Foreign Affairs

Argentina: Where The Politicians Fight Back

Political conflict is usually quite a subdued affair in Britain. Sure, you'll occasionally catch a glimpse of John Prescott on a bitchslapping rampage, but apart from that we're simply a more restrained bunch. Nothing like Argentine First Lady Cristina Fernandez, then, who has found herself in hot water following… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 31 Mar 2008 11:54 PM. Permalink

Cesspool on the Potomac: Thames Edition

David Cameron Supports Boris Johnson; No-one Surprised

Tory leader David Cameron has put his full backing behind prospective London mayor Boris Johnson, referring to the bumbling Biggles fan as ''exactly the kind of leader the capital needs''. Elaborating on things, D-Cam turned up to Boris's Edmonton campaign launch and reeled off more of his tribute: "I don't… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 31 Mar 2008 11:22 PM. Permalink

getting down wiv da kidz Dept.

Downing Street Now On Flickr

Yeah, yeah - you can talk all you want about 'policies' and 'action' and 'intelligent reasoned handling of sensitive issues', but the government sure are a bunch of smart cookies. They know that you don't actually want any of that. They know that what you really, really want to do… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 31 Mar 2008 10:59 PM. Permalink

Our American Cousins

Barack Obama: The Endorsements Continue

Democratic hopeful Barack Obama has received his latest welcome boost - an endorsement from Minnesota senator Amy Klobuchar. Klobuchar is a 'superdelegate', which means that - while sounding like a particularly rubbish comic book hero obsessed with sitting down and talking things over - she is one of around… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 31 Mar 2008 10:42 PM. Permalink

Cesspool on the Potomac

Dems race gets dirty

Things are getting a bit nasty in the Dems race, as this blog discovered:… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 31 Mar 2008 12:58 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

BoJo attends Street-Porter fiasco

Janet Street-Porter, aka Britain's Most Useless Human Being, has interviewed BoJo this week, and the only good thing about it is the photo: You said in interviews that you've snorted coke. Well, that was when I was 19. It all goes to show that, sometimes, it's better not to say… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 31 Mar 2008 9:53 AM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Who needs bloggers?

Westmonster's morning media round-up: 1. Brown to make unscheduled appearance at PLP meeting this evening after critical Progress article by Ivan Lewis: Guardian, Telegraph, Times, Independent, Mirror, Mail 2. Equality and Human Rights Commisson threatens legal challenge to 42 day detention: Guardian, Mail 3. Time for the Lords to worry… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 31 Mar 2008 8:37 AM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Telegraph's Gore '08 'scoop'

Maybe Telegraph Washington correspondent Tim Shipman is worried his plum D.C. assignment could be in jeopardy. In a major scoop, The Sunday Telegraph writer managed to re-hash a week-old, long-shot theory initially floated by Time hack Joe Klein, that Al Gore could unite a divided Democratic party in a brokered… read more…

Written by Andrew Levy on 31 Mar 2008 12:00 AM. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

David Cameron To Make Econony 'Dynamic'

When Westmonster heard that Tory leader David Cameron had plans to make the economy 'dynamic', we felt a little shiver run down our spine. 'Dynamic'? What does that mean exactly? Is this some attempt to make the world of finance more exciting to that all-important yoof market, an idea roughly… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 30 Mar 2008 10:31 PM. Permalink

Our American Cousins

American Politicians Unsure Of What 'Healthcare' Means

Ask any Brit to define the term 'healthcare' and you'll no doubt get consistent answers - albeit ones that revolve around MRSA, underpaid nurses, filthy hospital bedding and good old fashioned drunken fistfights in Saturday night A&E. For our American chums, though, things may seem a bit more difficult. Health… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 30 Mar 2008 10:04 PM. Permalink

Department of Doublespeak

Government 'In Touch', Says Government Itself

There are few things worse than being considered 'out of touch' - other than rampant infighting and disagreement within your own party, that is. Home Secretary Jacqui Smith is all too aware of this. She was hauled in early Sunday morning to appear on Andrew Marr's weekly BBC politics show,… read more…

Written by C J Davies on 30 Mar 2008 9:38 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Here come the Headcases

