So what happens when the news cameras leave and the people who have been flooded out are left to clear up the mess and rebuild their lives? The point is that the news agenda moves on and the people of Cockermouth will just have to get on with it. But where is the record of
The Chilcot Inquiry is already proving a hundred times more interesting than anyone expected. My only worry is that people already view 2003 as ancient history. There is a tendency to think we already know what we only suspected. I was an agnostic on the intervention. I hoped in would work, but worried that it
I was hugely impressed by a long article by my former colleague Rob Yates, in this weekend’s Observer magazine. Rob went back to his roots in Walton, Liverpool, one of the most deprived parts of the country on any indicator, to examine the reality of the “broken Britain” rhetoric of the Conservative Party. It was
I can’t help thinking that the Observer’s Ipsos/Mori poll this weekend was something of a blip. What exactly has the Labour government done to narrow the gap in the last week or so? I hope I’m wrong, because I think the British people deserves a hung parliament, which would be the best result of the
Where does Gordon Brown find solace in these darkest of times? In Downing Street, a rather desperate numbers game is being played. It starts with an assumption that the Labour vote has stabilised at around 28 per cent. This is rounded up to 30 per cent, and is forecast to sneak up to 32 at
I have written about the battle against the neo-Nazis and radical Islam in this week’s Jewish Chronicle. This is such an important issue that I am cross-posting the two pieces. The JC’s splash this week is the news that Barking and Dagenham Council could fall to the BNP next year. This follows the news that
I can’t quite decide whether there really is a return of ideas to British politics or whether the political columnists have just grown tired of writing yet another piece about just how bad things are for the Prime Minister this week. Jackie Ashley’s column in today’s Guardian complements Janet Daley’s in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday.
Apologies that the blog hasn’t been as regular as it should have been recently. The Jewish Chronicle has worked me hard in my first few weeks and I have been unable to keep posting as often as I would have liked. I have now decided to blog at regular times during the week. I therefore
I was interested to see the Observer story at the weekend about Lord Ashcroft accompanying William Hague to Washington. I tweeted this on October 23rd. I even teased Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie about Ashcroft now dominating Tory foreign policy as well as domestic policy. Does this count as a micro-scoop?
I happened to be on the phone to the Foreign Office press office late this afternoon when I heard a huge cheer go up. The press officer I was speaking to laughed nervously. “The Lisbon Treaty has been signed”, she said. So who was cheering? It surely can’t have been independent civil servants. I guess
I’ve been away for the half-term break. Sorry not to have blogged, but I needed a break from all the constructive criticism of my regular commenters. i always get soppy about this first half term of the school year. It takes me right back to my west country primary school in the 1970s, kicking through the
Can secrets ever be good for you? I used to describe myself as a “free speech fundamentalist” and believed that there were almost no circumstances in which official secrets should be withheld from the public (one exception was when disclosure would put the lives of individual members of the armed forces or intelligence services at
I can’t expect anyone to bother reading another piece about Question Time, but bear with me here. In the build-up to Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time, I was convinced it was a fuss about nothing. I still can’t quite understand Peter Hain’s objection to allowing an unpleasant fascist hang himself live on TV. Good
The Guardian splash today puts some serious meat on my story in last week’s Jewish Chronicle about growing US unhappiness about the Tories’ new friends in Europe. Jonathan Freedland adds some important analysis. When I first put it to the Conservative Party press office that there might be an issue here I was told that
I didn’t think I’d ever find myself uttering the words in that headline, but I’m afraid those looking for further evidence of my ideological drift to the dark side will be disappointed. I do have to express my heartfelt gratitude to the old curmudgeon, however it’s for his guidance as a literary rather than an ideological
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
I am delighted to add my voice to those congratulating The Guardian’s David Leigh and parliament’s Paul Farrelly MP for fighting off lawyers Carter-Ruck over their absurd but spine-chilling injunction over the reporting of the activities of Trafigura in Ivory Coast. For once the over-used phrase “a great day for freedom of speech” actually means
David Miliband has really gone for it in the Observer. Far from apologising for his Labour conference attacks on David Cameron’s right-wing alliance in the European parliament, he has suggested that Churchill would have been ashamed of the modern Tories for getting into bed with Poland’s Michal Kaminski and Latvia’s Roberts Zile. I interviewed Mr
As he says himself in this week’s column in the Independent on Sunday, John Rentoul showed “slavish admiration for a former Prime Minister”. Such is his grief for Tony Blair that he can’t bear to utter his name. I did wonder whether John would seamlessly shift his admiration from Blair to Cameron, but he has
The Jewish Chronicle this week landed an exclusive interview with Michal Kaminski, the Tory Party’s controversial new Polish friend in the European parliament. He answered some pretty tough questions on his past pronouncements and offered a rebuttal of claims that he is an antisemite. I wasn’t entirely convinced by some of his answers but I