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Friday, 23 May 2008

Today in Politics: Brown humiliated in Crewe by-election

by Andrew Grice

A spectacular Tory win in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election, where the man dubbed a "Tory toff" by Labour, Edward Timpson, turned a Labour majority of 7,078 into a Tory one of 7,860. The Tories expected to win but the scale of their triumph exceeds their wildest dreams. No wonder they are talking this morning about a "sea change" in politics, and the formation of a "new coalition for change." George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, hailed it as a positive vote for the Tories.

I am not so sure. This by-election was a referendum on Gordon Brown and his ill-fated decision to abolish the 10p rate, which came to symbolise people's loss of confidence in him. The Tories deserve credit for making it the referendum David Cameron called for at the start of the campaign. Wisely, the Tory leader is not getting carried away, saying today that his party still has "a huge amount of work" to do. The wind is his sails now, and we may well look back on the Crewe by-election as the moment when his path to Downing Street became unstoppable. The pressure on Brown from his own party will intensify. He will probably get the chance to show some signs of recovery by Labour's annual conference in September. Around that time, Labour MPs and ministers will have to decide whether to turn their private grumblings about Brown into a move to oust him. The Prime Minister is on probation. 

BTW, full marks to our pollsters ComRes, who called the Crewe by-election right in its survey for this newspaper last weekend. ComRes predicted the Tories would win 48 per cent of the vote, Labour 35 per cent and the Liberal Democrats 12 per cent. The actual figures were 49 per cent, 31 per cent and 14 per cent respectively. Some 62 per cent of those polled said they were absolutely certain to vote and more than 58 per cent did. Pretty good.

P.S. After the excitement of Crewe, I'm taking a week off to recharge my batteries. Normal service resumes on Monday week, when MPs return to Westminster after a week-long recess and it will be interesting to assess the Labour mood.

Thursday, 22 May 2008

Today in Politics: Tories to win Crewe despite late own goal

By Andrew Grice

Red faces in the Conservative Party this morning after the revelation that staffers in the Crewe and Nantwich by-election inadvertently sent the personal details of 8,500 local voters to a radio station in the Isle of Man. Given Gordon Brown's luck recently, it's just the sort of thing you would expect to happen to Labour. On reflection, I suppose it has -- the Great Datagate Fiasco in which child benefit records on 25m people were lost last autumn.

Labour officials have something to smile about at last after a grim campaign in Crewe. But they admit privately that the Tory gaffe will almost certainly come too late to save Labour's skin. If it had happened a week ago, and been followed by other mistakes by the Tories, their candidate Edward Timpson (foolishly dubbed a "toff" by Labour) might just have been under pressure. But it seems that the minds of local people have been made up. The momentum has been not pro-Tory but anti-Labour, and the Tories (rather than the Liberal Democrats) will benefit. The task for Team Brown once we know the Crewe result will be to convince panicky Labour MPs that Crewe is a mid-term blip and that the PM still has time to turn round the hostility shown in the by-election. But morale in the Parliamentary Labour Party is at rock bottom and the fear among some backbenchers is that the wider electorate has also made its mind up --about Brown.

Wednesday, 21 May 2008

Today in Politics: Nil-nil and no penalty shoot out

By Andrew Grice

A very flat session of Prime Minister's Questions today. There was a sombre mood as Gordon Brown and David Cameron discussed the natural disasters in Burma and China. You wouldn't have guessed that Brown is a PM in trouble. But he knows it's only a temporary respite: politics is on hold until we get the result of the Crewe and Nantwich by-election late tomorrow night. Many MPs are in the constituency today, which is why the Commons benches were not full. Brown aides are insisting it will be business as usual on Friday morning but are bracing themselves for more criticism of the PM by panicky Labour MPs if the party is routed (as many Labour folk expect).

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Tuesday, 20 May 2008

Today in Politics: Taxing problems

By Andrew Grice

Tax is back at the top of the political agenda. Yesterday David Cameron showed a little more ankle than usual on the prospects of a Tory Government cutting taxes. Today Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, joined the auction by saying he wanted to go "much, much further" than the revenue-neutral tax package approved under his predecessor Sir Menzies Campbell. "We are not ready to accept the Government's proposed overall level of taxation, and will look in depth at whether it can, and should, be cut," he said. Money raised from a crackdown on tax loopholes for the rich would not be ploughed into extra spending but handed back to lower and middle income taxpayers, he promised.

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Monday, 19 May 2008

Today in Politics: Labour set for mauling in Crewe

By Andrew Grice

Things seem to be going from bad to worse for Labour in Crewe and Nantwich ahead of Thursday's by-election. Labour MPs and allies of Gordon Brown have admitted that the party's campaign against "Tory toff" candidate Edward Timpson has backfired. Now an exclusive ComRes poll for The Independent in the constituency puts the Tories a huge THIRTEEN points ahead, the highest lead so far. Previous surveys have given David Cameron's party a lead of four and eight points.

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Today in Politics: Cherie and the MMR mystery

By Andrew Grice

Reading Cherie Blair's much-panned memoirs, I took a special interest in her confirmation that the Blairs' youngest son Leo was given the MMR vaccine. I revealed this on the front page of The Independent in February 2002. The story was controversial because Downing Street would not confirm it one way or the other, saying the PM and his wife wanted to protect the privacy of their children. Other papers doubted my story and there were rumours that Leo had had separate jabs.

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Friday, 16 May 2008

Today in Politics: Blair backs Brown (Tony, not Cherie)

By Andrew Grice

A rare bit of good news for Gordon Brown. Speculation that Tony Blair is going to follow his wife Cherie by bringing forward his memoirs is wide of the mark, I'm told. Last Friday night, Team Brown was furious to discover (from journalists) that Cherie's book, Speaking for Myself, had been rushed out well before its planned publication in the autumn.

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Thursday, 15 May 2008

Today in Politics: Brown's Wilson moment

By Andrew Grice

"May I say, for the benefit of those who have been carried away by the gossip of the last few days, that I know what's going on. I'm going on," the beleaguered Labour Prime Minister said amid reports that people in his own party were plotting to force him out. That was Harold Wilson, 39 years ago last week. But Gordon Brown came very close to repeating it at his Downing Street press conference this lunchtime.

"I'm doing the job," he said, when asked which of his Cabinet colleagues were good enough to take over as Prime Minister. "To be honest, I'm not going to be put off by the sort of gossip you're indulging in today." He insisted: "I feel that I am the right person to be able to sort out the problems that we have now."

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Today in Politics: Is Brown rewriting history?

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown is trying to make a virtue out of his remarkable U-turn over the 10p tax rate. Interviewed on BBC's Today programme this morning, he argued that the £2.7bn tax cut announced on Tuesday was to help Britain survive the global economic downturn as well as to compensate the losers from the tax shake-up.

"It was not brought about as a result of political expediency," Brown insisted. His interviewer John Humprhys begged to differ, saying the climbdown was a political fix to deal with the problems caused by another bit of political expediency - the decision to abolish the 10p rate in Brown's final Budget as Chancellor.

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Wednesday, 14 May 2008

Today in Politics: Cameron 4, Brown 3

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron won the second leg of today's Commons match with Gordon Brown. In a witty and punchy speech, the Tory leader ridiculed the draft Queen's Speech set out by the Prime Minister, accusing him of stealing Tory policies. "He can't really say we haven't got any substance when he's taken it all and put it in his Queen's Speech," Cameron said. Good line: even Labour MPs and ministers had to laugh and Brown was forced to smile along.

Tory sources are describing Brown as "the Winona Ryder of politics" after the Holywood actress who was found guily of shoplifting. Labour disputes the claim that Brown is a magpie. It's true that some ideas - such as encouraging the low paid to save by providing matching funds - were floated by Labour before the Tories adopted them. In fact, two main parties have converged so much on policy that either of them could draw up a list of ideas that their rival had "stolen." The patch of turf over which they fight is getting smaller.

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Today in Politics: Be straight, Prime Minister

By Andrew Grice

A good, if predictable, line of attack from David Cameron in Prime Minister's Questions just now. He accused Gordon Brown of not "being straight" with the British people over the election that never was (nothing to do with the opinion polls); yesterday's climbdown on 10p tax (nothing to do with next week's Crewe and Nantwich by-election) and the Union between Scotland and the rest of the UK (no split with Wendy Alexander, Labour's leader in Scotland). The Tory leader accused Brown of putting short-term decisions of the national interest to try to save his disastrous premiership.

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Tuesday, 13 May 2008

Today in Politics: An expensive 10p tax retreat

By Andrew Grice

The Chancellor Alistair Darling's £2.7bn compensation package for the losers of the abolition of the 10p tax rate was much more significant than had been expected. Individual personal tax allowances will be increased by £600 this year, handing up £120 to 22 million basic rate taxpayers. This means that 80 per cent of the losers from the change will be fully compensated - for one year, at least.

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Monday, 12 May 2008

Today in Politics: Cherie and the battle of the books

By Andrew Grice

I'm told that Tony Blair spent much of his final weeks in Downing Street censoring the diaries that Alastair Campbell was itching to publish the minute he stood down. No doubt many references to the running battle between Blair and Gordon Brown were excised. It seems that the Blair red pen has been in action again, toning down the memoirs of his wife Cherie, which emerged unexpectedly early at the weekend. Yes, there was some embarrassing material, like her statement that Brown was "rattling the keys" as he tried to persuade Blair to quit. And there was her claim that Blair would have stood down earlier if he had trusted Brown to see through his plans to reform health, education and pensions. All plausible, but hardly great revelations. I suspect Cherie could have produced a much more damaging memoir if TB had allowed her.

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Friday, 09 May 2008

Today in Politics: Watch Jack Straw

Economist By Andrew Grice

Just when some Labour people thought things could only get better for Gordon Brown, they are getting worse. Today's edition of The Economist depicts him, Jesus-like, with arrows stuck in various parts of his body (with a smiling Tony Blair looking on). And the Sun has a devastating opinion poll which puts Labour on 23 per cent, its lowest since polling began in the 1930s, with the Tories on 49 per cent and Liberal Democrats on 17 per cent. Only one poll, true, but even worse than Labour's 24 per cent share of the vote in last week's local elections. There's no reason to doubt internet pollster YouGov, which got the London Mayor result spot on.

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Thursday, 08 May 2008

Today in Politics: A honeymoon for Boris

By Andrew Grice

Boris Johnson should enjoy his honeymoon while it lasts, because all good things come to an end. Few people will begrudge him his time in the sun, after his remarkable victory in the London Mayoral election. Labour MPs are already whingeing about the "soft" treatment of Boris in the media, dubbing the London Evening Standard "the Daily Boris", and wondering how they can lay a glove on him.

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Wednesday, 07 May 2008

Today in Politics: Another fine (Brown) mess

By Andrew Grice

You couldn't make it up. At a time when Gordon Brown has enough difficult balls to juggle, he's been lobbed another one by his very own Scottish Labour Party. Its leader Wendy Alexander, a Brown ally, has thrown into her own net by challenging the Scottish National Party to "bring on" the referendum on whether Scotland should break away from the United Kingdom it plans for 2010. Just about the last thing Brown needed when he needs to rebuild bridges with Middle England after last week's local election disaster - and is planning to launch a Bill of Rights to further his "Britishness" agenda. Oops.

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Today in Politics: PR@PMQs

By Andrew Grice

A good day to have my ringside seat for Prime Minister's Questions. From my perch in the Press Gallery, I can see the faces of Labour MPs, but not those of the Tories. There was ritual rather than genuine support from Labour backbenchers as Gordon Brown swatted away predictable questions from opposition MPs about when he would stand aside for a younger leader, spend more time with his kids, garden etc. The Glums, the ministers sitting alongside Brown on the front bench were... well, pretty glum. They looked like they were thinking about last Thursday's election results.

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Today in Politics: Brown's Black arts

By Andrew Grice

There seems to have been a timely bit of briefing by allies of Gordon Brown against Wendy Alexander, Labour's leader in Scotland, over her surprise call for an early referendum on Scottish independence. In today's newspapers, her move is variously described as "incredibly stupid" , "madness" and "the last thing we need" by Labour sources. They may be right but surely if Brown thinks that, he should say so rather than get the message out through anonymous sources.

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Tuesday, 06 May 2008

Today in Politics: the 10p by-election

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron is trying to turn this month's Crewe and Nantwich by-election into a referendum on Gordon Brown's disastrous decision to abolish the 10p lower rate of tax. At his monthly press conference this morning before heading off to Crewe, he said: "The people of Crewe know that the more of them vote Conservative on May 22, the clearer the message will be for Gordon Brown to do more to help those who suffered from the 'tax con Budget'." He warned that if Labour wins, Gordon Brown will breathe a sigh of relief and tell Labour MPs demanding compensation for the losers from the change to "get lost".

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Saturday, 03 May 2008

Today in Politics: Exit Red Ken

By Andrew Grice

The defeat of Ken Livingstone after eight years as Mayor of London is a big moment with implications way beyond the capital. We might well look back on Boris Johnson's remarkable victory as the time when the tide turned against Labour and could not be turned back by the general election.

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Friday, 02 May 2008

Today in Politics: Contrite Brown

By Andrew Grice

A new, more contrite Gordon Brown emerged this morning from the wreckage of Labour's worst local election results for 40 years. Less than a year after Brown took over from Tony Blair, Labour has come a humiliating third behind the Conservatives and Liberal Democrats. It is the stuff of nightmares.

And there is (almost certainly) more bad news to come: Labour fears that Ken Livingstone will lose to the Tories' Boris Johnson when the London Mayor election result is announced tonight. The Brown camp had been desperately hoping for a 1-1 draw. It knew it would lose in the country but hoped that Red Ken would hang on. Now it looks like a 2-0 defeat.

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Thursday, 01 May 2008

Today in Politics: Labour inquest begins

By Andrew Grice

Even before the votes are counted in today's local and London Mayor elections, a debate has begun in the Labour Party about how Gordon Brown should fight back. Which, even allowing for the pre-match spin by all the parties, tells us that Labour folk are expecting Brown to get a very bloody nose.

Labour MPs tell me that things were bad enough before the row over Brown's abolition of the 10p bottom rate of income tax. That proved the final straw, alienating both the low paid and the better off, who felt it was unfair to clobber those at the bottom. The compensation package announced last week seems too late to limit the damage, Labour MPs report from the doorsteps. No details have been disclosed, and angry workers have been marching into MPs' constituency offices waving the payslips showing they are already paying more tax.

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Wednesday, 30 April 2008

Today in Politics: Prime Minister rules out 42 days U-turn

By Andrew Grice

A slow-burning Prime Minister's Questions finally caught fire with David Cameron's final question. He is allowed up to six and often saves the pre-prepared soundbite he wants the TV news bulletins to gobble up until last. So does Gordon Brown, who has the advantage of the final word.

The Tory leader had a good line of attack. After Brown's climbdown over compensating the losers for the abolition of the 10p lower rate of income tax, Cameron argued that he should back down now over his plan for terrorist suspects to be detained for up to 42 days without charge. Cameron was on the money since some Labour ministers are thinking the same and privately urging the PM to back off.

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Tuesday, 29 April 2008

Today in Politics: Awkward squad strikes Labour again

By Andrew Grice

Last week, it was the independent-minded Frank Field who ran rings round the Government by winning compensation for some of the losers from the abolition of the 10p tax rate. Today, his partner-in-crime Kate Hoey has stirred the pot in the London Mayoral election.

The Labour MP for Vauxhall has agreed to act as an adviser on sport to the Tory candidate Boris Johnson if he becomes Mayor.

A triumphant Johnson hailed Hoey as the first member of his administration - quite a coup. The news sent Labour into a tailspin, and the Chief Whip Geoff Hoon was asked by journalists whether he would discipline Ms Hoey.

