Gordon brown

Monday

James Forsyth

An untrumpeted change

John Rentoul rightly flags up the story in this morning’s FT that about 100,000 NHS patients have gone private and had the state pick up the tab, the private hospitals have had to agree to do the work at the NHS price. For those of us who would like to see the NHS move towards a model where the state pays for healthcare but it is provided by a whole panoply of providers, this is an encouraging step. This kind of consumer-focused reform is hard to reverse. The story, as John notes, hasn’t got as much coverage as it should. John blames this on the press’s lack of interest in

Sunday

Peter Hoskin

The Tories now have a monopoly on the language of optimism

So how big a blow was the news that we’re still in recession to Gordon Brown?  Well, compare and contrast his latest podcast on the Downing Street website with David Cameron’s article in the Sunday Times.  Brown’s effort is necessarily defensive.  Gone is the “we’re leading the world” bombast of a few weeks ago, to be replaced with a crude “pledge” to get the economy growing again by 2010: “My pledge to you is to make reform of the financial sector a reality, and to see Britain’s economy return to growth by the turn of the year.” While Cameron’s effort is considerably more agressive, and concentrates on outlining a “pro-growth,

Peter Hoskin

Get ready to feel worse about our political class

If you want an idea of how resistant MPs might be to the proposals of the forthcoming Kelly review into expenses, then I’d suggest you wander through to page 13 of today’s Sunday Times.  There you’ll find a story about how MPs are planning to counter Kelly’s expected ban on employing relatives.  Their ideas stretch from employing each others’ relatives (“a giant wife swap”) to taking legal action. In this particular case, I think there’s something attractive about the compromise revealed by James on Wednesday: that MPs be allowed to employ one relative each.  But, even if that compromise is made, it still only defuses one sub-section of Kelly’s review. 

Friday

Peter Hoskin

So where does this leave Brown?

Most people expected this morning’s official GDP statistics to show that the economy has come out of recession.  But they didn’t.  In fact, they had the economy shrinking by 0.4 percent in the third quarter of this year.  So the downturn continues – and it’s the longest on record. We’ve always maintained on Coffee House that coming out of recession won’t do much good for Brown.  But, obviously, staying stuck in one has far more dangerous implications for him (not to mention the country).  Obviously, the government won’t be able to deploy the green shoots strategy now.  But with other major economies already out of recession, they’ll struggle to deploy

Thursday

Peter Hoskin

The genius of Michael Heath

Michael Heath’s Flash Gordon cartoon in the latest issue of the magazine is so good that we figured we’d share it with CoffeeHousers. Click on the image below for a larger version:

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

Nothing doing | 21 October 2009

A poor showing by Dave today. All he managed was a spot of outmoded Labour-bashing and a biscuit joke that didn’t exactly take the biscuit. He attacked the PM over the postal strike and quoted a minister of state admitting that union militants had been emboldened by the government’s indecision over part-privatisation. ‘This trade union,’ said Cameron, ‘can sense weakness and they see weakness in this prime minister and this government.’ Brown got huffy – but not very. He accused Cameron of cynically trying to drag the strike ‘into the political arena,’ It’s already there, said Cameron, ‘not least because the communications workers pay half his bills.’ He used all

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s lose-lose position will prevent our broken politics from being fixed

An intriguing item in today’s Telegraph, which suggests Brown is planning to offer MPs a pay-rise to stem backbench anger over both the Legg and Kelly reviews into expenses.  The idea is to boost the standard MP’s salary by about £3,000 and pay for it by cutting ministers’ salaries – so there’d be no further cost to the taxpayer.  But you imagine even that fact won’t rally much public support for this idea. As I’ve written before, proposals to raise MPs’ pay shouldn’t be dismissed out of hand.  But it’s dispiriting that these latest plans are all about saving Brown’s hide, and have come about without consulting voters.  It’s also

David Blackburn

Brown’s Northern Ireland settlement is to be commended

Gordon Brown has just told the House of Commons that he is offering Stormont a financial settlement to increase funds for policing and judicial administration in Northern Ireland. Crucially, future emergency security costs in future will be met by the Treasury, and elements of the complicated settlement will stand until at least 2014.  Northern Ireland has been badly hit by the recession. Power sharing became increasingly fraught as arguments escalated over budget allocations and the timing of judicial devolution. It is not an exaggeration to suggest that the recent escalation of violence might be related to rising unemployment and open political tension. Lasting peace and unified government have to be

Monday

Peter Hoskin

A few honest men

Right, wrong, or somewhere in between?  I imagine that a few people who were fervently behind the Legg letters started having second thoughts when Frank Field announced his opposition to them over weekend.  After all, it’s one thing when the usual, venal suspects start whining, but quite another when Field – one of the decent men* of Westminster – starts to murmur.  If you haven’t read his blog post on the subject, then I’d suggest you do so here.   And it’s also worth reading through Bruce Anderson’s related article in the Independent today.  We can go too far in denigrating MPs, he says: an argument which, even when you

Peter Hoskin

Sheerman on the offensive

Just what was in Barry Sheerman’s coffee this morning?  So far today, the schools committee chairman has used a couple of media appearances to a) call Ed Balls a “bully”, and b) criticise all three party leaders – including Brown – for their “cowardly party leadership” over the Legg review.  Punchy stuff, which makes you wonder whether he’ll be the de facto “Get Gordon Out” candidate for PLP chairman, after all.

