Tag: “David Cameron”

In Lord Leveson’s introduction to his report, in the very first paragraph, he states that his work ‘carries with it authority provided personally by the Prime Minister.’ He must have been a little shocked when the PM withdrew that authority as soon as he spoke in the Commons, when he rejected the main proposals for [...]

It is not often that I give over this space to a Tory MP, let alone one who was closely involved in David Cameron’s failed efforts to secure a Parliamentary majority. However, as the bulk of the press seeks to shape the pre-Leveson debate in a way that suits their own political and commercial interests, [...]

Quite a few journalists at last night’s Portland Communications pub quiz, and one or two of them asking me what I thought of the Tories’ planned hiring of Australian consultant Lynton Crosby. The general feeling seemed to be that it was a good move and would benefit the Tories as they seek their first general [...]

As I predicted on Sunday, Michael Heseltine’s response to the silly briefing against him by Osborne and Co has been to crank up rather than wind down his interventionist ideas to get growth going. Still able to command attention when he wants, his report ranges far and wide, covering transport, energy, planning, regional development, skills, [...]

Ed Miliband’s speech on mental health today is a significant – and good – moment in the campaign to improve understanding and treatment of mental illness in Britain. It is perhaps particulalry significant that this is his first major policy speech since he launched the theme of One Nation Labour at the party conference a [...]

Michael Heseltine will be sitting with a cup of coffee at his country pile, thinking about when to take a tour of his fabulous gardens, whilst flicking through the Sunday papers, a ritual through the many decades of his business and political career. It is likely to please him that he is in them, still [...]

Interesting morning in a series of meetings covering variously alcohol abuse, Page 3 girls (and the campaign to get The Sun to drop them and so catch up with the modern world), banks and their diversity policies and various specifications to do with a new bike. Forgive me if for now I focus on the [...]

The reason we ended up with a coalition government is that the public did not want Labour back for a fourth term but they did not want the old Tory Party back either. So they chucked in the Lib Dems and said ‘you lot sort it out.’ Analysed coldly, David Cameron should have won the [...]

For the third time, I failed to persuade Chris Mullin, who would be brilliant if he embraced it, to join Twitter last night. As fellow diarists of the New Labour era, we seem to have become a fairly regular double act and this time he was interviewing me at Chatham House about the influence of [...]

You might remember that a week ago, following George Osborne’s ludicrous statement that Tony Blair ‘achieved nothing’ in ten years in power, I reeled off some of the facts that negated his view. I also noted that so far, there was little by comparison that the Cameron government could put down as historically equivalent to [...]