James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
One of the problems besetting this government is that it lacks a narrative; Cabinet Ministers cannot put their policies into context and voters cannot tell what you the government is for. In The Independent today, Andrew Grice argues that a message and a messenger are prerequisites of a Brown recovery and it is hard to
The decision by Russia and China to veto sanctions against Zimbabwe should finally remove the scales from peoples’ eyes about the role and purpose of the United Nations. The UN’s founding purpose, at which it has been effective, was to prevent great power conflict. That is why the UN cannot act without the consent of
The Telegraph is reporting that next week David Cameron will invite David Davis to take on a role overseeing Tory policy on civil liberties. Presumably, the hope is that this will ensure that Davis is more inside the tent than out. It does not, though, solve the problem of the balance of the Tory top
There is another set of depressing poll numbers for Gordon Brown today. A new YouGov poll for The Telegraph has the SNP ahead of Labour in general election voting intention for the first time—the SNP is on 33, Labour 29, the Tories 20 and the Lib Dems 14. Although as Anthony Wells notes, Labour would
If you want to get a sense for how demoralised Labour MPs are at the moment read John Kampfner in The Telegraph today. Kampfner writes that: “Several senior figures I have spoken to in recent weeks say they are considering standing down before the next election. This is a natural process, but such a retirement
David Davis cruised to victory last night in the Haltemprice and Howden by-election with 72 percent of the vote on a 34 percent turnout. Turnout was high enough for Davis to avoid embarrassment and attests to his popularity in his constituency. But one is still left wondering why he resigned as an MP forfeiting the
There is an important piece in The Washington Post today detailing how China is imprisoning and harassing political activists in the run up to the games: As the Olympics draw near, Chinese security officials appear to be targeting people who could channel information about rights abuses and government corruption to foreigners by publishing, as Huang’s
Kevin Maguire reports in the New Statesman that Alex Salmond has taken to signing his letters: Yours of Scotland, Alex It is hard to think of a more pompous valediction.
Ben Brogan, one of the most plugged-in journalists in Westminster, has a great scoop about a Brownite whipping operation which bypasses Geoff Hoon, the chief whip, and reports directly to the PM. Now, as Ben points out, Hoon has actually been quite successful as chief whip. This suggests to me that the real reason for
There is an absolutely fascinating post by Simon Carr over at Open House. Carr reports that Labour SPADs are kicking around the idea that a Cabinet delegation should force Brown to stand down, install a new leader and hold a snap election which Labour would lose. The thinking behind this scheme is that it would
The opening of Terminal 5 was a national humiliation but it seems that the problems there aren’t fixed yet. The trade union that handles the baggage at T5 claim that passengers have a one in twelve chance of losing their bag at the terminal if they are taking a connecting flight from there; incredibly there is
I must admit to being slightly puzzled by Gordon Brown’s interview in The New Statesman this week with GMTV’s political editor, Gloria De Piero. It is a full of the kind of humanising detail that would work well in a to camera piece but looks slightly strange on the printed page. One wonders why Brown’s
Another day, another slew of stories about how Brown—or Heathcliff, as we should perhaps now call him—might be removed. The Guardian reports that the PM has been holding meetings with small groups of Labour MPs in an attempt to shore up his position. However, the meetings are not going according to plan as Brown apparently
Results from Politics Home’s tracker poll of 5,000 voters suggest that David Davis still has a long way to go in his campaign to shift public opinion on 42 days. Politics Home reports that: “the number of people who oppose 42-day detention has remained largely unchanged. If anything, it has dropped since his resignation. PoliticsHome
A fraternal friend of Coffee House is in touch to say that at a recent TUC drinks-do James Purnell stayed longer than any other minister and shook hands with everyone he could. Now, one would not think of Purnell with his snazzy suits and Blairite politics as someone who would seek out the company of
My first reaction on hearing of what Harriet Harman said at PMQs today about her becoming Prime Minister—she joked that if it wouldn’t be possible because there isn’t enough airport capacity to allow all the men who would want to, to leave the country—was that fear of Gordon’s henchmen had again led a possible leadership
Today, at Prime Minister’s Question Time, Harriet Harman—standing in for Gordon Brown—joked that she could not become PM because: “there aren’t enough airports for all the men who would want to leave the country” Well, at least it will give the “race and gender impact” study into a third runway at Heathrow something to look at.
Courtsey of the invaluable Politics Home, the footage from today’s key exchanges: Harman and Hague (Part One) Harman versus Hague (Part Two) Harman and Cable
I think the idea of Harriet Harman as Prime Minister is ridiculous but she is a member of the Cabinet and would probably be the PM if Gordon fell under the proverbial bus. So, we should all be concerned about the frequency with which Fathers for Justice are able to climb onto her roof. It
Airlines these days seem to be finding any number of ways to squeeze some extra cash out of us. Some are now charging to check a bag, others for priority boarding. But as Phillipe Reines, who has taken more plan flight this year than most of us have had hot dinners in his role as