Gaffes galore
Even spell-checker’s rebelling against Gordon Brown. On the Labour website earlier: “excellance for all”. It’s been fixed now, but not before some quick-thinking types captured screen grabs.
Politics
Read about the latest UK political news, views and analysis.
Tuesday
How can Brown make amends?
How should Brown deal with the 10p tax band issue? That’s the question that was put to Politics Home’s group of 100 political insiders today. In answer – some 62 percent of repondents believe he should help low income earners by raising the threshhold at which people start paying tax. By contrast, only 10 per cent thought the 10p tax band should be reinstated in the next Budget. How would CoffeeHousers advise the Prime Minister?
Will the rebellion be quashed?
Team Brown’s clearly spooked by the 10p tax rebellion (and so it should be – as Jackie Ashley pointed out yesterday, the repercussions could be massive). The evidence? Well, the Prime Minister called Angela Smith all the way from America, to prevent her from resigning; he struck an unusually conciliatory tone in last night’s Parliamentary Labour Party meeting; and now there’s the news that Alistair Darling is to personally meet with concerned backbenchers ahead of next week’s vote on the Finance Bill. But will the rebels be swayed by all this? Quite possibly. If this Government’s good at anything, it’s putting the screws on its members. How else to explain Gerry Sutcliffe’s incredible “my
The Sun shines on Boris and Paddick says he couldn’t work for Ken
This morning, The Sun offers an enthusiastic endorsement of Boris Johnson proclaiming that he ‘has the energy and the imagination to give this great city what it needs.’ Meanwhile, in an interview with The Times Brian Paddick is scathing about Ken Livingstone declaring “I just don’t trust Ken Livingstone”. Paddick goes onto say, “The thought of having him as my boss sends shivers down my spine.”
Blair’s prescience
There’s a certain amount of Blair nostalgia in the Labour party at the moment as Gordon Brown struggles at Number Ten. That feeling is only going to be heightened by Rachel Sylvester’s column in the Telegraph this morning which contains this great bit of reporting: “When [Blair] heard his anointed successor announcing with a dramatic flourish at the end of his speech a cut in the basic rate of income tax (a cut which was to be paid for by the abolition of the 10p rate that had been slipped out earlier) his grin froze in horror. He returned to Downing Street, complaining that the Budget was a disaster that
Labour make up ground on the Tories
Now this is an odd one. In spite of the 10p tax row – and the very public dissent by some Labour figures – the latest Guardian / ICM poll sees the Tory lead cut significantly. Cameron & Co. score 39 percent (down 3 on last month); Labour are on 34 percent (up 5); and the Lib Dems on 19 percent (down 2). They’re figures which may give our beleaguered Prime Minister cause for optimism. But – as Political Betting remind us – this is only one poll. The headlines remain poisonous for the Government, and if the 10p tax rebellion escalates – as well it might – then ground
Monday
How the Labour government has hurt the poor
Why are all these Labour MPs worried about the 10p tax? It is the least of the ways in which this Labour government has hurt the poor over its years in government. Let me count the ways – well, half a dozen anyway: 1) Sink schools. By granting LEAs monopoly control over education provision, bureaucrats have keep bad schools going by forcing children there. It’s the children of the poor, however. Reform points this out in its excellent social mobility report today (pdf, p15). While 47 per cent of students achieved five decent GCSEs last year, this was true for just 20% of those eligible for free schools meals. The inequality
Boris leads, as another Livingstone associate comes under question
The latest Evening Standard / YouGov poll is in, and it records another encouraging lead for Boris. The results in full – Boris is on 44 percent (down 1 from last week); Livingstone’s on 33 percent (down 2); and Paddick’s on 12 percent (up 2). When second preferences are allocated, Boris snares 53 percent to Ken’s 47 percent. It should be remembered, though, that other polls – including one in yesterday’s Sunday Times – have things much closer. If Livingstone’s going to claw back some of the lost ground, he could do without headlines like that plastered across the Standard’s front page – “Ken’s adviser is linked to terror group”. Sure enough, it
Hague talks politics & faith
After hearing Tony Blair’s first confession, Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor is on a roll. He landed Blair for a speech on religion at Westminster Cathedral earlier this month, and now he’s lined up William Hague for another talk. The shadow foreign secretary’s lecture on Thursday, entitled “Practical politics, principled faith”, has now sold out. Is our Wilberforce biographer being primed for Tory liaison officer with God? To fill that vast, half-finished building takes some doing – so Hague’s done well. He’ll presumably have to tone down his normal stand-up comedy routine. (“Have you lived here all your life?, I asked this voter. ‘Not yet’ he replied”). But perhaps the mark of these
Kate Hoey’s explanation is, well, whooey
Rosa Prince, who is owning this whole (non) endorsement story, has spoken to Kate Hoey about what happened and it seems she genuinely is sick. But the rest of Hoey’s explanation is hard to credit: “Boris told me last week he was visiting the ballet school – it’s a great project so I said I would try to go along, like I would for any politician who wished to see a project in my constituency. “It never occurred to me people would consider it an endorsement. “It really p***es me off that I am being asked if I am staying on as a Labour MP – it’s stupid, stupid, stupid.”
