Wednesday, February 25, 2015
By James Forsyth for The Mail on Sunday
Published: 00:01 GMT, 1 February 2015 | Updated: 01:58 GMT, 1 February 2015
Under fire: Labour's Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall, whose supposed leadership bid has been dubbed 'The Blair Witch Project'
David Cameron has been telling colleagues that the Tory and Labour Election campaigns are uncannily similar in one regard. Both focus on one main issue: Labour on the NHS, the Tories on their long-term economic plan.
But, Cameron continued, there is a crucial difference. The Tories have evidence to back up their claims: Britain grew faster than any other major economy in 2014, while Labour has nothing to support Andy Burnham’s constant refrain that the Tories want to privatise the NHS.
Not only are the Shadow Health Secretary’s claims misleading in the extreme, they have backfired spectacularly. Labour’s launch of its NHS plans last week was drowned out by the criticism of Burnham by senior figures from the party’s Blairite past.
And it’s not working with the public either. As Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt delighted in telling Tory MPs in a private meeting on Wednesday night, the week in which Labour launched its most cherished manifesto pledge was the one in which the Tories took the lead in the polls.
Labour MPs are downcast. They worry the party’s message is too negative: One Shadow Cabinet member frets that Labour is offering voters nothing more than a ‘mantra of misery’ about their lives.
What worries Labour figures most, though, is that too many people in the party have already started thinking about the leadership contest that would follow a defeat. One frontbencher calculates that the focus of ‘half the party is on what happens next’, miserably adding: ‘We’ve started plotting more than the Tories.’
One target of this plotting is the impressive Liz Kendall, the Shadow Care Minister.
Her crimes are twofold. One: She had the temerity to declare her belief in the Blairite mantra that ‘what matters is what works’. Two: The subsequent speculation that she could be the next Labour leader has angered the party’s dinosaurs who, in a demonstration of the misogyny that still exists at Westminster, have labelled her supposed leadership bid ‘The Blair Witch Project’. But the more clear-headed see that Kendall is simply trying to walk the tightrope of being loyal to Ed Miliband while making the case for a Labour reform agenda.
There are three months to go to polling day and the electoral boundaries still give Miliband a considerable advantage. And he is also often at his best when the situation appears worst for him.
But if he has many more weeks like the last one, Labour is heading for defeat.
Frontbenchers fear that the focus of more than half of MPs is on a leadership election following a Miliband Election loss in May
Labour has pledged it won’t put David Cameron’s face on any of its Election billboards. This, the party says, is proof it will run a positive campaign – in contrast to the Tories, who have already mocked up posters of Ed Miliband standing outside No 10 with Alex Salmond and Gerry Adams.
The Miliband posters – particularly the addition of the Sinn Fein leader – have deeply riled Labour. But they are also an indicator of an increasingly important Election battleground: What happens in the event of a hung Parliament.
The Tories want to argue that the choice on polling day is between the stability they offer and the chaos and confusion that any other result would create.
Conservative posters placing Ed Miliband alongside Alex Salmond and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams have raised the issue of what happens in the event of a hung Parliament
Up until last week, the Tories had refused to engage with the hung Parliament issue. But on Friday, party chairman Grant Shapps explicitly ruled out any deal with Ukip.
Some influential Tories think the party should go further and kill off any notion of a coalition with the Greens at every opportunity.
It’s a sneaky move: a Greens deal would never be on the cards, but the Tories are happy to give Natalie Bennett’s party publicity. The more the Greens are talked about, the more votes they gain at Labour’s expense.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister and leading Tory moderniser, is to stand down as an MP.
Maude is in charge of the Coalition’s attempt to reduce the cost of Government business. His efficiency drive helped save £14.3billion in the last financial year.
George Osborne’s plan to balance the books involves making more than £15billion extra of these savings in the next Parliament. For this reason, senior Tories expect that if the party wins the Election, Maude will go to the House of Lords, where he could continue his Government work.
Maude, 61, was first elected to the Commons in 1983. He has been the MP for Horsham since 1997 and his decision to stand down opens up a plum Tory seat.
Expect to find many ambitious Tories heading down to West Sussex.
Parliament will be the subject of a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary this week. On Wednesday night, many of the MPs who feature in it – including Chief Whip Michael Gove and the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, Gavin Williamson – filed into a screening at One Birdcage Walk.
Fortified by a drinks reception beforehand, they sat down to watch the first episode with documentary-maker Michael Cockerell and many of the crew who worked on it. It starts by following two new MPs – Tory Charlotte Leslie and Labour’s Sarah Champion – as they adjust to life in the Commons.
There was, I’m told, a rather awkward moment as Leslie appeared on the screen explaining how she decided when to rebel against the Government.
Tory MPs Charlotte Leslie and Andrew Percy were both involved in embarrassing moments in a BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary about life inside the Houses of Parliament
Several of those present tried to see how Gove, the man in charge of Tory parliamentary discipline, reacted to this. But his expression was inscrutable.
