by Paul Goodman If political parties assail their opponents, they're accused of wasting time and money. (Or of getting the attack wrong.) If they don't, they're charged with not having lacking the will to win, not going for the jugular, failing to fight back, and so on. Even so, Ivan Lewis's call yesterday for an […]
by Paul Goodman Whatever one thinks of the Wikileaks saga, the American Embassy's view of Gordon Brown, his potential successors (the Embassy doesn't seem to have spotted Ed Miliband) and his aides is irresistable. Gordon Brown "The US embassy in London wrote off Gordon Brown within a year of his arrival in No 10 after […]
By Jonathan Isaby As the world awaits the verdict of FIFA from Switzerland this afternoon, Ed Miliband's spokesman, Katie Myler, has broken the cross party consensus praising David Cameron's efforts on behalf of the bid in Zurich, as her comments on Twitter (reproduced below courtesy of PoliticsHome) demonstrate: She has since issued the following statement: […]
By Jonathan Isaby Well that didn't take long. A mere 68 days after he was elected Labour leader, Ed Miliband is the subject of a piece in the Telegraph exposing "growing concerns" about whether he is cut out for the job. The paper's political editor, Andrew Porter – who is well plugged in to Labour's […]
By Paul Goodman George Osborne will be held accountable for the economic analysis that he produces and for any forecasts which he makes. The independent Office of Budget Responsibility will be treated in the same way. So should Ed Balls. Why, since Balls isn't Labour's Shadow Chancellor? (Unready Eddie, fearful of the Balls/Cooper double act, […]
Tim Montgomerie I can't show it all but click here (£) for Peter Brookes' full Saturday cartoon. The drawing alone is worth a subscription to The Times. More than any words it captures what The Sunday Times (£) calls the "Milibland" phenomenon. The People (the only national newspaper to back his Labour leadership bid) has […]
By Paul Goodman I reported almost a forthnight ago that Sinn Fein was "apparently putting it about that it may not win the forthcoming Donegal by-election which it's been pushing to have held". The Republican Party was either misreading developments or downplaying expectations: it won the poll yesterday. I also wrote that Gerry Adams may […]
by Phil Taylor Yesterday, and earlier in the month when rather larger numbers caused mayhem at 30 Millbank, the young people involved in the student protests were being taken for a ride by a small number of politicised adults. Those adults are a rainbow alliance comprising mainstream Labour figures, from Ken Livingstone to Andy Burnham, […]
By Paul Goodman Politicians are increasingly tending to lend articles their name which have clearly been assembled by computers – into which every conceivable cliche, safely tested and approved on a focus group in a marginal seat, has been first inputted and then duly outputted, in no particular order. It's therefore unfair of me to […]
By Paul Goodman As the Howard Flight fight continues, Fraser Nelson makes the point that eugenics was once a cause of the left, citing a telling Spectator piece by Dennis Sewell. I've found another illuminating article on the matter – from Jonathan Freedland of the Guardian. I concede that it doesn't come from that paper's […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yes, you read the headline correctly. Labour MEP Mary Honeyball has suggested on her blog that the current eurozone crisis and the Irish bailout makes Britain's continued – and indeed deeper – involvement in the EU even more crucial. She writes: "The crisis of the euro has shown in very graphic terms […]
By Paul Goodman The IPPR seems to have waited until Theresa May's immigration announcement was out of the way before launching a series of essays by senior Labour figures on the last government's record on the matter. The Guardian published a story yesterday evening based on the essays, and the key quotes are an indictment […]
Tim Montgomerie Ed Miliband returns to work today after his paternity break. His party is level-pegging in the polls but he hasn't enjoyed any honeymoon since becoming leader. If anything his party is doing slightly worse than before he became leader… despite George Osborne's announcement of spending cuts… despite an average disapproval rating for the […]
Tim Montgomerie "Len McCluskey has been elected leader of the UK's biggest trade union, Unite," so reports the BBC. The rest of the report is dull, referring innocuously to the fact "he has been an active trade unionist since 1968, beginning work at that time as a docker in his native Liverpool, before becoming a […]
By Jonathan Isaby Yesterday Labour politicians were being highly sanctimonious in their attacks on 78-year-old trade adviser Lord Young, who resigned at lunchtime over his remarks in his ill-fated Daily Telegraph interview. Ed Miliband even emerged from paterntiy leave to denounce him So today the boot is surely on the other foot (although the broadcast […]