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Society

Wednesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Is the letter in the post?

Allegra Stratton and David Hencke have the scoop over at The Guardian: A group of rebel MPs have begun soliciting signatures for a round robin letter calling for Gordon Brown to step down, which they plan to hand to the prime minister after the results of the local and European elections have come in on Monday morning. The Guardian has learned there are reports that the backbenchers think they can reach 70 or 80 signatories, with some claims that the letter could be delivered to Downing Street by the end of today. Some backbenchers have seen the letter and are not signing it on account of a perception that the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

PMQs live blog | 3 June 2009

Today’s PMQs comes at an awful time for Gordon Brown. But weirdly if he can make it through this half-hour without being bloodied further, he might buy himself some time. But if Cameron pummels him, he might be weakened even further. It’ll be one of those occasions when one watches the faces of the Labour front bench as much as anything else. Brown starts with the names of those British soldiers who have been killed in Afghanistan and with words about the murder of a British hostage by al Qaeda-inspired terrorists. 12.05 Cameron leads on the resignation of Hazel Blears and others. Brown responds by praising the great work of

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

What is Blears’ next shot?

Hazel Blears capacity for detonation is not yet exhausted. Shot one was “YouTube if you want to”, shot two – some argue – was her leaking of Jacqui Smith’s resignation plan. Shot three her resignation right before PMQs, which one senior government source has described to me as a “rank betrayal” coming ahead of the election. And might shot four be a personal statement to the House, a Geoffrey Howe style salvo? If so, that may be enough. Remember the women are the ones with the balls in the Labour party. Let’s see what they can do in the next few days. UPDATE: Word from Chipmunk Central is that she’s

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Why Blears jumped at the worst time for Brown

The word in Westminster is that Blears made up her mind to resign when Number 10 started trying to blame her for the leaking of Jacqui Smith’s resignation. It can’t be stressed enough that Blears has chosen to go at the worst moment for Brown. She has resigned hours before PMQs giving Cameron time to prepare his barbs and the day before elections that will go a long way to deciding Brown’s fate. By making the story government chaos not expenses, she is putting the story that boosts the Tories and hurts Labour on the front pages for election day. Now, has anyone seen Caroline Flint, Tessa Jowell and the

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

A tempting way out

“It’s like the Masque of the Red Death” Stephen Pound said on Newsnight recently. “The band’s playing, the wine’s being served but half the dancers are dead and are just going through the motions.” And indeed, just yesterday, five more Labour MPs fell. According to the polls, about half of them will lose their seat at the next election. With coming retirements, the number of MPs going at the next election will be 335 according to Sunday Times/Thrasher estimates, just over half of the total number of MPs. Even the Great Reform Act of 1832 only got rid of a third of the chamber. This is the undead parliament, most of whose

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Caught in the shuffle

I rather suspect that Gordon Brown’s fate will be sealed by whether or not he can pull off a successful reshuffle. If he can bind the Cabinet to him, he is probably safe until at least Labour conference. Over the weekend, the assumption was that Brown would reshuffle on Friday. The idea was to move before the potential triggers of the plot—Labour coming third or worse in the Euro elections, the BNP winning a seat in the European Parliament—had happened. It would be hard to see how someone who had taken a job on Friday, could credibly resign it on Sunday night and say that the man he accepted the

Alex Massie Alex Massie

What is Britishness?

Commenting on this post in which I suggested that the BNP’s electoral tactics are not dissimilar to those employed by Sinn Fein in the Republic of Ireland, NDM asked that I clarify what I meant when I wrote: “Research shows just 20 per cent of working-class Brits believe that being white is an ‘important factor’ in being British.” Maybe this isn’t a surprising statistic and perhaps I’ve spent too much time living in rural Scotland or multi-coloured cities respectively but I’m not sure I’d have used the word “just” in relation to this depressing statistic.” Re-reading this, I can see how it might be misinterpreted. My writing wasn’t as clear

Katherine Ashenburg

Vale of tears

‘Some places are drenched with sorrow,’ a character in The Winter Vault tells his son, and the son reflects that some people are like that too. ‘Some places are drenched with sorrow,’ a character in The Winter Vault tells his son, and the son reflects that some people are like that too. This book is full of sorrowful people and places. Some of the places, the villages sacrificed to create the Aswan Dam and Canada’s St Lawrence Seaway, are literally drowned, leaving thousands homeless, while Warsaw, ruined in the second world war and rebuilt to a Disneyesque twin of its past self, is also submerged in loss. In and around

Jane Ridley

The champagne Marxist

Marx is back in fashion. For decades Marxists have been an endangered species, but now the collapse of capitalism has caused a revival in their stock and Das Kapital tops the German bestseller lists. Tristram Hunt’s biography of Karl Marx’s shadowy collaborator Friedrich Engels could hardly be more timely. ‘Marx was a genius,’ declared Engels, ‘we others were at best talented.’ Engels was a socialist hack who had the nous to attach himself to the genius Marx. It was his friendship with Marx that differentiated him from the other would-be revolutionaries, now long forgotten, who sat up drinking and arguing until 3 a.m. in the bars of Brussels in the

