The Coffee House | Politics and News Discussion Forum

The problem with that David Cameron ad

James Forsyth — , 09 Feb 2010 20:05:20 GMT

Labour’s new ad with David Cameron facing both ways highlights what was wrong with the Tories’ opening ad of the year, that one dominated by Cameron’s face. The Tory strategy for the election campaign has to be to try and make it into a referendum on this failed government. But that ad, which emphasised Cameron so strongly, gave Labour an opening to try and turn the election not just into a choice between two parties but into a referendum on David Cameron and Tory policy. Labour’s success in doing this is largely responsible for]]>

The Tories' new attack poster is Brownite politics at its worst

Peter Hoskin — , 09 Feb 2010 19:04:17 GMT

The Tories are keen to hammer the government over the £20,000 "death tax" story which appeared in the Guardian this morning. And, to that end, they've produced the attack poster above. According to their press release, it will appear in 18 sites across London tonight.

At first glance, it's a strong image with an equally strong message. So what's the problem? Well, only the fact that Andy Burnham this morning denied the death tax claim with the words, "The Guardian story suggests a £20,000 flat levy. I'm not currently considering that as a lead]]>

Blair on Chilcot...

Peter Hoskin — , 09 Feb 2010 18:27:05 GMT

...well, sorta. 5:25 into his interview with Mike Huckabee, our former PM gives his take on the constant stream of Iraq inquiries:

You can certainly see his point. Although I doubt the government will be too impressed with Blair trawling through all the Iraq stuff on American television, only weeks before he hits the campaign trail for Labour.

Hat-tip for the video: Comment Central

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Some Tories are yet to repay their expenses

David Blackburn — , 09 Feb 2010 16:34:00 GMT

Bad news for David Cameron in the Standard this afternoon – several Tories have not made expenses repayments that were agreed seven months ago. After yesterday’s success, the last thing Cameron needed was a question over the effectiveness of his Scrutiny Panel, established to go “beyond the letter of the rules”, which he deemed too lenient to placate public anger.

Bill Cash is the major culprit exposed by the Standard. He agreed to repay £15,000 for an unacceptable rent/mortgage arrangement, but Commons records disclose that he has only repaid the £429 he claimed]]>

How should the Tories respond to those Labour guarantees?

Peter Hoskin — , 09 Feb 2010 15:13:17 GMT

If you're going to take anything away from Andy Burnham's press conference this morning – apart from his denials about a £20,000 "death duty" – it's how heavily those Labour "guarantees" are going to feature in the election campaign. Here we had social care guarantees, cancer treatment guarantees, waiting line guarantees, and even a new website and poster (see above) attacking the Tories for not signing up to the same guarantees. So far as the government is concerned, it matters not that these pledges have been made before –]]>

Accountability on your iPhone

Peter Hoskin — , 09 Feb 2010 12:56:07 GMT

With Brown pitching his AV referendum as the solution to at least some of our political ills, it's worth highlighting the quieter efforts of another Labour MP, Derek Wyatt, to fix the system. Mr Wyatt, you see, has got involved with the MyMP iPhone app which helps voters track and converse with their MPs. The first version was released on 15 January, but, I must admit, I've only just come across it thanks to the Telegraph's report this morning.

Sure, an iPhone app is only a small thing. And, in this case,]]>

Yanukovych wins Ukrainian election – but that may not be all bad

Daniel Korski — , 09 Feb 2010 11:29:20 GMT

With just over 2% of votes still to be counted, Ukraine’s pantomime villain, Viktor Yanukovych, is coasting for victory in the country’s presidential election. Yulia Tymoshenko, the current prime minister and one of the leaders of the pro-Western ‘Orange Revolution' in 2004 has yet to accept her loss, but with the EU praising the “impressive display of democratic elections” it will be hard for her to do anything but concede. So is this game, set and match for Vladimir Putin, who has done everything in his power to snuff out the ‘Orange Revolution'?

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Plenty to encourage the Tories in the Populus poll

David Blackburn — , 09 Feb 2010 10:55:39 GMT

Well, the Populus poll isn't all good news for the Tories. As James pointed out last night, they have shed another point and Labour have regained some ground. But, as both Peter Riddell and Mike Smithson note, the Tories can still secure an outright majority on the basis of these figures.

The numbers which lead the Times's frontpage coverage are more encouraging for Cameron & Co. They show that the public are attuned to the Tories' broad narrative. 73 percent think society is broken; 82 percent think that now is the]]>

A day to damage Brown?

Peter Hoskin — , 09 Feb 2010 09:00:00 GMT

Contain yourselves, CoffeeHousers. I know that we're all really excited about today's Parliamentary vote on an alternative vote referendum (it is, after all, something our Prime Minister has described as "a rallying call for a new progressive politics"), but it isn't a done deal just yet. That "new politics" might still be put on hold.

Indeed, things could get messy for Brown in just a few hours time. You'd expect him to win the vote, what with Labour's majority and the creeping sense that Downing St very much wants this to happen. ]]>