From Darling with love
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.
Peter Hoskin
Wednesday
The rebellion fizzles out
A quick update to Fraser’s post – the 10p tax rebels, lead by Frank Field, have withdrawn their amendment to the Finance Bill in the wake of Alistair Darling’s statement.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
Happy St George's Day
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
Tuesday
Gaffes galore
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.
How can Brown make amends?
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
Will the rebellion be quashed?
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
Labour make up ground on the Tories
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
Monday
Boris leads, as another Livingstone associate comes under question
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
Is Kate Hoey backing Boris?
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
Clarke lashes out at Balls
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
Sunday
Jostling for prominence
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
Saturday
Pete suggests | 19 April 2008
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
Friday
Gwyneth Dunwoody RIP
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
Boris: take two
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
Balls to the rescue?
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
Thursday
Lining up to give Brown a kicking
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
Does purdah apply only to bad news?
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 England | 17 April 2008
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
Practise what you preach
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
Wednesday
Is Smith breaking the rules?
(CoffeeHouse regular Tiberius asked that we write something on this, so here goes…) Jacqui Smith’s created a bit of a political storm today, over her announcement that 300 extra police will be directed towards combating terror and radicalisation. The Tories claim this is in “blatant breach” of pre-election campaign rules. After all, most of the
