Peter Hoskin

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Is this how Brown hopes to defuse the Tories’ national insurance cut?

Well, the manifesto pledges sure are spilling out of Brown today.  After his proposals for cleaning up politics earlier, he's now told Channel 4's Gary Gibbon that Labour will pledge to keep the main rate of income tax at 20 pence in the forthcoming Parliament.  Whether that will satisfy those who would see their national insurance contributions rise over the same period, or placate those who were moved from a 10p tax rate to the 20p rate as a result of Brown's politicking a few years ago, remains to be seen.

Peter Hoskin

How the Tories are decontaminating their associations with Big Business

Over the past couple of years, Big Business (as in, "being in hock with...") has been deployed almost as an insult against the Tories.  But they've now used their campaign on national insurance to turn their business associations into an advantage.  Exhibit A: the above picture (via PoliticsHome) of Cameron's visit to the Warbutons HQ in Bolton, where the company owner has come out in support of Tory proposals.  It sends the message that Big Business doesn't just mean the financial services, and a lot of people, in a lot of regions, rely heavily upon it for their livelihoods.  And too right, too.  Expect plenty more like this from the Tories over the next few weeks.

Peter Hoskin

A picture of innocence?

Gordon Brown's visit to the Innocent smoothie HQ in London today is the subject of a great post from Paul Waugh, who reveals how close the PM came to a photo-opp nightmare.  But it also reminded me of this insight from Jonathan Freedland a few months ago, which I blogged at the time: "[The Labour campaign team have] taken a look at the branding of Innocent smoothies, hoping the authentic, unspun look might fit their own 'unairbrushable' product, G Brown." I wonder whether Innocent picked up any branding tips from Brown earlier, in return...

Peter Hoskin

The context defeats Brown

So, mending our broken politics has been shoved to the forefront of the election campaign - at least for the time being. Brown has just given a speech on the issue, which - if you divorce it from all context - was actually fairly effective. Sure, things like reducing the voting age to 16, or a referendum on the alternative voting system, may not be your - or many people's - cup of chai. But there were several proposals which, taken in isolation, will probably be as popular as they are sensible: banning MPs from working for lobbying comapanies, for instance. Or giving the voters the ability to recall MPs who are guilty of gross financial misconduct. But Brown's problem is that his offer isn't divorced from all context.

Peter Hoskin

Europe as a campaign message … for Labour

As I said earlier, today's PMQs was all about giving the various parties' campaign messages a walk around the block.  Cameron's questions reduced down to "They've failed – give us a go".  Clegg pushed the Lib Dem's Labservative prospectus.  And Brown droned on about "£6bn being taken out of the economy," as well as about Lord Ashcroft and "securing the recovery". In which case, it's striking that Denis MacShane used a question to denounce the Tories' alliances in Europe.  Indeed, Peter Mandelson did exactly the same in a speech this morning.  Here's how he put it: "David Cameron chooses to sit alongside the xenophobes and homophobes in the European Parliament.

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 7 April 2010

Stay tuned for live coverage of PMQs. 1200: We're about to start.  Brown is flanked by Harriet Harman and Jim Murphy.  Douglas Alexander, Alistair Darling and Alan Johnson are also on the front bench.  The heavy hitters are out in force... 1201: And here we go, for what could be Brown's last ever PMQs as Prime Minister.  He starts, as usual, with condolences for fallen soldiers. 1202: The first question is as plantlike as they come: will Brown take £6 billion "out of the economy"?  Brown spins the usual dividing line about investing in frontline services, adding that the Tories would risk a "double dip" recession.  Hm. 1204: Massive cheer from the Tory benches as Cameron stands up.

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Inauthenticity, meet skewer

We're not even one day into the election campaign proper, and already the internet is fulfilling its role as the Exposer-in-Chief of spin, deceits and slip-ups aplenty.  I direct you towards Guido's post on Brown's – ahem – impromptu support at St Pancras station earlier.  Or Left Foot Forward's account of the omissions from Cameron's list of The Great Ignored.  Or Sam Coates's tweets about the #stagemanagedelection.  And there's plenty more where they came from. In a campaign where inauthenticity is going to get skewered at every turn, politicians clearly need to go about things differently.  But there are all too many signs that they're stuck in the old, familiar grooves of elections past.

Peter Hoskin

Oh, and the Lib Dems too…

Nick Clegg – who he?  According to a poll this morning, that's what two-thirds of the country will be thinking when they see the Lib Dem leader on their screens over the next few weeks.  But, regardless, he and his party are worth paying attention to.  Most importantly, of course, because of the possibility of a hung parliament.  But there's also the matter of the leaders' debates, in which Clegg will have a bigger platform than he's ever had before.  You sense that Lib Dems activists think they really matter this time around. So all eyes on Cowley St, where Clegg kicked off his party's election campaign earlier.  Two things came out of it.

Peter Hoskin

Brown: the election will be on 6th May

So there we have it.  Brown has been to see the Queen, he's returned to Downing Street, and now he's announced what we all knew anyway: the election will be on 6th May.  He was flanked by the entire Cabinet as he did so, like some grim school photograph.  And he repeated the same lines from his Mirror interview this morning: the election is a "big choice", public service "guarantees", 13 years of "reform", and so on and so on. I suspect Blair would have smiled wryly at that last one, as well as at Brown's claim that he is "not a team of one, but one of a team". Either way, this is what it has all come to.  The clock is ticking.

