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Category: Labour

Does Fred’s pension put stopping the Tories beyond reach?

Does Fred’s pension put stopping the Tories beyond reach?

How can minsters claim competence after agreeing to this? The numbers involved are on such a scale that it’s hard for the ordinary voter to comprehend the crisis that the financial system has been going through in the past five months. The challenge for ministers has been to appear confident and competent without being complacent. And for the most part since then the government has given off an aura of knowing what it’s doing which has been picked up in…

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How damaging is Fred’s RBS pension to Labour?

How damaging is Fred’s RBS pension to Labour?

What can Darling do about the £650k pa outrage? The big talking point on many of the radio phone-ins today has been the mammoth pension of £650,000 a year that the ex-RBS boss is due to get for the rest of his life. Listen in – there’s a lot of anger and fury out there and who can blame people. This comes on the day that the Royal Bank of Scotland posted a £24bn loss – the biggest in British…

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Could the politics now become less personal?

Could the politics now become less personal?

Will we see a new relationship between Dave and Gord? If it had not been postponed because of yesterday’s tragic death David Cameron and Gordon Brown would have been meeting later today at Number 10 for the formal unveiling of a portrait of the last Tory PM but one. The organisation of this event had been marked by extraordinary bickering and an apparent effort by Brown first not to have Cameron there at all and then, once that became impossible,…

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Does this say that “The End is Nigh”?

Does this say that “The End is Nigh”?

guardian.co.uk But are the Tories right to back Brown? On the day the day that Mrs Thatcher returns to Number 10 for the unveiling of a portrait it is perhaps ironic that one part of the public sector that she decreed was a privatisation too far – the Post Office – should be causing so much difficulty for Mr. Brown and his government. The Guardian reports today that senior cabinet figures, David Miliband, and Alan Johnson have voiced concern and…

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Could Straw’s move make Iraq an issue again?

Could Straw’s move make Iraq an issue again?

How’s this going to play ahead of the election? The real danger of Jack Straw’s announcement that he’s using his veto to stop cabinet minutes on the Iraq war decision being made available under the Freedom of Information Act is that it could open up the whole episode as a political issue once again. Even though it’s nearly six years since it all happened Ministers have managed to fend off calls for an inquiry into the issue, which was so…

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Is it Brown that’s the problem not Labour?

Is it Brown that’s the problem not Labour?

Guardian.co.uk What if this idea starts to take hold? One of the great weapons that editors can use to influence events is in choosing the questions that go into the opinion polls that they commission. Then, when they have the numbers, they can highlight specific findings which might fit with what the paper wants to achieve. So what are we to make of the Guardian’s splash this morning – leading on the numbers that are most damaging to Brown’s leadership?…

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“The next Labour leader is destined to be a loser…”

“The next Labour leader is destined to be a loser…”

Sunday Telegraph “…This is Slumdog Labour Leader” There’s an excellent piece by Matthew D’Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph today in which he looks at the nascent contest to succeed Brown and argues that it is “ferocious, precisely because the outcome matters so little”. After rolling off the stream of recent leadership pretenders, he goes on: “….This, I confidently predict, is only the beginning. Many more names will be suggested in this “potential leader speed dating”, some even more ridiculous than…

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Could Gord go to put the kybosh on Cameron?

Could Gord go to put the kybosh on Cameron?

Would hurting the Tories come before his own career? In May last year I suggested that a possible outcome to Labour’s leadership saga might be that Gordon would fall on his sword if he felt that bringing in someone new would make life tougher for the Tories. At the time I wrote: “Only a few have suggested that he might come to recognise that his leadership is undermining his party against the dreaded Tories and that he will just fall…

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