Politics

A new poll has devastating numbers in it for the Prime Minister and the Chancellor. Public confidence in their ability to handle economic problems has collapsed faster than Northern Rock stock and is down 33% since September. Only 28% of the public now have faith in their handling of the issue, The Times finds. Considering emails are now coming out showing that senior managers did indeed sign off on the way that the now missing data was transferred from HMRC to the National Audit Office things can only get worse for Brown and Darling, at least in the short term. The news that the NAO had expressed concern over the mode

So where is the “junior official” who sent all the 25m record on two computer discs? What news of the British civil service’s answer to Nick Leeson? Waiting for his Tory knighthood? In the Bahamas, collecting the £100m from the Hugo Drax of identity fraud? Or in a dungeon underneath No10 waiting for personal treatment from Mr Brown? He’s being kept safe from wicked media in a hotel, apparently, hospitality of the Public and Commercial Services trade union (who may, who knows, flog him to the highest bidder this Sunday).   All this arouses suspicion from some quarters here in Westminster. The PCS is a little too active, it is

As Alistair Darling scurries off to the House to make a statement on the latest crisis to rock the Treasury, Martin Vander Weyer has some thoughts on the latest developments in the Northern Rock saga. As Martin argues, from a position where no was really blaming the government they have managed to land themselves right in the middle of the blame game. Back before Brown took over, it used to be the joke in Whitehall that the worst job in government would be being Gordon Brown’s Chancellor. How true that has turned out to be.

When Gordon Brown was riding high in the polls, the Brownites were a ubiquitous present. Now, they have gone to ground. Last night’s, Blair documentary was a reminder of just how factional the Brownites are by nature and it seems those old instincts are coming out again. Ben Brogan reports on his indispensable blog that someone called him on Sunday afternoon to sound off about David Miliband: “There’s a feeling around that he trying to rerun his leadership campaign and, fairly disgracefully, destabilise Gordon Brown. His friends believe he’ll be in a stronger position if he distances himself from Mr Brown when he’s in touble. He should remember that he

Much as I applaud the Tory education plan in general, my heart sinks when I see stories such as one on the front of The Observer that Cameron wants all kids to read by the age of six. This strikes me as the contradiction running through Tory policy: to regulate, or liberalise? The plan for pioneer / direct grant / Swedish/ voucher / whateveryouwanttocallthem schools empowers and trusts teachers. Today’s initiative seeks to do their job for them. Cameron has no expertise whatsoever in primary education, why should he be prescribing synthetic phonics or anything else to these teachers? I declare an interest in that my mother was until recently

David Aaronovitch’s piece in The Times today based on his interviews with the former Prime Minister and his associates for his The Blair Years series on the BBC is fascinating. Once again Blair reiterates that he did Iraq because he believed that it was the right thing to do. His concluding remarks, though, are grim: “The enemy that we are fighting I am afraid has learnt . . . that our stomach for this fight is limited and I believe they think they can wait us out. Our determination has got to match theirs and our will has got to be stronger than theirs and at the moment I think