David Blackburn

5 Labour ‘refusenik’ MPs threaten to resign over Legg letters

Paul Waugh reports that 5 ‘refusenik’ Labour MPs are threatening to trigger by-elections over Brown’s reluctance to curb Sir Thomas Legg’s retrospective cap. Clearly, Brown is in an invidious position – it is conceivable that Labour will lose these by-elections in any event, but Brown would be committing very protracted and very painful electoral suicide if he demanded that Sir Thomas retract his demands. Brown is indecisive when the sun is shining and the wind is blowing in his favour, so God knows what agonies the Hamlet of Kirkcaldy is wrestling with at the moment, and I suspect most of us would have died of old age if the refuseniks

Saturday

Peter Hoskin

Brown the Reformer: er, good luck with that

Brace yourselves. According to the Guardian, Brown is about to sell himself as a Great Reformer: “Brown, the cabinet sources say, decided in the past few weeks to adopt a tougher pro-public sector reform stance, in order that his defence of the state in the face of recent attacks on big government by David Cameron does not become confused with complacency about the current performance of the public sector.” Despite the sensibleness of the reform argument, I can’t imagine that Brown will make much headway with this. For starters, he has that “Roadblock to Reform” label, and Labour’s patchy record on public service reform, hovering over him like the proverbial

Friday

Martin Bright

Harriet now more dangerous for Gordon

The once-daft (but now rather good) Labour List has a very interesting story about Harriet Harman. Apparently, she will tell Andrew Neil on this weekend’s BBC Straight Talk that she won’t stand for the leadership in any circumstances and has no leadership ambitions.  This is very bad news for Gordon Brown. This may seem like a strange thing to say, but in several conversations with Labour MPs and activists I have heard a version of the following: “We can’t get rid of Gordon because Harriet would win the election to replace him.”  With Harriet gone, the way is now clear for a genuine challenge.  The likelihood is that this won’t happen.

Wednesday

Lloyd Evans

A sombre scene and a shift in power

Poppy day came early to Westminster today.  Brown began proceedings by reciting the names of the 37 men killed in Afghanistan over the summer. This took two minutes. The house was silent, funereal, almost awe-struck with the solemnity of the occasion. Brown looked like a man deeply moved by personal grief as he worked his slow way through the deadly list. Ann Winterton punctured the mood with the first question, suggesting that once the Lsibon treaty is ratified the government’s first duty will be ‘to further the objectives of Europe in preference to those of Britain’. Brown denied this again referenced the Afghan conflict in response. When his trun came,

Peter Hoskin

What do the Legg letters mean for the Kelly Review?

As the Legg controversy continues along its unedifying course, I can’t help but wonder what it all means for Sir Christopher Kelly’s review of the expenses system, due for publication in a few weeks’ time.  The plan is that the government will go through its recommendations, adopt any it likes, and then put them to a vote in the Commons.  But will Brown now back away from the more radical proposals, from fear of aggravating the Parliamentary Labour Party even further?  Will MPs now be more tempted to dismiss Kelly’s ideas out of hand?  This is, after all, yet another independent review, commissioned by Brown, which will contain suggestions you

Tuesday

Peter Hoskin

Brown’s strange position of strength

I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: the email exchanges between Danny Finkelstein and Philip Collins over at Comment Central are one of neatest features in the political blogosphere – always worth a read.  They’ve got a new one up today, discussing how Brown should go about handling the Legg letters.  Does he force Labour MPs to cough up, and risk drawing their anger?  Or does he fold and allow them to fight Legg, to maintain some degree of their support? It all reduces to an important point from Collins; one which could seem counter-intuitive at first, but makes more sense the more you think about it: “I would

Monday

Peter Hoskin

Brown told to repay £12,415.10 of expenses

Here’s the statement from the office of the PM, courtesy of Sky’s Cheryl Smith: Mr Brown received a letter from Sir Thomas Legg this afternoon. Sir Thomas Legg has issued his provisional conclusions to MPs, asking for further information where necessary before concluding in December. Mr Brown has always supported this process and will cooperate fully and make the necessary repayment. Mr Brown’s expenses have always been cleared by the House Authorities as entirely consistent with the rules. He has not claimed the maximum level of expenses. The Review says its findings “carry no implication about the conduct or motives of the MPs concerned”. To be absolutely sure, Mr Brown

Peter Hoskin

Is this the death of another anti-Brown plot?

An eagle-eyed spot by Hopi Sen, who has posted on Barry Sheerman’s comments in the Huddersfield Examiner today.  If you remember, Sheerman was mooted as a key component in an anti-Brown plot, whereby he’d stand as chair of the Parliamentary Labour Party on a Get Gordon Out platform. Votes for Sheerman, it was thought, would be votes against Brown – and increase the pressure on the PM to stand down.  But in the Huddersfield Examiner, Sheerman suggests that, while he will stand for the PLP position, he won’t do so as part of a coup: “…Mr Sheerman denied this was part of a move to topple Gordon Brown. He said

Peter Hoskin

Selling assets at rock bottom prices – sound familiar?

So what to make of Gordon Brown’s plan to sell off an expected £16bn-worth of assets?  Like Charlie Elphicke over at CentreRight, I have my qualms. As he puts it, Brown has form when it comes to selling national assets at rock-bottom prices. And, in the immediate aftermath of the credit crunch and a recession, the prices he gets for our stake in Urenco, say, or the Dartford crossing, are likely to be rock bottom.   Besides, there’s an unmistakeable whiff of political opportunism about this plan. You can imagine the posturing now: “We’re selling off assets we can spare to protect jobs and frontline services, unlike those dastardly Tories…”

Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

The politics of growth

One strange side-effect of the car crash that was the Liberal Democrat conference is that no one dares say the word “cuts” anymore. Since Nick Clegg promised “savage cuts” – alarming his base in the process – we’re back to the normal euphemism of “efficiencies”. This, like so much in life, will have Gordon Brown hopping mad. He didn’t want to say “cuts” in the first place, and the whole farrago will prove (in his head) that he should stop taking advice from people outside his coterie.   The next stage in the debate is to focus on growth. As James revealed in his political column for the current edition