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Why do we have to pay between £3.50 and £5.40 to book tickets for the theatre on the internet? Most people are unable to turn up in person to book seats — the only way to avoid the extra cost. If a theatre has, say, 600 seats, and over half are filled by people booking over the internet, then more than £1,000 per show is generated. Where and to whom does this money go?
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Our new Prime Minister does like a bit of history so, in the course of unveiling his new administration today, he may wish to reconsider his soundbite "government of all the talents". This refers to the "ministry of all the talents" appointed by Lord Grenville (1759-1834) after the death of Pitt the Younger. George III instructed Grenville in January 1806 to form a Government "without exclusion" - a Hanoverian version of "inclusiveness" and "listening and learning" - and the new PM obliged, appointing Charles James Fox (hitherto hated by the King) as Foreign Minister and Lord Sidmouth as Lord Privy Seal. Grenville set about Treasury reform, an overhaul of Scottish civil justice and pulled off the abolition of the slave trade in Britain.
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Douglas Davis has done a fantastic piece for us looking at the likelihood of Blair bringing peace to the Middle East in his retirement. In short, don’t hold your breath.
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Scroll down for our analysis of events on the blog. But we’ve also got some great articles on what happened today including a review of Blair’s last act and Brown’s matinee by the Spectator's theatre critic Llloyd Evans, an essay on what it was like growing up under Tony Blair by Clemency Burton-Hill, a look at whether business will prefer Cameron or Brown by Martin Vander Weyer and James O'Shaughnessy explains why Brown is putting housing at the top of the political agenda. Check back tomorrow for more on the Brown reshuffle and Blair’s new international role.
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So the Prime Minister of 10 years standing is answering his final question at PMQs and what does the BBC do? Cut away to a trailer and then the tennis. This is a complete abdication of its public service responsibilities. It has denied viewers the chance to witness a historic moment. Indeed, it is hard to see what event could have justified cutting away in these circumstances. What is certain is that a second round tennis match doesn’t come anywhere close. There is, rightly, collective outrage about this. The BBC needs to admit that its judgement was completely off on this one. Update: The BBC has apologised.
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Iain Dale reports that William Hill have stopped taking bets on a Tory defection.
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Just back from the first lobby briefing with Michael Ellam, the new Prime Minister’s Official Spokesman (except he’s dropped ‘official’ so he’s just PMS). His hands were slightly shaking, the poor thing, and I can't really blame him. The room was packed, and a few of us are proudly sporting little red badges saying ‘Feral Beast’. The upshot: no reshuffle news till tomorrow lunchtime. No outsiders in the Cabinet, it seems: Mr Ellam says we will only see what Mr Brown means by “a government of all the talents” when the ministers of state are named on Friday. Mr Brown expects to use Chequers “occasionally” for family use.
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No, this has nothing to do with the Tory response to Gordon Brown -- or to Quentin Davies. This is about what, in another context, Richard Hofstadter called 'the paranoid style in American politics'. In the latest issue of the liberal New Republic Johann Hari has an immensely funny piece about his adventures on a cruise organised by the right-wing National Review. Go here. But it is not all jokes. Hari's amused hostility to his fellow-travellers is tempered by his sympathy for William F. Buckley Jr, founder of National Review, and Rich Lowry, the present editor. Both men are sceptics, both talk like conservatives. Most of the others on the cruise, however, are swivel-eyed fantasists, pathologically anti-European -- what are they scared of?
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All this “talent” business is getting out of hand. In some of Gordon’s speeches, it sounds like a reference to the parable of the Talents (Matthew 25: 14-30). And, for the record, this is how that particular Gospel story ends for the unfortunate soul who squanders his asset: "Cast ye the unprofitable servant into outer darkness: there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." On the other hand, when Prime Minister Brown says with a twinkle for the hundredth time that this will be a “government of all the talents” I am reminded rather of Britain’s Got Talent, and Piers Morgan, Amanda Holden and Simon Cowell judging the auditioning acts. Rumours are flying around Westminster which was obviously all part of the plan – Chris Patten for the Cabinet?
