James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
Fraser and I were having supper with some political folk last night when the expenses story broke. After everyone had digested the Telegraph’s write-up, conversation turned to the Tories: were their claims to be going to worse or not? In truth, I don’t think that matters. There are only three members of the shadow Cabinet
I suspect that the story about Brown paying his brother £6,000 for cleaning services could be as damaging to the Prime Minister outside the Westminster Village as the McBride story was to him inside. One of the few remaining things Brown had going for him was the idea that whatever you thought of him he
Shimon Peres is a man of the Israeli centre-left and someone who has repeatedly tried to make peace. So, it is worth noting what the Israeli president said about Iran–and how similar is to what Netanyahu says about the subject—in an interview with Jeffrey Goldberg of the Atlantic. JG: Is there a chance that Israel
Anyone who has watched the West Wing knows there’s a cult of long hours in Washington. Obviously, there are times when people do need to work around the clock. But there are other times when a 12 hour working day is sufficient. Anyone who demonstrates this, though, riles establishment Washington. President Bush’s habit of being
This report from the Washington Post detailing the tales of refugees from the Swat valley shows why, eventually, we will triumph against the Taliban and their ilk: “As the refugees begin streaming out of Swat and the neighboring Buner district in northwest Pakistan, they carry with them memories of the indignities and horrors inflicted by
Very interesting write-up in the Mirror today of a speech Alan Johnson is delivering in London today. The enthusiasm of the report suggests that the Mirror is very much open to Johnson replacing Brown. The line of attack, though, is still very Brown. The Mirror reports that Johnson will say: “It is telling that the
The New York Times has an excellent symposium up on Pakistan’s nuclear weapons. This point from Rolf Mowatt-Larssen, a former CIA officer who headed up the office of Intelligence and Counterintelligence at the Department of Energy under President Bush, is particularly concerning: “Twice since the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. taken action to break up networks inside
As Pete said earlier, the question of how Brown gets out of this Post Office mess is fascinating. On the one hand he has the 150 plus Labour MPs who have signed an early day motion against the plan—and you can add to that number a fair few MPs who are trying to fly below
Hamish McRae, whose coverage of the crash has been prescient and authoritative, sets out the key question that comes out of the state of the public finances in his column today: “We have had over the past decade the largest increase in public spending that has ever taken place in peacetime. It is also the
Parties of the right fall into a simplified, intellectual comfort zone when they have been in power too long. It happened to the Tories and it has happened to the Republicans. David Brooks sets out the problem in his New York Times column: “Republicans are so much the party of individualism and freedom these days
Ephraim Hardcastle’s column in the Mail today contains this story about the Prime Minister’s tense relationship with the Number 10 staff: ‘A switchboard operator rang him back the other day and said they wouldn’t put up with being spoken to like that. Brown had to apologise.’ Its appearance is further evidence that it is now
Pete has already flagged up Rachel Sylvester’s column, but there’s one line in it about the Gurkhas that particularly caught my attention: “I am told that ministers agreed in a Cabinet sub-committee that the issue should be resolved, but they were overruled by No10.” On Friday, there was a huge blame game going on about
I’m becoming increasingly convinced that in a year to 18 months time, we’ll come to view the global situation as even more alarming than the economic one. Arguably, the greatest cause for concern is Pakistan. (I still, though, tend to view Iran’s nuclear ambitions as the greatest potential threat.) In Pakistan, almost every concern of
Today’s Times reports that Peter Mandelson and Ed Balls will head up a weekly strategy meeting in Downing Street. This along with the fall of McBride presumably means the end of the infamous Wednesday meetings. These Wednesday meetings summed up what so many people inside the Labour party disliked about Brown and his way of
The Telegraph has a front page story which guarantees that the Labour leadership speculation will continue for a while yet. It reports that Harriet Harman’s “friends have told The Daily Telegraph that Miss Harman will not stand aside in favour of a rival considered more appealing to voters” if there is a contest. In anything
Arlen Specter, the senior Senator from Pennsylvania, switched parties for no higher reason than to save his seat: that is what should worry Republicans. That Specter thought he had no chance of winning as a Republican in a state that until the 2006 mid-terms had two Republican Senators is a sign of how far and
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:
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
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