Baptists for Brownback 2008
Why the state won't shrink
The CityUnslicker asks, mournfully, "Will taxes ever be cut in the
In my view, not by any significant amount, the reason being that people expect the state to do more now than they did, say, thirty years ago. This was an insight gained through my brief experience of working in the public sector.
Have the Newbie's Been Promoted Too Early?
I'm doing some research for an article I am writing for Parliamentary Monitor magazine (published at the party conferences) and I have calculated that of the 52 Conservative MPs elected for the first time in 2005*, a massive 30 of them now have positions on the front bench - three of them in the shadow cabinet.
Cameron fails to convince Tories of his electability
Writing in today's Independent, Michael Brown suggests that David Cameron has failed to even convince his own team that he can win the next General Election.
The main evidence for this is the comparative inactivity of the Tory front bench with that of Labour during the summer of 1996:
Conservatives ARE the Agenda
I had said some time ago that I felt it was complacency on the part of "Team Cameron" that led to the shaky start to the Brown Premiership for the opposition. Whereas the LibDems took the novel approach of saying and doing nothing - which, to be fair, has paid off - the Conservatives got themselves tangled up in all sorts and ended up 10 points behind the polls.
Tories will fight next election on social - not economic – issues
David Cameron gives a revealing interview to today's Yorkshire Post in which he puts social breakdown at the heart of the Conservative pitch for the next General Election:
Louise Bagshawe: Reasons to vote Conservative
Moving house is always a stressful thing. In our case, we are this week preparing for a move into the constituency. I was always clear that being a parliamentary candidate meant total commitment to the area you hope to represent. Our family story is just one amongst thousands – Conservative activists giving up their time, knocking on doors, standing as local councillors, donating, writing to the local paper, marching for their local hospitals, serving in their Associations, even starting blogs! We are a team. And when we are united we are an unstoppable team.
The Sick Man of
Yesterday, evidence was presented that confirmed that
Loose interpretations
Andrew Anthony scores several direct hits in his critique of the liberal left, but he should try to develop a deeper understanding of true liberalism.
Is Labour about to lose its poll lead?
Could Nick Palmer be right about the next round of surveys?
In a post last night Nick Palmer - the Labour MP for Broxtowe and the first of any party to contribute to Politicalbetting under his own name - made an extraordinary prediction about the next round of polls.
The Tories' 'dodgy' hospital dossier?
The Tory leader is - yet again - on the defensive, this time over the accuracy of his party's list of proposed hospital closures and downgradings .
As per usual the problems for Mr Cameron have come mainly from within. Henry Bellingham, the shadow justice minister and MP for
Sharpen Up!
Arthur Ma discusses his disapproval of David Cameron.
Now I know it’s hardly my place to berate Our Dear Leader ™ but David Cameron really ought to sharpen up. With the amount of gaffes he is accumulating he is turning out to be more like Bush than Blair.
Mickey Mouse degrees are just the job
OK then, let's have a good snigger. Let's all look at the list of these so-called degrees, and sneer at the pathetic delusions of the students who are taking them. In the saloon bars of
No certainties
The German leader, Angela Merkel is making her first visit to No 10 during Gordon Brown's premiership. (You might remember it's not the first time they have met as leaders - Gordon Brown raised a few eyebrows by choosing to go first to
I'm told the two leaders are discussing health matters in the developing world. But what is not officially on the agenda, and what at the beginning of the summer Gordon Brown didn't really fancy talking about either, is the draft EU reform treaty.
Nick Robinson (Laura Kuenssberg)
Are we out of step on
Gordon Brown has rejected calls for a
There was one important quote in the BBC report which led me to think the party is out of step on
Norman Lamb and Facebook: descent into farce
OK, this started off rather seriously - someone faking a Norman Lamb MP profile on Facebook. It then got rather bizarre when the computer used to send emails out from the linked fake Homtial address was also used to post comments from eight different aliases to this site trying to shift the blame to UKIP, Labour and the Liberal Democrats (but never the Conservatives).
A month of silver linings
From the absence of John Reid to the elimination of ITN gimmicks, August hasn't been all bad
Will taxes ever be cut in the
As we edge close to the next recession (or Depression, depending on how much the financiers screw everything up), alarm bells are ringing in my head about the future that taxpayers face
How seriously should we take the terrorist threat?
