Looking back on Brown’s Wednesday press conference, his admission that the UK regulatory system was “probably too pro-cyclical” seems particularly significant. To my ears, it’s the closest he’s got to saying they his tripartite system just didn’t work, and the closest he’s come to admitting a specific error. Yet the opposition parties haven’t made much
Good work by the Times, who are tracking the Government’s continuing problems on the PFI front. If you remember, numerous PFI projects are in danger of collapsing as the banks withdraw funding, and word was that Brown ‘n’ Darling would have to stump up £4 billion of taxpayers’ cash to fill the breach. I’d assumed
The front cover of today’s Mail should be stuck on the wall of every MPs’ office in Westminster. It spells out the scale of the national debt burden in the starkest possible terms: £2,000,000,000,000 in big red numerals, with a post-script translating that to £33,000 for every “man, woman and child” in the UK. Thing
Like Steve Richards in today’s Independent, I think it’s highly unlikely that Brown won’t remain Labour leader until the next election. But Richards does spell out an alternative scenario which is news to me: “It is still possible that Brown might go of his own accord before an election, without a new job offer. When
Some eye-caching comments from David Davis, speaking at the launch of the Convention on Modern Liberty earlier. Here’s how the Guardian reports them: “I talked to Chris Grayling the day he was appointed to make sure that he was signed up to the what I call Davis agenda, and he is – maybe not quite
So far as the Tories are concerned, today’s brought news of both the extremely encouraging and extremely ominous variety. The good news is all for the short-to-medium term. For instance, there’s been the constant drip, drip, drip of Labour leadership speculation, which undermines Brown’s position within his own party. And then, this afternoon, there’s been
Alan Johnson’s sure putting himself about. After interviews last week with the Sunday Times and with Fraser in our own magazine, he’s now got a comment piece in today’s Guardian. Aside from the exaggerations it contains about Labour’s record on public service reform, it makes a rather odd argument. Johnson’s first point is that Tory
The rest of Labour seems sure that Harriet Harman is on manoeuvres, but Gordon Brown was adamant yesterday that there’s no truth to the Westminster gossip. He’s lying, I thought; it’s not as though he’d admit his deputy is undermining his position. But then this in today’s Telegraph: According to one key adviser, [Brown] does
Stay tuned for live coverage of Brown’s press conference from 1200 onwards. You can watch proceedings here. 1209: Brown’s taking his time. Still no sign… 1213: Here’s Brown now, striding to the lecturn. Expect much ado about bonuses. 1213: He’s just come from meeting the heads of the IMF and World Bank. Leads off saying
The Standard’s Paul Waugh has the details, and notes that this could “mark the first step towards a full investigation”.
On the day the FT reveals that Mandelson is to “redraw [Labour’s] recession rhetoric”, the Times have this breaking story: Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, has attacked the chairman and chief executive of Starbucks, the American coffee giant, in a foul-mouthed tirade for talking down the British economy. Howard Schultz, who built the coffee chain
Ok, so I’m not directly quoting Brown in the headline above, but it does capture the general tone of the PM’s article on bonuses in the Times today. Basically, bankers are portrayed as evil, and all government action as wise and benevolent. Here’s a chunk of it: “Everywhere I go in Britain, I sense and share
CoffeeHousers sometimes chide us for getting a bit over-excited when we describe articles as “a must read”, “essential” or “important”. But the opinion piece by Philip Collins, Tony Blair’s former speechwriter, in today’s Times, really is all of those things. Collins’ central point – that the Brown administration has elevated “political positioning over action” –
As today’s the first anniversary of the Northern Rock nationalisation, I thought I’d re-read Matthew Parris’s stunning defence of free markets in this week’s magazine. I recommend CoffeeHousers read the whole thing, if they haven’t already, but here’s a key passage: “So amid all the doom-mongering and recanting, I have an assertion to make. The
So, Alistair Darling’s announced that the Government is setting a limit on the bonuses that RBS pays out to its staff. Here’s a section from the Beeb report: Mr Darling said bonuses at RBS would be cut from the £2.5bn paid last year to £340m. There will be “no reward for people who have failed,” he
I think it’s safe to say that Shoichi Nakagawa’s resignation today is the first time a government minister’s resigned for what are – officially – cough-syrup related reasons. Although, watching the video below, it’s easy to see why people are saying alcohol, not medicine, may have been behind it all:
Here at the headline numbers from the latest Ipsos-MORI poll: Conservatives — 48 percent (up 4 percentage points) Labour — 28 percent (down 2) Lib Dems — 17 percent (no change) Aside from the hefty Tory lead, the unchanged Lib Dem position is worth noting – especially in view of the astonishing gains they’ve been making
Saying the things that practically no other Labour MP will say, Frank Field writes an incisive article in today’s Independent. Number 10 will not be amused by his claim that there’s a “very serious possibility of a sterling crisis'”, but I figure it’s this passage that should worry them most: “…tax increases are unavoidable even
…for now. The RPI measure of inflation (which includes mortgage repayment costs) dropped from 0.9 percent in December to 0.1 percent in January. The targeted measure, CPI, remains well above zero – dropping from 3.1 percent to 3.0 percent – although some forecasters think it will go negative this year. Expect further rate cuts from
Watch out. The fur’s flying in Cabinet, and there may well be blood. The latest claim, revealed by Ben Brogan in the Mail, is that Harriet Harman’s being blamed by her colleagues for floating that ‘lifeboat for Brown’ story yesterday: “Last night, Harriet Harman was at the centre of a blame game over claims that