All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
Cameron just got the question on Brown and bullying. His reply was well pitched, right tone of voice and all that. But it contained the suggestion that Sir Phillip Mawer, who polices the ministerial code, should be asked to investigate. This is the last thing No 10 wants, it just wants this to go away.
Here I am, in a cavernous “space” in East London, for a conference on the Post-Bureaucratic Age – or “See-Through Government,” as Guido more evocatively put it. David Cameron has kicked things off with a speech on the issue, and there’ll be talks and panels throughout the day. It’s like Glastonbury for policy wonks. So
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk Fraser Nelson previews Gordon Brown’s interview with Channel Four, and argues that it is time for a Cameron Lazarus act. James Forsyth explains why the political classes are underestimating the Rawnsley allegations, and wonders what lead the Tories need to win. Peter Hoskin has bad news
As James predicted last night, the ‘Bully boy Brown’ story is now at full steam and will speed on as phone-ins discuss bullying in the workplace. The National Bullying Helpline’s intervention, ethically dubious in view of the charity’s supposed confidentiality, has negated Labour’s damage limitation strategy. Both Peter Mandelson’s line that Brown is a passionate
Fraser’s back and forth with the estimable Danny Finkelstein about public spending and the Tories is excellent stuff. Fraser concludes by saying that, regardless of tactical differences, on a strategic level “we’re all cutters now”. And of course in one sense he’s right: anyone who wins the election is going to have to be prepared
Look, I know a good many of you lot would clutch at anything if it helped defeat Gordon Brown at the next election, and I understand and respect that point of view. But come on, be honest – bullying? Accusing the Prime Minister of bullying? I suppose the best that one could argue, from a
The National Bullying Helpline has just put rocket boosters under the allegations about Gordon Brown’s behaviour with a statement saying that Downing Street staffers have contacted it with complaints about the Prime Minister’s behaviour. Here’s the most significant passage from it: “Over recent months we have had several inquiries from staff within Gordon Brown’s office.
There can’t be a journalist in Westminster who hasn’t heard tales of Gordon Brown’s temper, his foul-mouthed outbursts and the disgraceful way he lashes out at his staff. I suspect that this means we are underestimating how the voting public will view the revelations in Andrew Rawnsley’s new book. The journalistic consensus last night was
About six months ago I was at an away day discussing the prospects for the first year of a Tory government. Most people present were on the right but a senior figure from Blair’s Downing Street was also there to provide a Labour perspective on things. At one point in proceedings we were discussing who
The Conservatives are at pains to emphasise that ‘it’s not where you’re from but where you’re going that’s important.’ A trite but pertinent phrase: background is neither a pre-requisite nor an impediment to a political career, nor should it be. Upbringing is important when it informs values. Many of the Shadow Cabinet have travelled together from
Two seriously worrying polls for the Conservatives today. One is a Sunday Times/YouGov poll, showing a Labour recovery reducing the Tory lead to six points well into hung parliament territory and the lowest since December 2008. The other is a PoliticsHome poll in the News of the World, according to which: Cameron’s approval rate has
The question tonight is: which piece of bad news will make the biggest impact? The bad news for the Tories, or the bad news for Labour? Let’s take the second one first. I’m referring, of course, to the first installment in Andrew Rawnsley’s revelations about Gordon Brown. ConHome have already published some snippets – click
“I’m not perfect” Gordon Brown said in his speech today – knowing that, in a couple of hours, we’ll hear details of the many ways he is not perfect, when the first extracts of Andrew Rawnsley’s book are published. He has got his defence in early on Channel Four news. Here is a transcript: Q:
While we all wait for the revelations from Andrew Rawnsley’s book, which is being serialised in The Observer, there are a few things worth noting from Douglas Alexander’s interview with The Guardian today. First of all, Labour thinks that the Tory strength in the marginals means that the Tories only need to be six points
Catherine Ashton is visiting the Western Balkans this week on her first foreign trip as the EU’s top diplomat. Though she has come in for criticism for not going somewhere more foreign, like the Middle East, her visit to the region is, in fact, timely and should be welcomed. The region has a few hurdles
David Cameron is a man for all seasons. The Bullingdon Club man told the men’s mag, Shortlist, how he takes a glug of Guinness, steps up to the oche, shoots 180 and then retires to watch the seemingly interminable Lark Rise to Candleford. He also likes pottering around his garden dispensing Miracle Grow with liberal conservative largesse. So it’s
Move along, now – there’s nothing to see here. Or rather, reading Gordon Brown’s Big Speech, there’s nothing that you hadn’t already seen in the papers, or that you wouldn’t have expected to see anyway. The four election themes got a mention. Labour’s record in government was pushed and promoted to the point of absurdity.
