Uk politics

Jo Swinson has just given what, by my count, is her third platform speech of the conference. All of them have been competently delivered and got her message across. She has an impressive ability to carry the hall with her. One can see why so many of those around Nick Clegg view her as the solution to the Lib Dems’ women problem. At the moment, all five of the party’s Cabinet ministers are men. Given her qualities as a communicator and her age—she’s 32, one would be tempted to tip Swinson as a future leader. But her seat is a problem. Her majority in East Dunbartonshire is only a touch

I’ve avoided commenting on Andrew Mitchell’s problems with police officers and gates because, damn it, the whole affair has been saturated in so much stupidity that it scarcely seemed to warrant further examination. But James Kirkup has pushed me over the edge. He asks if David Cameron “trusts the word of the police who guard his house”. Break. Give. Me. A. Never fear, however, because the indomitable lobby is on the scent and determined to pursue the Prime Minister on this, even to the ends of the earth itself: Sadly, I can’t tell you the answer, because the PM’s not saying; ministers are also being told by No 10 not

Whisper it sceptically but something interesting may have happened in Scotland yesterday. It might even turn out to be an important something too. Even more remarkably, this was all because of a speech given by Johann Lamont, leader of Labour’s bedraggled Scottish troops. I know, it all sounds too astonishing to be true. Be that as it may, Lamont’s speech in which she argued it’s time for Scotland to cease living on “the never never” and admit there will, probably, soon be a choice between raising taxes and cutting services was a rare move towards reality. Lamont’s address was the kind of thing sarcastic types are supposed to call “brave”

Lib Dem internal documents leaked to the Spectator warn that the party has no branding strategy, staff ‘lack research literacy’ and campaigns are based on ‘received wisdom’ rather than any evidence that current tactics are working. I’ve been passed a presentation seen by aides close to Nick Clegg, staff at Lib Dem HQ, MPs and SpAds over the past few months which is damning about the party’s preparations for 2015. These slides cannot have made particularly comfortable reading for staffers and parliamentarians: (Click on each image to view a larger version) The presentation paints a picture of a party operation where ‘staff lack research literacy and capacity to analyse data properly’,

Vince Cable’s speech yesterday setting out how he thinks there’ll be another hung parliament was a significant moment. It was clear last night, that it had placed in peoples’ minds the question of whether Cable was more likely to hold Lib Dem seats than Nick Clegg and whether he would be able to better exploit a second hung parliament. This has added to the importance of Nick Clegg’s speech tomorrow. I understand that on Wednesday Clegg will be forceful rather than apologetic, it will be a book end to his sorry over tuition fees. He intends to use it to set out where he is taking his party. The Liberal

Andrew Mitchell’s future as Chief Whip is not looking bright thanks to two stories in today’s papers. The first is from the Times, which reports (£) that Mitchell went for two expensive outings on the ‘long and hard day’ the incident occurred. At lunchtime, the Chief Whip visited the Cinnamon Club – a £50-a-head Indian restaurant in Westminster. Later on, after Mitchell rode off from the Downing Street altercation, he visited a Tory private members’ club — the Carlton Club in St — as a guest speaker at a private dinner. Neither will chime with most people’s perception of a long and hard day. The second story comes from the Telegraph,