Paul Linford

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739Thu, 30 May 2013 22:19:30 +0000Ed BallsHonoursFormer MPsHome OfficeDefenceResignationsAlex SalmondTerrorismDeath PenaltyTuition FeesAnimal welfareBeerAlan MilburnCoalitionsConferences 2011OmnishamblesID CardsNuclear energyLabour leadershipAnthem for EnglandLords ReformLib DemsJim CallaghanGlobal warmingBen BradshawPeter MandelsonConferences 2012David MiIibandSpinPoliceUnemploymentEric PicklesRugbyLiam FoxDiamond JubileePhilip HammondPolitical Top 10sAir travelChristmasUS presidential election 2008Neil KinnockLabour conference 2006Public holidaysBudget 2011Lib Dem Conference 2006English QuestionNick CleggMing CampbellIan MearnsCity regionsCoalAndy BurnhamImmigrationTaxToriesConferences 2010Olympic GamesLiberal ConspiracyMPs expensesTop 10sLabourSnowHousingAlastair DarlingTellyManifestos 2010Labour conference 2007Tony BlairNHSBelperThe CoalitionBudget 2010InequalityGordon BrownSportReferendaJohn PrescottMichael GoveBudget 2008Nuclear weaponsLib Dem leadership contestLondonScotlandHung ParliamentsMargaret ThatcherConstitutional reformDerbyshireLabour sleazeUKIPMonarchyInterviewsHarriet HarmanKen ClarkeLocal electionsBudget 2012Postal strikeBoris JohnsonSleazeLocal governnmentGeneral ElectionHappiness AgendaPodcastingLobbyStephen ByersTim FarronCartoonsLighter sideMichael HeseltineEconomyParliamentPolitical CorrectnessWelfare reformElected mayorsTreasuryChristianityBig SocietyJohn MajorSir Menzies CampbellWar in AfghanistanPolitical cross-dressingPB.com guest blogsEuropeFootballReview of the YearTheresa MayBBCPersonalLabour leadership election 2010Alan JohnsonJournalismCutsPre-Budget ReportCrimeFantasy CabinetsSpeakership election 2009GreensEdHilary ArmstrongFellwalkingAlastair CampbellJohn ReidBarnett FormulaPublic spendingHistoryIraq WarStop GordonBlogosphereGeneral Election 2010Iain Duncan SmithClassTop 10 CarolsDavid CameronTributesTV debatesWorld CupCharles KennedyQuestion Time ReviewPolitical counterfactualsRegional governmentDrugsDenis HealeyFixed term ParliamentsElectoral reformWalesNigel FarageDisloyaltyChris HuhneSummer RiotsBy-electionsJustin WelbyQueen's SpeechesBarack ObamaBudget 2009MoviesEducationPollsNorth-South DivideIraqReshufflesTotal politicsNorth-EastFamilyConferences 2009CricketDavid DavisJustine GreeningDavid Kelly AffairGeorge OsborneConferences 2008Tory Conference 2007WeatherSmokingAlcoholRacismYvette CooperPolitical GaffesPredictionsMusicEd MilibandLib Dem leadership contest 2007Rupert MurdochAndrew LansleyBNPInternational politicsVince CableDavid BlunkettTory Conference 2006BlogGemsTory leadershipTransportDeputy leadershipBooksPaul LinfordPolitical Commentary and Other Stuffhttp://paullinford.blogspot.com/noreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)Blogger1257125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-8166197563742310774Sat, 25 May 2013 08:00:00 +00002013-05-25T09:00:09.354+01:00David CameronUKIPEd MilibandThe CoalitionNick CleggWhy the Coalition won't last the courseIF a week is a long time in politics, then two weeks is twice as long – and the fortnight since this column last appeared seems to have been a particularly lengthy one for Prime Minister David Cameron. A collective madness has descended upon his party, with rows about Europe and gay marriage punctuated by Cabinet ministers positioning themselves for what many now see as the inevitable http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2013/05/why-coalition-wont-last-course.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-7184940022658424198Sat, 04 May 2013 08:26:00 +00002013-05-04T09:27:57.605+01:00David CameronUKIPLocal electionsEd MilibandBy-electionsNigel FarageNorth-EastA plague on all their housesNearly a quarter of a century ago, a fringe party sent shockwaves through the political establishment after securing 15pc of the popular vote in the 1989 elections to the European Parliament. Alas for the Green Party, it could not sustain the momentum of its unexpected success, and by the time of the following general election in 1992, it has sunk back into relative political obscurity. So http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2013/05/a-plague-on-all-their-houses.