Clarke lashes out (again)

Charles Clarke, as predicted earlier, has been distributing his article in the new Progress magazine. It is strong stuff:

"First, we have to change the conduct of our politics. We should discard the techniques of ‘triangulation’, and ‘dividing lines’ with the Conservatives, which lead to the not entirely unjustified charge that we simply follow proposals from the Conservatives or the right-wing media, to minimise differences and remove lines of attack against us. We should finish with ‘dog whistle’ language, such as ‘British jobs for British workers’, which flatter some of the most chauvinistic

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (10)

Brownie No.3 - Gordon Brown's "transitional" 10p tax rate

When Gordon Brown was defending his decision to scrap the 10p tax rate in April 2008, he spoke as if he was avenging a great moral wrong.

“I think I should tell the House that 85 per cent of the benefits of the 10p rate go to higher-rate and basic-rate taxpayers, and that 11 million people, mainly the lowest-income people in the country, receive no benefit at all from it… We are determined to take action, because we are the party of fairness tackling poverty.”

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (14)

Brown loses another popularity contest

It goes from tragedy to farce. Madame Tussauds has decided against having a Gordon Brown waxwork amongst its world leaders - he dithered over whether to sit for its sculptors and they got fed up waiting for a reply. "Since then we have had no response and, reflecting the climate after the Government's performance in the recent local elections, our guests have become decidedly split about whether we should feature Mr Brown at all," general manager Edward Fuller said.

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (35)

Cameron dodges the 10p tax issue

Cameron has three times avoided in his press conference answering what a Conservative government would do to help those people stung by the 10p tax. (No, A cock hasn't crowed). A tough issue for him, and I'll see if I can do any better as I travel with him on the train to Crewe.

He also said he suspects Nicholas Boles (who dropped his own mayoral campaign after being diagnosed with cancer, from which he has now recovered) will keep working for Boris. Bruce Anderson asked yesterday who will play Jeeves to Wooster. Kinder souls may ask who will play Leo McGarry to his Bartlett. Whichever way you out it, I suspect we have just had our answer. Boles has a good seat lined up, but Boris could not have a better "deputy mayor".

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (5)

The Labour beauty contest

The beauty contest begins: read Polly Toynbee in the Guardian today and her praise for James Purnell, the arch-Blairite Work and Pensions Secretary who is making a speech calling for Labour to emphasise fairness and social justice. David Miliband also enters the lists this week with a lecture in honour of his father, Ralph. Charles Clarke is expected to intervene (again) shortly. There will be others.

I am reminded horribly of the period 1994-7 when the prospective successors to John Major jostled for position, all making speeches coated in plausible deniability but with a core of political...

Continue reading...

Email to a friend  |   Permalink  |   Comments (14)