One notable absentee from the screening was Tory MP Andrew Percy.
He, in a moment that had several MPs putting their heads in their hands, is shown in the documentary brandishing at the camera the list of questions that Tory MPs had been asked to put to David Cameron at PMQs.
With the last two episodes of the documentary still being edited, one of the MPs present reports that they were all on their best behaviour. The hope was that this might help keep out any unflattering footage. But few will sit comfortably on the green benches until this series is over.
‘It is so unacceptable to offer deep condolences for a man who flogged women, didn’t let them drive and starved them. I have been ashamed to be a Conservative today.’
Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, after David Cameron joined tributes to the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
‘The sermons I grew up with effectively said: “Wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if we were all nicer?” That’s the kind of moral claptrap Jesus does not permit us to accept.’
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says faith is more than bland platitudes.
‘It was a miniature nuclear attack on the streets of London.’
Robin Tam QC to an inquiry into the murder of spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium.
‘The Archers must not be EastEnders in a field.’
BBC head Lord Hall, is confronted with complaints about racy storylines in Ambridge.
‘Now I know why they named this storm “Juno”. Everyone’s asking: “Hey, Ju-know where the snow is?”’
An irate New Yorker, after the city was locked down for a monstrous snowstorm that never came.
‘The one creature that makes my jaw sag, so much so I can hardly stop looking at it, is a nine-month-old human baby.’
Naturalist David Attenborough, picks his most fascinating animal.
‘I’ve heard if you earn minimum wage in England, you’re in the top 10 per cent in the world. #stay #humble’
Millionaire cricketer Stuart Broad, elicits predictable outrage on Twitter.
‘I use cucumber eye gel, pomegranate lip balm, avocado moisturiser, grapefruit soap and lemon and lime shampoo. Would they do for my five a day?’
A reader’s letter to the Glasgow Herald actually comes to six fruit and veg a day.
‘My dad fancied her and nicked her name. But my mum went to register my birth and spelled “ei” instead of “ie” because she’s c**p at spelling.’
Keira Knightley reveals she was misnamed after Russian ice skater Kiera Ivanov.
window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-' + 'row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'wide'}); _taboola.push({flush:true}); var rcShoutCache = '{}'; window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush:true});
Published: 00:01 GMT, 1 February 2015 | Updated: 01:58 GMT, 1 February 2015
Under fire: Labour's Shadow Care Minister Liz Kendall, whose supposed leadership bid has been dubbed 'The Blair Witch Project'David Cameron has been telling colleagues that the Tory and Labour Election campaigns are uncannily similar in one regard. Both focus on one main issue: Labour on the NHS, the Tories on their long-term economic plan.
But, Cameron continued, there is a crucial difference. The Tories have evidence to back up their claims: Britain grew faster than any other major economy in 2014, while Labour has nothing to support Andy Burnham’s constant refrain that the Tories want to privatise the NHS.
Not only are the Shadow Health Secretary’s claims misleading in the extreme, they have backfired spectacularly. Labour’s launch of its NHS plans last week was drowned out by the criticism of Burnham by senior figures from the party’s Blairite past.
And it’s not working with the public either. As Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt delighted in telling Tory MPs in a private meeting on Wednesday night, the week in which Labour launched its most cherished manifesto pledge was the one in which the Tories took the lead in the polls.
Labour MPs are downcast. They worry the party’s message is too negative: One Shadow Cabinet member frets that Labour is offering voters nothing more than a ‘mantra of misery’ about their lives.
What worries Labour figures most, though, is that too many people in the party have already started thinking about the leadership contest that would follow a defeat. One frontbencher calculates that the focus of ‘half the party is on what happens next’, miserably adding: ‘We’ve started plotting more than the Tories.’
One target of this plotting is the impressive Liz Kendall, the Shadow Care Minister.
Her crimes are twofold. One: She had the temerity to declare her belief in the Blairite mantra that ‘what matters is what works’. Two: The subsequent speculation that she could be the next Labour leader has angered the party’s dinosaurs who, in a demonstration of the misogyny that still exists at Westminster, have labelled her supposed leadership bid ‘The Blair Witch Project’. But the more clear-headed see that Kendall is simply trying to walk the tightrope of being loyal to Ed Miliband while making the case for a Labour reform agenda.
There are three months to go to polling day and the electoral boundaries still give Miliband a considerable advantage. And he is also often at his best when the situation appears worst for him.
But if he has many more weeks like the last one, Labour is heading for defeat.
Frontbenchers fear that the focus of more than half of MPs is on a leadership election following a Miliband Election loss in MayLabour has pledged it won’t put David Cameron’s face on any of its Election billboards. This, the party says, is proof it will run a positive campaign – in contrast to the Tories, who have already mocked up posters of Ed Miliband standing outside No 10 with Alex Salmond and Gerry Adams.
The Miliband posters – particularly the addition of the Sinn Fein leader – have deeply riled Labour. But they are also an indicator of an increasingly important Election battleground: What happens in the event of a hung Parliament.
