What’s the political impact of Labour’s cash crisis? Of all the stories of woe for Tony Blair and Labour in the Sunday papers this morning the one that seems to have the most long term significance is this in the News of the World – the first part of which is reproduced above. The story goes on to list the money that has to be paid back: “..£2.3MILLION to property developer Sir David Garrard in April, £1.5MILLION to Priory Clinic…
What will Dave and Gordon tell their children about their war roles? Earlier in the week when were were discussing the electoral impact of Iraq a couple of people emailed asking that I publish again the photo-composition that was produced for the site a few months ago. Well here it is and it does raise question for both men that are probably not going to go away. Both were supporters of the invasion although Gordon was clearly in a much…
Did illegal eavesdropping change the course of the Lib Dem election? Just on a year ago this week Simon Hughes was riding high in his bid to become leader of the Liberal Democrats. Mark Oaten had pulled out of the race a few days earlier and the sentiment had moved sharply away from Ming Campbell following his lacklustre performances at Prime Minister’s Questions. In the betting Hughes overtook Ming and became the odds on favourite. An ICM poll in the…
Are Labour Planning to Get Rid of the County and District Councils? In my last year as a borough councillor, in 2003/4, there was much speculation that Labour would seek to get rid of the County and District councils, and replace them with single-tier Unitary Authorities. Some of the powers of County and District councils would be transferred to the new Unitary authorities. Others would be transferred upwards to elected regional assemblies. Although this never materialised, I now understand that…
Can a Home Secretary ever make it to the top job? The above, reproduced from the Sun web-site, gives a good flavour of how John Reid is being treated this morning following a whole raft of new problems on his patch. His cabinet position, surely, is not for ambitious high flyers and it is hard to see how he can progress from here. But why is he still second favourite almost right across the board to take the to job….
Could the investigation go on until the spring? The main news in the Mail this morning is that that “detectives are now increasingly confident that the ten-month investigation will end in a criminal court case – either over claims that peerages were traded for political donations, or an attempt to conceal evidence.” But what could also dominate the political environment is a suggestion in the paper “that a final report on the case is now unlikely to be submitted to…
Will there be a West Lothian Question over whether it’s taught in schools The latest move in Gordon Brown’s “Britishness” initiative is that it should be compulsory for schools to teach “core British values alongside cultural diversity”. The problem is that this will only apply in England and as the BBC’s Daily Politics programme reported this morning – it will not apply in Scotland. For while the Education Secretary, Alan Johnson, can lay down policy for schools in England, as…
Will the Lib Dems go on getting an “anti-war” bonus? After yesterday’s first full debate in the Commons in Government time on Iraq since the war ended in 2003 the question needs to be asked – how big an issue will this be at the next General Election? Will the presumably Brown-led Labour administration be able to cut itself off from the massive negatives that the war created for the party in 2005? Could the issue for post-Blair Labour have…