Author: |Posted: 7:34 pm on 08/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
Very brief mention of Europe in Cameron’s speech but here’s what we’ve learnt this week.
The Poles named the day for signing the Lisbon Treaty today, the Czech prime minister said yesterday that the Czech signature would go down before Christmas.
The day is fast approaching when David Cameron will have to tell his party that the referendum here is cancelled. This week, comment sections in the Daily Mail and The Sun gave him the go-ahead to do just that. Most in his party will give him the credit to do that too. read more
Author: |Posted: 3:18 pm on 08/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
Livening up a bit now – they love the stuff about don’t you dare lecture us on poverty, Labour. But I still think, just on the atmospherics, this is a little bit flat. Partly the hall – very difficult to play as others have found all week, and no match for Birmingham Symphony Hall last year – partly intentional, partly the nature of the man.
Author: |Posted: 3:09 pm on 08/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
All pretty low key in hall for a leader potentially on edge of power. Doubt Thatcher in 78 was like this – though bits of the message are similar (talk of enterprise and entrepreneurs etc).
I know Tony Blair in 1996 was nothing like this. If the intention was to look workmanlike and not euphoric/presumptuous maybe it works .. With one or two exceptions he doesn’t go for Brown. That’ll be different in the Commons next week.
Author: |Posted: 12:12 pm on 08/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
David Cameron on Webcameron says this speech has got to answer the public’s questions: “Why us? Why now? Why me?”
They seem to be relatively happy with the “me” bit… it’s the “us” that remains a dragging anchor on the Tory polling.
A senior Tory strategist was explaining to me that he is convinced that the party has stuck at 40-something not 50-something in the polls because of the Tory brand drag.
The public seems to like David Cameron but still thinks the Tories haven’t changed. read more
Author: |Posted: 5:00 pm on 07/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
There have been few hiccups at this conference. The least important is probably David Cameron quaffing champagne, caught on camera (you can see below how The Mirror tried to pull a champagne stunt on the shadow chancellor this morning by serving him a breakfast glass of fizz while he was giving an interview).
The leadership would probably regard the Boris Johnson escapade on Monday as the worst hiccup – the Mayor of London challenging the emerging leadership line that there will not be a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty if it has been ratified and throwing in a few other off-message grenades before disappearing back to London.
I wonder though if we have just seen the worst one. read more
Author: |Posted: 1:26 pm on 07/10/09
Category: Snowblog
I’ve just done a ’sit down’ with David Cameron, and met his wife too – tall, elegant, very personable.
We all met on the 23rd floor of the Hilton here in Manchester, an eerily deserted place with splendid views across the jumble that is Manchester and the sun kissed Pennines beyond.
Talked with Cameron for tonight’s Channel 4 News and he talked austerity. I wondered how scrapping inheritance tax for the rich fitted with “we are all in this together” in paying off the debt? read more
Author: |Posted: 11:14 am on 07/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
The Tories have revealed they’ve made a profit of nearly £1.5m at this conference, mainly flogging stall space to corporate Britain. And corporate Britain is using its time wisely here.
A great chunk of it is trying to bend shadow ministers’ ears telling them how the private sector can help with the deficit reduction. read more
Author: |Posted: 7:49 pm on 06/10/09
Category: Faisal Islam on Economics
Robert Chote was arguably the most dangerous man here at the Conservative Party conference. He was working through George Osborne’s speech at a fringe meeting alongside some journalists when his mobile rang. It was one of Mr Osborne’s lieutenants.
When a shadow chancellor is trying to prove his credibility and judgement to the nation, it’s no surprise that the chief of the fiscal watchdog the IFS, is directly lobbied by Tory hierarchy.
The £13bn number for the move to raise in the state pension age to 66 is in Mr Chote’s view ‘debatable’. read more
Author: |Posted: 5:37 pm on 06/10/09
Category: Gary Gibbon on Politics
So who will pay for the mainly male bankers’ catastrophic errors? The women.
The public sector pay freeze, the biggest contributor to the government money chest announced by George Osborne today, hits women considerably more than men.
The public sector employment profile is about 75 per cent female. Something like 80 per cent of NHS staff are women, 70 per cent of teaching staff. read more
Author: |Posted: 12:51 pm on 06/10/09
Category: Snowblog
There is so little wiggle room.
Nothing so defines the current political contest as the contesting measures that have finally aired from both major parties for paying off the debt.
A pay freeze on higher public sector pay and and delay in the national age of retirement.
It doesn’t really matter now who says it because both measures will be deployed whoever wins the next election.