The Tories want to argue that the choice on polling day is between the stability they offer and the chaos and confusion that any other result would create.
Conservative posters placing Ed Miliband alongside Alex Salmond and Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams have raised the issue of what happens in the event of a hung ParliamentUp until last week, the Tories had refused to engage with the hung Parliament issue. But on Friday, party chairman Grant Shapps explicitly ruled out any deal with Ukip.
Some influential Tories think the party should go further and kill off any notion of a coalition with the Greens at every opportunity.
It’s a sneaky move: a Greens deal would never be on the cards, but the Tories are happy to give Natalie Bennett’s party publicity. The more the Greens are talked about, the more votes they gain at Labour’s expense.
Francis Maude, the Cabinet Office Minister and leading Tory moderniser, is to stand down as an MP.Maude is in charge of the Coalition’s attempt to reduce the cost of Government business. His efficiency drive helped save £14.3billion in the last financial year.
George Osborne’s plan to balance the books involves making more than £15billion extra of these savings in the next Parliament. For this reason, senior Tories expect that if the party wins the Election, Maude will go to the House of Lords, where he could continue his Government work.
Maude, 61, was first elected to the Commons in 1983. He has been the MP for Horsham since 1997 and his decision to stand down opens up a plum Tory seat.
Expect to find many ambitious Tories heading down to West Sussex.
Parliament will be the subject of a fly-on-the-wall BBC documentary this week. On Wednesday night, many of the MPs who feature in it – including Chief Whip Michael Gove and the Prime Minister’s Parliamentary Private Secretary, Gavin Williamson – filed into a screening at One Birdcage Walk.
Fortified by a drinks reception beforehand, they sat down to watch the first episode with documentary-maker Michael Cockerell and many of the crew who worked on it. It starts by following two new MPs – Tory Charlotte Leslie and Labour’s Sarah Champion – as they adjust to life in the Commons.
There was, I’m told, a rather awkward moment as Leslie appeared on the screen explaining how she decided when to rebel against the Government.
Tory MPs Charlotte Leslie and Andrew Percy were both involved in embarrassing moments in a BBC fly-on-the-wall documentary about life inside the Houses of ParliamentSeveral of those present tried to see how Gove, the man in charge of Tory parliamentary discipline, reacted to this. But his expression was inscrutable.
One notable absentee from the screening was Tory MP Andrew Percy.
He, in a moment that had several MPs putting their heads in their hands, is shown in the documentary brandishing at the camera the list of questions that Tory MPs had been asked to put to David Cameron at PMQs.
With the last two episodes of the documentary still being edited, one of the MPs present reports that they were all on their best behaviour. The hope was that this might help keep out any unflattering footage. But few will sit comfortably on the green benches until this series is over.
‘It is so unacceptable to offer deep condolences for a man who flogged women, didn’t let them drive and starved them. I have been ashamed to be a Conservative today.’
Former Tory MP Louise Mensch, after David Cameron joined tributes to the late King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia.
‘The sermons I grew up with effectively said: “Wouldn’t the world be a nicer place if we were all nicer?” That’s the kind of moral claptrap Jesus does not permit us to accept.’
Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby says faith is more than bland platitudes.
‘It was a miniature nuclear attack on the streets of London.’
Robin Tam QC to an inquiry into the murder of spy Alexander Litvinenko with radioactive polonium.‘The Archers must not be EastEnders in a field.’
BBC head Lord Hall, is confronted with complaints about racy storylines in Ambridge.
‘Now I know why they named this storm “Juno”. Everyone’s asking: “Hey, Ju-know where the snow is?”’
An irate New Yorker, after the city was locked down for a monstrous snowstorm that never came.
‘The one creature that makes my jaw sag, so much so I can hardly stop looking at it, is a nine-month-old human baby.’
Naturalist David Attenborough, picks his most fascinating animal.
‘I’ve heard if you earn minimum wage in England, you’re in the top 10 per cent in the world. #stay #humble’
Millionaire cricketer Stuart Broad, elicits predictable outrage on Twitter.
‘I use cucumber eye gel, pomegranate lip balm, avocado moisturiser, grapefruit soap and lemon and lime shampoo. Would they do for my five a day?’
A reader’s letter to the Glasgow Herald actually comes to six fruit and veg a day.
‘My dad fancied her and nicked her name. But my mum went to register my birth and spelled “ei” instead of “ie” because she’s c**p at spelling.’
Keira Knightley reveals she was misnamed after Russian ice skater Kiera Ivanov.
window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({mode: 'autosized-generated-text-under-1r-' + 'row', container: 'taboola-below-main-column', placement: 'wide'}); _taboola.push({flush:true}); var rcShoutCache = '{}'; window._taboola = window._taboola || []; _taboola.push({flush:true});
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Kara Scott
2nd World Rank
Final Table WSOP
World Series Of Poker
0 comments:
Post a Comment