My aim was to produce this review of the week feature every Friday but I have decided to make this an aspiration rather than a commitment! Anyway, here’s my take on one of the busiest weeks in politics for a long time…
Good week: Gordon Brown. He did become Prime Minister after all! He also attracted a Tory MP to cross the floor and three opinion polls put Labour ahead of the Conservatives for the first time in a long time. The terror scares of Friday and yesterday disrupted his ‘grid’ but security as an issue will probably boost his standing further. Expect next week to be full of announcements, too. Conservatives will continue to struggle in the polls during the Brown honeymoon.
The Tory by-election machine had a very good start. The party was first to select of any of the parties; Tony Lit in Ealing Southall and Graham Robb in Sedgefield. For those wanting to help – please visit CampaignTogether and sign up. Good results in these by-elections are the most obvious way for Team Cameron to kill the Brown bounce. They will also be important tests for Ming. If the LibDems perform badly expect a Clegg or Huhne leadership by the end of the year.
A good week for ConservativeHome with David Cameron endorsing the ‘And theory’.
Bad week: The BBC also had a bad week. Our great public service broadcaster cut coverage of Tony Blair’s farewell remarks to Parliament in order to break for some TV trailers for ‘Rome’ and then a second round Wimbledon match.
A bad week for democracy with Brown’n’Blair wriggling out of their manifesto commitment to provide the British people with a referendum on the new Treaty.
Something of a bad week for blogging. Some blogs were more guilty than others but there was lots of speculation about Bercow, Rifkind, Patten and others following Quentin Davies. It wasn’t blogging’s finest hour.
Left turn. Quentin Davies MP. He got his 24 hours in the sun but he’ll soon be
forgotten. His letter about the weaknesses of Project Cameron will have
chimed with some Conservatives but his decision to defect lost him any
respect. He’ll have a long time to reflect on his treacherous left-turn.
Issue of the week: The return of terror to Britain’s streets.