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So we’ve heard before that Brown is “obsessed” with Winston Churchill and, in his mind, wants to avoid the wartime leader’s fate as a Prime Minister who guided Britian through a crisis only to be answered with a thumping in the polls. In which case, it’s rather odd that Brown should write this in the
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Halloween’s still a few weeks away, but here’s something to inspire CoffeeHousers’ nightmares in the meantime: Gordon Brown’s infamous glower at the end of his interview with Adam Boulton. The footage that Sky released yesterday tactfully cut the whole thing short, but the new video below features our PM’s Look of Pure Hatred in its
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A quick post to point out that Fraser’s interview with David Cameron – to which CoffeeHousers contributed questions – will be appearing in tomorrow’s issue of the magazine. We’ll also be making the article free to all website users tomorrow morning, so you can read the full thing then. In the meantime, here’s a selection
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Paul Waugh highlights a passage from Harriet Harman’s speech today: “Contrasting Labour’s record on equalities and feminism with that of the Tories, she said that David Cameron would extend foxhunting rights to everyone, while George Osborne would replace a SureStart in every community with ‘a lapdancing club in every community’.” Now, Paul reports that Harman’s
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If you still haven’t made up your mind about whether Brown’s speech yesterday will do anything for Labour’s chances, then just dash through his interviews with the broadcast media. Two topics stand out – the Sun’s decision to back the Tories, and whether Brown will get involved in a televised debate – and there’s little
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The Sun’s Whitehall Editor, David Wooding, has just tweeted that the newspaper will officially back the Conservatives at the next election. Given the paper’s recent editorial stance, it’s hardly surprising news. But it will still delight Team Cameron, and is a blow for Brown in the aftermath of his conference speech. I expect we’ll hear
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Much like Peter Mandelson’s address yesterday, Gordon Brown’s speech was designed for the Labour Party members inside the conference hall. It was effectively book-ended by two crowd-pleasing rat-a-tat lists: the first, a rundown of Labour “achievements” which received massive cheers; and the second, a disingenuous account of Tory measures “for the privileged few”, designed to
From our UK edition
1404, PH: We’ll be live-blogging Brown’s conference speech from 1415 onwards. In the meantime, CoffeeHousers, your thoughts on how our PM will kick things off. Last year, of course, he got Sarah Brown to introduce him. Will he repeat the trick this year? Or will he get someone else? Mandelson, perhaps? Or someone off X-Factor?
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So what’s the story with Brown and the leaders’ TV debate? There were reports, weeks ago, that the PM was going to use his speech today to, ahem, “challenge” his opposite numbers to a debate, but then Sky intervened and Downing Street fell silent. Last we heard, Brown was veering towards a debate, but was
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A few weeks ago, there were reports that thousands of schoolgirls were suffering “adverse reactions” to the controversial cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix. Now, the Times have found that a 14-year-old schoolgirl has died after being given the jab. And this when the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, along with the Department of Health, has
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Over at UK Polling Report, Anthony Wells flags up a noteworthy poll boost for Labour. In YouGov’s daily tracker for Sky News, the party are up five points from last Friday’s tracker poll. Here are the headline numbers in full: Conservatives — 39 percent (down 1 percentage point since last Friday) Labour — 29 percent
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Oh joy. Alan Simpson’s ultimatum to Brown today gives me an opportunity to update this list: 20 April, 2008 “The Prime Minister, who is battling a growing rebellion over his abolition of the 10p tax rate, has been given until the end of the summer to turn things round by backbenchers angry at a string
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Danny Finkelstein’s right: there are some surprising results in today’s ComRes poll for the Independent. The one which catches my eye is that David Miliband would be the most successful alternative leader at reducing the Tories’ poll lead. Along with Jack Straw, the poll suggests, he would make Labour the largest party in a hung
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Ok, ok, this will be my final post today on a Labour interview, but it’s worth highlighting the Guardian’s chat with Ed Balls. Breakfasting CoffeeHousers may not make it past the opening image of the Schools Secretary, “half-naked on a desolate main road in Knowsley,” so here’s the key passage from later in the article:
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Another post, another interview with a Labour figure. This time it’s John Prescott’s conversation with Michael Savage in the Independent. Prescott puts in a fiery performance, and lashes out at almost everyone and everything within his party. I’ve pulled out some of his attacks below, for the benefit of CoffeeHousers: On the Labour Party: “There
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Remember when Alan Johnson said he doubted that he would have been “good enough” to lead the Labour party? Or when he claimed that his defeat by Harriet Harman in the deputy leadership race had killed the “little bit of ambition” he had left? Well, the tune has slightly changed since then. In today’s interview
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It’s the question that won’t go away for Gordon Brown: should he – will he – take part in a televised leaders’ debate? On this weekend’s Straight Talk, Andrew Neil takes the opportunity to quiz Ben Bradshaw about his views on the matter. Here’s how the Culture Secretary responds: “I don’t think [Brown]’s got anything
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James has already highlighted the New Statesman’s interview with Gordon Brown, but it’s worth flagging up this passage as well: “Again and again, throughout our interview, Brown refers to the next election as being about ‘big choices’, not the small issues, which he says the Conservatives would prefer. ‘What was the latest thing? The cost
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Given their position in the polls, and the challenges that face the next government, it’s understandable that the Tories are turning their minds to the post-election period. They’ve been meeting with high-ranking civil servants for months now, and have been hammering out the details and design of a cuts agenda. But one of the most
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So the most eye-catching – and ear-splitting – quote of the day comes courtesy of Chris Davies MEP, speaking about corrupt Brussels politicians: Hat-tip: Boulton & Co.