By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In the early 1980s nearly half of the British people identified coalition government as their preferred model of government. Today, after two years of watching the political horse-trading involved in the current LibCon alliance, that percentage has declined to under one quarter*. The British people like the idea of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In one of his first big decisions as the new Party Chairman, Grant Shapps has just told ConservativeHome that the party will start selecting candidates immediately after November's police commissioner elections for the party's target seats and, significantly, will be doing so on the basis of EXISTING constituency boundaries. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter When David Cameron appointed Michael Fallon and Matt Hancock to the Department of Business many of us expected that it was a declaration of intent; a declaration that something needed to change and change radically in the Government's relationship with business. Michael Fallon has got off to a flying […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter George Osborne wanted to move Iain Duncan Smith from Work and Pensions, and failed. Ken Clarke was moved to take up a roving economic brief, thus gaining a licence to meddle in the Chancellor's affairs. The reshuffle even brought some distressing family news: Lord Howell, Mr Osborne's father in […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter It is supposedly the silliest month of the year. No big news is said to happen. While MPs increasingly prefer staycations in Cornwall and in the Lake District, political journalists – after writing obligatory hatchet jobs about MPs' long recesses – still disappear to Europe's beaches. But this August? […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Four weeks ago Matthew Parris asked: Why are Tory MPs so "unbelievably lily-livered and flaky"? He was thinking of their failure to back the Chancellor's austerity measures. He returns to the theme today, hurling his keyboard at the "perfect idiots" on the Tory backbenchers who, he says, are "economic […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Times' Sam Coates has performed a great public service this morning by listing FIFTY unresolved tensions between the Coalition partners. It's behind the paywall here (£). The list is a big reminder of the huge cost of not winning the last election and having to be in coalition […]
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 Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter For Bruce Anderson in today's Telegraph there is no doubt that Nick Clegg and the Liberal Democrats are at fault for this week's very public tensions inside the Coalition: "There was no linkage between House of Lords reform and the Commons boundary changes. The price of boundary changes was a […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Imagine a civil partnership of which one member suddenly announced to the world: "My partner has refused to cook me any food. So I am refusing to give him any sex. But don't worry for a moment: we must now restore balance to our relationship, allowing us to draw […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Telegraph is reporting this morning that David Cameron is to abandon the Coalition's plans for an elected House of Lords. The Prime Minister had hoped that the reform could be salvaged by some sort of compromise deal with the 91 Tory rebels. One suggestion had been that the remnant […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I'm waiting for a 9pm dinner appointment. 9pm! While I wait a very quick other finding from the latest ConHome poll. You've had the Cabinet rankings and the much-reported poll on Boris as favourite to be next Tory leader. Here are your answers to when the Coalition should end… As […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter One of Tory HQ's favourite attacks on Labour is to accuse their leaders of dithering and weakness. It produced a dossier on Ed Miliband's first 100 days making this very allegation. It was how Cameron described Gordon Brown on the day that Mr Grumpy scrapped plans for an autumn […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter David Cameron says: “I think the Coalition will run to 2015. How exactly you separate before an election and fight an election: to be determined.” This form of words – "I think the Coalition will run to 2015" – will naturally set off more speculation about possible breakdown, confidence-and-supply […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter My apologies to Paul for copying, with two extra words, the headline from his earlier post. It's just that another census was released today — the quarterly (or quarterly-ish) headcount of the government's Special Advisers — and it too highlights a rising population. The number of SpAds has increased […]