How do you tackle a slippery jellyfish?
Posted at 09.50, Thurs 5 Feb 2015
Yesterday saw Ed Miliband confront David Cameron at Prime Minister’s Questions for the first time since the Boots row blew up. He chose to stick to the subject of the “unholy alliance” between the Tories and Big Business and ask the PM about a tax break for hedge-funders – the relief of stamp duty on share transactions - introduced in 2013 by George Osborne.
The Prime Minister dealt with it by totally ignoring the fact that Miliband was talking about a stamp duty on financial transactions - as opposed to property transactions - and answered: “But I have acted on stamp duty!”
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Even the Tory-supporting Spectator was left stunned. “In a split second he’d twigged that ‘stamp duty’ covers both species of tax,” wrote columnist Lloyd Evans. “The man is, as they say, slipperier than a jellyfish emerging from an oil-slick.”
George Eaton of the left-leaning New Statesman felt Miliband was "routed" by Cameron. However, the Labour leader "can hope that Cameron's evasiveness hurts the PM in the country... As they deride Labour's weaknesses, the Conservatives would do well not to forget their own.”
For The Week, the Mole warns: "The worry for Cameron and his election strategist, Lynton Crosby, is that Miliband may be succeeding in fixing the idea in voters’ minds that the Tories are the party for the financially loaded – many of whom share responsibility for the 2008 banking crash - leaving Labour to represent the rest."
Read The Mole’s column in full
SNP on the rampage – but how and why?
Posted at 09.50, Thurs 5 Feb 2015
Why are the SNP doing so well in Scotland after losing the independence referendum? The simple answer, writes Don Brind, is that they are benefiting from the first-past-the-post voting system.
The Nationalists currently enjoy around 45 per cent in the opinion polls - about the same as the Yes vote back in September. But a referendum is a two-horse race and 45 per cent makes you a loser. In the general election, the 55 per cent anti-SNP vote is split four ways and 45 per cent is good enough for a landslide.
Incidentally, while the press has mainly concentrated on the potential wipeout for Labour north of the border, an SNP landslide is just as grim for the Lib Dems. Coupled with the bad omens from Sheffield for Nick Clegg (see above), there seems little hope of the coalition surviving, even if the Tories can make it as the largest party in a hung parliament.
A lesson in dressing from Yanis Varoufakis
Posted at 09.50, Thurs 5 Feb 2015
Should Ed Miliband turn up in a causal jacket and no tie the next time he wants to take on a tax-avoiding businessman? Or – to put it another way - should British politicians follow the example of the new Greek finance minister, Yanis Varoufakis, and dress more like ordinary people and less like, well, politicians?
Writing for The Guardian, Greek journalist Yiannis Baboulias argues that at the terribly polite Downing Street meeting between George Osborne and Varoufakis on Monday, the elephant in the room was not the Greek’s attire (Barbour jacket, tight jeans, black leather boots and an untucked shirt) but “how dull he makes other politicians look in comparison”.
“One of the most striking attributes of the new Greek government is that they don't just sound different, they look different, and have connected with people on the street in a way that British politicians could hardly imagine… Does Varoufakis own a tie? Probably, but it wouldn't have occurred to him to wear one in George Osborne's company, and good for him.”
Read Yiannis Baboulias’s article in full
Blairites told to shut up and give Ed a chance
Posted at 11.05, Wed 4 Feb 2015
Blairites in the Parliamentary Labour Party have been told to stop criticising Ed Miliband in public and maintain “message discipline”, according to the Daily Telegraph. If they don't shut up they'll undermine the chances of a Labour victory on 7 May.
Valerie Vaz, Labour MP for Walsall South and acting chair of the PLP, is reported to have told a private meeting of Labour MPs this week: “Remember that you are participants not commentators.”
No names were mentioned – but it was clear her remarks were directed at the likes of Alan Milburn, the former Health Secretary who accused Miliband last week of running a “comfort zone” campaign. Miliband wants public sector involvement in the NHS reduced: Milburn, an arch moderniser, believes the opposite.
Read The Daily Telegraph report in full
Two Alexanders face defeat in Scotland
Posted at 11.00, Wed 4 Feb 2015
Labour and the Lib Dems each face losing a high-profile MP on 7 May as the SNP surge north of the border is confirmed by Lord Ashcroft’s new Scottish constituency polling, writes Don Brind.
Danny Alexander, number two to George Osborne at the Treasury, looks bound to lose his seat, as does Douglas Alexander, Labour’s campaign chief and putative foreign secretary in a Miliband-led government.
What’s also pretty certain is that Alex Salmond will win the Lib Dem-held seat of Gordon for the Nationalists. How big a group of SNP MPs Salmond is likely to lead in Westminster after 7 May remains to be seen – we await further polling results from Ashcroft. But forecasts of a Scottish wipeout for Labour and the Lib Dems look to be accurate.
Read Don Brind’s column in full
‘Bill Somebody’: Ed Balls vs Newsnight
Posted at 11.00, Wed 5 Feb 2015
The shadow chancellor was skewered on BBC Newsnight last night, writes The Mole, when he tried boasting about Labour’s good relations with business leaders but then forgot the surname of a businessman he’d just had dinner with.
“Bill…” Balls faltered. “To be honest, his surname has just gone from my head which is a bit annoying at this time of night…”
Presenter Emily Maitlis responded: “Okay, so we have got Bill Somebody. Is there anyone else?” - and it was downhill from there.
But why, asked The Guardian’s Polly Toynbee on Twitter, is Newsnight giving Labour such a hard time?
Read The Mole’s column in full
Case of the disappearing Tories
Posted at 11.00, Wed 4 Feb 2015
Dan Jarvis, the Labour MP we wrote about on 23 January (see below) as a potential future Labour leader, has written a blog for the New Statesman about his nine-day yomp around England drumming up support for Ed Miliband’s party. Three interesting points:
1. The Conservatives are “increasingly virtual” says Jarvis. “In many communities they [the Tories] appear to exist only on billboards and the glossy leaflets they pay people to deliver. By contrast, Labour supporters are stuffing envelopes and pounding pavements.”
2. The NHS really is THE doorstep issue: it was raised with Jarvis more than any other, he says. The increased focus on the NHS “isn’t some party-political construct. It’s a reflection of what people are feeling across the country.”
3. Our problems may have outgrown our politics: “Our lives are now shaped by complex global forces,” says Jarvis. “Tumbling oil prices, wages being eroded by globalisation and new technologies, our livelihoods being thrown into crisis by property speculators on the other side of the world. Questioning whether traditional politics as we’ve known it can make a difference… is a rational response.”
Read Dan Jarvis’s blog in full
Queen guitarist Brian May to run as an MP?
Posted at 11.00, Wed 5 Feb 2015
Bookmakers are offering odds of 25/1 on Brian May, the Queen guitarist and pro-badger activist, becoming an independent MP following a newspaper report that he’s giving serious thought to the idea, writes Jack Bremer.
Bookies rate him as more likely to become an MP than Al Murray – aka the Pub Landlord – who is standing in South Thanet against Nigel Farage of Ukip.
These are just two of the “weird and wonderful” bets being offered by bookmakers as the election gets closer.
Read Jack Bremer’s report in full
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