All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Hopi Sen argues that Gordon Brown needs to run a Harry Truman-like campaign. That’s probably right. But Labour’s problem is that Brown is in a position that’s more like the Truman of 1951 than the surprisingly victorious Truman of 1948. The economy has done to Gordon waht the Korean War did to the great haberdasher
The sword of truth is working overtime this afternoon. First, Andy Burnham writes a letter to David Cameron demanding answers about a £21,000 donation from John Nash, chairman of CareUK, to the office of, oh dear, Andrew Lansley. As Paul Waugh notes, a conflict of interest scandal looms here because CareUK is a private firm
Oops! Britain’s inflation is heading back to 4 per cent territory as you’d expect with the Bank of England printing money and using the debt to finance government spending. If you create more money, you reduce the value of the money. Citi has done another brilliant research note, which it is putting online, laying
Google’s decision to publicly confront the Chinese government over cyber attacks that have been hitting Google customers for the past year or so poses a difficult challenge for the Obama administration. The threat by Google to shut down its operations in China over the attacks is the first public acknowledgement by a major US corporation
The Labour leadership drama now looks like it will take place in opposition not government. This will have an effect on the kind of leader Labour elects. If one of the coups against Brown had been successful, Labour would have almost certainly selected someone who could be presented as a credible Prime Minister from day
Predictably, insurgency in Iraq has intensified as the March elections near; its scale and frequency was not predicted. Alastair Campbell beamed as a benevolent Uncle when talking about Iraq on Tuesday but Coalition diplomats fear for the democracy’s future. British ambassador to Baghdad, John Jenkins, told the Chilcot inquiry: “Iraq faces a real possibility of
An hour of Glenn Beck interviewing Sarah Palin! Unwatchable and mesmerising in equal measure. Choose your own lowlights… Here’s part one: Part two is, if anything, even scarier more hilarious: See the rest here. This is a cult not a political party.
Martin Bright and the Jewish Chronicle have the scoop that Labour will change the laws so that the power to issue arrest warrants under universal jurisdiction will pass from magistrates to the attorney general. What this means is that foreign politicians will not be arrested in this country for human rights abuses or war crimes
Spending cuts are coming – we all know that. And if any party is serious about tackling the debt mountain, then pretty much every department will have to face the axe in some form or other. But wherever that axe falls, you can expect loud protest in reponse. Cut the RAF, and a former Chief
As the Labour Party descends further into student union gesture politics, it is perhaps appropriate that the last backbench rebellion before the election is set to be over Israel and the Palestinians. As James has pointed out on Coffee House, disgruntled Labour MPs are preparing for battle over the issue of universal jurisdiction, which blew
Does Gordon Brown look like the kind of guy who can keep a promise? Because that’s the main question which stands in the way of Labour’s election strategy, if Andrew Grice’s revelations in the Indpendent are anything to go by. According to Grice, Labour are going to repeat their trick from 1997, and focus on
Strauss: caught Amla, bowled Steyn 0 Photo:Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images. Andrew Strauss might wish that he’d lost the toss at the Wanderers this morning since, as it turned out and despite a stripey pitch, South Africa would also have batted first. Strauss may have been dismissed by the first ball of the test but
The latest issue of the Specatator is published today. If you are a subscriber you can view it here. If you have not subscribed, but would like to view this week’s content, you can subscribe online here, or purchase a single issue here. A selection of articles from the latest issue is available for free
A leader in yesterday’s Times concentrated on the Conservatives’ aid policy – and, in particular, their commitment (shared by the government and by plenty of developed nations) to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on development assistance. There was much to like in the article, but it misses a few key points and trains
Stay tuned for live coverage from 1200. 1201: And we’re off. Brown starts with condolences for the fallen in Afghanistan, both soldiers and journalists. He also says that the world will support Haiti, in the wake of their earthquake. 1203: First question from Bill Wiggin, who says that we entered the recession with one of
Following the issuing of an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the government committed to looking at changes to the way that ‘universal jurisdiction’ is applied. David Miliband said that, “The Government is looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again.”
