Cameron-Miliband TV show a ratings flop
Posted at 10.34, Mon 30 March 2015
Just over 3 million people bothered to tune in to Thursday’s Cameron-Miliband TV event – “a shamingly low figure for all of us,” argues Alastair Campbell, the former Blair strategist, in an article for the Huffington Post.
The kneejerk line is to blame the politicians, to moan and groan and say none of them inspire, says Campbell. But on this occasion, that would be wrong.
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He blames the “couldn’t-care-less” public and the media for their role in dumbing down British society.
The same people who are uninterested in hearing the views of the next prime minister “care passionately if offered a 'vote' in one of Simon Cowell's productions, and care so much about the fate of Jeremy Clarkson that they march on the BBC”, says Campbell.
“We are becoming a demeaned and diminished country by this sort of nonsense, and it is driven by a combination of public, media and politicians - in that order.”
Read Alastair Campbell's article in full
Peter Hitchens: in praise of Ed Miliband
Posted at 10.30, Mon 30 March 2015
Ed Miliband finds another unlikely friend in the newspaper fraternity: last month it was Peter Oborne in The Spectator lavishing praise on the Labour leader - "a far more interesting, significant and distinctive figure” than the media were suggesting. Now it’s Peter Hitchens, the Mail on Sunday’s tough-talking columnist.
He is so fed up with “Islington lefties and the BBC” backing David Cameron against Ed Miliband that he is “seriously thinking of registering to vote for the first time in 30 years, and casting my ballot for Labour”.
Hitchens goes on: “The fashionable Left’s loathing of Mr Miliband, and the incessant spiteful bullying and belittling of this man by much of my trade, make me want to stand up for him against this nasty mob, even though I disagree with him about almost everything.
“At least I actually know what the Labour leader’s true opinions are. This is more than can be said for Mr Cameron, whose real aims are harder to grasp than a lavishly greased piglet.”
Read Peter Hitchens's article in full
Five reasons for Cameron’s woes
Posted at 10.30, Mon 30 March 2015
Two polls giving diametrically opposite results – one a four-point for Labour, the second a four-point lead for the Conservatives – leave us back where we started: neck-and-neck.
As the PM launches his party’s election campaign proper, Don Brind offer five reasons why the Tories have their backs to the wall.
Read Don Brind’s column in full
Cameron’s dodgy 'tax bombshell'
Posted at 10.30, Mon 30 March 2015
David Cameron will claim today that if Labour get into power it will cost every working family an extra £,300 in taxes, The Mole writes.
But the PM's figures are as dodgy as Labour’s claim every family is £1,600 worse off under the coalition than they were in 2010. Cameron is assuming that the tax burden would fall uniformally on every family – which is nonsense.
Read The Mole’s column in full
Not William Hague's finest hour
Posted at 09.46, Fri 27 March 2015
William Hague, the outgoing Leader of the House, ended his Westminster career with egg on his face last night as the Machiavellian plot he had engineered to give Tories the chance to oust Speaker John Bercow fell flat.
In the event, Bercow turned out to have more friends than enemies. Twenty-three Tories and ten Lib Dems joined Labour to vote down Hague’s motion by 228 to 202.
It was, The Guardian reported, a “humiliating rebuff” for Hague who had thought he was doing Tory MPs a favour in tabling a motion to make the election of the Speaker by secret ballot in future. This would enable those Tories who dislike Bercow to vote to oust the Speaker – without him being able to learn their identity.
But Hague, it seems, read the temperature wrongly. So did Cameron, who had clearly supported the plot whole-heartedly. He took a helicopter back from a campaign event to get to the vote on time, and was heard telling colleagues: “I wouldn’t miss this for the world”.
Not a good result - and there was still Paxman to come…
Read The Guardian report in full
Cameron wins - but Labour happy
Posted at 09.40, Fri 27 March 2015
A panel of voters asked by The Guardian and ICM to watch ‘Cameron & Miliband Live: The Battle for Number 10’ last night scored Cameron the winner by 54 to 46 per cent, Don Brind reports.
The Times reports an even closer result according to an instant reaction app used by YouGov. They scored it 51-49 for Cameron.
But Labour will be happy that many commentators feel Miliband stood up for himself better than Cameron under the onslaught from Jeremy Paxman. And among the ICM respondents who said they would consider changing their vote as a result of what they’d seen on TV, a the majority said they’d swap to Labour.
Read Don Brind's column in full
Ed Miliband: no more Mr Gloomy
Posted at 09.40, Fri 27 March 2015
One of the first questions Miliband had to deal with from the Sky News audience last night was: “Why are you so gloomy?” By chance, Ed's spin doctors have been working on this, The Mole writes.
There's little they can do about his generally saturnine appearance - but they can brighten up the Labour message. At today's launch of the Labour campaign at London's Olympic Park, there will be a new spirit of optimism, with Ed's new line being: "Britain can do better than this."
Read The Mole's column in full
Paxman gets set to grill Ed and Dave
Posted at 09.40, Thurs 26 March 2015
The first “non-leader debate” as agreed between broadcasters and the political parties earlier this month takes place tonight when Jeremy Paxman returns to the fray after retiring from Newsnight to grill David Cameron and Ed Miliband.
The programme - Cameron & Miliband Live: The Battle for Number 10 - will be broadcast by Channel 4 and Sky, from 9pm.
The two party leaders will be quizzed separately - Cameron having refused to meet Miliband face-to-face on TV – and each will get 18 minutes of Paxo-time.
They will also face 18 minutes of questions from a carefully selected (for demographic spread) studio audience. This section of the show will be moderated by Sky’s Kay Burley.
In full: what to expect from the Q&A
Win or lose, Labour ‘is turning hard left’
Posted at 09.30, Thurs 26 March 2015
Tony Blair’s ‘third way’ politics are history: instead, the Labour Party is turning hard left as inequality becomes the new defining issue, Tim Montgomerie argues in his column for The Times today. “From top to bottom, Blair and Blairism have become bêtes noires for large parts of the Labour movement.”
Montgomerie says that in this age of hung parliaments and coalition government, voters should pay less attention to what the main parties say in their manifestos, and focus on what their likely coalition partners want.
“Whereas floating voters may hate the idea of Ed Miliband sharing power with the SNP or the Green party, many on the post-Blair left relish the possibility. They feel that just as much as Blair’s alliances pulled Labour in the wrong direction it will be pulled in the right direction by the new multi-party political landscape. And by right direction they mean, of course, a left-wing direction.”
Read Tim Montgomerie’s Times article in full
Two Machiavellian plots uncovered
Posted at 09.30, Thurs 26 March 2015
Just as Parliament packs up for the election campaign proper, two senior Tories – George Osborne and William Hague – are exposed today as Machiavellian plotters, The Mole writes.
First, it transpires that Ed Miliband was led into a VAT trap at yesterday’s Prime Minister’s Questions by George Osborne. The Chancellor chose not to tell a Treasury Select Committee meeting earlier this week that a decision had been taken not to raise VAT if the Tories win the election.
Second, William Hague has tabled a surprise motion this morning that will give Tories the chance to elect the Speaker through a secret ballot in future. The idea is that this will make it easier for Tory MPs to vote out their number one bête noir, John Bercow, when Parliament returns after the election.
Read The Mole’s column in full
Why few MPs will fear losing their jobs
Posted at 09.30, Thurs 26 March 2015
Six hundred and fifty MPs are packing their bags in Westminster ahead of the dissolution of Parliament on Monday – yet the majority of them will soon be back, Don Brind writes.
Because the race is so tight between the Tories and Labour, it’s only a minority of members, fighting to defend marginal seats susceptible to a small swing, who risk losing their jobs on 7 May.
There are 86 who know they won’t be back – because they’ve decided to throw in the towel for one reason or another. They include such illustrious names as William Hague, Glenda Jackson, Gordon Brown, Ming Campbell, Alistair Darling, Peter Hain and David ‘Two Brains’ Willetts.
Read Don Brind’s column in full
Parliament packs up: The Week's briefing
Cameron ‘wins’ final PMQs before election
Posted at 14.30, Wed 25 March 2015
David Cameron got the best of the final Prime Minister’s Questions before the election, totally wrong-footing Labour leader Ed Miliband, The Mole writes.
Miliband asked Cameron to give a straight answer to a straight question and tell the House whether he would rule out a rise in VAT if the Conservatives won the election.
To everyone’s surprise, Camewron shot back: “You are right - a straight question deserves a straight answer and the answer is Yes.”
