Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Richard Littlejohn is perhaps the funniest journalist in Britain today, but it’s a mistake to be distracted by the brilliance of his jokes. He regularly unearths the social and political trends making a direct impact on people’s lives. Today its the “global warming racket” – how councils are hiring “carbon advisers” on £30k a year.
What today’s polls say to me is “early election”. If Brown keeps this up into the recess, his honeymoon will stretch through the summer. Remember, the Tories need a ten-point lead to win an overall majority. I’ve been amazed how much ammunition Brown is discharging. He could have announced Super Casinos in the autumn. He
Reading the blogosphere must often be a frustrating business for David Cameron. But I gather a more supportive site is on the way. Fiona Melville, a member of his leadership campaign who left the party just two months ago, is working on a website which my sources tell me will have a “modern liberal Conservative
Putting City Academies under the care of local authorities is like putting chickens in the care of wolves – as Mr Brown knows very well. So it’s goodbye to Mr Blair’s market reforms, although the Prime Minister has subcontracted the wielding of the knife. Witness his twin strategy: he keeps Lord Adonis, joint architect of
Brown has a PMQs headline for us: let Cameron do the PR, he’ll be the PM. Well, his performance was better than last week. But what struck me was the Tory’s “behold the Jock” strategy. One Tory backbencher demanded English votes for English laws. Another asked “The Prime Minister claims to treat people equally, so
The News of the World (where yours truly is a columnist) is not only top for celebrity news (they had the Wills/Kate reunion last week) but its news stories are often ahead of the competition by weeks. So I’m struck by their story that there now 219 terror cells on MI5’s map, plus a fascinating
Don’t mention the war on terror — even if we’re winning it The war on terror is over — or at least has been purged from the vocabulary of Gordon Brown’s government. The phrase, he has decided, will never be mentioned by any of his ministers. The men who attempted to attack a London nightclub
Perched high up in the press gallery for PMQs, I didn’t see Cameron’s superb sneer when Brown moaned he’s only been in the job for five days (seven, actually, Gordon but who’s counting?). That sneer was the most eloquent remark of all. Like American party conventions, there are two shows – the one you see
A packed house and full of entertainment. Ming Campbell spent ages trying to make his way to his seat: people didn’t seem to notice him. Brown was wearing a pastel blue tie, Cameron a red one – just one sign of the switched agendas going on. Brown is still being cautious on terror “I’ve only
Some thoughts on the Brown statement… 1. Cameron’s response was very good. He had varied intonation and passion – while Brown’s stutter got steadily worse as he read his constitutional proposals out like a Budget-style shopping list. I fancied I saw Cameron’s hands shake a little as he faced Prime Minister Brown for the first time
What I love about the climate change “debate” is that when the public show themselves unconvinced about its wilder claims, the media talks patronisingly about a need to “educate.” This goes to show that environmentalism has become a religion with no tolerance for dissenters who must either be converted or burnt at the cross. Iain
Some thoughts on the Tory reshuffle… 1. This was described to me as an “election footing” reshuffle. It’s the explanation why Maude has gone – he represented the pre-election phase, apparently. 2. George Osborne is given powers for election co-ordinator. He has no experience in the field, and will face a formidable challenge from Douglas Alexander who
Francis Maude has been sacked as Tory chairman, party sources confirm. He’ll be taking up another job, though. More soon.
Fraser Nelson says that the new Prime Minister has positioned himself in territory that the Tories have left vacant, and is ready to fight a cultural battle to defend the ‘British way of life’ and win over the C1 voters who decide elections It was a phrase that David Cameron would never dare to utter.
A Job Centre machine had been installed right outside James Purnell’s office. It’s one of the Department of Work and Pensions’s new toys, matching up some of Britain’s 1.6 million unemployed with its 638,000 vacancies. But why this device should be outside the desk of the Minister for Pensions is unclear. ‘It is rather ominous,’
Blair’s been interviewed by the police again, and the reformed Spice Girls are giving a press conference. So the reshuffle is not much news by comparison, but here are my thoughts:-
My only surprise about Quentin Davies’ defection is that he joined the Tories in the first place. Last year he stopped me in the Commons to tell me he’d just “36 hours ago” become head of the Conservative pro-Euro group and started evangelising. Isn’t it crazy, he asked, that every country has its own foreign
When puzzling over how on earth Harriet Harman won Labour’s deputy leadership, my mind went back to an episode of Auf Wiedersehen Pet. The boys had voted to choose a colour to paint their shared hut. The votes were counted – and pink won. They were all aghast. Neville explained that no one voted pink as their
Boris Johnson is being rather coy about his chances for promotion. ‘Statistically, I am due to be fired again,’ he tells this month’s GQ magazine. ‘It may be that the psychological effort needed to haul myself around into a more gaffe-free zone proves too difficult.’ This is not the orthodox view: most in Westminster consider
The Tory health policy – such as it is – is based on the Kinnockite principle of “trust the professionals.” A story in GP magazine shows what naïve nonsense this is. It suits GPs to get through patients as quickly as they can, rather than explaining to them the government’s choice agenda and talking them