St. Rupe's Academy

If some enemy had wanted to craft a malformed news story that would render me maximally angry, this would probably do it; News International to sponsor a Gove Academy, somewhere near Wapping, as if they hadn't done enough damage.

Robert Chote: Partial and Flawed, Perfect for the OBR

So the Institute for Fiscal Studies did a distribution analysis of the Budget and worked out that its impact was disproportionately on the poor. Not only do you lose more, the poorer you are, but the more children you have, the worse it gets. So much for the guff about "families".

We told you so

It's not like this wasn't obvious, but it's nice to know that IFS is another Labour front.

A Pattern of Behaviour

Here's International Development Minister Alan Duncan on the News of the Screws phone tapping story: Alan Duncan, the international development minister, told Radio 4's Any Questions: "What they are seizing on today are the words of someone who had an alcohol and drug problem who was sacked by the paper."

Recall: Goldsmith Takes On His Own Side

When angry posh boy Zac Goldsmith got in trouble over his election expenses on Channel 4 News, we mischievously suggested he might be setting himself up as the first victim of his Coalition's MP recall policy.  He's come back strongly this week, piously advocating to Total Politics a Bill along those lines:

Anyone For 'Active Cooperation' With The Police?

Today's police reforms:

"[P]olicing relies not just on the consent of the people but their active cooperation"

Today's Attorney General comments:

Secret Police? - Yes Please

The news that tomorrow's police reforms will, in the words of the Times crime correspondent...

"scrap dozens of inspection requirements on forces and beef up HMIC"

...shouldn't come as a surprise - the flipside of the Coalition wanting us to run our own public services is that it doesn't want to pay to inspect and improve the ones it has, although quite how the inevitable corruption and decline in standards is tackled by the 'Big Society' escapes me for now. Perhaps Mr. Herbert will tell us?

Whitehall Watch Moves (Plus Other Blogs)

Alex has already picked up on Colin Talbot's Whitehall Watch as being one of the best reads on Coalition politics - they're moving to whitehallwatch.org now, and promising enhancements.  Well worth a watch.

Also on my Coalition Watching blogs RSS list:

 - Flip Chart Fairy Tales

 - The Local Government Officer

 - Touchstone

Daily Mail Joins The Unwilling Of The Coalition

First some history - the four papers that ran the co-ordinated attack on Nick Clegg after the first Leader's Debate were, of course, the Sun, Express, Mail and Telegraph.  The Mail, particularly, lambasted Clegg entirely spuriously for perceived insults to Our Glorious Fight Against Fascism, a cause the Daily Mail has always championed.  Oh hang on, that's not quite right.

Nick's Secret Plan To Take Over

According to Philippe Sands, who does have a certain bias in these matters, Nick's impromptu bit of honesty and principle could land the UK in the dock:

"A public statement by a government minister in parliament as to the legal situation would be a statement that an international court would be interested in, in forming a view as to whether or not the war was lawful."

Syndicate content