The trouble for Labour is that the fear of a secret Tory plan to increase VAT - “the tax that hits everyone” – was central to is anti-Tory campaign narrative.
Read The Mole’s column in full
SNP will block Tories, Salmond warns
Posted at 11.45, Wed 25 March 2015
Alex Salmond, prospective leader of a bloc of perhaps 50 SNP MPs at Westminster following the general election, has infuriated Tories by warning that the Nationalists will aim to vote down a minority Conservative government at the first chance of a vote of confidence.
In an interview with the New Statesman (over fish and chips and pink champagne), Salmond said the occasion would likely be the Queen’s Speech. The SNP would vote against – and if Labour joined them, “then that’s Cameron locked out”.
The Conservatives accused Salmond of "trying to sabotage the democratic will of the British people", while Labour, which has ruled out a formal coalition with the Scottish Nationalists, called his balance of power prediction "bluster and bluff".
Read The Week’s coverage in full
Fixation on deficit wrong, says Krugman
Posted at 09.58, Wed 25 March 2015
The Tory-led coalition has wrongly fixated on reducing the national deficit - and sloppy reporting by the British press is to blame for the government getting away with it.
That’s the view of Princeton economist Paul Krugman, writing for the New York Times under the heading ‘This Snookered Isle’. He says the British press has wrongly presented a narrative that Britain borrowed irresponsibly before the 2008 crash (when Labour were in charge) and that austerity policies were essential to save the country.
“This is what you hear all the time on TV and read in British newspapers,” says Krugman, “presented not as the view of one side of the political debate but as simple fact. Yet none of it is true.”
The Labour government was not profligate, he argues. “In 2007, government debt as a percentage of GDP was close to its lowest level in a century (and well below the level in the United States), while the budget deficit was quite small.”
Now the Tory-led coalition claims that austerity has been vindicated. “Yes,” says Krugman, “British interest rates have stayed low. So have almost everyone else’s.”
Read Paul Krugman’s NYT article in full
Cameron heckled at pensioner rally
Posted at 09.50, Wed 25 March 2015
Tuesday 24 March will be a day David Cameron will want to forget. Having woken up to headlines mocking his “presumptuous” announcement that he would not be seeking a third term as prime minister, he was heckled by the very people he felt he could rely on for support – pensioners.
They shouted “rubbish”, “lies” and “answer the question” at an election rally in London organised by Age UK, the Daily Mail reports. One 91-year-old man even waved his stick at the PM. Almost all the complaints were about the health service.
Cameron: “If you are not satisfied with how elderly people are being looked after and valued by this government, don’t blame other ministers, blame me.”
Audience: “We do.”
Read the Daily Mail report in full
Proportional representation – ignore the calls!
Posted at 09.50, Wed 25 March 2015
There will be calls from across the country on 8 May for Britain to change from the current first-post-the-post system to proportional representation when Ukippers, Lib Dems and Greens realise how few seats they have won, considering their level of popularity, Jack Bremer writes.
But the respected election number-cruncher Martin Baxter argues that we would be wise to think carefully before embarking on a change. FPTP is fairer than you might think, he says. Try telling that to Nigel Farage...
Read Jack Bremer’s article in full
Cameron will be lucky to get a second term
Posted at 09.50, Wed 25 March 2015
The chances of the Conservatives picking up support between now and the general election are minimal, if new research for the British Election Study proves accurate.
Using an unusually large sample of 16,000 people, the BES found that fewer than 20 per cent of voters see an improvement in the Tories’ record on immigration, the NHS, crime, education and cost of living.
Particularly depressing for David Cameron, Don Brind writes, is the fact that "only just over 20 per cent of voters see themselves as personally better off".
Read Don Brind’s column in full
Boris 'ideal man' to replace Clarkson
Posted at 10.45, Tues 24 March 2015
Asked by a Daily Telegraph journalist what he thought of the current Jeremy Clarkson “fracas” at the BBC, Boris Johnson tweeted: “Am mega Clarkson fan but if a vacancy would def let my name go forward.”
“Of course he’s joking, right?” asked the Telegraph’s Iain Martin. “Yes he probably is. But with Boris you never know.”
Martin argues that Boris would be the ideal replacement for Clarkson: at once a passionate ‘petrol head’ who loves fast cars and an obsessive cyclist, “he would represent a modernisation of the Top Gear brand”.