Econlog repeats the claims of John Mueller that the threat from terrorism is being taken too seriously. Bryan Caplan, the brilliant analyst who is one of the two men behind Econlog, argues that we have enough data now to be clear that the risk posed by terrorists is small in the scheme of things.
Why can’t researchers get their facts right?
David Cameron has made an embarrassing error by wrongly claiming that maternity services at King’s Lynn’s
Labelling Boris a bigot is pathetic
The Guardian reports today that Compass, the leftwing pressure group, has compiled a dossier accusing Boris of being “Norman Tebbit in a clown’s uniform”. Well, now: I admire
Alexander wins one horse race
And then there was one. One candidate for the Scottish Labour leadership, that is. For the avoidance of doubt, that candidate is Wendy Alexander.
She received nominations from 41 out of 46 Labour MSPs. And she knows the names of the infamous five. Only joking.
Cameron repeats call to scrap Human Rights Act
The Press Association is reporting that the Conservative leader has repeated his call for the Human Rights Act to be scrapped and replaced with a British Bill of Rights. Interviewed by BBC radio in the
Human rights have actually taken away our liberty
The state does not give us rights and I don't believe in human rights because they do not exist. There, I said it. This might cause outrage amongst some people. In fact for some I imagine it will be taken as evidence of my crypto-fascism. This is an unfortunate by-product of the intellectual atmosphere in which we now live (certainly in the
How society has failed Frances Lawrence
Frances Lawrence has been doing the rounds on TV and radio today, expressing her outrage at the fact that her husbands murderer will not now be deported when he finishes his sentence. For liberals, issues such as these place us in a tricky position. No-one wishes to cause Frances Lawrence or her family any further grief, but what if pretty much everything she says is utterly wrong?
Scrapping the Human Rights Act
The Human Rights Act is a British Bill of Rights, isn't it? It's simply the expression in British law of he European Convention on Human Rights....which, even if we repeal that specific Act still holds true. All that changes is that instead of using the British courts to get such rights enforced, people would have to use the European ones. Do correct me if I'm wrong, but that's the situation, isn't it?
Further, I'm not even all that sure that it's this Act that is the problem here. Isn't it, rather, EU law: the freedom of movement of people? As he's an EU citizen, we can't deport him (or even if we can, we can't stop him coming back)?
Deportation, EU Law and Human Rights
The Italian man convicted of murdering Philip Lawrence has been successful in avoiding deportation, horrifying many. Two things call for comment:
Laughing all the way to City Hall
Boris Johnson's perceived buffoonishness is exactly why many people like him. Labour may need a different point of attack in the mayoral election race.
Vote for holidays!
A proposal for extra public holidays might seem at odds with recent Conservative statements, but it would be ripe for the picking by Labour.
Prezza To Announce Retirement as MP Saturday
The Hull Daily Mail is reporting that Prezza will tell constituency activists at a party at his home on Saturday that he intends to step down as an MP. After trousering £300,000 for his memoirs (ghost written obviously) this was always on the cards.
Has the media got wise to Gord’s policy stealing?
It struck me while re-watching this on the net a couple of night’s ago that something significant was happening. That the standard Brown approach of closing down debates by stealing popular policies from his opponents might not be so easy in the future.
Bonkers Conkers and Health and Safety: Response from the Institution of Occupational Health and Safety
I have had a detailed response from the Institution of Occupational Safety and Health to my article “Do Health and Safety Professionals Get too Much of a Kicking?” I reproduce it full here.
I am absorbing the large number of detailed comments made on the posting, and the discussion in the Public Forum on the IOSH website, and will post a considered response in a couple of days.
Hold Brown accountable, draw up some doorstep policies and get a little bit angry
Hold Brown accountable for the Blair-Brown years. A member of my family told me last week that they would be voting for Gordon Brown. They've voted Conservative at the last few elections but felt that Brown deserved "a fair go". It's urgent that we tackle this. Conservatives need to make it clear that Brown has been at Blair's side for every big decision that has been taken since 1997.
What did the Tories say about this?
