In The Daily Mail, Andrew Pierce has got hold of some fascinating campaign materials from Labour MPs, including the uber-Brownite Ed Balls highlighting the issue of immigration. Take a look at the letter below and read the full piece here. In yesterday's ConHome strategy post we called for immigration to be a bigger part of […]
The Chancellor, Alistair Darling, made an extraordinary attack last night on Gordon Gordon Brown's spin machine. Speaking to Jeff Randall on Sky News, he said that after predicting the extent of the recession in an interview in the summer of 2008, "the forces of hell were unleashed" upon him, in reference to the Prime Minister's […]
The Express today splashes on the latest Labour plan for taxing us when we die: a scheme to allow pensioners to defer council tax payments until their property is sold or when the surviving resident spouse dies. The paper reports: "Ministers sneaked through new rules before Christmas which allow Britain’s 11million pensioners to put off […]
We are into "you couldn't make it up" territory. Labour's election slogan, officially being unveiled today but revealed last night as "A Future Fair For All", is far from original. Here is the second paragraph of Gordon Brown's speech to the 2003 Labour Party conference: "A future fair for all is the theme not just […]
Laura Kuenssberg writes this afternoon on the BBC website that Gordon Brown is to announce Labour's four general election themes at an event this weekend in the West Midlands. They are: Ensuring the economic recovery Protecting frontline public services Standing up for the many Protecting future jobs Labour's pledge cards always dealt with lists of […]
On Monday Labour launched this poster and Tory Rascal hit back with this: Here's another example: Please use the thread below (or email me) to suggest other variations on Tory Rascal's theme and we'll put the best up later today…
Jeff Randall was, we think, the first person to use the David Cameron-on expression. Wednesday morning: Nice rebuttal poster from ToryRascal:
The Guardian reports: "People who inform on benefit cheats could be given a share of the resulting savings to the state under proposals being examined by Labour's manifesto team. The idea has been put to Ed Miliband, Labour's manifesto co-ordinator, by Jim Murphy, the Scottish secretary, as a way of making life harder for benefit […]
The Sunday Times publishes an analysis of Labour's proposed voting reform that would see a system of Alternative Vote replace first-past-the-post: "Michael Thrasher and Colin Rallings, professors of politics at Plymouth University, re-ran the results of the 2005 general election as if Brown’s alternative vote system were in place. The results show that Labour’s majority […]
In the second part of the Mail on Sunday's serialisation of Peter Watt's insider account of the Brown-Blair premierships we learn more about the "furious bust-ups" between the two men who have led Britain since 1997. At one point Brown threatened to bring Blair "down with sleaze". Watt also claims that "Gordon Brown used a […]
The Independent previews five pledge card-style pledges and scare stories that Labour strategists hope will get the Labour Party moving up in opinion polls. THE FIVE PLEDGES Training or further education will be provided for all school-leavers and a job or training for jobless young adults. Suspected cancer patients will receive their diagnosis within one […]
One of the biggest themes of the new year has been Labour overtures to the Liberal Democrats. While the Tories hope to govern on their own the only realistic hope of Labour staying in power is a coalition with the Liberal Democrats. As Paul Goodman has already written, every wavering Tory voter needs to know […]
Only 1% of Tory members think Brown can win a majority at the next General Election but The Sunday Mirror gave a spread to five Labour sympathisers today for them to recommend a rescue strategy for the party: Former Blair adviser Lance Price suggests that Brown emphasises full employment. The Conservatives "have always used high […]