All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
More evidence today that the TUC is dictating government policy on public services. Nick Timmins in the FT notes that Andy Burnham’s new guidance to health authorities requires them to treat NHS organisations as the “preferred providers” of care, reversing the Blair/Milburn reforms which opened up health care to private suppliers. By insisting that NHS
Gordon Brown is an intelligent man but I’ve always thought him a better tactician than strategist. His speech to the Labour party conference yesterday confirmed that view and, indeed, strengthened it. Consider this passage from Jonathan Freedland’s column today: The Brownites always loathed Blair’s “respect agenda”, regarding anti-social behaviour orders as dismal and sacking Blair’s
Tony Woodley of the Unite union just received a huge cheer for coming to the podium and ripping up a copy of The Sun while laying into ‘Australian Americans’ who come to this country and try and tell us how to do politics here. There’s no doubt that the feeling here in Brighton is that
Director Roman Polanski attends Che Tempo Che Fa TV Show held at RAI Studios on November 23, 2008 in MIlan. Photo: Vittorio Zunino Celotto/Getty Images. So, what about Roman Polanski, eh? Let me suggest that you can a) acknowledge that his arrest is scarcely an urgent priority, that b) there are questions to be asked
Paul Waugh highlights a passage from Harriet Harman’s speech today: “Contrasting Labour’s record on equalities and feminism with that of the Tories, she said that David Cameron would extend foxhunting rights to everyone, while George Osborne would replace a SureStart in every community with ‘a lapdancing club in every community’.” Now, Paul reports that Harman’s
Who would you like to see succeed Gordon Brown as leader of the Labour Party? Still deluded by the continuation of power and the hopeless yearning that it all might come right next summer, Labour has been strangely united at its conference. Certainly compared to those conferences I well remember in 1979, 1983 and even
Remiss of me not to note that this photograph of the Obamas and the Zapateros has caused quite a stir in Spain. That’s because the Spanish people were not generally aware that the Prime Minister’s daughters, Laura and Alba*, are goths. There’s a law that protects their privacy, you see and so, until the State
The news that the Sun was endorsing the Tories deflated the mood of conference last night. And Labour hang-overs can not have been improved by Brown’s performance on Sky today, which Pete referenced earlier. The Prime Minister was clearly irritated by Adam Boulton’s line of questioning, using the phrase ‘let me finish’ more than any
If you still haven’t made up your mind about whether Brown’s speech yesterday will do anything for Labour’s chances, then just dash through his interviews with the broadcast media. Two topics stand out – the Sun’s decision to back the Tories, and whether Brown will get involved in a televised debate – and there’s little
Well, that’s what he claims anyway. Brown’s extended interview on the Today programme was an exercise in deflecting blame (and the Sun coming out for Cameron) – ‘none of this would have happened if people had listened to me because, you see, I saw it all coming’ was his refrain. This exchange with Jim Naughtie
Considering the dire situation in which Gordon Brown finds himself, yesterday’s speech was really rather good. It gives the party faithful something to cling on to as they begin the grim task of campaigning for a Labour victory in 2010. The obvious question for me after hearing it, though, was “why now?” How can the
The Spectator/Threadneedle Parliamentarian of the Year Awards are fast approaching. As we did last year, we are inviting you to nominate a reader’s representative. This should be the elected official who you believe has best pursued the noble art of politics, putting the public interest ahead of everything else, especially expenses. All you have to
I empathise with the jurors who decided the Pilkington case: it is impossible to make sense of this senseless episode. Yet society must ensure that the tragedy is not repeated. The jury, the Home Secretary and even the Opposition, up to a point, all blamed the police. Simon Jenkins’ piece in the Guardian savages the
The Sun’s Whitehall Editor, David Wooding, has just tweeted that the newspaper will officially back the Conservatives at the next election. Given the paper’s recent editorial stance, it’s hardly surprising news. But it will still delight Team Cameron, and is a blow for Brown in the aftermath of his conference speech. I expect we’ll hear
Labour always likes to contrast Gordon Brown’s substance to David Cameron’s shallowness. But the briefing note that is sitting in the press room to explain the policies announced in Brown’s speech is, shall we say, rather brief at just three pages.
