By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I hope readers have enjoyed reading The Alternative Queen's Speech over the last 48 hours. It certainly produced a surge in traffic to ConservativeHome. The Sun certainly enjoyed it. They took many of the Speech's biggest ideas and tested them against the 'real' Queen's Speech in their daily YouGov poll. […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter Following on from Tim Montgomerie's six immediate reactions to the local election results, I've summarised the reactions from other leading political commentators. Daniel Hannan argues that part of the reason the Tories (and Lib Dems) did badly was the Coalition's incompetence in dealing with the deficit: "Any government at a time […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter No breakthrough for Labour: Radio 4's Today programme is insisting that Labour had a "very good" night. If they achieve 700 gains that will be true but it's not a transformational night. Far from it. If there was real enthusiasm for Labour and Ed Miliband it wouldn't be losing control […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The Financial Times this morning reports Downing Street as insisting: “Lords reform was in our manifesto and the manifesto of the other two parties. It was a crucial part of the coalition deal. We are not planning to let this blow us off course.” This statement suggests that there […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter There seems to be some better news in recent opinion polls. Labour's lead that had grown to 10% after the Budget has dropped back to about 6%. The underlying numbers are also comparatively good for the Conservative Party with more voters seeing the Conservative Party as willing to take tough […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Just a quick blog to note this morning's Mail front page. Nick Clegg is openly briefing that he's determined to block Ken Clarke's "secret courts" plan: "The Deputy Prime Minister told Mr Cameron and other members of the highly secretive National Security Council that without major changes, the Liberal Democrats […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Most Tory members (54% over 30%) agree with the statement "the Budget produced some bad headlines in the short-run but its overall effect will be to boost growth and that will be good for Tory chances at the next election". But if they think the Budget is a long-term boost […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I've dithered for a few days but I think George Osborne has got it right on 50p for three main reasons: While 50p is not the biggest barrier to growth it has achieved totemic status. Abolishing it sends an important signal about the Coalition's pro-business intentions. It might also mean […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Fraser Nelson is delighted at the prospect of the abolition of the "sadistic" 50p tax rate. But also at The Spectator, Alex Massie, warns that it will be a "PR disaster" if Osborne announces a tax cut for the top 1% while freezing public sector pay etc etc. Both are […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Two evenings ago I felt like I'd been transported back two years. David Laws gave a fascinating speech to the self-styled progressive Conservative group, Bright Blue and his continuing enthusiasm for the Coalition was almost infectious… almost. Mr Laws paid tribute to the great success of the Coalition – unity […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter The European Court of Human Rights is a political hot potato. Whether Britain is instructed to give prisoners the right to vote or is told that it cannot deport radical cleric Abu Qatada the ECHR has enraged most Conservatives and most voters. If David Cameron had been leading a Tory […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Conservatives don't always agree about raising new wealth and property taxes, but tend to do so about cutting the rate at which public spending is rising further. I warned last week of the danger that tax cuts on businesses and employment in the budget may be financed by new […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter As part of ConservativeHome's series on an elected House of Lords we spoke to Mark Harper, the Tory minister responsible for steering the necessary legislation through the House of Commons. Nick Clegg alongside the two Conservatives he works most closely with; David Cameron and Mark Harper. “Why do you never […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Earlier today I introduced this week's focus on Lords reform. The ConHome editorial position is very much in line with the views of Tory members. Last Thursday and Friday 1,426 Tory members took part in our online survey and again shifted against an elected Lords. The results are published below […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter If the Lords gets a democratic mandate it will inevitably challenge the legitimacy and authority of the Commons. From an electoral point of view the first Coalition government since WWII is not going well for Nick Clegg. His party has lost two million left-leaning voters to Labour, probably for a […]