Election 2015: Nick Robinson, one man who’d welcome a second election

What those 'chateramas' say about Dave

Posted at 10.36, Wed 11 Feb 2015

The Fleet Street papers went mad yesterday for The Times’ revelation that David Cameron recently summoned a special adviser for a briefing and then leant back in his chair and said: “Now, I just want a chaterama about this.”

The Daily Mail – one of several papers to pick up on the 'chaterama' story - called it the latest sign of the PM’s “relaxed approach to running the country”, adding: “Friends – and enemies – have long noted Mr Cameron’s ability to rise above the political fray.”

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Er, yes… Actually Isabel Hardman, the journalist who first shared the anecdote with Times readers, had gone on to argue that it illustrated Cameron’s “allergy to detail”. This, she said, has been a problem and will be again if he wins the election – especially given that he plans to head the EU “reform” negotiations with Brussels.

Ministers complain that Cameron isn’t just relaxed about detail, but about principle too. “His lack of dogma is often seen as a virtue. But it also makes it easy for the prime minister to settle for one policy one month, then U-turn to take the opposite stance the next.”

Read Isabel Hardman’s column in full

Labour hit by private donations slump

Posted at 10.30, Wed 11 Feb 2015

Labour’s awkward relationship with Big Business is reflected in a slump in donations from wealthy industrialists and financiers. The party has received “just £8.7m from private donors in the current legislative session compared to £20.7m in the same period if the last parliament”, according to an analysis of Electoral Commission data by the Financial Times.

This means Labour is more reliant on the unions for funding - especially from Unite, which has given £16.3m so far this parliament or 27 per cent of the total.

Among private donors who have deserted since Ed Miliband became leader in 2010 are Lord Sainsbury, who, says the FT, “is understood to have been disappointed that David Miliband — a fellow Blairite — did not win the leadership contest”.

But there’s encouraging news for Labour from The Guardian: Dale Vince, founder of the renewable energy firm Ecotricity, is giving them £250,000. Miliband, he says, stands up for renewables while David Cameron has broken his green pledges in order to “placate” Ukip.

SNP-Lab pact? The chances diminish

Posted at 10.30, Wed 11 Feb 2015

A power-sharing pact between Ed Miliband and SNP leader Nicola Sturgeon - in the event of Labour being the largest party in a hung parliament - looks even less likely this morning, writes The Mole.

Sturgeon told the Today programme she intends to smash the Westminster's "cosy consensus of cut at all costs" between the Tories, the Lib Dems and Labour. “I am not going to support governments that plough ahead with austerity measures and damage the poorest in our society.”

She wants £180 billion extra public spending to promote growth - but Labour is signed up to a pledge to eliminate the deficit by 2020. A SNP demand that Labour support the scrapping of Trident has already been rejected.

Read The Mole's column in full

Why are Tories ‘giving up’ in some seats?

Posted at 10.30, Wed 11 Feb 2015

An extraordinary leak from Conservative party HQ suggests the party has given up the fight against Ukip in two seats: Rochester and Strood, famously won by the ‘defector’ Mark Reckless in last November’s by-election, and Boston & Skegness, currently held by the Tories but backed by bookies to go to Ukip.

Both consituencies appear on a list of “non-target” seats, writes Jack Bremer. The list includes safe Tory seats that don’t merit special attention, safe seats held by other parties which, apparently, are not worth the effort, and - here's the surprise - some seats that observers assumed the Tories would be fighting hard to win. Raised eyebrows all round.

Read Jack Bremer’s report in full

Why Labour’s pink bus is NOT patronising

Posted at 10.30, Wed 11 Feb 2015

We were promised the return of the Labour battle bus: what deputy leader Harriet Harman helped launch yesterday was a bright pink minibus which will tour marginal constituencies seeking out female voters who might need a little persuading to vote Labour on 7 May.

Two questions: first, is it not a little patronising to aim a campaign at women only; second, should it have been painted pink?

As The Guardian reports, Harman was adamant: “I don’t think it’s at all patronising to recognise that women have got different patterns of their working lives, there’s different patterns in families between what women do and what men do. That is to recognise the reality and to say public policy needs to address that.”

And the choice of pink? “Is it not magenta? … We wanted to it to look conspicuous and therefore a white van wasn’t going to do the job… We wanted it to be visible and I think it’s a great colour.”

Read The Guardian’s report in full

Ed Balls slams anti-EU ‘Luddites’

Posted at 10.30, Wed 11 Feb 2015

While David Cameron urged business leaders to mark the better economic times by giving their workers a pay rise, shadow chancellor Ed Balls, also addressing the British Chambers of Commerce yesterday, attacked ‘Luddite’ arguments that Britain would better off leaving the EU.

“We reject this Luddite view that you can cut ties with the European Union and go it alone,” he said. “We shouldn’t flirt with that exit by putting party interests above economic interests.”

As The Times reports, Balls clearly disagreed with his host, John Longworth, director-general of the BCC, who had called earlier for an in/out referendum to be held within a year of the general election rather than waiting until 2017.

Balls suggested that uncertainty over the timing of a referendum was already costing jobs: “Businesses are delaying and deferring big decisions because of this uncertainty over a referendum.”

Read The Times article in full