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.
PETER RIDDELL | Paul Gray’s resignation as Revenue and Customs chair set a constitutional precedent of immense significance for anyone who works in Whitehall.
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...
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.
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...
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.
MELISSA BENN | School’s back. Most of the nation’s pupils barely had time to cover their exercise books or learn their new timetables before Ed Balls, the dynamic young children’s, schools and...
ANN ROSSITER | Andy Burnham’s first speech as chief secretary to the Treasury grabbed the headlines with his promise to slash the number of government targets.
PHILIP JOHNSTON | The House of Commons shut up shop for the summer recess on Thursday after a momentous session that included a change of prime minister, a restructured Cabinet and the almost...
TONY TRAVERS | The communities and local government select committee’s report on refuse collection was a well-timed intervention into a sphere of public policy that continues to concern government.
MELISSA BENN | ‘Voters to get direct say in local spending’ was the eye-catching headline a day after the dynamic new communities secretary announced a package of measures to revive local democracy.
ANN ROSSITER | Gordon Brown’s media people have been keen to tell us that the changeover at Number 10 will be accompanied by a new, straightforward attitude to communicating with the press.
VICTORIA MACDONALD | A story once did the rounds of the Whitehall corridors that outgoing health secretary John Reid took a possible successor to one side and said: ‘Don’t do it, I’ve spent all the...
PETER HETHERINGTON | I’ve been fascinated by local government ever since I inherited from my dad a commemorative brochure to mark the opening of the new municipal power station.
