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22 Feb 08
DAVID LIPSEY | Whoever wins the Democratic nomination in the US, the opinion polls will be the losers. Primary after primary, poll-based newspaper headlines have announced that Barack Obama is in...
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15 Feb 08
MIKES THATCHER | Overflowing rubbish bins, picket lines, sackings and strikes. Things are suddenly cutting up rough on the public sector pay front, and you don’t have to look far to see why.
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15 Feb 08
PETER WILBY | I was in Washington in 1981 a few days before Ronald Reagan was inaugurated as president. The sense of a new era being born was palpable.
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8 Feb 08
MIKE THATCHER | For Liverpool City Council, it was ‘grossly unfair’. But for the majority of unitary and county councils, this week’s Comprehensive Performance Assessments were something to...
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8 Feb 08
MELISSA BENN | So the party that has objected to the nanny state for so long is now proposing it in quite literal form — Cameron and Co announced last week that they want to provide a maternity...
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1 Feb 08
MIKE THATCHER | Tory MP Derek Conway isn’t the only public figure facing scrutiny over the management of their finances. Finance directors will have been waiting nervously this week to hear the...
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1 Feb 08
PHILIP JOHNSTONE | Parties in opposition are often encouraged to develop lots of policies. ‘What are you going to do about it?’ is the most common question thrown at a Conservative spokesman who...
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25 Jan 08
MIKE THATCHER | These are, to state the obvious, uncertain times. Everyone, from Mervyn King and Alistair Darling to ordinary mortals fearing for their jobs, homes and pensions, has good reason to...
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25 Jan 08
ANN ROSSITER | This Thursday, MPs voted on the issue of their own pay. Like most other political observers, I believe this was an inappropriate thing for them to do.
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18 Jan 08
MIKE THATCHER | Decisiveness is not the watchword of Gordon Brown’s government. Whether it’s election announcements, treaty signings or the options for Northern Rock, the prime minister has shown a...
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18 Jan 08
JACKIE ASHLEY | The teenager is an odd creature. It keeps strange hours (it’s nocturnal really), does everything very loudly, from listening to music to speaking on a mobile phone, and has a...
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11 Jan 08
MIKE THATCHER | The prime minister’s New Year message is traditionally an upbeat, forward-looking affair. 2008 was no exception. In urgent need of a comeback-kid vision, Gordon Brown focused on...
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11 Jan 08
ALAN LEAMAN | These have been a bad few months for democracy. Christmas was dominated by grim news from Kenya and Pakistan. Russia and South Africa are also causing concern.
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14 Dec 07
DAVID MEILTON | As we plunge headlong towards 2008 with the government and politics in deep disrepute, do not despair. Gordon Brown, as so often, has the answer.
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7 Dec 07
ROBERT SHRIMSLEY | Every morning, we hear, Gordon Brown speaks by telephone to the most important people in his government to discuss tactics. Then at 10am he speaks to them all again.
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30 Nov 07
PETER RIDDELL | Paul Gray’s resignation as Revenue and Customs chair set a constitutional precedent of immense significance for anyone who works in Whitehall.
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23 Nov 07
MELISSA BENN | This week, it was the turn of David Cameron and his front bench to propose radical education reforms to a media with an unquenchable thirst for mud-slinging between a weakened...
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16 Nov 07
PETER WILBY | The last time I occupied this column, election fever was at its height and Gordon Brown was expected to go to the polls within weeks.
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9 Nov 07
DAVID LIPSEY | Modern British politics has been about incomes. If real incomes are rising, so the conventional wisdom goes, then the government will be sitting pretty whatever else it is messing up.
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2 Nov 07
ANN ROSSITER | Is public spending going out of fashion? There is certainly a growing sense at Westminster, particularly among Conservatives, that we might have passed the high-water mark of voters...
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26 Oct 07
HELEN DISNEY | Fat used to be just a feminist issue; these days it has become a national crusade.
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19 Oct 07
PHILIP JOHNSTON | The political landscape in Britain has had more upheavals recently than an earthquake zone.
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12 Oct 07
TONY TRAVERS | The chancellor’s great autumnal pronouncement was, compared with the high drama of recent weeks, something of an also-ran.
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5 Oct 07
PETER HETHERINGTON | People of a certain age remember when housing was the most valued political currency.
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28 Sep 07
PETER RIDDELL | Spot the difference. The autumn conference season is when politicians from the main parties pretend to disagree with each other, but largely say the same things.
22 Feb 08DAVID LIPSEY | Whoever wins the Democratic nomination in the US, the opinion polls will be the losers. Primary after primary, poll-based newspaper headlines have announced that Barack Obama is in...
