Amid all the talk of green shoots and renewed economic growth, Vince Cable and Martin Wolf pop up today to warn that the nightmare is, potentially, far from over. Of the two, Wolf’s is the more useful article; linking, as it does, to a paper by the economic historians Barry Eichengreen and Kevin H.
Although I can’t say I agree with his choice, Steve Richards makes a strong case* for John Bercow becoming the next Speaker in today’s Independent. The passage that struck me the most, though, was this: “The next Speaker should do away with the costumes and the rituals, make the language and the proceedings more straightforward,
Rachel Sylvester writes a fascinating portrait of the Brown-Balls-Mandelson relationship in the Times today, suggesting that Mandelson is on the opposite site of the spending cut fence from his two colleagues: “The Business Secretary has always shied away from class war – he wants to appeal to posh and poor. He is instinctively suspicious of
Isn’t it funny how things work? Andrew Lansley gaffes in a radio interview last Wednesday and, as a direct result, George Osborne today writes the kind of article on public spending that he should have written months ago. Rather than shying away from the idea of cuts, he actively pushes them as a necessary measure
What happens when tragedy has already slipped into farce, and the farce requires new material? Gordon Brown creates another government committee, that’s what. As the Sunday Telegraph reports, the latest Committee for Rescuing Labour and Thereby Gordon’s Premiership is composed of Brown himself along with seven Cabinet ministers: Peter Mandelson, Ed Balls, Alan Johnson, David
One of the questions that – understandably – just won’t go away is what the Tories intend to do about the Lisbon Treaty. Their constant refrain has been that if it’s not ratified by the time they’re in government, then they’ll hold a referendum on it and campaign for a “No” vote. But what if
And so it continues. Gordon Brown may have prevented his own immediate demise over the past ten days, but the idea that he’ll be toppled before the next election still won’t go away. The most intriguing of all the leadership stories in the Sundays is the News of the World’s scoop that Ed Balls
Just to prove that Brown ‘n’ Balls haven’t locked Alistair Darling in the basement of the Treasury, the official Chancellor gets an interview in the FT today. Plenty of stuff in there about green shoots, oil prices and those darstardly Germans, but it’s this passage which jumped out at me: “The chancellor is quick to
Aside from the failure of other ministers to follow his lead, one of the saddest aspects to James Purnell’s resignation is that the DWP has lost an extremely capable minister. Yes, I know he’s not a particular favourite of CoffeeHousers – but he was instrumental in getting David Freud’s welfare reform agenda accepted as government
When the histories of Gordon Brown’s premiership are written, I’m sure the events of the past week will get a prominent showing. And I’m sure, too, that Allegra Stratton’s blow-by-blow account in today’s Guardian will be among the most useful first-hand sources. There are plenty of fascinating nuggets in there: how the plotters regard Hazel
Well, well, well – it sounds as though Andrew Lansley’s loose lips may have cost him his hitherto “unsackable” status. Tim Montgomerie spoke to a source in Cameron’s office about the shadow health secretary’s “10 percent cuts” comment on Today this morning, and got the following response: “No one is unsackable … [Lansley] will not
Live coverage of PMQs from 1200. 1202: Here’s Brown now. First question from Andrew Selous (Con) on specialist hospitals. Guess where Brown goes with this: he brings up Andrew Lansley’s “cuts” comment this morning (even though Lansley was talking about areas other than health). I suspecty he may bring this up again. 1204: Second question
ConHome’s Tim Montgomerie – instrumental in getting the Cameroons to ditch their pledge to match overall Labour spending plans – has launched his most acerbic attack yet on the Tories’ commitment to hefty real terms spending increases in health, as reiterated by Andrew Lansley on Today this morning. His points deserve repeating: “There is indeed
And so the Glorious Fightback begins for Gordon Brown. Stage One is his announcement on Parliamentary reform today; but it’s Stage Two, his “national plan” next week, which seems to be getting the most hype. Indeed, an insightful article in the FT suggests that the Dear Leader’s inner circle regards it as “the last throw
‘Ajuxtaposition of incompatible elements.’ So Chris Fujiwara describes one of Otto Preminger’s more obscure films in his critical biography of the Hollywood director. But the phrase so encapsulates what I had come to think about Preminger’s entire output that I underlined it, underlined it again, and made a mental note to quote it at the
So what’s the story, George Osborne? Reading his speech today, there’s plenty of sturdy talk about lowering the national debt burden and encouraging saving – but a few gaps that need filling if the policy is to live up to the rhetoric. Osborne seems to recognise this himself: for every reference to the Office of
According to Steve Richards today, Labour figures have given Brown until this autumn to improve the party’s position or they’ll ditch him. Hm. Hasn’t Brown been threatened with these kinds of utlimatums before? Oh yes: The Sunday Telegraph, 20 April, 2008 “The Prime Minister, who is battling a growing rebellion over his abolition of the
So where have the emails and signed letters calling for Brown to resign gone to? They certainly didn’t appear during the PLP meeting yesterday, which leads you to wonder why. Didn’t they get enough signatures? Did the signatories decide to hold off, to give Brown time to reconstruct his premiership? Or are they planning to
One figure I’d like to see is the ratio of Labour MPs who think Gordon should go against those – all six of them – who actually told him to go during the PLP meeting yesterday. What would it be? 10:1? 20:1? 30:1? One thing’s for sure: those half-dozen honest souls aren’t the only ones
So, Brown’s judgement awaits, as he goes into his meeting with the PLP in around 5 minutes’ time. To be honest, all the visible signs are that he won’t get chucked out tonight: the torrent of resignations expected today was but a trickle; reports are that Downing Street is “relaxed”; and there still seem to
