Will Gord’s actions contain the damage Another day and another affair that Gordon has had to answer questions on – this time not just about himself but also including his deputy, Harriet Harman who also benefited from the Durham donor. It is had to see what else he could say today even though the move will add further to Labour’s financial problems. But how can he and his party break out of this downward spiral of terrible stories? What can…
Is the Sun right to call it “Labour’s Black Monday”? There’s a six letter word that figures prominently in a number of the papers this morning that could be very dangerous for Labour and Gordon. It’s “SLEAZE” – a description that in the 1992-1997 Tory government seemed to get attached to almost everything. It became almost a short-hand and was very difficult for the party to cast off. In fact it’s probably taken it a decade and a half to…
Is it worth betting that Labour will have another leader? It’s Monday and that means it’s the day of the Guardian column of Jackie Ashley – who for a long time has been one of Brown’s most enthusiastic media cheer leaders. And this morning, as she tries to assess the political damage that Gordon has suffered in the past few weeks, she touches on what has not really been debated – could he go BEFORE the general election? Ashley writes:“..For…
Why I’m scaling back on my “Tory buy” position As far as I can see there is only one voting intention poll this morning and that is from the non-British Polling Council registered BPIX in the Mail on Sunday Frustratingly the only figures available online are a CON-LAB split of 40%-35% with no information about the Lib Dems. The pollster found there was a 37%-37% split when it asked how respondents would vote if Tony Blair was still Labour leader….
Did Darling mislead the House? Some wag on the Today programme used the joke featured in the headline this morning – and after this evening’s release of emails from the National Audit Office it appears to be even more apt. For documents have just been released (you can download them here) which shed further light on the circumstances leading to the dispatch by HMRC of the missing data discs. Most importantly they cast doubt on the statement by Alistair Darling…
Could Darling/Brown be accused of being “less than frank”? Two main articles this morning – a competition devised and operated by the site’s regular stand-in editor, Paul Maggs, on the Australian general election and the ongoing implications for the government of the missing data affair. Amongst the acres of coverage of the missing data CDs there are two stories which have the potential to cause serious problems for both Alistair Darling and Gordon Brown. For they suggest that the issue…
Will it be a third bloody session for Gord and his team? With a popular headline this morning being “Another day – another disaster” the Prime Minister cannot be looking forward to his weekly cross examination across the dispatch box at PMQs. This starts at noon. No doubt both Cameron and Brown have been preparing all morning and the interesting element will be whether there will be an attempt to pin the lost data issue on the Prime Minister. He…
Will Gordon be saying “move over Darling”? Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling cannot have expected good headlines this morning and reproduced above are a selection of the front pages. There’s no denying it – this is bad. There’s no respite on the inside pages. The Sun’s leader sums it up simply under the headline “Strike Two”. This is a story that looks as though it could dog the government for months if not years. The big political question is how…