The mood here in Brighton is pretty flat. In contrast to last year, no one really believes that Gordon Brown’s speech has changed anything. I’m sure he’ll get a bit of a bump in the polls: a YouGov poll finds that 63 percent of viewers thought the speech was good or excellent. But Labour still
Comment Central’s Alice Fishburn has collated Brown’s buzzwords. It’s revealing that derivatives of ‘choice’ and ‘change’ were used 38 times, whereas the words ‘honest’ and ‘responsibility’ were uttered twice and four times respectively. Given that the public have turned against the government’s running of the economy, Brown was unwise to concentrate on Tory-bashing rather than
For Brown this was a doddle. He couldn’t fluff it. Expectations have sunk so low that all he had to do today was show up, try not to look too knackered, spout a few revivalist platitudes and make sure he didn’t fall over. The rebellion has stalled, the plotters are paralysed. Those who criticise won’t
Much like Peter Mandelson’s address yesterday, Gordon Brown’s speech was designed for the Labour Party members inside the conference hall. It was effectively book-ended by two crowd-pleasing rat-a-tat lists: the first, a rundown of Labour “achievements” which received massive cheers; and the second, a disingenuous account of Tory measures “for the privileged few”, designed to
Gordon Brown’s speech to the Labour party conference this afternoon was, in its way, breathtaking. Breathtakingly shameless, mendacious, confused, contradictory, delusional, dishonest and irresponsible that is. It was also the speech of a Prime Minister resigned to defeat. Elections are won in the centre, not on the extremes. But Gordon’s speech was designed to appeal
1404, PH: We’ll be live-blogging Brown’s conference speech from 1415 onwards. In the meantime, CoffeeHousers, your thoughts on how our PM will kick things off. Last year, of course, he got Sarah Brown to introduce him. Will he repeat the trick this year? Or will he get someone else? Mandelson, perhaps? Or someone off X-Factor?
Of course, in the movies Gordon wasn’t merely alive, but on his way to a memorable victory. Politics may not be so kind to our hero. But, since this may be his last conference speech as Prime Minister and leader of the Labour party it seems appropriate to mark the occasion by sitting in the
Labour activists don’t have much in common with Republican activists but they seem to agree on one thing: the media are loathsome. The hostility towards journalists from the delegates this week reminds me of being at Republican gatherings in 2008. When someone stood up at a fringe meeting yesterday and introduced themselves by saying ‘I
So what’s the story with Brown and the leaders’ TV debate? There were reports, weeks ago, that the PM was going to use his speech today to, ahem, “challenge” his opposite numbers to a debate, but then Sky intervened and Downing Street fell silent. Last we heard, Brown was veering towards a debate, but was
Fraser says that the Labour conference in Brighton is like an Irish wake: People are happy to see each other, but sad at the circumstances of the gathering. Shouldn’t that be the other way round? At least you know what you’re supposed to feel at a funeral; there’s none of the bittersweet sensation that can
Gordon Brown delivers the most important speech of his life this afternoon. Whether that speech can even check the march of the seemingly inevitable is doubtful, but his best chance is to express an alternative strain of personality from the severe and serious man the electorate plainly dislike. Jim Naughtie and Neil Kinnock debated the
The case of Leanne Shepherd and Lucy Jarrett – the job-sharing police constables whose child-minding arrangements have become a matter of some controversy* – rightly enrages all sensible folk. To recap: the two women are best friends and share a job, each working 20 hours a week. Their husbands, also policemen, work irregular shifts. Their
It feels like an Irish wake here at Labour party conference. People are happy to see each other, but sad at the circumstances of the gathering. I’m blogging this from the reception of Brighton Grand Hotel – the designated conference hotel is always the main venue for getting bladdered, and for nursing a morning hangover.
There is a thoughtful blog on these pages from Fraser, about the BNP’s now confirmed appearance on Question Time. I agree with most of it, although not the point that Nick Griffin is a good debater: at best, you might argue that the jury is out on his debating abilities, as he has never before
Photo: Joe Raedle/Getty Images Good news, Palin fans: her memoir has beaten its deadline and will now be available in November! So you won’t have to wait until spring to read Going Rogue: An American Life. That’s an interesting title: perfect, absurd and perhaps a little bit revealing. Not the American Life bit since just
Tonight offered the opportunity to compare and contrast the two Miliband brothers as they were interviewed one after the other by Steve Richards. Any comparison of their performances should recognise that Ed Miliband has the far easier brief. He gets to sound bold and green and the vast majority of Labour members agree with what
A few weeks ago, there were reports that thousands of schoolgirls were suffering “adverse reactions” to the controversial cervical cancer vaccine Cervarix. Now, the Times have found that a 14-year-old schoolgirl has died after being given the jab. And this when the Medicines and Healthcare Products Regulatory Agency, along with the Department of Health, has
Over at UK Polling Report, Anthony Wells flags up a noteworthy poll boost for Labour. In YouGov’s daily tracker for Sky News, the party are up five points from last Friday’s tracker poll. Here are the headline numbers in full: Conservatives — 39 percent (down 1 percentage point since last Friday) Labour — 29 percent
Tom Watson has told the Times that Tony Blair should hit the campaign trail “if he fancies it”. There have been rumours that both Blairs will campaign at the next election, but this is the first time, to my knowledge, that a Brownite has publicly implored the former PM to return to the fold, and
