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Category: Tories

Will welfare reform go through only with Tory support?

Will welfare reform go through only with Tory support?

How dangerous is such a radical package? As fore-shadowed in the Queen’s Speech the government has published its welfare reform white paper which, amongst many measures, seeks to get tough on claimants who are able to work. There’s little doubt that this will resonate will large sections of the electorate – but could it be a controversy too far in the run-up to an election? Marf’s cartoon sums it up – the measure might appear to be too tough for…

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Did a minister have advance knowledge?

Did a minister have advance knowledge?

But has the story any impact beyond the Westminster village? The Green arrest affair has taken on a new turn this evening with a report by Iain Martin on the Telegraph “Three Line Whip” blog that “the strong rumour is that one minister with good police contacts did know and has remained well under the radar since the row erupted last week, for understandable reasons.” This, clearly, could have big ramifications because the most damaging thing for the government, surely,…

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Who’s going to come out of today on top?

Who’s going to come out of today on top?

Could the Tories have fired their big guns too early? In one sense today is a great victory for the opposition parties. Normally this annual set-piece event provides the peg for acres and acres of coverage on what the government is doing with the Tories and the Lib Dems struggling to get a look in. Well with the Green arrest likely to be dominating the headlines tonight that should be a minus point to Brown Central. But don’t underestimate them…

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Will the Speaker get through the day unscathed?

Will the Speaker get through the day unscathed?

How will his statement go down with worried MPs? One of the “smart” elements of the Green arrest was the timing. It happened just as Parliament was going into a five day recess ahead of the Queen’s Speech and the start of the new parliamentary year. This meant that there was no immediate platform for the issue of the police search of Green’s Commons’ office to be raised in the chamber. That all changes today and the Tories and the…

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Is he just keeping the seat warm for Davis?

Is he just keeping the seat warm for Davis?

Why hasn’t Dominic Grieve been a bit more high profile? It’s not often that a new government in Europe leads one to the Conservative frontbench, but another Grand Coalition will take office in Austria early next week, and as with the previous government, it’s headed up by a Social Democrat Chancellor while the conservative People’s Party holds the remaining big posts of Finance, Foreign Affairs and the Interior Ministry. With the “comparative politics hat” firmly affixed, a UK equivalent of…

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Is Osborne’s scalp a proxy to get at Cameron?

Is Osborne’s scalp a proxy to get at Cameron?

Some words of comfort from Michael White With George Osborne continuing to make the news there’s a good analysis of his position from Michael White of the Guardian in which he suggests that the Shadow Chancellor’s biggest problems are on his own side – not the attacks from Labour. White writes: “..Much more important to my mind than Labour attacks is that the people pushing hardest to get Osborne out are on his own side. And most of them are…

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What do we make of the PMQ exchanges?

What do we make of the PMQ exchanges?

click on picture to watch How would Blair have dealt with this? For Gordon Brown today’s PMQs should have been a breeze. The Governor of the Bank of England was broadly endorsing his tax cuts plan which should have provided the ammunition to embarrass Cameron. Instead we got a stinging exchange over the Haringey baby tragedy with, at one point, Brown accusing Cameron of “playing party politics” over the issue – a mistake. What struck me was how poor Brown…

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Will this seal the deal or open up more questions?

Will this seal the deal or open up more questions?

click the panel to watch it in full What do we think of Obama’s $4m “Infomercial”? The major event in the White House race overnight was the half hour commercial that the Obama campaign placed at peak times on almost all the networks and which cost an estimated $4m. When I heard of the plan my initial reaction was to think that it was a mistake – a bit like his mass rally in Berlin. Obama is already under fire…

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