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-338752334748260431Sat, 20 Apr 2013 07:30:00 +00002013-04-20T08:30:01.211+01:00Ed MilibandGordon BrownJohn MajorMargaret ThatcherTony BlairBlair is back, and Miliband will have to deal with it   OF all leading Conservative politicians of the past half century, the former Deputy Prime Minister Michael Heseltine is perhaps the one who has enjoyed the most complex relationship with his own party. To some, he will be remembered as a spellbinding orator and party conference crowd-pleaser par excellence – or as the late former MP Julian http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/11/a-welcome-report-but-why-is-heseltine.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-2777953532496316094Sat, 13 Oct 2012 07:30:00 +00002012-10-13T08:30:00.254+01:00David CameronEd MilibandMargaret ThatcherNHSConferences 2012Deeply disingenuous, but Cameron has the final say _uacct = "UA-3951331-3"; urchinTracker(); Seven years ago, the Conservative Party faithful gathered in Blackpool for what most observers expected would be a leadership stand-off between right-wing former council house boy David Davis and veteran Europhile Ken Clarke. That was, of course, before a young MP by the name of David Cameron came along and tore up the script, delivering a speech http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/10/deeply-disingenuous-but-cameron-has.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-3592296600470887401Sat, 06 Oct 2012 07:30:00 +00002012-10-06T08:30:04.787+01:00Ed MilibandGordon BrownTony BlairConferences 2012Can 'Red Ed' really command the centre ground?Twelve months ago, Ed Miliband delivered what I described at the time as probably the most courageous party conference speech by any major political leader over the course of the last two decades. The Liverpool address, in which he admitted that New Labour had not done enough to change the “values” of the British economy, amounted to no less than an attempt to overturn the political consensus http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/10/can-red-ed-really-command-centre-ground.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-6694276539509045677Sat, 22 Sep 2012 19:44:00 +00002012-09-22T22:27:06.564+01:00Lib DemsTuition FeesNick CleggMargaret ThatcherTony BlairConferences 2012Clegg's apology will not ultimately save his leadershipBroken promises are nothing new in politics. From the Labour Party’s 110-year-old pledge to introduce an elected House of Lords to George H.W. Bush’s infamous one-liner ‘Read my lips, No new taxes,’ history is full of instances of parties and politicians failing to keep their word. But there seems to be something about the subject of university tuition fees which brings out the worst in http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/09/normal-0-false-false-false-en-gb-x-none.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-6845678048483526434Sat, 15 Sep 2012 07:30:00 +00002012-09-15T08:30:01.128+01:00David CameronJournalismAndy BurnhamBoris JohnsonHillsborough: The apology still missingAfter more than 25 years in journalism, much of it spent covering the political arena, there is little that surprises me any more about the lengths to which some people will go in order to preserve their power, position or reputation. But in the week that the truth about the 1989 Hillsborough football disaster was finally and dramatically laid bare, even an ageing cynic like me has to confess tohttp://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/09/hillsborough-apology-still-missing.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-5464823241991218767Sat, 08 Sep 2012 07:30:00 +00002012-09-08T08:30:02.165+01:00David CameronEd MilibandReshufflesNick CleggJustine GreeningBoris JohnsonWas reshuffle the beginning of the end for Cameron?Much has changed for David Cameron over the course of his seven years in charge of the Conservative Party – but there are two aspects of his leadership that have remained pretty much constant throughout that period. The first is that he has tried to avoid reshuffles as far as possible. The second is that in his efforts to detoxify the Tory brand he has, by and large, continued to lead the party http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/09/was-reshuffle-beginning-of-end-for.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-6055500840241005784Sat, 07 Jul 2012 07:00:00 +00002012-07-07T08:00:00.610+01:00Tony Blair: The once and and future king? Anyone who has read this column more than once over the past 15 years or so will probably know by now that I have never exactly been the greatest fan of Tony Blair. It was not just all the spin and smarm, it was the fact that having waited so long for a left-of-centre government, we ended up with one that behaved in much the same way as the Tory administrations that preceded it. From the http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/07/tony-blair-once-and-and-future-king.