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Saturday 20 March 2010

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‘I’ve done them all — mobiles, blogs, Twitter — but I find you can’t beat good old talking about yourself in a really loud voice.’

Saturday, 20th March 2010

Pot, kettle, black

David Blackburn 5:36pm

George Boateng, Alan Milburn and Andrew Smith have written a letter to George Osborne, calling him to task over the contradictions in his policy.

'It is not clear to us whether these mixed messages are a deliberate attempt to obscure your plans or a symptom of a confused approach to policy but either way the public deserves better.'

Fair enough. Osborne's policy has become more concrete in recent weeks, but much remains still to do. Peversely, I think they've given too much detail, and have been found out because they...

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Cameron's theory of change

James Forsyth 5:10pm

At Tory conference last year, I asked a senior Tory adviser where the party would deliver substantive change and he replied 'where we take on the vested interests.' This analysis is correct. You can't change things if you aren't prepared to take on the status quo. So, it is encouraging to hear David Cameron defining himself today as a man who will take on the vested interests wherever they may be.

Part of the reason for the Tory wobble at the start of the year was, to my mind, their desire to be seen as the government in...

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No place for porkies in digital politics

Fraser Nelson 3:23pm

We have just witnessed a fascinating glimpse of the use of the internet in elections. This morning, Cameron proposed a unilateral bank tax - moving, I suspect, ahead of what he believes Darling will announce in next week's budget. Next, at 1.19pm, Will Straw digs up a selectively-edited version of Chris Grayling speaking in his local constituency (put online by the Labour candidate, Craig Montgomery). Straw's headline: "Calamity Grayling opposes Cameron’s unilateral bank tax."

Now, this headline - a lie - might have worked on a Labour Party press release. But it's far harder to lie on...

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Clegg’s consigliere: Lib Dems would "sustain the Tories in power"

Daniel Korski 1:02pm

Everyone has been guessing at what Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats would do if the voters return a hung parliament after the next election. The Lib Dem leader has sent all kinds of mixed signals. But if there is one person worth listening on the party’s intentions it is Julian Astle, the head of CentreForum, Britain’s leading Liberal think-tank, and a former political advisor to Paddy Ashdown. Astle has, in recent years, acted as one of the Lib Dem’s unofficial consiglieri – but one that has never shied away from challenging party...

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Ed Miliband's new investment vs cuts battleground

Peter Hoskin 10:45am

Ed Miliband certainly isn't one for holding back, is he? In an interview with today's Guardian he discusses what we might expect from the Labour manifesto, and there's some pretty noteworthy stuff in there: a People's Bank based around the network of Post Offices; an increase in the minimum wage; a reduction in the voting age to 16; things like that.

But, as Sunder Katwala suggests over at Next Left, the most eye-catching passage is when Miliband discusses Free School Meals for all:

"The manifesto could well include a pledge to provide

...

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Friday, 19th March 2010

Why Cameron must never say "deficit".

Fraser Nelson 6:26pm

Listening to BBC news, it's striking how they are still using Labour's politically-charged vocabulary. When the universities are kicking off about their budgets being cut, the BBC newsreaders are told to talk about "investment" in higher education, rather than spending. Why, though? An "investment" would be to put £1 billion of taxpayers’ money into an Emerging Markets fund, and hope it grows. Giving it to universities - many of which serve neither students nor society - is not an investment. But using the word "investment" is Labour code for "good spending".

There is...

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These strikes are a gift to the Tories

James Forsyth 5:43pm

It is rare that a political party is handed an issue that enables it to rally its base, appeal to swing voters and put the other side on the back foot. But that is how much of a gift to the Tories these strikes are.

There has been a bit of an enthusiasm deficit amongst Tory activists and traditional Tories more generally ever since David Cameron recalibrated the party's European policy following the ratification of the Lisbon Treaty. But the strikes issue, and Cameron's strong position on it, is, I'm told by those out...

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The week that was

5:39pm

Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week.

Fraser Nelson says that age is no impediment to wit and intelligence, and argues that Cameron has to win outright.

James Forsyth watches Cameron kick-off his campaign, and says there is growing confidence among Tory ranks.

Peter Hoskin asks if the Tories have been fools or knaves over Ashcroft, and welcomes the start of mature economic debate.

David Blackburn believes that the Tories’ Unite strategy is paying unimagined dividends, and watches Brown dither over BA.

Daniel...

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Mr Blond goes to Washington

David Blackburn 3:51pm

The Red Tory, Phillip Blond, is spreading the faith in the States. The New York Times’s David Brooks is impressed, very impressed. In fact, he is a proselytising convert.

‘Britain is always going to be more hospitable to communitarian politics than the more libertarian U.S. But people are social creatures here, too. American society has been atomized by the twin revolutions here, too. This country, too, needs a fresh political wind. America, too, is suffering a devastating crisis of authority. The only way to restore trust is from the local community

...

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