Osborne’s interview with the Guardian is mostly getting coverage for his attack on “unacceptable” banking bonuses. But I reckon a passage about the Tories’ commitment to ring-fence the health budget from spending cuts may be more significant: “Only health and international development have been ring-fenced – though today, when it comes to health spending, [Osborne]
I do enjoy reading Alastair Campbell’s blog – he’s a snappy writer and, whatever his mistakes during the Blair years, he generally offers a thought-provoking leftist slant on the issues of the day. But this passage in his latest effort is pretty low stuff: “American politics can be brutal, and as I remember Bill Clinton
I wrote in my last post that Cameron’s reponses to the Alan Duncan gaffe and NHS Twitter campaign have been “well-judged” – by which I meant that the Tory leader had stepped in swiftly enough and delivered exactly the kind of quotes to defuse the situation. But there’s an element to the Tory response which
There’s plenty to be sceptical about with this #welovetheNHS Twitter campaign – not least the manner in which it’s falsely polarising the debate into “lovers” or “haters”, given that 140-character “tweets” hardly allow for nuanced arguments. But, as Fraser pointed out last night, there’s little doubting that it’s a spot of good luck for Gordon
The Tory grassroots have spoken, and they want Alan Duncan out. Here are the main results from a poll which has just been published over at ConservativeHome: “A ConservativeHome.com poll of 1,622 Tory members carried out today finds 65% want Alan Duncan to resign and 55% think he should be sacked. A massive 91% think
So Mandy’s brought up the idea of a public debate between Brown and Cameron again, claiming – in interview with Sky (see footage above) – that the PM would “relish” the opportunity to “take the fight to the Conservatives”. If you remember, the last time Mandy mentioned it, Downing St quickly moved to dampen all
It’s noteworthy enough when David Blanchflower – a member of the Bank of England’s MPC until May this year – says that the government “isn’t doing enough” to stem the unemployment crisis, as he does in an article for today’s Guardian. But his more specific points about the “lost generation” of unemployed young people are
Oh dear. Another blow to Brown’s economic credibility this morning, as France and Germany announce that they’ve come out of recession already. Both economies grew by 0.3 percent in the second quarter of the year – in contrast to the UK economy, which shrank by 0.8 percent. Whatever the factors behind it, this spells trouble
Further to my post earlier, Sky have now produced an embeddable copy of Don’t Panic’s Alan Duncan video. The offending remarks come around 04:30 in: I know I said before that I’m inclined to believe Duncan’s excuse – that the comments were made in jest – but the more I watch the clip, the less
Right, I know I keep banging on about Osborne’s speech, but – Alan Duncan’s loose lips aside – it’s certainly the topic du jour in Westminster. Yesterday evening, I noted a couple of qualms I had with what I thought was – on the whole – an important and effective address. Today, I’ve got another
…Alan Duncan saying on video that MPs are treated “like sh*t”, and that they’re forced to live on “rations”. He’s just apologised, saying that the remarks were meant in jest. And I’m inclined to believe him: he was, after all, in conversation with the political pranksters over at Don’t Panic (although he didn’t know he
Whatever you might think of George Osborne’s speech on progressive politics yesterday – and I have some doubts of my own – it’s hard to take Peter Mandelson’s Guardian article about it particularly seriously. As Tim Montgomerie says over at ConservativeHome, there’s little in there beyond personal attacks on Osborne and a caricature of the
Earlier, I wrote that Osborne’s speech today seemed to be a significant moment for Project Cameron. Having attended the Demos event a few hours ago, I still think that’s the case. Sure, there wasn’t anything particularly new in it – and the delivery didn’t quite zing – but its central point that Brown’s approach to
I gave it a passing mention in my last post, but it’s worth highlighting Michael Gove’s mischievous comment piece in the the Guardian today. Why “mischievous”? Well, because its purpose seems to be to rile Ed Balls and mobilise his internal opponents: ‘In a series of not so subtle signals to the grassroots, Ed has
It’s a big day for George Osborne. The Shadow Chancellor is using his new platform at Demos — the think-tank which is credited with much of the brainwork behind the initial New Labour project, but which is now turning to the Tories as well as to the Purnellite wing of the Labour party — to
My old colleagues at Reform have put together a very useful analysis of the Canadian spending cuts programme – which got that country’s debt-to-GDP ratio down by 20 percent during the late 1990s – over at Centre Right. I’d suggest you read the whole thing, but this point deserves repeating: “The key lesson from the
When Brown comes to weigh up his prime ministerial legacy, maybe he’ll be satisfied that – if nothing else – he seems to have enshrined the idea of a “zero percent rise” in political discourse. Here’s a passage from the Times article today on how the Tories plan to freeze the pay of local government
The FT report on how Labour MPs aren’t putting themselves forward to be parliamentary private secretaries – or “ministerial bag-carriers”, as they’re known around Westminster – says a lot about the party’s confidence in Gordon Brown. After all, as one source tells the newspaper: “Why would you bother if you know that there is no
…Richard Nixon announced his resignation as President of the United States. Here’s complete footage of his televised address, one of the most indelible moments in 20th Century politics:
So what do we learn from the Times’s interview with David Richards, the man who is set to replace Richard Dannatt as the head of the British Army? Both a little and a lot. Most of the piece is made up of nice anecdotes and flatering quotes about the general, and he deflects a lot