Society

Friday

Peter Hoskin

The central tensions undermining Brown’s “Tory cuts” argument

Just to prove that Brown ‘n’ Balls haven’t locked Alistair Darling in the basement of the Treasury, the official Chancellor gets an interview in the FT today.  Plenty of stuff in there about green shoots, oil prices and those darstardly Germans, but it’s this passage which jumped out at me: “The chancellor is quick to criticise what he characterises as the Conservatives’ plans to cut public spending by 10 per cent, but he does not follow Gordon Brown’s tactic of claiming public spending under a Labour government would be bountiful. In making that claim the prime minister used the longer-range Budget forecasts which are not adjusted for inflation. Mr Darling

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

So what now, Yvette?

Aside from the failure of other ministers to follow his lead, one of the saddest aspects to James Purnell’s resignation is that the DWP has lost an extremely capable minister.  Yes, I know he’s not a particular favourite of CoffeeHousers – but he was instrumental in getting David Freud’s welfare reform agenda accepted as government policy, and even hired Freud as an adviser.  Before Freud’s defection to the Tories, all signs were that the duo would push through some of the radical measures that the country requires as both job queues and welfare bills soar. But now Purnell’s gone, one of the questions swirling around the Westminster policy arena is

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Burnham u-turns on yesterday’s health spending pledge

In a sign of the times, Andrew Lansley’s gaffe—which sent Tory high command into a rage—seems to be hurting Labour most. Andy Burnham, the new Health Secretary, has just told the NHS Confederation “I can’t write the spending review – it would be ridiculous.” But last night on Channel 4 News, Burnham seemed to be doing just that. As Fraser pointed out straight afterwards, “a new Labour budget commitment is born”. But it seems, Burnham has disposed of it today—making it one of the shortest lived spending pledges in history. Yesterday was a warm-up game for the election, and it showed that the Tories are operating in a fundamentally benign

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Blunted Flint

PR Week, which has delivered an impressive string of scoops during the Brown era, has an interesting little anecdote about Caroline Flint’s resignation: “Westminster sources said Flint toned down her resignation letter on the advice of friends. One insider even claimed it originally contained words such as ‘devious’ and phrases such as ‘sexist pig’.” If Flint hadn’t praised Brown on Thursday night, her resignation could have been devastating to him. But instead it looked like she was just angry about not getting the promotion she thought she was owed. After all, that’s what had changed in the 18 hours since she had offered Brown her support. P.S. If Flint had

Lawrence Kay

The promise of a lifetime

It is easy to lose money down the back of the sofa, less so to lose a debt.  The Treasury has long tried to hide the value of the pension promises made to public sector workers. Now, though, the present administration or its successor must start to be honest about the true size of the liability which our report today reveals, because, at £1.1 trillion (or 78% of GDP), it is now bigger than the national debt (which stands at £750 billion). It has got this big for several reasons. First, when the government receives contributions from public sector workers for their pension schemes, it spends the money on schools,

James Forsyth James Forsyth

The Cabinet’s credibility problem

Martin Bright makes a very good point on his blog about why the press will dismiss the protestations of loyalty and unity coming from the Cabinet: “Too many conversations have been had by too many ministers with too many journalists about the inadequacies of the Prime Minister to believe the words of solidarity.” In the last week or so, the ability of some Ministers to say one thing in private and another in public has been shocking even to journalists who know how things work. Perhaps, the worst example was of a Cabinet minister who while doing a round of interviews praising Gordon Brown was asking journalists for a quiet

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Labour investment versus Tory cuts won’t cut it this time

The Sun’s leader column today is an indication of just how much the terms of the spending debate have changed: “And, frankly, where is the disgrace in making cuts? Who really believes some services WON’T need cutting to pay back the monstrous debts we are running up to beat recession? More unedifying was Gordon Brown’s desperate and deceitful attempt to paint Labour as the party of endless investment battling to keep out the cost-cutting Tories. This is complete fiction. Both parties will be forced to make substantial cuts after the next election, no matter who wins it. Mr Brown knows this very well – his Treasury’s own figures admit it.

Peter Hoskin

Is David Miliband still the Labour Party’s choice to succeed Brown?

When the histories of Gordon Brown’s premiership are written, I’m sure the events of the past week will get a prominent showing.  And I’m sure, too, that Allegra Stratton’s blow-by-blow account in today’s Guardian will be among the most useful first-hand sources. There are plenty of fascinating nuggets in there: how the plotters regard Hazel Blears’ resignation as the “moment it started to go wrong” for them; how the Hotmail plot got an email from brownn@parliament.uk – the email address of the chief whip – not because he wanted to join them, but because he wanted to sniff them out; and how numerous MPs were dissuaded from acting against Brown

Wednesday

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Now Labour would cut by 10 percent too

Andy Burnham has just let the cat out of the bag on Channel Four News: Labour would cut by 10 percent too. Our new Health Secretary has just been given a robust interview by Jon Snow and was asked if he would say there would not be cuts elsewhere if health is protected.  His reply: “This is the big difference, Jon, because Andrew Lansley will not commit to the budget we have set for the NHS in 2010-11. I am committing to you that this budget remains and I am also committing to you, in the way that the Prime Minister has, that we will continue to maintain growth in

Peter Hoskin

Now Lansley is sackable

Well, well, well – it sounds as though Andrew Lansley’s loose lips may have cost him his hitherto “unsackable” status.  Tim Montgomerie spoke to a source in Cameron’s office about the shadow health secretary’s “10 percent cuts” comment on Today this morning, and got the following response: “No one is unsackable … [Lansley] will not be forgiven another gaffe.” As Tim says, though, the main upshot of all this could be a more mature, more public debate about spending cuts than we’ve had at any point over the last decade.  If you want to prime yourself, then Fraser’s earlier post is essential reading.

