James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The latest extract from Bob Woodward’s book about the battle over Iraq policy among the military is well worth reading. It reveals quite how bad relations got between advocates of the surge and the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Jack Keen—a retired general and a key advocate of the surge—was even banned from travelling to Iraq by the
The Real Clear Politics polling average now has McCain ahead by 2.9 percent, the largest lead he has ever had by this measure and the first time he has been ahead in it since April. Now, this number obviously needs to be taken with a pinch of salt: McCain is currently enjoying both his convention
Fraser has already commented on the economics side of George Osborne’s interview in The Guardian today, but this little bit about Iraq stood out to me: “I still have rows with my mother about the Iraq war,” Osborne says. Felicity Loxton-Peacock, noted debutante, anti-Vietnam war protester and former deli owner, feels particularly strongly on the
Andrew Sparrow flags up a quote by David Miliband at today’s Cabinet away-day in Birmingham: “I think Gordon is leading us with more vigour and determination and will prove people wrong … I am absolutely convinced that Gordon can lead us to victory. He has enormous values, drive and vision.” Now, as Andrew admits one
The ‘conservatorship’ of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae represents, as Steven Pearlstein notes in the Washington Post, the most direct role for the federal government in the “workings of the financial system” since the great depression. Clive Crook points out that the eventual nationalisation of Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will bring 25 more times
Nick Clegg’s interview with the Sunday Telegraph today is a punchy affair. He derides the Tories as “the flaky party” on the economy and tells Melissa Kite that the Lib Dems are looking to go further than the 4p cut in the basic rate of income tax that they have already promised. Now, those of
Bob Woodward’s latest book on the Bush administration is being serialised by the Washington Post this week and is a grim reminder of just how badly Iraq strategy was run for so long. This exchange between Condoleezza Rice and General George Casey in Iraq in, presumably, November 2005 illustrates the almost total lack of policy
“If GB goes down, he’s going to take everybody with him.” John Rentoul reports, in his column today, that this is what Nick Brown has told various Labour backbenchers. Leaving aside the sub-Godfather nature of the rhetoric, it is clear that the Brownites have decided to fight the enemy they know how to beat: their
Andrew Rawnsley hits the nail on the head when he says that a “Prime Minister cannot be on perpetual probation”. At some point soon if it is not to go down to total disaster at the next election, Labour will either have to back or sack Brown. But as Rawnsley points out, Labour is in
In the last week there have been several stories about how Stephen Carter, the PM’s chief strategist, is to be demoted or moved; Brown can hardly bear to look at him any more according to one source. But Patrick Wintour’s piece in The Guardian today suggests that Carter isn’t planning on going quietly. Wintour reports
The new ABC poll, conducted yesterday so after Palin’s speech, is a mixed bag for the McCain campaign. On the one hand, less than half of voters—42 percent to be precise—think that Palin has the right experience to serve as president. On the other, Obama’s numbers on this aren’t much better; in a pre-convention ABC
The Brown re-launch is falling flat because all the ideas in it were previewed over the summer, meaning that their announcement does little for Brown’s prospects. Indeed, in some cases it does positive harm as the actual policy is less bold than the one that was floated. Now, this has happened for a reason—the ideas
Iain Martin has a quite brilliant line in his column today on Charles Clarke and his plotting : “If this is an attempted coup, it is shaping up to be the most badly organised since Simon Mann looked at Equatorial Guinea on a map of Africa and thought: that looks worth a shot.” My sense is
The Sarah Palin pick has given John McCain permission to say what he wants in policy terms tonight. The base is fired up and ready to go thank to both the media assault on Palin and her social and fiscal conservative credentials and even if McCain deviates from conservative orthodoxy they aren’t going to stay
Many people in the Westminster Village will tell you that Labour’s last best chance is to personally attack David Cameron. The theory is that if you can take down Cameron, the Tories will fold. But when you ask about what Labour should go negative on you receive pretty weak answers involving the Bullingdon, Eton or
There’s a fascinating stat in Prospect’s In Fact column. In England, 57 per cent of children aged five to twelve have visited visited Spain and 54 per cent France. But only 44 per cent have visited Wales and 39 per cent Scotland. I’m tempted to blame this discrepancy on our appallingly expensive train system but
Martin Bright’s politics column in The New Statesman this week is absolutely essential reading. He points out that Miliband has to challenge soon or he too will be seen as a bottler, that Labour still can’t agree on how to challenge Cameron and that the Cabinet simply aren’t use to operating in such tough times—none
There are a couple of excellent articles in the Evening Standard today. Joe Murphy has done a great piece on how Gordon Brown has left Stephen Carter high and dry. Brown gave Carter a big title, promised him authority and then backed off as soon as the old guard began to kick up fuss and
The press are always declaring speeches ‘the most important of the campaign so far’ but Sarah Palin’s tonight really is. John McCain took a huge gamble in picking the first-term governor of Alaska as his running mate and even without the revelations of the past few days tonight would be important for her given that
Sue Cameron delivers up another great mix of scoops and quotes in her FT column this morning—it is worth paying £1.50 for this quote from Peter Hennessy alone: “If you think this lot have a Baldrick-style cunning plan you are flattering them”. But the more serious point comes from an anonymous insider: “Downing Street is