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Monday, 28 April 2008

Today in Politics: Tories land biggest poll lead

By Andrew Grice

If Gordon Brown was hoping that the row over his decision to abolish the 10p lower rate of income tax would not damage Labour, he'll be very disappointed by the latest monthly ComRes survey for The Independent. The Tories have doubled their lead since last month from seven to 14 points, the biggest since ComRes began polling for the paper in September 2006.

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Today in Politics: Tories steal Labour's (old) clothes

By Andrew Grice

The Tories have rightly accused Labour of copying their policies on issues such as inheritance tax and foreign residents with non-domicile tax status. But David Cameron is not above a bit of jackdaw politics himself.

Today the Tory leader is making another raid into Labour's traditional territory by making a speech on poverty as he tries to exploit the Government's turmoil over the 10p tax rate. But his big policy announcement, a free financial advice service, is hardly new - because the Government is already setting one up.

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Sunday, 27 April 2008

Today in Politics: A tale of two Davids

By Andrew Grice

A ray of hope for Labour during dark days. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, outshone David Cameron, the Tory leader, when they gave separate interviews on the Andrew Marr Show on BBC TV just now. Miliband had the advantage of going last and came up with a brilliant resume of Cameron's interview. He told Marr: "He is a good salesman, but what is he selling? The minute you push and prod in any area - be it the economy or Grangemouth - actually he has nothing to say about the future of the country. It was very, very revealing on the economy that he wasn't able to do that."

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Friday, 25 April 2008

Today in Politics: Naked Ken loves Lib Dems

By Andrew Grice

Ken Livingstone has admitted going naked in his pursuit of votes in next Thursday's London Mayoral election. Well, almost.

On BBC's Question Time last night, Ken confessed that he and his Tory rival Boris Johnson were scrabbling for the second preference votes of people who will support Brian Paddick, the Liberal Democrat candidate - which may well decide the election. If no one wins more than 50% of the first preference votes, the top two candidates (almost certainly Ken and Boris) go into a run-off and the second choices of those who backed other candidates count.

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Thursday, 24 April 2008

Today in Politics: The devil's in the detail of 10p tax climbdown

By Andrew Grice

On the morning after the great climbdown over the 10p tax rate, the compensation package offered by the Government may not be as generous as Labour MPs had hoped. In an email to Labour colleagues, the leader of the revolt Frank Field says that the deal he struck with Gordon Brown would cover everyone who lost out from the abolition of the 10p rate and be backdated to this month (the start of the financial year).

But the Government is not quite going that far and the Tories already smell a rat. The Chancellor Alistair Darling has promised that the compensation for 60-64 year-olds, probably through the winter fuel allowance, will be backdated to the start of this financial year.

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Wednesday, 23 April 2008

Today in Politics: Prime Minister's U-turns

By Andrew Grice

A rowdy session of Prime Minister's Questions was inevitably dominated by the climbdown in which the Government will compensate many of the losers from Gordon Brown's decision to abolish the 10p lower rate of income tax. If Brown thought that rushing it out just before PMQs would give him an easy ride, he was wrong.

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Today in Politics: 10p tax rate climbdown

By Andrew Grice

Government whips are warning Labour MPs that next Monday's vote on the abolition of the 10p tax rate amounts to a vote of confidence in Gordon Brown. The implicit threat is that the PM would call a general election if he loses a central plank of his last Budget as Chancellor.

The truth is more complex: for there to be an official vote of confidence, Brown would have to table a motion of confidence in HM Govt, which would be debated next Tuesday. But the prospect of the Government losing that vote would be minimal, since 34 Labour MPs would have to vote against Brown to defeat him. With Labour behind in the opinion polls, turkeys are unlikely to vote for Christmas.

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Tuesday, 22 April 2008

Today in Politics: 10p tax revolt grows

Scan04222008_095750 By Andrew Grice

Thirty nine Labour MPs have this morning signed an amendment (pictured) to the Finance Bill demanding immediate compensation for the low paid workers who lose out as a result of Gordon Brown's decision to abolish the 10p in the pound starting rate of tax. It has been tabled by Frank Field, the former Minister for Welfare Reform.

The number is significant: it is enough to wipe out the Government's majority of 67 if all the opposition parties join forces with the Labour rebels (as they are likely to do). Interestingly, there are 12 "new" Labour names on today's list. By my reckoning, that takes to 86 the total number of Labour backbenchers who have gone public in their opposition to Brown's tax shake-up - either by backing today's amendment or three earlier Commons motions. So that shows that the rebellion is growing, not diminishing.

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Monday, 21 April 2008

Today in Politics: Labour's holiday blues

By Andrew Grice

It must have seemed a good idea to send fractious Labour MPs away from Westminster for the past two weeks so they couldn't make more trouble for Gordon Brown. In fact, the late Easter recess which ended today was fixed months ago, but it's true that government whips breathed a sigh of relief when their troops trooped off to their constituencies (or in some cases, decided to fight the Tories on the beaches).

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Today in Politics: Defective Tory tactics

By Andrew Grice

The Tories appear to be talking up the possibility of a high-profile defection from Labour. In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, David Cameron heaps praise on Blairites Lord Adonis, the Schools Minister, and the former Cabinet ministers Alan Milburn and Stephen Byers.

It is true that there is some common ground between the ultra-Blairites on public service reforms. It must also be tempting for the Tories to try to further destabilise Labour when it is in turmoil over Gordon Brown's decision to scrap the 10p lower rate of income tax, which will be debated by MPs this afternoon.

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Friday, 18 April 2008

Today in Politics: Why Brown loves Bush

By Andrew Grice

Why was the body language between Gordon Brown and George Bush at their White House press conference so much warmer than at their frosty first joint appearance at Camp David last July? Camp Brown would argue that the PM is going positive so that he can move transatlantic relations into a new phase in time for the new President who will take over in January. He's making a big speech on his vision for the "post Bush era" in Boston today. Described as his "letter to America", he will urge it to engage more fully with the rest of the world on climate change as well as terrorism. So needed to deliver that message on a more positive footing.

There are other reasons for Brown's change of tack on Bush.

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Thursday, 17 April 2008

Today in Politics: Brown fights back

By Andrew Grice

At last, some positive media coverage for Gordon Brown. Not a moment too soon for Labour MPs, who breathed a sign of relief as TV bulletins led with by his strong attack on the "stolen" election and Zimbabwe and plans by the Bank of England to lend billions of pounds to banks secured against their mortgage portfolios in an attempt to ease the credit squeeze.

Brown finally came off the fence over Zimbabwe during a visit to the United Nations in New York. One Labour man told me it reminded him of Brown's "strong leadership" phase during his honeymoon last summer. So perhaps all is not lost if Brown can show such decisiveness across the piece.

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Wednesday, 16 April 2008

Today in Politics: Mr Brown goes to Washington

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown begins a visit to the United States today but, as is often the case when a troubled leader goes abroad, he will find it difficult to escape his domestic woes. His trip is already being seen as accident-prone: it is getting little media coverage in America, as it is being eclipsed by Pope Benedict XVI's US visit and the Pennsylvania presidential primary.

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Tuesday, 15 April 2008

Today in Politics: Reshuffilitus

By Andrew Grice

Rumours swirl around Westminster that both Gordon Brown and David Cameron will soon be reshuffling their Cabinet and Shadow Cabinet teams. Speculation about reshuffles is a bit like the first cuckoo of spring; it comes around every year. With Brown in trouble - but vowing today that he will be not be pushed out - it was only a matter of time before the R word came into play.

The prospect of a Tory frontbench shake-out is more of a surprise, although the grapevine has been buzzing for a while with chatter that Cameron is happy with the performance of only a minority of his top team. These have been dubbed "the untouchables". Which leaves the rest a bit exposed.

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Monday, 14 April 2008

Today in Politics: Brown feels your pain

By Andrew Grice

After a weekend of torrid headlines, Gordon Brown is trying to send a slightly different signal to the voters on the economy: that he understands that they are feeling the pinch.

The Prime Minister was accused by some of being "in denial" about the impact of the global credit crunch on ordinary people in a long BBC interview last week, when he recited his usual mantra about Britain being better placed than others to survive the storm.

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Friday, 11 April 2008

Today in Politics: A test for Brown's reform agenda

By Andrew Grice

The High Court's spectacular ruling that the Blair Government was wrong to halt the inquiry into alleged corruption over the BAE Systems arms deal with Saudi Arabia lands Gordon Brown with another headache at a time when his head must already be throbbing.

At one level, it is an opportunity for him to distance himself from his predecessor, in line with his "not Blair" strategy when he became PM. If the criminal investigation is not reopened, Brown will risk charges of double standards, as he has often lectured African leaders on the need to stamp out corruption (part of his proposed "new deal" between the world's richest and poorest nations).

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Thursday, 10 April 2008

Today in Politics: Olympic confusion

By Andrew Grice

So now we know. Gordon Brown will not be attending the opening ceremony of the Olympic Games in Beijing in August. But it's NOT a boycott or a snub to China because Tessa Jowell, the Olympics Minister, will be there. And Brown will attend the closing ceremony, because London will host the next Games in 2012.

Downing Street is adamant that this was the plan all along. I am not so sure. I and many other journalists had certainly got the impression that the PM would be at the opening ceremony. Normally, when we get something wrong, Number 10 is not slow to tell us.

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Wednesday, 09 April 2008

Today in Politics: Cuddly Ken snuggles up to LibDems

Mayor_debate203x100By Andrew Grice

Ken Livingstone needs all the help he can get if he is to hang on to his job as London Mayor. So he is pitching for Liberal Democrat supporters to use their second vote in the May election to back him, as I predicted on Monday. In a live debate on BBC 2's Newsnight last night (which you can watch here), Livingstone backed the LibDem candidate Brian Paddick as his second choice among those taking part - but only because the Greens' Sian Berry was not invited, as he has already agreed a "second votes" pact with her.

Paddick declined to return the compliment, arguing that Livingstone and the Tories' Boris Johnson were both as bad as each other. Nor would Johnson advise people how to use their second vote. (His aides point out that people CAN vote for two candidates in order of preference but can mark a cross for only one if they choose). Second preferences are allocated if no one wins more than 50% in the first round and are likely to prove decisive.

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Tuesday, 08 April 2008

Today in Politics: WebBrown

By Andrew Grice

Labour received more than 3,000 questions when Gordon Brown did a 30-minute live webcast last night, the first by a British Prime Minister. Labour has judged it a success. Brown didn't look like a man under pressure; it was Cuddly Gordon in an armchair, smiling as the questions were read out by Arabella Weir, the actress, comedian and author of "Does My Bum Look Big In This? The Diary Of An Insecure Woman."

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Monday, 07 April 2008

Today in Politics: Cameron's tax offensive

Tory_tax By Andrew Grice

David Cameron tried to rub salt in Gordon Brown's wounds at his monthly press conference today by promising to join forces with Labour MPs who are rebelling over the Government's decision to abolish the 10p starting rate of tax, which will hit low paid workers. The Tory leader (who today sent out the leaflet pictured to key voters in target constituencies), buoyed by his big lead in the opinion polls, was in confident mood. The pressure on Brown over tax offered him an easy hit, an opportunity too good to miss. Yet he hadn't quite done enough homework.

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Sunday, 06 April 2008

Today in Politics: Brown's Olympics dilemma

By Andrew Grice

The House of Commons is normally a quiet place on a Sunday but today I had a front row seat for the Olympic torch relay through London. From my office window I have just seen some rowdy scenes as the police clashed with pro-Tibet demonstrators who are determined to disrupt the procession. The police appeared to be outnumbered and I was surprised that so few of them were protecting the relay team. The protestors' anger understandably intensified after Gordon Brown accepted the torch in Downing Street, safe behind by the huge iron gates at the end of the road.

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Friday, 04 April 2008

Today in Politics: MPs' expenses frenzy

By Andrew Grice

Today's partial disclosure of the expenses of some of our leading politicians is a landmark, the moment when the dam started to burst. So it should be welcomed.

Yet the way it has been handled by the Commons authorities, which decided not to appeal in a freedom of information case brought by the BBC, shows that old attitudes die hard.

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Thursday, 03 April 2008

Today in Politics: Cannabis U-turn?

By Andrew Grice

One of Gordon Brown's first acts as Prime Minister - signalling that he would reverse the Blair Government's decision to downgrade cannabis - is not looking too clever today. It has emerged that the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs, which is reviewing the decision, will recommend against reclassifying the drug to Class B and say that it should remain as Class C.

This lands Brown with a dilemma: whether to take the advice of his independent experts on drugs (as the Government has done since the seventies) or to override them.

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Wednesday, 02 April 2008

Today in Politics: BNP backs Boris

By Andrew Grice

Boris Johnson has won support for his bid to become Mayor of London that he would rather do without. The far right British National Party (BNP), which stands a chance of winning seats on the London Assembly in the 1 May elections in the capital, is urging its supporters to give their second vote in the Mayoral contest to Johnson.

"In this race, the Tory clown Johnson is a lesser evil than the Marxist crank Livingstone," the BNP says, "so replacing the latter with the former would, on balance, be an improvement for the majority of Londoners."

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Today in Politics: Harman in triumph shock

By Andrew Grice

Today's session of Prime Minister's Questions was the most eagerly awaited for months - because Gordon Brown wasn't there for the first time since he became PM. He's at a Nato summit in Bucharest. Harriet Harman, the Commons Leader, deputised - a surprise choice as many Labour MPs expected Jack Straw, who sees himself as unofficial Deputy PM, to land the job. They also expected Harman to need that stab vest she wore in her constituency when she faced William Hague, the Tories' best Commons performer, across the Dispatch Box. So did the male-dominated ranks of the Press Gallery.

It didn't work out like that.

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Tuesday, 01 April 2008

Today in Politics: Bring back Darling

80457524By Andrew Grice

Something was missing at Gordon Brown's hour-long monthly news conference at Downing Street this lunchtime. A story, for starters. Jokes? Forget it. The PM spoke at length about immigration and the global economy but... it was a straight bat all the way, didn't really go anywhere and was the least interesting one he has done since he took over last June. 

There were rumblings of discontent among the grumpy hacks, whose tummies were certainly rumbling; kick off was delayed by 30 minutes until 12.30pm while Brown spoke to 700 civil servants about his public service reforms.

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Today in Politics: Candid Clegg

By Andrew Grice

Rule one of the spin doctor's manual for politicians: there are some questions you just never answer. Commendably, Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, has tried to ignore it. He raised some LibDem eyebrows when he admitted in a radio interview last December that he didn't believe in God, and then rushed out a statement that he did not have a closed mind and did have enormous respect for those with religious faith.

There appeared to be little damage, but now he has done it again. Interviewed by Piers Morgan for GQ magazine, Clegg rather unwisely admitted he had slept with "no more than 30" women, adding: "It's a lot less than that" and that some of his conquests had complained about his performance.

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Monday, 31 March 2008

Today in Politics: Brown rallies the troops

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown has just spoken at tonight's weekly meeting of Labour MPs. It's a fairly routine thing for the party leader to do, but clearly the PM felt the need to try to raise morale ahead of what promise to be difficult council elections on May 1.

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Today in Politics: Boris & Dave, not Chas & Dave

2376538591_e523408f06_b1 By Andrew Grice

I went back to my long distant roots today. Boris Johnson launched his campaign to become Mayor of London, along with David Cameron, in Edmonton, North London, where I grew up (pictured). As a teenager, I used to play football every day not far from the Bounces Road Community Hall, which was temporarily overrun by the Tories and the media today.

