All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Like Julian Sanchez, I consider Reason’s compilation of 40 years of Time magazine’s addiction to hysteria a real treat. This 1972 effort – warning, as you can see, of the inexorable rise of Satanism in the United States – is just the beginning of it. From there it’s but a hop, skip and jump to
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
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
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
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
As I wandered through parliament on Monday evening I bumped into a former minister who had just come out of the do-or-die parliamentary Labour Party meeting. He reached in his pocket and showed me a text message on his mobile from a constituency activist: “So it’s a slow, lingering death then,” it said. This was
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:
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
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
The CIA station in London is at the center of a bitter fight between different branches of the US intelligence community in Washington DC. For years, the CIA has had the right to appoint the station chief who runs US intelligence operations in London and liaises with MI6 and GCHQ. Now, the National Security Agency
Usually it’s the war-dead who overshadow the start of PMQs. Today it was the undead. Brown is back and if the Labour rebels really believed his promise to ‘listen’ their trust seems to have been misplaced. This was the Brown of old, the unbudgeable slab of granite, the obsessive numerologist casting statistics in all directions
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,
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
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
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
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
From the Departments of a) Modern Britain and b) Modern Childhood. The Lancashire Telegraph reports: Primary school pupils are to be shown a film about the dangers of terrorists as part of an organised safety day. More than 2,000 10 and 11-year-olds will see a short film, which urges them to tell the police, their
So what’s the story, George Osborne? Reading his speech today, there’s plenty of sturdy talk about lowering the national debt burden and encouraging saving – but a few gaps that need filling if the policy is to live up to the rhetoric. Osborne seems to recognise this himself: for every reference to the Office of
First things first: congratulations to Ireland and the Netherlands for enlivening the World Twenty20 Cup. Secondly, well-done Australia who now have an extra couple of weeks to prepare for the Ashes. Typically, England flattered us with their cunning in their opening fixture only to let us down in their second. Thirdly, I’m indebted to Pootergeek
According to Steve Richards today, Labour figures have given Brown until this autumn to improve the party’s position or they’ll ditch him. Hm. Hasn’t Brown been threatened with these kinds of utlimatums before? Oh yes: The Sunday Telegraph, 20 April, 2008 “The Prime Minister, who is battling a growing rebellion over his abolition of the
ConservativeHome interview William Hague and it’s all very jocular and genial. Except for when it’s being a little bit troubling and alarming. To wit: ConservativeHome: Name three specific things you would change about British foreign policy. William Hague: First, we would create a fully fledged National Security Council, comprising all relevant senior ministers and chaired
Away from the BNP and the Woes of Brown (which sounds like an Aberfeldy tea-room or something) the other notable european result came in Scotland where the SNP’s handsome victory (29-21 over Labour) confirmed that Labour can no longer automatically consider itself the natural governing party in Scotland. Given that the 2007 Holyrood election was
That the civil case against the Omagh bombers has succeeded is wonderful news, a triumph for justice against terror. Ruth Dudley-Edwards, who is writing what will be a superb book on the trial, has a moving piece in the Mail today about what the families went through and what the verdict meant to them. All
One detail from the Indy’s poll about how Labour leaders other than Brown would do particularly amused me: Ed Balls would do a better job than Gordon Brown at holding down Cameron’s majority. Now, in a way this illustrates the problem with this kind of poll: the one percent uptick in Labour support is due
The Guardian reports that the new schools minister Vernon Coaker is a member of the Socialist Educational Association. The SEA campaigns, among other things, for ‘the Government to end the setting up of academies’. So, we have a schools minister who is opposed to the biggest educational innovation Labour has made in its 12 years in
So where have the emails and signed letters calling for Brown to resign gone to? They certainly didn’t appear during the PLP meeting yesterday, which leads you to wonder why. Didn’t they get enough signatures? Did the signatories decide to hold off, to give Brown time to reconstruct his premiership? Or are they planning to
The exchange that follows is not a spoof. It happened on the Today programme this morning and simply defies parody. David Miliband is taking of the need for “radical change”. James Naughtie says that it “failed to occur”. He replies: “No no no. It did occur on the economy. You cannot deny that we have
One figure I’d like to see is the ratio of Labour MPs who think Gordon should go against those – all six of them – who actually told him to go during the PLP meeting yesterday. What would it be? 10:1? 20:1? 30:1? One thing’s for sure: those half-dozen honest souls aren’t the only ones
Boss Man d’Ancona asks us to consider what we would think and what we would do were we Labour MPs. A scary thought, I know but that’s the point of the exercise. For myself, I like to think I’d agree with Tom Harris. That is, if I were a Labour backbencher I’d be very concerned
The front page of tomorrow’s Indy splashes on a poll that shows Johnson would do substantially better than Brown. It has come a bit late, but it does give the rebels some evidence that dumping Brown really would be worth the pain and dislocation it would cause inside the party.
As Fraser said earlier, the rebellion has not been defeated: Brown has not had some moment that restores his authority. Instead, he has made the same pledges that he has made before—to set out his vision, to be more inclusive and to call off his bully boys—and they look like they will be enough to
It’s over and Brown is safe. This, at least, is the verdict from the Commons bars from which I have just done a brief tour to sample the mood on behalf of Coffee Housers. One minister I spoke to – by no means a diehard Brown loyalist – whipped out a list of dissenters who
Cameras are forbidden from filming the committee corridor in full action, which is a shame because it is quite a sight. It seems that Brown’s loyalists have been instructed to go and brief as many journalists as they can—not that anyone is being fooled by the spin, but it is an amusing sight nevertheless. Just
Ben Bradshaw has come out of the PLP meeting claiming Brown gave “the speech of a lifetime”. What a shame the rest of us never see this fiery, articulate Prime Minister. When he goes out in public he is trapped in the body of a stuttering, gaffe-prone bully. Defence Secretary Bob Ainsworth was also sent out of the meeting at