Is “looking weird” their biggest challenge?

Is “looking weird” their biggest challenge?

Comments 0 Comment

Was Cam right to get on the band-wagon? Suddenly how the Mili-brothers, particularly David, look is becoming a leadership election issue. Ed Miliband supporters are said to have a sticker which says simply “Ed speaks human”. Iain Martin in the Wall Street Journal wrote: “David Miliband looks, in theory, like the grown-up but it is obvious that he is a man stuck on planet politics trying to do an impression of a leader who understands people (”I’m real”). “ And…

Read More Read More

Are you going to pay to read the Times?

Are you going to pay to read the Times?

Comments 0 Comment

Will Rupert’s big gamble work? This week has seen the start of the programme to get us all paying if we want to read the Times online. We haven’t seen the pricing yet and at the moment you can view stories from the paper for nothing using their preview service. Here you give them you email address and no doubt that will switch to a fully paying service in the not to distant future. If this succeeds then one thing’s…

Read More Read More

Who’ll win the battle of the budget context?

Who’ll win the battle of the budget context?

Comments 0 Comment

Is Labour beginning to deflect the blame? The big clashes at Cameron’s third PMQs since entering Number 10 had a more familiar feel to them. The event was much less conciliatory than the first two occasions and Labour’s Harriet Harman felt confident enough to lead on the economy. For the big political battle in the coming days and months is over the state of the public finances and the economy that Labour left behind when Mr. Brown went to the…

Read More Read More

Is Balls the one who could damage Dave most?

Is Balls the one who could damage Dave most?

Comments 0 Comment

How do we rate them after last night? The impact on the betting markets of last night’s first TV debate between the Labour leadership five has been a tightening of the David Milibrand price on Betfair although Ladbrokes reported that most money had come in for Ed Balls. Watching the debate again this morning I’m even more convinced that the only one capable of being an effective leader of the opposition is Ed Balls. He’s sharp, shameless and a fighter….

Read More Read More

Will this sorry chapter now be closed?

Will this sorry chapter now be closed?

Comments 0 Comment

..or will it open calls for prosecutions? Like many people I thought that Cameron’s statement on the inquiry into the events of Bloody Sunday to be dignified and could of itself help in terms of whether anything happens next. The aim was to bring closure and it will be interesting in the next few hours to see if that has been achieved. I was a sub-editor in the BBC Radio national newsroom on the day it happened in 1971 1972…

Read More Read More

Will the Milibands still be on top after Newsnight?

Will the Milibands still be on top after Newsnight?

Comments 0 Comment

BBC Newsnight Could tonight’s debate change the contest’s dynamics? Richard Darlington on the New Statesman blog has a good trailer for tonight’s Newsnight debate with Jeremy Paxman in the chair. It takes place in front of an audience of swing and former Labour voters and their reaction could play a key part. For unlike the sterile rules of the General Election TV debates the audience are able to cheer and show their disapproval. To my mind this is the big…

Read More Read More

Can the LDs afford to alienate public sector workers?

Can the LDs afford to alienate public sector workers?

Comments 0 Comment

How dangerous for Clegg is leading on pensions? Nick Clegg’s statement about public sector pension is getting good coverage this morning and clearly we are being softened up for some quite drastic measures in the budget. But how risky for Clegg is it being associated with such a policy given that in the public eye at least he is now being seen as the prime mover? For there’s a lot of polling data to suggest that public sector workers do…

Read More Read More

Has Labour’s mayoral nomination been sewn up for Ken?

Has Labour’s mayoral nomination been sewn up for Ken?

Comments 0 Comment

Is it time be taking the 5/1 that he’ll get his job back? There’s another election taking place within the Labour party – that of who should be their candidate in the next London mayoral race in 2012. Like the contest for the leadership this will be completed by the time of the party’s conference in September. Such a truncated process so far ahead of the mayoral election itself has sparked off a row within the party suggesting that this…

Read More Read More