Politics

I normally review PMQs from the chamber, and conclude Brown has bombed. So I tried a TV view for a bit of balance. Labour does looks better from this vantage point. In the gallery, you can compare the volume of roars (Tories far better) and see every face (Labour glum, Tories exuberant). But on TV you can just see a broad panorama of the chamber, and only the faces in the camera “donut” – who look lively, under instruction from the whips. For the first time, Brown came armed with figures, attack lines and put downs and knew when to use them. I’d actually say that Brown won.   It

Iain Dale is out with his monthly ranking of the shadow cabinet’s media appearances but it is actually his Lib Dem numbers that are most interesting. If anyone had asked me whether Nick Clegg or Chris Huhne had got more press last month, I would have said that it was pretty even but with Huhne probably edging it. But according to Iain’s numbers, Clegg got vastly more mentions than Huhne—450 to 301. Whether this is any predictor of the final result of the leadership election is unclear, but it does emphasise how much of a front-runner advantage Clegg has had.

The Jersey based businessmen whose donation to Wendy Alexander’s leadership bid should not have been accepted, has revealed more about his contacts with the Alexander campaign. He alleges that Charlie Gordon, MSP assured him that he was allowed to donate the money despite not being on the electoral roll. Speculation is now rife that Gordon will resign his seat. Meanwhile, The Scotsman reports that Alexander is claiming that emails from her to Gordon questioning the legality of the donation to her campaign will clear her name. Labour are acutely aware that if Alexander goes then others could follow. A spin doctor has been despatched to Edinburgh to help her and the

Following this weekend’s release of a YouGov poll that showed Nick Clegg ahead of Chris Huhne by 56 to 44, the Clegg camp have released their own internal numbers which show him with 61 percent of the vote. But things might not be as comfortable for the front runner as these figures suggest. A party source tells the BBC that only around half of party members have voted so far. Those who’ve delayed sending in their ballots must have noticed how Huhne has been dominating the air waves in recent days while Clegg has been nowhere. If Clegg wins, the next hurdle for him is to beat Huhne by a

Perhaps, more extraordinary than anything going on south of the border with donor-gate is the situation in Scotland. When it was revealed on Friday that Wendy Alexander had sent a letter to the Jersey businessmen Paul Green thanking him for his donation, which he was unable to make under electoral law and which Alexander had previously denied knowledge of, it seemed inevitable that she would have to go. Alexander clung on, though. Then, came yesterday’s suggestion that her office might have had doubts about Green’s eligibility to donate far earlier than previously thought. But Alexander came out fighting. Even, though, her argument that she did nothing wrong intentionally seems rather

If you haven’t already, do read John Rentoul’s column in today’s Independent on Sunday. It is the first time that a major commentator sympathetic to New Labour has seriously suggested that Gordon Brown won’t make it to the next election.  Rentoul predicts that Brown will recover and then fizzle again. Here’s what happens next in his scenario: “This time next year, therefore, after Brown’s second bounce has dribbled away, the party is likely to turn to David Miliband. Fittingly, he foretold Brown’s woes. Nine months ago he said on BBC1’s Question Time: “I predict that when I come back on this programme in six months’ time or a year, people

Hazel Blears’s appearance on Marr provides yet another example of how Team Brown likes putting up women on TV when it’s in real trouble; perhaps, it is because the women have more guts. Anyway, she was making the case for state funding. “Politics does cost money” she says, and if the public will not supply it voluntarily it evidently follows that it will be taken from them under pain of imprisonment under the tax system. It’s an appalling proposal, which the Tories should reject outright. I hope there is consensus under the £50k cap.

Amanda Platell, a must-read columnist as well as a hugely experienced former editor and political adviser, hits the nail on the head today with her piece on New Labour’s ‘trustafarians’. She applies the term to the privileged younger generation of Government ministers who have never had to struggle in Opposition or fight for the privilege of office. It’s spot on: a label that deserves to enter the political lexicon.

As this scandal drags on it is becoming clearer that Gordon Brown made a huge political mistake on Wednesday morning.  When Jon Mendelsohn confirmed Nick Robinson’s report that he was aware of the arrangements by which David Abrahams was funding the Labour party, Brown should have sacked him.  Brown could have issued a statement saying that he had requested the resignation of anyone in the party who was aware of what was going on with Abrahams. His failure to do so means that Brown has effectively endorsed Mendelsohn’s actions and anything that damages Mendelsohn damages him. There is now a row going on between Mendelsohn and Abrahams about who knew