By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The two big inter-Govenment debates of the moment are set against a southern backdrop. Any big airport expansion will take place in the greater south-east. So would any dash for housing, were it made easier to build on the green belt (and the building actually to take place, but […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter "Osborne won't mastermind Cameron's next election campaign" says the New Statesman, following up on this morning Mail story, which declared that: "George Osborne will not take charge of the Conservatives’ 2015 election campaign – allowing him to concentrate on trying to revive the economy." The news in Tim Shipman's […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Cameron should be willing to move Hague and May in order to get Cable out of the Business portfolio and David Laws appointed in his place. Most reshuffles don't matter. But this one does. That is the premise of my piece in today's Daily Telegraph, though I also write […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Returned from a fortnight on the Isle of Wight. The isle is full of noises… Here is the situation as I see it as the conference season comes into view. Miliband's vote is vulnerable… The most striking opinion poll finding about the three main parties since 2010 is the […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Alex Salmond has long been agitating for a two-part referendum on Scottish independence. He doesn't just want the option to stay in or leave the Union, he also wants a question to determine support for "devo max" – full fiscal autonomy for Scotland. Salmond knows that if Scots vote for […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Independent follows up on a PoliticsHome story this morning and confirms that the Liberal Democrats are planning to start selecting their candidates for the next general election on existing parliamentary boundaries. I've already noted that this has been Labour's plan for some time. For the moment, however, the Tories […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter So much Olympics-related news overnight but I must point you to a typically thoughtful speech from David Willetts. David has been one of the party's most interesting intellectuals for more than a generation but he hasn't done much public thinking for some time. In a speech to the Bright […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Lots of interesting results from the latest ConHome survey and I start with your answers to the "what do you think is the most likely outcome of the next election?" question. Your overall assessment is pretty similar to last time. None of you think there'll be a Liberal Democrat-led […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Paul has already done a fine job of explaining the importance of George Osborne's determination to link Ed Balls to the economic failure of the Brown years. Ed Balls was at Brown's right hand from the very beginning as his principal economic adviser. Balls was there when Labour designed […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The newspapers today are, of course, filled with plenty of Lords rebellion stories. The Observer has details of a letter written by 36 cross-party peers, including Norman Lamont and Geoffrey Howe, and… "…the former Northern Ireland secretary and party chairman Peter Brooke, the former Scottish secretary Michael Forsyth, the […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I argue in today's Telegraph that the Prime Minister's outlook on the EU was formed by his experience as a special adviser under the Major Government, and that although he's a more supple politician than Sir John his plight is even worse, for the following reasons: Unlike Sir John, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. A story in the Financial Times (£) this morning contains the news that the Conservative leadership will, at the next election, give themselves the ability to support a third runway at Heathrow, after several years of opposition to such an increase in airport capacity. The FT reports: "The Conservative […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The comment pages of the Sunday Telegraph are well-furnished today. Both David Cameron and Liam Fox have taken a view on a European referendum – and there is, it is fair to say, a difference in their positions. David Cameron writes: “Yet the fact is the British people are […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Yesterday, the Prime Minister said after the end of the Brussels summit: "I completely understand why some people want an in/out referendum. Some people just want to get out: stop the bus, I want to get off."But I don't share that view. That is not the right thing to […]