By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If you feel like reading something about David Cameron that isn’t related to Europe, then how about the interview with him in the latest issue of the House Magazine? The problem with these interviews conducted by Paul Waugh and Sam Macrory is that they contain too many brilliant nuggets of […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The speculation and anticipation surrounding David Cameron's Europe speech had already reached fever pitch — but now it will have simmer on for a while longer. Downing St has decided to postponse the whole thing. It will no longer happen in the Netherlands tomorrow. You'll have to re-read all of […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Even from America, Steve Hilton makes waves that lap at our shores. The Sunday Times reports (£) on a seminar that David Cameron’s policy-chief-on-sabbatical recently gave to students at Stanford University — and, boy, does it contain some spicy quotes about government and its frustrations. Mr Hilton complained that, in […]
Perhaps the most intriguing political story in today’s papers is this one in the Sun. It says that ministers are “drawing up controversial plans” to axe benefits such as the Winter Fuel Allowance, free bus passes and free TV licences for all new pensioners. The idea, apparently, is that the poorest new pensioners will be handed more money via their […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If they tuned in, what might the Tory leadership have learnt from the first of Nick Clegg’s weekly appearances on LBC radio? Not much that they wouldn’t have known already. Some of the stand-out points included: Voter anger… Almost all of the questions put to Mr Clegg by callers were, […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter 1. 2,543 schools are now academies. In May 2010, there were just 203 academies, all of them failing schools required to become "sponsored" academies, and all of them secondary schools. 2. 200 of the country's worst primary schools had been turned into sponsored academies by the end of 2012. By […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter This morning’s edition of the Telegraph contains an interview with Chris Grayling, from which a number of points stand out… 1. Another attack on the ECHR. We know Chris Grayling’s views on the European Court of Human Rights, not least because he set them out in Paul Goodman’s interview with […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Back in the days before the Coalition, there was always a sense that David Cameron’s love for the NHS was unconditional. Sure, he’d criticise the health service from time to time, but the basic thrust of his policy was exemplified by that election slogan, “I’ll cut the deficit, not the […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter David Cameron has emerged from his end-of-year address to the 1922 Committee — and it seems to have gone well for all concerned. One backbencher tells me that it was the “best speech he can remember Cameron giving to the ‘22”. What seems to have enthused that MP, and others, […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Beyond the Andrew Mitchell row, there’s another significant political story in the newspapers today — and it’s exactly as the headline to this post suggests. The Government is set to announce that up to 4,000 troops could return home from Afghanistan next year. That would leave 5,000 remaining into 2014 […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. Nick Clegg has chosen today to launch an attempt to change Britain's drugs laws. The attempt has failed. David Cameron said, during a press conference in Brussels, that Mr Clegg is entitled to hold a view on the Lib Dems' plans for their next manifesto. That neatly bats away […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter I doubt David Cameron will paraphrase Margaret Thatcher in his meeting with European leaders today, but the headline I’ve used above more or less sums up the attitude that he is taking to Brussels. According to a report in today’s Telegraph, the PM is set to back plans for closer […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter First of all, today’s PMQs was an extremely rowdy and red-faced affair — even more so than usual. Questions had to be shouted over the din. Ed Miliband called David Cameron “the boy from the Bullingdon Club”, to cheers from his own side. Mr Cameron suggested that the Labour leader […]
6pm Before we close this rolling blog, it’s worth highlighting the passage from the Leveson Report saying there is “no evidence” that Jeremy Hunt was biased when overseeing News Corp’s bid for BskyB. Here’s how it reads in the Executive Summary, with the key line in bold: “The Rt Hon Jeremy Hunt MP also had strong […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Here is something that’s become clearer today: the Leveson Report will mean a tricky game of Parliamentary politics for David Cameron. There are — as a comparison of the letter signed by 42 Tory parliamentarians last night with the one signed by 42 Tory MPs a few weeks ago suggests […]