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Analysis from Pete and Daniel is available and here’s what the rest of the Web makes of the Lib Dem’s manifesto: Nick Robinson notes that the Lib Dems have made fiscal responsibility and fiscal fairness their standalone issues: ‘But you don’t need to reach for a calculator or even call our friends at the Institute
Looking at the papers this morning and watching the news last night, you realise what a benefit in the image stakes the Tory cash advantage gives them. The Tories can afford to hire out better venues than the other two parties. So while Labour launched their manifesto in hospital and the Lib Dems theirs at
Three excellent, interesting responses to the Tory manifesto from Iain Martin, Danny Finkelstein and John Rentoul. I recommend them all. And by way of folllowing yesterday’s post… It’s not a libertarian manifesto by any means and it’s not, contra Rentoul, laissez-faire either but it’s certainly more appealing than anything produced by Labour and more relevant
On Sunday, on the Politics Show Vince Cable said that David Laws had been wrong to say on Newsnight that the health and international developments budgets were ringfenced. But the Lib Dem manifesto says the Libs Dems will, ‘Increase the UK’s aid budget to reach the UN target of 0.7 percent of GNI by 2013.’
The Liberal Democrats are doing well. Very well. More voters seem actively to want a hung parliament – they neither hate Labour or love the Tories enough to act decisevely either way – and a vote for Nick Clegg seems a safe, fair choice. A few years ago Paddy Ashdown was over the moon to
Well, that was quick. After the Tories’ one-hour-and-forty-minutes-long manifesto launch yesterday, and Labour’s comparable event the day before, it was quite a relief that the Lib Dems got through theirs in a nerve-soothing 45 minutes. And that included introductions from Sarah Teather, Danny Alexander and Vince Cable, and a speech from Nick Clegg – all
Anyone else think that Labour’s latest poster is like a negative of the Tories’ “Vote For Me” effort? White text on a black background, instead of black text on a white background. A picture of Cameron, instead of Brown. I mean, the only thing that isn’t swapped over is the tone: both go on the
So now it’s the Lib Dems’ turn to present their prospectus for the country. And, in some respects, I expect they’ll want a fairly uneventful day. They have, after all, endured the most topsy-turvy campaign of the three main parties so far. Brown has given us no more, and no less, than what we expected.
I was going to say that Labour have gone negative but, actually, their campaign has, for any number of understandable reasons, been negative all along. Still, that reached a new low (or height) this evening with this advert, broadcast in Scotland only: It’s impressively dishonest on many levels, not least because any decisions taken on
With the publication of the Labour and Conservative manifestos we should now have some idea of the real differences between the two largest parties. But I am more struck by the similarities. I know we are supposed to believe that Labour is the party of the enabling state, but it chose to emphasise how it
I’m not opposed to local referenda and ballot initiatives. But they need to be carefully handled. As commenters have pointed out and as California’s experience demonstrates these can easily fall prey to powerful interest groups. This is especially so if the threshold for putting an issue on the ballot is too low. And 5% of
There are polls out tonight from the two firms polling for the Tories, Populus and YouGov, and they have pretty different results. Populus has the Tories on 36, down three from last week, Labour on 33 and the Lib Dems on 21. In the YouGov tracker, the Tories are on 39, Labour are down two
Insightful work from the FT’s Chris Giles, who has dug out a couple of academic articles – including one co-authored, in 2007, by George Osborne’s current chief of staff, Rupert Harrison – to work out how many jobs Labour’s national insurance rise might cost the economy. The results? Well, according to Giles, one says that
The Tories’ Invitation to join the Government was never going to dwell on defence. (You can listen to the brief chapter on defence here.) But that doesn’t mean defence isn’t an election issue. It is, and it’s one that the Tories will win. Brown’s defence record is abysmal even by his standards. Former service chiefs
I think that today’s Tory manifesto is really quite a piece of work and potentially a work of genuine radicalism. It looks west and back and while it honours plenty of traditional Tory themes its inspiration is American in ways that not even Margaret Thatcher would have imagined – and that the Lady would have
One of the key questions in any election is turnout: whose voters will turn up and whose won’t. People are clearly disappointed in the political class – on a scale from 0 to 10, trust in politicians and parties is hovering around 3 points – but does it mean that they will stay at home,
Adam Boutlon’s interview with Chris Grayling this afternoon felt like a pressure valve being released. Grayling’s recent low profile had already become a rolling story, and his absence from the speaking line-up at his party’s manifesto launch was bound to fuel more murmuring and speculation – so the Tories clearly decided to wheel him out
