Politics

So – in an effort to save taxpayers’ money – David Miliband is to permanently vacate his lavish official residence.  Over at Three Line Whip, Con Coughlin is disappointed by the move, thinking it will undermine the stature of the Foreign Secretary – “Foreign visitors expect to be received in some style when they come to London”. David Hughes counters by pointing-out that “there’s hardly a dearth of venues for official receptions and dinners”.   I’m with Hughes. Foreign visitors may have their expectations, but British taxpayers expect something too – namely, that their cash isn’t used to fund the gravy-train. And – whilst there’s a slight whiff of opportunism about Miliband’s decision – it’s still good to

If Tony Blair were still Prime Minister Labour would be five—not sixteen—points behind the Conservatives, according to the latest YouGov poll. With Blair back at the helm, the Conservative vote falls to below 40 percent, while the Labour vote rises by six points. More voters think that it is unlikely than likely that Brown will be Labour leader after the next election. There is, though, no clear successor; that modern-day Vicar of Bray, Jack Straw is the only Labour politician to break into double-figures when voters are asked who they would like it to be. The finding that should really worry Brown, though, is that 61 percent  of voters blame

May 1st is becoming ever more important for Gordon Brown. Holding London and exceeding expectations in the rest of the country is the only thing that can put a stop to the increasingly frequent stories about how his government is doomed and he is the problem, see the Martin Kettle and Matthew Parris articles that Pete flagged up earlier today.  If Labour were to lose London and suffer heavy loses elsewhere, then the steady flow of stories about how the Brown government is in terminal decline will become a torrent. It is increasingly hard to see how Brown could turn things around in these circumstances. The other problem for Brown