To defeat populists on the right, liberal conservatives must show that immigration, like globalisation, benefits this country and its people,
Image from Tory campaign stunt at Battersea Power Station. George Osborne has written for The Telegraph today and has warned that "2010 will be the year when the world's focus shifts from the debts in our banks to the enormous debts being run up by governments". He notes that rating agencies have downgraded Greece and […]
Voter confidence in the Darling-Brown economic team has been knocked downwards in the first test of public opinion since this Wednesday's PBR. A ComRes poll for the Daily Politics programme found that Cameron and Osborne now enjoy a 7% lead over Labour in answer to the question, "Who do you most trust to steer Britain's […]
David Cameron has today launched one of his most hard-hitting attacks yet on the Government, comparing Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling and their handling of the economy to joy-riders "smashing up the neighbourhood". Speaking to activists at CCHQ, he asserted that Labour have now "lost all right to govern" in the wake of the Pre-Budget […]
George Osborne got it right. This was the pre-election report of a government ducking the hard choices. Over the next six years the British state will borrow £789bn. The national debt will treble. We heard nothing from Labour on how they will deal with this national crisis. Despite falling prices the Chancellor promised pensioners a […]
Highlights, not verbatim: Labour has ducked the big choices. They won't tell people how they'll balance the books before the election. The greatest golden rule is that you can never trust a Labour government with the economy. Britain is borrowing £178bn this year. The national debt has quadrupled under Labour. It is £23,000 for every […]
Highlights, not verbatim: 1.18pm: The choice for Britain is between continuing recovery and wrecking recovery. 1.17pm: Guaranteed real increases in NHS and schools for two years plus protection of frontline policing to be funded by a 0.5% increase in National Insurance contributions for those earning more than £20K. 1.16pm: 0.7% target for aid spending by […]
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne has issued this statement: “With unemployment rising faster than anywhere else, and businesses closing every day, these figures are deeply worrying. The government’s endless announcements and summits are commanding neither public confidence at home nor confidence abroad. And it’s difficult to see how we’ll get that confidence with a Prime Minister […]
Interviewed on the Today programme George Osborne said that the Government had run out of options and has little choice but to underwrite the so-called toxic assets of the British banking sector. Ahead of announcements from the Government expected later today, which will see further steps towards full-scale banking nationalisation, the Shadow Chancellor said that […]
Tory sources have confirmed that Ken Clarke is returning to the Tory frontbench. As we predicted last week, the Tory reshuffle has been brought forward and other announcements will be made tomorrow, probably all finalised by lunchtime. Mr Clarke will be Shadow Business Secretary. He will replace Alan Duncan who is being offered a different […]
Credit where credit’s due. Today’s debt campaign launch was almost perfect: The ad is clever (although I hope we’re not spending too much on billboard placements). The debt message is now being pursued relentlessly. David Cameron is comfortable with the message. It’s a winning message. Repeat, repeat, repeat and it will be remembered by the […]
David Cameron has just launched this long poster – it will appear across the country (sorry it’s split in two halves but my iPhone lacks a wide lens!): The message at the bottom of the poster is: Labour’s debt crisis: Every child in Britain is born owing £17,000. They deserve better. Tim Montgomerie 11.30am: Associated […]
On Coffee House yesterday Fraser Nelson was marvelling at the size of Barack’s. Much bigger than Gordon’s. Even Angela Merkel now has one. So, too, does Stephen Harper. Almost every politician of left and right is keen to show off the size of their fiscal stimulus. Standing aside from the herd is Britain’s Conservative Party. […]
11.15am update: The Evening Standard is reporting that George Osborne is to cut back his workload on strategy and election co-ordination to concentrate his efforts on being shadow chancellor. — There’s a lot of speculation about George Osborne at the moment. Some of it ill-founded. The London Evening Standard reported yesterday that the backbench 1922 […]
Danny Finkelstein – one of politics’ nice guys – grabbed attention with his "punk tax cutters" soundbite but it hasn’t helped anyone understand the very different tax policies of the political parties (and of commentators and bloggers). As we’ve written before, Danny sometimes appears as though he is stuck in the mid-1990s. We imagine him […]