Commentariat

“I detest the cultural vandalism that contaminates New Labour. I hope they go - and soon.” (David Hockney, letter to the Guardian today). “You can see why democracy and individualism got going in western Europe rather than in East Asia.”…

At times - and I can think of no other way to put this - it sounded as if the Prime Minister was gabbling. He was trying to answer David Cameron’s questions about changes in Vehicle Excise Duty but what…

You could almost hear the Beeb’s news execs spluttering over their Guardian ‘n croissant breakfasts when the tallest MP in the Commons laid in to John Humphrys on the Today programme. Daniel Kawczynski (Con, Shrewsbury and Atcham) said the BBC…

…so everyone has skipped town. The consensus is Gordon Brown is lucky the House isn’t sitting next week. He’s spending the weekend in Scotland and his ministers have scattered to the four winds. The “ultras” so loathed by Downing Street…

The latest prognostication is a Tory majority of about 2000 in Crewe, but that’s just guessing. I know one brave Tory who has bet on a narrow Labour win (fewer switchers than the party claims); equally I know Labour folk…

Gordon Brown or Steven McCabe? With things looking bleak in Crewe for Labour, we are already getting the first rumblings of score-settling. It might seem natural to pin the blame on the party leader, but I detect mutterings about the…

Gordon Brown’s speech to the Google “zeitgeist” conference offers a laudable and timely defence of free trade that should be required reading for his best mates Obama, Clinton and McCain. Elsewhere though he cites Winston Churchill’s strictures against indecisive politicians,…

Apologies for the weird new look, the disappearance of the blogroll and archives to the bottom of this page, and the lack of anything to tell you that this is indeed my blog. We are switching over to our exciting…

Gordon Brown has launched his new Ask the PM YouTube thingy with a short video clip inviting us to post questions that he’ll answer at the end of June (so it’s not the No10 rapid response unit). His presentation is…

Chancellor Brown was much-mocked as a Macavity figure who went missing whenever there was trouble. He mastered the trick of the tactical withdrawal, sometimes going for weeks if not months without a major interview. His appearances on the Today programme…

Talk this morning in the corridors of the four-step programme for recovery being run by Brown Central. Step One was sorting the 10p business. You have to admire the PM’s gumption for trying to compare the emergency Budget to the…

Full marks to Caroline Flint for her contribution to the daily disaster that is this Government. It’s happened before - minister wanders up street with secret document on display - but this occasion just adds to the slapstick. “We can’t…

I missed what sounds like an epic Ed Balls briefing this afternoon. Nick Robinson has done a great summary on his blog, but the interesting bit now appears to be what the Schools Secretary said about “what can be done…

More briefing from the great Pickles , who turned up outside Tory HQ sporting what looked to be a panama short of a white slaver’s outfit, all cream safari cotton and a glint of danger in the eye. He had…

It’s difficult to be downcast when the people you meet press bags of free cheese into your hand and insist on introducing you to their daughters. David Cameron was unmistakeably chipper this afternoon on his second visit to Crewe and…