Of course, Boris still has a day job – Mayor of London – and might one day have a bigger one – Prime Minister of Great Britain. “But if anyone could pull it off - presenting Top Gear and occupying the highest office - it's Boris.”
Read Iain Martin’s article in full
David Cameron’s great kitchen cock-up
Posted at 10.30, Tues 24 March 2015
Whether Boris will now have time to worry about Top Gear is questionable: by disclosing to the BBC that he will not stand for a third term, David Cameron has fired the starting-gun for the race to succeed him, The Mole writes, and Johnson is the front-runner.
Initially, commentators were unsure whether Cameron had come out with his announcement by design or just blurted it out without thinking. The concensus is fast moving towards it being a cock-up of monumental proportions, the Mirror’s political columnist tweeting: “Cameron’s first PM to quit DURING a general election.”
Read The Mole’s article in full
First reaction: what other commentators are saying
Budget: still no poll bounce for Tories
Posted at 10.30, Tues 24 March 2015
The Budget looks increasingly like a non-event in the electoral battle between the Tories and Labour, Don Brind writes. Three new polls only confirm what the weekend polls were showing: the two parties are neck-and-neck, with Labour enjoying a slender advantage.
Labour actually jumped four points in the weekly Ashcroft poll released on Monday, but a two-point advance by the Tories keeps them level: Con 33 (up 2), Lab 33 (up four), Lib Dems 8 (u/c), Ukip 12 (down 3), Greens 5 (down 3).
The new Populus poll gives Labour a two-point lead over the Tories. Con 31 (u/c), Lab 33 (u/c), Lib Dems 9 (u/c), Ukip 16 (down 1), Greens 5 (u/c).
This morning’s YouGov poll for The Sun has the Tories and Labour at level-pegging. Con 34 (up 1), Lab 34 (down 1), Lib Dems 8 (u/c), Ukip 12 (down 2), Greens 6 (u/c).
Miliband ‘more of a toff than Cameron’
Posted at 10.30, Tues 24 March 2015
Unguarded interviews are all the rage this week. Labour backbencher Simon Danzcuk has thrown a grenade into his party’s campaign HQ by saying Ed Miliband is perceived by voters as “more of a toff than David Cameron” and it’s costing Labour votes, Jack Bremer writes.
“Any Labour politician that says to you they knock on a door and Ed Miliband is popular are telling lies. It’s just not true,” said the MP for Rochdale in a very chatty interview with the New Statesman.
Voters see Miliband as aloof, he said. “They’d prefer to go for a pint with David Cameron than they would with Ed Miliband, that’s the reality of it.”
Read Jack Bremer’s report in full
Cameron 'should offer SNP Home Rule pact'
Posted at 10.35, Mon 23 March 2015
David Cameron should stop going on about the horrific prospect of a Labour–SNP pact – and instead talk to Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond about an arrangement under which the Nationalists would agree not to vote down a minority Tory government.
That’s the view of Paul Goodman, editor of Conservative Home, who writes: “A constitutional horror? An offence to Conservative principles? An invitation to break up the United Kingdom? Far from it.”
Goodman argues that the Conservative Party has already offered the Nats more than Labour ever has, with its proposal that Scotland should have full powers over income tax.
“The next logical step would be to offer Scotland Home Rule, together with Home Rule for all the Home Nations – including, of course, England – in a fully federal UK."
What is the alternative, Goodman asks, if one wants the Union to be saved and Cameron to remain Prime Minister? The Tories could continue to shout “Boo!” at Salmond and Sturgeon in the hope that they will go away. But they won’t.
Read Paul Goodman’s article in full
Afzal Amin claims it was an EDL ‘sting’
Posted at 10.30, Mon 23 March 2015
Afzal Amin is embarrassing fellow Tories by refusing to step down immediately as the Conservative candidate in Dudley North after apparently being caught hatching a plot with the far-right English Defence League, The Mole writes.
Amin is insisting that he be given the chance to defend his actions at a party hearing on Tuesday. On the Today programme this morning, he said the “phoney rally” against the building of a mosque was never his idea – it was proposed to him by a “tearful” Tommy Robinson, the former EDL leader.
Even if that were true, do the people of Dudley North want an MP who falls for the tears of Tommy Robinson?
Read The Mole’s column in full
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