Archive: 21 June – 27 June 2010
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Sunday 27 June 2010
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David Cameron is at his first international summit, working the room, turning on the charm, establishing the personal rapport that is vital in high-level politics. Sitting in a room alone with seven other top leaders over lunch and dinner – albeit with officials listening in from outside the room – must be the moment you realise with total certainty that you are prime minister.
He has also piled up four bilaterals, including a big one yesterday with Barack Obama, a man of real professorial intelligence, but he is also thinking domestic politics. He is strangely thrilled at the way in which Labour is attacking the Liberal Democrats for the big betrayal of joining the coalition, especially Nick Clegg's role in the axe-wielding, VAT-raising budget.
Why is the prime minister so happy? Well, he thinks the tone of the Labour attacks is driving the Liberal Democrats deeper into the arms of the Conservatives, and that from Labour's point of view this is hardly intelligent politics. It is creating a realignment in which Labour ends up on the wrong side.
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Friday 25 June 2010
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Simon Hughes has voiced Lib Dem concerns. Photograph: Martin Argles
When will Britain's coalition government collapse? That is the question on many people's lips after Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat deputy leader, raised the prospect of tabling rebel amendments to the finance bill.
Lib Dem high command quickly stamped on the idea of a rebellion and announced that no amendments would be tabled. But the remarks by Hughes showed that many Lib Dems, including the former leaders Charles Kennedy and Sir Manzies Campbell, are uneasy about sharing power with the Conservatives.
So will the coalition collapse? Not for some time judging by a Guardian survey of Lib Dem MPs. This found concerns about some of the harsh measures in the budget – freezing child benefit and raising VAT – but a consensus that there is little alternative.
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Tuesday 22 June 2010
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Peter Mandelson argued for a VAT increase. Photograph: David Moir/Reuters
If he managed to take a break today from writing his memoirs, Peter Mandelson will have experienced mixed emotions.
The former business secretary will have felt quietly vindicated when George Osborne announced a deferred rise in the rate of VAT from next January.
Mandelson told Gordon Brown in the run up to the pre-budget report last December that Britain should follow the example of the former German SPD / CDU grand coalition which opted for a deferred rise in VAT. He told Brown that raising VAT from April 2011 would have two key benefits for Britain as it emerged from the recession:
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Monday 21 June 2010
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Bono believes David Cameron has turned into a statesman. Photograph: Gary Hershorn/Reuters
In recent years Bono has heaped praise on British prime ministers as Tony Blair and Gordon Brown led the way in funding the developing world.
But the voice behind the 1983 hit, Sunday, Bloody Sunday, probably never thought he would lavish praise on a Conservative prime minister about that dark day in Northern Irish history.
In a column for the New York Times, the lead singer of U2 says that David Cameron turned "from prime minister to statesman" last Tuesday when he issued his heartfelt apology for Bloody Sunday.
This is what Bono wrote:
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George Osborne is under pressure from the Tory right to adopt a 'truly fair' approach in his budget. Photograph: Jon Super/AP
George Osborne will be a busy chap this afternoon as he puts the finishing touches to tomorrow's emergency post-election budget.
But we can be sure of one thing: the chancellor will be taking a look at the Guardian website to read an important piece by Tim Montgomerie, the founder of the ConservativeHome website.
Montgomerie argues that there is a central flaw in Osborne's deficit reduction plans: