All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So Hazel Blears has decided to fill the bank holiday news void – and ruin Gordon Brown’s weekend – by attacking politicians’ use of YouTube. Fraser and Martin have highlighted the sticky political consequences of her Observer piece, but there’s a more straightforward problem. A quick search of YouTube will reveal Hazel as a massive
Ed Balls faces his own trio of troubles this Sunday. First, there’s Charles Clarke’s not so coded call for him to resign. Then, there is the overwhelming decision by the National Association of Head Teachers to boycott Sats for 11 year-olds despite a personal appeal from Balls not to just before the vote at their
Three themes dominate the political coverage in The Sunday papers and demonstrate just how big a hole Brown is in. There are another slew of expenses stories, according to Labour’s internal polling this is the most important issue in driving its former supporters away. To go with the expenses stories, there is an excess story:
Hm. Whom to believe? In one corner, we have a source telling the Sunday Mail that the chief whip and Downing Street enforcer, Nick Brown, has drawn up a hit-list of “lazy” (aka rebellious) Labour MPs, who could well be whacked (aka deselected) ahead of the next election. Allegedly on that list are eight of
Hazel Blears knows exactly what she’s doing by intervening in print during the Labour Party’s darkest spring. Think of it the other way around. Ministers know that when the Prime Minister pledges 100 per cent support then it’s curtains. It’s a sign of the declining authority of Number 10 that this rule has now been inverted. Cabinet
Enter the iron chipmunk. Hazel Blears has given it straight to Gordon Brown in the Observer, including the immortal line “YouTube if you want to” – this lady is not for tubing. She’s for campaigning, operating on a wavelength broadly approaching that of the British public. This shook up No10 which forced her to put
Disquiet on the Labour backbenches, calls for Brown to go, Harriet Harman calling for “unity” – ie, politician-speak for “I’m game”: will Labour stage a mutiny this summer, as they failed to do last summer? Absolutely not. Tories do mutiny, and do it properly. It’s House of Cards-style brutality: serious people doing serious violence to
The meaning of the heir to Blair quote has been grossly distorted, but this letter that Cameron has sent to Thatcher on the eve of the thirtieth anniversary of her becoming Prime Minister does strike me as important: “I still find it awe-inspiring to think of the state of the nation you inherited and the
The latest news should obviously have you feeling Very, Very Afraid: Mexico has revised down the suspected death toll from swine flu from 176 to 101, indicating that the outbreak may not be as bad as was initially feared. Health Minister Jose Angel Cordova told the BBC that, based on samples tested, the mortality rate
I suspect that Lord Ashdown and the Lib Dems are involved in a bit of mischief-making with their suggestion that Blairite MPs might come and join them (see Pete’s take on the story here). The Lib Dems have no realistic prospect of power and I suspect that the Blairites are thoroughly tired of constantly going against
Nick Clegg does seem to be keeping busy. After his excellent work during the Gurkha vote, which incorporated the first outing of the Clegg-Cameron coalition, today’s Telegraph contains this revelation: “Nick Clegg, the Lib Dem leader, has privately authorised secret approaches to unhappy Blairites, trying to persuade them to join the Lib Dems instead of
From Matthew Parris in The Times today: The Brown saga is less Shakespearean tragedy than Pinter farce. The Ozymandian statue will be inscribed, not “Look on my works, ye mighty, and despair!” but “Gordon Brown – what were we thinking of?”. The whole column is, as always with Matthew, well worth reading. As Matthew says,
It was vintage John Prescott on the Today programme today. Utterly incoherent, but the man just never, ever gives up. The way he dismissed the recent snipers was just so vicious. Only a party at war with itself could produce quite this level of high-class bitchiness. David Blunkett, it turns out, had refused to join
The FT Magazine has a great wee cover story on what is, in my view, the no.1 scandal in Britain today: the divergence between life expectancy in rich and poor areas. The author, Hugh Williamson, says: I’ll give him my answer. First, the richest have the best education. There is noting equal about our comprehensive
One of the things that will become apparent in the coming years is just how irresponsible this last Budget was. It put party ahead of country in a way that few Budgets ever had. Many civil servants, who know the true numbers, are despairing about what it means for Britain’s future. Peter Oborne writes today
This month’s Standpoint carries a powerful piece by Nick Cohen about the recent bad behaviour in the court of the Prime Minister. I will say no more than that.
