By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The life of a Foreign Secretary is no doubt always busy, but William Hague certainly does seem to have been busier than usual this summer. First he helped run the country in the Prime Minister’s and Deputy Prime Minister’s collective absence; then he was embroiled in the ongoing Julian Assange […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter It may not normally be part of your diet, but the latest issue of the New Statesman contains some tasty morsels for the political glutton. There’s a useful analysis of the Miliband and Balls axis by Rafael Behr; a flat-out brilliant article about political cartooning by Helen Lewis; and an […]
Okay, the picture to the right may be slightly overdoing it — but I still think that Nick Clegg deserves some defence from his critics. They’re at it again today, from all sides, after yesterday’s hasty proposal for a new wealth tax. The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail both contain particularly virulent editorials attacking, respectively, the Deputy Prime Minister’s “immature and […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Another in our series of posts preparing for the reshuffle, and I'm afraid it’s the gloomiest so far. Remember how I said earlier that a reshuffle could have an effect on the internal mood of the Coalition? The flipside of that is that I doubt it could accomplish much […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter I’m afraid I’m one of those people who think that reshuffles don’t matter much, especially when it comes to the grand swell of policy and of public opinion. But it is true that reshuffles can make a difference to the internal mood of a government, and that goes doubly […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The most explosive scrap of Tory politics today is contained in this article in the Evening Standard. It’s about a new book (Britannia Unchained, released on 13th September) by five of the 2010 intake: Kwasi Kwarteng, Priti Patel, Dominic Raab, Chris Skidmore and Elizabeth Truss. And it contains some […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter From the Olympics to the Jubilee, from Higgs Boson particles to sunrises on Mars — this has so far, in many respects, been a year of wonder. But what can be said of politics? My fear, which underpins a column that I’ve written for today’s Times (£), is that […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter You’ve got to slightly feel for William Hague this morning. Only a few days after he’s given the keys to the country, to look after it while David Cameron’s on holiday, a fiendishly tricky diplomatic row lands through the letterbox. The continued presence of Julian Assange in the Ecuadorian […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter A week ago, they were hugging — now the air between David Cameron and Boris Johnson may be a little icier. The Mayor of London has given an interview to today’s Evening Standard in which he attacks the government in ways that are at once familiar and even more […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter You’ll remember the controversy about Gordon Brown’s insistence on “British jobs for British workers”, I’m sure. Behind it lay not just a dispute at an oil refinery, but also concern at the number of “new jobs” that went to foreign-born people during the New Labour years, while Brits languished […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter A shrinking economy, rising inflation, no more Olympics — but what's this? Today's employment figures contain some good news. The number of people in employment rose by 201,000 to 29.4 million in the three months to June, the highest level since March-May 2008. The unemployment rate dropped to 8 […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter We have already committed Peter Kellner’s post on the electoral implications of constituency boundaries to our MustBeRead Twitter feed, but I thought I’d mention it here too. After all, the table he has produced (and that I’ve pasted below, click for a larger version) is an unadulterated, no-nonsense guide […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter And the word of the day is “narrative”. Bruce Anderson uses it in his ConservativeHome column today, suggesting that David Cameron needs to find one — and quick. But it has also been hovering, more generally, over this Olympic period. As I suggested in a post yesterday, the Tory […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter It’s only a matter of hours before the 2012 Olympics are over; and a matter of hours, too, before David Cameron embarks on his Mediterranean holiday. This is why the Prime Minister has packed so much into this Sunday so far. Television appearances, newspaper op-eds, press conferences, policy announcements, […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Whither Andrew Lansley? Half a year ago, as the Health Bill struggled to avoid the charnel house, this was one of the most urgent questions in town. Yet now barely anyone asks it at all. As Patrick Hennessey notes in his detailed overview of the latest reshuffle rumours and […]