Rather than wading into the fray, Alan Milburn steps gingerly towards it with his article for the think tank Progress today. Sure, he writes that “change beckons once again”, but he also holds back from questioning Gordon Brown’s leadership. Why so timid? I somehow doubt it’s because he supports Brown. But rather because Blairites –
The Evening Standard reveals that Eric Joyce – the Falkirk MP and John Hutton’s PPS – is to step down from his government role after the Labour Party conference. There’s been a lot of speculation over the past few days that Hutton himself will be the first Cabinet minister to resign in protest at the
UK Polling Report’s Anthony Wells is reporting a rumour that the Tories could have broken the 50 percent mark in tomorrow’s MORI poll. The (very much unconfirmed) figures have the Tories at 52 percent, Labour at 24 percent and the Lib Dems at 12 percent. That would give the Tories a hefty lead of 28 percent –
In the end, I’d say Nick Clegg’s speech at the Lib Dem conference was so-so. The very good parts were offset by the very bad parts, and there was a chunk of neither-here-nor-there material in between. And all delivered in the now-ubiquitous, walk-around-the-stage-with-no-notes manner. If you want to read the whole thing, there’s a copy of
Just to confirm the earlier story, the BBC are reporting that David Cairns – the Minister of State at the Scotland office – is going to resign in protest at Brown’s premiership. As Iain Dale points out, the question now is of whether or not this will open the floodgates
The whirlwind of rebellion rumours, claims and counter-claims continues to rampage around Westminster. Will Caroline Flint act as a stalking horse? Is John Hutton about to resign? Which minister referred to Team Brown as “thugs”? I, for one, don’t have the answers. But you’d have expected No.10 to be more clued in than most. Not so, if Ben
Whether or not it does oust Brown, it’s hard not to be impressed by just how well-managed the Labour backbench rebellion is. The plotters’ latest strategic shift is to point out that Brown could actually emerge triumphant from a leadership contest. Here’s George Howarth speaking to the Beeb earlier today: “We’ve got to confront our
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which – provided your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency – you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
It’s yet another 20-ish point for the Tories in the latest YouGov poll for the Sunday Times. They’re on 46 percent (up 1 on last month); Labour are on 27 (up 2); and the Lib Dems on 16 (down 2). I guess it’s fair to say that Brown’s economic recovery package – or what we’ve
The calls for a leadership contest are certainly getting louder. (UPDATE, 1500) Earlier today, Fiona MacTaggart became the fifth Labour MP to confirm that they’ve asked for leadership nomination forms to be sent out. And the expectation is that more will follow, as this increasingly takes on the complexion of an attempted coup. Who might
Yesterday Guido revealed that Brown’s insulation programme will most likely take around 10 years to complete. And today, the FT’s blog suggests that energy companies will be able to offset some of the costs of the energy package against their tax bills. In effect, that means that – rather than paying £1 billion towards the
The power-sharing deal reached in Zimbabawe is certainly an historic development. It’s hard not to conclude that it’s a positive one too. After all, the pro-West MDC leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, will now have some role in the governance of the country. Ok, he should have been made President back in March, if democracy had been
This latest YouGov poll for Channel 4 will really give Labour MPs the cold sweats… It was conducted across 60 constituencies which currently have Labour majorities of 6 to 14 percent. Why? Because they’re the seats that the Tories will need to win to be Britain’s largest party after the next election, and they’ll need an overall swing of 7
It’s seven years since almost 3000 people lost their lives in the September 11 terrorist attacks on the United States. The anniversary will be marked by a series of commemorative services across the world – including one at Ground Zero in New York, which will be attended by both John McCain and Barack Obama –
A leader in today’s Guardian is another entry for the Cameroons’ list of non-electoral milestones. Entitled “Progress in Blue”, its case seems to be that the Tories are pushing the kind of progressive agenda that Guardian readers should consider voting for. Here’s the nub of it: “There have been moments in the postwar history of
The Autumn issue of the Fabian Review features an article by the YouGov pollster Peter Kellner on why Labour could win the next election. It’s not out until 15 September, but the Mirror’s Kevin Maguire has seen a copy and writes about it in his column today. Here – with Maguire’s embellishments – is Kellner’s reasoning:
The Guardian has got its hands on details of the Government’s rescue package for those struggling with rising fuel bills. The centrepiece of it is a £1 billion deal with energy companies, by which those same companies will contribute more to the carbon emissions reduction target scheme – in other words, more money will be
Ok, so it turns out that Brown’s article today wasn’t an apology of any sort. But there’s still some speculation that he’s going to use his conference speech to more or less say “sorry”. With that in mind, the Tories have just launched ‘Brown’s Big Apology’, a corner of their website where – from now
Could it be? Has Brown admitted that he needs to rethink his approach, that he needs to change? Has he – in a roundabout way – apologised? It was starting to look that way earlier today, with the publication of an article by the PM in the Parliamentary Monitor. The subhead of that article: “The world
One of the major recent debates within the Labour party has been over how best to attack David Cameron and the Tories. Well – if a briefing obtained by the Guardian is anything to go by – that debate has pretty much resolved itself. It suggests that Labour should portray the Tories as a wolf in sheep’s clothing – as