You may not agree with the specifics, but one of the successes of the Lib Dem conference so far has been to shift the debate about our fiscal recovery from one wholly about spending cuts to one about tax changes too. This is a necessary step. For reasons which have been delved into by Danny
If things were looking bad for Baroness Scotland before, then they’re looking calamitous now. On top of the row about her illegal immigrant cleaner, it’s emerged that she wrongly claimed around £170,000 in living expenses since 2004. According to the Cabinet Office, the money should only go to peers whose main residence is outside London.
Fresh from winning GQ’s Politician of the Year award last week, George Osborne now has an accolade he may be even happier with: heavy praise from both Peter Oborne and Matthew Parris. Both commentators write columns today which dish out the superlatives for Osborne’s response to the fiscal crisis, and suggest he has been vindicated
Patrick Wintour has an insightful article in today’s Guardian, setting out how and why Brown has dithered when it comes to deploying the c-word. So far as the current landscape is concerned, this passage is particularly striking: “There is tension between Brown and Darling on how far the campaign can be based on Brown’s achievements
So are Vince Cable’s public spending cuts his own, or are they Lib Dem policy? In his Straight Talk interview with the Lib Dem treasury spokesman this weekend, Andrew Neil tries to get to the bottom of it all. The result? Well, according to Cable, Nick Clegg “approved” his pamphlet for the think tank Reform,
Over at his new blog for the Wall Street Journal, Iain Martin ups the provocative factor by asking: “Will the Tories axe the RAF?” Here’s the key passage: “It has long been the dirty little secret of the U.K. defence establishment that a way to streamline the command structure, reduce duplication and slash costs is
Spot the difference: 5 September, 2009: Gordon Brown warns G20 countries against reining in spending, The Telegraph “Britain is resisting pressure from Germany and other Euro-currency countries who are planning to moves towards an ‘exit strategy’ that would see some of the planned anti-recessionary spending programmes being scaled back to cut rising national debts.” 18
A couple of weeks ago, Kevin Maguire told us that No.10 is thinking about a March or April general election. And now Steve Richards follows up by suggesting April is most likely: “Speaking to influential ministers and aides I get the impression that their favoured month for an election is next April. In theory they
For the Kremlinologists among us, Andrew Grice has an insightful article in today’s Independent on the growing support for Ed Miliband in the Labour Party. He kicks it off by asking the pivotal question when it comes to the Brothers Miliband – “Will Ed Miliband eclipse brother David?” – and follows that up with some
After Michael Fallon’s claim last week that the shadow cabinet hasn’t got “the faintest idea” of the commitment necessary to tackle the debt crisis, this anecdote from Benedict Brogan’s column should act as another warning to David Cameron: “Whitehall is gripped by short-termism, yet in a world dominated by the targets culture introduced by Labour,
The Independent’s Hamish McRae writes a superb column today on just how far the next government will have to go to tackle Brown’s debt crisis. His main point is that unless severe action is taken over the coming years, we’ll be stuck in a perilous position by the time the next global downturn hits. But
Iain Duncan Smith’s Centre for Social Justice has released a very important report today, and one which should influence the welfare debate for years to come. At around 350 pages, it’s a weighty enough tome, but I’d recommend that CoffeeHousers give it a flick through. Its subject is how to fix a benefits system which
…comes courtesy of one Gordon Brown, in interview with Robert Peston: “Well, I’ve never been someone who myself has been interested in running up personal debts or borrowing huge amounts of money.” Ahem.
Scoopmeister Paul Waugh has a cracking developing story over at his blog. He revealed earlier that Harriet Harman’s people have been canvassing Labour party members with questions like: “Who do you think is the best person to sell the Labour party?” “On a scale of 0 to 5, how do you rate Harriet Harman?” But,
There’s an intriguing story in today’s Times suggesting that the Tories may “backtrack” on some defence spending commitments, and are thinking about shelving the Trident replacement. Here’s a snippet: “Liam Fox, the Shadow Defence Secretary, pledged last year to protect the three most expensive equipment programmes: aircraft carriers, an armoured vehicle system known as FRES
Last night’s “tribute in light” for the victims of the World Trade Center attack on September 11th, 2001.
A neat little anecdote in Steve Richards’ column this morning: “When David Cameron bumped into Charles Clarke at the end of the summer, the former Cabinet minister told the Tory leader in relation to the attempted coup: ‘Don’t worry… we’ll be back’. Cameron replied to him only half jokingly: ‘That’s exactly what I am worried
It first aired a couple of nights ago but, as Benedict Brogan says, this ITN news feature on how the Canadian government cut public spending by 20 percent in the late-1990s is well worth watching: P.S. I doubt we’ll be seeing repeats of the hospital demolition which comes at 2:19. P.P.S. Perhaps the most striking
Punchy stuff from Michael Fallon in today’s Telegraph. The Tory deputy chairman of the Treasury Select Committee sets out five ways for his party to “get real” over public spending cuts. Over at ConservativeHome, Tim Montgomerie dwells on perhaps the most striking of those five: a recommendation that the Tories should think again about national
So the Daily Mail has another anti-Brown plot rumour for the collection; this one based around the idea that a “Gordon must go” candidate could run for a seat on the PLP’s Parliamentary Committee: “Rebels are planning to put up a candidate for the Parliamentary Committee, a panel of senior backbenchers which meets once a