Oh yes, the Tories are broadcasting more Ready For Government noises this morning. There’s an article in the Telegraph suggesting that David Cameron would choose a minority government ahead of coalition with the Lib Dems. And the Guardian reports that a Tory government would set out a bulkload of spendings cuts in the first six
A telling passage from Nicholas Watt and Patrick Wintour’s campaign report this morning: “Gordon Brown visited 10 London constituencies [yesterday] eventually leaving a pub in Kilburn by a side door after it was besieged by Tory and Lib Dem activists. He is now running a campaign almost exclusively warning of Tory cuts, and claiming that
Yesterday’s attempted car-bombing in Times Square doesn’t really tell us anything beyond that there are sociapaths willing to blow people up, and that sometimes luck – rather than judgement – foils their bloody plans. But, given the Pakistani Taliban’s claim that they were responsible for the attempt, it does serve as a grim reminder of
For the past few years, the Tory task has been to look like a government-in-waiting. Now, with the election only a matter of days away, David Cameron has dialled that process up to eleven. In interviews with the Sunday Times and Andrew Marr today, the Tory leader concentrates firmly on the nuts and bolts of
So, back to the Labour leadership with Patrick Hennessy’s snappy article on the subject for the Sunday Telegraph. The main sweep of Hennessy’s piece is that Brown is likely to step down quickly in the event of defeat; that Harriet Harman could well fill the caretaker leader role; and that certain Dark Forces are moving
We are, in all likelihood, only days away from a full-blown, out-in-the-open Labour leadership contest. In which case, the odds that Ladbrokes have just fired out are worth a passing glance. Underneath the news that the Tories are now odds-on to form a majority government, they’ve got this list: Next permanent Labour leader David Miliband
There’s a strange fin de siècle air about Labour this weekend: a new appreciation that the forthcoming election marks either the end of their reign, or – at best – is the start of a different, diluted kind of power. There are still a few signs of life and struggle, sure. I mean, Gordon Brown’s
A noteworthy set of observations from Iain Martin over at the Wall Street Journal: “The Labour family is starting to realise that if it is out of power it would need a caretaker leader in place quickly so that it can regroup, rethink and then work out which of the competing contenders has the best
My gosh, these latest Labour posters are open for all kinds of spoofery. But at least they’re positive and colouful – unlike Gordon Brown’s performance in the TV debate last night. Which, really, highlights Labour’s fundamental problem during this campaign. The big set-piece events have been almost relentlessly negative, whilst they’ve left what passes for
Fresh from David Cameron’s victory in the final TV debate, the Tory campaign has taken another assured step this morning. As Tim Montgomerie reports over at ConservativeHome, they’re going to flood the doorsteps with the leaflet, ‘A contract between the Conservative Party and you’ (pdf here). Inside, a list of clear policy commitments from “publishing
So that’s the second time that immigration has had a major impact upon proceedings this week. Until we came to the question on that topic, I thought Clegg was bossing the TV debate. He was clear, personable and managed to hover elegantly above Brown and Cameron’s dusty brawl over spending cuts. But as soon as
2227, JGF: Rumour going around the press room that a certain A Campbell has been overheard saying ‘I think we’ve had it’ 2201, PH: And that’s it. I’ll be putting up my verdict in a separate post shortly. Thanks for tuning in. 2200, PH: Woah. Brown starts positive – thanking everyone involved in the debates.
Labour’s, erm, “poster” ahead of the TV debate tonight: And Coffee House’s take on what Number 10 might look like on May 7th (with thanks to the great Carla Millar for putting the photo-montage together):
Given the timing of Brown’s Mega Gaffe, you’ve got to wonder how it will play out in the TV debate tonight. Will it, for instance, mean that he gets a hostile reception? Will he try to defuse the situation by repeating his apologies, or perhaps by making some sort of light out of it (“Yesterday,
So Brown has now visited Gillian Duffy’s home to apologise to her in person. Somehow, I think that’s not going to defuse this row. Labour have, in the lingo of the The Thick of It, a major omnishambles on their hands. And he’s called Gordon. The worst aspect of this for Labour, though, is the
Wow. Just when you thought Labour’s campaign couldn’t get any worse, they go and wheel out Brown in front of ordinary voters. And this is the result: he has been caught on mic describing a member of the public as a “bigoted woman”. Speaking to one of his advisers, he added “you shouldn’t have put
If you want a sense of where our politicians are when it comes to sorting out the nation’s finances then I’d recommend you read this briefing paper which the IFS released earlier today. What it shows, in stark graphs and charts, is what Adam Boulton, Andrew Neil et al were getting at in Labour’s press
It’s the story which has been simmering throughout the election campaign, and now it has has boiled over onto the front pages: fear and loathing in the Labour ranks. After rumblings in the Sunday Times yesterday, its sister paper splashes with the headline “Labour in turmoil as pressure on Brown grows”. And, inside, Francis Elliot
Two noteworthy entries, today, in the will-they-won’t-they game of coalition government. The first from Nick Clegg in the Sunday Times: “You can’t have Gordon Brown squatting in No 10 just because of the irrational idiosyncrasies of our electoral system.” And the second from Paddy Ashdown speaking to the People: “Nick Clegg cannot work with David
