A fortnight ago William Hague compared Labour to a defeated army that poisoned the wells of the country it was retreating from. The Independent reports the latest stage of Labour's attempt to handcuff any incoming Tory government to its impossible spending plans: "Despite the looming squeeze on public spending, ministers are trying to push through […]
That great custodian of the nation's morality, Lord Mandelson, has today warned that Lord Ashcroft has David Cameron "by the balls". Lord Ashcroft accounted for no more than 1% or 2% of Tory funds in the last year. The unions account for more than 60% of Labour funds and that is why, today, Tory Chairman […]
This from Ian Kirby, the News of the World's Political Editor (my emphasis): "A highly confidential operation being run by Britain’s biggest trade union, Unite, is far bigger than the Tories’ own £3m marginal seats campaign. The union is using it’s own massive datatbase of members in a bid to persuade dithering former Labour voters […]
In his Saturday column Peter Oborne lists three reasons why Nick Clegg is likely to manoeuvre his party into a deal with Labour if there is a hung parliament: "Clegg has discovered (rather to his personal dismay) that most of his party regard any kind of agreement with the Conservatives with disgust. This feeling is […]
2.45pm: This graph (hat tip to Burning our Money) gets closest to the truth about Labour's record on defence spending (click on the image to enlarge it): For the reasons pointed out by BoM, because defence costs have risen faster than inflation the second graph is most relevant. At a time of two wars Labour […]
Gordon Brown spent most of today giving evidence to the Chilcot Inquiry. Shadow defence secretary Liam Fox was following him closely and has just released the following statement suggesting that there are significant contradictions between his claims and those of others Cabinet ministers, senior civil servants and army officers: “Gordon Brown was a member of […]
Lord Paul is a Labour peer, non-domiciled for tax purposes, who was inexplicably appointed a Privy Councillor last year. He has also donated tens of thousands of pounds to the Labour Party and to Gordon Brown's leadership campaign (Iain Dale posted a list of eight Labour big money donors who are reportedly non-dom earlier in […]
Last September, Richard Balfe, the one-time Labour MEP who joined the Conservatives in 2002 wrote here about the "very constructive dialogue" which some in the trade union movement are having with the Conservatives. Balfe liaises with the unions on behalf of David Cameron. However, in this week's New Statesman, the joint general secretary of Unite, […]
BBC report. "Mr Cameron paid tribute to former Labour leader Michael Foot, who died today, saying he was “a brilliant speaker”, “very intelligent and witty” and “gave very powerful speeches”." (PoliticsHome). TRIBUTE FROM JACK STRAW TRIBUTE FROM GORDON BROWN MARGARET THATCHER: "Thatcher on Foot: "I was very sorry to hear the news. He was a […]
Leo McKinstry in the Express: "The destruction of our borders through uncontrolled immigration, the vast expansion of the welfare state and the phenomenal growth in state bureaucracy have helped to create three huge blocs of client voters who will overwhelmingly back Labour out of naked self-interest. Only last week it was revealed that the Government […]
Voters hate divided parties and this poster from CCHQ was a fast response to this Labour poster attacking George Osborne. My guess is that the poster was only a stunt to counter Labour's poster. I don't expect it to appear on billboards or newspapers. Tim Montgomerie
Click here to play.
In The Daily Mail, Andrew Pierce has got hold of some fascinating campaign materials from Labour MPs, including the uber-Brownite Ed Balls highlighting the issue of immigration. Take a look at the letter below and read the full piece here. In yesterday's ConHome strategy post we called for immigration to be a bigger part of […]
Lots of media excitement today that UK growth in the final quarter of last year was a rubbish 0.3% rather than a really rubbish 0.1%. The media has missed the more interesting revision to GDP data. Edward Conway at The Telegraph (with some considerable help from Andrew Lilico) hasn't: "Also revealed by those revisions is […]
Who can believe Labour's promises to control immigration? Figures just released show that… More student visas were issued last year than ever before. The number at 273,610 was up 31% on 2008. The overall number of visas issued was 1,996,500, an increase of 2% on 2008. Grants of settlement rose by 30% to 192,680 in […]