Gordon Brown has been thrusting himself about the world stage as he tries, unsuccessfully in my opinion, to appear like a sort of financial guru. I honestly believe that many world leaders are laughing at him behind his back. Only someone as naive and self-obsessed as Gordon could run around having virtually single-handedly destroyed the UK economy and think he is King Economy. The man is a fool, but then most objective British citizens already know that. Anyway, let me get to my point. As we all know, the Labour government spin machine always leaks its own announcements early so that they can guage ‘public opinion’, normally expressed by what the newspapers say (rather than the public), before making any final tweaks to their policy announcements. However, if the leaks are...

One of the less baleful consequences of the financial crisis is that every political pundit, columnist, and indeed blogger, has become an amateur economist, whether economics were previously his/her ‘specialist subject’ or not. Economics’ centrality, as the pivotal issue on which politics turns, might be disputed but its importance is not. Therefore it does no-one any harm whatsoever to start thinking a lot harder about how money and markets interact with government.The truth is, however, that we are dealing with a theoretical rather than an exact science, dismalness not withstanding. National economies are staggeringly complex, that complexity is multiplied infinitely for the world economy, and its workings are hotly disputed. Yesterday I suggested that David Cameron is...

The Tory base and its newspaper supporters are ecstatic. David Cameron has abandoned his commitment to match Labour's spending pledges, so that he can get out of the self-imposed strictures that would prevent him supporting any tax cuts in Monday's Pre-Budget Report. Meanwhile, a new poll shows that the Tory lead is down to a mere three points, placing it well within margins of error, and confirming the trend of most recent polling.The consensus among Tory commentators seems to be that Cameron has executed a terribly clever move which will pay dividends in the coming months as voters tire of the Labour government. Maybe. But isn't it just as likely that swing voters, having been persuaded that the Tories had shown real signs of change, might conclude that the earlier Cameron strategy was...

The dynamic duo spring into action. Subscribe in a...

So did you spot that Mickey Mouse achievement this week?No, not this one. I was talking about this one - David Cameron taking a matter a months to break his promise about sticking to Labour spending plans if elected.You see, the Tories (arrogantly) think that they are going to walk the next election and now do not have to worry about the centre-ground, they are just focussing on their core vote now.Whether that be the socially conservative who want to hear nice things about tax cuts for married people (that make absolutely no difference to whether people get married or stay married) or about offering unfunded tax cuts to people whilst cutting investment to public services that is what they will continue to do in the coming weeks.Any belief that Cameron's cronies are competent on financial...

THE ConservativeHome image surmises British politics - Cameron or Brown? File under - it’s in pink and mauve! The battle ground is over the gay vote… Via mauvist...

In a previous article I quoted extensively from both Jeff Randall’s masterly dissection of Labour’s poor record on the economy and from Matthew Elliott’s spot-on tax recommendations.  It is ironic, given the 10p fiasco earlier this year (which was largely responsible for Labour’s defeat at Crewe) and the fiasco that has been Brownian economic policy, that the latest MORI poll has Labour at 37% (+7), the Tories on 40% (-5) and the Lib Dems on 12% (-2).  Labour’s policies are doomed as they’ll increase further, as Praguetory observes, the size of the state and mess the economy up. It is now certain that Brown will call a spring 2009 election - or sooner if he can - because the electorate have fallen for Mandelson’s hyper-spinning.  There’s...

After Labour excoriated shadow chancellor, George Osborne, for ‘irresponsibility’ and ‘talking down’ the pound, over the weekend, the Tories have launched what has every appearance of an effective comeback on economic issues. In the Telegraph, Boris Johnson defends his colleague’s right to offer a prognosis on the economy. Although this contention might appear self-evident, the government has reacted with increasing petulance on each occasion that an opposition politician dares to question the wisdom of Gordon Brown’s economic plans. Labour chose to interpret Conservative support for its bank bail-out as an open ended commitment to support all of its anti-recessionary measures. As Brown’s spending pledges become increasingly extravagant, and as tax cutting initiatives...

David Cameron today abandoned his commitment to matching Labour's spending plans as he warned of a future "tax bombshell" if Gordon Brown presses ahead with plans to borrow £30bn to boost Britain's ailing economy.In a keynote speech on the economy in London, the Conservative leader insisted increased borrowing today would mean higher taxes tomorrow as he ripped up his pledge to follow the government's spending commitment in 2010.Cameron predicted tax rises equivalent to an 8% increase in income tax, if the government goes ahead with a "borrowing binge"."We can't afford a spending splurge," the Tory chief said."Gordon Brown knows that borrowing today means higher taxes tomorrow and if he doesn't tell you that he's misleading you."The Tory leader rejected suggestions the announcement...