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Today in Politics: Targets can be good

By Andrew Grice

Another dose of bad NHS headlines for the Government because not all health trusts have completed the "deep clean" exercise ordered to combat MRSA by today's deadline. "Plan to deep-clean each hospital has failed," reported the Daily Telegraph at the weekend. But there is another way of looking at this story: 93% of trusts have met the deadline and, according to the Government, the rest are well on the way.

Now it may well be that the whole exercise was a bit of a "gimmick", as the Tories claim. And it was announced by Gordon Brown en route to the Labour conference last September, which makes me a little sceptical. But is it really the "shambles" the Tories describe it as with a 93% hit rate?

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Friday, 28 March 2008

Today in Politics: Downing Street wars (continued)

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown delivered a speech without notes to the Scottish Labour conference this afternoon. This has inevitably sparked comparisons with Dave "off the cuff" Cameron, although Brown had a dry run when he spoke to Labour's spring conference earlier this month.

The PM's attempt to find a new, more conversational style is the work of Stephen Carter, his new strategy chief and former chief executive of City public relations firm Brunswick. PR Week, the industry's house journal, reports that Carter has expressed concern about Brown's speeches.

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Today in Politics: Sarko's success

By Andrew Grice

The phrase "whirlwind visit" might have been designed for Nicolas Sarkozy's trip to London. Not only did the French President cut short his state visit from two nights to one but he amazed his British hosts with the energy he showed in a packed schedule.

"The guy is an electric politician," one senior figure who met him told me. "The word 'hyperactive' doesn't do justice to him."

Even after his long speech to MPs and peers in the Royal Gallery, Sarko didn't pause for breath: he launched into a round of meetings with British politicos, who were astonished that he carried on firing on all cylinders.

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Thursday, 27 March 2008

Today in Politics: Clegg's 100 days

By Andrew Grice

Before he became Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg told close colleagues that his first 100 days in the job would be crucial and that he was determined to use it to make a dramatic impression on the voters. He would not get bogged down in internal party manoeuvrings like his predecessor Sir Menzies Campbell. Inevitably, Clegg has found the task tougher going than he imagined.

Unfortunately, the highest profile he achieved during his first 100 days was a messy abstention by his party in a vote over Europe which ended in the resignation of three senior frontbenchers. Some readers asked me to explain why Clegg acted in the way he did, which was a struggle. I suspect the kerfuffle has faded in most voters' minds by now. But it highlighted the perennial problem facing Britain's third party: how to secure media coverage which isn't about a LibDem split or internal sniping at its leader.

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Wednesday, 26 March 2008

Today in Politics: Dithering Tories

By Andrew Grice

The Tories had a good Easter, pumping out several good anti-government stories - confirmation, if it were needed, that they are now an effective opposition. But they are not the finished article. There's too much central casting. Sometimes the usual script doesn't work, or looks ridiculous.

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Today in Politics: Prime Minister's insults

By Andrew Grice

"The Tories' sums don't add up" is one of Gordon Brown's favourite slogans. Today at Prime Minister's Questions he went one better, claiming that David Cameron couldn't add up.

His researchers had unearthed a golden nugget from the novelist Frederick Forsyth, who has just been drafted in by Cameron to head a policy commission on defence. Forsyth, a hardline Eurosceptic, had previously accused the Tory leader of having "a sketchy grasp of basic arithmetic."

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Today in Politics: The ego has landed

By Andrew Grice

Nicolas Sarkozy has just arrived at Heathrow for his much-anticipated state visit to Britain. No doubt it will be deemed a success by all concerned, even if the media spotlight falls more on his wife Carla Bruni than the hyperactive French President himself.

There'll doubtless be agreement on a whole range of issues tomorrow when Sarkozy meets Gordon Brown - including the global economic turbulence, Darfur, immigration and nuclear power. I'm sure they will bond personally: they are not strangers as they got to know each other when they were finance ministers.

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Tuesday, 25 March 2008

Today in Politics: Climbdown Brown

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown had got himself into a "no win" situation over the forthcoming Bill to allow scientists to conduct more experiments on embryos in the hope of finding a cure to illnesses such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease.

Up to 12 ministers oppose the idea of creating human-animal hybrid embryos and Brown could not afford the prospect of resignations. Equally, he believes it is vital to secure the passage of the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill and did not want to look weak by backing down.

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Monday, 24 March 2008

Today in Politics: Unhappy Iraqi anniversary

By Andrew Grice

The Commons will debate Iraq tomorrow. Why? Not because it's the fifth anniversary of the war, which Gordon Brown did not want to mark at all. Not because the PM can announce that plans to reduce the number of British troops in Basra are on schedule, because they are not. Not because of today's grim milestone that 4,000 American forces have been killed since the 2003 invasion.

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Thursday, 20 March 2008

Today in Politics: Gordon loves Ken

By Andrew Grice

How times change. Gordon Brown appeared at the side of Ken Livingstone this afternoon to lend his support for his attempt to win a third term as London Mayor. "Ken Livingstone has dedicated his professional and personal life to London," Brown writes in the London Evening Standard. Well, almost. There was a time when his new friend called repeatedly for Brown to be sacked as Chancellor after Labour's 1997 election victory. And there was that little local difficulty when Ken stood against Labour as an independent to win the Mayor's post in 2000. As Mayor, Livingstone took legal action to try to stop Brown's part-privatisation plan for the London Underground.

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Wednesday, 19 March 2008

Today in Politics: Opposition Leader's Questions

By Andrew Grice

At Prime Minister's Questions today, a confident David Cameron tackled Gordon Brown over his refusal to answer his questions in recent weeks. The PM, as he often does, turned the tables on the Tory leader by asking HIM a question: did he support identity cards for foreign nationals, yes or no? Cameron had a good riposte: if Brown wants to ask him questions, he should call a general election and then (after the Tories win) he could ask him six at Prime Minister's Questions every week.

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Today in Politics: Could Greens save our Ken?

By Andrew Grice

An important development today in the London Mayoral race. Sian Berry, the Green Party's impressive candidate, has urged her supporters to vote for Ken Livingstone as their number two choice in the 1 May election, when voters in the capital will be allowed to cast two votes.

Mayor Livingstone, who shared a platform with Berry to trumpet their common policies on the environment, urged Labour supporters to return the compliment by making the Greens their number two choice. "It is very important that people don't waste their second vote," a Ken aide told me.

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Tuesday, 18 March 2008

Today in Politics: Opportunity knocks for Cameron

By Andrew Grice

Tory officials have been tweaking my tail about my column in last Saturday's paper, which was headlined "The Tories fear they are losing momentum". Since then, three opinion polls have given the party big leads over Labour of 16, nine and 13 points respectively. "We're worried about complacency - we're too far ahead," one Tory aide quipped.

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Monday, 17 March 2008

Today in Politics: Number 10 exodus

By Andrew Grice

Another one of Gordon Brown's close aides is to leave Downing Street. Spencer Livermore, his director of political strategy, who has worked with Brown for 10 years, is jumping ship to join advertising agency Saatchi & Saatchi and Fallon (SSF).

Insiders say he was not pushed, and that the PM tried hard to persuade him to stay. But his departure is being linked to the arrival of a new broom brought in to improve Number 10's performance - Stephen Carter, the former Ofcom boss, who became head of strategy in January. There has been some tension between Carter and Livermore, who feared there was a whispering campaign against him and is getting out of the hothouse before it gets even hotter.

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Today in Politics: Iraq cloud returns

By Andrew Grice

The Commons will vote next week on whether there should be an independent inquiry into the lessons to be learnt from the Iraq war.

The Tories decided today to stage a debate in Opposition time on the need for an immediate inquiry. Some Labour MPs who opposed the war and the Liberal Democrats will join forces with the Tories. But I expect the call for an investigation to be defeated. Although more Labour MPs want one, they are a tribal bunch and don't like getting into bed with the Tories, so they will abstain or vote against.

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Saturday, 15 March 2008

Today in Politics: Tories back Project Cameron

By Andrew Grice at the Conservative Party conference in Gateshead

David Cameron didn't "do a Cameron" in his speech to the Tory conference this afternoon. By that, I mean he didn't go walkabout on stage as Gordon Brown and Nick Clegg at their respective spring conferences.

Cameron played it straight, delivering a sober message to his party that it would need to continue to change if it is to win power. He demanded more discipline from frontbenchers seeking higher spending in their policy areas and told Tories who want a firm pledge of tax cuts that the party will have to get used to saying No more than Yes.

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Today in Politics: The appeal of Boris

By Andrew Grice at the Conservative Conference in Gateshead

The undisputed star of the Tory show in Gateshead so far has been Boris Johnson, the party's candidate for Mayor of London. Conference organisers brought forward his speech from today to the start of the conference yesterday and it put some fire in the bellies of Tory delegates. Johnson is fighting a clever campaign against the man he calls "King Newt", Ken Livingstone, who he promised to make as extinct as the dinosaurs. Johnson has smartened up his act; there is some serious policy stuff among the jokes.

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Friday, 14 March 2008

Today in Politics: Tories' taxing problem

By Andrew Grice in Gateshead

George Osborne, the Shadow Chancellor, disappointed Tory activists at the party's spring conference here this afternoon when he offered only the faintest hint about long-term tax cuts. If you put his audience on a lie detector machine, my guess is that 90 per cent of them would want the party to include specific proposals to cut taxes in its manifesto at the next election. But Osborne and David Cameron are having none of it - and their aides dismiss speculation that they are at odds on the issue.

Osborne tried to reassure the Tory troops by saying that a long term commitment to ensure public spending grows more slowly than the economy is "the only sustainable path to lower borrowing and lower taxes - the lower taxes we all want to see."

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Today in Politics: Family policy rows

By Andrew Grice in Gateshead

Family policy is dominating the start of the Tories' spring conference in Gateshead this afternoon, but not quite in the way that David Cameron hoped. He wants to use the event to showcase family-friendly Tory policies like a more flexible system of parental leave than Labour offers. But that is being overshadowed by a squabble between Labour and the Tories over whether Cameron should have allowed ITV News to film his family, including his disabled son Ivan, at their Notting Hill home.

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Thursday, 13 March 2008

Today in Politics: Amy and Del Boy

By Andrew Grice

I've just been watching day two of the Commons debate on the Budget. So far, it is an unedifying spectacle. It would make a good case study about why voters have turned off from politics. There was a clash between George Osborne, the shadow Chancellor, and James Purnell, the Work and Pensions Secretary - who, one day, might just do battle as leaders of their parties.

The two Young Guns will need to polish their ammunition. What struck me about their Commons spat was that they talked in political jargon. They repeatedly used two words that would baffle anyone without a copy of the 212-page Budget Red Book by their side - "Amy" and "Del."  Yes, it sounded like they were debating an episode of Only Fools and Horses. In fact, Amy is AME, which means annually managed expenditure, and DEL stands for departmental expenditure limit. Pity the poor voters.

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Wednesday, 12 March 2008

Today in Politics: A fingers-crossed budget

By Andrew Grice

Alistair Darling made a tiny pot of money look as though it would a long way in his first Budget. In a very difficult year, he found room to hand Labour MPs some "goodies" - lifting another 250,000 children out of poverty and a one-off boost for pensioners' fuel allowances next winter.

Darling mentioned "stability" more than 20 times in his 50-minute speech. While he wanted to offer economic stability in turbulent times, he also needed to deliver more than a standstill Budget politically. The Budget is one of the big setpiece occasions of the year, and so part of the Gordon Brown Fightback Plan. Darling couldn't afford fireworks but judged that he couldn't do nothing.

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Tuesday, 11 March 2008

Today in Politics: Green and black

By Andrew Grice

Whitehall whispers reach me about a bout of pre-Budget tension between two Cabinet ministers. As Alistair Darling prepares for what he hopes will be seen as a "green Budget" tomorrow, his allies were rather surprised at the timing of the call by John Hutton, the Business Secretary, for Britain to build "clean" coal-fired power stations to keep the lights on, which I revealed in yesterday's paper. This has angered environmentalists, who are asking whatever happened to "joined up" government. "It is like calling for peace and preparing for war," said Andrew Simms, policy director at the New Economics Foundation.

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Monday, 10 March 2008

Today in Politics: Brown not snubbed shock

Untitled1 By Andrew Grice

There's confusion tonight about whether Gordon Brown has been snubbed by Madame Tussauds. The Tories were excited by reports that he was not considered important enough to be a subject and rushed out a statement. Chris Grayling, a Shadow Cabinet member, said: "I guess Madame Tussauds don't want to scare their young visitors."

It seems that the Opposition jumped the gun.

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Today in Politics: Clegg bounces back but needs new ideas

By Andrew Grice

Nick Clegg survived his first conference as Liberal Democrat leader in Liverpool at the weekend, as his party rallied strongly behind him despite his bruising experience over Europe last week. There were plenty of private doubts about his strategy of ordering his MPs to abstain on Tory demands for a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty, which resulted in three shadow cabinet ministers resigning and nine other MPs defying his edict.

But even Clegg's critics admitted that the abstention plan was probably the least worst option: the revolt against him would have been even bigger if he had allowed his MPs a free vote. In Liverpool, the LibDems showed they are ready to move on - but they won't want many more convulsions like last week.

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Today in Politics: Brown handbagged

By Andrew Grice

Since Gordon Brown won plaudits from the Daily Mail for backing its campaign to ban the plastic bag, I have had a nagging doubt about the Prime Minister's commitment to this cause. I was sure that Brown had once stamped on the idea of a tax on plastic bags after Ireland introduced one. But when I asked Brown's aides about it, they couldn't remember. Surprise, surprise.

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Friday, 07 March 2008

Today in Politics: Boris for Beijing?

By Andrew Grice

Boris Johnson looks as if he is going to give Ken Livingstone a run for his money in the election for London Mayor on May 1. He is ahead in the latest opinion poll, some bookmakers have installed him as favourite, Labour is increasingly jittery about Mayor Livingstone's prospects and the Tories increasingly confident of a victory that would put win in David Cameron's sails. Meanwhile, Tories who fear Boris might be a gaffe-prone liability as Mayor are talking quietly about the need to instal a strong team around him at City Hall.

But the Tories' blond bombshell seems to be having trouble in acclimatising himself to the prospect of becoming the capital's standard-bearer. When he visited London's Olympic Delivery Authority, he was told that, as Mayor, he would have to be in China in August for the handover ceremony from the Beijing Games to the London Olympics which follow in 2012. "But I'll be in Tuscany," Boris complained after checking his diary. Officials explained that the event would be important. "Move it!" he barked. Er... life isn't really like that. But if he becomes Mayor, it would certainly be interesting.

Thursday, 06 March 2008

Today in Politics: Identity cards confusion

By Andrew Grice

Confused about the Government's plans for identity cards? I was after reading today's newspapers, with some suggesting the scheme is being speeded up and others that it was being delayed or even shelved. Following a speech by the Home Secretary Jacqui Smith today, things are becoming a little clearer.

No, the scheme is not being dropped, despite the concerns over data security following the loss of child benefit records on 25m people. Smith argued that ID cards would protect people from data fraud (though many will need convincing after Datagate).

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Wednesday, 05 March 2008

Today in Politics: Lib Dem car crash - leader hurt

By Andrew Grice

Tory demands for a referendum on the European Union's Lisbon treaty were rejected by 311 votes to 248 in the Commons tonight. Although 29 Labour MPs rebelled against Gordon Brown by backing a referendum and a handful of Tories defied David Cameron by rejecting one, the Liberal Democrats managed to grab the headlines by putting their less significant differences over Europe up in neon lighting.

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Today in Politics: Lib Dems crash over Europe

By Andrew Grice

No surprise that Europe dominated Prime Minister's Questions just now. It's Europe day here at Westminster. After a marathon 14-day Commons debate, MPs will finally vote tonight on whether to have a referendum on the Lisbon Treaty to streamline the European Union's decision-making process.

