By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Ed Balls was trained by Gordon Brown in the rhetoric of "investment versus cuts" – in other words, issuing spending pledges to be paid for by borrowed money, which the evil Tories would then be challenged to meet. David Cameron's election campaign outburst about "smears" and "lies" – in […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter There is, as Harriet Baldwin suggests, an air of humour about Michael Gove’s article for the Telegraph this morning. Its headline, after all, reads “Ed Miliband is a blancmange in a hurricane”. But don’t miss the core of gelignite behind all the windswept gelatine: Mr Gove is launching a serious […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter One of the fears of Tory activists in target seats is that if the national party couldn't win a majority when Gordon Brown was Labour leader then it has its work cut out to win a majority at the next election. But what if Ed Miliband is an even […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter The media is intent on a "Tory splits" narrative. Given the obsessive focus on any hint of disagreement on the blue side of the House, it is surprising that there has been so little reporting of Labour's splits. They do have them – three in the last four days, in fact. Here […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. YouGov's Peter Kellner warns wisely in the Guardian against reading today's results forwards into 2015. Yesterday's elections were concentrated in blue counties, not spread across the whole country. The turnout will be much higher in 2015. And so on. However, it's clear that UKIP's progress isn't just bad for […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Thanks to the assiduity of Martha Kearney, Ed Miliband and his deficit enlargement plan are in the news. Would he borrow more to fund his proposed VAT cut? Um, ah, well, he wouldn’t admit it on Radio 4’s The World at One yesterday. But he did on ITV’s Daybreak this […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter Unsurprisingly, Labour aren’t letting the absence of a triple-dip hold them back. They’ve released an online poster highlighting the sad truth that this is the slowest economic recovery in 100 years. But CCHQ aren’t holding back either. They’ve done their own insta-version of the Labour poster, using that ol’ favourite […]
By Andrew GimsonFollow Andrew on Twitter The Labour Party finds itself in the disconcerting position of being on only 35 per cent, or a mere six percentage points ahead of the Tories, in the latest poll published in the Observer. Questions are raised once more about Ed Miliband's leadership. Hurtful comments are made even by […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter And the number of the day is 35. That, according to Dan Hodges and Rachel Sylvester (£), is that percentage of the vote that some members of Team Miliband are shooting for at the next election. Apparently, this “35 per cent strategy” involves securing the 29 per cent of voters […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter In the 1988 US Presidential election, the Democrat candidate, Michael Dukakis, was criticised for being soft on crime due to his policy of "weekend furloughs" described as a "revolving door" prison policy. The Republican campaign ran negative advertising pointing out that many prisoners committed further crimes while they were let […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter We interrupt the football to bring you a breaking news story: according to a report in the Mirror this evening, David Miliband is standing down as an MP. The official announcement will come tomorrow, apparently, at which point Mr Miliband will depart for a job with a charity in New […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The hull of HMS Ed Balls has taken a real pounding in recent months – the Guardian published an editorial calling for him to be replaced; prominent lefties have written letters to the same effect; and David Miliband has been touted as a likely substitute. And yet, this week, Mr […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Labour is today proposing a motion in favour of a mansions tax. It reads as follows: "That this House believes that a mansion tax on properties worth over £2m, to fund a tax cut for millions of people on middle and low incomes, should be part of a fair […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter The biographer, headmaster and all-round political player Anthony Seldon has written a letter to savour for tomorrow's edition of the New Statesman, in which he calls on Ed Balls to stand down as shadow chancellor. Here are some excerpts: “After 20 unbroken years at the heart of politic… quitting in […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter If you believe that David Cameron’s likeliest route back to No.10 in 2015 is another coalition with the Lib Dems, then then the past fortnight may have been rather perturbing. Reason being, there are increasing signs of unity between Labour and the Lib Dems. Of course, the two parties appear […]