A good spot by Ben Brogan over at his essential blog – here’s how Peter Mandelson described Gordon Brown to a group of journos earlier: “I see a man who is really in his stride. He has risen to this challenge. He has grasped the essentials of the crisis, he has understood it. People are
Today is a landmark day for the NHS. The widely-expected decision to allow top-up payments is a welcome move – for all the reasons outlined by my former colleague Helen Rainbow, of Reform, in a blog post for Centre Right last week. The key victory here is for patient choice. Whereas before, in some cases, a patient
Barack Obama’s beaten John McCain in the early vote in Dixville Notch, NH. The margin of victory: 15-6. Time have the full story.
An incisive article on recent opinion polls in today’s Independent: “Labour’s rating rose from 26 per cent before the party conference season to 31 per cent after its gathering in Manchester in September. But its overall level of support did not climb any higher after the banks bailout last month, said John Curtice, professor of
A reminder tonight that – for all its sins – the BBC still produces some top drawer television. I have in mind the episode of Panorama which screened at 2030, on the ongoing conflict in Afghanistan. For the most part balanced, informative and beautifully shot, it set out what our armed forces have accomplished so
The Tories have followed their dawn raid against the BBC with broadcast interviews this afternoon. It’s all a natural part of pushing the message. But what is that message? The headlines on Politics Home’s invaluble ‘Green Box’ tell a seemingly contradictory story: 13:14 Cameron: BBC bosses should be paid less and regulated by Ofcom 13:41
Mandrake asks a sensible question in today’s Telegraph: “The last thing “Mandy” Mandrake would want to do is to cause any trouble for my near namesake Lord “Mandy” Mandelson, but when the Business Secretary appears before the House of Lords on Thursday to answer questions about his links to the Russian aluminium tycoon Oleg Deripaska,
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
In the wake of BrandRossGate, the Tories have sensed a political opportunity, and – to some extent – they’re making something of it. How so? Well, David Cameron attacks the BBC in a piece for today’s Sun. Whilst the shadow culture minister, Jeremy Hunt, does similar in a post for Centre Right. By-and-large, the articles touch on the
After the headline-grabbing returns of Peter Mandelson and Alistair Campbell, it’s looking increasingly likely that David Blunkett will be the next New Labour veteran to be welcomed back into the governmental fold. According to today’s Mail on Sunday, he’s already discussed taking on a “party troubleshooter” role, although he’s said to be holding out for
Lewis Hamilton, 23, becomes the youngest-ever winner of the Formula One drivers’ world championship. And in dramatic style. He achieved the fifth place he needed in today’s Brazilian Grand Prix only on the very last corner of the race. Great stuff.
The BPIX poll in today’s Mail on Sunday gives the following headline voting-intention figures: Tories on 45 percent (down 1); Labour on 31 percent (up one); and the Lib Dems on 13 percent (no change). Political Betting’s Mike Smithson outlines the reasons to be wary of those numbers – but some of the poll’s below-headline
The term “video installation” normally sets my cultural alarm bells off. But, on my Sunday stroll around the internet, I’ve come across one such video installation that’s actually quite effective – so effective, in fact, that I thought I’d share it with CoffeeHousers. Entitled Civilisation – and put together by Marco Brambilla – it’s a
Aside from the tragic deaths incurred, there are few more damning indictments of the Government’s failure to properly equip the armed forces than the resignation of Major Sebastian Morley, the commander of SAS forces in Afghanistan. According to the Telegraph, he’s quitting in protest – and disgust – at the “gross negligence” and “chronic underinvestment”
This just in from Ladbrokes; the latest odds for the Glenrothes by-election: SNP — 5/6 Labour — 5/6 Conservatives — 100/1 Liberal Democrats — 100/1 Back in August, the SNP were at 1/4 and Labour at 5/2.
Like the crusader knight in Ingmar Bergman’s The Seventh Seal (1957), we all eventually lose our chess game with Death. And that includes Bergman himself, who passed away only last year, leaving an immense cinematic void as he did so. He bequeathed us 62 films, a good proportion of which are among the greatest and
Before George Osborne gave his speech at LSE today, I just coudn’t get a handle on what his message would be. In his interview on the Today programme, he was making positive noises about reducing the tax burden. “The best way to help people is through targeted, funded tax-help … certainly not increasing taxes like the
The pressure on the Bank of England to slash interest rates is mounting – if, indeed, pressure can be exerted on an independent body. The list of politicians who have near-enough called for a dramatic reduction in rates includes Gordon Brown, Alistair Darling and George Osborne. And today, in a persuasive article for the FT,
Today’s You Gov poll in the Telegraph tells a similiar story to the ComRes poll from a few days ago – that the Tory lead has more than halved over the past few weeks, but they’re still 9 points clear of Labour. Here are the headline figures in full: the Tories are on 42 percent
It’s no secret that Gordon Brown loathes George Osborne – and that loathing manifests itself in a dossier that Labour released earlier today. It lists what Labour calls Osborne’s “schoolboy errors” over the economy, and is certainly the most shameless version of the “experienced heads vs novices” argument that we’ve seen so far. Whether you agree
