By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. After a week of Tory bashing from the Liberal Democrats' left wing, Nick Clegg – representing the Orange Book wing of his party – engaged in some Labour-bashing. Clegg attacked the two "always plotting" Eds, labelling them as the backroom boys… "Labour says: the Government is going too far, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. The overnight YouGov poll for The Sunday Times seems to confirm that Labour's opinion poll lead has sharply narrowed over the summer. It's only one survey but Labour is ahead by just 39% to 38%. Within the numbers there is more bad news for Ed Miliband and Ed Balls […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Many have predicted that Alistair Darling's memoirs were most likely to raise eyebrows (geddit?) and early extracts suggest they are not going to disappoint. Darling worked particularly closely with Brown, both when the latter was Chancellor and PM. Darling may have been scrupulously loyal throughout Labour's time in office […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Labour politicians have long pointed to their "Plan B", and their deficit reduction strategy that would, apparently, be carried out slower than the Coalition plan, and be less "painful". Ed Balls, Labour's Shadow Chancellor, told the House on Thursday – in a debate on the Global Economy, during the […]
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter. Over at the New Statesman I'm described as an "economic neanderthal" by the left-wing economist David Blanchflower. My experience is that people usually resort to abuse when they're losing an argument and Blanchflower has been the leading champion of the Ed Balls view that Britain should carry on […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Ben Bradshaw, who was the Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport for the latter part of the Brown Government, has admitted that the last Labour government discussed in Cabinet whether to hold a public inquiry into phone-hacking, but decided against doing so. Bradshaw was on BBC Two's Daily […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. A photograph of one of the Miliband brothers. Some light relief… 23% of people see a photo of Ed Miliband and think it's David Miliband and 26% of people think David Miliband is Ed Miliband. 33% of voters correctly recognise Yvette Cooper as Yvette Cooper but 20% think she's […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls is currently delivering his speech on the economy at the LSE, as trailed in this morning's media. The New Statesman has posted a full text of his speech, but here's the key passage in which Balls declared that the Government should now be cutting tax: […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter The impression from the papers today and over the last few days is that Ed Miliband is under attack from the Blairite "right" of the Labour Party: David Miliband's leaked victory speech (what might have been, if he'd won), the Telegraph files showing Ed Miliband and Ed Balls plotted […]
By Paul Goodman And the link to the story can be found here. Hat-tip: Peter Hoskin.
by Paul Goodman Journalists must sometimes admit defeat. The sun was rising when I got up this morning to edit ConservativeHome's newslinks. But even had I started earlier during the darkness, I'd be unable to offer a proper account of this morning's Daily Telegraph splash. I add in my defence that no-one else will either. […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter An extensive examination of Labour's strategy and leadership failure is conducted by Dan Hodges (one of the Left's thoughtful commentators) in the New Statesman this week. On the one hand, Labour's policy review is seemingly comprehensive: Labour is currently consulting on as many as 25 separate policy initiatives. Titles […]
by Paul Goodman Some of my anti-bailout Euro-sceptic contacts are setting great store in a working alliance with Labour over bailouts. When I reply that Labour has no credibility as an anti-Brussels party, and that the party is strategically pro-EU, they agree – but point out that Labour could echo John Smith's tactical manoevering in […]
By Jonathan Isaby Peter Oborne has written a piece for today's Daily Telegraph asserting that that there has been a seismic shift in Labour's attitudes towards the European Union in recent weeks, leading it to take "a new and potent position". He points in particular to two recent interventions: Shadow Chancellor Ed Balls' demand that […]
Tim Montgomerie The nation may not have quite decided but I get a sense that the commentariat have decided that Ed Miliband isn't up to the job. There have been some devastating pieces about the Labour leader recently. Iain Martin in today's Mail (scroll down this link) wonders if Saturday's rally was Ed Miliband's William […]