Daily Mail Is everything still being defined by the ex-leaders ? The big news for Labour as we move into September should be the start of voting in the first contested election for a leader since 1994. Instead the media remain obsessed with the Blair-Brown years and “what really went on”. Just look at this week. A couple of days ago the Mail on Sunday had the second part of the serialisation of the Chris Mullin diaries. Yesterday a short…
The Sun Is this taking defence cuts too far? The main news on the front page of the Times which is covered at length in its sister paper the Sun, is about a plan for Britain and France to “share” their aircraft carriers as part of massive economy measure. The idea is that Britain would scrap or downgrade one of the two replacement carriers which are already under construction at a cost of more than £5bn and that that one…
Guardian Who’ll win the old-Etonian stand-off over Cross-Rail? The big development over Boris that Morus only touched on briefly in the last post was the huge row that’s apparently developing between Johnson (Eton and Balliol College Oxford) and Cameron (Eton and Brasenose College Oxford) over plans by Osborne (St. Paul’s and Magdalen College Oxford) to force a 5% cut to the £16bn London CrossRail project. According to the Guardian, though denied by the Mayor’s office, Johnson has let it be…
And who else could be the Tory candidate? NB This necessarily-long article was written before this story broke this evening. How better to avoid running again than to resign over a fight with Cameron about cuts? When I last wrote about the 2010 London Mayoral election in May 2009 (smugly noting my bet on Oona King at 100/1 with Ladbrokes), I suggested that the main value in the market was likely to be found in the Conservative options. Other than…
The ICM approval ratings break-down Coalition – overall? Good job Bad Job Don’t know All sampled 46 36 18 Current CON voters 83 5 11 Current LAB voters 21 62 16 Current LD voters 59 25 16 May 6 LD voters 48 37 15 David Cameron Good job Bad Job Don’t know All sampled 57 31 12 Current CON voters 91 5 3 Current LAB voters 33 55 12 Current LD voters 68 26 7 May 6 LD voters 58…
…are these headlines helpful to the younger brother? With voting in Labour’s election due to start on Wednesday two papers at the “quality” end of the market have front pages that are dominated by the relations between the US and the UK during the Iraq War and its aftermath. The Telegraph says that it has been told that Tony Blair sought to hang on to office for longer than he did after hearing concerns from President Bush about the suitability…
Guardian Is this a Number 10 bluff – or a double bluff? Just four days to go before voting starts in Labour’s election the Guardian is reporting that the contender that David Cameron fears most is David Miliband. Now how should we treat this? Is it on the level; is it a bluff or is it a double bluff? Could Number 10 be trying to impede DM’s chances by letting it be know that they fear him most? We all…
Amazon.co.uk Widgets How difficult will their revelations make it for him? History repeats itself, the first time as tragedy, the second as autobiography. Or something like that. It seems almost obligatory now for retired cabinet ministers to set down their version of the time in office, their influence on events and their view of – amongst other things – their colleagues. The number of these memoirs being written always starts to increase when any party’s been in power for a…