Some months ago, the distinguished academic Sir Peter Williams accepted that 'A' levels had grown easier. This is significant, because Sir Peter had just been chosen by Gordon Brown to take charge of overhauling maths exams in schools. Dr Robert Coe of
In defense of 'Mickey Mouse degrees'
Three cheers for Universities UK, who have today hit back at those siren voices who have been systematically grabbing cheap headlines by attacking legitimate degree subjects. They have responded to a report by the Taxpayers’
The "Facebook Faker" is revealed... as a stupid person
Having been at first quite irritated by this, you may have guessed that I now find this whole thing very very amusing. And just in case my day looked like it may have been dull, what pops into my email box but a message from the "Facebook Faker"! Oh yes - it came from the famous norman_lamb@hotmail.co.uk e-mail address and this is what it said:
Keep calm. For two reasons. First, because all new Prime Ministers have a honeymoon, there's nothing you can do about it and it won't last forever. Second, because the electorate like you but worry about the party. They therefore need to believe that you are strong. Given your character serenity and optimism is the best way to convey this.
My Two Cents...on the Heathrow protests
With fawning excitement, the BBC has paid excessive attention to the sordid collection of hippies, pot smokers and anarchists who are protesting at
The tent commandments
The Camp for Climate Action has certainly caught our attention, but has it made you think twice about flying abroad? What will you do instead?
When Green goes Goofy
I believe people should be environmentally conscious. I believe people should make every rational effort to protect and preserve our planet's environment, conserve non-renewable resources, discover and use energy sources and raw materials that minimise pollution, and which are renewable or recyclable. That's just common sense.
But what I'm finding increasingly annoying are "Green" busy-bodies whose remonstrations are so irrational that they risk turning the average person off being 'green' at all. A case in point.
David Cameron - Comes Out Fighting At Last.
Having returned from his holiday, David Cameron has at last started a decent attack on Labour policy and we should now see an end to the unfathomable Brown bounce. David said: "They want to see their district general hospital improved and people simply do not understand why maternity units and accident and emergency units are being shut down - when actually accident and emergency admissions are actually up and births are up."
‘Tory Fight back’ – No, really…
So David Cameron is promising a ‘bare knuckle fight' against Gordon Brown. AND tax cuts. AND he'll save the NHS. Oh, and he’s going to stop knife crime.
Now, ambition is always to be welcomed and all these issues are important to most voters but what is so clearly lacking from the Conservatives is any kind of clear vision. They simply don’t look like they know what they are doing.
Can he ignore the popular press?
It was The Sun which, as always, distilled the message down to its bare essentials – that "thousands of Labour voters will desert Gordon Brown at the next general election if he refuses to hold a referendum on the EU constitution". Thus we learn that almost a quarter of the party's life-long supporters - 24 percent - say "they will kick the PM in the ballot box unless they get a vote".
What’ll be the political consequences of a
So how is this going to affect domestic politics? Will Gordon get the kudos for finally closing down
Could a grand pull-out gesture by Brown be part of an early general election campaign. If so how can it be made palatable when there are so many, like the cleric quoted above, who would try to present it as a defeat?
What's not to like about politics?
I know I shouldn’t and it’s very displeasing when others to do it, but, I’d like a moan. Here is a short list of the really vexing things about having an interest in current affairs. Hopefully, some will hit home and there’ll be the discovery that I’m not alone. There may even be widespread agreement, a critical mass of like minded people leading to a resolution that something is done about some of them – the assertion that democracy works!!! Or perhaps, an interesting thread on LabourHome…
New attack on Johnson paints him as Tebbit in a clown's costume
The left-wing Compass group today gives a taste of the attack that Boris Johnson can expect should he become the Tory nominee for Mayor of London. Compass attempt to paint Mr Johnson as Norman Tebbit in a clown's costume. The Guardian highlights the attempt to substantiate Mr Johnson as holding sexist and out-of-date views and likely, therefore, to damage the 'progressive consensus' of
Will "Boris is a racist" really fly?
It looks like those advising and supporting Ken Livingstone, the Mayor of London, are determined to blackguard his prospective Tory opponent Boris Johnson by any means necessary.
First we had Doreen Lawrence (who has been cultivated by race-activists over the last decade to the point of co-option) wheeled out in The Guardian, to wave her son's shroud and say:
Time to prune back the quangos
Trevor Kavanagh’s column in The Sun today contains one of those facts that makes you stop and re-read the sentence to make sure you’ve understood it correctly. Kavanagh calculates that,
The Non-Courses Report 2007
The TaxPayers’ Alliance has compiled Britain’s first ever list of university “non-courses” – university degrees that lend the respectability of scholarly qualifications to non-academic subjects – and calculated their annual cost to students and taxpayers.
