Kapow! It’s time for the Scrap of the Year award, as voted for by ConHome readers in our end-of-year survey. In the end, it wasn’t so much a points decision as a total knockout. One scrap bludgeoned its way to the top of the pile, as the voting totals show: The scrap between the parliamentary party and the Tory leadership, […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter It's blame-and-bash-b-b-b-b-backbenchers week on Fleet Street. Matthew Parris kicked it off last Saturday with his attack (£) on the "spittle-flecked" "Rabid Right". Ian Birrell joined in in yesterday's Evening Standard. And in today's Telegraph Peter Oborne throws his keyboard at lots of Tory MPs with surnames beginning with 'B'… […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Yesterday evening's investigation by Michael Crick into the Andrew Mitchell affair revealed that an e-mail apparently corroborating the police logbook account of what took place didn't come from an ordinary eyewitness – as David Cameron believed when he read it. It appears to have been sent from the home […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The essence of the case against Andrew Mitchell is that he called police officers "plebs", and told them to "know your place" – and, furthermore, swore at them rather than in passing. They say he did. He says he didn't. Voters showed more of an inclination to believe the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Exhibit A: "Having been an office holder in the Conservative party for fifty-three years, I find it difficult to remember a time when the party’s leader in government failed consistently to chime with the natural instincts of our supporters." From Brian Binley MP. Exhibit B: "I’ve always wanted to […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter. The Sunday Telegraph reports that a number of Tory MPs who wrote a letter in support of Leveson-style statutory regulation of the press have now brought their positions in line with David Cameron – opposed to such far-reaching state control. The letter, signed last month, had called for Parliament not to […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Reports suggest that Downing Street may seek to push the proposed boundary reforms through the Commons in alliance with Democratic Unionist MPs, Plaid Cyrmu MPs and even the SNP. Let's leave aside for a moment the obstacles to the boundary changes winning the assent of the Lords (though the […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter I suggested earlier today that modern expectations of what an MP is – someone holding down a full-time – might well end the political career of Nadine Dorries, since her constituents and Association were likely to take her decision to spend as much as a month on I'm a […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter ComRes has completed a survey for the People's Pledge campaign in David Cameron's own Oxfordshire constituency of Witney. These are the findings: 64% of all Witney voters want an EU referendum; 68% of Conservative voters want an EU referendum; 30% of all voters would seriously consider voting for another […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter "His views are less important than his disposition. He is one of those men who imposes himself on his surroundings: his Commons Office, when he shadowed the International Development brief, was piled high with topical reading and decorated with family photos – and, indeed, the occasional snap of himself. […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Fewer Conservative MPs were needed to mount the first formal challenge to Margaret Thatcher than can be counted on the fingers of one hand. In 1987, the party won 376 seats under her leadership. But only three Tory MPs were required to force a ballot on it two years […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Cameron is worried that Israel may attack Iran… I returned from Israel and Palestine recently, but in one sense didn't need to go. For although much of the conversation there was about Iran's nuclear programme and Israeli military action, the most vivid news about it broke back in Britain. […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Yesterday David Cameron went to Manchester to pay tribute to the two women police officers murdered in the line of duty (here's a video). He was as statesmanlike as in his recent Commons statement about police corruption at the time of the Hillsborough tragedy. Today the Chairman of the […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter J.Alfred Prufrock MP (Grummidge West) opened the next e-mail in his inbox. It read as follows: "Hey Prufrock, you old f**kbag! What are you up to while reading this, eh? Fiddling your expenses or knocking back champagne in some subsidised bar, I suppose. Well, listen to me, b*****d. What […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter "So after the smoke has cleared, we are left with…a figure of just three male backbench Conservative MPs who will be appointed as Ministers come the reshuffle". That's what I wrote on the afternoon of last year's EU referendum vote, conceding that another two places might become available in […]