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Thursday 10 November 2011

Jobs at Telegraph

Tuesday, 25th October 2011

How Good is Barack Obama at Politics?

11:23pm

Not as good as you might think, argues Ramesh Ponnuru:

Last year, President Barack Obama issued a warning to Republicans. They had been “politicking” instead of “governing,” he said. “Well, we can politick for three months,” he said. “They forgot I’m pretty good at politicking.”

That was in August 2010. At the end of those three months, Republicans controlled the most seats in the U.S. House since the 1940s. Republicans did well for a lot of reasons. One of them was that the president is wrong: He isn’t all that good at politics.

[...] But take a

...

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Thursday, 14th July 2011

Department of the Free Press

2:51pm

I think Liberal Conspiracy should drop the "liberal" bit if they keep publishing tommyrot of this sort:

I’ve never understood why we allow our print media to support a particular political viewpoint. Why is it that just before an election, our media line up in their separate camps and decide to tell us who to vote for? If there is a point of law I’m unaware of, perhaps someone will enlighten me, but just how is it in the public interest to seek to influence the outcome of general elections? Why do we need them to tell

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Friday, 10th June 2011

Volvo Distances Itself From Project Volvo

3:21pm

Well you can't blame them, can you?

Project Volvo - it just shows how out of touch senior politicians were.
Leaked documents labelled Project Volvo, revealed today, that outline a plot to unseat former Prime Minister Tony Blair show just how out of touch with reality senior politicians within the previous government had become with modern Britain. The reason for the name 'Project Volvo', according to reports, relates to Mr Brown's apparent character traits of being 'dependable, robust but ultimately dour'.
Clearly before labelling the plot, Labour politicians of the time hadn't acquainted themselves with the Volvo
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The Plot Against Tony

12:28am

That Gordon Brown loathed Tony Blair is hardly news. Nevertheless the details and depth of that hatred, revealed in the Daily Telegraph's scoop today*, remain hilarious. Poor Gordon. His people seem to believe - or have been told - that being compared by focus groups to a Volvo or a British Rover was a good thing.

Ed Miliband's role in all this plotting and absurdity is also worth contemplating. It provides yet another opportunity for the coalition to press home the point that Little Ed's judgement ain't up to being Prime Minister. So, Mr Miliband, tell us why you...

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Monday, 28th March 2011

Ed Miliband's Delusions

3:57am

Perhaps I'm being a little unfair on Ed Miliband but, no, I don't think I am. Perhaps he's not in denial. There again, he gives every impression of being a man who still doesn't understand why Labour lost the last election.

Every so often there'll be a nod to the notion that government spending cannot increase by several points above inflation every year but this is lost in the candyfloss of reassurance he serves (not sells, obviously) to Labour's most devoted supporters. The occasional aside that some spending restraint or retrenchment might be necessary seems dutiful; the thrust...

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Thursday, 10th February 2011

Tinker, Tailor, Banker, Spy

2:24am

Project Merlin? Really? Never mind the detail of the plan to "deal with" the banks and their bonuses, my first reaction was to wonder if some Treasury chap with a sense of humour has been reading* Tinker, Tailor, Soldier, Spy recently. Source Merlin, you will recall, peddles product Witchcraft to the Circus and nearly succeeds in bringing the whole bloody thing crashing down. Not that I'm suggesting George Osborne is Bill Haydon, of course...

Still, with grave apologies to John Le Carre for this thievery, here's how it may have played:

From the new Control, according to
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Spectator Asks

Britain's overseas aid budget is rising by 36% to £12.6 billion over this parliament. Is this a good use of taxpayers' money?

  • Yes
  • No
  • Don't Know

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