Politics

Looking back over the past week’s news cycle, I reckon it’s the first one for some time that Labour have come out on top over the Conservatives. That’s partly down to Jacqui Smith’s rallying cry to the 42-day detention rebels, which – as the papers have it – could well have averted a disaster for Gordon Brown. But it’s mostly due to that old problem: politicians and their expenses. The bad news for the Tories started with the finding that the Conservative MEP Giles Chichester had disgracefully pumped £thousands of EU money into a family company. Of course, Chichester stepped down swiftly enough, and many Tories must have hoped that,

In her only print interview, Jacqui Smith tells Matthew d’Ancona that her proposal for the detention of terror suspects does not undermine Magna Carta, that she is ‘frustrated’ by Lord Goldsmith, and that the ‘West Midlands housewife’ is a better judge of the threat than MPs In a government stuffed with malfunctioning robots, nervous wrecks and preening Fauntleroys, Jacqui Smith shows every sign of being a fully paid-up member of the human race. Which, as it happens, is the first lucky break Gordon Brown has had in months. It is a slight exaggeration to say that the Home Secretary holds her boss’s future in her hands — but only slight.

There is a little glimmer of hope this afternoon for Gordon Brown: the Politics Home 5,000 Panel reports that Brown’s ratings are no longer falling. The bad news is that they have bottomed out with 77 percent of voters disapproving of the job Brown is doing. If the Prime Minister’s mood is improved by this news then he shouldn’t read Ben Brogan’s blog which warns of trouble ahead for Brown from a possible Scottish by-election. A defeat in his own backyard would be another personal humiliation for Brown.  

Strikingly good BBC Question Time last night, the highlight of which was David Miliband being asked if he could save the Labour Party. He avoided that question, but his answers to the others seemed to suggest he is ruling himself out of the job because he made so many mistakes. First, he admitted he became Foreign Secretary without knowing that Robert Mugabe had been given an honorary knighthood – something that has been a contentious issue since Blair was dragged into it five years ago. Then, on 42 days, Miliband claimed “you can be held for up to four years in France” – it’s actually four days, as Shami Chakrabarti

Over at Centre Right, Tim Montgomerie flags up a new poll that shows the No campaign leading in Ireland in advance of next week’s vote on the Lisbon Treaty. The No side, in a dramatic reversal, is now five points up over the Yes camp but with many voters still undecided. A defeat for the treaty formerly known as the Constitution in Ireland would, at the least, throw Brussels into confusion. It would also push this issue back up the agenda in Britain reminding voters of how they were denied the referendum they had been promised, giving Gordon Brown yet another problem to deal with.