All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The monthly Cameron press conference is far more congenial than Brown’s. Coffee is offered at the door, together with biscuits made by the chef in downstairs kitchen. But for all that, it’s quite thinly attended and short (30 mins). Cameron called every journalist in the room by their first name, being utterly at ease. I
This morning the general view was that Wendy Alexander was staying in post because Gordon Brown feared the consequences of her quitting. Yet when Brown was offered the chance to defend his embattled counterpart, the best he could come up with was this: “”Wendy Alexander is of course subject to an Electoral Commission inquiry,” the
Following this weekend’s release of a YouGov poll that showed Nick Clegg ahead of Chris Huhne by 56 to 44, the Clegg camp have released their own internal numbers which show him with 61 percent of the vote. But things might not be as comfortable for the front runner as these figures suggest. A party
Perhaps, more extraordinary than anything going on south of the border with donor-gate is the situation in Scotland. When it was revealed on Friday that Wendy Alexander had sent a letter to the Jersey businessmen Paul Green thanking him for his donation, which he was unable to make under electoral law and which Alexander had
Daniel Larison explains why Mitt Romney’s speech on “religious liberty” on Thursday is going to be a tricky balancing act: His speech will have to go something like this: “My faith, which is very important to me and has made me who I am, should not be important to you, but it is important that
National Review Online’s Andy McCarthy believes that the premise that: “we are all quite aware that the Muslims we take seriously are the formers and reformers'” — is mistaken. We, as in you and I and many of us Corner types, may be aware of that. But the American people generally are not. They have
So it’s all-Corner all the time here today. Next up is the never-knowingly-undersold Mark Steyn: The Islamic “reformation” is, in a sense, the opposite of Christianity’s. The Saudis have used their vast oil enrichment to promote themselves as a kind of Holy See for Muslims, and the Wahhabization of previously low-key syncretic localized Islams in
The Blasphemy of Paddington Bear: here UPDATE: I forgot to ask – is Paddington Bear known at all, let alone famous, in the United States? If not then you’ve all had deprived upbringings, my friends.
Last week events drew forth plenty of “worst week ever” headlines in the Sunday papers. But there is reason to think that this week could be even worse for Gordon Brown. First, there’s the situation in Scotland where Wendy Alexander’s position looks increasingly untenable. Second, there is the fact that David Abrahams has no intention
If you haven’t already, do read John Rentoul’s column in today’s Independent on Sunday. It is the first time that a major commentator sympathetic to New Labour has seriously suggested that Gordon Brown won’t make it to the next election. Rentoul predicts that Brown will recover and then fizzle again. Here’s what happens next in
David Abrahams has plunged the hierarchy of the Labour party further into crisis with an article in the Independent on Sunday describing how he donated to the party. Here’s the passage that is generating headlines this morning, My political friends in the party’s northern region were unaware of any donations whatsoever that I was making;
Hazel Blears’s appearance on Marr provides yet another example of how Team Brown likes putting up women on TV when it’s in real trouble; perhaps, it is because the women have more guts. Anyway, she was making the case for state funding. “Politics does cost money” she says, and if the public will not supply
I notice how, in the full-page adverts he has taken out today, Richard Branson says his Northern Rock bailout plan will place no “additional” burden on the taxpayer. Even he does not suggest there will not be a burden – ie that the taxpayer won’t be out of pocket for a vast amount by the
On Marr, David Cameron rightly said that the question on funding is “Who Knew?” This is also the title of a song last year by Pink which has been irritatingly replaying in my head since this all erupted. For my News of the World column (not online), I put this down as one of the
I used to think that the feebleness of the scandals that occasionally brought down a minister or two in Edinburgh was matched only by the embarrassment one felt watching the Scottish press corps work itself into a frenzy in anticipation of feeding upon cheap cuts that properly corrupt countries would never consider feeding their dogs
Amanda Platell, a must-read columnist as well as a hugely experienced former editor and political adviser, hits the nail on the head today with her piece on New Labour’s ‘trustafarians’. She applies the term to the privileged younger generation of Government ministers who have never had to struggle in Opposition or fight for the privilege
As this scandal drags on it is becoming clearer that Gordon Brown made a huge political mistake on Wednesday morning. When Jon Mendelsohn confirmed Nick Robinson’s report that he was aware of the arrangements by which David Abrahams was funding the Labour party, Brown should have sacked him. Brown could have issued a statement saying
If you only read one article this weekend, might I suggest you make it Ben Wallace-Wells long and brilliant Rolling Stone piece on the multiple – if well-intentioned – idiocies and failures of the War on Drugs. Since it’s been running since the Nixon administration you might think that it’s time for a fresh approach.
