Monthly Archives: October 2010

Iain Martin reveals that the government is flailing about in their attempt to make the proposed cut to Child Benefit actually happen. Lots of coverage follows this excellent scoop. I’m sorry to bang on about this, but this is a pretty … Continued

As you might recall, I put up quite a long post about this topic recently. John Rentoul has made a similar point in relation to todays PMQs, suggesting that to expose the divisions in the Coalition on housing benefit leads … Continued

David Cameron believes that housing claims of over £20,000 a year are unfair. He has a point. I can think of one benefits scrounger who has repeatedly claimed more than this, despite having a perfectly adequate home in London. David … Continued

I have to say, I’ve been quite impressed with the quality of the memorandums being leaked to the Times. (No link, paywall) Clearly there are some perceptive people working in the Policy and Leader’s teams.

I have high hopes for Douglas Alexander’s appointment as Shadow Work and Pension’s secretary. He has the right combination of wonkish policy sensibility, understanding of economics and political smarts. So in his first big article on Welfare cuts versus Welfare … Continued

Via Marbury Message discipline and a strong personal brand is essential in to achieving cut-through in the crowded modern political environment. From the New York Governor’s hustings:

The good people at Philosophy Football have been in touch, asking if I’d be willing to highlight their new T-Shirt. As I’m always willing to back Britain’s innovative businesses (ahem), I agreed. For the price of a T-shirt for a lucky … Continued

Stylistically, David Cameron is at his best when making speeches like the one he made today to the CBI . He plays the eager enthusiast for modernity rather well. When it is combined with praisng businesses and criticising bureaucracy, it’s pretty … Continued

I don’t like to talk about things I know nothing about, but there’s a lot of excellent  articles about the Tower Hamlets Mayoral electionby people who do know what they’re talking about. So read Ted Jeory on the whole saga … Continued

Labour shouldn’t worry about our polling numbers. We should be worrying about how we fix the internals. If I was to distil Labour people’s expectations back in August, they would probably go something like “Labour will get close to the Tories ahead … Continued