Another goat goes
News is breaking that the Health Minister Lord Darzi is leaving the government. By my count, that means Lord West is the ony one of Gordon’s goats still in post.
Gordon brown
Tuesday
Defending his own premiership
The Times’s story of how Bob Ainsworth came to be Defence Secretary is equal parts extraordinary and disheartening. Here are the key passages: “Mr Ainsworth’s predecessor, John Hutton, had indicated to Mr Brown in mid-May that he was thinking of leaving the Government. Mr Hutton, recently remarried, had a compelling family reason for wanting to step down. But Mr Brown, preoccupied with the elections and the possibility of a leadership challenge, appears to have spent little time thinking about the vacancy. It wasn’t until around noon the day after the polls that he began to focus on who should oversee Britain’s military and its engagement in Afghanistan. In the midst
Sunday
What Labour women think of Gordon
For those of you who missed it, Radio Four has just broadcast a piece about what the women who worked with think Gordon Brown think of him. Not a lot, it seems. Here are some of the quotes: Jane Kennedy “Well I think that the Labour Party is expecting us to do better. The Parliamentary Labour Party were told in the first meeting after the election in June we were promised that there was going to be a change. We haven’t seen that change yet, we haven’t even really seen the kind of clarity and willingness to listen to what the voters are telling us about policy. I’ve had lots
A framework for shelving tax cuts
So, the News of the World claims that the Tories are planning to shelve some of their tax-cutting proposals – including the inheritance tax cut and tax breaks for married couples – to help combat the fiscal crisis. Guido suspects that the news came direct from the Blackberry of Andy Coulson, but the Tories have told Tim Montgomerie to “treat the story with a ton of salt”. Either way, I do – like Tim – have some sympathy for the idea that commitments will have to be sidelined to overcome Brown’s debt mountain. The longer those terrible deficits remain, the more future generations will be burdened by the Dear Leader’s
Saturday
Smith’s claims call Brown’s political judgement into question
Ok, let’s get the hard, grim facts out of the way first: Jacqui Smith was an ineffective Home Secretary whose expense claims were dubious, to say the least, and who rightly lost her job in government. But – having said that – it’s hard not to feel slightly sorry for her as she discusses the embarrassment caused by her husband’s porn rentals in an interview with the Guardian today. The whole piece is a remarkably candid exchange: she also discusses how she “did wrong” with her expenses, and how she’d “definitely” be voted out “if the general election was tomorrow”. But this passage struck me more than any other: “[Smith]
Friday
Brown’s legacy of inequality, poverty and joblessness
We all know Labour has failed to run an efficient economy or public services, but what’s little discussed is its failure to achieve even its own goals. Had Brown bankrupted the country but, say, made the poorest much better off, then Labour members might not be facing such an existential crisis. As it stands they won three victories, trebled health spending, redistributed some £1.5 trillion – and will end up with a society even more ‘unequal’ than it ever was under Thatcher. I look at this in my column today, and thought I’d share a few of the points with CoffeeHousers. First, equality. This (rather than making the poor better
Whom do you trust more?
So, a ComRes poll for the Daily Politics has Cameron leading Brown on the issue of which party leader would be more honest about spending cuts. It echoes a poll that we conducted a few days ago; the results of which we figured we’d share with CoffeeHousers, before our work experience at the Speccie comes to an end. Basically, we hit the streets of London (avoiding Westminster and all the party hacks), and asked around 350 people: “Who do you trust more, Gordon Brown or David Cameron?” Sure, it may not be as scientific as a YouGov or ComRes poll, but the results are still striking. Cameron polled a comfortable
The extent of Johnson’s loyalty?
Kevin Maguire’s Commons Confidential column in the latest New Statesman contains this intriguing little snippet: “Home Secretary Alan Johnson was a picture of innocence during the plot to oust Brown and replace him with a former postie with the initials A J. Not so his entourage. It has come to the attention of No 10 that one of his team offered a job in Downing Street to a hackette.” After his article for the Indy earlier this week – and his fizzy performance in Manchester yesterday (covered by John Rentoul as part of his AJ4PM series) – you suspect Johnson is being a little more active than the Dear Leader
Wednesday
Could you stick with Gordon for 3 more years?
Brace yourselves. According to some great research by David Herdson at Political Betting, Gordon Brown could refrain from holding a general election until 2013. The loopholes by which he could manage it are a bit arcane and convoluted – so I’d suggest you read Herdson’s post in full – but this snippet gives the idea: “The only statutory requirement to move writs for a general election is under the Meeting of Parliament Act 1694, which allows no less than three years between the dissolution and the writs being issued. In other words, technically, the election doesn’t have to be held until June 2013.” Sure, it’s highly, highly unlikely that Brown
When the cat’s away…
Hm. Seems like Alan Johnson has chosen the day that Gordon’s away in Italy to write another comment piece on voting reform. Like his article for the Times a few months ago, it pushes the AV+ version of proportional representation. And, like his Times article, it goes out of its way to mention Brown (“I work for a leader who accepts the need for … renewal”), but it still comes across as an attempt to grab the leadership limelight. After all, why should the Home Secretary be reiterating points he’s made before about voing reform? Why isn’t he leaving this attention-grabbing stuff for his leader who “accepts the need for
Tuesday
A rebellion stirs
So, what does today hold in store for Gordon Brown? Howabout another 10p tax rebellion marshalled, as always, by Frank Field? A bunch of around 30 Labour rebels have prepared an amendment to the Finance Bill, by which the last Budget couldn’t pass into law until everyone who lost out from the 10p tax fiasco has been fully compensated. It should be debated today, and the rebels have the support of both the Tories and the Lib Dems. In response, Labour whips have cancelled all foreign trips by ministers and MPs, and are feverishly trying to rally the troops. If the rebellion succeeds, then it will be hugely embarrassing
Monday
How important were all those initiatives the government kept announcing?