Who was the person who faked the Norman Lamb Facebook profile? (Updated)
Assemble the following pieces of evidence about the faking of a Norman Lamb group and profile on Facebook and draw your conclusions:
a. The fake Facebook profile gave as
This isn’t a genuine email address for Norman or any of this staff.
b. Emails have been sent from that email address to various people.
More Tory sock-puppetry and smears
Mark Pack (LibDemVoice) - Who was the person who faked the Norman Lamb Facebook profile?
Some lovely detective work by Mark. I have a couple of details and observations to add:
82.118.116.193 is the IP address connected so strongly to the Facebook impersonation. This is a *static* IP address used for DSL customers of KeConnect. It could be that more than one person is working on this, but only one user account is involved.
Hello 82.118.116.193
Domain Name keme.net ? (Network)
IP Address 82.118.116.193 ? (KeConnect ADSL Subscribers)
ISP KeConnect Systems Limited
Location Continent :
Country :
State/Region :
City :
Lat/Long : 52.0833, 1.1667 (Map)
Distance : 62 miles
Right on tax
John Redwood and George Osborne may be engaged in a debate, but the Conservatives are still the party of lower taxation.
The politics of Planet Osborne
Fascinating post by Tim Montgomerie on Comment is Free. He starts by endorsing (as I do) the need for a low tax economy and then concludes:
Osborne: There'll be no Tory promise to reduce the overall burden of taxation at the next General Election
I'm just back from the press conference where the Redwood-Wolfson report was launched. The focus of journalists' questions was on tax policy but the report contains many other important economy-boosting recommendations. Read about them here and read George Osborne's full remarks at the launch.
Tories pursue social justice by abolishing tax 94% of people do not pay
After much heavy trailing, the Conservative policy group on Economic Competitiveness, today finally published its report.
The headline that the Conservatives are pushing is a call for Inheritance Tax to be abolished, on the grounds that too many middle-income earners are now paying it.
Inheritance Tax - We Should Keep It
Redwood ... spent four lines in his report Freeing
...(IHT) is not a popular tax. This has become even more true as the swift rise of house prices in much of the country has resulted in many people, who could not in any sense be described as rich, suddenly finding that their family will be liable to pay quite substantial amounts upon their estate. We recommend the abolition of inheritance tax." Some time ago Nick Drew forecast that Brown would do it as it is a small revenue tax but a high profile injustice.
A tipping point on tax
I aspire to make this the last ToryDiary post on tax for a few days but I make no promises! There is a leader in one of today's newspapers that makes some very interesting points on tax. Here are a few quotations from it:
Redwood’s tax plans don’t amount to a killer Tory punch
‘It’s the economy, stupid.” So read the sign on President Bill Clinton’s desk to remind him not to repeat the mistake of the man he defeated. George Bush Sr was thought to have spent too much effort on foreign policy, to the neglect of the home base. But the triumph of Gordon Brown is that the economy has hardly featured as an issue in British politics since Labour was elected a decade ago. Last week the Conservatives tried to revive it.
EXCLUSIVE: Daily Mirror Caught Trying to Infiltrate Conservative HQ
Well, I know while the cats away the mice usually play, but the Daily Mirror has really excelled itself this week. I can exclusively reveal that they have been caught out trying to infiltrate the chairman's office at Conservative Campaign Headquarters.
Daily Mirror caught trying to infiltrate Tory HQ
Well what can I say about this over at Iain's blog. Apparently, a Daily Mirror hack called Emily Miller tried to infiltrate the Conservative Party and get herself her a job. She was caught out when someone in CCHQ became suspicious and, as Iain notes, "CCHQ did a computer check and discovered that her Hotmail account had been accessed from a Daily Mirror computer".
How dim is the Daily Mirror ?
The story about The Daily Mirror trying to infiltrate CCHQ on Iain Dale's blog is slightly disturbing, but also highlights an incompetence in the Mirror which leaves you questioning whether the Mirror can be trusted on any issue.
