Tag: “Gordon Brown”

So GB trounced Cameron at PMQs yesterday. That was the word used by my taxi driver, who had been listening on Five Live, and by plenty of others who texted, called and variously communicated the view that GB had been on form and DC on the floor. I subsequently watched it myself – don’t you [...]

A couple of weeks ago, a French magazine asked me to write a piece about the relationship between Presidents Obama and Sarkozy. We might like to think that politics and diplomacy is all about issues, policies, ideals, and there is a fair bit of that. But there is no point pretending personalities do not come [...]

The economy is always fundamental to any election, and the debates upon it therefore central to the choice faced by voters. So yesterday, with all three main party leaders speaking to the CBI, was a useful and surely newsworthy opportunity for the leaders to set out their stalls, and for the public get a chance [...]

Having taken a potshot at David Cameron for hiring a personal photographer, I suppose I ought to be pleased that this has landed him in a spot of bother. But I’m afraid I cannot get wound up over the complaint by Westminster Abbey that Cameron and Gordon Brown had their pictures taken without permission in [...]

In my newspaper reporting days on The Mirror, one of the worst calls to make was the one to the news desk saying ‘The Sun’s got the mum.’ The situation might be a court case, a serious crime, a have-a-go-hero rescue, or a human  interest story which suddenly flared up out of nowhere and captured [...]

Sorry – ok, no I’m not – to return to the day I got a call from the Telegraph asking for a quote on a poll showing Labour 37 points ahead. But let’s try to be inside the head of David Cameron. Let’s reflect on the fact that we are in recession, with unemployment up [...]

Gordon Brown is right today to be setting out – and he should keep setting out – the basic case for Britain’s involvement in Afghanistan. As Paddy Ashdown said yesterday, this war will not be won or lost militarily, but in the bars, sitting rooms and workplaces of those countries – democracies – who are contributing [...]

I really hope this is my last word on Biscuitgate. But with yet another Times leader on the subject today (admittedly in the context of their criticism of GB for slow congratulations of gymnast Beth Tweddle for her gold medal) I thought you might be interested in this fact. The Prime Minister was not actually [...]

How long before ‘Biscuitgate’ pops up in the ongoing saga of Gordon Brown and his choice of favourite biscuit? Oh, it just did. Richard Nixon, you who opened our politics to the Daddy of the Gates, the Water-one, you have a lot to answer for. Biscuitgate is real ‘can’t win territory’ for GB, as I learned at the [...]

Gordon Brown did well on the Andrew Marr programme this morning, in difficult circumstances. He was at his best when showing the kind of fighting spirit that Labour supporters hope will define the week ahead. He had something serious and substantial to say about government action to deal with the banking bonus culture. He was [...]