Peter Hoskin

Woah.  The anti-Harman brigade have come out in force today, supplying quotes to the Sun which draw comparisons between her and the Taleban.  Here's the key passage: "Many Labour figures agree she would be a disaster for the party's fortunes. One senior figure told The Sun: 'If Harriet becomes leader it would be the end of the Labour Party. A number of us believe we have to take steps to stop it happening. Harriet is only concerned with number one. She is a fundamentalist, she's like the Taliban when it comes to driving through her own agenda.'" Now, we're no great fans of Harman here at Coffee House.  But it's still pretty surprising to see a Taleban comparison made by people who are nominally on the same side as her.

Matthew Norman's article in today's Independent is representative of the growing "PM for PM" movement - "Peter Mandelson for Prime Minister," that is.  And, as such, it sets out one of the more probable routes by which Mandy could ascend to the throne this side of the election:    "He could ... remove Gordon Brown by deploying a nuclear resignation. Not his own, of course, because the Heseltinian doctrine about crowns and assassins holds good. But he has all the codes, and having persuaded David Miliband not to quit in May, he could easily unpersuade him in October. Assuming the polls remain hideous, and that a wretched party conference provokes a fresh eruption of despair, the hapless Foreign Secretary might leave the Cabinet 'in the interests of the party'.

Hazel Blears' former SpAd, Paul Richards – who wrote that perceptive, Monty Python-referencing analysis of Labour's defeat in Norwich North a couple of weeks ago – has an article in today's Times on the "Sisyphean task" that the Tories may face in reforming the civil service.  It's well worth reading the whole thing, but its central point is enshrined in this passage: "...the culture of the Civil Service is so risk-averse that it is hard to see it embracing its own transformation.

The headline figure coming out of Northern Rock's half-year results report is eye-grabbing enough: a loss of £724 million in past six months. But just as noteworthy are the comments made by the bank's chief exec, Gary Hoffman, about the timeframe for a return to the private sector: "The Newcastle-based bank, which is to be split into so-called good and bad banks, insisted that there was no timetable to find a buyer for the business before the upcoming general election despite repeated speculation that this is the government's intention. Gary Hoffman, chief executive, said: 'The current environment continues to be challenging. However, against this backdrop Northern Rock is making progress against its revised plan and has delivered results in line with expectations.

One of the more under-the-radar, but most significant, news stories of the day is Theresa May's suggestion that the Tories may change the terms of contracts currently being hammered out between the government and welfare-to-work providers: "'If contracts have not been signed one of the things I’m looking at is making the changes we want to those contracts quickly, so that we would be operating on our welfare reform proposals rather than the government’s,' she said." The FT adds that one of the changes might be "smaller upfront payments" for the welfare providers. Why so significant?  Well, because it highlights perhaps the main dilemma that the Tories face on welfare reform.  On the one hand, it's perfectly understandable why they want to cut costs.

Curiouser and curiouser.  Today's Sunday Telegraph reports that there's a "secret plan" afoot to have Peter Mandelson reinstalled in the Commons: "The plan, which is said to 'intrigue' the Business Secretary, could see him become a potential candidate to replace Gordon Brown as Labour leader. It has been hatched by Labour MPs who are all former supporters of Tony Blair, and who now see Lord Mandelson of the best hope of keeping the party New Labour in the event of an election defeat and the likely stepping down of Mr Brown... ...The plan depends on a change in the law to allow peers to resign from the House of Lords, which has already been announced by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, to be speeded up.

It's the complaint that won't go away for the Cameroons.  We've had an article by Andrew Rawnsley; a letter allegedly written by Tory backbenchers; and, now, a column by Rachel Sylvester in today' Times: all making the point that David Cameron relies, perhaps too much, on a "clique" of close advisers, strategists and friends.  The Sylvester article contains some hard-hitting observations from Tory figures, who are disgruntled at being left on the sidelines: "One senior Tory claims that Mr Cameron has never had a group meeting with any of the frontbench departmental teams... ...Tory backbenchers are remarkably grumpy given the state of the polls and last week’s by-election win.

Today's FT cover-story probably wins the prize for Most Worrying News Item of the Day: "Lenders in Europe are bracing themselves for a rising wave of consumer debt defaults as the credit card crisis that has caused billions of dollars in losses among US banks spreads across the Atlantic. The International Monetary Fund estimates that of US consumer debt totalling $1,914bn, about 14 per cent will turn sour. It expects that 7 per cent of the $2,467bn of consumer debt in Europe will be lost, with much of that falling in the UK, the continents biggest nation of credit card borrowers.