By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Do U-turns damage the reputation of the Government or not? To take a topical example, will George Osborne's about-turn on fuel duty be viewed by voters as a evidence that Downing Street is listening or that it is weak? Does it matter that Conservative MPs have a particular reason […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter How much reform can a Government manage? Given the timetable of five years or less, should it strive to change everything, or try to achieve a few key strategic aims and if so, what are they? These perennial questions are re-posed today in the Guardian by Sean Worth, the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch wonders if Theresa May is burying bad news today by publishing its thinking on increased internet surveillance on the day that the Prime Minister is appearing before Lord Leveson. Nick doesn't like what the Home Secretary is proposing. The same cannot be said, however, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter "Be truly Conservative and the votes will come" argues The Telegraph's Philip Johnston but what does it mean to be "truly Conservative"? A YouGov poll published this morning by Stephan Shakespeare identifies what voters associate with "Right-wing". Being Right-wing is not necessarily the same as "Conservative" but it's unlikely to […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Last week we reported on the decline in Lib Dem membership figures, which are down by 20% since the Coalition was formed. Notable amongst those findings was the fact that membership is falling fastest in seats held by Government ministers. ConservativeHome has now seen figures taken from association statements of accounts […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Guido Fawkes's news that Sean Worth is to leave Downing Street to join Policy Exchange names the latest addition to a growing list. And, yes, you read that correctly: Mr Worth, a special adviser, is going to Policy Exchange – not the other way round, as one might reasonably […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Earlier this week we published Tory members' views on party policy towards the European Union. In the same survey we also asked the respondents to predict the likeliest outcome of the next election and pessimism seems to have taken hold. A TOTAL OF 51% EXPECT LABOUR TO BE BACK IN […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Forget austerity. Forget Leveson. Forget the NHS reforms. Forget the welfare and school reforms. The biggest landscape-changing political event of the parliament so far has been the formation of the Coalition. The first impact was immediate. Approximately two million left-leaning supporters of the Liberal Democrats walked into the arms of […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Every boy and every girl, That's born into the world alive… There are as many ideas about what politics is as there are people to conceive them, but here are two. The first is that the reach of politics is unlimited: that it is capable of ushering in the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter What would the Queen's Speech have looked like if a majority Conservative government had been elected two years ago? That's the question we attempt to answer in the Alternative Queen's Speech that ConservativeHome publishes today. It will, no doubt, be presented by some commentators as a Right-wing agenda – or […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The Conservative Party has had five leaders in the last 20 years, and two leadership contests outside the normal electoral cycle (the challenge to Iain Duncan Smith in 2003, and the poll John Major triggered himself in 1995). It hasn't won a general election during that period. In the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter "Boris wins, Tories lose" was the splash for later editions of Saturday's Times and it was true in London as much as in the rest of the country. Ken Livingstone wasn't as dreadful a candidate as some had thought – only under-performing Labour's London-wide vote by 0.87%. Boris, in contrast, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I wasn't expecting this but this morning's Sun reports that the former Deputy PM, Peter Mandelson, will today say that Britain should hold a referendum on Britain's membership of the EU: “I believe a referendum on this will be necessary because parties can’t reconcile their own differences and come to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter No Conservative supporter should panic simply because the Prime Minister slips up over details of a deportation process (as David Cameron did on "Today" yesterday), or when a senior Minister advises storing petrol in jerry cans, or a Defence Secretary admits blurring his professional and personal responsibilites and resigns. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The extraordinarily well-connected James Forsyth has another great exclusive in today's Mail on Sunday. Details of a special meeting of Conservative Cabinet ministers have been leaked to him. He reveals two interesting things. One: Sayeeda Warsi wants to be able to hit the Liberal Democrats in the media The Tory […]