David Cameron, who wants a referendum but knows he almost certainly won't get one, tried to get Gordon Brown to speculate on what the result might be - to no avail, of course. Then he linked Brown's refusal to grant a referendum to the Tories'  attempt to exploit the "anti-politics" feeling in the country. Cameron said this refusal was "one of the reasons why our political system is so badly broken".  As the three main parties had promised a public vote on the EU constitution, the Treaty's forerunner, the voters felt cheated and cynical, Cameron said. He blamed Brown for the damage he was doing to the political system.

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Tuesday, 04 March 2008

Today in Politics: Do the Tories' sums add up?

By Andrew Grice

Another day, another hint by the Tories that they would spend more money than Labour. Last week, the Tories pledged to match Labour on health and suggested they might outspend it. That led to speculation that other areas, including defence, would be squeezed.

Today, however, David Cameron hinted strongly that an incoming Tory Government would boost the defence budget. He has set up a commission, chaired by the author and Eurosceptic Frederick Forsyth, to look at ways of improving conditions for servicemen and their families, including troops wounded on active service. The Tories say the traditional covenant between the country and the armed forces has been broken and want to repair it.

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Monday, 03 March 2008

Today in Politics: Is the BBC soft on Cameron?

By Andrew Grice

Labour has accused BBC Radio Four's Today programme of treating David Cameron with kid gloves. Dawn Butler, a Labour MP and party vice-chairman, has written to the Beeb complaining there is a "special arrangement" under which the Tory leader is allowed to stick to one pre-arranged subject when he is interviewed on the programme and not ambushed with topical questions on the issue of the day -- as Labour ministers often are. Butler pointed out that this has happened in Cameron's five most recent appearances on the show, including one this morning when he spoke only about his party's policy on prisons.

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Today in Politics: Is Labour Old or New?

By Andrew Grice

There's an interesting battle for the rather unenviable job of succeeding Peter Watt as Labour's top official. You'll recall that he resigned as the party's general secretary last year amid the controversy over the secret loans from the property developer David Abrahams.

Labour's national executive committee (NEC) is due to choose his replacement a week today. Insiders predict a close race between David Pitt-Watson, a rare breed in that he is a Labour figure who has made it in the City of London, where he heads Hermes Equity Ownership. He's also Labour's former director of finance. His main rival is believed to be Mike Griffiths, an official in the Amicus-Unite trade union.

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Sunday, 02 March 2008

Today in Politics: Brown 2, Cameron 3

By Andrew Grice

Two revealing speeches by Gordon Brown and David Cameron this weekend. Closing a question-and-answer session at Labour's spring conference in Birmingham, Brown did a not very spontaneous walkabout on stage as he told his party it needed to find "new ways of communicating" and engaging with and involving the public in the multi-media age. Yes, he was doing a Cameron: the Tory leader has made speeches without notes at two party conferences in Blackpool, and last year walked round the stage. The Prime Minister wasn't quite as good as Cameron but he is right to practice what he preached: "the old ways", as he called them, are not going to serve him well in his battle with Cameron.

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Friday, 29 February 2008

Today in Politics: LibDems become the nasty party

By Andrew Grice

The Commons walkout by Nick Clegg and his Liberal Democrat troops in protest at procedures which don't give the third party a fair crack of the whip will not be the last. I am told that Clegg is prepared to repeatedly use guerilla tactics to make his point. I can't imagine his predecessor Sir Menzies Campbell doing that but Clegg, an MP only since 2005, is less reverential towards what he regards as the outdated rules of a fuddy-duddy Westminster club. "We're not going to stand for it; you will see a much more aggressive approach by us from now on," says my LibDem mole.

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Thursday, 28 February 2008

Today in Politics: Phillips ignites race debate

By Andrew Grice

I've had a lot of traffic over my article in today's paper about Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, who has warned that the election of Barack Obama as US President would prolong rather than end America's racial divide. I must admit that this falls into the category of a counter-intuitive story: when I heard about the piece Phillips had penned for Prospect magazine, I rang its editor to make sure it was written by THE Trevor Phillips and not another one.

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Wednesday, 27 February 2008

Today in Politics: Let the TV debates begin!

By Andrew Grice

After an inconclusive and sterile exchange between Gordon Brown and David Cameron over MPs' expenses, the Tory leader finally got into his stride at Prime Minister's Question Time by demanding televised debates between the party leaders at the next general election. He pointed out that the debates between the rival Presidential candidates had caught the imagination in America. Brown was not enthusiastic, replying that America doesn't have weekly sessions of Prime Minister's Questions like we do. It wasn't a very convincing answer.

Opposition leaders usually request TV debates and Prime Ministers usually rebuff them. The exception was 1997, when John Major was so far behind in the opinion polls that he challenged Tony Blair to a debate and Labour - with little to gain and everything to lose - invented excuses in order to duck the challenge.

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Today in Politics: Gravy train hits old buffers

By Andrew Grice

"When I became an MP, I offered to provide receipts for my second home but the Commons officials said that wouldn't be necessary and told me to just claim it." That's how the senior minister described to me the lax Additional Cost Allowance (ACA) scheme under which MPs can claim up to £22,100 a year for their second home.

Thankfully, the days of this system are numbered. Today jittery MPs are fretting about the implications of a ruling by an Information Tribunal that 11 MPs including Gordon Brown and Tony Blair should disclose more details of their claims.  The verdict was excoriating: "The laxity and lack of clarity in the rules for ACA is redolent of a culture very different from that which exists in the commercial sphere or in most other public sector organisations today...Seen in relation to the public interest that public money should be, and seen to be, properly spent, the ACA system is deeply unsatisfactory, and the shortfall both in transparency and in accountability is acute." Ouch!

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Tuesday, 26 February 2008

Today in Politics: Portillo 2, Everton 0

By Andrew Grice

I had a dilemma about my television viewing last night: was it to be business or pleasure?  Business would mean Michael Portillo's 90-minute documentary on BBC Four about Margaret Thatcher's continuing spell over the Conservative Party. Pleasure would be the second half of Manchester City v Everton. I switched over from the match at half-time to ensure I was up for the start of Portillo, fully expecting to return to the footy. To my surprise, there was no turning back. Portillo's programme was gripping.

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Monday, 25 February 2008

Today in Politics: Tories move 11 points ahead

By Andrew Grice

The Government's messy decision to nationalise Northern Rock did not appear to damage Labour last week, even though opinion polls showed the the voters were unimpressed by ministers' handling of the issue. However, the Tories will take comfort from our latest monthly survey by ComRes, taken at the weekend, which shows they have increased their lead over Labour from 8 percentage points last month to 11 points.

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Today in Politics: the eight-year itch

By Andrew Grice

There is a way out of the problems engulfing the Commons Speaker, Michael Martin. Britain should copy the United States by bringing in an eight-year time limit for top political jobs - including Prime Minister. If two four-year terms are enough for an American President, why not for a British PM?

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Friday, 15 February 2008

Today in Politics: Miliband admits pro-Europeans have failed

By Andrew Grice

A welcome burst of honesty from David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, when he addressed the 10th birthday party of the Centre for European Reform (CER), a busy and influential pro-European think tank in a field dominated by Eurosceptics. Miliband, a long-standing Europhile, was one of the group's founders.

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Wednesday, 13 February 2008

Today in Politics: Labour goes Tory

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron is often accused of copying New Labour's tactics in opposition but now Labour is to take a leaf out of the Tories' book by revamping its annual conference. Gordon Brown will make his keynote speech on the closing day to bring this autumn's event in Manchester "to a climax," Labour has decided. (Oh well, whatever turns you on). The Tory leader has traditionally closed his or her party conference. Labour's aim is to avoid the conference petering out after the leader speaks early in the week, leaving the hall half-empty on the closing day.

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Tuesday, 12 February 2008

Today in Politics: Brown (still) backs Darling

By Andrew Grice

Rumours that Alistair Darling may be prised out of the Treasury in a summer reshuffle and replaced by the Schools Secretary Ed Balls are doing the rounds at Westminster. They may be heading down the Thames from the City, where the Chancellor has made enemies by proposing a crackdown on non-domicile taxpayers. His reforms of capital gains tax and handling of Northern Rock has also raised the hackles of business leaders.

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Today in Politics: The re-birth of spin

By Andrew Grice

Are our much-despised spin doctors about to become respectable again? Matthew Taylor, the former senior aide to Tony Blair who now heads the Royal Society of Arts, argued on the BBC's Today programme this morning that the frenzy over the Archbishop of Canterbury's confusing remarks about sharia law made the case for spin doctors to be rehabilitated. Taylor said that a bit of spinning by Lambeth Palace could have made clear that Dr Rowan Williams was floating ideas for debate rather than making firm proposals. He is right.

At the same time, spin seems to be making a bit of a comeback at Downing Street following the arrival of PR executive Stephen Carter as communications and strategy supremo. When he succeeded Blair, Gordon Brown distanced himself from his predecessor by promising that parliament would be told first about policy decisions.

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Monday, 11 February 2008

Today in Politics: The worst job in politics?

By Andrew Grice

Who has the worst job in the Cabinet?  Some people would say it was Alistair Darling, who had the unenviable task of taking over from Gordon Brown at the Treasury, but he seems remarkably happy in his skin despite headaches like Northern Rock and the Datagate crisis.

I think the award goes to Jacqui Smith, the Home Secretary. The turf is always tricky but she occupies it at a particularly difficult time. Her Tory shadow, David Davis, seems to be getting a steady stream of damaging leaks. And she is sometimes caught in the middle of two powerful figures who take a very close interest in her work. Brown appears to be calling the shots on issues like the maximum period for detaining suspected terrorists without charge and it was noticeable that he, rather than the Home Secretary, made last week's Commons statement on the use of intercept evidenece in terrorist trials. The other person breathing down Smith's neck is Jack Straw, who inherited half his former Home Office empire when he became Justice Secretary last June.

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Friday, 08 February 2008

Today in Politics: Don't shoot Comrade Digby

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown's instincts will be to carpet Lord Digby Jones, the Minister for Trade Promotion, for the interview in today's Financial Times in which he criticises the Government's crackdown on non-domiciled taxpayers. It's the second time the portly former CBI boss has had a pop at the policies he is supposed to defend after joining Brown's "big tent" even though he's not a member of the Labour Party. In December, he expressed doubts about the Chancellor Alistair Darling's shake-up of capital gains tax (CGT).

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Thursday, 07 February 2008

Today in Politics: President Blair?

By Andrew Grice

The BBC and The Guardian seem to have caught up with something I revealed last week: that Tony Blair is warming to the idea of becoming "President of Europe". However, he wants to know the job description before he allows others to throw his hat in the ring, and doesn't want to campaign for the post of President of the European Council in case he doesn't land it.

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Today in Politics: A bumper crop of leaks?

By Andrew Grice

Some ministers are convinced that Gordon Brown's new year fightback is being undermined by leaks to the Tory Opposition. It may sound paranoid but for once the conspiracy theorists might be right.

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Wednesday, 06 February 2008

Today in Politics: Ditherer Brown?

DearmichaelBy Andrew Grice

David Cameron chose a good day to accuse Gordon Brown at Prime Minister's Questions of being "a hopeless, dithering PM" who has already set up 52 reviews during his premiership. The Tory leader knew that, following one review about the use of intercept evidence in terrorist trials, Brown was about to set up two more review teams to ensure adequate safeguards to allay the fears of the security services before the final go-ahead is given. The timescale is unclear and it's by no means certain that the necessary legislation will be passed before the next general election.

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Tuesday, 05 February 2008

Today in Politics: Cameron steals march on sleaze

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron has just popped up on television for the third time in five days to demand more "transparency" (the in-word at Westminster) over MPs' expenses. It is a sign of just how worried the Tories are that the Derek Conway affair will revive the party's image as the kings of sleaze in the public's mind. After Cameron addressed his MPs this morning, he re-announced the plan he disclosed on Friday for Tory frontbenchers to disclose whether they employ relatives, urged backbenchers to follow suit and went a little further by promising that the Opposition would publish the list.

He also had a pop at the Tory MP Sir Nicholas Winterton and his MP wife Ann, who have exploited a loophole in the Commons' housing allowances to buy a Westminster flat, and transferred it to a family trust to which they now pay rent from their expenses. Cameron said all MPs had to justify themselves in the court of public opinion, whatever the rules say.

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Today in Politics: Who is Sadiq Khan?

By Andrew Grice

The case of Sadiq Khan, the MP bugged by police when he visited a constituent who the United States wanted to extradite for alleged terrorist links, has taken a strange twist. Officials at the Ministry of Justice knew in December that Khan was bugged, against the spirit of a 40-year-old doctrine protecting MPs, but did not tell ministers. And, according to the BBC, some police officers thought that Khan was "subversive" and so, contrary to previous assumptions, the prisoner might not have been the only target of the surveillance.

As it happens, I know Khan. I tipped him as a rising star to watch in The Independent magazine's special Talent issue in December 2005, the year in which he became MP for Tooting.

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Monday, 04 February 2008

Today in Politics: MPs spooked by bugs

By Andrew Grice

It's not a good time for MPs and their special privileges. Their expenses and perks are under threat (see below) and now the 40-year-old ban on them being bugged by the security services is in the spotlight after revelations that police eavesdropped on the Labour whip Sadiq Khan when he visited a friend and constituent in prison.

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Today in Politics: An end to 'family fortunes'

By Andrew Grice

With all three main party leaders calling for more transparency about whether MPs employ relatives, now comes the hard part. It is dawning on some MPs that they will get little credit from the media or public if they make a full disclosure of all their expenses, as they are under pressure to do after the Derek Conway affair. I suspect these MPs are right: instead of the current bad headlines about how much individual members spend on travel or postage, the media would doubtless focus on the "bad news" if all items of expenditure are revealed.  It is unlikely to write "good news" stories about how our politicians are becoming more open.

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Friday, 01 February 2008

Today in Politics: Who thought of it first?

By Andrew Grice

For the second time this week, Gordon Brown and David Cameron are squabbling in the Westminster playground about who should get the credit for a new idea. On Wednesday they locked horns over further stop and search powers for the police. Cameron was first out of the traps but Team Brown did a clever spoiling operation and the PM got most of the credit in the newspapers.

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Today in Politics: Women and children first!

By Andrew Grice

It's now clear that many more MPs employ family members than we realised. There is no official list and newspapers have estimated the figure at more than 60. But this morning David Cameron has revealed that more than 70 of the 194 Tory MPs employ relatives. If that were replicated across all parties,about 230 MPs would be doing so.

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Thursday, 31 January 2008

Today in Politics: Return of the Nazi party?

By Andrew Grice

Another headache for David Cameron, who has been reminded that Gordon Brown is not the only leader who has to do a bit of crisis management. As if Derek Conway had not given him enough to worry about, Cameron is now under pressure to disown Daniel Hannan, an outspoken Eurosceptic Tory MEP, who compared the German President of the European Parliament to the Nazis.

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Today in Politics: Peter's (former) friends

By Andrew Grice

As MPs prepare to suspend the disgraced Tory MP Derek Conway from the Commons for 10 days, friends of the former Cabinet minister Peter Hain seem to be deserting him - even though he has paid a heavy price for his late declaration of £103,000 to his Labour deputy leadership campaign.

Richard Wilson, the actor who played Victor Meldrew in TV's One Foot in the Grave, is decidedly grumpy with Hain, whose campaign he endorsed by speaking at its launch and appearing in a video chat with the candidate. "I do feel let down," Wilson told the BBC's The Daily Politics programme. "I do find it quite difficult to believe that Peter Hain did not know about £100,000." He is so disenchanted that he might stop giving money to Labour.

