By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Nick Clegg on ITV earlier this morning. Big moment in the short history of the Coalition today and Nick Clegg wants you to know it. His spin-doctor was tweeting at half-six this morning, trailing the fact that the Deputy PM would be on ITV Daybreak, Sky News, BBC Breakfast […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Earlier today, the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson addressed the London Assembly with his proposed budget. Boris' re-election campaign has said the draft budget "could not have made the choice for the next Mayor of London any clearer". The most noticeable thing about the speech is that instead of focusing […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Over the last few days, Zac Goldsmith MP has noted the mysterious disappearance of the Coalition's proposed "recall" system for MPs. The point of recalls is for constituents to be able to remove their MP if he or she has committed a crime, or claimed suspicious expenses, etc. However, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter David Cameron, in the latest edition of The House magazine, has given an interview to Paul Waugh, in which he suggests the Conservative Party should use the ongoing boundary reviews – and the consequent Party selection processes – to push for more women candidates. Mr Cameron says: "We’ve obviously […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter David Cameron is now enjoying some of the best ratings of his premiership. In the middle of very difficult economic times his support is actually growing. But here's the key question: Have Cameron's advisers noticed the connection between increased popularity and doing conservative things? Here are five proofs from his […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Welcome back! I hope all readers had a great Christmas. While we were eating turkey and mince pies most of the newspapers were still publishing. The Sunday Times even produced its first ever Christmas Day edition. Dan Sabbagh explains (within a fascinating review of the newspaper industry's economics) that one […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. For tomorrow's Independent on Sunday and Sunday Mirror, ComRes has conducted polling of the public's current voting intentions. Since it's been a few weeks since the last ComRes poll for the Independent on Sunday/Sunday Mirror, it seems an opportune moment to take stock of recent polling. The headline voting […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In last week's Times Danny Finkelstein wrote about Europe (£). Some might say he banged on about it! Today he's addressing (£) welfare and immigration and crime and value for taxpayers' money. Gosh, that list would make Lynton Crosby proud. Patrick O'Flynn and I tweeted that there was something of […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Office for National Statistics has just released the GDP figures for the last quarter: 0.5% growth. "Some growth but not very strong growth", says the ONS' chief statistician, Joe Grice. It's better than the 0.1% growth of the previous quarter, and better than the 0.3% or 0.4% that City analysts […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Earlier today a report from Income Data Services noted that pay for the directors of Britain's top businesses rose by 49% over the last year once salary, benefits and bonuses were counted. These increases were much greater than any increase in profitability or share price (+4.5%). They were also […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Earlier today, the Minister of State for Universities and Science, David Willetts, appeared on BBC Radio 4's Beyond Westminster programme. The Minister tried to explain that the government should have a purpose to it. He said: "People also want to feel that we understand their values and that what governments […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter We featured on our front page this morning two stories about the Coalition's national planning policy reforms. One, in the Daily Telegraph – which is campaigning hard against the reforms – notes that the Women's Institute "is joining the fight against the Government’s controversial changes to planning rules and […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter David Cameron fought the last election on a manifesto theme that was never tested with voters. "An invitation to join the Government of Britain," it proclaimed – but no-one seems to have tried to find out whether the electorate would like to. At first glance, it is surpassingly baffling […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. For some time now the Conservative Party has been worried about its standing with women voters. The picture is complicated, however, with class and economic circumstances more likely to be driving changes in women's voting habits. At the last election, for example, Gavin Kelly told New Statesman readers that […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter What will agitate the most friction between Downing Street and Conservative backbenchers during the year ahead? Planning, perhaps, and the Government's plans to speed up the system? The lack of a powerful growth agenda? Europe? Or – getting closer to home – the unresolved state of affairs with IPSA? […]