I am sure the Mirror thought this was a great wheeze, but choosing a journalist whose name was already known, and putting an e-mail address on the application form that could be traced to the Mirror is so dim as to make you think the Mirror wanted to be caught.
Ideas to improve the health service
In a HSJ survey one wag wrote that his biggest fear for the NHS under Gordon Brown was that he would “try to improve it”
Sadly the wag’s wisdom has gone unnoticed and now this emerges. It takes us across to the Health Foundation, another quango. (I can make the diagnosis as Dame Carol Black is on its board.)
Give us wings!
Ignore the Heathrow protesters: manmade flight is liberating and enlightening, and that's why so many of us do it.
Osborne's embrace
The shadow chancellor seems keen to endorse John Redwood's backward-looking taxation plans - it's a mistake.
Behind the scenes with the Economic Policy Review
I was somewhat surprised to read about the “Redwood Report” in the papers. It was the Conservative party’s Economic Policy Review. A Steering Group and several Sub groups worked away for more than a year. The final proposals were the result of collective discussion between Group members, and in some cases included discussion with Shadow cabinet members responsible for particular areas.
Could withdrawal from
According to the Independent, the military have conceded that there is nothing further to be gained from
This differs strongly from what the army have been saying for months and make one wonder if thew army has, in the past, been saying what tony Blair wanted it to say, and with a change at the top, now perhaps asking for the truth rather than the propaganda, the armed forces have finally told Gordon Brown what everyone else has known for some time, tat being, we should get out of Iraq with as much haste as possible.
Inheritance Tax: Tory gain
The reaction from the opposition has been predictable, but I'm afraid the Tories are right about this one. Inheritance Tax should go, or at least be radically reformed, not necessarily for all the reasons John Redwood says it should but because, thanks to the phenomenon of fiscal drag, it has basically become a regressive tax that penalises people who by no stretch of the imagination can be considered rich.
Is there any value on the general election markets?
For gamblers like me who like to bet short-term in long term markets the big question is what happens if polls start showing a lessening of Labour’s lead. Is that likely to happen and if so when?
Should Deborah advise Gord to gamble on October?
Is there the evidence to make the toughest call in British politics?
This is Deborah Mattinson, joint chief executive of Opinion Leader Research, a pollster for the Labour party for the past two decades and the person who will advise Brown on whether to go for an early general election.
Brown should call early election
Speculation continues that Gordon Brown might be considering calling a snap general election for this autumn. He should.
Yesterday the Observer reported that Brown had called for “a detailed blueprint with 'all options' to give him the opportunity of calling an election within weeks.” Whilst acknowledging that next spring still remains the most likely date, they cite factors in favour of an early poll
Should this person even have the vote?
I found it scary but salutary, reading this from a brain-dead correspondent on Dale's blog. The writer unfavourably compared Fox News (which no-one is forced to pay for or watch) with the BBC (for which one is obliged to pay a poll tax or go to jail if you watch it). Having read this a couple of times I can only conclude that the writer is either below GCSE age and in need of better teaching, or works for the BBC.
Cutting to the chase
A few things that bug me about this whole tax-cutting debate…
Will Prezza Spill the beans?
John Prescott is getting £300,000 for his memoirs which will be called Prezza: Pulling No Punches and ghosted by Hunter Davies. Davies, having worked on the Wayne Rooney and Paul Gascoigne autobiographies, will probably find
Matthew Parris: At least one solid, distinctively and obviously Conservative policy should be found (but don't retreat on the huggy, green stuff)
DC should not be spooked by talk of an early general election. However strongly Brown might enter such a contest, elections have lives of their own and this Prime Minister is eminently de-railable. Whenever the contest comes, DC should aim off: aim to win, of course, but remember that the best result would be to wing Brown then let
ICM: 24% of Labour voters could desert over EU referendum
A new ICM poll in the Daily Mail this morning suggest that nearly a quarter of all Labour voters could desert if the Brown government continues to refuse to hold a referendum on the planned EU constitutional changes.
A total of 82% of those questioned said the revised treaty should be ratified by a referendum and not by parliament. Amongst declared Labour supporters 80% backed the referendum idea with 54% of them believing that the EU already “has too much power over the lives of British people.”
