Andrew Grice uses his column in today's Independent to report on the background to the "outbreak of the jitters" going on inside the party. It comes after a series of opinion polls saw the Tory lead reduced to single figures (something which Tim considered here a couple of weeks ago). Grice points to a number […]
Key quotes from this morning's Times leader: "Clearly David Cameron is not making a convincing case. The central charge against him is that, while he is approachable and likeable, his aims and values as a future prime minister of this country are still unclear. David Cameron has yet to answer a basic question: what does […]
Brown cuts taxes… Osborne doesn’t find room for serious tax cuts… Infighting breaks out inside Tory Party… Lots of interest rate cuts… Caroline Spelman forced to resign over nannygate… Barack meets Brown… Then narrow Labour election win early next year… That’s the theory of Robert Winnett over at The Telegraph (or as Guido would have […]
David Cameron, Leader of the Conservative Party: "In electing Barack Obama, America has made history and proved to the world that it is a nation eager for change. This has been an exciting and inspirational contest with two great candidates. In these difficult times people everywhere are crying out for change. Barack Obama is the […]
Throughout the evening we’ll be recording the broadcast media’s reaction to David Cameron’s speech. We’ll be watching: 6pm: BBC1’s Six’o’clock news 6.30pm: ITN News 7pm: Channel 4 News 10pm: BBC1’s Ten’o’clock news 10.30pm: Newsnight BBC1 SIX’O’CLOCK NEWS: Lead item: Cameron is a man with a plan. Eleven minute package that ended at 6.11pm. Main report […]
Highlights, not verbatim: 4.03pm: Final words: "Better times will lie ahead" 4.02pm: We don’t promise new dawns. I’m a man with a plan not a miracle cure. I’ll stick to my guns and not bottle it when times get tough. Leadership, judgment, character are what Britain needs. These are tough times but I’m optimistic because […]
These key extracts from David Cameron’s speech has been pre-released: “If we win, we will inherit a huge deficit and an economy in a mess. We will need to do difficult and unpopular things for the long term good of the country. I know that. I’m ready for that." "There is a big argument I […]
On Andrew Marr’s Sunday programme David Cameron discussed the Conservative commitment to establish a new Office of Budget Responsibility. The Tory leader said that the taxpayer-funded Office would regularly produce an independent assessment of progress towards a balanced budget. It would be very politically difficult for a Conservative Government to ignore the Office’s assessments about […]
Direct Democracy will tomorrow launch its third major publication, written by Douglas Carswell MP and Daniel Hannan MEP. The Plan: 12 months to renew Britain sets out a legislative programme that the authors believe would take a single session of Parliament, accounting for recesses, but change Britain for ever. The original Direct Democracy publication, subtitled […]
The two newspapers that really count in Britain are The Guardian and The Daily Mail (…discuss!). The Guardian is the newspaper of the ideas class (notably the BBC). The Mail represents the roar of middle England. The Mail came close to endorsing David Cameron a few weeks ago. The Guardian, last week, more or less […]
David Cameron spoke to CCHQ staff this morning. WebCameron have recorded some of his remarks… His key messages: The Conservative Party knows that it hasn’t sealed the deal until election day. The party must keep its feet firmly on the ground and focus on the problems of the country. Labour is in a shambles.
We’ve discussed Michael Gove’s remarks about Nuts and Zoo but there’s much more to this morning’s speech to the IPPR. It’s an explanation of David Cameron’s Conservatism that sees the quality of relationships as essential to progress in education and the relief of poverty. It’s a statement of the superiority of people-sized institutions – like […]
As we did for Mike Gerson, ConservativeHome recently arranged a three day visit to the UK for Fred Barnes, Executive Editor of America’s Weekly Standard. Our programme for Fred involved about fifteen meetings, including with George Osborne, Michael Gove and Iain Duncan Smith (politicians); Martin Bright, Janet Daley and Daniel Finkelstein (commentators); plus Andrew Cooper, […]
Highlights, not verbatim, from David Cameron’s remarks on this morning’s Andrew Marr programme: Knife crime: Getting caught on the streets with a knife and only getting a caution sends the "most appalling signal". Prisons: Conservatives would start building prisons as soon as we came to office – paid for by scrapping the ID cards scheme […]
Peter Oborne writes about the big Tory turnaround in today’s Daily Mail. He believes that Cameron has made major changes in order to transform his opinion poll ratings of last year. Here are some of Oborne’s ‘evidences’ with our comments in italics afterwards: Grammar schools: "A year ago, Cameron’s leadership had just been brought to […]