In quite the reverse to those magnificent men in their flying machines, that self proclaimed custodian of the world's economic future Gordon Brown has said that while taxes will be cut next week expect them to rise again after. David Cameron in response did come out with the rather good line: "Tax cuts should be for life, not just for Christmas." For it does seem that despite calls from the...

Oh dear, the Tories are at it again. Up on their high horse about marriage.As I remarked upon recently, let us remember, what Iain Duncan Smith's think-tank says is not necessarily Tory party policy. Neither is it what the Tories would do if they got into Government.What it is, is an expression of is what some Tories might like do if they got into power. And, when it comes to pontificating on marriage, what their core vote wants to hear.Now I am quite happy for the Tories to believe whatever they want. (Actually, I am quite happy for them to believe anything - it makes a nice change!) But the fact is this: Married Couples' Tax Allowances do not increase marriage rates and do not prevent people getting divorced. So you have to ask yourself, why does a party that seemingly believes in...

BABY P Watch: Anorak’s at-a-glance look at Baby P in the news… THE SUN (front page): “SOCIAL WORKERS NEW SHAME” When a tortured and murdered baby isn’t shaming enough… “BABY P GRAN: I WARNED HARINGEY” Says she: “They didn’t want to know.” The last photo of blond, blue-eyed Baby P — taken days before he was found dead in his blood-spattered cot Blonde… On page 5, the Sun produces a petition. It’s already been written: “All blonde children with blue-eyes should be saved first and…” Or: “I believe that ALL the social workers involved in the case of baby P, including Sharon Shoesmith, Maria Ward, Sylvia Henry and Gillie Christou should be sacked and never allowed to work with vulnerable children again”. Meanwhile, Baby P’s mother is free to...

In the previous post I highlighted the importance of social policy to deal with the urban dystopia and the underclass.  But let’s not forget the economic context - and how tax and benefits policy disincentives many people from working - or even starting a business. Worth reading today is Jeff Randall’s masterly dissection of how Brown is like the little boy who broke his neighbour’s window but is trying to blame another kid and is going to help fix the window, do the garden (which he messed up too), wash the car, and even walk the dog… The final bill for Mr Brown’s incompetence will be huge. When Labour came to power in 1997, unemployment was close to two million. Today, it is back at that level – and set to become much worse. The CBI expects the jobless total...

BABY P is dead. Baby P was murdered by sadists. The 17-month-old was tortured to death by his mother and two men. Baby P was first introduced to us in the form of a virtual reality 4-D model. The wounds were smears of red and purple. Jurors saw the wounds. Then readers saw the wounds. Then Baby P was shown with his face blurred out. But this was not enough. Now Baby P is on the cover of the Times. You can see his face. You can see his face on the cover of the Daily Star, the Daily Mirror, The Guardian, The Sun and The Independent. The Mail goes one better. It has “TWO FACES OF BABY P” on its cover. To the left, readers see the same blond child as on the other papers. “He reaches out towards an unseen figure behind the camera, and the start of a smile lifts his chubby cheeks,...

The government was as all over the place over the post office contract as it was over Baby P - but at least they got there in the end. Here's today's Journal column.It is easy to become cynical about politicians, especially when you've been following their activities for as long as I have. But just occasionally, they can surprise us all and do something right.It is true they hardly covered themselves with glory this week over the Baby P tragedy, although I'm not sure which of Gordon Brown or David Cameron was more culpable in that regard.The Tories have spent most of the week trying to blame Mr Brown for allegedly trying to turn the case into a "party political issue," with the implicit suggestion that he doesn't care about the dead child.For my part, I think if Mr Cameron was so keen...

This little boy is Baby P. His picture is in tomorrow’s Independent, as well as the fact that there were “‘issues’ at baby death council“, and how ministers were warned but did nothing about the shambolic Haringey social services department.  Haringey Council will forever be known as the Baby Death Council. Lord Mandelson’s strategy has fallen apart after Brown’s (and his MPs’) despicable performance at PMQs this week.  In the light of the murder of a little boy, in which not only the social services department at the local Council but the Government, is culpable, our current recession - which we will get out of by 2011 or 2012 at the latest - pales into insignificance. Remember 12 February 1993?  After that day, Tony Blair highlighted...

The last few days have seen a determined effort across the Tory blogosphere to nail Gordon Brown over his Commons performance on Wednesday in relation to the Baby P case. It was clearly not one of the PM's best days, but the Tories' ongoing attempts to equate his below-par display with somehow not caring about the dead child are, in my view, a disgrace, although entirely consistent with their general view of Brown as some sort of devil incarnate.If David Cameron really wanted an intelligent debate on the issues surrounding the tragedy, he should have submitted a Private Notice Question which would have obliged the Speaker to schedule an emergency debate, not brought it up in the highly-charged, partisan arena of PMQs.Cartoonist Slob, though, has a slightly different take. As far as he...