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Wednesday, 30 January 2008

Today in Politics: Prime Minister's Answers

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron has found a new weapon in his weekly Commons joust with Gordon Brown. He is portraying the Prime Minister as the man who never answers a straight question. In today's session of Prime Ministers Questions, Cameron repeatedly asked Brown whether he would promise to scrap a form the police have to fill in when they stop suspects as the two leaders clashed over who was first to propose tougher stop and search powers (see below). Brown was coy, despite his team's earlier attempts to trump Cameron's initiative by previewing what the Government would announce on Monday.

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Today in Politics: Man-for-man marking

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron's latest policy initiative - a proposed increase in the powers of the police to stop and search suspects - has gone off at half cock. He announced his plans in an interview with The Sun. Nothing wrong with that. The only problem: the Tory leader didn't know that the Cabinet had approved similar plans at its meeting yesterday.

So when Downing Street heard about Cameron's plan last night, it was quick to tip off the media off about the government proposals due to be announced next week. The Tories claim they have stolen a march on Labour. Privately, they will be worried that the Government's ideas will blunt the impact of their launch. Opposition is fun when you run rings round a government, but it can also be a tough game.

Tuesday, 29 January 2008

Today in Politics: Why Brown called credit crunch summit

By Andrew Grice

The reasons behind tonight's mini-summit of European leaders in Downing Street were as much political as economic. Although the talks were always intended to focus on the global credit crunch, Brown cooked up the idea of meeting his French and German counterparts in December when he faced a different sort of crunch - in his relations with the rest of the EU. He alienated fellow EU leaders by turning up three hours late for the signing ceremony for the new EU treaty in Lisbon and realised that he needed to make amends if he was going to be regarded as a "good European".

Things didn't go quite according to plan.

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Today in Politics: Clegg vs Huhne (again)?

By Andrew Grice

Nick Clegg seems to be reluctant to let go of his old job as the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman, according to wicked whispers reaching my ears from within his own party.

Tongues are wagging because last week the party's new leader addressed a Police Federation rally about pay, along with David Davis, the shadow Home Secretary, and Labour MP Keith Vaz. Tonight Clegg rushed out a pithy statement about a forthcoming report on the state of our prisons by the chief inspector Anne Owers. The whisperers are wondering whether both issues might have been covered by his successor as home affairs spokesman. Who just happens to be the man he pipped for the leadership, Chris Huhne.

Today in Politics: Silly tit-for-tat games on sleaze

By Andrew Grice

Politics is descending into farce this week. Derek Conway, the senior Tory MP, has been deprived of the party whip by David Cameron after it emerged that he may have overpaid a second son employed as his Commons researcher while he was at university. This afternoon the Tories have launched a revenge attack on John Mann, the Labour MP who called for an inquiry into the case of Conway's second son. Malcolm Moss, a Tory MP, has reported Mann to the Electoral Commission for not telling it about support he receives from the GMB union, even though he listed it in the MPs' register of interests. (It seems a relatively trivial matter: the union provides an office for him to hold meetings in).

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Monday, 28 January 2008

Today in Politics: Should the Tories be further ahead?

By Andrew Grice

If you had told David Cameron at the start of the Tory conference last autumn that his party would be eight points ahead of Labour by now, he would have settled for that - with glee. That is what the latest monthly poll for The Independent by ComRes will show tomorrow. But I suspect Cameron will not be cracking open the champers. For a start, the Tory lead is down three points on last month, in line with other surveys. Full details in the paper tomorrow and at ComRes.

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Today in Politics: Small or large beer?

By Andrew Grice

The BBC is saying that the row over the senior Tory MP Derek Conway, who overpaid his own son by £13,000 for working as his Commons researcher while he was at university, is "small beer" compared to the sleaze allegations engulfing Labour figures like Peter Hain, Alan Johnson and Harriet Harman. Seems like a pretty large beer to me, especially as Conway faces a 10-day suspension from the Commons - a penalty that has yet to be imposed on any of the Labour folk under investigation. I suspect the Conway affair will help Labour in the sense that voters will think all politicians are on the make and say: "a plague on all your houses". Not a good advert for politics.

Sunday, 27 January 2008

Today in Politics: Brown loves job shock

By Andrew Grice

Don't believe people who say that Gordon Brown is too set in his ways to change. A calmer, more personable Brown emerged in a long interview on BBC TV's Politics Show this lunchtime. He even admitted that being Prime Minister was "the best job in the world". Previously, when asked whether he was enjoying his job, he has avoided the question and merely mumbled about his late father's view that everyone should make the most of their talents.

Brown looked tired today - no wonder after his gruelling schedule in China and India (I haven't recovered yet and he's been to Davos and back since). I'm sure there were times when he wanted to strangle his interviewer Jon Sopel, but he kept his cool. Yes, there were the the usual repeated references to economic "stability" which sometimes drive even his own aides to distraction. But he looked in control and, well, human. And definitely not the "strange man in Downing Street" that David Cameron spoke about last week.

Friday, 25 January 2008

Today in Politics: How Hague could have saved Hain

By Andrew Grice

Peter Hain's defence for not keeping tabs on his chaotic Labour deputy leadership campaign, which cost him his Cabinet job, was that he was too busy as a minister. Presumably he was also too busy to read William Hague's much-praised biography of William Pitt The Younger. If he had done so, he might have learnt a vital lesson.

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Today in Politics: Brown vs Blair (part 157)

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown is at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, today and has spoken in a panel discussion. Back home, tongues are wagging that he is being overshadowed by Tony Blair, who is playing a prominent role as co-chairman of the prestigious event. Blair even held a meeting with David Cameron, as Tories mischievously suggested that Brown had been sidelined by his predecessor. But there's some better news for Brown from businessmen attending the forum. One senior figure told me: "Brown is more accessible to us than Blair ever was. His door is always open. If you want a meeting, you get one straight away." However, he added: "That doesn't mean we get what we want."

Thursday, 24 January 2008

Today in Politics: Gordon's young guns

Andrew Grice

Out of the mess of Peter Hain's resignation, Gordon Brown has conjured up a good ministerial shake-up, and passed his first reshuffle test. I suppose he had time to think about it in advance, knowing that Hain might have to go. Brown has promoted the thirty-somethings in his team. James Purnell moves to Hain's job as Work and Pensions Secretary, while Andy Burnham moves from the Treasury to Purnell's job as Culture Secretary. Both are Blairites and seen as potential future Labour leaders. They are also close friends. Probably, like Brown and Tony Blair, they will one day be rivals.

Yvette Cooper, who is married to Ed Balls, deservedly gets a full Cabinet post as Burnham's successor as Chief Treasury Secretary. She is replaced as Housing Minister by Caroline Flint, also a Blairite. Perhaps the old Blair-Brown tribal divisions really are becoming history. The four rising stars have done well in their current jobs but will be tested more extensively in their new ones.

Today in Politics: Questions for Brown, not Hain

By Andrew Grice

Peter Hain's resignation was only a matter of seconds away once, as my colleague Ben Russell predicted last week, the Electoral Commission referred to the police the late donations of £103,000 to his Labour deputy leadership campaign. If Hain had been a little more contrite, he might still be in his Cabinet job. Sources close to the investigation were not impressed when he told them he was too busy as a minister to keep track of his donations. Hain then compounded his offence by telling the Cabinet it was all a "kerfuffle."

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Today in Politics: You won't win anything with kids

By Andrew Grice

Interesting smoke signals from the Downing Street bunker now that Gordon Brown has completed a shake-up of senior staff. Insiders tell me, very sotto voce, that he has finally recognised that the team he installed at Number 10 last June lacked enough experience. He has now turned to two heavyweights - Jeremy Heywood, a highly respected civil servant who becomes the first Downing Street Permanent Secretary in living memory, and Stephen Carter, the former Ofcom chief appointed head of strategy earlier this month.

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Wednesday, 23 January 2008

Today in Politics: Too many soundbites, Dave

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron changed tactics at Prime Minister's Questions today. There has been some grumbling by commentators about the scattergun approach under which he often moves from one issue to another during the six questions he is allowed. So today he stuck to Northern Rock. It's normally a better line of attack but he spoiled it by including too many pre-rehearsed soundbites.

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Today in Politics: Johnson's Swiss role

By Andrew Grice

Alan Johnson, the Health Secretary, gave a typically good, down-to-earth interview on the Radio 4's Today programme this morning about the strategy to fight obesity he will announce at lunchtime. But when he comes up for air (or food) he should get a briefing from the Foreign Office about the European Union. He argued for an EU-wide "traffic light" system for the labelling of junk foods but gave an unfortunate example, saying that Nestle was based in Switzerland. Oops. Switzerland is not in the EU. Nul points for "AJ" on geography.

Tuesday, 22 January 2008

Today in Politics: Bye, bye Bush

Fabian2 By Andrew Grice

Readers have asked me for more information about Gordon Brown's plans to shape "the world after Bush", on which I reported briefly during the PM's trip to India. So here goes. Brown is thinking deeply about a "new world order". It sounds corny but he's deadly serious. He wants a "new global society" based on reformed institutions such as the United Nations, IMF and World Bank; common values such as multilateralism and a tougher stance by the world community against governments which fail their own people or deny basic human rights.

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Monday, 21 January 2008

Today in Politics: Crash Gordon

By Andrew Grice in New Delhi

Gordon Brown's four-day tour of China and India is on its last leg today. That's also a fair description of his travelling party after a gruelling schedule which has allowed me a total of 12 hours sleep in four nights. Brown is ribbing us wimpish journos for not standing the pace but privately his aides admit they are just as knackered.

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Sunday, 20 January 2008

Today in Politics: CENSORED!

By Andrew Grice in New Delhi

Now that Gordon Brown's travelling show has moved on to India, I can tell you that this blog was censored while I was in China. You could read it where you are, but I couldn't access it while I was in China. I had to rely on friends and colleagues back in London to tell me that my postings had landed safely.

It seems that I fell victim to China's 30,000-strong internet police. In China you can access parts of The Independent's website but not my musings. The authorities insist that the police don't sit around all day reading blogs that they couldn't understand anyway but intervene when they find nudity or worse.

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Saturday, 19 January 2008

Today in Politics: Brown rocked

By Andrew Grice in Shanghai

If there's one rule about foreign trips by Prime Ministers, it's that they usually get sidetracked by a crisis back home. A few days ago, one of Gordon Brown's senior aides assured me when we talked about his current trip to China and India: "By the weekend, he will be reacting to a domestic story. It always happens."

Did the aide know that today's story about the Government's rescue plan for Northern Rock would emerge during his tour? Probably.

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Today in Politics: A cloud over the Olympics

By Andrew Grice in Beijing

Gordon Brown pulled off a coup today when he became the first foreign dignitary to visit the closely-guarded National Olympic Stadium in Beijing, which will stage this summer's Olympic Games. Even Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive French President and keen jogger, didn't wangle an invite when he visited the city recently.

The PM toured the basket-like structure, nicknamed the "Bird's Nest", in sub-zero temperatures, dressed only in his trademark lounge suit. "This is going to be one of the greatest Olympics ever," a shivering Brown told us after his sneak preview.

What struck me was a different sort of weather problem: how on earth will the athletes cope in temperatures of 30 degrees in August in a city which seems to be permanently covered by a blanket of smog caused by China's coal-fired power stations and the millions of cars which leave all major roads at a near-standstill?

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Friday, 18 January 2008

Today in Politics: Brown's long, good Friday

By Andrew Grice in Beijing

Gordon Brown may have his faults but lack of stamina isn't one of them. After an hour's sleep on his nine-hour flight from Heathrow, the PM landed in Beijing at 7am and began an exhausting round of back-to-back meetings with Chinese leaders lasting until about 10pm. Then, aides said, he would check on what was happening back in London because it would be only 2pm there.

Brown's mission here is to agree a classic trade-off, although his officials dispute that. British service industries will find fewer obstacles when they try to break into the Chinese market. In return, Britain will allow China to use a controversial £100m fund to buy stakes in British firms. Not so much a Chinese take-away as a Chinese take-over.

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Thursday, 17 January 2008

Today in Politics: Branson in a Pickle

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown begins a visit to China and India today designed to boost trade links but the trip got off to a bad start for some of the 25 British businessmen accompanying him. A glitch with security at the VIP suite at Heathrow Airport delayed them for 55 minutes, when some of then had to stand, commuter-like, crammed on a coach. I am told that Sir Richard Branson, the Virgin boss, led the protests to British Airports Authority staff. Nice to know that the captains of industry experience the same problems that their customers put up with on a daily basis.

As if that wasn't enough, there was then another problem when Brown and the businessmen finally boarded their Boeing 747 - it was unable to take off because all the fire engines at Heathrow rushed to a plane which experienced problems on landing, forcing all departures and arrivals to be temporarily halted.

Wednesday, 16 January 2008

Today in Politics: Hain the Pain's campaign

By Andrew Grice

Peter Hain is said to have called the controversy engulfing him a "kerfuffle" when he apologised to the Cabinet yesterday. If he did use that word, it will land him in even deeper trouble. And it will hardly endear him to the Electoral Commission, which is already unimpressed by his attitude over the late declaration of £103,000 of donations to his campaign for Labour's deputy leadership.

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Tuesday, 15 January 2008

Today in Politics: The bear and the snake

By Andrew Grice

Forget the hare and the tortoise. The next election will be a struggle between Brown the Bear and Cameron the Snake. Pollsters YouGov asked people which animal they identified with the two main party leaders. Some 30 per cent regarded Gordon Brown as a bear, while 31 per cent saw David Cameron as a snake.

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Monday, 14 January 2008

Today in Politics: Dear Gordon, love from Tony

By Andrew Grice

They say that life imitates art, but sometimes it's the other way round. In a recent column I invented a letter that Tony Blair had written to Gordon Brown, giving him a bit of friendly advice from an old hand after his autumn horribilis. Now it turns out that Blair really did send such a letter at about the same time, according to today's Daily Mail. The paper says Blair urged his successor to be "post-Blair and not anti-Blair." I am told that most of the advice the former PM gives Brown is on foreign affairs. I must admit I had no idea Blair had actually put pen to paper. The next time I make something up in the bath, I will check to see whether it's true.

Friday, 11 January 2008

Today in Politics: Will Peter Hain survive?

By Andrew Grice

Just when Gordon Brown's team were hopeful the political spotlight had switched back to policy, the news is dominated by the saga over the donations to Peter Hain's campaign for Labour's deputy leadership last summer. It is the last thing Brown wanted as he tried to move on from the problems which engulfed him last autumn - including, of course, the £600,000 of secret donations to Labour, of which the Hain affair is an uncanny echo.

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Thursday, 10 January 2008

Today in Politics: Tories go for Brown's jugular

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron has made an important strategic decision. The Tories are to try to use the global economic turbulence to puncture, once and for all, Gordon Brown's reputation for economic competence. Brown blames the chill wind blowing in from America. But the Tories are to blame him for not preparing Britain better for bad times during the good times while he was Chancellor.

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Today in Politics: No more MPs' snouts in the trough

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown believes MPs should no longer set their own pay levels, I can reveal. He wants the responsibility for fixing their salaries taken out of their hands. It's a fair point and should have been addressed years ago: after all, who else decides their own pay packet? The current system, which always provokes accusations of "snouts in the trough", does nothing to improve the standing of politicians in the voters' eyes.

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Wednesday, 09 January 2008

Today in Politics: Clegg's identity problem

By Andrew Grice

A solid start by Nick Clegg today in his debut at Prime Minister's Questions today. Wisely, he didn't try to match the wit of Vince Cable, who brought the House down with his quip about Gordon Brown turning from Stalin into Mr Bean. The new Liberal Democrat leader went for a populist issue on his "fairness" agenda: the hike in fuel bills, and how it will hit the poor hardest.