The rhododendron flowers are out, so it must be time for the big beasts of the Labour Party to stir again. Charles Clarke has said that he’s ashamed to be a Labour MP after the events of the past few weeks. Well, who wouldn’t be? Clarke says there are no signs of a leadership challenge, but
Around the world workers are celebrating 1st of May. I too will be celebrating, but for different reasons. Today Marcel Rayman – my first cousin twice removed – would have turned 86. Born in Warsaw, he moved to France aged eight. A studious boy, he finished his exams in record time and went to work
One of the reasons Obama has been so successful in his brief political career is that he has largely dodged the culture wars. I remember in Iowa and New Hampshire meeting many voters who were drawn to him because they wanted to, in Obama’s phrase, stop re-litigating the 1960s. But the Supreme Court vacancy caused
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson watches Gordon Brown play politics over troop numbers, and sets out why we need a proper debate on 50p tax. James Forsyth says that the Gurkha victory is a victory for the House, and wonders what the Tories’ policy on
Generalisation of the Day comes from Jay Nordlinger at National Review: In my experience — and I’m just generalizing here — the better the person, the more positive he is about George W. Bush. Well! Look, I don’t hate Dubya and I was glad he defeated Al Gore, but the notion that liking the 43rd
Iain Martin – who’s been blogging has been splendid lately – is right: the Tories should be worried that Labour might unseat Gordon Brown and fight the next election under new leadership. It’s hard to see how even this could win the election for Labour, but at the very least it might limit the losses
One of the opportunities that the resurgent Labour infighting presents the Tories is to portray the Government as too caught up in dirty politics to deal properly with the economic crisis. It’s a message that keys directly into the “headless chicken” charge, and it’s boosted by stories like this, via today’s Indpendent: “The Government’s £200m
We know the date of at least one election in 2010: the locals will be on May 6h. There also has to be a general election by Thursday the third of June. It is hard to see how the government could recover from a drubbing in May to win an election in June. It is almost certain that
As part of an excellent back-and-forth with Daniel Larison on the question of patritism, Noah Millman asks: Can one hold that both Marsall Petain and General de Gaulle were French patriots? I think the answer to this one has to be “yes.” You can’t hold that both were right, but you can believe that both
The other day, Danny Finkelstein asked if Peter Mandelson has “given up”. He was reflecting upon Mandelson’s wistful declaration that his career “has not been as successful as I wished. You have certain goals and I never acheived them. That’s a disappointment for me.” Danny professed himself astonished by this, arguing that by any measure
If you want an idea of how worrying the situation in Pakistan is, read this story from James Rosen: ‘Gen. David Petraeus, commander of U.S. Central Command, has told U.S. officials the next two weeks are critical to determining whether the Pakistani government will survive, FOX News has learned. “The Pakistanis have run out of
Paul Routledge in today’s Daily Mirror: “David Cameron is no different to Thatcher. He is – and I’m afraid you have to accept my word for this – a crap employer. And anybody who does not treat his staff properly is, to my mind, not fit to employ the nation and run the country.” Charles
Martin Kettle reports in The Guardian today that: “There is a lot of talk now about yet another shakeout at No 10. Lord Mandelson is pressing for a senior politician – not necessarily himself – to fill the righthand man role that Chris Patten played for John Major in 1992.” This is understandable given that, as
So what effect will the 50p tax have on the super-rich? It depends who these people are – and surprisingly little is known about them. One of the most useful sources is the Sunday Times Rich List. One came out last week, and the first issue was in 1989. Unfortunately, it’s not online, but it is stored
We baristas at CoffeeHouse aim to serve all our customers, so I’m happy that I have made John Rentoul remind himself that he is “left wing really.” And why? Because in my (admittedly grumpy) write-up of Cameron’s press conference yesterday I said that using words like “Laffer” to describe the pernicious effects of high tax
Brown’s dwindling authority has become the issue du jour. Despite what Downing Street is saying, the matter isn’t even up for question. After the bizarre YouTube expenses fiasco, and the defeat over Gurkha settlement rights, Brown has pretty much lost any meaningful control over his party. And, as if to ram the point home, there’s
Yesterday, The Times published an interview with William Hague. Here’s how it reported his views on the defence budget and Trident: ‘The MoD budget was “not immune”. But he again pledged his party to upgrading the Trident nuclear deterrent.’ But today at his press conference, David Cameron said: “having the best replacement there is for
Ross Douthat, the new New York Times columnist, has a smart piece up at The Atlantic arguing that the beginning of the Obama presidency has been the easy bit precisely because his inheritance has been so bad. Here’s the nub of his argument: “Barack Obama hit the trifecta. He’s inherited two ongoing military conflicts; he’s