So now we know. Labour’s election slogan is A future fair for all. And – as various folk, including Alex, have pointed out – it’s kinda screwy. As in, “we’re all going to The Future Fair” kinda screwy. So don’t expect it to catch on. Unless, of course, there really are bright lights, big wheels
Yup, that’s what the whizz kids and the marketing gurus at Labour HQ have come up with for Labour’s election campaign slogan*. A Future Fair for All. Try that one on for size. Note too the now traditional absence of punctuation that further obscures the meaning. As one wag put it, the Tory response might
It’s not something I’d thought about but, in a certain way or looked at from the right perspective, it’s a good question: What happens to your pet when the Rapture comes? Happily, After the Rapture Pet Care are here to help: It’s only $10 a month! Now it’s true that cynics might say that this
There’s an interview with Gordon Brown today in the Mirror about his relationship with his mother. As you might expect given the subject, it is hardly an interrogation. Indeed, it manages to make Piers Morgan’s questions to him resemble the final part of the Frost Nixon interview. But what caught my eye was this note
Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week. Fraser Nelson says that, love him though he does, the Fink just isn’t cutting it. James Forsyth believes the Tories have to fight dirty, and explains why Adeela Shafi didn’t get a namecheck. Peter Hoskin is pleased that the Tories’ new poster
The recession has been intellectually thrilling, and I write that without a note of sarcasm. First, politicians argued as to whose understanding of Keynes was greatest; and now they’re in Keynes versus Hayek territory, over the timing and depth of cuts. The Chancellor and his Shadow have marshalled the various authorities who support their respective
Has Alastair Campbell lost his touch? In his heyday, Labour’s spin was mesmeric, with the godlike Campbell blowing smoke and manipulating mirrors. Now their tactics are as obvious as Britney Spears. Having prepared the ground with Piers Morgan last weekend, Brown will attempt to divert attention from the dreadful state of the economy; his government’s
Oh dear. The Evening Standard reports that Harriet Harman trod on Sir Thomas Legg’s toes and forbad him to publish claims that the fees office had turned down. Harman queried the ‘appropriateness’ of extending the enquiry beyond wrongly approved claims. English is a wonderful language and ‘appropriate’ has a number of nuances. The fees office
The news that James Purnell is to stand down is a shock. It is clear that Purnell was disenchanted with Brown’s continued leadership and with the direction in which the Labour party was heading. Purnell was marginalised in parliament and his much vaunted alliance with John Cruddas came to nothing. Plainly, he believes that he
Earlier this week I asked what Obama’s experience could teach a Cameron government. At the same time, there has been a well-argued debate in The Times about whether the Tories should go negative or not. There is one point where the two issues converge – and that is in how a newly-elected government should deal
Labour have certainly come out of the traps snarling and gnashing this morning. For one, they’re making the most of two letters in the FT, signed by 60 economists, which ostensibly support their position on the public finances. And then there’s Gordon Brown’s speech to European leaders, in which he implores them to tackle the
When a denial elicits this headline: “No 10 denies naked Gordon Brown called aide C-word” What is in and not in Andrew Ranwsley’s new book, which The Observer starts serialising this Sunday, is the talk of Westminster. There’s much speculation about whether the stories that were in the Mail on Sunday a few weeks back—including
I must be one of the very few people who would genuinely like to see David Cameron give another speech on chocolate oranges. There was much mockery of it but it contained a very important point: there are some things that a business can do that have negative externalities to which the appropriate response is
Bravo Sir Nicholas Winterton! It’s pernicious that no one will pay for me to travel First Class. As two separate scions of the same upper crust, it is mine and Sir Nicholas’ birthright. The country is going to the dogs with all this plebeian impertinence. It’s like turning up at the airport and being asked
Readers of the magazine will be familiar with Michael Heath’s series of ‘Flash Gordon’ cartoons, based on the life and sulks of our glorious Prime Minister. Well, now it’s got a successor – ‘Dave’ – which, naturally enough, focuses on the Tory leader and would-be PM, Mr Cameron. Here’s the first of them, from this
One of Israel’s most potent weapons has been the mixture of awe and fear with which its spy services are held. Now that Mossad is suspected of killing Mahmoud al-Mabhouh in Dubai, and using fraudulent British passports in the process, newspapers will dredge up stories about the Entebbe Raid, the killing of Black September by