James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
Cameron, also sporting a purple tie, is delivering one of his stronger performances. He has some eye-catching stats—Britain is in the same debt league as Pakistan, Hungary and Egypt—and sounds more comfortable talking about economics than he normally does and I’m not just saying this because Cameron just said that he wouldn’t introduce across the
You have to say this for New Labour they have learned from Margaret Thatcher’s success in 1980s and understand how critical is for them to be the party of home ownership. The Tories must not succumb to the NIMBY temptation.
Seeing Darling wearing a purple tie and Yvette Cooper a purple suit, one wonders whether some spin doctor has decided that purple best represents stability in a time of global uncertainty. The Prime Minister, however, is sporting a red tie.
We’re only a few minutes in and Darling has already said stability at least three times. The phrase of the day is ‘global uncertainty’—which Darling and Brown think is their get out of jail free card.
The spin ahead of the Budget is that it is going to be really quite dull, a chance for Darling to remind us of his ability to bore us all into submission. The Treasury keeps stressing that there are no rabbits to be pulled out of hats. Either this is an elaborate double-bluff or we
Over on Americano, a look back at a particularly vicious set of back and forths between the Clinton and Obama camps and a look forward to tonight’s primary returns in Mississippi. Update: As expected, Obama has won the Mississippi primary.
Admiral William Fallon has resigned as CentCom commander over a magazine profile–that he cooperated with–that pitted him against the White House’s hawkish Iran rhetoric. In a statement, Fallon said: “Recent press reports suggesting a disconnect between my views and the president’s policy objectives have become a distraction at a critical time and hamper efforts in
Eliot Spitzer’s political career is over. The New York Governor might not have resigned yet but it is impossible to see how he can recover from the revelation that he was a client of an expensive prostitution service. The problem for Spitzer is not just that he has been caught in a sex scandal but
A profile of Admiral William Fallon, the head of US Central Command, in Esquire is bound to make waves as it claims that, “well-placed observers now say that it will come as no surprise if Fallon is relieved of his command before his time is up next spring, maybe as early as this summer, in
If you haven’t seen Mad Men—the drama set in a Madison Avenue advertising agency in 1960—already, I’d thoroughly recommend watching it. (You can catch up on the first episode here.) It is the best drama that there has been on TV in quite a while. As James Delingpole says in the magazine this week, it
Over at Boulton and Co, Jonathan Levy reports that Alistair Darling has successfully faced down Gordon Brown over who should lead an inquiry into the economic effects of climate change. Darling wanted Adair Turner but Brown is still unhappy with Turner over his pension reform report which was too free thinking for Brown’s tastes. However, the
The most surprising piece of news in the papers this morning is that Gordon Brown is sounding Peter Mandelson out about whether he would like to serve a second term as Britain’s European Commissioner. It is, as The Times notes, a rather drastic turn around since last March when Mandelson rather tartly declared: “I don’t
The latest State of Iraq update from the Brookings Institution in The New York Times confirms the security success of the surge—there have been fewer civilian deaths in Iraq this past February than in any since the war started. Now, the argument moves to whether Iraqi politicians are capable of taking advantage of the space
David Cameron’s piece in The Sunday Telegraph this morning is a neat example of how he tries to position himself politically. On the one hand, the article is about what could be considered a classically right-wing cause: getting those on incapacity benefit who, physically, can work off the welfare roll and into paying employment. But
Vince Cable’s speech to the Lib Dem spring conference today showed how fortunate it was for the two main parties that he did not become leader either in 2006 or after Ming Campbell’s departure. He is able to deliver cutting criticism of the two main parties while staking out political positions that appeal to both Labour
Yale has just announced that Tony Blair will be the Howland distinguished fellow there next academic year: “Mr. Blair will lead a seminar at Yale and participate in a number of events around the campus. The course in which he will participate with Yale faculty will examine issues of faith and globalization. His efforts at
Venetia Thompson’s account of what it was like to be a posh bird in on the trading floor revealed just how old-fashioned this part of the City still is with people turning up to work still drunk, some very un-pc language being thrown around and a woman standing out like a sore thumb. The article
Nick Robinson has a good post up at the BBC explaining why Nick Clegg got himself into such a mess on the Lisbon Treaty. The whole thing is well worth reading but here’s the most important section: “So why did he order his MPs to sit on their hands, to vote neither yes nor no
Matthew Norman has a very funny column in The Independent today on the damage that Nick Clegg has done to himself and the Liberal Democrats with his appalling handling of the Lisbon treaty vote. As Norman asks, “ What must Lib Dem MPs be making of the contrast between his punchy, basso profundo leadership style
By an 85 percent vote the Prison Officers Association has rejected the government’s offer of a 2.2 percent pay rise with the Union’s leadership calling it “disgraceful”. But really Prison Officers in the public sector should not be complaining: they are paid 39 percent more than their counterparts in the private sector. When the value
