Tag: “George Osborne”

One of the most debilitating aspects of divisions in government is the emotional energy they absorb. Whilst I can and regularly do make the case that between them Tony Blair and Gordon Brown achieved a huge amount together, and whilst I can equally make the case that when Peter Mandelson and I were working together [...]

I think enough has probably already been said and written about David Cameron’s latest Flashman moment, though I’m sure Michael Winner was dead chuffed to be trending on twitter alongside the Labour MP to whom the PM directed his ‘calm down dear’ jibe. Have to confess I didn’t realise this was a Winnerism. It was [...]

Such is the negative prism through which Nick Clegg is now seen that people are highly suspicious about his sudden pre-local elections, pre-AV referendum attacks upon David Cameron. It is all a bit too neat after all the chummy-chummy cosiness that is one of the reasons he has gone from hero to zero in the [...]

Another fabulous day weather wise, spent so far sorting out a contract on an overseas speaking engagement; doing an interview with Andy Gray and Richard Keys on their new Talksport show; recording the voice over for a little film on Ian Botham’s charity exploits at Leukaemia and Lymphoma Research; going for a painfully slow run [...]

I have read in several places in recent days that David Cameron is ‘under mounting pressure’ to conduct a Cabinet reshuffle. ‘Under mounting pressure’ is one of the many dozens of phrases which rarely emerge from the mouths of real people, but regularly appear in print. Real people tend to speak of ‘pressure’ or, if [...]

As health secretary Andrew Lansley stumbles through one of the most humiliating weeks of his career, at least his Cabinet colleague Caroline Spelman can boast her own little place in history as a result. The environment secretary is the first member of the coalition Cabinet to have become a verb … as in ‘Lansley’s just [...]

Martin Sorrell’s announcement that he will bring his WPP HQ back to the UK was a dramatic and welcome coup … for Martin Sorrell. To get to the top of the news was evidence of a nifty spin team, and the lack of an obvious ‘Budget Day +1′ talking point to get the chatterati going. [...]

Come on, be fair, it is ages since I did a blog on football. There is only so much I can say about David Cameron’s muddled foreign policy, his failure to explain the Big Society, or the ideological drive behind the cuts, which takes George Osborne into The Guardian today, rather defensively peddling a variation [...]

I got back from Leicester in time to catch a bit of Question Time and was interested to see that the audience seemed mildly supportive of the government’s U-turn on the sell-off of forests. It was a very different reaction to the one I got at De Montfort University, where students seemed to go along [...]

The Tories have had a very good run with their ‘it’s all Labour’s fault’, but it is slowly coming to an end. With the public, or at least the centre of gravity of public opinion, I think it came to an end some time ago. The media are following on behind. It was a great [...]