Peter Hoskin

Now’s the time

If there's anything we don't already know about today, then I'm struggling to find it.  The election will be declared for 6th May.  Brown will make a pitch which bears close resemblance to his interview in the Mirror today: "We have come so far. Do we want to throw this all away?"  Cameron will say that the Tories are fighting this election for the "Great Ignored".  Clegg will claim that the Lib Dems represent "real fairness and real change".  A hundred news helicopters will buzz around Westminster.  A thousand blog-posts (including this one) will have headlines to the effect of "And so it begins...".

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

Two steps forward for the Tories, one step backwards for the Lib Dems

Last week, the Tories strengthened their tax-cutting credentials with a smart policy on national insurance.  I'm sure you didn't miss it.  But one part of the recent Tory resurgence is, to my mind, being underplayed: they now have a much stronger message on government waste.  After all, the NI policy is being funded by cutting waste.  And then there was that spoof website which pulled the limelight onto Labour's wasted spending.  And then there are the interviews in which Tory frontbenchers – such as William Hague today – say stuff like: "If there’s waste in government spending, which the Labour Government says there is, we should be saving the waste, not saying we’ll go on wasting it for several more years.

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Labour didn’t think this one through…<br />

There's me thinking that Labour wouldn't go negative with their latest poster, created via an online competition among their supporters.  I mean, surely they wouldn't want to undermine their whizzy, positive, digital energy by picking a design which didn't present an equally positive Labour vision.  But, oh, how they did.  Here's the winning design: Now, there are two immediate problems with this poster.  The first being that I'd always thought the character Cameron is meant to be playing – DCI Gene Hunt – is actually quite popular with the public, despite his rough and less-then-edifying edges.  Indeed, he even topped a recent poll as "Britain's favourite TV hero".

Peter Hoskin

Osborne confirms that there will be no more Tory cuts this year

David Cameron said as much in his Today Programme interview, but now we know for sure: we've heard everything we're going to about Tory spending cuts this year.  George Osborne confirms the news in an interview with the Guardian today: "In the interview, the shadow chancellor also disclosed, for the first time, that he would not reduce public spending by more than £6.5bn in the current financial year. He said £6bn would come from efficiencies, and £500m from cuts to child trust funds and working tax credits for the better off. There would be no further 'in year' cuts in his emergency budget, scheduled within 50 days of a possible Tory victory, he said." It's tempting to point out that £6.

Friday

Peter Hoskin

A bad news day for Labour, as the Tories get positive

Oh dear.  Today's frontpages form the most eclectic set of damaging headlines for Labour for quite some time.  On the front of the Mail and the Times: allegations that the government – specifically, Ed Balls – "interfered" with a report on the Baby P tragedy.  On the Independent: a claim that Brown "misled" the public over waiving VAT on a charity single for Haiti.  And on the Telegraph: news that more business leaders have backed the Tories' national insurance policy.  Even the Guardian wades in with the headline: "Labour and business fall out". Of these, the first story is potentially the biggest scandal.  But it's the latter two which more immediately threaten to alter the political mood music.

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

There’s a serious message behind the Tory April Fools’ campaign

Most press releases don't really catch the eye.  But when one hits your inbox from The Department of Government Waste, you can't help but take notice.  In it, the Secretary of State for Government Waste, Robin Ewe (geddit?), celebrates 13 years of "waste-maximisation," and there are links to a departmental website, complete with reports and videos. No surprises that it's a Tory campaign.  And to up the fun quotient, CHHQ have even managed to plug it via a cheeky advert in the Guardian.  But although there's a comic tinge to it all, and although it's rather straightforward, this is still a smart message for the Tories to get out there.

Peter Hoskin

Cameron defends his spending cuts – and suggests there won’t be more before the election

Want some more David Cameron?  Well, the Tories are happy to oblige.  After their party leader's speech yesterday, he is interviewed in the FT and appeared on the Today programme earlier.  The FT interview was certainly the more comfortable of the two.  In it, Cameron stikes a confident note – saying that his party have "come a long way," and that "people are gagging for change".  And he stresses that he thinks – and, apparently, Ken Clarke thinks – that George Osborne is "the right person" to be Chancellor. But Cameron had a tougher time in his Today Programme interview.  It started well, with Today highlighting the supportive letter that business leaders have written about the Tories' national insurance cut.

Wednesday

Peter Hoskin

Cameron’s winning optimism

Last week, it was all doom, gloom, debt, the deficit and austerity from the Tories – and rightly so.  But, this week, they've returned to the sunny uplands.  First, we had George Osborne's tax cut for seven out of every ten people.  And, today, we had David Cameron's closing speech at the Tory Big Society event.  I lost count of how many times he dropped words like "hope" and "change".  And, yes, he even namechecked Barack Obama.  But don't give up just yet  – there was more to it than that.

Peter Hoskin

Prepare for an annual Big Society Day

The Tories have just distributed the policy document to go alongside their event today. There's stuff in there about new funds for social enterprises, a recruiment drive for community organisers, neighbourhood grants, and so on. But it's the last page of the document which caught my eye... Apparently, the Tories would introduce an annual, national "Big Society Day" to "celebrate the work of neighbourhood groups and encourage more people to take part in social action projects." Hm. I suppose that's all well and good, if you're into that kind of thing. But you can expect this to become a political sticking point, as the left questions whether it's really an annual Celebrate Conservative Government Day.