Dreadful news, Douglas Alexander has been the victim of a cynical paraphrase. Talking to James MacIntyre, who’s given Paul Waugh a sneak preview, Alexander said that it’s really Peter Watt who’s responsible for that quote. “Listen I have said that was not my view. It seems that Peter Watt himself does not seem certain what he claims I said. I would
Ok, ok, I get the message: you CoffeeHousers don’t much care for James Purnell. But this exchange between him and Nick Robinson, to be aired on Radio 4 later, is still worth a read: “I asked James Purnell how you could get radical policies past a reluctant prime minister. Here’s his reply: James Purnell: The
At last, Cameron’s got it. He finally varied his tactics at PMQs today. Brown had no warning. That made the change doubly effective. First Cameron asked two easy-peasy questions about salt which the PM answered in his favourite strain of complacent pomposity. At one point I think I heard him say the nation’s supplies are
Hearing Cameron joke, in PMQs, that Labour would airbrush Gordon Brown out of their election campaign, I couldn’t help but think of Labour’s 1997 manifesto. As you can see to the left, it proudly featured Tony Blair’s face (and not much else) on its cover. So: what chances that Labour use Brown’s face on the
Well, well another PMQs where Brown holds his own. He struggled for a long time after the election that never was, but in the past couple of months Brown has found some form. For the second week in a row, he had the best line: “He’s getting much redder than he is on his photograph”.
Stop sniggering at the back. I mean, all I asked was whether Gordon Brown can be bold and radical. The way things are looking, he certainly needs to be – and, according to Philip Webster’s insightful account of yesterday’s three-hour Cabinet meeting, the PM has called on his colleagues to think up as many “eye-catching”
Daniel Finkelstein suggests an alternative analysis to that which prevails about the cabinet split. Labour’s aristocrats are divided not over style or substance, but the timing and extent of spending cuts. Finkelstein locates his argument in Labour’s repetitive history of poor financial management. Every Labour government runs out money and becomes riven by the prospect
Because everything is a market opportunity, here’s a perfect gift for any friend going to the World Cup this summer. Adding team colours is a particularly nice touch. Apparently this is a genuine product and at least 35 vests were sold the first day they became available. So rush now before they sell-out… Disclaimer: I
I don’t doubt that there would be costs were we to have more sensible (and philosophically agreeable) drug laws but one thing we might avoid is what’s happening here right now: in the last couple of weeks seven heroin users have been killed by anthrax-tainted smack. But I don’t think Melanie need really worry too
It seemed odd when universities were given their own mini-department under John Denham. Remember the Department of Innovation, Universities and Skills? It lasted a matter of months before being sucked into the giant Business, Innovation and Skills department. But at least with a Cabinet-level representative, universities had a voice at the top table. University vice-chancellors
A reader asks if I might write something about the “ridiculous assertion that alcohol abuse costs every Scot £900 a year”. Happy to do so! We all know that if a tobacco company sponsors research no-one in the press will ever call any report produced by that research “independent”. Everybody knows that it’s only government-commissioned
So what’s happened to the Tories’ policy-a-day blitz that was meant to fill all of January? Tory announcements and speeches were happening thick ‘n’ fast at the beginning of last week, and, obviously, we had Cameron’s speech yesterday – but it hasn’t been quite as non-stop as we were led to believe. This is
The Robinsons, Peter and Iris, are already in it deep. But this snippet from Martin Fletcher’s column, highlighted by Iain Martin, raises the level of, erm, ordure: “In 2007-08 the pair received a total of £571,939 from [their political] posts. They also use their parliamentary allowances to employ their two sons, daughter and daughter-in-law as
Andrew Turnbull, who was permanent secretary at the Treasury from 1998 to 2002 and Cabinet Secretary from 2003 to 2005, has previous when it comes to criticising Gordon Brown. But his recent piece in the FT — ‘Six steps to salvage the Treasury’ — is one long barely coded attack on the PM. Take this
Alastair Campbell is before the Iraq Inquiry. As one of Blair’s closest aides, Campbell’s role in the run-up to the Iraq war was key. But I suspect the spinner-in-chief will be doing what he was originally hired to do: namely, protect his master by attracting the incoming fire. In this case, though, he will be helping
There’s something quite refreshing about David Cameron’s plan to offer a tax break to married couples. It says, simply: this is what I believe. And it does so in spite of polling data and strategic arguments to the contrary. This is one area where you certainly couldn’t accuse the Tory leader of caring too much
As Paul Waugh notes, it was just like old times. Alastair Campbell told us all to grow up and trust in Tony. Naturally, controversy about the dossier was the product of over imaginative hacks, and Campbell asserted that the caveats of experts are nothing compared to a PM’s need to take major decisions. It was a sensational
Not the Black Shorts but Anjem Choudary and the Black Tunics. As always, Wodehouse is our trusty guide: The trouble with you, Spode, is that just because you have succeeded in inducing a handful of half-wits to disfigure the London scene by going about in black shorts, you think you’re someone. You hear them shouting