The Brownites don’t have the moral authority to talk about party loyalty
Labour are going through a wobble at the moment—which might turn into a collapse on May 1st—and the leadership desperately needs the party to close ranks and MPs to stop making critical statements, on or off record, that fan the flames of the whole government in meltdown story. But here’s the rub: having spent ten years undermining Tony Blair whenever it suited them, the Brownites don’t have the standing to call for party loyalty. Ed Balls’s interview in The Times last week, which Charles Clarke responds to so furiously in the paper today, contained this wonderfully ironic line: “There would always be people who “have a gripe, a score to settle
Is Kate Hoey backing Boris?
Three Line Whip have been tracking a bit of mayoral election drama this morning. On the way to Boris’ campaign event today, Rosa Prince disclosed that a “special guest backer” would be unveiled – someone whose identity would drop a “bombshell” on Westminster. Then Jonathan Isaby revealed both that the backer’s Kate Hoey and that she’s decided not to appear. Apparently she’s “really ill”, although Isaby reckons it’s because she could have been kicked off the Labour benches. It’s hard to know who’ll win out of this. It’s a little embarrassing for Team Boris that Hoey didn’t pitch. But, then again, we now know that a prominent Labour MP was prepared
Just in case you missed them… | 21 April 2008
Here are some of the posts made over the weekend: Andrew Neil thinks that the abolition of the 10p tax band could cause major problems for the Government. Fraser Nelson points out why Brown has the ex-factor. James Forsyth suggest that Stephen Carter’s salary could exacerbate tensions, and asks what you have to do to be sacked by Gordon Brown. And Peter Hoskin thinks that David Miliband and Ed Balls’ recent calls for Labour party unity could actually cause divide.
Clarke lashes out at Balls
The Labour infighting is becoming bloodier by the day. Remember Ed Balls’ call for party unity last week? Well – in a letter to today’s Times – Charles Clarke responds with an astonishing personal attack on Balls. Here’s Clarke’s invective in full: “Sir, Ed Balls’s extraordinary interview with you (April 18) is most revealing and provokes a response. His injunctions about the “indulgent nonsense” of “private briefings against the Labour leader” certainly come from one who is well acquainted with this kind of activity. Such things do discredit politics and take us back to the days of faction and party-within-a-party that were so damaging in the 1980s. As he says,
Sunday
Why Brown has the ex-factor
Like George Osborne, I was struck by David Miliband saying in his News of the World article that the government needs to look at things through the eyes of the voters. Right now, Gordon Brown is looking at them through the eyes of a central planner saying “you ungrateful lot, don’t you know inflation is below that of the Eurozone and America?” People don’t care about the price of sauerkraut in Munich – what matters is the price of an egg here. Brown may argue that’s unfair. But this isn’t East Germany. What the voters think matters. Last week we saw a prime minister, a pope and a pop star
Jostling for prominence
David Miliband has been a busy media figure recently. After his quasi-manifesto in the Times, he’s now penned an article for the News of the World. In it, he echoes Ed Balls’ recent call for party unity: “We know what will ensure defeat. First if we try to do too many things and don’t do enough of them well. Second, if we don’t follow through the things we have started. Third, if we worry too much about our opponents. Fourth, if we argue among ourselves, failing to defend each other and our leader. Fifth, if we water down our core convictions. Gordon Brown has strong values and convictions. The route
Raising taxes on those who work hard for little money could be the end of Labour
Coffee Housers will soon be piling in with their own take on Alistair Darling’s performance on BBC1’s Andrew Marr Show this morning — he seemed to accept the abolition of the 10% income tax band had created serious problems by promising to return to the matter in future budgets (maybe even this year’s pre-Budget Report) — but I have seen the impact of the scrapping of the 10% band at first hand. My part-time cleaner — who works for me several hours a day — is now £8 a month worse off after tax as a result of Gordon Brown’s decision to double the starting rate of tax in
What do you have to say to get sacked by Gordon Brown?
One of the more remarkable things about the row over the abolition of the 10p tax rate is the level of insubordination that the Prime Minister is letting Parliamentary Private Secretaries get away with. Just look at this string of quotes from The Sunday Times: “Derek Wyatt, a junior aide to Margaret Hodge, a culture minister, said: “I’ve had virulent e-mails from my constituents saying they feel betrayed and deserted. They say they will never vote for Labour again. I have thought about resigning, yes. The government has time yet, so it’s too early to say. But I’ve taken soundings from my local party and yes, many of us do
Saturday
Brown doesn’t believe in choice, at least when it comes to coffee
“When Gordon Brown used to hold meetings at the Treasury, coffee would be served with the milk already added. I always thought that summed up his style. Such was his eagerness to get on to business that he had no time for the 20 seconds it would take to pass round the jug and the biscuits, a ritual that broke the ice across the rest of Whitehall.” This is how Tom Clark, a former special adviser who is now a leader writer at The Guardian, starts his superb piece on Gordon Brown. The whole thing is well worth reading—it is not a screed but a measured appraisal of Brown’s strengths
Spelling it out to Brown
Gordon Brown claims he is baffled by the suggestion that his decision to double (not abolish) the 10p starting rate of tax hurts anyone. We all have it confused somehow, he says. So this comment on The Times website may be worth repeating: “Mr. Brown. LET ME SPELL IT OUT TO YOU. I do not pay tax at 22% so the cut to 20% does not help me. I cannot claim pension credit (which is not taxed) because my private pension puts me £2 over the cut off. (Private pension is taxed.) State Pension £5148. Private Pension £1622. Personal Tax Allowance £5,435 Taxable income £1,335. Tax 07/08 £135 Tax 08/09 £270.