By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The former Chief Secretary to the Treasury gets in early before the coming Liberal Democrat conference, writing in the Sun this morning under the headline "We must tackle our economy and mend our broken society." The piece has three main messages as his party prepares to gather in Birmingham. […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter We made mention of this story concerning the top rate of tax on today's front page, but it's worthy of closer inspection. The Independent reports: In an interview with Prospect Magazine ahead of the Liberal Democrat conference, Mr Huhne used George Osborne's own mantra that "we are all in […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The Times claims this morning that David Cameron is gearing up for a fight with Nick Clegg over the European Court of Human Rights – "Britain would be able to ignore human rights rulings from Europe if MPs voted to override them, under proposals submitted to Downing Street. The […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I'm usually sceptical about reports into matters commissioned by lobby groups with an interest, but today's Daily Mail report about a Daycare Trust and Save the Children report is worth reading: "One in four working parents has been plunged into debt due to the crippling cost of childcare, a […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Nadine Dorries, a Conservative MP, and Frank Field, a Labour MP, jointly tabled an amendment to be debated when Parliament returns this month. The amendment's aim is to break the stranglehold on abortion counselling of certain groups which Dorries and Field say have a financial conflict of interest in […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Andrew George, the Liberal Democrat MP for St Ives, is a rebellious, Coalition-unfriendly backbencher with a particular animosity toward the government on NHS matters. Earlier on in the summer, he launched this attack on the Conservatives: "I'm afraid we can't trust the Tories with the NHS. They brazenly ignored […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell has attacked his fellow Lib Dem and Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander. Today's Times (£) has the news that Sir Menzies accused Alexander of political interference in Defence matters, in order to help his popularity in his own constituency: "Sir […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Simon Hughes, the Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, and a distinguished fellow of the Yellow B**tards League, made an interesting appearance on Sky News this morning – interesting because Hughes refused to blame Cameron for meeting Andy Coulson at Chequers: "I have to say, I think if you […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter. Not so long ago Chris Huhne was a passionate advocate for the Euro: "The 'no' campaigners said the euro was doomed to failure, but all their predictions have been proved wrong." "The euro is living up to the highest expectations of the economists who advocated it, and Britain is […]
By Jonathan IsabyFollow Jonathan on Twitter The latest issue of Liberator, a journal written by, and aimed at, the Centre-Left wing of the Liberal Democrats (they generally despise the Orange Bookers), suggests that the recriminations are far from over inside sections of the party over the loss of the AV referendum last month. An editorial […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Yesterday, Nick Clegg declared victory – he got the NHS reform bill concessions he pressed for. Whether he believed in the changes he got is another matter. Nick Clegg is very much an Orange Booker: the Lib Dems' Orange Book advocated public sector reform and privatisation. David Laws, Clegg's […]
By Matthew Barrett and Tim Montgomerie On Wednesday, we reported that Tory MPs at the 1922 Committee wanted to "get those yellow b**tards", in reference to Liberal Democrats who were criticising Andrew Lansley's NHS reforms, having voted for it before. In today's Mail on Sunday James Forsyth writes that 10 Downing Street is at the […]
By Tim Montgomerie I prepared the image on the right in anticipation of many defeated Liberal Democrat candidates attacking Nick Clegg for Thursday's terrible election results for the junior partners in the Coalition… but I had no real opportunity to deploy it. It's true that a few unknown Lib Dem councillors have said some things […]
Matthew Barrett As the Telegraph's James Kirkup notes, Chris Huhne has been doing the media rounds again, with yet more anti-Conservative comments. Huhne said: "By giving voters more power, by giving power to the people, it’s absolutely in the tradition of the way in which we have improved our system over time, giving votes to […]
By JP Floru. In the last two days, I twice heard anecdotal evidence of how the 50p tax rate reduces the number of jobs at the bottom scale of the ladder, and increases welfare payments. A person I met last night, a trendy West Londoner who at one time supported New Labour, explained how she […]