I don’t know where John Bercow is having lunch right now, but a lot of people wish he’d switch his phone on. Perhaps thanks to Guido, there’s a rumour flying around Westminster that he’s the next to cross the floor and join Labour. Well, didn’t Ed Balls omninously suggest there are more Tory MPs out
Back in May 1997 what odds would you have got on the most generous tribute at Blair’s last PMQs coming from Ian Paisley?
For the first time in my time in the Commons, the press gallery was full. “A lot of so-called journalists I’ve never seen before” grumbled the doorman. And no wonder. This was box office – or was supposed to be. It turned into a rather tame love-in. David Cameron had technocratic, statesman-like questions – getting
We’ve got two great pieces up today on the new political landscape. James O’Shaughnessy explains why the master tactician Gordon Brown is putting housing at the top of his agenda. While Martin Vander Weyer looks at whether business will prefer David Cameron or the devil it knows, Gordon Brown. Check back for more later in the day.
Iain Dale reports that Ed Balls was understandably gloating about the defection of Quentin Davies last night at a Fabian Society reception last night and promised his audience that, “There’s more to come – as I know.”
Two contrasting views in the papers this morning. Here’s the key passage from The Guardian’s leader on it: “There has been no more brutal assault on a Tory leader since Sir Geoffrey Howe plunged the knife between Mrs Thatcher’s shoulders in 1990. Mr Davies’s withering comments will be endlessly repeated. They represent a huge new
This Fraser Nelson piece from September reveals which eight people will really matter when Gordon Brown finally gets his hands on the crown. Do give it a read.
Where better to spend the last night of the Blair era than in the company of ageing rockers? These days, The Who smash their tambourines rather than their guitars. But, other than that, they are still as sharp as the sharpest Carnaby Street winkle pickers and as taut as the tires on a brand new
There are two reasons for Brown to be concerned about Blair becoming the quartet’s envoy to the Palestinians. First, it is going to exacerbate the problem of Brown establishing himself on the world stage. Back in 2005 one of Brown’s closest allies told Newsweek’s Stryker McGuire how when he was in the States during the
Not that surprising, but BBC News 24 is reporting that Tony Blair will resign as an MP tomorrow.
Today’s news that Afghanistan’s opium production is soaring takes me back to perhaps the biggest lie Tony Blair has uttered during the war on terror. He told the 2001 Labour conference that “90% of the heroin on British streets originates in Afghanistan. The arms the Taliban are buying today are paid for with the lives of young
Just back from a weekend in Munich, escaping from the grey, the rain and the Blair/Brown folderol to help a friend, about to take up the reins as president of the European patent office, move into her new apartment. Oh, the joys of a well organized German city. Standard issue recycling bins for every sort
So Tony Blair is off to the Middle East as peace envoy – not for the US, but for the “Quartet” of UN, EU, America and Russia. His decision to accept this role, and so soon, is more eloquent than any of the (many) farewell speeches he has made. First, it shows that he regards
Iain Dale has an interesting post up on the gossip amongst Westminster lobby correspondents that Charles Clarke might return to government this week. He writes that, “None of us could come up with a reason why Gordon Brown would reward a man who has spent the last few months dissing him.” But it is precisely
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I use to think that Blair’s desire to go to the European summit himself was a little bit vain and born of nothing more than a desire to give Jacques Chirac an Agincourt salute by outlasting him. But now, the cleverness of the move has dawned on me. By making the EU summit his final
The news that the German government has banned Tom Cruise from filming at the defence ministry on the grounds that he is a Scientologist will reopen the whole debate about whether or not Scientology is a religion. The Germans take a very dim view of it; 4 of its biggest political parties even bar Scientologists from joining.
If you think Glastonbury is silly, click on the BBC News website and watch the clip of 2,000 heavy metal fans playing Deep Purple’s “Smoke on the Water” in Stuttgart. This, as any fule kno, is one of the most over-rated songs in the history of pop music, plodding and portentous, opening with a mindless
The price of tuna is now so high that Japanese sushi chefs are considering making their dish with raw horse meat and cuts of smoked deer instead of the traditional tuna. The Japanese, who eat three quarters of the tuna caught each year, are victims of sushi’s global success; it is the new found demand for
Here’s what I wish David Cameron had said when discussing social mobility with John Humphrys this morning. The reason I’m in politics, John, is to address the problem you’ve just highlighted. Belief in social mobility is stamped in the DNA of the Conservatives – and perhaps the most scandalous failure of Labour these last ten