By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Coupling "country supper" with "in this together" might almost have been crafted to contrast the dealings of the elites with the plight of the masses. Rebekah Brooks managed to do so in a text to David Cameron read out at Leveson earlier today. It was sent during the 2009 […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I was under the misapprehension that, since this is a Coalition Government, Conservatives and Liberal Democrats take the same whip. This misunderstanding was buttressed by the Number 10 website, which lists Alistair Carmichael as a Deputy Chief Whip (and number three in the Whips' Office). I should of course […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Labour Cabinet Ministers whose resignations were forced during the Blair years – and there were rather a lot of them – weren't usually cornered with a smoking gun or despatched by a golden bullet. An inquiry into Peter Mandelson found that he hadn't acted improperly in relation to the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Boris Johnson – the man who has already given up on the Today programme – is in blistering form about the BBC in his Telegraph column: "The prevailing view of Beeb newsrooms is, with honourable exceptions, statist, corporatist, defeatist, anti-business, Europhile and, above all, overwhelmingly biased to the Left… Eurosceptic […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Full marks to the Guardian for inventiveness. It has tracked down Jeremy Hunt's lambada teacher this morning. And full marks to him, too. Joseph Koniak (check out his website) avoids saying anything disobliging about the Culture Secretary, who has a sprung dancefloor at home on which to "cut the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter David Cameron may be down in the opinion polls but he showed this morning that he was far from out in a confident interview with Andrew Marr. Most of the interview was given over to the BSkyB controversy before attention switched to Britain's economic challenges. I summarise the interview below.
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter PMQs was set to be one of the most difficult of David Cameron's time at Number 10 and Ed Miliband focused on both of the hot topics – the double dip recession and the question marks hanging over Jeremy Hunt. Ed Miliband dealt no big new blow as the Prime […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter 9pm Four final thoughts as tomorrow looms: We've heard nothing yet from the Liberal Democrats in particular and Vince Cable in particular. Mr Cable isn't shy of briefing the media, and has a bit of a history with the BSkyB bid, to put it mildly. He is in a position […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter If you read ConHome's front page today you'll get links to probably the best press that Cameron has enjoyed since becoming Prime Minister. Each columnist is competing to outdo the others. "Genius," declares Peter Oborne. Cameron has been braver, in a sense, than any previous Prime Minister, says Charles Moore. […]
By Joseph Willits Follow Joseph on Twitter Sports Minister Hugh Robertson has called for the resignation of Sepp Blatter, after yet another furore has engulfed the Fifa President – this time over racism. Speaking on BBC Radio 5live this morning, Robertson claimed that Blatter's words were "completely wrong as well as morally indefensible". Robertson described Blatter's behaviour as […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Why have the arts elites leant left for the best part of a century? I find three main reasons. The first was the reaction against the establishments that governed before the first World War. Paul Johnson chronicles a symbol of the change in his Modern Times: the transformation of […]