By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. This is a congratulatory ToryDiary to mark Andy Murray's victory, written in the style of the texts and e-mails that we, the ConHome team, receive several times a day from Grant Shapps's top team at CCHQ: Qatada: OUT. Benefits Cap: IN. Theresa May: ON A ROLL. Deficit: DOWN. Immigration: […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. In Othello, Iago suggests to the Moor that ideas can have value, but that money has none: "Who steals my purse steals trash. 'Tis something, nothing:/'Twas mine, ’tis his, and has been slave to thousands." The audience knows as it listens that the man is manipulating his master – […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Is David Cameron finally getting his machine into shape? There are signs that he might be. There has been the skilful and sensitive management of the sad death of Margaret Thatcher. The PM has used the period to reconnect with some of his MPs – dining with key Thatcherites […]
Graphic above from today's Daily Mail By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Towards the end of last week, David Cameron broke off talks with Nick Clegg and David Miliband over press regulation. Over the weekend, he resumed them. Yesterday, he joined the two other party leaders to propose a scheme to the Commons. There […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Not so long ago, people were both more free and more orderly. For example, there were no race relations laws: you could say what you liked about ethnic minorities (as they usually weren't called then). The English always drank: "He gives your Hollander a vomit ere the next pottle […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I suspect there would be little argument with the proposition that George Osborne is the most important member of David Cameron's ministerial team but who has the second most important job? You could argue it was IDS. He's making landmark reforms to welfare and is responsible for delivering the […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Sunday Telegraph reports that a number of Tory MPs who wrote a letter in support of Leveson-style statutory regulation of the press have now brought their positions in line with David Cameron – opposed to such far-reaching state control. The letter, signed last month, had called for Parliament not to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter …That, at any rate, is pretty much the unanimous verdict of Fleet Street this morning. And it is hard to see why it should be wrong, at least as far as statutory regulation is concerned. After all, statutory regulation needs a statute. Which means that the Government would have […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Boris has been in India but he's also been displaying some topsy turvy positioning. The last three days have not been Boris Johnson's finest. First came his flip flop on an In/Out referendum. Earlier this year – ahead of his re-election bid – he signed the People's Pledge and […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Four MPs went to prison after the expenses scandal. Voters would not have put up for a moment with self-regulation continuing for the rest. Journalists will surely go to jail, too, in the wake of Hackgate. But some seem to believe that Fleet Street can eventually return to business […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Leveson Inquiry reports next week, and the Prime Minister's response has, understandably, been of keen interest to those in Westminster and on Fleet Street. This morning's newspapers will please those in Fleet Street: the Prime Minister is apparently of a mind to reject the prospect of statutory regulation […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Margaret Thatcher's wronged former party Treasurer went on the World at One today. His interviewer, Becky Milligan, quoted Boris's Daily Telegraph article of earlier this week, which said that to call someone a paedophile is to "consign them to the lowest circle of hell – and while they're still […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The last few weeks have been terrible for the BBC. First was the Jimmy Savile controversy and then, in the last week, the false accusations made against former Tory Treasurer, Lord McAlpine. It is breathtaking that such serious allegations were entertained without (1) ever giving the subject of those […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter More than the 40 or so Conservative MPs who signed it will agree with the Guardian letter supporting statutory press regulation. And since over 40 Tories plus Labour and the Liberal Democrats equals a Commons majority, it might seem to follow that statutory regulation will now definitely happen. But […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Strictly speaking, it was not the lobby and the media that forced Andrew Mitchell's resignation yesterday. It was the unprecedented meeting of Wednesday's 1922 Committee, which found itself discussing whether or not he should continue as Chief Whip: the very fact that such a conversation took place at all […]