James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
42 days is, an understandably, emotive issue. People who are normally ideological comrades found themselves disagreeing over this issue. It scrambled divides of left and right and even dove and hawk. The vote looks like it split down party lines, but in reality there were many MPs who voted against their better judgement tonight out of
There was talk earlier this morning that Diane Abbott was one of those MPs who had been coaxed back to the government side. That seems to have been spectacularly wide of the mark. She just made a bravura speech against 42 days. Abbott’s peroration will have stung Gordon Brown particularly hard “Any rebel backbencher with
There will be no profiles in courage written about those people who were happy to be part of a government that was pushing aggressively for 90 days but–now that they are out of power—like to boast about their opposition to 42 days. Paul Waugh, whose blog is rapidly becoming an essential read, reports on how
That Gordon Brown can buy off potential Labour rebels by proposing a softer line on Cuba illustrates just how much of a special place the Castro despotism still has in the heart of some Labour MPs. These people are just like those on the reactionary right who used to cheerlead for apartheid South Africa. They
Over at his invaluable blog, Ben Brogan reports that: The DUP are on board, Diane Abbott has been spoken to by Gordon Brown for the first time in 20 years, cash for sick miners and help for Cuba has been whistled out of nowhere, and so the vote is won. I spoke to David Davis
Over on Americano, a guide to the pros and cons of the people that Obama’s VP search team are floating as possible running mates for him.
Martin Bright, whose Dispatches programme on Ken Livingstone moved a lot of the allegations against him to the forefront of the mayoral debate, reports that Ken is not done yet and plans to be the Labour candidate in 2012. Presumably, Livingstone’s thinking is that Boris will find it more difficult to get re-elected during the
In his Irish Independent column today, Kevin Myers brilliantly nails one of the most infuriating pro-European arguments: The final argument from the ‘Yes’ camp is that the ‘No’ side really doesn’t understand Lisbon. And, for once, they’re right. So why should I say ‘Yes’ to a legal document I don’t understand? My lawyer would never
Jon Craig highlights this finding from today’s Populus poll which should worry the Tories. However, to be fair we should note that even more voters think that Labour is compromised by it; suggesting that the voters have reached a Guido-esque state on all this.
A new Populus poll for The Times shows the Tories surging yet further ahead of Labour. The Tories are now on 45, Labour on 25 and the Lib Dems on 20. Since this poll last month, the Tories have gained five percent while Labour has dropped 4 and the Tory lead has gone from 11
Clive flags up a story in today’s Evening Standard about how when Parliament debated knife crime last week, only 10 of the 74 London MPs bothered to turn up. Showing up might not be everything but without it. nothing can get done.
Watching Michael Cockrell’s documentary on Margaret Thatcher’s rise to power last night, I was struck by how many times she was interviewed with her family. Just after her maiden speech she was interviewed on the family sofa with her son Mark, then 6, climbing all over her. As she was running for the Tory leadership,
Knife crime is a serious problem—those who claim that the current concern over it is all a result of media fear-mongering are being far too flippant. But I do wish the government would concentrate on using the tools already available to it rather than coming up with yet more eye catching initiatives. As Stephen wrote
Iain Martin moves the Cameron hair story along over at Three Line Whip. Iain suggest that we hacks might have been wrong to concentrate on the parting and should instead have been examining the absence of any grey hairs. Iain writes: ‘Any use of hair dye was initially vigorously denied but when I asked again
Tonight’s Dispatches on Gordon Brown, which Pete blogged about on Sunday, has already generated a bunch of buzz. Reading the transcript, these two quotes jumped out at me as neither are meant to wound and are all the more telling for that: Andrew Rawnsley: Would you have done that pre budget report differently? Alistair Darling:
In The News of The World today, Ian Kirby reports that: “Last night, however, Mr Brown insisted all his Cabinet would stay in their jobs till the next General Election. He would change only junior ministers.” If this is accurate, then it is great news for the Tories. At the moment, the Tories have the
The latest ICM poll for The Sunday Telegraph has the Tories on 42, Labour 26 and the Lib Dems 21. Labour’s ranking is the lowest it has ever been in an ICM survey. What is really interesting about the poll is its findings on terrorism. 65 percent of the public back the government on 42
Peter Oborne in The Mail today details the tensions between the government and the Bank of England. Oborne writes that, The truth is that relations between the Bank and Treasury are close to breaking point. They are easily the worst since the Sixties, when Harold Wilson fought a vicious and prolonged battle with the Bank
Robert Mugabe’s Zimbabwe is as dependent on South Africa as Ian Smith’s Rhodesia, and The LA Times editorial board has a good example of how South Africa could force Mugabe to back down if it wanted to: Mugabe is beyond hope, but it’s worth attempting an international pressure campaign against his chief enabler, South African
There is a little glimmer of hope this afternoon for Gordon Brown: the Politics Home 5,000 Panel reports that Brown’s ratings are no longer falling. The bad news is that they have bottomed out with 77 percent of voters disapproving of the job Brown is doing. If the Prime Minister’s mood is improved by this