Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Well the “statement” is in – not so much from Tom Watson as from his lawyers, Carter-Ruck, who are complaining about Iain Dale’s article in the Mail on Sunday which claimed that Watson was copied into those emails. Here is the statement: “We have today been instructed by government minister Tom Watson, MP for West
I hear Tom Watson is about to make a “personal statement” which should clear up how much he knew about Red Rag and Damiangate. Last time I looked, Guido didn’t have any crosshairs trained on him – but we’ll see. UPDATE: He isn’t going to resign, I’m told. But expect a statement tonight.
So, has the spin operation worked? McBride’s quick depature had three objectives. 1. Close down the story. This seems to have worked: today’s news doesn’t have many more developments. If tomorrow’s papers have nothing new, then Damiangate may not last until Wednesday. This would be, in the circumstances, the best possible outcome for Brown as
McBride’s resignation statement is in, and true to character he has decided not to skulk off home apologetically. It was all the wicked Guido, he says. ‘All I was doing was having a bit of a laugh with my mate Derek. As an upstanding member of the community, I am morally sickened that the wretched
So what was Damian McBride planning in those emails? I can give you a glimpse of what the News of the World* has tomorrow – it’s an outline of the various dirty tricks discussed by McBride and Derek Draper, and it was far more developed than what has so far been claimed. The smears –
So, it’s happened. The News of the World has confirmed that Damian McBride has quit – and I understand that it will tomorrow publish the emails at the centre of the storm. The logic for the resignation is clear. McBride broke two cardinal rules for spin doctors: 1) Never become the story, and 2) Never,
I woke up to a text message this morning from a friend in Whitehall. “I see Mc**** is in the doodoo”. An expletive preceded by “Mc” can only refer to one person – and indeed, as James and Pete have blogged, Damian McBride is back in the news with his redoubtable emails. I said a
The old wartime poster ‘Keep Calm and Carry On’ has been reprinted recently and is turning up in the strangest places around Westminster. I have seen it on an MP’s desk and emblazoned on the cufflinks of a Treasury civil servant. It certainly captures the sense that we are undergoing an economic blitz, and acknowledges
What’s the difference between a banker and a pizza? A pizza can feed a family of four. So ran one of Vince Cable’s jokes when he presented the British Press Awards last week – but there is a crucial flaw. He reckoned without the financiers running an exchange-traded business fund named iShares. It is a
Was it remarkable that George Osborne rejected laissez-faire economics in his speech yesterday? A CoffeeHouser, Marcus Cotswell, asks why I didn’t pick up on it in my summary yesterday. It is a very good point, and perhaps one worth addressing in a post rather than a comment. The Tories have never, ever believed in laissez-faire
So, whither Tory economic policy? It was George Osborne’s turn to discuss it today, and, overall, it’s very good news. The shadow chancellor’s speech appears to be a rejection of Brownite rules-based economics. Inflation targeting was not enough to prevent the crash, and Osborne appears to say he’d empower the Bank of England governor to
Labour’s agony about how to attack the Tories continues. Is Cameron a spivvy PR man? A lightweight, unqualified for the job? Or is he actually an alright bloke; the acceptable face of an unacceptable party? The problem with the latter argument is that you accept that Cameron and Osborne are good things. But it’s the
Sky News’s coverage of the recession has today taken on a powerful new dimension: a ” debt counter”, starting today, counting in real time how much extra debt Gordon Brown is saddling the public with during the financial year 2009/10. It started at zero at 7am and it’s rising at £4,800 a second as per
Ed Balls isn’t quite sure how to attack the Tory ‘Swedish schools’ policy. But a story in today’s Observer about a Tory councillor sounding off about it gives him a chance to try. The words issued are from Jim Knight, but I put them below and by thoughts interspersed. “Once they know the truth about
Good old Alistair Darling is on manouevres again. Normally, Chancellors stay quiet before the Budget but he has admitted to the Sunday Times that there will not (surprise, surprise) be an economic recovery starting in July as he predicted last October. “We must be realistic about this,” he says. “I think it will be the
The figure Gordon Brown will have been waiting for is now in: the post G20 bounce. He’s reduced the Tory lead to 7 points ( from 10 points pre-G20) with Labour up a modest three points to 34% according to a YouGov poll published in the Sunday Times tomorrow. The Tories are at 41% and
For the last 15 years, a four-letter word has terrified and paralysed the Conservative leadership: cuts. When it has been deployed by Gordon Brown on the electoral battlefield, the Tories have had no defence. Even after they surrendered and signed up to Labour’s spending plans, Mr Brown still accused them of planning ‘deep and painful
Eric Pickles says his Question Time disaster last week was a “car crash” which has changed his views on MPs expenses. He opens his heart to Andrew Neil in Straight Talk, being shown on BBC News Channel this weekend. “You’re just trying to steer away and the more I tried to steer away the worse
Britain has as its Prime Minister a master of political illusion. He may not be much of an orator, but there is no one better at dressing up old money as new. If the G20 nations wanted to fake progress, to spin a $1.1 trillion figure while committing no new money at all, then Gordon
For most of the 15 years, an orthodoxy has governed Westminster: that cuts are bad, and that higher state spending – sorry, “investment” – is good. While the Tories stayed mute, Gordon Brown embarked on the biggest explosion of state spending in the developed world. As I say in my column today, only the oddballs