Susie Squire to take over as Tory press chief

Senior Conservative sources are confirming that, as Guido Fawkes reported this morning, Susie Squire will take over from Henry Macrory as the party’s head of press. Squire, who is currently Iain Duncan Smith’s media special adviser, is highly-thought of in Number 10 where she is credited with ramming home the party’s advantage over Labour on welfare.

The decision to move someone from such an important department to CCHQ shows that Number 10 has recognised that coalition requires the party to have a more distinctive presence. What also makes the appointment noteworthy is that in her current...

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ASBOs weren’t much cop, but what about their replacement?

Brace yourselves for a new crime wave sweeping across the country — the government is doing away with ASBOs. Or, rather, don't. The truth about ASBOs is that they were rather less significant than Labour would have you believe. As reports such as this one from Policy Exchange suggest, they've probably cropped up more frequently in newspaper articles than they have in real life. Only 20,335 ASBOs have been issued to date, covering less than one per cent of all incidences of anti-social behaviour.

What’s more, there’s little evidence...

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Clegg rallies behind Cable

It’s no surprise that the Lib Dems aren’t keen on Adrian Beecroft’s proposals for hiring and firing. This intra-coalition disagreement has been rumbling on for months now, after all. But when Vince Cable spoke out against them yesterday, it wasn’t entirely clear whether this was his party’s line or just Vince being Vince. Other Lib Dems might have taken a more conciliatory approach.

Today, however, it’s clear that they’re not going to. Nick Clegg himself has charged in behind Cable, saying that ‘I don't support [Beecroft’s plan for “no-fault...

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The IMF says it's the Bank's economy now

When the IMF published a report into the UK economy last year, I wrote a blog post detailing how it managed to please everyone: George Osborne, Vince Cable, Mervyn King, Ed Balls, everyone. This morning, I’ve been tempted to just publish that post again — because the IMF’s latest report is basically the same. Osborne will be pleased with its emphasis on deficit reduction, including the line that ‘Strong fiscal consolidation is underway and reducing the high structural deficit over the medium term remains essential.’ And he’ll also want to...

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Making the loan companies pay

Will Parliament soon decide to clamp down on payday loans? The controversial firms, offering ultra-high interest short-term loans, have proliferated on high streets and across the Web, utilising crafty advertising to make them appear far less dangerous than the 4,000 per cent APR would imply. Our Campaigner of the Year, Stella Creasy MP, has been fighting for legislation to regulate the firms, after witnessing the consequences of the 17 payday loan businesses in her consistency. Ahead of a crucial Commons vote on her proposals to regulate the firms, polling...

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Bondholders are sheep — and they’re flocking out of the euro pen

Sweden’s Anders Borg (Fraser’s favourite finance minister) is wrong, says Citigroup. Bondholders and deposit holders are not like wolves, as Borg has made them out to be. They’re more like sheep — and currently they’re baa-a-a-cking out of the eurozone pretty quickly.

We all know that money's leaving the Continent — but how much and how rapidly? Citi’s credit strategist Matt King, basing his analysis on imbalances in TARGET2 (the euro area’s main payment settlement system) relative to eurozone countries’ current accounts, has come up with a few...

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Bust-up postponed

A coalition bust-up was avoided today by Vince Cable’s absence from the Commons for the urgent question on the Beecroft Report. Tory MP after Tory MP got up to make warm noises about a report which Vince Cable has been gleefully trashing, describing one of its proposals as ‘bonkers.’

That Cable couldn’t make it back in time from the north of England to appear at the dispatch box will have been a relief to the Tory whips; one of them was distinctly concerned about how the Tory benches would treat the...

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Iran and oil are still on the agenda

For all the talk about Greece and France and the Eurozone, it’s telling just how much our politicians are focusing on Iran. Indeed, some of the most concrete political settlements of the past few days have concerned that turbulent state. On Friday, the US Congress approved a Bill which included the blunt reminder that, ‘It shall be the policy of the United States to take all necessary measures, including military action if required, to prevent Iran from threatening the United States, its allies or Iran's neighbours with a nuclear weapon.’ And the...

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Will Nick ignore Vince and go for growth?

Vince Cable’s reaction to the coming publication of the Beecroft report — which Pete blogged earlier — suggests that the memo on a more cooperative, coalition attitude to growth hasn’t reached the Business Department. The full-on hostility from Cable’s crew to the proposals shows that he remains set against any further deregulation of the labour market.

The question now is whether Nick Clegg overrules the Business Secretary. Relations between Clegg and Cameron are warmer at the moment than they have been for a while, the pair dined together with...

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