Politics

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

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

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

“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

It wasn’t just the presidential candidates and the president that Gordon Brown met on the DC leg of his trip. Here, via Playbook, are the other folk that he saw: “British Prime Minister Gordon Brown met at the British Ambassador’s residence in Washington yesterday with a collection of government, media and advocacy luminaries including David Lane, president and CEO of Bono’s ONE Campaign; Rep. Nita Lowey (D-N.Y.); Ambassador Mark R. Dybul, the United States Global AIDS Coordinator; Stephen Colecchi of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops; economist Gene Sperling; Dina Habib Powell, Director of Global Corporate Engagement at Goldman Sachs; and Microsoft Managing Director of Federal Government Affairs Jack Krumholtz.”