So, I won't tell anyone if you don't. It is remarkable to see the Tory getting itself tied up in knots over the economy. Iain Martin writes a most entertaining article in the Torygraph suggesting that little Georgie Osbourne should be moved to a role more in line with his skills. Like looking after the Shadow Cabinet tuck shop. The Martin article is full of quotable sentences from beginning...

Obama’s charisma and platform of change were surely what won him the election, but the way that they were harnessed and disseminated, via online social networks, was what gave him the crucial edge. This New York Times article outlines what he did - not just setting up a Facebook page with some thumbs up, down-with-the-kids photos and fake-sounding blog posts, but creating a bespoke platform called MyBO (ingenious Myspace/Bebo mashup there), sustained engagement, and most of all, made people feel valuable.  “Senator Barack Obama understood that you could use the Web to lower the cost of building a political brand, create a sense of connection and engagement, and dispense with the command and control method of governing to allow people to self-organize to do the work”, says...

I have deliberately hesitated for a no of hours before blogging on yesterday's incident in the Commons, because it was an unpleasant and emotive PMQ's and I wanted to be sure a) What happened exactly and b) That I was fair in how I covered this. In any case both Labourhome and Iain Dale have covered this already.Lets look at the actual clash first before heading to the subject matter. I think it may well be fair to say that David Cameron and Gordon Brown personally, as well as politically, dislike each other. They are not the first PM and Opposition leader to be contemptuous of each other, but this is not a healthy situation to be in. It means one has difficulty in holding back when an opportunity arises to savagely kick the other when they are down (to the point of offending the public),...

The government last night ordered an urgent inquiry into the care of children in the borough where 17-month-old Baby P died after months of abuse and neglect. The announcement of the investigation followed a furious row in the Commons between Gordon Brown and David Cameron over the case.The schools and families secretary, Ed Balls, said that the review of the case already conducted by the council indicated major failures, poor management and inappropriate actions on the part of the agencies involved in the north London borough of Haringey. In a damning summary of the review, Balls said that "each agency has singly and collectively failed to adhere to the procedures for the proper management of child protection cases". As a result, he said, he was ordering an inquiry under the Children Act...

On Saturday August 16 2008, Rupert Murdoch's 184ft-long yacht, the Rosehearty, was moored in the Aegean Sea, where the living was evidently easy. Murdoch, along with a gathering of family, friends and associates, was awaiting the arrival of David Cameron and his family. The Tory leader had just finished a brief trip to Georgia, where he had stolen a march on Gordon Brown by meeting the country's embattled president, Mikheil Saakashvili. In the meantime, Samantha Cameron and two of their children had been flown on a private jet from Farnborough to Istanbul, where they picked up her husband and carried on to the Greek island of Santorini. Also on board the plane were the American songwriter Billy Joel and his wife Katie (neighbours of Rupert Murdoch in Long Island), the US TV executive Ben...

Michael Paulin: The debate over how black Obama is obscures the racial reconciliation his election...

Tax cuts is the current political football, it seems. Each of the political parties are promising tax cuts, supposedly funded and competely unfunded - and the indeterminate. It is amusing how times change. Not so long ago, calling for a tax cut, however funded [or not], was viewed as tantamount to taking food from the mouths of babes. But now it is all the rage. Tax cuts are good for us all. There is only so much money that the State should take from us, and it already takes too much. Cutting taxes would enable us, the people, to spend more and thus lift the economy out of its current malaise. Tax cuts should be significant enbough to actually make a difference, but also funded - unfunded tax cuts don’t really help in the long term, as they would soon be replaced by tax hikes, which...

In one of my last posts I suggested that thanks to the Obama victory the UK electorate is likely to want more from our politicians than the ongoing party politics. Gordon obviously doesn’t think so, and his performance at PMQs today was a complete disgrace. On a day when we’ve had such awful news he really should act more appropriately.       ...

There is consensus that a clash over the Baby P affair, at Prime Minister’s Questions, was unseemly. And the weight of opinion seems to concur that Gordon Brown should take the lion’s share of blame for a heated altercation with David Cameron.After all, it was the Prime Minister’s irritation that the Conservative leader had raised the issue at all, which saw him accuse Cameron of using the baby’s death to make a party political point. His evasiveness up to that point had led his counterpart to press him on the matter, which represents a quite legitimate area of concern. It is not good enough, to elude responsibility for each issue, by arguing its unique unsuitability for the arena of party politics. Brown’s problem is that he does not like to be challenged, on anything, and...

It really is hard to believe that Gordon Brown, the man trusted with running our country could be such a nasty idiot at PMQs today. Accusing David Cameron of being party political over the the death of Baby P shows Brown and his government in their true light. Brown's fellow ministers will not be happy with him for letting the mask slip the way it did with the 10p tax fiasco. By claiming Cameron's question to be party political, Brown made a party political attack on Cameron. Cameron was right - it was cheap. And then some.You can watch the exchange by clicking...