There was a time when the government seemed to be announcing new measures to get the economy and the banking sector in particular moving again on an almost daily basis. Today, the Wall Street Journal has done a rather good audit of these measures. For instance, in January “the British government created a guarantee program meant to revive the dormant market for asset-backed securities. The program aims to spur purchases of banks’ asset-back securities, or bundled consumer loans, by guaranteeing them for buyers. The guarantees were made available in April, but since then, none of the major U.K. banks has issued a security with such a guarantee.” Also, only 13
No Brits in Europe’s likely new line-up
With the Swedish EU Presidency beginning, and most diplomats mildly optimistic that the Lisbon treaty will be approved by the Irish in a new referendum, European leaders have turned their attention to filling Europe’s top jobs. But Tony Blair, who looked a shoo-in for the post of President of the European Council (not quite the “President of the EU”), now looks as if he has been dropped. Blair’s main backer, Nicolas Sarkozy, is said to have gone off the idea of bringing his British friend back from the political cold; while Germany’s Chancellor, Angela Merkel, was never keen. Four candidates have emerged in his stead: Luxembourg’s long-serving leader Jean-Claude Juncker,
Brown puts on his gloomy face for the world stage
How peculiar. After all the economic optimism coming out of government recently, all the talk of recovery by the end of the year, Brown’s going to warn that the worst of the recession may be yet to come in his meetings with G8 leaders this week. The Times has the full story here, but this snippet from the Dear Leader’s address in France today gives you the idea: “If we do not take the necessary action now to strengthen the world economy and put in place the conditions for sustainable world growth, we will be confronted with avoidable unemployment for years to come.” So does this mean he’s losing faith
Sunday
Blair is right on climate change
Ahead of Tony Blair’s launch of a report on climate change, he’s given an interview to The Sunday Times. The interviewer Jonathan Leake is highly sceptical of Blair and takes particular issue with this statement from him: “The answer to climate change,” he says solemnly, “is the development of science and technology. Yes, we will get changes in the way we consume but we will be consuming differently, not necessarily less. People are not going to return to the 19th century. The critical thing is to use the technologies we have and to incentivise the development of new ones. That is the only practical way we will make this thing
Pure Balls | 5 July 2009
According to the Sunday Times, poor old Shaun Woodward is getting the blame for inspiring Brown’s mendacious “Labour investment v Tory cuts” line. As if. This is the work of Ed Balls, and his trademark belief that the public can be easily fooled on such issues because their eyes glaze over when you mention statistics. A quick chronology: when the 10 percent figure came out in my Daily Telegraph piece it was Ed Balls who seized on it (his wife did so earlier that day with the Standard) and used it in a letter to Michael Gove demanding where those 10 percent cuts would be made. He used my figure as
More blows against Brown’s spending narrative
It’s public spending time again, dear CoffeeHousers, with a couple of eye-catching articles in today’s papers. The first is a comment piece by Steve Bundred, chief exec of the Audit Commission, on the necessity for extensive spending cuts. If you recall, Bundred claimed a few days ago that health and education shouldn’t be ring-fenced from cuts, and here he repeats the point, adding a snappy conclusion: “So don’t believe the shroud wavers who tell you grannies will die and children starve if spending is cut. They won’t. Cuts are inevitable, and perfectly manageable. We should insist on a frank and intelligent debate about how and where they will fall, which
Friday
Brown’s U-turns analysed
Steve Richards’ column in today’s Independent – analysing Brown’s u-turns on the Post Office, 42 days and the abolition of 10p tax rate – is superb. As Steve notes, all these u-turns have in common the question of where does Brown stand in relation to Blairism; is he break from it or its continuation? Steve’s conclusion sums this up brilliantly: “The U-turns show that Brown has never acquired a clear voice of his own as Prime Minister and has failed to break away from his complicated past. Perhaps an early election would have liberated him from the manacles. Instead, we are left with a trail of major reversals that convey
One crisis after another
Many CoffeeHousers will give a horse laugh to the idea of “green shoots” – especially the idea of Gordon Brown winning a fourth term because a grateful nation will thank him for a recovered economy. It’s a delusion, nothing surer, and the same one Callaghan and Major suffered from. In both cases, there were firm signs of an economic recovery – but the electorate never forgave the government which landed them in the mire. But is Britain recovering? We’ve seen a few developments lately which, given the fun and games elsewhere, have gone unnoticed. So here’s a catchup. Pick up the financial pages, and you’ll find numerous stories of success:
Brown announces his agricultural policy
I think it’s fair to say that the Dear Leader is out of his comfort zone here: Hat-tip: Paul Waugh