A major welfare announcement would usually be made to the Conservative Conference by the Work and Pensions Secretary. So why it today’s about workfare replacing welfare being made by the Chancellor of the Exchequer? Not, you can be sure, because the two men are on tense terms, and the second wants to deny the first […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Andrew Gimson has correctly fingered David Cameron's temperament as Anglican, which makes it very different from Michael Gove's Manichean-flavoured one – of which the latter's view of foreign affairs is a reminder. This helps to explain why, although the Prime Minister and Education Secretary are friends, Gove almost certainly […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. For all Francis Maude's ultra-modernising views, his Conservative roots run very deep: after all, his father, Angus Maude, was Margaret Thatcher's Paymaster-General and co-author, with Enoch Powell, of Biography of a Nation. In his time, man who now holds the same post as his father has been a Treasury […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. I hate needles, and thus wouldn't care to inject myself twice a day, either in the stomach or thigh, as protection against Type 1 diabetes. The condition is nasty, but manageable – a point that she was careful to make yesterday about her sad news. ‘There’s a great quote […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The formidable Conservative backbench support for transferable tax allowances shows how crucial marriage is to Tory thinking about social policy. It's often accompanied by a preoccupation with the position of one-earner couples within the tax and benefit system, and a certain sympathy for universalism and hostility to means-testing: hence […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. "Well done, Mrs May," says the Express this morning. "Well done, Mrs May," echoes the Mail. (Or perhaps it's the other way round.) "The best Home Secretary in years, declares the Sun. The Times (£) is more restrained: "Abu Qatada’s scrupulously legal expulsion shows the vitality of democratic values," […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Yesterday, Mark Wallace set out in detail on this site George Osborne's patchy record as Chancellor. Progress on deficit reduction has stalled. There have been some welcome tax cuts, but little tax simplification. Big infrastructure decisions have been slow to come, though there may be some good news today […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Boris Johnson is the only Tory politician to have won a major election in more than twenty years. He won in traditionally Labour territory. Twice. Once in the middle of a period of Tory-led austerity. His popularity with the general public is exceptional. The bounce he enjoyed after last […]
By Andrew GimsonFollow Andrew on Twitter Ken Clarke appeared on television yesterday morning in a beige roll-neck jersey of what I can only call magnificent unfashionableness. The garment proclaimed, without need for words, an Englishman’s ancient and inviolable right to wear whatever he feels comfortable in on Sunday morning, regardless of how dowdy it may look […]