Could
A new ICM poll in the Daily Mail shows 82% of people think the revised EU treaty should be ratified by referendum, rather than left to Parliament. As David Boothroyd rightly pointed out in the comments here over the weekend, that doesn’t necessarily mean much as polls invariably tell pollsters they like referendums on nearly anything you care to name: it is almost the equivalent of asking “do you think your opinion on X should count?” - how many people’s answer will be “Crikey no, I’m a complete numbskull, don’t give me a vote”.
Smoking ban side-effects
So one evening shortly before the start of recess, this young man and his friends are enjoying a few drinks in a bar in
Drinking differently
A general election in October
So, what are Gordon Brown's options for when to call the next general election? Well, he can go for whenever he wants (up to May 2010), that's the idiocy of not having fixed-term governments.
Have been looking at the betting odds for the date of polling day, and in the last couple of days the odds for an election this year have got shorter. Still 3-1 (last time I checked though).
Islington London’s Caution Capital!
What are they playing at? I would be delighted if any of the failing Police Force in Islington would like to explain to me the following that has just been extracted under the freedom of information act .These are edited highlights of the list of crimes that have been cautioned only.
Show me the smoking gun
New figures suggest the smoking ban has produced a pretty small reduction in the number of people who smoke.
But we are told that making people quit is not the point of the legislation. According to a spokesman for the Department of Health:
Ah! That delicate frisson of A-level result lesbionics!
I’ve just realised that its taken me until 4pm on A-level results day before seeing my first A-level result blonde (on the front cover of the Evening Standard).
A quick skip around the news websites:
Prudence Brown -
Scotsman.com News - Scottish National Party - SNP: on brink of a financial 'black hole'?
THE SNP government is facing a financial crisis, with a potential spending shortfall of up to £2 billion in its budget plans, according to one of
Osborne welcomes Redwood-Wolfson report but declines to commit to its tax recommendations
Interviewed for the Today programme at 8.10am Shadow Chancellor George Osborne gave a broad welcome to the report on economic competitiveness that will be formally launched later today by its co-chairmen, John Redwood MP and Next's Simon Wolfson.
John Redwood MP: Freeing
Redwood_john Rt Hon John Redwood MP is Co-Chairman of the Economic Competitiveness Policy Group. In this article for ConservativeHome he argues that a more enterprising
Is the Tory tax plan a gift to Gordon?
It’s the Tories bad luck that the policy group is reporting in the same week as the stock market collapse is leading to suggestions that the upward trend in house prices might go into reverse.
Under the shade of Redwood
The Conservative party leadership is canny enough to let John Redwood float his deregulatory policies - but too sharp to adopt them.
Don't Hold Your Breath
Plaid Cymru Welsh Assembly member Leanne Wood (of whom see this blog passim) is becoming inordinately excited by the wily Alex Salmond’s proposals for a referendum on independence for
Writing in today’s Western Mail, Miss Wood enthuses:
Drop the dead shark!
Rein in finance
Those who say this is just a stock market wobble that will soon blow over, are in denial.
I find it fascinating that Tories appear to have leapt on this speculation that Labour might be attempting to rig the Conservative primary for London Mayor.
If it is true, then Labour is full of even more morons than I thought. You would have thought they learnt from their attempts to stitch up the Today programme Christmas poll in 1996. There is simply no way they could organise a mass entryist campaign without having to show their hand. There’d have to be a paper trail, an email trail… you know the drill.
Could Cameron’s primary plan be used to stop Boris?
In what could appear an ill-thought out move during the brash days of Cameron’s leadership the Tories decided that their choice for
But what sounded like a PR stunt could now be used against the party by its opponents to stop Boris getting on the ballot.
ID Card “FAQs and myths”
The Identity & Passport Service website has some “FAQs and myths” on its website about ID Cards and the National Identity Register. The pages in question can be found at http://www.identitycards.gov.uk/faqs-and-myths.asp
Lets have a look at some of the “FAQs” and “myths”:
Telegraph Political Team in Meltdown
As reported here three weeks ago, it seems that the Little and Large blog is dead, it is an ex-blog. Jonathan Isaby and Brendan Carlin seem to have abandoned the idea. Look around some of the other blogs and they are also pretty dead. Ben Brogan at the Daily Mail and Danny Finkelstein at The Times are really the only serious Dead-Tree-Press political bloggers going now.
