Words Dept.

The Conservative Party conference is taking place in Manchester this week. I know this because of the twin-set and tweed lot I spotted hanging around Piccadilly this morning (alongside a confused looking David Dimbleby). That the Tories have chosen Manchester as the host city for their last conference before a General Election says something about [...]

David Cameron’s sweary outburst on the radio this morning has the unmistakable hallmarks of a media strategy about it. In an attempt to sound “edgy” – and presumably because the Absolute Radio Breakfast Show hits the numbskull demographic that Cameron’s advisers want to hit this week - the 42-year-old, Eton-educated Tory leader was heard to say the word ”twat”. (Audio here.) The whole thing [...]

There’s something inescapably awful about the latest Conservative election broadcast, which essentially consists of David Cameron saying the words “Cameron Direct” a lot while prancing about, pointing a lot and occasionally sitting on a train. I’ve checked and it’s not a parody but I’ve still watched it about six times on YouTube since it was [...]

Is it possible to write about motoring taxes without coming across like white van man or a Clarksonite right-wing boor? I consider myself part of the muesli-eating, Guardian-reading carrier bag-recyling liberal set but I’m up for a challenge, so lets find out. So Gordon Brown, in his wisdom, wants to increase road tax – or [...]

I was unfortunate enough to pick up a copy of the Mail on Sunday supplement Live from the seat of a train yesterday. I instantly regretted the act because it caused me to stumble across two of Britain’s smuggest men engaging in a feast of political name-dropping. In the inside back cover is Piers Morgan, [...]

There’s a nice, unintentionally hilarious interview with Lib Dem leadership candidate Nick Clegg in the Observer today. The author, Jasper Gerard, admits he is a Liberal and “unabashed supporter” of Clegg. All of which becomes abundantly clear quite quickly. Near the top, for example, there’s a shameless attempt to merge the image of Clegg with [...]

I fear Gordon Brown may be even worse than Tony Blair. His penchant for spin and adherence to short-term gain at the expense of long term vision has become depressingly obvious in the last few weeks, especially the last fortnight. The problem is especially marked given that Brown initially tried to paint himself as a [...]

An amazing revelation in today’s Observer. