Election 2015: Nick Robinson, one man who’d welcome a second election
Election day arrives: it's all over bar the voting (and the talk of Downing Street plots)
Tories welcome hat-trick of economic stats
Posted at 12.45, Tues 31 March 2015
Chancellor George Osborne has welcomed a “hat-trick of good news” about the UK economy released this morning.
GDP: The Office for National Statistics has revised upwards its growth forecast for the last quarter of 2015 from 0.5 per cent to 0.6 per cent. It has also upped its estimate for GDP growth in 2014 from 2.6 to 2.8 per cent – the highest since 2006.
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
Disposable income: Osborne himself favours this measure - real household disposable income (RHDI) - as the best indicator of how things are going. New figures show RHDI per head in the final quarter of last year was 2.2 per cent above its pre-crash level.
Consumer confidence: The GfK research group’s monthly index shows consumer confidence hit a 13-year high in March. Britons are expected to “splash the cash” over the Easter weekend, says GfK.
Osborne jumped on the figures, claiming: "This is good news for families and businesses across the country... Voters now face a stark choice: do we stick with a plan which is working, delivering growth and jobs, or do we put all that at risk with Ed Miliband whose policies of more spending, more borrowing and higher taxes will lead to economic chaos?"
Cameron denies fighting dirty
Posted at 12.30, Tues 31 March 2015
David Cameron has denied this that it was inappropriate to attack Ed Miliband personally from the doorstep of Number Ten yesterday, The Mole writes. “The tone was absolutely right,” he insisted on the Today programme this morning.
Presenter Sarah Montague reminded the PM that it was he who once pledged to “let sunshine rule the day” in British politics. Cameron responded that there was a clear choice before the British electorate - sticking with the plan that worked, or the “chaos” that Ed Miliband would bring.
Read The Mole's column in full
Dave vs Ed: personalities DO matter
Posted at 10.15, Tues 31 March 2015
We are meant to resent the focus on personality in politics – but this is priggish, argues Janan Ganesh in the Financial Times. “Personality does so much to determine a government’s performance that, if anything, we do not talk about it enough.”
Ed Miliband is a man seized by his beliefs, says Ganesh, while David Cameron “talks of values and visions so reluctantly that the words seem to sting his throat as he utters them|”.
So how might each man govern over the next five years, if given the chance? “Another Cameron administration would be pushed around by events and Tory eurosceptics. He lacks the ideological rudder to see off these pressures."
Miliband, on the other hand, “would dash left for a year, tampering in markets and raising taxation at the top end. He would over-reach, upset voters and businesses, and end up sheepishly governing from the centre for the sake of survival.”
Read Janan Ganesh’s FT article in full
Cameron takes risk with home quote
Posted at 10.00, Tues 31 March 2015
In an extended interview with the Daily Mail in which he promised to put “rocket boosters” under Margaret Thatcher’s right-to-buy policy, David Cameron talked about his own home-buying experience.
“That’s the most natural instinct in the world - owning your own home,” said Cameron. “I’ll never forget the moment I got the first keys to my first flat and walked through the door. You just feel so excited that you own something and you’re going to take care of it.
That was a bold thing to say, comments Fraser Nelson of The Spectator. It’s an open invitation to enterprising journalists “to establish just how much of a mortgage he had to take out on his first flat”. Quite.
Read the Daily Mail interview in full
Miliband’s ‘Paxo bounce’ slips away
Posted at 10.00, Tues 31 March 2015
On Sunday, YouGov gave Labour a four-point lead, suggesting a “bounce” for Ed Miliband following his feisty response to Paxo’s attempt to stuff him.
Now, a new YouGov poll shows the Tories climbing and the two parties on level pegging again, Don Brind writes. If there was a bounce, it appears to have slipped away.
But Miliband can take heart from a ComRes poll in London. It shows Labour a solid 14 points ahead of the Conservatives, on course to take as many as nine Tory seats in the capital.
Read Don Brind’s column in full
Labour takes the fight to SNP
Posted at 10.00, Tues 31 March 2015
Labour has not give up hope of keeping more of its seats in Scotland than the pollsters predict, writes Jack Bremer, and Ed Miliband is pinning his hopes on a man called Patrick Heneghan. He’s the party’s director of field operation - and he apparently has a plan to deal with the SNP surge
Labour are also reminding Scots that it was the Nationalists who, back in 1979, helped usher in the Thatcher era by supporting her motion of no confidence in Jim Callaghan’s Labour government. Thirty-six years on, they still have a lot to answer for, say Labour.
Create an account with the same email registered to your subscription to unlock access.
Sign up for Today's Best Articles in your inbox
A free daily email with the biggest news stories of the day – and the best features from TheWeek.com
-
'A direct, protracted war with Israel is not something Iran is equipped to fight'
Instant Opinion Opinion, comment and editorials of the day
By Harold Maass, The Week US Published
-
Today's political cartoons - April 17, 2024
Cartoons Wednesday's cartoons - political anxiety, jury sorting hat, and more
By The Week US Published
-
Arid Gulf states hit with year's worth of rain
Speed Read The historic flooding in Dubai is tied to climate change
By Peter Weber, The Week US Published
-
Is David Cameron overshadowing Rishi Sunak?
Talking Point Current PM faces 'thorny dilemma' as predecessor enjoys return to world stage
By The Week UK Published
-
How will honeytrap scandal change Westminster?
Today's Big Question Security procedures laid bare by spear phishing attack as focus shifts to 'political insider' being responsible
By The Week UK Published
-
Will Aukus pact survive a second Trump presidency?
Today's Big Question US, UK and Australia seek to expand 'game-changer' defence partnership ahead of Republican's possible return to White House
By Sorcha Bradley, The Week UK Published
-
Can Boris Johnson save Rishi Sunak?
Today's Big Question Former PM could 'make the difference' between losing the next election and annihilation
By The Week UK Published
-
Liz Truss and her bid to woo the American far-right
Why Everyone's Talking About Former PM pitching herself as 'bridge in transatlantic conservative movement'
By The Week UK Published
-
Can Cameron put the Falklands sovereignty dispute to bed?
Today's Big Question Foreign secretary says issue 'not up for discussion' ahead of visit amid renewed push from Argentina
By The Week UK Published
-
It's the economy, Sunak: has 'Rishession' halted Tory fightback?
Today's Big Question PM's pledge to deliver economic growth is 'in tatters' as stagnation and falling living standards threaten Tory election wipeout
By Harriet Marsden, The Week UK Published
-
Will America recognize a Palestinian state?
Today's Big Question Israeli leader Benjamin Netanyahu opposes the move. Some see it as the only route to peace.
By Joel Mathis, The Week US Published