Tom Bower

A bracing walk through Vienna with Mr Opec

Tom Bower talks to Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, at Opec’s meeting and is struck by how this master manipulator escapes censure in the great oil blame game Speculators are back in favour, especially the fund managers bidding up the price of oil. Cursed last year for tipping the world into recession, the same traders are now praised by some for once again betting on rising prices. Last year’s sinners are now cast as the Good Samaritans. The conductor of that topsy-turvy world is Ali al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister. Choosing his words carefully as he walked through the centre of Vienna towards last week’s Opec meeting, the 75-year-old

Daniel Collings

Apologise for torture? ‘That’s not appropriate’

In an exclusive interview, Dick Cheney tells Daniel Collings that Obama is wrong to say sorry for waterboarding and enhanced interrogation techniques. The former Vice-President turned critic-in-chief has no regrets: if he upset Blair, he was ‘just doing his job’ Richard B. Cheney, the 46th Vice-President of the United States, is back. Though he left the White House wheelchair-bound in January, looking for all the world like he just wanted to see out his days fishing in Wyoming, his retirement didn’t last long. Unwilling to settle into the traditional role of elder statesman, 68-year-old Cheney has emerged as a thorn in the side of the Obama administration. This most secretive

Tuesday

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Guardian calls for Brown to go

Following on from its call for its readers to vote Lib Dem at the European election, The Guardian will tomorrow call on Labour to replace Gordon Brown. In an editorial that has clearly been written more in sorrow than in anger, the paper says: “The truth is that there is no vision from him, no plan, no argument for the future and no support. The public see it. His party sees it. The cabinet must see it too, although they are not yet bold enough to say so. The prime minister demands loyalty, but that has become too much to ask of a party, and a country, that has was

Peter Hoskin

Did Watson fall on his sword for Brown’s sake?

Ok, so maybe we’re all going a bit reshuffle crazy in Westminster, but here’s a theory about Tom Watson’s resignation that just popped into my head.  Imagine, if you will, that you’re the Dear Leader and you hear that Jacqui Smith’s resignation has leaked.  This wasn’t Downing St-sanctioned information, and it’s certainly not part of your gameplan – so what do you do?  Do you do nothing, and watch everyone get into a frenzy about how the Government has lost control of its own ministers?  Or do you get one of your lapdogs to do exactly the same thing, so that people think Downing Street must be in control of

Peter Hoskin

The campaign for an early election gathers pace

So is this one of the thousand cuts?  Or perhaps even the killing blow?  The SNP and Plaid Cymru are tabling a motion calling for the dissolution of Parliament, and it will get debated in the House next Wednesday afternoon.  The Lib Dems have come out in support of it, and William Hague has said that the Tories will too. Whether it will come to anything directly, I’m not sure.  If it’s down to Gordon Brown, then I can’t imagine that we’ll see an election this year, House debate or no’.  After all, he’s always shied away from taking to the campaign trail, and I imagine he’s one of the

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Jumping Jacqui

Well, well – what is going on? I locked myself away for a few hours to write a piece and emerge to find that the Home Secretary has resigned. My first instinct was to look for Damian McBride and to check for the availability of Peroni in the Westminster area. But the word is that the news came from Smith’s people. Anyway, I can’t imagine that all this is doing much to help Labour close the gap in the final days of campaigning. Smith’s departure does not leave us much clearer on the shape of the reshuffle. It does, though, free up a great office state for Darling to be

Peter Hoskin

Resigned to catastrophe

Unbelieveable.  It’s going from bad to worse to apocalyptic for Labour.  The latest news is that Tom Watson – a key Brown ally, and minister for digital engagement – is set to resign as well.  The main question doing the rounds in Westminster is whether this spate of leaks is designed to undermine Brown; whether ministers, knowing they’re going to be pushed, are jumping to create disarray.  Or whether this is all part of the Dear Leader’s mad plan.  Whatever the reason, this is fast becoming one of the worst days of Brown’s premiership: the day when it all, quite literally, fell apart.

Peter Hoskin

May responds | 2 June 2009

Here are Theresa May’s answers to the questions put forward by CoffeeHousers last week: John Moss “Is a time of financial crisis when many people are losing their jobs not the best time to push through radical reform of welfare to gain public trust in the system and get control of cost.” John, I agree with you that radical welfare reform is long overdue. I wish it had started earlier, such as in 2007 when David Freud published his groundbreaking report, which was at the time rejected by Gordon Brown. But yes, the recession cannot be used as an excuse for not bringing about the reform that we need. That

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Smith’s departure emphasises Brown’s helplessness

I suspect Jacqui Smith has done a Ruth Kelly – she knew she was going, so why wait to be knifed? Why not go at a time of her choosing, and take control? She doesn’t need to make an announcement. She just needed to let it be known that she will resign, and sooner or later it would reach someone like Joey Jones from Sky News, who broke the story.   This gives her a bit of dignity, and will frustrate Gordon Brown who would have liked to announce this himself. The reshuffle is one of the few weapons left in his arsenal – with Labour’s poll rating now below

Peter Hoskin

Brown won’t gain from a purge

And so the expenses fiasco looks set to claim its biggest scalp yet – in the form of the Home Secretary, Jacqui Smith.  To be honest, it’s not much of a surprise: Smith – with her bathplugs and her husband’s porn rentals – became the embodiment of the scandal a couple of months back, and many expected Brown to at least move her in the forthcoming Cabinet reshuffle.  The word in Westminster has been that she’d rather welcome an opportunity to concentrate on defending her slim majority in Redditch: an impossble task, if you ask me. The question now is how Brown engineers the situation.  Does he downplay the expenses