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Fraser is tipping David Miliband. Apparently, she didn't want to go.
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Patricia Hewitt to stand down as Health Secretary. No surprises there. Gordon has been saying throughout his grand tour that, while education is his “passion”, health is his “priority”. And no wonder: the Tories have stolen Labour’s lead on health policy, perhaps Cameron’s most remarkable and certainly his cheekiest achievement. Brown is an implacable believer in the NHS and its funding system and, in private, becomes positively irate when the virtues of continental financing structures are mentioned. For the Tories to have stormed on to this terrain is sacrilege for Brown – almost literally. So who will be the new Health Secretary? Ed Balls? I’d give it to John Hutton.
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When the Prime Minister (its so weird writing that) told us on the steps of No10 that he “went to the local school” in Kirkcaldy and chose its motto as his personal leitmotif, it is worth recalling the type of education he actually had. He enjoyed the ultimate academic selection, being chosen from primary with other boys with IQs over 130 who joined an “E Stream” and were sent a year early to Kirkcaldy High. It worked so well he was at university aged 16. But as he just said, “I would not be standing here without that opportunity.” Any chance of him extending that opportunity of academic selection to the millions stuck in dead-end comprehensives, then?
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The school motto of Kirkcaldy High School: “I will try my utmost”. That was the principle which Gordon Brown promised to make the foundation of his work as Prime Minister. It is up there with Boxer’s “I will work harder” in Animal Farm. But this was the son of the Manse speaking from the heart. The days of Cool Britannia are a distant memory. Only Stakhanovites need apply. There were five main themes in the new PM’s brief address, all of which have been roadtested during his tour of the country: 1). Strength: “steady in purpose”, “steadfast”, “resolute in purpose” – that is, in contrast to the limp, purposeless Tories. 2).
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That line makes me suspect that Brown really does have something up his sleeve even post-Ashdown.
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We’ve just posted The Spectator leader that will be in this week’s print magazine; it looks at the challenges facing Gordon Brown. We’ve also put up a fantastic essay by Clemency Burton-Hill on what it was like growing up with Tony Blair. Do give them a read and keep on coming back for more.
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I don't know where John Bercow is having lunch right now, but a lot of people wish he'd switch his phone on. Perhaps thanks to Guido, there's a rumour flying around Westminster that he's the next to cross the floor and join Labour. Well, didn't Ed Balls omninously suggest there are more Tory MPs out there, wavering to join Labour like Quentin Davies? I've had a Shadow Cabinet member phone me and ask if it's true about Mr Bercow - Mr Bercow has a pro-Labour wife, apparently, and is known to wish Mr Cameron would go further in his modernising mission. I strongly suspect it's nonsense - "an inverted pyramid of piffle," as Boris would say. Mr Bercow has not been allowed to drift into the wilderness that Davies inhabited for so long.
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Back in May 1997 what odds would you have got on the most generous tribute at Blair’s last PMQs coming from Ian Paisley?
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For the first time in my time in the Commons, the press gallery was full. “A lot of so-called journalists I’ve never seen before” grumbled the doorman. And no wonder. This was box office – or was supposed to be. It turned into a rather tame love-in. David Cameron had technocratic, statesman-like questions – getting prepared for Gordon Brown already. Tony Blair tried his line about NHS waiting times (which I fisked last week) and even Jeremy Corbyn’s “lets pull out of Iraq” line was an easy bowl for Blair. He made soft jokes about a P45. A LibDem asked him about his thoughts on disestablishment of the Church of England.
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We’ve got two great pieces up today on the new political landscape. James O'Shaughnessy explains why the master tactician Gordon Brown is putting housing at the top of his agenda. While Martin Vander Weyer looks at whether business will prefer David Cameron or the devil it knows, Gordon Brown. Check back for more later in the day.
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Iain Dale reports that Ed Balls was understandably gloating about the defection of Quentin Davies last night at a Fabian Society reception last night and promised his audience that, “There's more to come - as I know.