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Spending restraint in precisely the wrong place

The evidence of Ed Butler, who commanded 16 Air Assault Brigade in Helmand in 2006, to the Defence Select Committee yesterday was devastating. As The Times reports: “Brigadier Butler told the committee that in 2006 the Treasury had “capped” resources available for the operation, limiting funding to £1.3 billion for a “three-year campaign”. The Government has always denied imposing a cap on resources for the mission. “There was a Treasury-imposed cap on the number of troops we could have in Afghanistan,” he said. With the troops available to him — 3,300 — “we could just about hold the line but we couldn’t sustain a higher tempo”. Brigadier Butler said he

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The truth behind that 10 percent cut

Little did I imagine, when I calculated that the Tory spending parameters would involve a 10 percent cut in non-NHS departments, that it would attract such an audience. Brown repeaed it on Marr, as if it were an official Tory figure. But when Andrew Lansley mentioned it this morning as an official Tory figure then, I guess, it becomes Tory policy. A great battle ensured in PMQs: whose cuts are they? Tory cuts or Labour cuts? Real or fake? Brown loves such battles, thinking that no journalist can be bothered to go do the maths by themselves. He will be wrong here, I suspect, as the maths is pretty easy.

Peter Hoskin

PMQs live blog | 10 June 2009

Live coverage of PMQs from 1200. 1202: Here’s Brown now.  First question from Andrew Selous (Con) on specialist hospitals.  Guess where Brown goes with this: he brings up Andrew Lansley’s “cuts” comment this morning (even though Lansley was talking about areas other than health).  I suspecty he may bring this up again. 1204: Second question a Labour plant: “Will the PM turn his back on the 10 percent cuts that the Tories are commited to…”  As Fraser puts it: “Brown’s Budget, Brown’s cuts”.  This is shameless stuff from the Dear Leader. 1205: Cameron kicks off saying how “delighted” he is to see the Brown still opposite him.  He then asks

Peter Hoskin

The Lansley commitment

ConHome’s Tim Montgomerie – instrumental in getting the Cameroons to ditch their pledge to match overall Labour spending plans – has launched his most acerbic attack  yet on the Tories’ commitment to hefty real terms spending increases in health, as reiterated by Andrew Lansley on Today this morning. His points deserve repeating: “There is indeed something incredible about the Conservative position on health spending.  It’s a leftover from George Osborne’s 2007 pledge to match all Labour spending.  It’s the wrong policy for at least three reasons; — At a time when Britain’s debt mountain is causing international rating agencies to reconsider Britain’s credit status it is unaffordable.  Public sector spending

James Forsyth James Forsyth

Same old Gordon

Perhaps the most comic aspect of the past few days is how the Cabinet and then the PLP have been persuaded to give Gordon Brown a stay of execution by promises that Brown would be more collegial and call off his bully boys. (I’ve lost count of the number of times Gordon Brown is said to have made this pledge). But the Brown operation ain’t going to change as this story in The Independent makes clear: “…on the same day as his Parliamentary Labour Party speech, hard-nosed Brownites were telling journalists that Mr Purnell had quit because he was not up to his challenging welfare brief (a myth) and were

Peter Hoskin

Hunting for a vision

And so the Glorious Fightback begins for Gordon Brown.  Stage One is his announcement on Parliamentary reform today; but it’s Stage Two, his “national plan” next week, which seems to be getting the most hype.  Indeed, an insightful article in the FT suggests that the Dear Leader’s inner circle regards it as “the last throw of the dice”.  And Peter Mandelson drops in words like “boldness,” and phrases such as “decisive action,” just for good measure. The key point, though, comes towards the end of the article: “Some doubt that Mr Brown’s plan will be able to demonstrate anything more than government impotence before the election. ‘This is classic Gordon.

Nick Kochan

The bruiser who fought his way back

History will regard Gerald Ronson as the man who withstood the humiliation of a high-profile trial and conviction, took his punishment without flinching, and returned quietly to his métier of making millions. Speaking from the comfort of his boardroom at Heron, his family’s property empire, the 70-year-old tycoon says, ‘Did I get a black eye, yes; did I take it, yes; and did I come back better than anyone else in the Guinness case? Yes.’ The circumstances were very different when I first met Ronson. This was in 1990, between sessions at Southwark Crown Court. We happened to be travelling in the same lift, he to meet his lawyers, me

Melissa Kite

Gordon pleads for one last chance from the girls

Melissa Kite says that the PM is ill at ease with female colleagues. No surprise that it was the women — Blears, Flint, Kennedy — who rebelled while the men hid under the table Remember the Brown Bounce? Yes, there really was one. It was back in September 2007 and Gordon was riding high on a wave of popularity. Honestly, I’m not making this up. A YouGov poll gave the Prime Minister a commanding 11-point lead over the Tories after his appeal to traditional values at the Labour party conference. What’s more, among women voters the Labour lead was an astonishing 16 per cent — 16 per cent! Mr Brown

Irwin Stelzer

This is how you should use your reprieve, Gordon

Irwin Stelzer says the PM should seize the opportunity presented by this stay of execution: plot a path to fiscal sanity, cut red tape and restore Britain’s stature on the world stage Now that Gordon Brown is determined to go down with the Labour ship, or to sink it, if you believe his harshest critics, he might want to consider a few things he can do in the short time left to him at Number 10 to enable historians to be kinder to him. Leave office he might be forced to do after the general election he has so long resisted. But it remains open to him to do so