James Forsyth is former political editor of The Spectator.
The supremely well informed Peter Riddell has an informative analysis of phase two of the Brown project in The Times today. Riddell reports that new blood will be brought into Number Ten to beef up both the policy and the media side of things in an admission that Brown’s attempt to run Downing Street with
Americano has reaction to Barack Obama winning all five of this weekend’s contests and the news that Hillary Clinton has appointed a new campaign manager.
The whispering campaign against Alistair Darling just went public. The Sunday Times carries an article today that is packed with devastating quotes from government insiders, albeit anonymous ones. We are told by an MP close to Number 10 that Brown’s team are openly considering moving Darling out of Number 11 in a reshuffle while a
Frank Field and Kate Hoey must be the first MPs in history to be threatened with having the whip withdrawn for trying to honour a manifesto commitment. The 2005 Labour manifesto unambiguously committed the party to a referendum on the EU constitution so it is absurd for Geoff Hoon to threaten them with expulsion from
It is quite incredible that the British Olympic Association has decided to ban British athletes from making any criticism of the Chinese regime before or during this summer’s Olympics; effectively turning every British Olympian into a propaganda tool for Beijing. The Sunday Telegraph reports that any of them who do so will either be banned
There’s full analysis of last night’s results in both the Democratic and Republican primaries over on Americano. Also, do check out Rory Sutherland’s piece on why if Hillary loses she should blame the Welsh.
Gordon Brown’s decision to create the post of finance director of the Labour party to oversee compliance with the law on donations is a bold one. Once Brown has appointed his own man to this position he will be unable to put any distance between himself and any subsequent fundraising scandal. Brown must, therefore, be
Super Tuesday was meant to be the decisive day in the Obama–Clinton contest. Instead it was an indecisive super-muddle. Both candidates did only what they needed to do and no more. After California was called for Clinton, Missouri ended up going for Obama — a turnaround which ensured that the evening ended in a score
There is a hugely encouraging story about the difficulties that al Qaeda in Iraq is facing in The Washington Post today which Joe Klein highlights. In it, one of al Qaeda in Iraq’s top leaders admits that its membership has plummeted from 12,000 in June 2007 to around 3,500 today. A sign of how rattled
You couldn’t have a better example of how badly run English football is than the idea for a round of Premier League matches to be played overseas. The issue is not with games being played on foreign shores, Daniel Finkelstein makes a persuasive case for this over on Comment Central, but the fact that the
The first result is already in but the big states are still to come. Americano will have all the latest throughout the night.
Super Tuesday is now only a day away and Americano has the very latest from the campaign. Can John McCain sew up the Republican nomination? Can Obama’s momentum overcome the Clinton machine? All the latest in Americano.
If you want to know the nature of the enemy in Iraq just consider yesterday’s bombing where two mentally disabled women were used to carry bombs into two pet markets before being remotely detonated. Their tactics tell us all we need to know about the mindset of the terrorists and what they would do to
If the Democrats vote with their heads on Super Tuesday — 5 February— Barack Obama will survive the Clinton assault and go on to become the party candidate in November. He already appeals strongly to Independents and Republicans. In Iowa, Obama won 44 per cent of the Republicans who shifted registration to take part in
The war in Iraq has dropped down the news agenda in recent weeks with all but the most determined opponents of the war recognising that the surge has worked militarily. Huge challenges, though, remain as Max Boot argues in the Weekly Standard. The surge has created the opportunity for success but it has certainly not
We’re live-blogging the Republican debate over at Americano. If Mitt Romney doesn’t land a serious blow on John McCain tonight, then McCain will be the nominee.
National Review has some early exit poll numbers from tonight’s potentially decisive Republican contest and they show just how close the race is. McCain apparently has 34.3 percent of the vote to Mitt Romney’s 32.6. Our new US politics blog, Americano, will have full coverage as the night unfolds.
Once more, an election in Florida is crucial to the future of America. If John McCain wins here today then he almost certainly will be the Republican nominee. If not, then this contest will go on beyond Super Tuesday on February 5th, when more than 20 states vote, and that helps Mitt Romney who has
There could be no keener testament to George W. Bush’s lame duck status than the fact that the morning shows here in America this morning are more interested in the Florida primary than the State of the Union. When not even the president’s annual address to both branches of Congress can drive the news agenda
I’ll be live blogging tonight’s crucial Republican debate in Florida over on Ameircano.