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-5670481162729592807Sat, 16 Jun 2012 07:02:00 +00002012-06-16T08:02:00.113+01:00David CameronJournalismGordon BrownJohn MajorRupert MurdochNick CleggTony BlairA tale of three Prime Ministers Shortly after Rupert Murdoch sacked him as editor of The Times in 1982, the great newspaperman Harold Evans wrote a book about his experiences which he both hoped and believed would devastate the Australian media mogul. ‘Good Times, Bad Times’ remains a classic of its kind and is still pretty much essential reading for anyone wanting to enter our profession, but if the truth be told, its http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/06/tale-of-three-prime-ministers.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-8272375782942384726Sat, 09 Jun 2012 07:27:00 +00002012-06-09T08:27:00.187+01:00David CameronDiamond JubileeMonarchyOmnishamblesMargaret ThatcherTony BlairOlympic GamesThe woman who saved us from President BlairIf there is a single word that has come to define David Cameron's premiership over the past two years - and one that is likely to continue to define it long into the future - it is almost certainly the word ‘austerity.’ But although circumstances have decreed that the administration which he leads is overwhelmingly focused on economic matters, this almost certainly wasn’t the way the Prime http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/06/woman-who-saved-us-from-president-blair.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-8274207231775395841Sat, 02 Jun 2012 05:43:00 +00002012-06-02T07:55:20.101+01:00Budget shambles bodes ill for Tories' election prospects It was of course New Labour, in the shape of former North Tyneside MP Stephen Byers' erstwhile spin doctor Jo Moore, who gave the phrase 'burying bad news' to the English language with her infamous email on the afternoon of 9/11. But to be fair, it was neither her nor even her party which first invented the concept. Her mistake was simply to be too brutally explicit about a practice that all http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/06/it-was-of-course-new-labour-in-shape-of.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-6847318532149018496Sat, 19 May 2012 08:42:00 +00002012-05-19T09:44:53.913+01:00George OsborneDavid CameronAlastair CampbellThe CoalitionBudget 2012Nick CleggNorth-South DivideNorth-EastClegg fires welcome warning shot over regional payWhen the history of David Cameron’s government comes to be written, the Budget delivered by Chancellor George Osborne on 21 March may well be seen as a decisive turning point in its fortunes Whether it was the pasty tax, the granny tax, the tax on charitable giving or the abolition of the 50p rate, those looking for something to criticise in the Chancellor’s package found plenty of things to http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/05/clegg-fires-welcome-warning-shot-over.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-5967651841275821292Sat, 12 May 2012 06:55:00 +00002012-05-12T07:57:42.962+01:00David CameronEd MilibandThe CoalitionQueen's SpeechesNick CleggTony BlairLords ReformA renewal of vows? Pull the other one There is a school of thought that says that once a government gets itself into a position where it needs a relaunch, the brand is probably already so badly tarnished as to render the whole exercise pointless. To be fair, the Coalition is probably not at that point yet. It is only two years into its existence, and governments of a far older vintage have come back strongly from similar periods http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/05/renewal-of-vows-pull-other-one.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-12845739.post-6587061051054036878Sat, 05 May 2012 07:04:00 +00002012-05-05T08:53:38.285+01:00David CameronLocal electionsEd MilibandReshufflesElected mayorsCity regionsNorth-EastBoris JohnsonJohnson the real winner once again You can look at yesterday's local election results purely in terms of the 400 or so council seats lost by the Conservatives and the 800-plus gained by Labour. You can look at them in terms of national share of the vote, with Labour opening up a seven-point lead over the Tories that if repeated in a general election would put Ed Miliband comfortably in Number 10. You can look at them in http://paullinford.blogspot.com/2012/05/johnson-real-winner-once-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Paul Linford)0