Call for Change: round one to Labour

TALKING to senior Tories in Brighton yesterday at their Spring Conference, I didn't detect any sign of panic at the party's slide in the opinion polls - although admittedly that was before today's YouGov poll in The Sunday Times which narrows the lead...

Darling's revenge set to stymie Brown

ALISTAIR Darling has got his own back. The Chancellor finally gave vent to his inner feelings when he told a TV interviewer that "the forces of Hell" had been unleashed against him after he declared the recession would be the worst for 60 years.  "The...

BBC's strange priorities

THE BBC has just Twittered that several miners are trapped after a collapse in Turkey. As tragic a personal story as that is, surely it is not worthy of what used to be known in the media as a news flash. I make this observation after reading on Sunday...

RAF is in danger

MY blog on defence cuts, and the threat to the RAF, has easily become my biggest hit so far this year, so I make no apology for returning to the subject. Leafing through the current issue of Desider - the magazine for defence equipment and support -...

Lucky Norwich, unlucky Ipswich

NORWICH gets the prize of unitary government, but Ipswich does not. It's a blow for the county town of Suffolk, but it has probably lost out because the Tory-Lib Dem run council didn't back it all the way. Norwich is also a more Labour counci. Let's...

It looks like curtains for the RAF

IT'S not what Liam Fox said, but what he didn't say, when he spoke about the UK's defence capabilities in the years to come if the Conservatives win the next General Election. The Tories are determined to shake-up the Ministry of Defence and that will...

Gordon wants Groundhog Day to go on and on

TODAY is Groundhog Day, when the good folk of Gobbler's Knob - wouldn't you just like to live there - near Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, pay homage to Punxsutawney Phil who predicts the weather in the weeks ahead, Yesterday, those hoping for an early spring...