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Tuesday, 08 January 2008

Today in Politics: The Glums of Downing Street

By Andrew Grice

There was a feeling of deja vu all over again when Gordon Brown entered the room for his monthly press conference accompanied by his Chancellor Alistair Darling. The same duo appeared at the Prime Minister's previous presser last month. It was as if Christmas hadn't happened. "Haven't we had this press conference before?" we hacks asked each other.

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Monday, 07 January 2008

Today in Politics: New year, same old Brown?

By Andrew Grice

Day two of Gordon Brown's new year fightback. He has certainly hit the ground running. Today there were TV and radio interviews and a meaty speech on the NHS, promising a major screening programme as part of a switch to preventative care in its next 60 years. Tomorrow Brown will give his monthly Downing Street press conference. And plenty of the "long term decisions" he is promising us will follow soon, such as the go ahead for a new generation of nuclear power stations on Thursday.

Labour MPs are relieved to see their leader on the front foot again. But some continue to tell me that Brown has not done enough to acknowledge the mistakes he made last autumn, saying he needed to clear the ground before going on the offensive.

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Sunday, 06 January 2008

Today in Politics: Brown's relaunch

By Andrew Grice

If there is one word that politicians hate, it's "relaunch". Gordon Brown won't use this R-word (any more than he talks about Redistributing wealth) but that is what he's attempting after a dismal autumn.

On the BBC TV's Andrew Marr show this morning, the Prime Minister refused to acknowledge his autumn horribilis. Instead, he stuck doggedly to his line: he will not be distracted by short-term events as he takes the difficult long-term decisions facing the country. Which led him on to his new "dividing line" with the Tories, a traditional Brown technique. He argued that the Tories are avoiding the difficult questions - whether on building nuclear power stations, 3 million new homes or a new runway at Heathrow.

Brown's subliminal message to voters was: you may have gone off me, but you can still trust me in the difficult economic times that lie ahead - and you can't trust the other lot yet.

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Friday, 04 January 2008

Today in Politics: MORE immigration needed

By Andrew Grice

At a time when our politicians (and the American presidential contenders) are debating whether immigration is too high, there's an interesting report in today's issue of The Economist magazine suggesting that it should be higher. It argues that the easier movement of people has created wealth and helped to share it more equally as billions of pounds are sent home in remittances. The 200 million migrants in the world today account for only 3% of the total population. Without them, the greying and increasingly choosy populations in much of the rich world would already be in decline today, it says.

This won't be welcomed by many British politicians, who promise "tough but fair" policies on immigration but often compete to be tougher rather than fairer than their opponents to reassure public opinion.

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Thursday, 03 January 2008

Today in Politics: The welfare state we're in

By Andrew Grice

Until recently, the Tories would have been laughed at if they had claimed to be "the party of the NHS". It is a measure of the progress they have made that David Cameron is taken seriously when he sets this as his goal for the year in which the NHS celebrates its 60th birthday.

The great divide between the two main parties on health (as on so many issues) has narrowed: the Tories would match Labour's spending and would no longer give patients a financial incentive to have private treatment, while Labour's use of the private sector for NHS work makes it harder for it to claim the Tories would privatise the NHS.

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Wednesday, 02 January 2008

Today in Politics: Will Britain break with Musharraf?

By Andrew Grice

In 2005, I watched Tony Blair and General Pervez Musharraf trumpet a joint agreement between Britain and Pakistan. Fittingly, perhaps, it was struck in New York, in the margins of a United Nations world summit. Fittingly because Blair was, not for the first time, taking his lead from George Bush in backing Musharraf as a bulwark against terrorism after the 9/11 attacks. Blair believed that Musharraf was the best - and at the time only - show in town. We had just had our equivalent of 9/11 with the London tube and bus bombings. Yet I recall that Musharraf seemed to be enjoying their joint press conference a little more than Blair. He basked in the warm glow of international support as Blair spoke of their "excellent meeting" in "a spirit of co-operation and agreement" and backed the Pakistani President's six-point plan to tackle terrorism and extremism. There was no mention by either man of restoring democracy in Pakistan.

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Tuesday, 01 January 2008

Today in Politics: Happy birthday, NHS

By Andrew Grice

The National Health Service is 60 years old in July and our politicians have been quick out of the traps as a new year begins to mark the event. Today Gordon Brown has relaunched plans to give the NHS its own constitution. His language is interesting because it is impeccably New Labour. He speaks of the "rights and responsibilities" of patients, a more "personalised" service and "far greater control and choice" for patients over their healthcare. "Choice" is a Blairite mantra that Brown uses very rarely in relation to public services.

The Tories will cry foul because they already support an NHS constitution and claim Brown has adopted a watered down version of their policy to give the NHS independence from day-to-day control by politicians. Brown argues that the NHS needs to be held accountable to the public through ministers. They would certainly get the blame if things went wrong under an "independent" NHS.

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Monday, 31 December 2007

Today in Politics: Clegg's challenging year

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown and David Cameron will both be anxious to make an early impact in 2008, hoping to win the battle in the media's eyes to become the leader and party with momentum. But a lot of eyes will also be on Nick Clegg, the new kid on the Westminster block.

He's going to have a busy time: he celebrates his 41st birthday on 7 January, the day the Commons returns. Two days later he will make his debut at Prime Minister's Questions, when he'll be hoping to emulate Vince Cable, who did a brilliant job as acting LibDem leader, rather than Sir Menzies Campbell, who struggled to recover from an uncertain start. Then on 12 January Clegg will make a major speech setting out his agenda, which he is writing during his Christmas break.

The speech will need to be good.

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Sunday, 30 December 2007

Today in Politics: Blairites for Brown?

By Andrew Grice

It's the season for New Year messages from our politicians. Often these are quite boring and cliche-ridden but there are a couple of interesting interventions today. Gordon Brown and David Cameron fall into the predictable category.

Brown makes clear he is the man to steer Britain through the choppy economic waters expected in 2008. He must have been studying last week's ComRes poll for The Independent, which showed that the voters prefer him to Cameron when it comes to handling economic problems (but not much else). Cameron, meanwhile, promises the Tories will provide "a clear and credible alternative to this hopeless and incompetent Labour Government".

There's a more interesting message from Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary, in a mini-interview in The Sunday Times.

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Friday, 28 December 2007

Today in Politics: Rising stars

By Andrew Grice

This is the time of the year when so-called experts like me have to predict who will make it big in the coming year. I have to admit it's a bit of a mug's game. In recent years, I have tipped Ed Balls and Ed Miliband for the Cabinet but they were pretty safe choices. Sadiq Khan, the impressive Labour MP for Tooting, was a more bold prediction and he is now a government whip. Liam Byrne, who I tipped three years ago, is doing nicely as Immigration Minister and should make it to the Cabinet.

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Thursday, 27 December 2007

Today in Politics: Comrade Digby spoils the party

405617 By Andrew Grice

Lord Digby Jones, the former CBI boss who is now the Minister for Trade Promotion, has defied his Labour critics by saying he will not join the party. When he was appointed in June, Jones agreed to take the Labour whip but refused to become a party member. He has since come under pressure to sign up by Labour peers and MPs. But in a rare interview today on BBC Radio 4's The World at One, he said: "I don't belong to the party and I won't belong to the party."

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Today in Politics: Brown's bad reviews

By Andrew Grice

Eat your heart out, Rory Bremner. Nick Clegg does a wicked impression of Gordon Brown, I can reveal. When the Prime Minister rang to congratulate him on becoming Liberal Democrat leader, Clegg raised issues he would want to see addressed if they were to going to "work together in the country's interests", as Brown hoped. They included reform of the voting system at general elections. "We've got a review into that," Brown replied, although Clegg is not holding his breath. Another was the worrying growth of huge government databases. "There's a review going on into that," Brown said. So Clegg pokes gentle fun at Brown's tendency to review everything when he mimmicks his voice to friends.

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Wednesday, 26 December 2007

Today in Politics: Talking to the Taliban

By Andrew Grice

"Britain in secret talks with the Taliban," says the front page headline in today's Daily Telegraph. Sound familiar?  My colleague Colin Brown revealed in The Independent that Britain was moving that way after accompanying Gordon Brown on a trip to Afghanistan earlier this month. You may also recall that the Prime Minister half-denied such talks were taking place when he made a Commons statement on the day our story appeared, although he admitted that the Government of Afghanistan was trying to split moderates from hardliners and bring them into talks. Brown's statement provoked sniffy coverage elsewhere, such as a headline in The Guardian saying: "We will not negotiate with The Taliban, says Brown."

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Sunday, 23 December 2007

Today in Politics: Time for change

By Andrew Grice

More bad tidings for Gordon Brown to digest along with his Christmas turkey. Nine NHS trusts have admitted that they have lost information about their patients, completing a hat-trick of data disasters after those lost records on child benefit recipients and learner drivers. Whatever next? The whips' secret files on the sex lives of MPs and ministers? Might be a good read.

There's even more bad news for Labour in a special opinion poll for The Independent by ComRes to mark the end of the political year.

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Today in Politics: Clegg's first rebellion

By Andrew Grice

Nick Clegg's attempts to reach out to young people have got off to an uncertain start. The 40-year-old new Liberal Democrat leader has been accused of reverse ageism (yoofism?) after dropping Jo Swinson, at 27 Britain's youngest MP, as his party's spokeswoman on youth. She has been replaced by Lynn Featherstone, 56, while Clegg also raised eyebrows by appointing musician Brian Eno, 59, to advise him on youth issues.

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Friday, 21 December 2007

Today in Politics: Who is Deputy Prime Minister?

By Andrew Grice

As a wounded Gordon Brown limps home to the safety of Scotland for Christmas and a long-overdue break, one man who has been fighting alongside him in the trenches is deemed to have had a good war. Ministers have started to call Jack Straw "the Deputy Prime Minister" - not with any sense of irony, but out of respect. The Justice Secretary is the great survivor of British politics. He has bounced back to the top after Tony Blair demoted him from Foreign Secretary to Leader of the Commons. Blair suspected that Straw was cosying up to Brown - although with hindsight he looks a better Foreign Secretary than he did at the time, and much of what he said about Iran and Iraq has been proved right.

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Thursday, 20 December 2007

Today in Politics: Friends and rivals

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron and his shadow Chancellor George Osborne have given their first (and second) "joint interviews" to the The Daily Telegraph and Daily Mail, who are accompanying them on their visit to China. Their message is that they are friends not rivals, and that they didn't need a Granita-style pact like Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to decide who should stand for the Tory leadership two years ago. Osborne says he wasn't ready to stand -- even though Michael Howard, the outgoing leader, is said to have believed that he would be a better bet than Cameron.

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Wednesday, 19 December 2007

Today in Politics: Brown loves his Darling

By Andrew Grice

It was interesting that Gordon Brown decided to share a platform with the Chancellor Alistair Darling at his Downing Street press conference this morning. I suspect the aim was to reassure the markets and the public that the economy is "fundamentally sound", as the PM put it, but also to scotch the idea that he is still running day-to-day economic policy and that Darling is a mere sidekick who occasionally pops into the Treasury to sign a few cheques.

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Tuesday, 18 December 2007

Today in Politics: Clegg squeaks home

By Andrew Grice

Nick Clegg's narrow victory by just 511 votes in the Liberal Democrat leadership election is not the start he wanted as leader. He is keen to stamp his authority on his party from day one and had hoped for a 60-40 margin when the contest began. But his rival Chris Huhne has undoubtedly "won" the campaign, just as he did when he came second to Sir Menzies Campbell last year.

Huhne's sharp elbows enabled him to muscle in to the controversy over Labour's secret donations. Scotland Yard's investigation was announced in a letter to him. Clegg deliberately kept out of the row, fearing that he would create a hostage to fortune if a funding controversy erupted during his leadership. This summed up his cautious campaign: his eye was on the voters at large and the aftermath of the contest rather than the members whose votes he needed.

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Today in Politics: Brown vs Cameron (postponed)

By Andrew Grice

I am told Gordon Brown will give a sort of end-year report when he holds his monthly press conference at Downing Street tomorrow. It is the first day of Parliament's Christmas recess and Tory MPs are claiming that Brown would rather face questions from the media than from David Cameron at Prime Minister's Question Time, which doesn't resume until January 9.

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Monday, 17 December 2007

Today in Politics: Burying bad news?

By Andrew Grice

Further evidence tonight that the Brown Government has not given up spin. On the eve of the Commons Christmas recess, a series of damaging reports and statements have been published. They include two inquiry reports on the Datagate disaster, an admission that the details of 3 million candidates for the driving theory test have gone missing, a critical report on this summer's floods and, at 6pm, the annnouncement that an illegal immigrant has been working as a security guard at... the Home Office, of course.

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Today in Politics: Cameron's sleazy dilemma

By Andrew Grice

Chris Grayling, the Tory spokesman on work and pensions, was dubbed "Chris Grey Thing" at Cambridge University but recently he is now one of the brightest stars in David Cameron's frontbench team. He has a good nose for a scandal and a sleaze story and has become a thorn in Labour's side (he's the one who recently gave Labour a hard time over its secret donations).

The Tory leader sometimes wishes he had more attack dogs like Grayling. But he has a dilemma: if the Tories go too hard on allegations of Labour sleaze, they may only reduce the already low standing of politicians as a whole in the eyes of the voters. So they might not reap much benefit from such attacks if the public's reaction is "a plague on all your houses."

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Friday, 14 December 2007

Today in Politics: Mr Brown goes to Brussels (at last)

By Andrew Grice in Brussels

Gordon Brown has never enjoyed European Union meetings. As Chancellor, he had a reputation for paying only flying visits and not even bothering to listen to the translation of what his fellow finance ministers were saying. EU leaders and the European Commission were hoping to see a different side to him when he became Prime Minister. But their worst fears are becoming true.

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Today in Politics: Gordon's late show (part 2)

By Andrew Grice in Brussels

Gordon Brown has done it again. Not only did he arrive three hours late for the signing ceremony for the new European Treaty in Lisbon yesterday, but he flew back to London while other EU leaders headed for Brussels for today's one-day summit in the Belgian capital. Mindful of the huge carbon footprint caused by their crazy decision to go to Lisbon just to sign a treaty, they shared planes to get to Brussels. (Portugal, which holds the EU's rotating chairmanship, insisted on yesterday's grand event so the EU's new blueprint would be called the Treaty of Lisbon rather than the Treaty of Brussels).

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Thursday, 13 December 2007

Today in Politics: Fog in Britain, Brown isolated

By Andrew Grice

Watching the signing ceremony for the new European Treaty in Lisbon, I couldn't help thinking of the 19th century newspaper headline: "Fog in the Channel, continent cut off." Gordon Brown's absence at the wonderful 500-year-old Jeronimos Monastery was conspicious. The ceremony was like a cross between Noah's Ark and the Eurovision song contest. Two by two, Prime Ministers and Foreign Ministers from 26 countries walked proudly to the stage and signed two giant tomes. Until it came to the final country - the United Kingdom which, fittingly, comes last in the EU's alphabetical pecking order. David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary, managed a smile as he walked alone to the table. It looked odd, having seen the double act from the other 26 nations, like a mouth with one front tooth missing. Maybe I imagined it, but I think the applause for Miliband from the audience was at a lower decibel level than for the other 52 leaders.

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Wednesday, 12 December 2007

Today in Politics: Smith strikes trouble

By Andrew Grice

The biggest surprise when Gordon Brown announced his first Cabinet in June was Jacqui Smith's appointment as Home Secretary. One reason for her big promotion was that Brown wanted to signal a  softer tone than the hardline approach to law and order adopted by predecessors at the Home Office like John Reid and David Blunkett. As Chancellor, Brown suspected that tough rhetoric about crime only fuelled the public's fear of it.

