From our UK edition
Spectator.co.uk has full coverage of the Tory Conference. Matthew d’Ancona and Fraser Nelson are reporting the latest development from Blackpool here. George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor and Tory election coordinator, is blogging for Coffee House, to read his thoughts click here. Up and coming Tory MP Nadine Dorries is also lending her unique perspective to
From our UK edition
Ostensibly, Gordon Brown’s first Labour conference speech as Prime Minister on Monday was grandly non-partisan: there was not a single mention of the Tories or of David Cameron. In practice, the Conservative party generally, and Mr Cameron specifically, were present in every line. Though presented as a lofty civic oratory by the father of the
From our UK edition
There is a consensus in the papers this morning that for all the politiical skill of Gordon Brown’s speech, it puts us no closer to knowing how Brown plans to achieve his ambitious aims. As Peter Riddell says in The Times, “we are no nearer to understanding how a Brown Britain would work in five or
From our UK edition
We’ve just posted the latest instalment of Jon Cruddas’s conference diary which includes details of a classic encounter with Peter Mandelson and an explanation of what Gordon Brown is trying to appeal to. We also have a sketch from Lloyd Evans on Gordon Brown’s performance which absolutely skewers the Labour leader.
From our UK edition
Talk here is turning to Brown’s decision not to blast the Tories in his speech. This fits with the idea of him transcending party division, and of course wooing Tory voters. The new business cards they’re handing out here say “New Labour for Britain” the last two words in far larger type. And this is
From our UK edition
For me, the most striking feature of Brown’s speech was what was missing from it: not the election date but the Conservative Party. You would not think that less than a year ago most senior Labour figures feared that David Cameron’s appeal to switchers in marginal seats was so strong that a hung Parliament was
From our UK edition
2:40pm: So far, Brown is trying to lay out a third way between equality of outcome and opportunity pitching New Labour as the party of aspiration and community. Brown’s delivery is relaxed and confident and he is managing, just, not to talk in his trademark machine gun blasts. 2:45pm Brown talks about a 10 year
From our UK edition
The word is that Gordon Brown’s speech will not mention when he might go to the country. Indeed, judging by his rather tetchy performance on the Today Programme this morning he appears to regretting letting the speculation reach such a fever pitch. But his address will still give us plenty of clues to his thinking.
From our UK edition
The one cloud on the Bournemouth horizon for Gordon Brown this morning is the vigorous campaign that the Sun has launched today for a referendum on the EU treaty formerly known as the constitution. The front page of the paper declares, “Never have so few decided so much for so many.” Inside, the first seven
From our UK edition
Today is G-Day, and Gordon is doing the rounds of the broadcasters before his big speech this afternoon. Up against Sky’s Adam Boulton, Brown led off, as he did on Marr yesterday, on the “personalised” NHS – although when Adam mentioned that this very New Labour approach to health reform had been welcomed by Peter
From our UK edition
We’ve just posted the second instalment of Jon Cruddas’s conference diary in which he reports that a deal agreed by the Labour National to Executive avoid any votes on contentious policies that could embarrass the leadership at conference might be unravelling.
From our UK edition
The case for Gordon Brown going to the country in October just keeps getting stronger. A poll in tomorrow’s Sun puts Labour on 42%–8 points ahead of the Tories, an increase in the lead of 3 points since the start of the month. (The indispensable Conservative Home has details). While the Sunday Times reports that
From our UK edition
In the conference hotel bar, there is but one subject under heated discussion, and it is, like treason, a matter of dates. The old Blair-Brown conference clash (RIP) has been replaced this year by a rather different sort of division: the Octobrists versus the Mayites, the ‘go now, Gordon’ camp versus the ‘wait and see’
From our UK edition
All week, Jon Cruddas will be writing a conference diary for us from Bournemouth. We’ve just posted his first entry in which Jon explains why the Labour party is parting like it is 1996 all over again and why he suspects that his wife might not have voted for him for deputy leader.
From our UK edition
The Labour Party conference is already turning out to be a stage where a fictional narrative of events is being established and Alistair Darling’s speech was no exception. Here is a small list of correctives. 1) “Record of economic growth not achieved by any other economy” Um, the UK has had the worst growth
From our UK edition
Two moments stood out for me in Gordon’s Andrew Marr interview: when the PM discussed the health service, not only personalised but capable of delivering to patients the “doctor that they want, the GP at the time they want” he was echoing his recent tea-guest, Margaret Thatcher (I want to go to the hospital of
From our UK edition
Gordon’s first Labour conference as Prime Minister begins today: it could conceivably be his last. Just as last year’s gathering of the party in Manchester was dominated by Tony Blair’s farewell and the prospects for smooth transition to the Brown regime, the proceedings in Bournemouth will be consumed by a single question and one that
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After the censored purity of the Campbell diaries, the Blair era memoirs competition finally looks like becoming a race to the bitchy bottom. Jonathan Powell’s autobiography is to have the splendid title “Great Hatred, Little Room”. I’m told it will focus on Northern Ireland rather than No. 11. But from the second greatest Brown hater
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No call for a referendum Sir: Your leading article overstates the case for a referendum in the UK (15 September). It would be interesting to know how many newspapers thought there should be a referendum on the decision to go to war with Iraq, or other far-reaching decisions that Parliament takes, such as on counter-terrorism
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Number Ten has been sending a steady stream of visitors to the British Museum to see its exhibition of the First Emperor of China and his terracotta army. Quite right, too: the show is simply stunning, one of the wonders of our time, and an experience you dare not miss (see Andrew Lambirth’s review here