It was Peter Mandelson who reminded me. Oh, I don’t think the Dark Lord had any intention of jogging my memory but there it was anyway: this election rmeinds me a little of the American Presidential election in 2000. Now David Cameron’s no George W Bush even though I think some Labour types do misunderstimate
Whatever your political leanings, it is hard to deny that the Tories won the Big Idea Competition. The Labour Party offered a series of unconnected (if occasionally innovative) initiatives. But they lacked coherence. Their manifesto had what Peter Mandelson called “Blair Plus”, but also what could be referred to as “Prescott Squared”. “What’s The Big
Meanwhile, I’m puzzled by quite a bit of Labour’s manifesto. Some of it seems rather sullen, defensive and most put-out. Take the passage on defence for instance: there’s much protesting that, actually, defence budgets so have risen and it’s rotten that anyone should ever think anything to the contrary. And yet Labour seem to concede
You can read Fraser’s verdict here, but this is what the rest of the Web had to say: Janet Daley described it as ‘the perfect pitch’: ‘The Conservatives have just given a launch performance for their manifesto which was as close to perfect as any I have seen. It was clear, coherent and genuinely compelling:
This, folks, is how the Nudgers and so-called “libertarian paternalists” work. From the Tory Manifesto’s (rather brief) passage on civil liberties: The indefinite retention of innocent people’s DNA is unacceptable, yet DNA data provides a useful tool for solving crimes. We will legislate to make sure that our DNA database is used primarily to store
Battersea Power Station is chosen as an allegory for Britain – “a building in need of rejuvenation in a country in need of rejuvenation” says David Cameron. As for Cameron’s speech – great stuff. He delivered the ‘empowerment’ message and gave hard examples, and wrapped it up into a greatest hits of his best soundbites
What a curious election this is. As Tim Montgomerie points out over at Spectator Live (visit!) the Conservative manifesto appears to have been written as though the great Fiscal Crash had never happened. This is either bold or brave or, worse, perhaps both. Then again it’s not as if Labour are offering anything more convincing.
Stay tuned for live coverage from 1100. 1238: And that’s it. Phew – quite a marathon. A strong central message, I think, but it could have been said in fewer words. Thanks for tuning in. 1235: The Guardian’s Nick Watt asks why the Tories aren’t talking more about the extent, and the consequences, of spending
The Conservative Party’s departure from the European People’s Party came down to a choice of expediency over principle. If you are inclined to accept that Britain will stay in the EU and that membership helps this country – even if it requires some compromises – you will likely find the move unfortunate. If you are
Keep those excellent observations flowing in, please. Here’s one I found in the introduction to the Labour Manifesto, published yesterday. Gordon Brown wrote it, apparently: ‘This is a Manifesto about the greater progressive change we need because of the tougher times we are living through. There are no big new spending commitments, but there is
Am I the only one who’d care for a bit more uncertainty and surprise when it comes to the election campaign? I mean, yesterday, Labour released a manifesto which had been heavily trailed for weeks, even months, in advance. And, today, it looks as though the Conservatives are going to do likewise – with the
I have no doubt that history will vindicate Gita Sahgal in her decision to challenge Amnesty International over its relationship with former Guantanamo detainee Moazzam Begg and his organisation Cage Prisoners. She has now left her job, as The Times reports today. This will be a great loss to Amnesty, which has lost a deeply
Battersea Power Station was the site of one of the Tories’ most effective publicity stunts of recent months – and it will be the venue for their manifesto launch tomorrow. Details are already emerging about the document (ConHome has a good summary here), which sounds as though it won’t contain much, if anything, that we
In which case, two questions for CoffeeHousers to mull over: i) To what extent will union attacks harm the Tories, with the threat of strikes rumbling on in the background? ii) Have Unison read the IFS’s research into Labour cuts? The comments section is yours.
Today, President Barack Obama hosts leaders from 46 countries for a two-day nuclear security summit that will focus on how to better safeguard weapons materials, both old and new, and to keep them out of the hands of terrorists. Labour’s manifesto was also launched today. What do the two things have in common? Not a
Labour’s manifesto cover has been the cause of much merriment online – creating what the Americans call “subvertisments”. ConservativeHome has already lined up some spoofs. We asked Carla Millar, who has done quite a bit of work for The Spectator, to do a version with a mushroom cloud of debt in the middle and the
We’ve already collected some of the general blogosphere response to Labour’s manifesto launch, but this addendum is worth making separately. In a post describing the hostility of the Labour crowd towards the gathered media, Adam Boulton writes (with my highlights): “The crowd, including some cabinet ministers, booed and shouted at questions they didn’t like. Nick