Image from Tory campaign stunt at Battersea Power Station. George Osborne has written for The Telegraph today and has warned that "2010 will be the year when the world's focus shifts from the debts in our banks to the enormous debts being run up by governments". He notes that rating agencies have downgraded Greece and […]
The case of Munir Hussain has shocked the nation this last week and brought fresh attention to the fears of law-abiding householders that the law appears to be on the intruders' side when they confront those intruders. Mr Hussain was found guilty of causing grievous bodily harm with intent, after he beat one of the […]
Shadow Chancellor George Osborne is tonight challenging Alistair Darling to come clean over the full extent of the nation's debt. It comes after he appeared before the Treasury Select Committee and also refused to reveal official projections for total Departmental Expenditure Limits. As the Daily Mail reports: "Alistair Darling has been accused of covering up […]
A Tory poster from last year. Labour's fightback strategy becomes clearer by the day. We already have seen Team Brown throw the kitchen sink at us for sticking with our inheritance tax pledge. Policy Exchange's Neil O'Brien recommended that the party drop the pledge to neutralise the 'Tories-are-friends-of-the-rich' message. I was minded to agree with […]
Speaking on Andrew Marr this morning, Boris Johnson said that he doubted that Alistair Darling's supertax on bankers' bonuses could work without "super-penalising London". The Mayor of London said that he shared anger at the idea of taxpayer-funded bonuses but that any attempt to tax these bonuses should have been agreed internationally. He began his […]
David Cameron has today launched one of his most hard-hitting attacks yet on the Government, comparing Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling and their handling of the economy to joy-riders "smashing up the neighbourhood". Speaking to activists at CCHQ, he asserted that Labour have now "lost all right to govern" in the wake of the Pre-Budget […]
Last night we noted the new poster the party has unveiled, depicting the PBR as an attack on anyone earning over £20,000. This morning George Osborne has gone on the offensive on two fronts. Firstly, he is suggesting that while the Government is talking about protecting NHS spending, we will actually see a real cut […]
George Osborne got it right. This was the pre-election report of a government ducking the hard choices. Over the next six years the British state will borrow £789bn. The national debt will treble. We heard nothing from Labour on how they will deal with this national crisis. Despite falling prices the Chancellor promised pensioners a […]
Highlights, not verbatim: Labour has ducked the big choices. They won't tell people how they'll balance the books before the election. The greatest golden rule is that you can never trust a Labour government with the economy. Britain is borrowing £178bn this year. The national debt has quadrupled under Labour. It is £23,000 for every […]
Highlights, not verbatim: 1.18pm: The choice for Britain is between continuing recovery and wrecking recovery. 1.17pm: Guaranteed real increases in NHS and schools for two years plus protection of frontline policing to be funded by a 0.5% increase in National Insurance contributions for those earning more than £20K. 1.16pm: 0.7% target for aid spending by […]
If the Jedward poster was juvenile this CCHQ stunt deserves top marks:
Further to my earlier report on George Osborne’s plans to introduce financial incentives for civil servants to save money, the shadow Treasury team and Francis Maude have just launched plans to "stop the Whitehall spending supertanker". David Cameron was present at the launch but didn’t speak. In addition to plans to introduce a fiduciary reponsibility […]
The Telegraph and Daily Mail report that the next Conservative government will "rewrite civil service contracts to include a new legally-binding "fiduciary responsibility to taxpayers"." Civil servants who are "judged to have failed to spend public money prudently will be disciplined or dismissed." ConservativeHome welcomes this incentive-based approach to cost-reduction. It is hard for an […]
Shadow Health Secretary Andrew Lansley has rightly leapt on a remark made by Alan Johnson on this morning’s Today programme. Health Secretary Mr Johnson was asked: "Do you not have any doubts you have a millions pounds and you could have spent it on drugs, you could have spent it on treatments but instead you […]
On Coffee House yesterday Fraser Nelson was marvelling at the size of Barack’s. Much bigger than Gordon’s. Even Angela Merkel now has one. So, too, does Stephen Harper. Almost every politician of left and right is keen to show off the size of their fiscal stimulus. Standing aside from the herd is Britain’s Conservative Party. […]