, cosmic-rock just isn't for everyone. For the initiated, though, this album showcases the energy of their rightly-renowned live shows, as well as Matt Bellamy's soaring guitar solos.
From our UK edition
Gwyneth Dunwoody - the "Mother of the House of Commons" - died last night, aged 77. I'd recommend you read Michael White's tribute for the Guardian, from which the following is an extract: "Now that the pendulum has swung towards managerial politics, old stagers like Mrs D who caused trouble are too few. She will be missed. But if she is up there on a cloud today, I expect she is already up on a celestial point of order asking God to make a statement and what does he think he's playing at.
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ConservativeHome have an exclusive peek at Boris’s second election broadcast. Maybe he’s taken Livingstone’s criticisms on board: this one is zippy, expansive and – gosh – even in colour. To my eyes, it also successfully straddles the boundary between being positive about London and criticising the Livingstone era. Do check it out, and let us know what you think.
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Ed Balls plays knight-in-shining-armour today, defending his leader in a Times interview. Here's what he has to say: "The efforts of local councillors and shadow leaders should not be undermined by this kind of indulgent nonsense. Rather than cause difficulties for the party, Labour will feel that these people should get out on the campaign trail and start fighting the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats... ...Anybody who has the strength and conviction to take the tough decisions [Brown] did on public spending in his first two years, resist pressure to go into the euro and deal with fears of recession in 1998 and 2001 shows that he knows how to handle difficult times." To some extent, he's right. Labour's showing in the local elections will hardly be helped by internal divide.
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As Three Line Whip points out, yet another Labour figure has joined the long, long queue to give Gordon Brown a kicking. This time it's the Labour MP Ken Purchase, who is less-than-kind about the Government in an ePolitix interview. Here's what he has to say about Brown's election climbdown: "I thought that was a serious mistake ... The actual event itself, I think was a bit overplayed by the media but it has had this lasting effect of branding Gordon a ditherer. It was a mistake and I thought that older and wiser counsel should have prevailed much earlier - it should have been stopped much, much earlier." "Older and wiser counsel"? That's not a dig at Ed Ball, is it?
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The report into the police shooting of Charles de Menezes is now two months overdue. As the Standard reports today, it’s being sat on because of “political sensitivities” surrounding the race for London Mayor – i.e. it could damage Met Commissioner Sir Ian Blair and, by extension, his great supporter Ken Livingstone. The Met claim this is fair practice – electoral “purdah” prevents public bodies from doing anything which could promote one candidate over another so close to election time. But that came into effect on 10 April. The obvious concern is that the Met had “political sensitivities” in mind before 10 April – and has kept the report back for months because of that.
From our UK edition
With St George's Day fast approaching (it's on April 23rd), The Spectator has taken the opportunity to release a special issue on England. You'll find the relevant articles dotted around the website, although I'd recommend you check out Rod Liddle's excellent piece in particular. It’s also the perfect chance to hear CoffeeHousers’ thoughts on England and on being English. We’ve already asked various public figures “What is England?” – you can see their answers here. Why not register your own response in the comments section?
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Our Prime Minister's been laying down the law on Wall Street, telling banks that they must be more open about their bad debts. Ok, so it's good advice – we need to know the full extent of the credit crunch before we can hope to treat it. But the first thought that popped into my head was: he's hardly one to talk. After all, Brown's idea of debt-keeping is to keep huge chunks of national debt off the balance sheet. That £100 billion Northern Rock debt? Swept under the fiscal carpet. That £30 billion or so of PFI debt? Likewise. And why? All so the now-valueless sustainable investment rule isn't broken – so that he can disingenuously claim the economy's in good shape.