It hasn't quite gone to plan.

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Today in Politics: Miliband makes a splash

By Andrew Grice

It is Christmas party time in Whitehall, and the receptions held by ministers often clash. Last night David Miliband's Foreign Office competed with Hazel Blears at the Department of Communities. Tonight the hosts include Peter Hain and Ed Balls, who is increasingly seen as Miliband's most likely rival in the future Labour leadership stakes.

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Tuesday, 11 December 2007

Today in Politics: Huhne claims late surge

By Andrew Grice

Supporters of Chris Huhne are claiming their man is getting a late surge in the marathon race for the Liberal Democrat leadership. Voting ends on Saturday and the result will be announced next Tuesday. The Huhne camp is using the classic technique used by LibDems during parliamentary by-elections, claiming they are closing the gap on the front-runner and can win, which has often served them well.

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Today in Politics: Mr Brown goes to Lisbon after all

By Andrew Grice

Hot news from this morning's Downing Street briefing, which has just ended. Gordon Brown WILL go to Lisbon after all on Thursday, when European Union leaders sign their new treaty. If this sounds like a storm in an eggcup, it is of Brown's own making. As I reported yesterday, he has been trying to pander to Eurosceptic newspapers by avoiding the ceremony, even though he supports the treaty. But he has now backed down after upsetting our EU partners.

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Monday, 10 December 2007

Today in Politics: Tories win economic spurs

By Andrew Grice

The Government's recent problems have given David Cameron a unique opportunity. There are mixed signals about whether he is taking it and arguably the Tories should be even further ahead in the opinion polls at a time when Gordon Brown is having such a torrid time.

But there's some good news for the Tories.

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Today in Politics: No postcards from Lisbon

By Andrew Grice

What is Gordon Brown up to? Downing Street can't say whether he will attend the signing ceremony for the new European Union treaty in Lisbon on Thursday. It is pleading a "diary clash" because the Prime Minister is answering questions from senior MPs for the first time. Number 10 blames an administrative cock-up but the Lisbon photocall has been in the diary for a while and the MPs' session could surely have been rearranged.

The suspicion at Westminster is that Brown doesn't want to be pictured with his EU counterparts at a jamboree.

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Friday, 07 December 2007

Today in Politics: Christmas Balls

By Andrew Grice

Ed Balls is a busy man these days. Not only is he running the Department for Children, Schools and Families, according to some ministers, Gordon Brown relies on him to run the whole Government, and he spends "half his time in Number 10".

Last night, Balls returned to his old base in 11 Downing Street, when he dressed up as Santa Claus for 50 kids at the Commons Press Gallery's Christmas party, kindly hosted by Maggie Darling, the Chancellor's wife. I don't know how he found the time, but he was a brilliant Santa. He wasn't bad on the dance floor either. Later he reappeared without his Santa outfit, quipping that he had just been in a meeting with civil servants. PS: No sleaze here - we paid for the grub and drinks.

Thursday, 06 December 2007

Today in Politics: Brown bashes Blair

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown found time to press the flesh of the Labour faithful last night at a 70th birthday bash for Tribune the left wing weekly, at the SW1 Gallery in Victoria. In his speech, Brown heaped praise on the other star guest Michael Foot, the 94-year-old former Labour leader and Tribune editor, saying he had discovered someone called Blair. After a pregnant pause, Brown explained that he was, of course, referring to Eric Blair - aka George Orwell, who wrote for Tribune. The party goers liked it but, as is often the case with Brown's jokes, some of them had heard it before.

Today in Politics: Send for Charles Clarke

By Andrew Grice

There's a delicious irony in the Government's announcement today that it wants to extend the maximum period for which suspected terrorists can be held without charge from 28 to 42 days. That is the compromise that Charles Clarke, the then Home Secretary, urged Tony Blair to accept two years ago during the last  battle over counter terrorism laws. But Blair refused to back down on his preferred 90-day limit, declaring: "Sometimes it is better to lose and do the right thing than to win and do the wrong thing." His Government duly suffered its first Commons defeat since coming to power by 31 votes.

The compromise put forward today won't win over the Tories and Liberal Democrats but may persuade some of the 49 Labour MPs who rebelled last time to think again. One minister told me: "We hope that some who voted against will abstain and some who abstained will hold their noses and support us." Some, however, will conclude that it still stinks and so the vote could be close.

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Today in Politics: Cruddas for leader!

Joncruddas_01 By Andrew Grice

As if Gordon Brown doesn't have enough on his plate, there is a worrying article in today's issue of the New Statesman magazine that will go to top of his overflowing in-tray. Jon Cruddas (pictured), the independent-minded Labour MP who brought a breath of fresh air to the party's deputy leadership contest this year, has penned a powerful attack on New Labour with his backbench colleague Jon Trickett.

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Wednesday, 05 December 2007

Today in Politics: Alexander's TV technique

By Andrew Grice

Douglas Alexander, the International Development Secretary, has pulled out of tomorrow night's Question Time programme on BBC TV at very short notice. Presumably, he didn't want to be questioned about the problems facing his sister Wendy, who is struggling to hang on to her job as Labour's leader in Scotland after accepting an "illegal" £950 donation from a Jersey-based businessman towards her leadership campaign.

Perhaps the fact that Kenneth Clarke, still one of the biggest beasts in the Tory jungle, is on the panel is also a factor. But Alexander's decision has raised eyebrows at Westminster as he is also Labour's election campaign co-ordinator. "It's a pretty bad sign when someone like him won't go on TV to defend the party and Government," one Labour MP told me.

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Today in Politics: Malloch-Brown and humble pie

By Andrew Grice

Lord Malloch-Brown, the Foreign Office minister, is back - and on message, according to Whitehall whispers this morning. The former United Nations' deputy general secretary was put in what my mole calls "his box" after saying that Britain and the United States would no longer be "joined at the hip" after Gordon Brown replaced Tony Blair. Although he was probably speaking the truth, Brown didn't want it shouted from the rooftops on the eve of his visit to the US in July. There followed a whispering campaign against the minister for Asia, Africa and the UN.

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Tuesday, 04 December 2007

Today in Politics: Is Donorgate a Tory dirty tricks operation?

By Andrew Grice

Senior Labour figures admit they have been caught breaking the law over the party's dodgy donations from the property developer David Abrahams. But they are convinced that the Tories have played a part in the disclosures and are running a dirty tricks operation to embarrass Labour.

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Today in Politics: Huhne trumps Clegg

By Andrew Grice

Chris Huhne has found his unique selling point in his battle with Nick Clegg for the Liberal Democrat leadership. Although Huhne's allies admit their man would lose a "beauty contest" with the more telegenic Clegg, Huhne is portraying himself as the man who will make the third party's voice heard.

Never backwards in coming forwards, the former journalist is trumpeting his coup in winning media airtime during Labour's crisis over secret donations. Huhne's letter prompted Scotland Yard to investigate (though it would have done anyway) and yesterday he met Durham Police to discuss the Donorgate affair. "It worries me obviously that if we don't get into stories, like for example we managed to do over the last week over the Labour donation, people will have us out of sight and out of mind," Huhne told Radio 4's Today programme this morning.

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Monday, 03 December 2007

Today in Politics: Brown tells party to come clean

Brown_letter By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown has written to Labour staff, MPs and peers urging them to come clean over what they know about the party's dodgy donations during the Scotland Yard investigation, I can reveal. "Everyone should be pro-active in providing information to the police that could be relevant to their enquiries," Brown told his party troops.

In a message aimed perhaps at the Met as well as his party, Brown said it was vital that the police produce their findings without a "running commentary" in the media. During the "cash for honours" probe, Labour accused the Yard of leaking details. There is still plenty of media commentary on Donorgate, so his hopes may be dashed.

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Saturday, 01 December 2007

Today in Politics: Brown fights back

Brown_letter_6By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman put on a public show of unity at a meeting of Labour's national policy forum in London today, despite the tensions between them over the dodgy donations row engulfing the party. Labour MPs are appalled that Harman appeared to drag Brown further into the mire by revealing that she was referred to Janet Kidd, one of the proxies used by property developer David Abrahams to give money to Labour, by Brown's leadership campaign team. She took £5,000 from Ms Kidd for her successful deputy leadership campaign.

After another disastrous week, Brown is trying to get back on the front foot. He has written to Scotland Yard (see above), promising the fullest possible co-operation with its inquiry into the affair. Today he promised wide-ranging reforms to clean up the way parties are funded, saying Labour would bring in a new law without all-party support if necessary. While he wasn't convinced there would be public support for more state funding of parties, he said it should be discussed.

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Thursday, 29 November 2007

Today in Politics: Police to probe Labour funding scandal

Metletter By Andrew Grice

"The Government is getting on with running the country," a defiant Harriet Harman told the Commons today, provoking much laughter on the Tory benches. Privately, ministers and their officials admit the Government has been diverted by the scandal over Labour's secret donations. Yes, ministers still make speeches and announcements, but they receive little attention and their own minds are on the same issue as the media.

There is deep frustration in Downing Street that Gordon Brown's fightback has stalled in its tracks. This was supposed to the week when he put the spotlight back on to serious policy issues like welfare reform and a shake-up of the planning laws. The aim was to get the show back on the road after disasters like Datagate. But his announcements were eclipsed by the funding row. The worst thing about the story from the Brown camp's point of view is that it is not under their control, and they fear further damaging revelations. "We're waiting for the next headline," one ally admitted. Funnily enough, just as I was writing this, another headline popped up: the Electoral Commission has referred the affair to the police. This will prolong Labour's agony. The announcement came from Sir Ian Blair, the Metropolitan Police Commissioner, in a letter (pictured) to the Liberal Democrat MP Chris Huhne.

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Wednesday, 28 November 2007

Today in Politics: Greybeards vs Young Turks

By Andrew Grice

After the non-election fiasco was blamed on his Young Turk ministers like Ed Balls and Douglas Alexander, Gordon Brown is said to be widening his inner circle to include "greybeards" such as Jack Straw and Geoff Hoon. These two older Cabinet heads have been put up for media interviews to bat for Brown over the Labour funding scandal. But today Labour MPs are gossiping that both have made errors. On Monday, Straw suggested no ministers knew about the secret donations by the property developer David Abrahams. Now we know that least two - Harriet Harman and Hilary Benn - knew he gave money through intermediaries.

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Today in Politics: Get me a bishop!

Demon_eyes_saatchi By Andrew Grice

"Get me a f****** bishop!" Peter Mandelson screamed inside Labour HQ when the Tories ran an advert showing Tony Blair with "demon eyes". I wonder if Gordon Brown remembered the words of his old foe when he set up an inquiry into Labour's secret donations scandal. And guess what? The bishop who came to the rescue of both of them is the same man - Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford. He denounced the Tory ad in 1997 and will now investigate the funding controversy for Brown. Small world, politics. For good measure, "demon eyes" was produced Saatchi & Saatchi, the agency recently signed up by Labour.

Tuesday, 27 November 2007

Today in Politics: parties need taxpayers' money

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown survived his 70-minute grilling by journalists at his Downing Street press conference, pre-empting their onslaught by announcing an inquiry into Labour's secret donations inquiry. He hopes his decisive action will avoid a repeat of the protracted "cash for honours" saga which ensared Tony Blair for more than a year. But the latest plot is thickening.

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Monday, 26 November 2007

Today in Politics: Brown in the brown stuff

By Andrew Grice

There's a double dose of bad news for Gordon Brown tonight, as if he didn't already enough problems. On the day earmarked for his "fightback," Labour's general secretary Peter Watt has resigned because he allowed David Abrahams, a North east property developer, to make secret donations totalling £400,000 to the party through two associates. Wagging Westminster tongues (including Labour ones) are already asking: is this Brown's equivalent of Tony Blair's "cash for honours"? It's too soon to tell, but I suspect things will get worse before they get better. Expect more revelations.

Blow number two comes in The Independent's monthly opinion poll by ComRes. Astonishingly, the Tories have a 13-point lead, their biggest in any poll since 1988, when Margaret Thatcher was in power. The Tories are on 40%, Labour 27%, the Liberal Democrats 18% and other parties 14%. Although Labour has dropped points since last month following Datagate and Northern Rock, the only crumblet of comfort for Brown is that the Tories have slipped by one point.

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Today in Politics: Cable does the business

Vincecable2 By Andrew Grice - at CBI Conference 2007

Send for Mr Burns of The Simpsons! Or at least for Vince Cable, the acting Liberal Democrat leader, who is a dead ringer for him. That was the killer question when Nick Clegg and Chris Huhne, the two men vying for the Liberal Democrat leadership, set out their stall at the CBI conference today.

The biggest applause came when one delegate called for Cable to enter the race because he was giving the Government such a battering over its recent problems such as Northern Rock. Sadly, it is too late because nominations have closed. Clegg admitted the party's opinion poll ratings had doubled since Cable took temporary charge after the resignation of Sir Menzies Campbell. Perhaps Cable, Huhne and himself should share the leadership permanently, he said.

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Today in Politics: Brown given sober warning

In2366008londonnovember By Andrew Grice - at CBI Conference 2007

The last time I went to the Business Design Centre in Islington, London, it was for a wine festival. This dispatch is from a much more sober event - today's speech by Gordon Brown to the annual conference of the CBI. After his nightmare week, the Prime Minister was keen to show the businessmen it was business as usual. Unfortunately, his face was projected on two giant screens above his head and he looked tired, as though he was carrying his bags from his trip to Uganda under his eyes.

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Friday, 23 November 2007

Today in Politics: Datagate and the Bourn conspiracy theory

NaoBy Andrew Grice

The release of emails shedding some light on the Great Datagate Scandal is a victory for parliament over the Government. Downing Street tried to bring down the shutters, refusing to discuss any details on the grounds that official inquiries are underway - an old trick. But its ankles were bitten by two spending watchdogs - Edward Leigh, the Tory chairman of the Public Accounts Committee and Sir John Bourn, head of the National Audit Office (NAO), who pressed for publication of email traffic between the NAO and HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

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Thursday, 22 November 2007

Today in Politics: Another day, another leak

By Andrew Grice

When a government is in trouble, it never rains but it pours. After the lost data fiasco, news comes today of a leak at the Pirbright laboratory complex in Surrey which caused the foot and mouth outbreak this summer.

A two-page written Commons statement has just plopped on to my desk in which Hilary Benn, the Environment Secretary, discloses that a valve at the privately-owned Merial lab has leaked, allowing a "probably release of live FMD virus" into the drainage system.

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Wednesday, 21 November 2007

Today in Politics: Tories point finger at Brown

By Andrew Grice

Forget Alistair Darling. The Tories have now got Gordon Brown in their sights as they step up their pressure on the Government over the catastrophic loss by HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC) of the personal data of 25m people.

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Today in Politics: the end for ID cards?

By Andrew Grice

Surely, the catastrophic loss of personal data at HM Revenue and Customs will spell the end of the Government's controversial scheme to make identity cards compulsory?  Don't bet on it, ministers tell me.

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Tuesday, 20 November 2007

Today in Politics: Ministers ask 'Crisis, what crisis?'

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown's problems are mounting. He may even have to rewrite his much-repeated joke that "there are two types of Chancellor - those who fail and those who get out in time". The Treasury is the last department he would want to see engulfed by problems. But Alistair Darling is having a torrid time. Yesterday, Northern Rock. Today, he had to explain to MPs the biggest breach of personal security ever seen in Europe, which happened at HM Revenue and Customs (HMRC).

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Today in Politics: Cameron seeks clear blue water on education

By Andrew Grice

Today David Cameron set himself the task of explaining how the Tories would be "different" on education. There used to be big divisions between Labour and the Tories on the issue. Nowadays both parties call for more respect and discipline in the classroom, personalised learning, rigour in the system and freedom for schools. The speeches of their leading figures are often interchangeable as they scrabble over a relatively small piece of turf.

