Left Foot Forward
Cameron’s election speechwriter slams immigration cap
There's a punchy Evening Standard column from Ian Birrell today challenging the government's immigration cap as "the sort of gesture politics that makes some sense in opposition but turns out to be nonsense in government". The author might claim to know something about the pressure to make such political gestures, having been David Cameron's speechwriter during the 2010 election campaign.
Unilateral action and attack drones will undermine moderates in Yemen
Unilateral action, for instance drone strikes, whether indiscriminate or not, may undermine moderate forces in the Yemeni government and make key local Yemenis less willing to tackle al-Qaeda themselves, writes George Readings.
Another Tory poll fall in wake of spending review
For the second week running, a poll series has put Labour ahead of the Conservatives for the first time in three years. Just like last week's Times/Populus poll, a ComRes poll for today's Independent gives Labour a narrow lead, up three points on 37 per cent, with the Conservatives down five points on 35 per cent and the Liberal Democrats up two points on 16 per cent.
Who are the most electorally successful post-war Tory prime ministers?
Even if the Tories won a higher share of the vote in 1945 and 1966 than they did this year, Cameron clearly achieved a better result than the eight occasions when another party won a majority (1945, 1950, 1964, 1966, Oct 1974, 1997, 2001 and 2005) or the one Hung Parliament where Labour was the largest party, in February 1974.
Rodents aside, what else happened at the Scottish Labour conference?
In his speech to Scottish Labour’s final conference before next May’s elections to Holyrood, Ed Miliband declared “Labour’s fight back has begun”, but what have we learnt from the weekend on Oban? First, these’s no love lost between the Liberal Democrats and Labour, with Miliband's deputy Harriet Harman calling Lib Dem Chief Secretary to the Treasury Danny Alexander a “ginger rodent”.
Is the ‘Green Red’ dead?
Labour's former Climate Change Secretary has been quiet on green issues since his election. Effective opposition means holding the Government to account.