Tag: “David Cameron”

Not speaking a word of Mandarin, I find it hard to work out exactly how hacked off Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao was with David Cameron’s stance on human rights yesterday. ‘Finger-pointing’ is certainly not an everyday diplomatic word, but I just have to think of the foreign languages I do know to realise how difficult [...]

I was surprised there were no ministers at the Local Government Awards organised by the Municipal Journal last night. It was one of those events at which, if memory serves me right, Labour always tried to ensure a ministerial presence. But I didn’t have to be there for long to pick up the feeling from [...]

Why did it have to be Piers Morgan who spotted the spelling error – I am OBSESSED about spelling – in my tweet from a school in Harrow? No, not that school in Harrow, but St Gregory’s Catholic Science College, a comprehensive not far from the well-known public school. Piers was quick to point out [...]

Like many mental health campaigners, I gave Nick Clegg the benefit of the doubt when he outlined the government’s strategy for mental health in February. To save you reading the whole thing, here is the last sentence of the piece I posted then … ‘This has never been the sexiest or easiest issue in the [...]

It is always wise to be a little suspicious of stories which emerge from private sector surveys, particularly if designed as what journalists in the pre no-deadline online age used to call a ‘Sunday for Monday’. These were stories which a reporter could tuck away late on Friday afternoon, leaving him safe in the knowledge [...]

The noise surrounding it would suggest George Osborne made an important speech last night. Northern Rock sell-off and banking reform seemed to take most of the coverage, big ticket items both. So for once I was keen to see the news and hoped to hear a little of what the Chancellor said. To be fair [...]

By far the most significant UK political event yesterday was the speech by outgoing US Defence Secretary Robert Gates. His warning to European allies that they risked military irrelevance, and that the US could not perpetually be relied upon to fund European security was blunt and timely. Of the many surprises about the way the [...]

There was a fascinating discussion on Newsnight of the latest twist in the tale of David Cameron and the NHS last night. On one side of Jeremy Paxman sat Nick Clegg’s chief of staff, Norman Lamb, and a Tory MP I had never seen before but who was clearly on the right of his Party. [...]

I claim no special insight into, or influence over, George Osborne. It was interesting however to note that within a day or two of my suggesting here that he needed to step up the communication of his economic Plan A, our relatively low profile Chancellor went on what by his standards may be termed a [...]

It is somewhat unfortunate for Andrew Lansley that the legislation on which his reputation and legacy will depend is called the Health and Social Care Bill. Up till recently, it was the health part of the equation that was causing the Health Secretary difficulty, and which led to the intriguing new constitutional development known as [...]