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Monday, 19 November 2007

Today in Politics: Cable puts Darling between Rock and hard place

By Andrew Grice

Some good news for the troubled Liberal Democrats. Their acting leader Vince Cable is winning plaudits for shining a light on the possible losses to taxpayers from the Government's £24bn loan to Northern Rock, which is becoming a very nasty headache for ministers.

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Today in Politics: Sparks finally fly in Lib Dem contest

By Andrew Grice

The soporific Liberal Democrat leadership has suddenly burst into life. An over-zealous press officer for Chris Huhne drew up a collection of quotes by his rival Nick Clegg and put the headline "Calamity Clegg" on them. This dossier was passed to BBC TV's Politics Show and provoked an amazing spat between the two contenders on the programme yesterday - the very opposite of their joint appearance on Question Time which literally sent me to sleep last week. Although Huhne apologised for the headline, he stood by the allegation that his opponent "flip-flops" on policy.

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Sunday, 18 November 2007

Today in Politics: Blair admits Iraq failure

By Andrew Grice

There's a significant admission by Tony Blair in interviews he gave for The Blair Years a three-part BBC documentary starting tonight (10.15pm, BBC1). He admitted that al-Qa'ida and its associates in Iraq may have more stamina for the fight than the US-led coalition. "The enemy we are fighting I am afraid has learnt... that our stomach for this fight is limited and I believe they think they can wait us out," he told his interviewer David Aaronovitch. "Our determination has got to match theirs and our will has got to be stronger than theirs and at the moment I think it is probably not." Gloomy, but realistic and interesting because Blair doesn't normally do failure. His pal George Bush certainly doesn't.

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Friday, 16 November 2007

Today in Politics: The Lib Dems are a yawn

By Andrew Grice

I fell asleep during BBC TV's Question Time special with the two contenders for the Liberal Democrat leadership last night. Fortunately, Chris Huhne raised the decibel level with a strong attack on the Trident nuclear missile system and that woke me up. His opponent Nick Clegg, who would keep Trident as a bargaining chip in disarmament negotiations, did give a passionate explanation of the poverty and lack of opportunity in Britain which drew him into politics. But for most of the hour-long programme, the two candidates seemed to be falling over to agree with each other and convince us they are still bosom buddies (which I doubt).

It's a pity they weren't  a little more open about their differences. I suspect the public would respect that at a time when the two main party leaderships are so desperate to keep their troops on message.  There were guffaws among journalists yesterday when Downing Street announced that Gordon Brown and Ed Balls were launching an anti-bullying initiative. Was Lord West there, we wondered.

Thursday, 15 November 2007

Today in Politics: What price free information?

By Andrew Grice

In his speech on liberty last month, Gordon Brown promised that one of his constitutional reforms would be "respecting the public right to know, new rights to access public information where previously it has been withheld". But his pledge seems to be being implemented rather selectively.

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Today in Politics: More terror turmoil for Brown

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown is making a bit of a hash of what is a genuine attempt by him to forge an all-party consensus on anti-terror laws. As we report today, the Prime Minister is no longer proposing a blanket extension from 28 to 56 days in the maximum period for which suspected terrorists can be held without charge. He is prepared to offer more safeguards on individual liberties in an attempt to win over critics in all parties. Each seven-day extension beyond 28 days would have to be approved by the Home Secretary, the Director of Public Prosecutions and a High Court judge.

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Wednesday, 14 November 2007

Today in Politics: Terrorism: who's in charge?

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown's Commons statement on the Government's counter-terrorism strategy was so detailed that, despite the importance of the subject, he lost the attention of MPs, who mumbled amongst themselves, and he had to edit it as he went along. It was like listening to a Brown Budget, complete with machine-gun delivery; you almost expected him to announce the public borrowing figures in his next breath.

Ironically, at Prime Minister's Questions earlier, Brown claimed he allowed his ministers to get on with the job when he implied that he didn't need to be told that thousands of illegal immigrants were working in the security industry because his Home Secretary Jacqui Smith was on top of the problem.

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Today in Politics: Terrorism turmoil for Brown

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown's plans to raise the maximum period for which suspected terrorists can be held from 28 to 56 days are in some disarray. Lord West, the Security Minister, admitted on Radio Four's Today programme he was not "fully convinced" of the need to raise the limit. This was decidedly off message and after a pre-arranged meeting with Brown in Number 10, West rushed out a statement saying he was convinced there was a need to change the law. Then he told reporters: "My feeling is yes, we need more than 28 days." Downing Street denies that any pressure was put on the former First Sea Lord to drag him into line. It would say that, wouldn't it? A classic case of bad timing, since Brown is about to unveil his plans to combat terrorism to MPs this lunchtime. Perhaps the episode also illustrates the limits of the Prime Minister's strategy of bringing outsiders known as GOATS into his administration to create a Government of All The Talents.

Tuesday, 13 November 2007

Today in Politics: Jacqui Smith in the clear - for now

By Andrew Grice

Jacqui Smith survived her trial in the Commons this afternoon over whether she covered up a scandal in which thousands of illegal immigrants had been found working in the security industry. But the Home Secretary may not be completely out of the woods yet.

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Today in Politics: Foreign affairs give Brown and Cameron a headache

By Andrew Grice

Gordon Brown and David Cameron seem to be having trouble with their foreign affairs spokesmen. The Prime Minister's carefully-worded foreign affairs speech at the Lord Mayor's Banquet last night was designed to be another "not Blair" statement, an important shift towards a multilateral approach. But what does "hard-headed internationalism" mean in practice? More importantly, would it have prevented the Iraq war? No, according to David Miliband, the Foreign Secretary. Asked on Radio 4's Today programme this morning whether the same decision would have been made under Brown's doctrine, he replied: "In respect of the decision to invade Iraq, absolutely right." He conceded that decisions taken since the war "could have been done better," but insisted: "No one is resiling from the original decision."

This will be a big disappointment to many people who opposed the war.

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Monday, 12 November 2007

Today in Politics: Lib Dems squabble in the playground

Picture_1_2 By Andrew Grice

My dad's bigger than yours. The two-horse race for the Liberal Democrat leadership seems to be descending into playground politics. This morning, Chris Huhne issued a statement saying he is the first candidate to win the backing of more than 1,000 supporters, and claimed to have almost twice as many as his rival Nick Clegg. At lunchtime Clegg responded with a press release announcing that he has more than 1,500 supporters. Moreover, he added, there are 729 members of the "Nick Clegg for Leader" group on Facebook, while Huhne's group has only 316. Yah-boo. And I thought the aim of this contest was to reach out beyond the party to a wider audience...

Today in Politics: Will Brown "do a Blair" on foreign policy?

By Andrew Grice

"Gordon: I love the USA," screams the headline in The Sun ahead of the Gordon Brown's first annual Mansion House speech on foreign affairs tonight. It reminded me of Tony Blair's "I love the pound" headline in the same paper ahead of the 1997 election, when Blair was secretly planning to abolish the pound and take us into the euro.

Today's headline is much more accurate. Brown has always loved America, and normally took his hols there until he had children. But he doesn't share Blair's "love" for George Bush, as was apparent when he visited the US President in July. Today's re-statement that America is Britain's most important ally is designed to reassure the White House that Brown is not turning his back on Washington even if the personal chemistry is different. Bush is said to miss his pal Blair. No wonder. With Brown, it's business, not personal. In the past week, the President has hosted visits by Nicolas Sarkozy, the hyperactive French President, who seemed happy to fill Blair's shoes, and Angela Merkel, the dour but impressive German Chancellor. Their countries opposed the Iraq war but the wounds are now being healed. So perhaps Brown's words were a polite reminder to Bush to remember his old friends as well as his new ones.

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Sunday, 11 November 2007

Today in Politics: Plumber Dave makes a splash

By Andrew Grice

Two interesting interviews with Gordon Brown and David Cameron this weekend. The Prime Minister, quizzed by Adam Boulton on Sky News this morning, clarified his pledge to create "British jobs for British workers." It's NOT about discriminating against foreign workers, he insisted, but encouraging firms to fill vacancies with people on the unemployment register. To be fair, the PM announced such a scheme at the TUC conference in September. But he was probably also trying to send a reassuring signal to people worried about immigration, and that landed him in hot water because he adopted a slogan once used by the far right British National Party and National Front.

Brown was typically business-like in his interview. He clearly regards "getting on with the job" as the only way to regain the initiative after the non-election fiasco. Cameron gave a very different interview to Michael Parkinson on ITV last night.

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Friday, 09 November 2007

Today in Politics: Labour pains in the Lords

By Andrew Grice

Labour peers are revolting. No, they are not smelly old farts, but they are in a rebellious mood. What has got under their skin is the appointment of Lord (Digby) Jones of Birmingham, the rotund former director general of the CBI, as Minister for Trade and Investment. He is what Labour folk call a GOAT – a member of Gordon Brown’s Government Of All The Talents.

The problem for some Labour peers is that he is not a member of the Labour Party. Worse still, some of them are convinced he is a Tory by instinct. Answering questions from Independent readers this week, Jones admitted he was not a socialist but said he did “not belong to any political movement.”

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Thursday, 08 November 2007

Today in Politics: Inheritance tax wars

By Andrew Grice

Once upon a time, Labour and the Tories used to row about the ideological differences between them. Today they have become so close on key policies that they sometimes squabble about who thought of the policy first.

This is what lies behind a statement issued by the Treasury this afternoon, saying that the Government was considering plans to cut inheritance tax as far back as January.

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Today in Politics: Liberal Democrat race turns nasty

By Andrew Grice

Nick Clegg is a Tory. Although it sounds like a football fans’ song, it is being sung (sotto voce) by supporters of Chris Huhne, his rival in the Labour leadership race. They are pointing out that Clegg is number 44 in the Daily Telegraph’s list of the 100 most influential people on the right. “He’s the antithesis of the stereotype ‘beard & sandals’ Lib Dems, who mutter about him being a ‘closet’ Tory,”  the paper said.

Today Huhne reinforced the point when he wrote to Clegg asking whether or not he supported education vouchers, a long held view on the Tory right, claiming he had sent conflicting signals on the issue. The gloves are clearly coming off in this fight.

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Wednesday, 07 November 2007

Today in Politics: Immigration Tales - an update

By Andrew Grice

No sooner had I written that Gordon Brown was in trouble over immigration, than word reaches me that David Cameron is now on the back foot too. Perhaps someone in the Government is bugging my phone, or even reading my blog.

It seems that the Tory leadership’s decision to force the resignation of Nigel Hastilow, the  parliamentary candidate who said Enoch Powell was right on immigration, has provoked a grassroots revolt in his local party in Halesowen and Rowley Regis.

National party bosses hope the rebellion will fizzle out after the locals have let off steam. We shall see. Perhaps Cameron is regretting his decision not to sack Hastilow immediately. If he was unfit to represent the party, why did it offer him the chance to remain the candidate if he made a grovelling apology?

Today in Politics: More Immigration Tales

By Andrew Grice

David Cameron scored a hit in the Commons when he ridiculed Gordon Brown’s pledge to provide "British jobs for British workers." The Tory leader brandished leaflets from the far right National Front and British National Party using the same slogan, to the Prime Minister’s embarrassment.

Downing Street insisted that Brown was talking about better training for British workers so they could fill the 600,000 vacancies in the country. But the slogan, used by Brown at the Labour conference in September, has rebounded badly on him. Even Keith Vaz, a normally loyal Labour MP, has accused him of "employment apartheid".

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Tuesday, 06 November 2007

Today in Politics: The Vision Thing

By Andrew Grice


Gordon Brown finally spelt out his vision in the Commons debate on his first Queen’s Speech as Prime Minister this afternoon. However, it was largely about his vision of where the Conservative Party stands rather than Labour. His theme was that on a whole range of issues, Tory policies were “confused, contradictory and not thought through” as he sketched out the new dividing lines between the two main parties, his favourite election tactic.

Brown allies get a bit miffed when they are asked about what George Bush Senior called “the vision thing”. But they can hardly complain: when the PM decided not to call an election this year, he said he wanted to show the country his “vision for change”.

Ministers tell me the aim of today’s package is to show the PM is getting on with the job in a solid and statesmanlike way - and there were plenty of substantive policies - while leaving the flashy gimmicks to David Cameron. But Brown did produce one rabbit out of the hat: an extension of parents’ rights to flexible working, a sure vote-winner.

Cameron is a bit better at flexible speeches than the PM and seemed to get the better of him in today’s Commons joust. He argued that Brown cannot be the change the country needs, a charge we will hear repeatedly. However, Brown is playing a long game and is banking on Labour being on the right side of the dividing lines in the voters’ eyes.

Today in Politics: Immigration Tales

By Andrew Grice

Immigration is rising fast up the political agenda. So it is no surprise that two Bills in the Queen’s Speech today mention the subject. It looks like a last-minute exercise driven by Downing Street rather than the Home Office. Although a tidying up of the immigration laws has been long planned, I am told that new legislation is not needed to bring in “English tests” or a points system for non-EU migrant workers.

It seems that Gordon Brown, like Tony Blair before him, is promising legislation to send a reassuring signal to the voters that he understands their anxieties. But for now, there is precious little flesh on the bare bones of the two immigration measures announced today.

Pamphlet Immigration is a tricky issue for politicians. Ask David Cameron. He made significant progress last week when Trevor Phillips, chairman of the Equality and Human Rights Commission, praised him for the sensitive way he has handled it. But since then Nigel Hastilow, a Tory parliamentary candidate in the West Midlands, has been forced to quit after saying that Enoch Powell was right about immigration. I asked Phillips what he made of that but he didn’t want to comment. Meanwhile, some pretty nasty leaflets are being distributed by the Tories in the region (pictured), telling people to check their suitcases for asylum-seekers when they return from a holiday abroad. It seems that Cameron has not yet persuaded his party’s grassroots to adopt a different approach to immigration.

Monday, 05 November 2007

Today in Politics: A happy coincidence?

By Andrew Grice

The terrorist threat in Britain is rising, Jonathan Evans warned today in his first public speech since becoming head of MI5. He said the number of people identified as having links with terrorism has risen from 1,600 to 2,000 in the past year, and he suspected there were as many again who MI5 did not know about. The timing of his speech is intriguing, coming on the eve of tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech. It will include a Counter Terrorism Bill likely to propose doubling the 28-day maximum period for which terrorists can be held without charge. Some things just don't happen by accident.

Today in Politics: Why Blair could still have been PM today

Blair_unbound_2 By Andrew Grice

After a slow start, Tony Blair got better and better as Prime Minister when he finally realised what he wanted to do with power (other than win it). That is the verdict of the historian and academic Anthony Seldon. The second part of his biography, Blair Unbound is published today by Simon & Schuster.

Its 650 pages, covering the period from 9/11/2001 to Blair’s departure, are based on interviews with key players - most of them, it seems, sympathetic to Blair. The book paints an unflattering picture of Gordon Brown, claiming his allies mounted three coups against Blair and that he had a last-minute conversion to Blairite reforms he had opposed for years as he prepared to become PM. A good read for politics addicts even though Seldon does not want to rush to judgement on the Blair years. (For a more rounded picture, I recommend Peter Riddell’s The Unfulfilled Prime Minister.)

Seldon reveals that George Bush offered Blair an opt out from the Iraq war in a phone call on the eve of the conflict, which I wrote about last week. The book left me wondering what might have been if Blair had taken up Bush's offer. He might well have won a bigger majority in 2005, prised Brown out of the Treasury and carried on as Prime Minister until next year. Although Blair aides told Seldon he always intended to quit this summer, I am not so sure about that.