By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Over on ToryDiary I list ten key findings from Lord Ashcroft's latest poll of more than 8,000 voters. On today's Comment pages Lord Ashcroft overviews the overall message of his poll – focusing on the strategic choice facing Ed Miliband – should he choose to be a hawk or […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter What is The Sun up to? When Ed Balls CALLS for a freeze in petrol duty – as he did yesterday – he is made the newspaper's HERO of the week. When George Osborne DELIVERED a freeze in petrol duty earlier this year he was made The Sun's VILLAIN […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter One of the alliances that Number 10 has most feared is between Eurosceptic Tory backbenchers and the Labour Party. It feared it on the IMF bailout and it fears it on the EU budget. In an important intervention in tomorrow's Times (£) Ed Balls and Douglas Alexander make the […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter I’m sure you’ve already got your remote control poised, the TV guide internalised, perhaps even a holiday booked — and all so you can avoid Labour’s party conference when it starts tomorrow. But, for those foolhardy few who plan to tune into Mr Miliband’s Manchester Meet-up, I’ve produced the below […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter You read it on ConHome first. The Conservative Party launches its first attack on Labour this weekend and it focuses on the Institute for Fiscal Studies' estimates that Labour would borrow £200 billion more than the Conservatives. That's £3,200 more debt for every person in the country. Con HQ […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Ed Balls has given an interview for today's Guardian in which he promises a comprehensive review of everything that government spends. There's just one catch to his big promise. The review will be after the next election. It's a bit like a man with a serious weight problem. I'll […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Returning to a theme that he launched two weeks ago, we have renewed confirmation this morning from John Rentoul of simmering tensions at the top of the Labour Party. Mr Rentoul uses his Independent on Sunday column to insist they "everyone" at the top of Her Majesty's Opposition knows […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The headline on the Independent's front page this morning was "Ed Balls – I'm planning a proper wealth tax", which was a perfectly proper way of presenting the story. The Shadow Chancellor, the paper reported, wants talks with Vince Cable "on a new Lib-Lab consensus including his idea of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter George Osborne may be unpopular but opinion polls suggest that he's not as unpopular as his shadow, Ed Balls. Two reports in the last 24 hours suggest that the relationship between the Labour leader and his Treasury spokesman might merit a bit more attention. John Rentoul kicked things off […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. There was a story in the Guardian this morning, aimed to portray the Government as hypocritical, praising the success of Britain's Olympians, while undermining our future medal chances by selling off school playing fields. The newspaper reported: "Ministers have approved proposals to sell off a London school's playing fields, […]
Yesterday, the Deep End featured an argument against Keynesian stimulus from Maurice Glasman – the ‘Blue Labour’ guru. Today, we travel to China for another reason why simply turning on the fiscal taps is unlikely to get us out of our economic funk. In an article for Newsweek – available here on the Daily Beast […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Matthew Hancock is out and about, putting the boot into Ed Miliband's speech on banking (and Ed Balls too, while he's at it). Mr Hancock puts five points, saying that the Labour leader: Calls for the Government to go faster on improving competition, but this is undermined by Ed […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Sun's signature campaign in recent weeks has been the campaign that has also been spearheaded by Tory MP for Harlow – Rob Halfon – lower fuel duty and, in particular, a call to cancel or at least postpone the 3p increase in fuel duty that is scheduled for August. […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter The GMB general secretary Paul Kenny has used the union's congress to attack the Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls for being "misguided and wrong" to back curbs on public sector pay. Kenny said: "The failure to wholeheartedly support public sector workers taking their lawful rights to stop work to oppose a […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Five straws in the wind: Ed Balls's joint Guardian article on Sunday with Peter Mandelson about Europe policy, stressing an active European Central Bank, banking recapitalisation, more infrastucture spending and greater fiscal union. That these one-time old enemies teamed up in this way is significant. Lord Mandelson's earlier though […]