Commentariat

Everyone’s at it - after David Cameron reaffirmed his commitment to tax-cuts somewhere down the track, Nick Clegg is stepping up the rhetoric today, insisting the tax burden is currently too high, and the Lib-Dems want to reduce it. I…

…get a chance to watch it happen live - you can see a replay of our online debate between the three main party candidates in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Key battlegrounds were 42 day detention, the Labour Party campaign…

Niall remarked last week that some of the Prime Minister’s favourite phrases are losing their potency (one might say.) I think there are a fair few Tories who long for the day their leader thinks of something to replace “Sharing…

For those of you who were itching to ask the PM about his views on classical oratory styles on his Youtube free-for-all, don’t bother! He’s dealt with this thorny issue already. Addressing the Google Zeitgeist conference this morning, Gordon Brown…

A big week for Gordon Brown and Labour - and we’re kicking it off with a webchat between the three main candidates in Crewe and Nantwich. It could be sparky, what with all the mudslinging and “dirty tricks” that are…

Cyberspace probably seems the safest place for Gordon Brown right now. A few days before Crewe and Nantwich, Downing Street have launched an initiative with Youtube, inviting questions from you the public! Submissions need to be in by June 21st,…

Robin Gibb of the Bee Gees fame may have let the cat of the bag over the Prime Minister’s taste in music. Although Gordon has previously admitted to listening to The Arctic Monkeys regularly, today the 70s disco legend told…

…interview leggy supermodels…but from the tone of his blog you’d think Jon Craig had taken this afternoon’s encounter with Naomi Campbell in his stride. Perhaps it was the fact that she was able to stand face to face with our…

On Monday Sky News’ website will host a live online debate between the main parties’ candidates for the Crewe and Nantwich by-election. Tamsin Dunwoody (Labour), Elizabeth Shenton (Lib Dem) and Edward Timpson (Conservative) will join host Martin Stanford at 9am…

Political journalists like me love nothing more than a bit of banter with Cabinet Ministers and other senior politicians. But I confess that Harriet Harman won our contest during Gordon Brown’s visit to the Beormund Community Centre, Bermondsey, to spell…

Nick Clegg has finally made good on his promise to Guido to release his expenses. Published on the Lib Dem website, they reveal he has spent more than £7,000 of taxpayers’ money renovating his constituency home last year. The Lib…

Prime Minister’s Questions has come around again following another bad week for Gordon Brown. Will he come out on top in the chamber? How will Opposition leaders David Cameron and Nick Clegg fair? Vote on the leader you feel performed…

There was an angry Tory frontbench during the PM’s statement on pending legislation. David Cameron accused the PM’s people of distributing copies of his speech to the press before giving to the House - despite the hacks being heavily briefed…

Why it’s Gordon Brown of course! The results are in for the Madame Tussauds vote on whether our current Prime Minister should be immortalised in wax. And the answer is… NO. A whopping 83.8% voted against Gordon Brown entering the…

Before David Cameron headed for the Commons to listen to Alistair Darling’s emergency mini-Budget, he revealed a talent as an after-dinner speaker to rival the former Tory leader William Hague. He was guest speaker at a Parliamentary Press Gallery lunch….

Delighted Labour backbenches may not be too bothered, but there is nothing that exercises the Treasury more than maintaining the two fiscal rules - the golden rule and the sustainable investment rule. So has Alistair Darling done it? Well those…

David Cameron seems to have absorbed the advice I gave the party leaders last week and given an interview to the Crewe blog. This excellent blog has joined my morning trawl through my favourite sites on the internet. I look…

Chancellor Alistair Darling will make an “interim” statement to the Commons on compensation for people affected by the scrapping of the 10p rate of tax. Full details will be revealed in the pre-Budget report in the autumn. Plus Adam Boulton…

It seems concern about the state of the housing market has finally reached the Cabinet Room of Number 10. I’ve seen the briefing from this morning’s Cabinet meeting and it will worry all home owners, particularly because it seems the…

The US Presidential viral campaign turns slightly sinister with this remake of the iconic final scene of ‘Sunset Blvd’. “I’m ready for my Presidency Mr Cooper…”

Could the new London Mayor be regretting his victory in the election? Guido Fawkes points us to his Henley constituency’s local paper. In a heartfelt letter to The Henley Standard, Boris writes of his dismay at losing “just about the…

Just when Gordon Brown thought things couldn’t get any worse, they just did - with a magazine poll reporting that more members of that crucial constituency, women, want David Cameron to be Prime Minister because they would like to marry…

In a speech that made an Oscar acceptance by a tearful Dickie Attenborough sound cold and unemotional, Lord Levy spoke of his “love-hate relationship” with the media. But my over-riding impression from his long and effusive speech at the launch…

The fevered atmosphere among Labour MPs was perfectly illustrated this afternoon: No sooner had Hazel Blears been on Sky News defending Gordon Brown with her characteristic enthusiasm than I had a chat with a normally loyal senior Labour MP who…

The temperature is hotting up at Westminster and it’s got nothing to do with the weather. Children’s Secretary Ed Balls has just given a 45 minute on-the-record briefing to lobby reporters, flanked by his schools ministers Lord Adonis and Jim…