By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The PM and Deputy PM have just launched their mid-term review at a Number 10 press conference. Here's what we learnt… Not married: On the face of it they are as committed to Coalition as ever. Cameron said he wasn't married to Clegg – as media organisations like to […]
Written by the Prime Minister and Deputy Prime Minister – the full text of the foreword to the Coalition's mid-term review. "Two and a half years ago, our parties came together in the national interest and formed a coalition at a time of real economic danger. The deficit was spiralling out of control, confidence was […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Cameron appeared on BBC1 wearing a light blue shirt. It's the second time in 2013 he's abandoned his normal white shirt policy. Perhaps Mrs Cameron bought him a new wardrobe for Christmas? We have two interviews with the PM to report this morning. In one, in The Sunday Telegraph, […]
By Harry PhibbsFollow Harry on Twitter 1. 2,543 schools are now academies. In May 2010, there were just 203 academies, all of them failing schools required to become "sponsored" academies, and all of them secondary schools. 2. 200 of the country's worst primary schools had been turned into sponsored academies by the end of 2012. By […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter "Mutual assured destruction, or mutually assured destruction (MAD), is a doctrine of military strategy and national security policy in which a full-scale use of high-yield weapons of mass destruction by two opposing sides would effectively result in the complete, utter and irrevocable annihilation of both the attacker and the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Yesterday we published the first of ten picks of 2012 – as chosen by ConHome readers. Jesse Norman won the backbencher of the year award. Our second award goes to the Yellow B**tard of the year. The name for this award is taken from a meeting of the 1922 […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter In fact he didn't. Additionally, David Cameron has NOT just given a speech in which he said the following: "I have tried to make coalition government a success but it's proving much harder than I had hoped. One week you get agreement from the Liberal Democrat ministers to deliver […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Householders and business pay £2.35 billion per year towards the costs of green power. Under the deal agreed by George Osborne and Ed Davey, this will rise to £7.6billion a year by 2020. Energy bills have more than doubled since 2004 to more than £1,300 a year per household. […]
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 Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The Times has an important report (£) this morning suggesting that Iain Duncan Smith and George Osborne are close to a deal that will make a significant contribution to the £10 billion of further savings from the welfare budget that the Chancellor wants to achieve by 2017. Many benefits […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter 1.15pm update: Dom Raab MP has made it clear that the report referred to below does not represent his view, even though he is a member of the Free Enterprise Group. He commented: "It is vital we hit the Coalition's existing debt target, but any shortfall should be made […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter If David Cameron is looking for help from Nick Clegg in defusing tensions over Europe he's not going to get it. The Deputy Prime Minister has just given a speech in which he describes last night's 53 Tory rebels as "political opportunists". In his speech he argues that Britain […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter One of the themes of Conservative Conference has Boris Johnson being 'on message' – pouring praise on David Cameron's head and the wider government. He was loyal at ConHome's Monday night rally and in yesterday's main stage speech. Again and again he turned his fire on Labour and the […]
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, on LeftWatch, Matthew Barrett ran a rolling blog, listing the ways in which senior Liberal Democrats, including Cabinet ministers, were attacking the Conservatives. It's the same at every Lib Dem conference, of course. Chris Huhne and Tim Farron were at it last year. I Tweeted about this yesterday […]