Fraser Nelson is a Times columnist and a former editor of The Spectator.
Blair was good today, buzzing, contemptuous and articulate. Cameron was better. He was on top of the facts and ready with sound bites (“he’ll release more prisoners this year than the entire prison population of Australia”). Just the skills he’ll need for fighting Brown. Ken Purchase (former PPS to the late Robin Cook) denouncing Lord
The Times today comes up with some new sea shanties for our times. My favourite is The Guardian’s ditty about John Prescott – click here if you haven’t seen it. Priceless.
I’ve now learnt why today’s event was held in Tooting. First, my former home is now considered a bellwether target seat, and second the candidate in question – Mark Clarke – is considered one of the party’s most promising rising stars. He’s also chairman of Conservative Future and a blogger. His warm-up before Cameron certainly drew
When you hear the word “progressive” mentioned in Westminster, it is normally a Labour MP (like Douglas Alexander) preparing the ground for coalition with the Liberal Democrats. I’ve never understood this. Left wing policies are regressive, weigh the economy down, stifle creativity and keep the poor languishing on benefits. So I’m glad David Cameron is
Fraser Nelson says that Tony Blair’s swansong summit next week is fraught with danger for Gordon Brown. The last thing the next Prime Minister wants in his in-tray is a new EU constitution that he has to sell to the British public For what must surely be the last time, war has broken out between
To those who find the Iraq coverage too Baghdad-based (Our Boys are in the south, from which we hear almost nothing) here is a superb photo essay from Michael Yon with the Queen’s Royal Lancers in the Maysan province.
I’ve been following with fascination the still-ongoing spat between Iain Dale and Sunday journalists: he suggests they wrote up a story Gordon Brown planted on the condition that no opposition spokesmen was quoted. He raises a reasonable question: why would a responsible journalist not go to the Tories or LibDems for comment? One answer: you run
Add up all the spellings of Mohammed and you learn it’s now Britain’s no2 baby name. I did this for my News of the World column on Sunday, and The Times has followed it up today. It’ll be no 1 next year, on current trends. This is partly because Muslims tend to go for a narrower
It was a wonderfully subtle point by the Sunday Times. They run a profile of Andy Coulson, the Tory’s new communications chief, and beneath it a piece by David Cameron showing yet again just how badly Coulson is needed. He starts off agreeing with Blair – that the Tories were backward-looking losers. (Remind me, David,
Even from his holiday home in Crete, David Cameron will be able to sense the waves of schism and confusion which engulf his party this week. Parliament is not sitting, yet the grammar schools row has already triggered one shadow ministerial resignation, with the threat of more to come. It is enough to make Gordon
It’s 11pm on Thursday and the Tory grapevine is buzzing with the kind of mutinous talk I haven’t heard for two years. Conservative MPs are talking about open revolt in their constituencies over grammar schools. The party is united – behind Dominic Grieve, who has said he wants more grammar schools to open where they
The Conservatives long hunt for a communications chief is over. Andy Coulson, ex-editor of the News of the World, will be confirmed later today as its new communications chief and it’s an appointment that will stun Westminster. No one would have thought the party would get someone of his calibre. Last summer Andy hired me as
For some time, David Cameron has been looking for an unpopular education policy. To be heard, he believes, one needs to be attacked. He has already been denounced for his ‘hug a hoodie’ speech and for promoting the family. The ensuing arguments, he feels, moved the party forward. So how to repeat the trick with
I’ve just come back from Steve Richards’ sofa for the Sunday Programme, sitting alongside Iain Dale. The grammar school debate is still raging, and whatever David Cameron has to say to the party membership pale into insignificance compared to what John Bercow, a fellow guest, had to say before we came on. He accused the
There is a curious sound Labour MPs make when Tony Blair is on form, a kind of yodel which resonates around the chamber. We heard plenty of it this afternoon, as he wiped the floor with David Cameron. Do the Tories really want to abolish all NHS targets? Isn’t that pandering to health unions? The
Just back from David Cameron’s press conference. It was a Blair-style “beat the goalie” session, with journalists invited to ask him nasty questions until they were exhausted. And, like Blair, he walked away unscathed. As ever, I have gripes: he’s still using the meaningless phrase “Social Responsibility” to sum up what his Conservatism is about.
Should Scotland have its own Olympic team? Alex Salmond thinks so, and his point is far from trivial. For the SNP, politics is sport carried on by other means. I was working in a bar during the 1992 Olympics in the naval town of Rosyth, and I’ll never forget the celebration there when Linford Christie’s
A sense of stagnation has descended upon the House of Commons. The king is dead, and yet the new king will not be enthroned for weeks. Nothing much can happen in the meantime. After delivering his latest farewell speech, Tony Blair is still making spectral appearances around the country for purposes no one is quite
Alan Milburn was nine years old when he arrived home to find the front door of his council house had been painted bright yellow. His mother, who looked after him on her own, was perplexed. In the morning it had been red, but men with brushes had come and gone. This was to have a
My political column has only just been published, and already I’m getting stick for being soft on Gordon Brown. Here’s my case: few can deny Brown has great political skills, unrivalled grasp of detail and is a masterful strategist. And he has character traits which may lead him to deliver many things Conservatives would applaud.