aI’m sending Alan Johnson a bill for cleaning my dressing gown. There’s nothing Bill Clinton about it, he just made me spit out my cornflakes on Sunday morning. On the Andrew Marr show, utterly Bob Hope deadpan, he suddenly piped up: “If you follow focus groups and opinion polls, you get nowhere.”
Archive for October, 2009
Chris Proctor: Politics is show business for ugly people
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, October 17th, 2009Rupa Huq: It’s time to shut up these tired old talking shops
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, October 17th, 2009The media circus followed the party conferences to Bournemouth, Brighton and then Manchester before the SNP staged the last one of the season. It is worth pondering whether there is any point to any of this. Indeed, it is questionable whether any of the parties achieved anything at their glorified rallies.
Kevin Maguire: Know them by the odious company they keep
By Tribune Web Editor /Saturday, October 17th, 2009Judge a person by his (or her) friends. David Cameron’s European allies reveal the unsavoury side of the Conservative leader behind the public relations smile. The man who would be Prime Minister is desperate for the caravan to move on, for the discussion about who he’s jumped into bed with to end. Fat chance.
John Coulter: Umbrella Unionism could be a unifying cause
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, October 16th, 2009Unionists think they have a reason for celebration. Having presided over the collapse of the economy in the Republic of Ireland, Fianna Fail is now proposing to organise in the north – which could split the nationalist vote.
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, October 16th, 2009
What’s the price of a moral compass these days? It seems that one has been mislaid in Downing Street? Could a replacement still be claimed on expenses? Just over three weeks ago, indefatigable human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell submitted a petition to the Prime Minister via the e-Petitions system on the Number 10 website. Ahead [...]
Conservative government could scrap London Assembly
By Tribune Web Editor /Friday, October 16th, 2009The London Assembly is likely to be abolished by a new Conservative government. Conservative Intelligence – the £1,000-a-year, subscriber-only newsletter run by the ConservativeHome website – is predicting that the end of the authority could be a priority as part of huge public savings planned by David Cameron and George Osborne.
Cameron continues with backdoor deal to scupper Lisbon
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, October 15th, 2009Tory leader David Cameron’s attempt at a backdoor deal with Czech president Vaclav Klaus to scupper the Lisbon treaty appeared to be having some success this week.
TUC warns of young ‘lost generation’
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, October 15th, 2009The TUC and former Bank of England economist David Blanchflower joined forces this week to call on the Government to save young people from becoming a ‘lost generation’ through long-term unemployment.
Cameron’s European folly
By Tribune Web Editor /Thursday, October 15th, 2009Tribune Comment: David Cameron’s judgement over his alliances with the far right in Europe calls fundamentally into question his credibility as a leader who purports to become Prime Minister of Britain. His silence on the past of the senior figures in the European Conservatives and Reformists, the Tories’ new bedfellows in the European Parliament, is a searing indictment of that judgement. The more so, the longer it continues.