Cobden's Commentary fears that a post-Nigel Griffiths-gate world combined with McNulty's spot of bother could have a negative impact on Westminster's tourist trade, Hopi Sen finds that Nige has put him in an, er, unpopular position, and the ladies of Parliament ask: who the hell wears stockings in middle of November?
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Banditry, Bill of Rights, Cobden's Commentary, database state, David Aaronovitch, Guardian, Hopi Sen, Human Rights Act, John B., Laurie Penny, Ministry of Justice, New Statesman, Nick Robinson, Nigel Griffiths, Rowntree Foundatin Trust, Tom Harris, Tony McNulty
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Universities push the Government to raise tuition fees (those rugby dinners don't fund themselves yer know) in the hope that if they do, our institutions of learning can subsequently claim that it was all the Government's fault/idea. S'wot usually happens, innit? "Thanks a lot!" mutter MPs and bag-carriers of all parties, whose journey to work will now [...]
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Barack Obama, Bloggerheads, Daily Quail, David Cameron, David Hughes, Dunblane, EPP, Kevin Maguire, Leila Deen, Liberal Conspiracy, Paula Murray, Peter Hitchens, Telegraph, Tim Ireland, Tom Harris
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On the fourth day of March, my true love gave to me: a bunch of Tories a-leaking spinning, Jon "I have only one tone of voice - APPALLED OUTRAGE!" Craig a-butt kissing, and a Conservative MP with surprisingly progressive views on state-provided childcare when it relates soley and exclusively to Conservative MPs. Anyone fancy working on a musical score? More on this later.
The Today Programme this morning had a wonderful piece of juxtaposition: the BMA chairman teetering on the brink of howling that the reason for the data sharing proposed in the Coroners and Justice Bill was down to the evil machinations of the police state, followed afterwards by a report that local authorities are having difficulty recruiting social workers following Baby P, where the lack of communication between agencies resulted in tragic consequences. Why, one might almost say the two stories are connected, eh?
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged Baby P, Barack Obama, British Medical Association, Chris Paul, ComRes, Conor's Commentary, Coroners and Justice Bill, Daily Quail, Don Paskini, Independent, John Mann, Labour List
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The Tories don’t have many good policies for dealing with the recession and what few policies they have seem to vary from the reasonably sensible to the very stupid. Heading up the sensible camp are loan guarantees, entirely sensible although not particularly original (hence the government coming up with something similar). Far more fun is the stupid end of the scale my favourite being the creation of an Office for Budget Responsibility.
It's almost as if we've been wafting around to strains of the Time Warp in Westminster today with talk of the return of Ken Clarke, recession blues, and references to Norman Lamont popping up in the most unlikely places. By which I mean in the Chamber as opposed to Davy Cameron's CV from whence, one [...]
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Daily debrief
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Also tagged Anton Vowl, Ben Brogan, David Cameron, George Osborne, Heathrow, Hoby, Ken Clarke, Kerry McCarthy, Nick Clegg, Noman Lamont, Norman Lamont, Sam Coates, Shriti Vadera, William Hague
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Today in Prime Minister's Questions, Cameron - in the absence of a coherent Tory economic response to the recession - used all of his questions muttering darkly about VAT and Nick Clegg had a pop at Brown for attempting to imitate Dave. You see? Your writing the jokes yourselves now!
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in PMQs liveblog
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Also tagged Afghanistan, Andrew Neil, Andy Burnham, Angela Merkel, Barack Obama, David Cameron, Do-nothing, Eric Joyce, George Osborne, Gregory Campbell, Jeremy Corbyn, John Randall, Keith Vaz, Kerry McCarthy, Liz Blackman, Michael Spicer, Nicholas Sarkozy, Nick Clegg, Nick Robinson, Noman Lamont, Norman Tebbit, Prime Minister's Questions, Richard Bacon, Tom Brake
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As usual bringing you what's hot and what's not from teh internetz and beyond. This morning we heard sage words from the CBI, realised that wherever two or three are gathered together in the name of protesting over Heathrow that there will be celebrities in the midst of them, and learned that the hottest woman in Britain is a fan of the comrades. As if it were ever in doubt, eh?
By Sadie Smith
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Posted in Morning roundup
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Also tagged British Chamer of Commerce, CBI, Cheryl Cole, David Cameron, David Miliband, Derek Simpson, Emma Thompson, Gaza, George Osborne, Heathrow, John Cridland, Kerron Cross, Kerry McCarthy, Today in Parliament, UK Polling Report, Unite the Union
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Morning roundup, Tuesday 24th March 2009
Cobden's Commentary fears that a post-Nigel Griffiths-gate world combined with McNulty's spot of bother could have a negative impact on Westminster's tourist trade, Hopi Sen finds that Nige has put him in an, er, unpopular position, and the ladies of Parliament ask: who the hell wears stockings in middle of November?