Today's Mail on Sunday notes that "avowed atheist" Foreign Secretary David Miliband has shunned a primary school just 80 yards from his front door in order to send his son to a Church of England school two miles away: "Mr Miliband’s wife, Louise, started attending a church attached to the school two years before their […]
You don't have to look far to see that the Left is targeting George Osborne (eg today and here and here). They have certainly failed, however, in trying to bring the Shadow Chancellor down on abuse of expenses. A complaint against Mr Osborne by a Labour activist, Laurie Burton, has yielded no political result. Voluntary […]
The Camden New Journal today reports a particularly unsavoury incident at last night's full council meeting in Camden. Chris Philp, a Conservative councillor who will be contesting the Hampstead and Kilburn seat at the general election, had given a speech defending his decision to campaign on health issues. It was then that a Liberal Democrat […]
That's the headline coming from the splash in this morning's Independent: "A series of botched IT projects has left taxpayers with a bill of more than £26bn for computer systems that have suffered severe delays, run millions of pounds over budget or have been cancelled altogether. "An investigation by The Independent has found that the […]
PoliticsHome has this afternoon published the results of a poll of nearly 1,200 voters on the subject of manifesto pledges. Its first finding is that only 47% of Labour voters – yes Labour voters, not the whole population – believe Labour is "fairly likely" or "very likely" to fulfill its manifesto pledges if returned to […]
3pm update: Guido blogs that Harry Cole has reported Brown to the Standards Commissioner over this matter on behalf of the Sunlight Centre for Open Politics — Conservative frontbencher Greg Hands is demanding an explanation from Gordon Brown as to why he did not declare a £50,000 secret fund of Labour cash used to pay […]
In the second part of the Mail on Sunday's serialisation of Peter Watt's insider account of the Brown-Blair premierships we learn more about the "furious bust-ups" between the two men who have led Britain since 1997. At one point Brown threatened to bring Blair "down with sleaze". Watt also claims that "Gordon Brown used a […]
Last year the Government broke off links with the Muslim Council of Britain after its Deputy Secretary General had signed a document which supported the Hamas terrorist group. The so-called Istanbul declaration, this morning's Telegraph reports, also "appeared to advocate attacks on the Navy if it stopped arms intended for Hamas being smuggled into Gaza." […]
A survey of 700 voluntary sector staff by ThirdSector magazine found very strong support for Labour: Much of the voluntary sector has become so dependent upon government funding that it is hardly voluntary at all. In return for massive government funding charities have increasingly echoed government policy positions. There is also enormous recycling of staff […]
Earlier on we noted the return of the Labour pledge card. If only they had been honest in 1997: Tim Montgomerie
The Independent previews five pledge card-style pledges and scare stories that Labour strategists hope will get the Labour Party moving up in opinion polls. THE FIVE PLEDGES Training or further education will be provided for all school-leavers and a job or training for jobless young adults. Suspected cancer patients will receive their diagnosis within one […]
6.15pm update: Responding to the issues raised below, Shadow Secretary of State for International Development, Andrew Mitchell, has told ConservativeHome: “We should of course work with free trades unions in developing countries, who represent some of the world’s poorest workers. But funding for this should be specifically targeted and earmarked, not given unrestrictedly to the […]
This morning came news that Home Secretary Alan Johnson is proscribing Islam4UK and its associated cover organisations. And about time too. But why did it take so long? David Cameron asked why they hadn't been banned at PMQs no fewer than 48 days ago, on November 25th, when he pointed out that this organisation had […]
Last week we highlighted the activities of Greg Stone, the Lib Dem candidate for Newcastle-upon-Tyne East. He had been using a pseudonym to post extremely personal attacks on Conservative and Labour MPs on the Guido Fawkes blog and his suitability to remain as a parliamentary candidate was raised by his Conservative opponent, Dominic Llewellyn. Yesterday, […]
Last June ConHome reproduced this anonymous letter being circulated among Conservative MPs, purporting to come from a colleague complaining about the power of Team Cameron. Its authenticity was in doubt, and another similar unsigned letter sent to Conservative MPs this morning – on House of Commons notepaper – makes me all the more convinced that […]