There is to be a new department dealing with energy and climate change which will be headed by Ed Miliband. This reshaping of the government will force Cameron into at least a mini-shuffle to create a shadow for this new department.
The BBC is reporting that he turned down another job in government.
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Ben Brogan is reporting that Damian McBride, blamed by many for the briefings against various cabinet ministers, is standing down. Nick Brown, an ardent Brown loyalist, is moving to Chief Whip.
More soon.
Politically the place a lot of members of the House of Representatives probably wanted to be yesterday was voting against the Paulson plan but it passing anyway. There is little public enthusiasm for bailing out Wall Street, both Obama and McCain are now making a concerted effort to call it a rescue plan not a bailout. Oddly enough if the plan passes and works it will become more unpopular as people will say that the crisis really wasn’t bad enough to justify this kind of measure. But House Republicans, two thirds of whom voted against the bill, now have a different problem: if everything does collapse, they’ll be the ones to cop the blame. So, it is in their interests now to pass a slightly better bill.
Here are some of the posts made over the weekend on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson reports from the Conservative Party Conference in Birmingham. He gives his first impressions of the conference; applauds Boris Johnson's speech; and analyses George Osborne's plans for an Office for Budget Responsibility. James Forsyth claims that indiscipline should worry the Tories as much as complacency, and outlines the Tory task in Birmingham. Clive Davis commemorates Paul Newman. And Americano argues that a Presidential Debate draw was a good result for Barack Obama.
From our US edition
Storing up more trouble Sir: Your leading article (20 September) calls for a ‘kick up the backside’ to the banking industry. That kick should be aimed elsewhere. The British and American governments have not merely permitted this crisis to happen, but positively created it by a deliberate relaxation of monetary controls. Worse still, they have now decided that instead of destroying excess credit by asset deflation, bankruptcies and share collapses, the monetary inflation is to be consolidated by absorption of bad debt into the public finances. I don’t see how this can end well.
For all its stunts, vacuities and plain deceptions, there was something undeniably compelling about Gordon Brown’s conference speech in Manchester. Here was an old stager, battered and bruised, giving his all to what may be his last such performance as Labour leader and Prime Minister. Even as he claimed to deplore the cult of political celebrity, he chose this moment to deploy, for the first time, all its most cunning tricks and sleights of hand. Leave aside the nasty jibes at David Cameron’s family photo-ops and class background. There were two particular attacks to which the Tory leader must respond in his own conference address on Wednesday. The first came early in Brown’s speech.
Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: The Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, writes that Marx was partly right about capitalism. Jon Cruddas continues his Labour conference diary. You can read parts 5 and 6 here and here, respectively. Theo Hobson outlines the Creationism debate. Matthew d'Ancona gives his take on Gordon Brown's conference speech, and argues that voters won't pay attention to Muddled Labour. Fraser Nelson reveals why Nigel Lawson was the most redistributive Chancellor, and says that Brown isn't paid to lie to us. James Forsyth describes the aftermath to Brown's speech, and reviews David Miliband's conference speech.
We've just uploaded Michael Henderson's culture picks. You can read them by clicking here.
COFFEE HOUSE CHALLENGE WINNER: A few weeks ago, we asked CoffeeHousers to “sell” a Cabinet. The winning entry is the post by ‘Ian’. Congratulations to Ian – to claim the prize of a bottle of champagne please send an email to phoskin @ spectator.co.uk. And here are some of the posts made over the weekend at spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson tallies up the latest Brownies, and reports on his run-in with John Prescott. James Forsyth describes how Alan Johnson is ruling himself out of a leadership bid, but reminds us that Miliband and Purnell are both very much in the running. Jon Cruddas treats us to the first two instalments of his conference diary here, and here. Matthew Sinclair writes the latest Sunday Essay.
From our US edition
Reports of my death Sir: I was astonished to read in John Michell’s review of Michael X: A Life in Black and White (13 September) that I died 35 years ago. Michell states that I went to Trinidad to investigate the murder, by henchmen of Michael X, of my sister Gale Benson, and that later I had died in an accident in California. In fact it was my younger brother Greville, Gale’s twin brother, who went to Trinidad at that time, and a year later died in a motor accident. Greville’s accident took place in Morocco, where he is buried. I can hardly blame The Spectator for Williams’s slovenly research.
Detached amusement might describe the reaction of many people to the sight of well-paid Lehman Brothers employees being escorted off the bank’s premises, carrying their personal possessions in champagne boxes tucked beneath their arms. Displaying either greed or financial acumen to the last, one newly unemployed banker managed to buy himself 30 bananas to use up the credit on his girovend card while he still had the chance. But amusement is far from the most appropriate response; we have the right to feel anger at the way bankers have collectively managed to trash their industry. For those who, like this magazine, have been staunch defenders of free markets and light regulation, this has been a challenging week.
Here are some of the posts made over the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson thinks that Brown’s rollercoaster fall may be stabilising for now, and shows how Nick Clegg’s tax cuts are a con. James Forsyth explains why the Tories need to face up to some tough tax decisions, and advises the Labour rebels not to make it personal. Peter Hoskin reviews Nick Clegg's conference speech, and asks whether Stuart Wheeler will force the Tories to talk about Europe. Daniel Korski explores the tensions in Ukraine. Brian Cullen questions how far the Cabinet is really backing Brown Mark Daniell introduces us to this year’s Ryder Cup. Stephen Pollard highlights the elephant in the room in the US election.
Quotes have been released from the Sky News interview with the Prime Minister tonight, and one catches my eye. He talks about City firms misbehaving. Kay Burley asks him how. He answers: "What we are discovering is that there were large off balance sheet activities that were being run by some of the major companies in the world, I’m not naming any individual companies, because many companies were involved in this. They were not fully disclosed, they were therefore the problem that had to be dealt with when the markets started to fall." Hmm - large off-balance sheet activities? This from the man who has so far kept at least £50 billion of capital spending off the UK balance sheet in PFI deals, as our cover story spells out.
For more, see Trading Floor.
...here are some of the posts made over the weekend at spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson ponders whether the McDonagh insurgency is doomed to failure, and thinks that Zac Goldsmith’s role as a “green-witness” could have hurt the Tories. James Forsyth looks at who could take on Brown in a leadership contest, and shows that David Miliband has lost confidence and fallen in line. Peter Hoskin thinks the Labour rebel mess allows the Tories time to fine-tune, and tells us Gordon Brown has lost his chance for a relaunch. Theo Hobson explores the legacy of Cardinal Newman in his new weekly column on religion. Clive Davis points us in the direction of a blog from the front-lines of inner-city education.
My husband’s club was closed in August, which meant, paradoxically, that I saw less of him, because he enjoyed the chance to exercise reciprocal rights at other clubs, which I suspect might not have welcomed him as a member in the first place. Sitting in some smokeless smoking-room he took to reading the Financial Times, and there he saw an article by Michael Skapinker on the uses of simplified English. Apparently, Voice of America broadcasts some programmes in something called Special English, which has about 1,500 words, in comparison with an educated Englishman’s vocabulary of 30,000.
Taking care of Toby Sir: Kirsten Dunst never insisted that I ban Toby Young (Status anxiety, 6 September) from the set of How To Lose Friends & Alienate People. Toby’s piece stemmed from a recent article of mine in Empire magazine. In his opening paragraph, he says he learned from it that ‘the reason I was banned from the set of the film is because Kirsten Dunst insisted on it’. But Toby didn’t read my article before he wrote his. For the record, Kirsten told me on set that Toby had given her a performance note. (Toby says she overheard him give a note about her performance to a third party. The difference is negligible and entirely unacceptable behaviour either way.