By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Imagine a civil partnership of which one member suddenly announced to the world: "My partner has refused to cook me any food. So I am refusing to give him any sex. But don't worry for a moment: we must now restore balance to our relationship, allowing us to draw […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Liam Fox gave an interview to today's Sunday Telegraph in which he implied that the Liberal Democrats should be more modest in their expectations and Cameron should be more ambitious with his. "They have to remember," said the former Defence Secretary, "that they are a sixth of the Coalition, […]
By Matthew BarrettFollow Matthew on Twitter This morning's Sunday Telegraph reports the findings of a poll of MPs of all parties, which suggests that many Members of Parliament are receiving a significant amount of correspondance from constituents on the topic of gay marriage. The poll, conducted by ComRes for the Coalition for Marriage campaign, shows that 34% […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Forget austerity. Forget Leveson. Forget the NHS reforms. Forget the welfare and school reforms. The biggest landscape-changing political event of the parliament so far has been the formation of the Coalition. The first impact was immediate. Approximately two million left-leaning supporters of the Liberal Democrats walked into the arms of […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Paul Goodman has already blogged some astute observations about the results of last night's 1922 elections. I also agree with The Spectator's James Forsyth that the high turnout (93.8%) means that the new '22 is very representative of the parliamentary party. Most newspapers are interpreting the result as a big […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter Some quick points about this evening's '22 result: The elections were a clean sweep for the 301 Group – almost. Of the nine 301 slate candidates for the executive listed on this site yesterday evening, only one wasn't elected (Adam Holloway). It was pretty much a clean sweep. But […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter This Wednesday's 1922 elections will be a multi-dimensional contest: left v right, younger MPs v older ones, critics v loyalists, Golden Dawn v Pink Sunset (plus some independents, just to complete the confusion). A slate organised by the 301 group, as Tim has previously reported, will run against a […]
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 Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter What would the Queen's Speech have looked like if a majority Conservative government had been elected two years ago? That's the question we attempt to answer in the Alternative Queen's Speech that ConservativeHome publishes today. It will, no doubt, be presented by some commentators as a Right-wing agenda – or […]
By Paul GoodmanFollow Paul on Twitter The Conservative Party has had five leaders in the last 20 years, and two leadership contests outside the normal electoral cycle (the challenge to Iain Duncan Smith in 2003, and the poll John Major triggered himself in 1995). It hasn't won a general election during that period. In the […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter Nadine Dorries has stirred it up again. In an article for the Mail on Sunday and in the interview posted above with Five Live she has predicted that the Chairman of the 1922 Committee will have received enough letters from MPs by Christmas to have triggered a vote of no […]
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 The Cabinet is too dominated by Liberals and Liberal Conservatives and the 1922 Committee is too Old Right. This is a gross simplification but not a million miles from the truth. The aim must be for both centres of power to become more balanced – there can or should be […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter I don't know quite what he meant by it but Tory MP and climate change minister Greg Barker is quoted in today's Telegraph warning the party against adopting UKIP's “swivel-eyed rhetoric”. Perhaps he meant some of the rude speeches made by Nigel Farage? Anyhow, I agree with Iain Dale that […]
By Tim MontgomerieFollow Tim on Twitter THE TEA PARTY TORIES? Ian Birrell is not a cardboard cut out Cameroon. The former speechwriter to the Tory leader is a constant critic of the aid budget. He supports far-reaching reform of the NHS. He advocates decriminalisation of drugs. He is one of the most compelling of Fleet Street's […]