Posted by Chris Lowe on 30 September 2009
OK, here is the gossip and rumour that I picked up around the bars, in detailed policy discussions with well-placed Labour sources.
1. Mandelson will be the next Party Leader. There is no-one else. He will take over Hilary Armstrong’s seat of NW Durham (majority 13,443) at the next General Election. There is a piece of [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on
My colleague Emma has previously discussed Gordon Brown’s ability to please none of the people all of the time, and I wonder if he did it again with his promise for a manifesto commitment for a referendum on Alternative Vote?
The Alternative Vote system is a cop-out for anyone wanting any form of proportional representation. And [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on
While courts in London were deciding whether or not to arrest Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak for alleged war crimes, I was sitting on the front at Brighton with him. What do you say to an alleged war criminal – I played it safe and discussed the weather!
The most extraordinary sight was of four Mossad [...]
Posted by Ania Swirski on 25 September 2009
On Tuesday night, the Conservative Friends of Poland (CFoP) kicked off their political season with what I thought to be a rather successful event at the Polish Institute and Sikorski Museum. Obviously I am a little biased being the CFoP Secretary but nevertheless, our audience seemed to find the guest speaker, Britain’s former [...]
Posted by Warwick Smith on 24 September 2009
No, not that one, the Federal Policy Committee. That bit of the Liberal Democrats’ democratic constitution that turns front bench aspiration into party policy.
I’m not sure that Vince’s mansions tax is the right way to go. It’s one thing to seek to distinguish yourselves from the Tories with bold policies under the heading of “fair [...]
Posted by James Nason on 22 September 2009
Just watched the former Spanish Prime Minister – Jose Maria Aznar – set out his EU reform agenda at a FAES-Stockholm Network event this lunchtime. Aznar’s one of my political heroes (he transformed Spain during his administration) so it was fascinating to see the guy in the flesh. He had some pretty stark messages for [...]
Posted by Chris Lowe on 16 September 2009
The title of Permanent Secretary for Government Communication may not fit easily with traditionalists, but Matt Tee’s performance at the CIPR’s Government Affairs Group on Tuesday evening was as good a tour d’horizon as you would hope to get from any Perm Sec.
Matt’s speech covered his three main roles (i) as the professional head for [...]
Posted by admin on 15 September 2009
I attended an Editorial Intelligence event on Thursday entitled ‘Bonfire of the Quangos: Where next?’ which was really well attended and quite interesting. The panel each gave a short speech outlining their views on quangos and then took questions from the floor.
The event was chaired by Martin Bright, founder of New Deal of the [...]
Posted by Warwick Smith on 10 September 2009
Good food, wine and discussion on Thursday evening when we launched the research done with ComRes into the views of in-house practitioners and MPs on the best way to use the party conferences.
Some fascinating stuff came out. No surprise that there’s a noticeable shift of resources to the Tories. Perhaps more surprising that 85% of [...]
Posted by James Nason on 9 September 2009
It’s good to be back online! Looking forward to Warwick’s post on last night’s Comres event and Sarah’s post on tonight’s bonfire of the quangos.
In the meantime watch Warwick on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/publicaffairsnews