Rory Bremner's new Spitting Image update, Headcases starts a week on Sunday, and it will be interesting to see what, if any, impact it has on politics. Spitting Image always seemed to loom large in the 1980s and early 1990s, but did it change anything? Judging by the Headcases page… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 28 Mar 2008 10:57 AM. There are 2 comments so far. Permalink

Department for Kite Flying

Civil servant muppets

So, is the resurrection of a clause giving Ministers the powers to change Parliamentary Acts in the draft constitutional reform bill cock-up or conspiracy? The text revives a clause which was successfully lobbied out of the 2006 Legislative and Regulatory Reform Act, having been originally flagged by Tim Worstall. This… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 27 Mar 2008 12:30 PM. Permalink

All change please

BoJo v. Trotsky

Someone needs to take on the RMT in London, and the Guardian thinks Boris Johnson is the man. Expect to see the letters "ACAS" in the news a bit more often if he wins.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 27 Mar 2008 8:10 AM. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

What's driving Alan?

Alan Milburn has a big set-piece interview in The Speccie today, and it repeats what's becoming an emerging trend (and, Mr Fraser Nelson, this is not Milburn's first interview since the election, he's spoken to local media at some length): Mr Milburn has a proposal. ‘The way I would do… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 27 Mar 2008 8:08 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Times hearts Boris

We suspected the Times had fallen for BoJo, but we didn't know how far and how hard: Mr Brown revealed yesterday that he plans a trip to the US as the fight for London reaches a climax next month. David Cameron has chosen to appear alongside Boris Johnson when the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 27 Mar 2008 7:59 AM. Permalink

The Funding Scrolls

Expenses: this better be good

With the Commons authorities desperately struggling to keep MPs expenses out of the public eye, media commentators should be worried about only one thing - that they won't be as dynamite as they were hoping: Mr Cameron's aides disclosed that of the £21,359 he claimed in 2005-06 more than £21,200… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 26 Mar 2008 8:18 AM. Permalink

Outbreak of lyricism stuns Commons

How's this for weird Easter stuff? First there's the story of a mystery poet attacking Gordon Brown with the following epic lines: At Downing Street upon the stair, I met a man who wasn't Blair. He wasn't Blair again today, oh how I wish he'd go away. And then slightly… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 20 Mar 2008 4:16 PM. Permalink

Ministry for Hearsay

Nadine's blonde moment

Oh dear. Easter weekend is almost upon us and her comes Nadine Dorries peddling a well-known hoax and generally behaving like someone with rather an up-and-down grasp on reality. Tim Ireland's having a rare old time bringing her down a peg or two over here, while Iain Dale's tried to… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 20 Mar 2008 2:46 PM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Cameron lost in the post

Well, we thought post offices were important, but David Cameron obviously didn't: After all, if it had really mattered, David Cameron would have turned up to vote along with - by my count - 10 other Tories who were somehow absent from their own show. If they had, the PM's… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 20 Mar 2008 10:45 AM. Permalink

Department of Doublespeak

Government in the margins

A few people have criticised the National Security Strategy for being in too large a font and having wide margins, implying that El Gordo is attempting to pad out his homework. Judge for yourself:… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 20 Mar 2008 10:40 AM. Permalink

All change please

More wrong mood music?

The Brown mood music is still all over the place. While he's talking about a sinister-sounding National Security Council, all everyone else wants to talk about - including Brown's own London Mayoral candidate - is post office closures. The coalition against the closures sprung up quickly and is almost barkingly… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 19 Mar 2008 8:32 AM. Permalink

Cesspool on the Potomac

Obama's speech

It seems to have been accepted with some pretty calm praise. It starts slow, but builds up. Apologies for the ad at the beginning, but this is the cleanest version we've found. Our take? The delivery is oddly, almost artificially flat. The format doesn't lend itself to grandstanding. The mike… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 18 Mar 2008 8:02 PM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

All change please

The R word

Daniel Finkelstein thinks the recent polls suggest a shift in voter sentiment, and he thinks it's nothing to do with the Budget: I am more inclined to the theory put to me by my colleague Tim Hames. Last week was the first time where the R word (recession) became real… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 18 Mar 2008 12:46 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Morning media zoo

A round-up of the barking, the pompous and the out-of-date. - Andrew Gimson says El Gordo is turning into El Neville - Simon Hoggart can't resist making the same reference - Waste-of-space Sunder Katwala reckons he's convinced El Gordo to have an Iraq inquiry. Riiiiight. - Government missing carbon targets,… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 18 Mar 2008 8:07 AM. Permalink

All change please

ICM's turn to trash Labour

Tomorrow's Guardian will have an ICM poll which shows Labour 13 points down on Conservative, a drop of 10 percentage points in a month: Academic estimates suggest that on today's findings Labour would win 214 seats at a general election, down from 352, while the Conservatives could pick up a… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 10:07 PM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

George Osborne = Hypnotoad

Our undying thanks to Bloggerheads for this latest outbreak of "what the Internet was invented for":… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 4:06 PM. Permalink

All change please

ConservativeHome: Boris now 12% ahead

ConservativeHome have a new YouGov survey from the Stannah showing Boris Johnson is now 12% ahead. We think they mean "12 percentage points" but you get the idea. BoJo ahead in second-preference voting, too. The suburbs are making themselves heard once more, it appears. We should also point out that… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 11:30 AM. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

What's Milburn up to?

Charles Clarke has been having a pop at Gordon Brown with monotonous regularity, but what is fellow big-beast Alan Milburn up to? In an interview in the North, he does two interesting things: he proposes a Labour version of the Tory policy of education vouchers; and he becomes another Labour… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 8:48 AM. Permalink

All change please

Ken v. Associated

Ken's, ahem, issues with the Evening Standard are well documented, and now he's having a pop at the mothership: The Daily Mail has a long and despicable record of vilifying the different generations of people who have made our city their home, whether they be Jewish, Black, Asian, Irish or,… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 8:30 AM. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

No Prescott dynasty in Hull

John Prescott's son David won't be following his Dad into the Commons as Hull East MP: The son of the former deputy prime minister John Prescott failed last night in an attempt to replace his father in the Commons when he stands down at the next general election. David Prescott,… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 8:26 AM. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

Ahead in the polls, behind in ideas

After a bumper weekend of massive poll leads and oblique policy statements, David Cameron is to show just how little work has really gone into Tory tax planning by dusting off the 2005 David James review of public spending: David Cameron is to salvage a Tory plan to cut government… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 8:23 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

Inside the TPA

Patrick Barkham of the Guardian answers the question Who are the TaxPayers' Alliance?: There are about 30 million taxpayers, yet the "alliance" that says it speaks for us all was created by three people, now with seven full-time staff. The three founders, Andrew Allum, a former Conservative councillor, Florence Heath,… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 17 Mar 2008 8:19 AM. Permalink

All change please

Too techy for voters?

The Oystercard - one of the transport innovations that Ken is using to bash BoJo around with - has been hacked. Well, kinda sorta. A bunch of boffins in a lab have figured out a way it could be hacked, and these days that's normally enough. So will BoJo make… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 5:21 PM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Cuddly or conservative?

Iain Dale neatly skewers the Cameron rebranding of the Conservatives by pointing out that you can't be friendly to new parents and to small businesses at the same time: Imagine you are a small business, employing a dozen people. Imagine that you employ a husband and wife, who suddenly inform… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 4:59 PM. Permalink

Department for Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Big Brother is crap

More ID madness: the British Computer Society reckons huge amount of data held by government departments is just plain wrong: Research by IT specialists found 4 per cent of the population - almost two million people - had discovered incorrect information stored under their name by Whitehall or local authorities.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 8:30 AM. Permalink

All change please

Gilligan gets his story unstraight

Dave Hill has a pretty devastating document from the GLA Monitoring Service, which completely contradicts Andrew Gilligan's repeated claim that he's never accused Lee Jasper of being a criminal: 2. The Evening Standard on 21 February [in an article by Andrew Gilligan] alleges that "Mr Jasper’s alleged offences are not… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 8:24 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

Ministry For Assigning Blame

Ed's new enemy

Ed Balls has got someone else to worry about. After causing all sorts of trouble this week over his interventions in the Commons, he's now been sort-of accused of burying bad news on school admissions on Budget day by the Statistics Commission: Richard Alldritt, the chief executive, said: "We would… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 8:15 AM. Permalink

All change please

London's new attack dog

Ken's rolling out the big guns in his fight with Boris. Well, the small Catholic guns, anyway. Here comes Ruth Kelly to stick the knife into BoJo's bus estimates: "Boris Johnson's transport policy is in tatters given this extraordinary underestimate of the cost of his bus policy by £100m a… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 14 Mar 2008 8:10 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

Bag carrying

Underlaying parliamentary democracy

Everyone's going to have a favourite item on the 'John Lewis list' of MPs' allowances, published by the Commons today. Our two faves are the Recordable DVD (270 quid) and underlay (£6.99 per square metre). The specificity of these items puts pictures in our head of new MPs wandering around… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 13 Mar 2008 7:59 PM. Permalink

Our Friends North of the Border

Wishful thinking at the Telegraph

Alan Cochrane at the Telegraph is dreaming wistfully of the day when Alex Salmond finally comes a cropper: However, there are clear signs that Mr Salmond's run of success may be grinding to a halt. His plans to replace council tax with a local income tax has been widely ridiculed… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 13 Mar 2008 7:52 PM. Permalink

Cesspool on the Potomac

Senator Clinton (D-Belfast)

Even 231 years after callously throwing the King overboard, the colonies still can't seem to let go of Britain — we've even become an issue in their Presidential campaign. This time, participants in the Northern Ireland peace process are being called upon to confirm or refute Hillary Clinton's attempt to… read more…

Written by Andrew Levy on 13 Mar 2008 9:50 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Tories lose new bastard

The Tories have lost their ultra-rebel: Bob Spink's been chucked out for getting heavy-handed with the Chief Whip: Spink tried to avoid being deselected by emailing a post-dated letter of resignation on Tuesday night to the Tory chief whip, Patrick McLoughlin - a letter he threatened to activate if the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 13 Mar 2008 8:20 AM. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

Alternative budget

In his Alternative Universe Budget today, Alistair Darling, wearing a purple Paul Smith suit and an orange French Connection shirt, opened his statement with a fantastic joke about the French economy before proceeding to cut spending as a result of the Northern Rock fiasco and the global spending slowdown. He… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 12 Mar 2008 4:27 PM. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

Oh dear, Ed

Ed Balls is a man with ambition. So expect him to really, really, really regret shouting "so what?" when David Cameron claimed that the UK tax burden is "the highest in history" his response to Alistair Darling's budget. The fact that Ed's face went deep purple when Cameron called him… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 12 Mar 2008 1:29 PM. Permalink

Ministry for Colourblindness

BBC's white problem

We're not the only people who think the Beeb has a problem with the white working class: their own reporters do, too: Sarah Mukherjee, the environment correspondent, who grew up on a predominantly white council estate in Essex, said that BBC2's White season risked reinforcing the stereotype of the white… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 12 Mar 2008 8:30 AM. Permalink

Good Vibrations Dept.

Dizzy's blogging advice

Dizzy takes up our refrain that more Civil Servant bloggers would be a good, not a bad, thing, with a useful list of tips for civil service bloggers. We particularly liked : Gender switch your blogging personality, as well as changing your age Now we have this image of Dizzy… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 12 Mar 2008 8:21 AM. Permalink

All change please

The new court of law

Dave Hill's excellent London blog continues to throw up some good stuff, including this latest about an exchange between Andrew Gilligan and the GLA in a CommentIsFree comment thread below a Dave Hill post (are you keeping up with this?). In it, a "GLA spokesperson" (unidenfitied, but Hill assures us… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Mar 2008 9:12 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

BBC gets coy

Some rather coy coverage from the Beeb about an arrest in the City Hall fraud inquiry: One man has been arrested and three homes have been raided by police investigating the fraud allegations surrounding a former aide to the mayor. The Metropolitan Police (Met) said it had searched homes in… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Mar 2008 3:00 PM. Permalink

Department for Ctrl-Alt-Delete

The Jam meme: latest sighting

Yesterday we kicked Gus O'Donnell for cracking down on blogging in government, so it was good to see Tom Watson (in a, yes, very good speech on government and technology) defending Civil Serf at the Tower 08 conference yesterday. It was less good to see him trumpeting the latest badge… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Mar 2008 8:09 AM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Spotlight on Cameron

Spotlight onto Cammers this morning. Firstly, Philip Hammond, his Shadow Chief Secretary, begs some questions in his pre-Budget briefing, according to Fraser Nelon: First, non doms. Hammond asks us to believe that the Tory non-dom tax would scare away fewer millionaires than Labour’s policy. But the Tory figures claim they’d… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 11 Mar 2008 8:02 AM. Permalink

Don't Look Ethel!

Context is everything

We're sure Graeme Archer on ConservativeHome has lots of friends who are black, but this screenshot of latest comments from his latest piece doesn't do his inner city credentials any good at all:… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 5:32 PM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

El Gordo gets his man

Gordon Brown's got the man he wanted as general secretary of the Labour Party: David Pitt-Watson. A millionaire City bigwig. And thus Labour's journey along the road from socialism to, er, something else is now complete. Pitt-Watson can argue to have articulated something of a post-socialist agenda in his book… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 4:03 PM. Permalink

All change please

Tussauds hearts Davey

As if things weren't bad enough, now Madame Tussauds is to snub Gordon Brown: Ben Lovett, a spokesman for the tourist attraction, said: "We have decided not to create a wax figure of Gordon Brown at this interim stage. He may not be in the job for much longer. We… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 3:18 PM. Permalink

Department for Ctrl-Alt-Delete

Gus to crack down

In the wake of Civil Serf, the Times is saying Sir Gus O'Donnell is planning a Whitehall crackdown on bloggers and social networking: Sir Gus will shortly issue guidelines to tell officials whether they can start up blogs or use social networking websites such as Facebook and YouTube, and even… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 3:15 PM. Permalink

Department for Silly Lists

Straight-talking Jack

Look, this is just too easy. At 12.15 pm, the Grauniad reports that Jack Straw is urging and end to 'dreadful' public service jargon: "The use of euphemism across government, particularly but not exclusively in the fields of social services, is dreadful, because it acts as a barrier between the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 2:55 PM. Permalink

All change please

Ken's big guns

Say what you like about Ken, but we reckon his transport announcements today make BoJo's fiddling with conductors look like the work of an upper-class dilettante who doesn't use public transport: The mayor said he would put a fleet of 500 hybrid buses, which cut emissions by up to 40… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 2:46 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Who's that girl?

Jonathan Isaby is complaining about how much MPs get from the state for self-promotion, using as an example a mailing from his local MP: Through the letterbox came a glossy, colour, 4-sided leaflet emblazoned with pictures of my MP. I won't embarrass her by revealing her identity, but over the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 2:41 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Sky discovers CAPS LOCK

After Jon Craig's rants, it's the turn of Glen Oglaza to go slightly postal on the Boulton and Co. blog: Astonished to read Julie Andrews' (of all people) revelation in the Sunday Times that her father was not her father. Her biological father was a man with whom Julie's mother… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 10 Mar 2008 2:38 PM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Forsyth: The Quiet Protocol

Freddie Forsyth's got an "exclusive interview" on conservatives.com today. But it looks like the man behind the Odessa File has been silenced by shadowy agents....… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 11:54 AM. Permalink

All change please

New BoJo policy: meanness

We can expect more stuff like this as May approaches. Trade union activist John has a little vignette about BoJo being a tightwad: During a “walkabout” he posed with a local singer/songwriter and street “busker” Claire Toomey for a photo opportunity. As he stood with Claire, who was singing a… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 11:37 AM. There are 3 comments so far. Permalink

Department for Diffrunt People

The ghost of Enoch

Newsnight is doing a major series on the "white working class", which is presumably going to say some interesting stuff about the decline of manufacturing and the generational skills gap. Presumably. Not that you'd know it from the BBC's website, which just seems determined to point out that white working… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 9:10 AM. There are 1 comments so far. Permalink

All change please

I'll get you, Butler

Boris Johnson has gone postal on Transport for London this morning, accusing them of all sorts of chicanery and political bias. Their heinous crime? Supplying guardian.co.uk with some statistics which make something of a mockery of Johnson's estimates for the costs of putting conductors on a fleet of Routemasters which… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 8:55 AM. Permalink

The Funding Scrolls

Alexander cleared

Well, what a surprise. Wendy Alexander isn't going to be charged with anything at all: Scottish Labour leader Wendy Alexander will not be prosecuted over failing to register donations, the Crown Office has confirmed. The Holyrood watchdog referred her to the procurator fiscal for not recording gifts to her leadership… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 8:47 AM. Permalink

News from the Carlton Club

Tories Tax Tremendously

So, Daniel Finkelstein obviously knows his stuff. After his column jumping up and down on the heads of Tory rightwingers seeking tax cuts (we're looking at you, Heffer and Redwood), out comes a new Tory policy - raising taxes: The Conservatives say they will raise tax on super-strength beer, cider… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 7 Mar 2008 8:42 AM. Permalink

Department for Diffrunt People

Show us your papers!

We're not going to fisk the entire Home Office ID cards statement (go to No2ID, they'll do a better job that us). But there is some weird stuff in official news statement. Take the first para: The delivery of the national identity scheme gathered momentum today as plans were laid… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 6 Mar 2008 1:03 PM. Permalink

Cammers showing a split

Those clever chaps at Revolts.co.uk have pointed out something interesting from last night's EuroDisco. Nick Clegg wasn't the only young man with some stroppy kids to deal with: As everyone examined the damage done to Nick Clegg's leadership by the largest Lib Dem rebellion in six years, the Commons also… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 6 Mar 2008 10:56 AM. Permalink

LibDem rebels

Andrew George, Annette Brooke, Alistair Carmichael, David Heath, Greg Mulholland, John Hemming, John Leech, John Pugh, Mark Williams, Martin Horwood, Mike Hancock, Paul Holmes, Richard Younger-Ross, Sandra Gidley, Tim Farron. See me afterwards. Interestingly, five of these sites were unavailable this morning. And not one of the LibDem 15 had… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 6 Mar 2008 8:24 AM. Permalink

Department for Tax and Spend

On the never-never

Defra, according to the National Audit office, can't set a budget: Over the last two years the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) approved an annual £3.8bn spending plan that was £230m more than the figure allocated by the Treasury to tackle green issues and pay farm subsidies.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 6 Mar 2008 8:09 AM. Permalink

Department for Diffrunt People

Wot's an ID card

Wot's an ID card? Later today, we'll find out, but Auntie has some hints: The cards will be compulsory for foreign nationals and those working airside in Britain's airports, such as baggage handlers and cabin crew. The rollout to students, is, according to BBC political reporter Norman Smith, part of… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 6 Mar 2008 8:04 AM. Permalink

News from the United Federation of Muesli Knitters

LibDems: three to quit

According to Jonathan Isaby at the Telegraph, three LibDem frontbenchers will resign today: Alistair Carmichael - Scotland and Northern Ireland spokesman and MP for Orkney and Shetland (majority: 6,627) Tim Farron - Countryside spokesman and MP for Westmorland and Lonsdale (majority: 267) David Heath - Justice spokesman and MP for… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 5 Mar 2008 3:36 PM. Permalink

All change please

Blair better than Brown - fact!

Finally, statistical proof that we loved Tony more than Gordon, in the form of page view stats for the Number 10 website. February 2007 page views (PM: T Blair) were 22.7 million from 5 million visits. February 2008 page views (PM: G Brown) were 4.5 million from 1.5 million visits.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 5 Mar 2008 3:04 PM. There are 2 comments so far. Permalink

News from the United Federation of Muesli Knitters

LibDem resignation

Martin Crick has "hear" that the LibDem meltdown has begun: I hear that Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg has already accepted one resignation from a front bench member over the issue of holding a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 5 Mar 2008 2:59 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Pollard on the Eurostar

Stephen Pollard's had a bad experience with a mouthy civil servant on the Eurostar: It's not clever to speak loudly about Gordon, Alistair and Yvette wanting something, arguing about something else and then agreeing to it because you persuaded them. The rest of the carriage weren't impressed by you. In… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 5 Mar 2008 2:58 PM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Gilligan for Mayor

Not much new stuff in John Harris' interview with Livingstone in the Ken Guardian this morning, but we did enjoy this little vignette featuring Andrew Gilligan: When I call Gilligan, he's at home, with the News blaring from a TV set in the background, presumably luxuriating in the fact that… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 5 Mar 2008 8:30 AM. Permalink

All change please

Why quit?

So, the Boris Standard has done for Jasper. Jasper has resigned, but he and his correspondent have said this: Today both Mr Jasper, 49, a married father of nine, and Mrs Chouhan denied any impropriety. She said the emails were "banter" and that they had not been sexually involved. So… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 8:39 PM. Permalink

Department for Waiting Lists

NHS stats to beat you with

Uh-oh. The BBC's actually done some decent reporting for a change, and has unearthed the fact that average waits on the NHS have gone UP under Labour, not down: Before Labour came to power in 1997 waits of more than 18 months were not uncommon, but now no-one waits longer… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 10:47 AM. Permalink

Department for the Tyburn Jig

Ziggy played in bars

Absolute top marks to the Telegraph Red Box team for digging up some dirt on the absurdly named Ziggy Macdonald, the Home Office's head of alcohol and anti-social behaviour (is that really his title?). The Telegraph boys have been keeping an eye on Ziggy's Friends Reunited profile: The Daily Telegraph… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 8:18 AM. Permalink

All change please

Ken cancels press conference

BoJo's transport strategy launch yesterday was competent if unimaginative. And over the weekend betting shifted strongly, to make BoJo odds-on favourite. And now Dave Hill says Ken's cancelled his regular press conference today. If we were a newspaper, we'd be claiming that adds up to trouble.… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 8:07 AM. Permalink

Ministry For Assigning Blame

Fines! Enforcement! Results! (not)

It looks like the Supermarkets, aka The Evil Overlords, have lobbied hard against being made the scapegoats for Pissed-Up Britain, because they seem to have been excluded from measures to stop us descending into an alcoholic pit of despaire: But there will not be any announcements today of action to… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:40 AM. Permalink

Department for the Tyburn Jig

I don't want to go to Islington

Blimey, we thought Islington was a desirable postcode. Not according to Labour MP Emily Thornberry, who reckons every child and teenager in the area has been mugged at least once: The MP for Islington South and Finsbury said: "I suspect there are hardly any children in Islington who have not… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:28 AM. Permalink

Department of Doublespeak

It was 14 years ago today

William Hague doesn't have a blog, but John Redwood does. So it's interesting that Redwood hasn't seen fit to comment on a recent revolts.co.uk paper which points out that both he and Hague voted against a referendum on the Maastricht Treaty in 1993. Redwood's posted recently in praise of the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:24 AM. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

Brownz brandz

Matthew d'Ancona says there'll be a new boy in the Brown team from today, when David Muir is appointed as Director of Political Strategy. The appointment's interesting because of Muir's background - for the last decade or so he's been a big noise at Martin Sorrell's WPP advertising giant. He's… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:17 AM. Permalink

Good Vibrations Dept.

Onion editors organise march

It's tough for pig farmers at the moment, but at least their march on London today is making it easy for headline writers. : Hundreds of farmers are to hold a demonstration at Westminster to protest at the falling price of pork. Farmers' leaders say the industry is in "meltdown",… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:08 AM. Permalink

Onion editors organise march

It's tough for pig farmers at the moment, but at least their march on London today is making it easy for headline writers. : Hundreds of farmers are to hold a demonstration at Westminster to protest at the falling price of pork. Farmers' leaders say the industry is in "meltdown",… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 4 Mar 2008 7:06 AM. Permalink

News from the United Federation of Muesli Knitters

Cleggy risking a lot

James Kirkup has written up Nick Clegg's Lisbon Treaty lobby briefing from earlier today, and the LibDem leader ain't budging: Yes, he's put his MPs on a three line whip not to vote at all when the Commons decides on a Tory bid for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty. … read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 3 Mar 2008 2:30 PM. Permalink

News From The Big Tent

Brown gave a conference, nobody came

Is indifference a good thing or a bad thing for Gordon Brown at this stage of the electoral cycle? We ask because two media strongholds which could be expected to be interested in the fact that the governing party held a conference over the weekend - the lefty Guardian, and… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 3 Mar 2008 8:24 AM. Permalink

Meedja on the Insanity Pills

Nelson's unlikely column

Most of the time, it's impossible to dislike Fraser Nelson. So this morning, we're a little worried about him, because he's clearly gone mad. He's arguing that David Cameron is like Barack Obama: Consider the Obama-esque language. Obama’s slogan is “bringing about real change in Washington”. Not just change the… read more…

Written by Lloyd Shepherd on 3 Mar 2008 8:18 AM. Permalink

March 2008 Archives