The Coffee House | Politics and News Discussion Forum

Women and politics poll

, 13 May 2008 15:04:00 GMT

I'd recommend you take a look at Grazia magazine's new poll - 'Women and politics survey 2008'. As you'd expect - with a title like that - all the respondents are women, and they come out broadly in favour of Cameron & Co. For instance, 33 percent would vote Tory if there was a general election tomorrow, compared to only 14 percent for Labour. And 26 percent think David Cameron will keep his promises, compared to 16 percent for Brown. And that's before we get to which politician would 'deliver the best]]>

Gaffe Central

, 13 May 2008 14:36:53 GMT

Is anything going right for this Government at the moment? The latest gaffe: Caroline Flint revealing the front page of an internal Cabinet memo on housing to waiting photographers. They dutifully snapped an image, and now we know the Government thinks house prices will drop by around 10 percent this year. As the Sun quite rightly points out, this could trigger a price crash all by itself.

Anyway, thanks to Flint, you can read it for yourselves:

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The high cost of living

, 13 May 2008 12:40:46 GMT

In his highly entertaining press conference yesterday, Ed Balls referred to “low inflation.” Today’s inflation bombshell makes such a claim impossible. Against expectations of 2.6% CPI for April, the figure is 3% - the highest rise in six years. This is hugely political. The cost of living is top doorstep issue - so it’s important to establish why Gordon Brown speaks with forked tongue when he blames it all “global turbulence”. Today’s inflation report repays closer examination. My thoughts:-

1) Plunging pound. Since Brown took over the pound has nosedived and is now 12% weaker in general – literally]]>

What's next?

, 13 May 2008 10:47:46 GMT

John Rentoul, who has always been sceptical of Brown’s chances and abilities, thinks that Frank Field’s attack on Brown might have been a tipping point:

“But his personal unkindness may have broken some kind of barrier, and now all the scenarios for how Brown might go are being canvassed and seem plausible. What, now, if ministers were to resign, saying that the party cannot win with Brown as leader?”

In the febrile atmosphere at Westminster at the moment, anything seems possible. Rumours that would have been dismissed out of hand just a]]>

A bleak outlook

, 13 May 2008 09:04:15 GMT

Gloomy reading on the cover of the FT this morning – apparently, our economy's heading ever more swiftly to stagnation and slowdown. New data reveals that confidence in the housing market has hit “rock bottom”; retail spending is dropping; and inflation is sky-rocketing. A dangerous, fiscal cocktail, indeed.

Of course, it's far from good news for the Prime Minister. On a straightforward level, it makes his job more difficult – it's so much easier to reign when the economy's booming – but it may also make it untenable. As Fraser noted the]]>

Brown loses his Compass

, 13 May 2008 01:22:42 GMT

Given the speed and nature of current events, there is a real danger that we in the press start to hyperventilate, declaring the Brown government doomed before breakfast every day. But the piece by Neal Lawson, the chair of Compass, in The Independent calling on Brown to return to the Treasury for the good of the movement does seem like a seismic moment. (Although, Compass has been critical of Brown recently this is the first time it has called on the leader to step down)

Compass cannot be dismissed as]]>

Balls on everything

, 12 May 2008 19:14:27 GMT

Good old Ed Balls. He has just given a lobby briefing attacking Tory education plans - at least that was his plan. But he ended up speaking about everything under the sun - Cherie's pregnancy, the wickedness of Frank Field, the hopelessness of Crewe, the errors of the 10p Budget, why Labour is "behind the curve" on family finances. He walked into bear trap after bear trap. The lobby loved it, unable to believe their luck. All of this eclipsed his orginal attack message.

As CoffeeHousers know, I'm keen on education]]>

Labour supporters think Brown should go

, 12 May 2008 18:49:51 GMT

If you want an idea of the pessimism and despair among Labour supporters at the moment, do check out this running LabourHome poll. Its headline finding, so far? That some 49 percent of respondents think Brown should be sacked, as opposed to 34 percent who think he should stay on. 49 percent also believe that the 42-day detention plan should be dropped, and only 10 percent think the HQ team should remain as it is. Hardly a grassroots endorsement, then, for our beleaguered Prime Minister.

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Offensive defence

, 12 May 2008 18:31:17 GMT

And so – predictably – Ed Balls defends Brown against the allegations made by Frank Field yesterday. Or, rather, he sticks the boot into Field, hoping that amounts to the same thing. Here’s what he had to say:

“I think people took [Field's] views [about the 10p tax row] at face value. They thought that to negotiate with him was the right thing to do...
...I think people could look at what he was saying a few weeks ago and believe at that time that his intentions were honourable...

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