As Iain Dale points out, Harriet Harman has overtaken David Miliband as the bookies’ favourite to succeed Gordon Brown. Here’s the full list from Ladbrokes: Harriet Harman — 3/1 David Miliband — 7/1 Jack Straw — 5/1 Jon Cruddas — 8/1 Alan Johnson — 8/1 James Purnell — 12/1 John Denham — 12/1 Alan Milburn
For a few months now, Cameron and Osborne have led Brown and Darling in poll questions on economic competence. Today’s ComRes poll for the Daily Politics ends that trend. Answering the question “Putting your party allegiance aside, who do you trust most to steer Britain’s economy through the current downturn?”, 36 percent of respondents said
It’s still doubtful whether Presidential Debate junkies will get their fix tonight. But here’s something to tide them over: footage of the very first televised Presidential Debate – between Kennedy and Nixon – which took place 48 years ago today. It lacks the two candidates’ opening and closing statements (for a full transcript, click here), but
If you recall, one of Nick Clegg’s recent Big Ideas was for the Lib Dems to cold call some 250,000 households and play a pre-recorded message to their occupants. It didn’t seem like the cleverest move at the time – who would want to be pestered by an automated party political phone call in the
The Irish economy has become the first in the EU to officially slide into recession. Here in the UK, we’re most probably in the middle of one already, but we’ll have to wait a while longer yet for the official figures to confirm it.
So, today’s YouGov poll for the Sun records a 7 point post-conference boost for Labour. The Tories are now on 41 percent (down 3 from last month); Labour on 31 percent (up 7); and the Lib Dems on 16 percent (down 4). And there’s some good news for Brown personally, too. 39 percent of respondents
Today’s Standard reports that Alistair Darling is set to back down over his plans to increase vehicle excise duty. It’s hardly surprising. The proposal was always likely to prompt a backbench rebellion as well as public outcry – two things that the Brown Government can ill afford, particularly at the moment. I imagine that No.s 10 and 11
1400: Welcome to our live blog of Gordon Brown’s conference speech. No sign of the man yet – he’s expected to take to the stage in around ten minutes time. Early word is that his speech is going to be of the “personal vision” rather than the “specific policy annoucement” variety. We can, though, expect
With none of the Cabinet yet stepping out of the shadows and confirming their opposition to Brown, this tidbit from Paul Waugh is worth noting: “…the Cabinet is roughly split three ways. One camp is the die-in-the-ditchers, another the wait-and-seers, another the get-him-nowers. That means that GB has at most a third of the Cabinet
Having slept on it, I feel I might have got a little carried away last night over David Miliband’s alleged “Heseltine moment” comment. It may have indicated that he’s thinking of doing a Heseltine, but it was also ambiguous enough as to be inconclusive. As Iain Dale so rightly points out, “It really would have been a big story if he
Sure, Labour Central – the revamped Labour website’s news aggregator – is “neither responsible for, nor necessarily endorses the content of the Website to which you will go after clicking” their news links. But they still pick the links nonetheless – which generally means that all the stories are completely neutral/positive towards Labour. Odd, then,
Has Miliband just let the leadership cat out of the bag? The BBC are reporting an overheard conversation between him and his aides, in which he admitted toning down his speech today for fear of having “a Heseltine moment” – a reference to Michael Heseltine’s efforts to topple Margaret Thatcher. Short of Miliband resigning and
Coffee House is running a series of posts on the contenders to succeed Gordon Brown as Labour party leader. The latest is below. Click here for our profile of David Miliband, here for Jon Cruddas, here for Alan Johnson, and here for Jack Straw. Harriet Harman, 58, Deputy Leader of the Labour Party among other
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
Over at his excellent blog, the Evening Standard’s Paul Waugh has posted a list he was given (by “one Blairite”) which purports to outline what David Milband’s Cabinet would look like. Here it is in full: Prime Minister – David Miliband Foreign Secretary – James Purnell Chancellor – John Hutton Home Secretary – Alan Johnson
No life of quiet desperation for Ansel Adams (1902-84). He was at his happiest tramping around the sublime countryside of the American West, with a camera and tripod strapped to his back, taking photographs of the mountains, canyons, rivers, forests and clouds he met along the way. And what photographs they are! Their warmth and
LabourHome’s poll of Labour members – featured on the cover of today’s Independent – has caused quite a stir. UK polling report summarises the criticism that a few Labour figures have levelled against it – i.e. that it’s not sufficiently scientific – but also points out that similar polls by ConservativeHome have proved quite accurate in
As Fraser and I point out in this week’s cover piece, Brown’s major legacy will be to saddle the next government – and the country – with unprecedented levels of debt. There’s the prospect that around £100 billion of public money will be sunk into Northern Rock; there’s another £110 billion set aside for PFI projects,
With the Brown premiership on the ropes, Coffee House takes a look at those who might succeed him as party leader. In the run-up to the Labour Party conference this weekend, we’ll be profiling each of the main contenders. And, once we’ve got through them, we’ll give you the chance to vote on which one you think
The major Tory donor Stuart Wheeler is to deliver an ultimatum to David Cameron tonight. If the Tories fail to make two particular pledges in their next manfiesto, he’ll take his money elswhere. And those pledges are: 1. A promise that if the Lisbon Treaty is not law when they come to power, they will hold