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May 28th, 2010

Political Blog round for 28 May

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Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Blog Admin

May 28th, 2010

Political Blog round for 28 May

0 comments

Estimated reading time: 5 minutes

Chris Gilson takes a look at the week in political blogging.

Weekend

Kerry McCarthy MP, blogging at Shot from Both Sides is still boycotting the Guardian after they backed the Lib Dems in the election (or is she?).

Blogoir said that David Cameron was ready to veto the Treaty aimed at shoring up the Euro.

Jonathan Isaby at ConservativeHome previewed George Osborne’s spending cut announcement on Monday, while Peter Wrigley at Keynesian Liberal is alarmed at how the historically high level of unemployment is not a government priority, and Craig Berry guest blogging at Next Left looked into the Tories’ new Quango, the Office for Budget Responsibility.

Liberal Conspiracy says that former Labour Leader Neil Kinnock is backing Ed Balls for the Labour leadership; Kerry McCarthy at Shot from Both Sides is too.

David Herdson at politicalbetting.com blogged on the Conservatives’ lack of support in Scotland, and later Mike Smithson looks at Labour’s troubles in the South East, while Mark Pack looked at the performance of the Uniform National Swing at the election.

Monday – George Osborne unveils £6bn in spending cuts today

Peter Wrigley at Keynesian Liberal is concerned about pre-election Lib Dem and Tory promises to cut the number of MPs. George Eaton at The Staggers says that if David Milliband does not win the Labour leadership, then he will be the first frontrunner since 1980 not to do so. Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy blogged on David Lammy’s endorsement of Diane Lammy for the Labour leadership.

Capitalists@work is pushing for harder cuts, sooner, and George Eaton at The Staggers asks if George Osborne can avoid a double-dip recession. Guido also thinks the cuts only scratch the surface of what’s really necessary. Iain Dale is quite pleased at the announcements today, while Gary Gibbon at SnowBlog looks at how ‘easy’ these kinds of savings are to achieve.. Alistair Campbell says that these cuts are essentially Tory in nature, with the Lib Dems having made compromises. Hopi Sen has had a ‘visceral’ reaction to the abolition of the Child Trust Fund.

Guido has a list of the new Special Advisors in Government, and Jonathan Isaby at ConservativeHome blogged on Boris Johnson’s first visit to Number 10.

Will Straw at Left Foot Forward split up Labour’s vote by social grade, and finds that support was lost across the board.

Tuesday – Queen’s speech

Hopi Sen is cynical about why the coalition’s cuts were announced yesterday and not today. Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy is not impressed with the Left’s response to yesterday’s cuts. Shamik Das at Left Foot Forward says that even small cuts will have a large impact, while Iain Martin at the Wall Street Journal is a big fan of the new ban on Ministerial cars.

Nick Robinson gives some background about the Queen’s speech and why its content is often not memorable. Iain Dale is impressed by the pomp of the event. Patrick Wintour at Guardian Politics wonders where opposition to these new laws might come from.

Jim Pickard at the Financial Times blog is impressed with Harriet Harman’s performance in the house today; Peter Hoskin at Coffee House calls today’s debate, lively, and Gary Gibbon at SnowBlog pondered whether or not 5 May 2011, will be the date of a referendum on a new voting system.

Wednesday

Mike Smithson at politcalbetting.com looked at whether the potential timing of the referendum on voting systems might cause a split in the coalition, while Jim Pickard at the FT talked about the four stages of government as originally discussed by William Hague in 1999. Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy talked about the ‘hypocrisy’ of the government in promoting civil liberties at the Queen’s speech at the same time as removing protestors from parliament square.

George Eaton at The Staggers is amused that while Ministers will no longer have access to chauffeured cars, for reasons of security, their red boxes will still have to be transported that way in any case.

Will Straw at Left Foot Forward takes Michael Gove and the new government to task on funding for ‘free schools’ and the pupil premium. James Forsyth had some speculation about Vince Cable’s replacement as Deputy Leader of the Liberal Democrats, Guido is critical of Cable’s move.

Anders Lustgarten blogging at The Staggers is concerned at Labour’s shift in immigration policy to a more hard line stance. Paul Waugh at The Evening Standard blogged on former Labour minister, Patrica Hewitt’s good fortunes despite previous scandals. Hopi Sen had some ideas of how Labour should now discuss their opposition for Tory cuts.

Thursday

Mike Smithson at politicalbetting.com predicted a comfortable majority for the Tories at the Thirsk and Malton local election today.

Hopi Sen is uncharacteristically supportive of Iain Duncan Smith’s proposed welfare reforms; Jonathan Isaby at ConservativeHome has more information, and Don Paskini at Liberal Conspiracy doesn’t think the reforms will work.

Sarah Mulley at Left Foot Forward asks how the recent decline in immigration might effect the new government’s proposed cap on migrants, and Sunder Katwala at Next Left looked at coalition issue-related rebellions.

Iain Dale on Downing Street’s ‘ridiculous’ decision to not send a government Minister to sit on the BBC’s Question Time panel if Alistair Campbell was also on it.

Friday

Alastair Campbell calls yesterday’s Question Time decision by Number 10 an ‘idiotic’ one – but he also says it made it fun. Toby Young at the Telegraph says that it’s an ‘own goal’ for the government. Tim Montegomerie at ConservativeHome looks the issue from the Tory side of things, and is less approving of Number 10’s decision than one might have expected. Peter Hoskin at Coffee House agrees that it may have been a miss-step by Number 10.

Peter Wrigley at Keynesian Liberal is a fan of the Green’s ‘Citizen Income’, as solution to the ‘employment trap’, while Joe Cox (of Compass) guest blogging at Left Foot Forward looks at the value for money implications for the government’s apparent plans to privatise the post office.

Sunny Hundal at Liberal Conspiracy sees some early potential Tory barriers to electoral reform legislation, and Ed Jacobs at Left Foot Forward is very concerned at the lack of Welsh representation on home committees, and has a good round-up of the new government’s apparent shortcomings in representing Wales..

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This work by British Politics and Policy at LSE is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported.