Gordon Brown hasn't been having an easy time of late - he's had to put with up talk of an economic meltdown, persistent lagging in the opinion polls and all sorts of general indications that he might not be all that popular. And now it looks like his own… read more…

Here comes the A Team. According to Times, Hannibal Brown is going to push some talented people into the spotlight: Mr Purnell, 37, Ed Balls, 40, his wife Yvette Cooper, 37, Mr Burnham 38, David Miliband 42, his brother Ed, 37, Ruth Kelly 39, and Douglas Alexander, 40, will be… read more…

We at Westmonster don't want to add to the media frenzy around party funding, added to over the weekend by revelations about Alan Johnson. All we will say on the matter is that this is a result of the law of unintended consequences, and the best thing for all concerned… read more…

BONG! Three new "super-size" gaols to be built. Either because we're all getting fatter or the Government plans on banging more people up. One of the two. BONG! The consensus appears to be that the Gord just about pulled ahead of the Boy Cameron in PMQs. Really? Westmonster thought Davy… read more…

Good morning, folks. As you are aware - great excitement - today is the day when a game old bird in lots of twinklers delivers a speech written for her by someone else whilst some bloke with a big rod (arf!) bangs on the door of the Commons. Ah, modernity, eh?… read more…

Polling horror alert! Today's ComRes poll for the Independent has Dave on eight points ahead of the Gord on 41, and the Liberals up one on 16. Analysis from the UK Pollling Report here. The Guardian gets hot under the collar at the visit of Saudi leader King Abdullah,… read more…

Westmonster provided live coverage of David Cameron's speech to the Conservative Party Conference in Blackpool. The transcript appears below. Westmonster would especially like to note that she called the Jimmy Cliff song more than 3 minutes before it came over the loudspeakers, and wasn't just reporting it had already happened.… read more…

Bad news for the Tories today as they wend their weary way up to Blackpool for their annual Conference: a YouGov poll for the Telegraph shows that Brown is maintaining his 11 point lead over Cameron. Still, as the front page splash was placed next to a picture of… read more…

BONG! In the unlikely event that Westmonster ever gets invited to a photoshoot, the words "PhotoShop me up, baby" will be very much in evidence. Poor James Purnell MP, however has learnt the bitter lesson that such technological wizardry should be left to the professionals. BONG! Shrumgate, in all… read more…

The assembled masses who had battled with the hangover to attend the Question and Answer session with Hazel Blears, Harriet "I Am A Woman" Harman, and James Purnell were treated to a debacle that would have had David Dimbleby wincing. For starters, whether Keith Vaz, who was chairing the… read more…