Via Marc Ambinder, here’s what the new Politics of Hope* has to say for itself: *Of course Hillary Clinton really is the candidate favoured by much of the Democratic establishment. But that’s at least partly because, for better or worse, she’s something of a known quantity. Beyond platitudes and an apparently limitless belief in the
Tim Hames has a typically sharp column in The Times this morning about the Lib Dems decision to dump Ming. He argues that the polls are so volatile at the moment that the Lib Dems would have done better to wait until Christmas before pulling the trigger as by then they would have been certain
Via the admirable Mr E, I find Matthew Parris offering some sound advice to the Tories. Parris, one of the most urbane journalists working in London, found himself making an argument he didn’t, on reflection, quite believe: Here was the wise argument: “David Cameron and his Conservative colleagues were entitled to their half-hour of fun
Rugby World Cup blogging: well, that was a disappointing weekend wasn’t it? For the second tournament in a row both semi-finals went the way I didn’t want them so. Such is life. So England vs South Africa it is. Both semi-finals demonstrated that it is easier to win games form a defensive posture than was
I have just watched Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem President, tell his BBC interviewer that the downfall of Ming Campbell was the fault of “the press”. Even by Mr Hughes’s exacting standards, that is absolute nonsense. As Ming has faltered and cried out for support, the silence of his senior colleagues has been deafening. Truly,
I regard Nick Clegg as much of a certainty to replace Ming as Blair was to succeed John Smith in 1994. Some Coffee Housers have taken me to task for saying that this is bad for Cameron and good for Brown. What has Clegg ever done, they ask. Well not much, I admit, but from
So whodunit? That’s the question in the bars at Westminster, where an excited Commons has just finished voting. Fingers are being pointed at the impatient Chris Huhne, with co-conspirators in the Lords. Lib Dem MPs seem genuinely stunned. The most popular theory (in Strangers’ Bar at least) is that Ming realised he was done for
At last, a statement from Sir Menzies… “It has become clear that following the prime minister’s decision not to hold an election, questions about the leadership are getting in the way of further progress by the party. Accordingly, I now submit my resignation as leader with immediate effect”. Hilarious. Has all the authenticity of a
I have to say, these Lib Dems are getting good at it. It took the Tories about a decade before they could get their leadership coups down to the 48 hour wonder we have just seen here. The brutality is breathtaking. Where is Ming? Gagged and bound somewhere? Can Coffee House readers remember that last
Simon Hughes and Vince Cable have just announced that Ming Campbell has resigned as leader of the Lib Dems. Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne are both expected to run for the leadership, with Clegg starting as the favourite. The timetable for the leadership contest will be announced on Tuesday. The immediate beneficiary of Ming’s departure
Brown has just been on the BBC (“speaking from a school gymnasium”) defending himself. People, he says, will judge him on what he did on terrorism, foot and mouth and the Northern Rock crisis. And PS, it took “tough decisions” to produce the economic growth of the last decade. Let us set aside the fact
“For all those whose cares have been our concern, the work goes on, the cause endures, the hope still lives, and the dream shall never die.”
The military progress of the surge in Iraq continues to be encouraging. As The Washington Post notes today, In September, Iraqi civilian deaths were down 52 percent from August and 77 percent from September 2006, according to the Web site icasualties.org. The Iraqi Health Ministry and the Associated Press reported similar results. U.S. soldiers killed
Tony Blair, as I report in today’s Sunday Telegraph, is trying to rein in his supporters, keen that they not become to Gordon what the Eurosceptic ‘Bastards’ were to John Major. The former PM is right that his own reputation will suffer if a neo-Blairite rump is perceived to be sabotaging Brown. Such considerations, however,
Ladbrokes today updates its odds for the inevitable Lib Dem leadership race, and – irritatingly for the Tories – Nick Clegg is the clear frontrunner. Some odds: Nick Clegg 4/5 Chris Huhne 3/1 David Laws 8/1 Ed Davey 10/1 Simon Hughes 12/1 Charles Kennedy 16/1 Alistair Carmichael 16/1 Vincent Cable 16/1 Lembit Opik 16/1 Paddy
Today’s newspapers are another treat for Conservatives with a taste for schadenfreude. Blair has, overnight, denied that he’s authorising briefings against Brown. But he doesn’t need to. They’ve been at it for days, not just old Blairites but non-aligned backbenchers. Brown is a dud, they proclaim, with no vision. Cameron is a hero, the polls
Andy Burnham is a talented minister but his interview in Saturday’s Daily Telegraph represents yet another ignominious U-turn by this Government in response to Conservative pressure. For almost two years, Labour’s unshakeable response to David Cameron’s belief that marriage should be recognised in the tax system has been to say, scornfully, that policy should help
Loyalty only lasts as long as your opinion poll lead. Mutinous Labour voices liven up the Sunday press and an ICM poll for the Sunday Telegraph gives the Tories a seven point lead at 43 per cent to 36. Expect a return of the Blairites. Like Blake’s Seven, the leader may have gone but it
The invitation to the Frieze Art Fair was a bigger parcel than anything that arrived on my birthday. It looked like a kind of ambassadorial visa package to a higher realm, and spa. Art invitations now outweigh fashion invitations. I mean they weigh more. The events grow ever more lavish as the art bubble perpetuates
The Reverend Nicola Hunt of St Peter’s, Ugborough, welcomed us to the St Francis of Assisi Day animal service. Yes, she had seen the Vicar of Dibley episode in which there had been an amusing portrayal of an animal service. Looking around the congregation, we hadn’t brought quite the wide variety of animals that the