Having trawled the papers for a 7am slot on Sky News, I can perhaps save you some trouble. Buy The Times today: it is simply brilliant. It’s splash tells us that MI5 has confirmed that British businesses are the subject of internet espionage by Chinese state organisations. This is laden with implications, especially in an
Any Tory feeling almost light-headed about the speed with which things are collapsing around Gordon Brown, should read this typically intelligent posting from John Rentoul on the danger of the Tories thinking they can just coast to victory. Another sobering thought comes from Martin Bright, who writes “In terms of the loss of trust in
The latest IPSOS-MORI poll has the Tories nine ahead, with Labour down three to 32. Although, the Tory lead is considerable this poll will not send Labour into a tailspin. As long as the party is above 30 and the Tory lead is less than 15, Labour MPs will not start thinking the unthinkable. Hat Tip:
If–and this is still phenomenally unlikely–this current sleaze scandal either topples Gordon Brown or brings about a challenge to him, Alan Johnson is being tipped as the man to watch. He is certainly the opposite of Brown—charming, comfortable in his own skin and English—and is, as Nick Boles wrote in The Spectator during the Blair
A big winner of donor-gate is Chris Huhne. He’s been the face of the Lib Dems on this, as Vince Cable continues to hound Northern Rock. The ability to jump on a news issue is a key skill required for a Lib Dem leader, and he’s demonstrating his credentials here. Where on earth is Nick
There was a moment of unintentional humour during Jack Straw’s interview on the Today Programme when he was asked if Labour had changed the culture as well as the law around fundraising and replied, “We have changed the culture quite considerably”. You can say that again, Jack. The problem for Labour is that this scandal
Megan offers her annual Christmas cooking recommendations. Kit here; manuals here. As usual, there’s lots of good stuff. But permit me to offer some supplementary ideas on the matter of cookbooks. If, as Megan suggests you should, you own several of Julia Child’s books you may not think you need another set of classic volumes
In London, the biggest draw of the weekend may well be the production of King Lear at the New London Theatre (which is receiving some enthusiastic and some not-so-enthusiastic notices). However, what you really should go and see – even though it has already been around for a few weeks – is the Walter Sickert
Over at that new daily must-read The Three Line Whip, Iain Martin has news of a letter that puts Wendy Alexander in a very difficult position. Alexander wrote to Paul Green, who as a tax exile is not entitled to make political contributions, to thank him for donating to her campaign. Wendy, sister of Douglas
This evening, Peter Hain has announced that his campaign failed to register a £5,000 donation from Jon Mendelsohn, the chief fundraiser who was told by Peter Watt of how Abrahams was donating money back in the autumn. It is also been reported that it was Gordon Brown’s campaign manager, Chris Leslie, who put the Harman
The new YouGov poll for the Telegraph puts the Tories 11 points ahead, which is the first time the pollsters have found the Tories to have a double digit advantage. Add to this the fact that Labour’s funding practises are now to be investigated by the police (again) and the worsening economic conditions and it
Given that the Metropolitan Police are probably more familiar with Labour Party financing than Gordon Brown himself, this shouldn’t be a long investigation. It could be over in as little as there months. The starting point here is the end point which Yates could not get to: that a crime has been committed. All that’s
Guido explains why.
Yates of the Yard is back. So runs the delicious rumour now the Old Bill has been dragged into the donations scandal: Yates won’t run the investigation but he has been appointed the overseeing officer. And Yates has a dossier of all the donors ready. He knows this situation backwards. To help his team on
I was bicycling to work along the south side of Hyde Park, admiring the last of the autumn colours, when, glancing to my left, I saw an enormous Ferris wheel. I know I am strictly a fair-weather cyclist and this week has been a rain-filled one, but this huge machine has sprung up near Hyde
Martin Bright has a typically excellent column in the New Statesman about this whole fundraising scandal. Here’s the key graf: “Claims that no one but Watt knew what was going on are already unravelling. As the story broke, one former Labour fundraiser told me: “It just doesn’t wash. You make it your business to know