The Conservative Home team are currently touring the Anglosphere and reporting back on the state of conservatism in these countries. This week’s report is on Canada under Stephen Harper (pictured) and makes for interesting reading considering the Tories current predicament. After all the Canadian Conservatives came back from a defeat far more crushing than 1997. To
Matt notes in his report on Brown’s US trip this that Gordon Brown has, thankfully, abandoned the intellectual lazy assumption that poverty causes terrorism. But Brown should still get hold of a copy of What Makes a Terrorist: Economics and the Roots of Terrorism by the Princeton professor Alan B. Krueger before he heads off to Dorset
Some strikingly martial language from Cameron who is now promising to “give the government a bare knuckle fight over the NHS”. What a shame that his strategy is to do this on behalf of the unions, rather than the patients. There is still time to rewrite his dismal NHS policy. Brown is dumping the
Iain Dale has his monthly table of shadow cabinet media mentions up and as always it makes for interesting reading. Amazingly, Peter Ainsworth, the Tory environment spokesman, got a mere 57 mentions in July despite the 24/7 media coverage of the floods. Indeed, his Liberal Democrat opposite number Chris Huhne got more attention than Ainsworth
The Guardian has a story in today’s edition suggesting that Gordon Brown has pencilled in spring 2008 as the time for an election. Apparently, campaign professionals are being sounded out about working for the campaign with polling day planned for sometime before May 1st. This date would have the advantage of short-circuiting the Cameron project without Brown
Some dumb things are said during every presidential campaign but few statements in campaign history can be as reckless, irresponsible and downright idiotic as Republican Presidential contender Tom Tancredo’s proposal that the United States announce that in response to a nuclear terrorist attack it would nuke Mecca and Medina. Tancredo thinks that this would
There is both a must-read and a must-hear on the Boris for London front this morning. First the must-read, Matthew Parris‘s column in this week’s magazine on what Boris needs to do to win. His thoughts on how Boris could prove that he’ll put city above party are particularly smart. While the must-hear is Ken talking
Philip Gould’s memo laying out what Gordon Brown needs to do to win an early election makes for fascinating reading. Especially notable is Gould’s belief that elections can’t be won on ‘schools n’ hospitals’ or ‘investment versus Tory cuts’ any more. He writes that: “There is no doubt that the political landscape is changing: Crime,
Barak Obama just delivered the most important speech of the 2008 campaign so far. Having stepped to Hillary’s left on the issue of meeting with Castro, Ahamdinejad, Chavez et al, he is now going to her right by pledging himself to military strikes on al Qaeda safe havens in Pakistan if Musharraf won’t deal with
If you have read all seven of the JK Rowling books and still haven’t sated your appetite for knowledge of Potter and friends, then read this QandA between the author and some of her most dedicated readers. (Don’t click on the link if you haven’t yet finished Harry Potter and The Deathly Hallows and want
The BBC are reporting that Ed Davey, Ming’s chief of staff, is floating the idea of his officemate Lembit Opik running for mayor of London. This strikes me as a rather desperate attempt by the Lib Dems to get someone with Boris or Ken level name recognition on the ballot. But there’s no denying that
Over at Comment Central, Daniel Finkelstein is asking folks what impolite behaviour really gets under their skin in an attempt to draw up a definitive list. He starts us off with David Aaronvitch’s ten suggestions in The Times this morning and adds in a few of his own: people who bellow on their mobiles, make
The Spice Girls have set up a website allowing fans to vote for one more city to be included on their world tour. But I fear they might be in for a surprise. You can enter any city you want and, oh so predictably, the internet campaign to send them to Baghdad is already under
One of the fascinating things about Brown’s trip to the United States is how while he has kept his relationship with President Bush workmanlike he has been effusive about America in general. Last night on NBC news he told the anchor Brian Williams: I love your country. I mean I’m, I’m a great supporter of everything
Christopher Martin -Jenkins, The Times’s cricket correspondent and Test Match Special commentator, has an op-ed that is well worth reading on the excessively heated atmosphere during the Trent Bridge Test in this morning’s paper. The game was definitely not played within the spirit of the game. England’s scattering of jelly beans at the crease, apparently
A new swathe of Russians has hit town – dancing ones this time. The Bolshoi Ballet opened in swaggering style last night at the Coliseum with the full three-act version of Le Corsaire. Even paid-up balletomanes have often only seen the bravura duet from Act One. The whole thing was gloriously, unabashedly old-fashioned. The plot
Tony Blair will not take a bow for this one, and you can bet Gordon Brown won’t give him credit. But it looks like his plan for a peacekeeping operation in Darfur is finally going ahead – pretty much as the draft whose details were released on the day he stood down envisaged. It was
I simply disagree with those who criticised Gordon Brown’s Camp David performance in this morning’s press. He struck me as assured, and eloquent. But he has just let himself down in New York, banging on about his last-century approach to poverty reduction. He wants to give Africa the remedy he prescribes for Britain – borrowing
“We’ll have as much spine as we possibly can, under the circumstances.” This response by Hillary Clinton to an activist calling on her to show some spine by endorsing federal funding for a needle exchange programmes is incredibly revealing of the Clinton campaign mindset. The Clintons’s electoral success has been based on this approach of
Rachel Sylvester has a typically astute piece in today’s Telegraph on how Brown differs from both Blair and Bush. Here’s the key section: “Mr Brown is different – not just from Mr Bush but also from Mr Blair. While Mr Bush and Mr Blair see the world in black and white, Mr Brown observes more