Plus: the downfall of Boles. This Eagle won’t fly. What to do with Gove? Cameron should become Foreign Secretary. And: Out there in the country, Blair is still popular.
Number 10, Matthew Hancock, the Whips, Ministers themselves: all must ensure that Sir Humphrey’s grip is loosened.
The Harlow MP offers a solution to a complaint made by some of his fellow Conservative backbenchers.
In 2001 or so, I wrote a speech for Iain Duncan Smith that went well enough, and was drafted on the back of it into his team for Prime Minister's Questions prep. The other three members were David Cameron, George Osborne and Boris Johnson (and I should say in passing that those first two were […]
By Tim Montgomerie Follow Tim on Twitter Andy Coulson, David Cameron's former head of communications, has written an article for the October edition of GQ (out this week) in which he gives some advice on how the Tories might counter UKIP. In summary… David Cameron, Ken Clarke and every Tory should abandon "dismissive, arrogant and […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. I asked yesterday whether David Cameron or the Whips bore the main responsibility for this week's party management disaster over Syria. A day later, the answer is evident. Downing Street presumed, not unreasonably, that Ed Miliband would deliver a Labour abstention on the vote. The Whips – also not […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. Yesterday evening's vote makes no real difference to anything. The economy will continue to grow, David Cameron will recover his position, Britain's non-intervention in Syria will be a mere blip in the continuing special relationship with America, our world standing won't be affected, the Commons will continue to assert […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Earlier this week The Spectator's James Forsyth reported that the PM's trusted aide Gaby Bertin would return from maternity leave to run a new Department of External Relations. The appointment is the latest attempt to strengthen the Downing Street operation, including the appointment of The Sun's Graeme Wilson as […]
By Mark WallaceFollow Mark on Twitter. It's been common knowledge for a while that Cameron's team have been looking at a Number 10 shakeup. The news today that Graeme Wilson, Deputy Political Editor of The Sun, has been appointed as press secretary is one result of that process. It's a good choice – Graeme has a great […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. I wrote last week that Lyton Crosby should first drop his other clients, and then take complete charge of the Conservative campaign machine – as Tim Montgomerie and I have recommended from the outset. The next day, the Daily Telegraph reported senior Conservatives as saying that there is a […]
By Peter HoskinFollow Peter on Twitter David Cameron was chin-juttingly firm about many subjects in his interview with Andrew Marr. On child pornography, the main subject of the piece, he warned of “stronger laws” if the internet firms don’t act stronger themselves. On the idea that Samantha Cameron is influencing Government policy toward Syria, he claimed […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter. The Andy Coulson saga involves a trial. The Lynton Crosby controversy does not. This helps to explain why the latter is a classic Westminster Village story, with its complex calculations about conflicting interests and chinese walls. (David Cameron's strategist is a Party and not a Government employee, and even […]
It doesn't seem to have occured to Lynton Crosby's critics that he could both have a commercial interest in a policy and believe that it's right for the Conservatives. The decision not to impose plain packaging on cigarette packets is a good example. The Australian strategist is an experienced communicator of conventional conservatism – of […]