By Paul Goodman The Sun has an interview with "The Master", as some Conservative Cabinet modernisers apparently refer to him. It notes that the paperback edition of his autobiography "The Journey" is out now with a new introduction, and this perhaps explains why Blair's out and about in the paper this morning. But at any […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Interesting piece over at LabourList urging Ed Miliband to "immerse himself in enterprise, and learn to truly understand and value it." Written by Alex Smith and Luke Bozier it's an important piece. Read the whole thing but this paragraph stood out to me: "It means getting more small businesspeople […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Yesterday, Nick Clegg declared victory – he got the NHS reform bill concessions he pressed for. Whether he believed in the changes he got is another matter. Nick Clegg is very much an Orange Booker: the Lib Dems' Orange Book advocated public sector reform and privatisation. David Laws, Clegg's […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The impression from the papers today and over the last few days is that Ed Miliband is under attack from the Blairite "right" of the Labour Party: David Miliband's leaked victory speech (what might have been, if he'd won), the Telegraph files showing Ed Miliband and Ed Balls plotted […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. A Cabinet minister told me last night that the Coalition has had its best week since coming to power. We've dumped two policies that could have caused us enormous problems, he said. We suffered 48 hours of bad publicity but we're now closer to the public on the NHS […]
By Paul Goodman And the link to the story can be found here. Hat-tip: Peter Hoskin.
by Paul Goodman Journalists must sometimes admit defeat. The sun was rising when I got up this morning to edit ConservativeHome's newslinks. But even had I started earlier during the darkness, I'd be unable to offer a proper account of this morning's Daily Telegraph splash. I add in my defence that no-one else will either. […]
By Matthew Barrett Follow Matthew on Twitter. Yesterday in Parliament, during questions on the Prevent counter-terrorism strategy (which Paul Goodman covered on ToryDiary yesterday), former Shadow Home Secretary David Davis highlighted the case of a Muslim prisoner who had witnessed extremist preaching in a "high-security prison": "Mr David Davis (Haltemprice and Howden) (Con): I welcome […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter Yesterday the Observer splashed with the headline "George Osborne plan isn't working, say top UK economists" on the back of a letter attacking the Government's strategy for cutting the deficit. Today the Labour ginger group Compass is trumpeting the fact that it co-ordinated the letter and further delving into […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. In yesterday's Daily Mail I wrote about the Leader of the Opposition. You can read the piece here. Over at Liberal Conspiracy Sunny Hundal objected to my credentials and my arguments. Let me briefly respond to a few of his points… SH: "Tim Montgomerie of ConservativeHome is unfailingly polite […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Earlier this week Paul Goodman wrote about the failures of some private providers of residential care. He called for better regulation and suggested local control of care watchdogs. Polly Toynbee offers less reasoned reflections about Southern Cross' financial difficulties and the Winterbourne View scandal in her Guardian column today. […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter On yesterday's newslinks I included the story about how Ken Livingstone had likened Edward Lister, the former Wandsworth Council leader and now chief of staff to Boris Johson, to Ratko Mladic. Livingstone, who will of course be challenging Boris for the London mayoralty again next May, was first reported […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter An extensive examination of Labour's strategy and leadership failure is conducted by Dan Hodges (one of the Left's thoughtful commentators) in the New Statesman this week. On the one hand, Labour's policy review is seemingly comprehensive: Labour is currently consulting on as many as 25 separate policy initiatives. Titles […]
by Paul Goodman Some of my anti-bailout Euro-sceptic contacts are setting great store in a working alliance with Labour over bailouts. When I reply that Labour has no credibility as an anti-Brussels party, and that the party is strategically pro-EU, they agree – but point out that Labour could echo John Smith's tactical manoevering in […]
Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The merits of current French finance minister Christine Lagarde for the position of head of the International Monetary Fund have been discussed elsewhere by others more au fait with macroeconomic matters than I. But what is politically significant is Alistair Darling's support for Lagarde over a candidate from this country. […]