The Miliblog is Back...And this time it is Ed. Guido understands that David wanted to continue blogging but the FCO mandarins explained that whilst it was fine to pontificate about green wonkery on his blog when he was at Defra, blogging about the negotiating strategy with the North Koreans was more problematic.
Billionaire Donor says "I'll bankroll Labour campaign"
The Times reports this morning that a billionaire is prepared to give "as much as he can" to bankroll an early election should Gordon Brown call it.
There has been a lot of talk recently of an early election, and if I were Brown I would certainly go for it as soon as possible given the volatility on the markets and the fear the inflation and interest rate will rise.
Alan Duncan MP: Gordon's many failures
Gordon Brown must be feeling very happy at the moment. After a lifetime of ambition he has finally reached the top of the greasy poll, and his reaction to floods, bombs and foot and mouth have made him, at least for the moment, king of the bouncy castle.
Sleep-walking to disaster?
Labour AM, Huw Lewis, has published an on-line pamphlet this morning in which he warns that his party it will “sleepwalk” to electoral disaster at the next Assembly election in 2011 without major changes. It can be read here.
London needs a Liberty Angel
Nannyism and surveillance is utterly ingrained in Londoners lives. We really should be getting fed up by now. Let’s begin with a ride on the tube. A decade ago, when you shoved your ticket into the barrier machine on the way to work, it was your own business. Nobody but you knew where you travelled from, where you were going to, and at what time.
So, Farewell Then...
To no-one’s great surprise, Jack McConnell has decided to stand down as leader of the Scottish Labour Party. His decision was seen as inevitable following his party’s defeat at the hands of the SNP in May. It is believed that he had decided to stand down several weeks ago, but had taken the summer to ‘reflect’ – something interpreted widely as code for waiting for a Peerage or a similarly prestigious sinecure elsewhere.
Alexander for leader?
One by one, the potential contenders to challenge Wendy Alexander for the Scottish Labour leadership are dropping out.
Margaret Curran, Andy Kerr and Iain Gray have now all declined to enter the contest.
Ms Alexander herself has confirmed that she is a candidate - but won’t launch her campaign until Friday.
Louise Bagshawe: Brown's bad news
Louise Bagshawe gazes into her crystal ball and forecasts trouble for the PM...
My country 'tis of thee ... and thee and thee
Multiple passports may be the answer to many of fissions and frictions of the new world order, even if bureaucrats and ID card pedlars may hate them.
Where are the LibDems?
In the past few weeks, ConservativeHome and I have been critical of some Conservatives for, shall be saying, being absent from the headlines. However, this is nothing compared to the LibDems. have they disappeared off the face of planet earth? The Despatch blog makes a good point this morning, saying it is no good just sending out press releases and expecting great media coverage. Not only has Ming Campbell been absent from the headlines for three weeks, so have his key spokespeople.
Government to Monitor Blogs
The Financial Times reports that the government is about to set up a 'blog monitoring unit' (I kid you not). Another excuse to employ a few more people on the public sector payroll, I guess.
Precious
A rather precious Iain Dale "guesses" that the government intention to set up a "blog monitoring unit" (as reported by The Financial Times) is "another excuse to employ a few more people on the public sector payroll."
… In fact, this development simply formalises the status quo. After all, not only does the MoD routinely monitor this blog (as does the US Department of Defense) but, through its Defence Headquarters, has also joined our forum and posted several comments from the Defence Procurement Minister (Lord Drayson), responding to issues raised by this blog (and ignored by the MSM).
Pressure grows for ban on drinking in street
We really have to worry when our policemen and MP's favour the notion of collective punishment. The majority of drinkers, young and old, behave responsibly. Why should they pay more for their alchohol, because a minority misbehave? Why should they be banned from drinking in public places, because a minority are irresponsible? Once again, the authorities want to punish the decent and law-abiding, rather than confront the behaviours of the delinquent.
Is Gord’s media honeymoon coming to an end?
Having spent ten years in my early career as an editor with BBC News it strikes me that the quick apology that has been made for parts of the corporation’s coverage of the Tory competition proposals is something of a watershed and might suggest that Brown’s media honeymoon might be running out of steam.
The BBC does not usually react so quickly - especially when the initial source of the complaint was a blog, in this case Iain Dale’s - that even the partial apology is quite a step.
Is There Anyone Out There Who Doesn't Have 3 As?
BBC R5 are doing their annual phone-in on the A Level results. And the jock has just asked desperately if someone could phone who hasn't got three A grades. She's just talked to one girl who has five. A quarter of all grades are now A, and the overall pass rate has reached a staggering 96.9% (see this blog for a comparison with the pass rate in a real exam).
David Cameron to put healthcare at the heart of his fightback
David Cameron returns from his holiday this weekend, hopefully rested and ready to launch his fightback. The latest opinion polls suggest a widening of Gordon Brown's lead over the Conservatives and today's Daily Mail reports that steel tycoon Lord Paul - worth £280m - has said that he'll give as much as he can afford to fund any autumn General Election. Paul donated £45,000 to Brown's leadership campaign. ConservativeHome has learnt that the NHS will be at the heart of David Cameron's fightback.
An interesting discussion this lunchtime on 5 Live about Scottish independence (or English independence as some would see it). I must confess to being a bit ambiguous over it all, but I suppose if I have to state a case it is for self-determination, and if the Scots, or the English, felt strongly enough about the issue, I have no real opinion one way or the other.
Inevitable debt burden
The Independent reports that first-year university students are totting up record debt levels of nearly £6,000 a year and face leaving university owing more than £17,500. This is a 25.5% increase on the debt levels incurred by first year students in previous years.
For some reason the University of Glamorgan has the second highest level of first-year student debt in the country with an average of £7,942. Two of the three universities where students have the least debt are in
Gordon Brown has a big nose, he is Scottish, and he smells
This is the level of some of the responses to John Redwood’s proposals for tax reform and deregulation.
Here I feature Ted Harvey (a sometimes - not here - thoughtful commentator) and Polly Toynbee (who you all know and love).
Why the SNP is Right to Want a Referendum
SNP leader and Scottish First Minister Alex Salmond has published a white paper today outlining three options for the future of
Can Gord satisfy the Scots and the English at the same time?
The announcement by Scotland First Minister, the SNP’s Alex Salmond, that there’s to be a “national conversation”, a distinctly new Labour term, on the future governance of Scotland could present a real challenge for Brown.
For on the one hand he wants to head off the SNP pressure and might consider more devolution - but how does he do that without the role of Scottish Labour MPs at
SNP & Independence
The Scottish National Party has caused a bit of an upset both north and south of the border by pressing ahead with its manifesto promise of holding a referrendum on Scottish independence.
All the other parties in the Scottish Parliament with the exception of the Greens who are in coalition with the SNP, have promised to jointly fight the proposal and the British establishment is similarly horrified that democracy might actually take place on terms that are not favourable to their agenda.
The march of devolution
Signs of coalition
And there's more. Signs tonight of a variable response from the SNP's rivals to the White Paper.
Labour want nothing to do with it, the Tories think nothing can be done with the SNP until they sideline independence.
But the Liberal Democrats take a different line. They remain leery of Mr Salmond and his SNP. But they argue that it is significant that the SNP are now canvassing constitutional options short of independence.
Legal Challenge to Government as Pressure Grows for Independent 7/7 Enquiry
As I’ve said before, in the absence of any official support, some survivors have had to, by themselves, fend off voracious conspiracy theorists and journalists. Survivor Rachel North has become a focus, via her blog, of much media attention. She has had to deal with a stalker and a legion of conspiracy theorists who simply refuse to take the facts at face value. Some of them have even imaginatively accused her of being a team of MI5 disinformation agents.
Google News to start taking comments
This could be an interesting development: Google has announced that their Google News front page is going to start accepting comments from people. However, it won’t be a comment free-for-all; rather the people allowed to comment will be the subjects of the news stories themselves.
New figures show top-up fees causing student debt problems
Two new surveys on student debt levels point towards top-up fees increasing student debts:
Heathrow's 3rd runway won't tip the earth into the balance
Alice Miles argues in her Times column on the climate change protests at Heathrow that, "Pretty much anyone without shares in BAA would not wish another runway on that particular part of
I really don’t think this is true, even if some people won’t admit to wanting another runway in green company. I’d wager that the vast majority of those who have been delayed taking off or landing at that airport would welcome something that would cut down on these delays. While everyone I know who flies out of there regualrly is positively clamouring for it.
Phil Taylor: Why is
At the end of July Transport for
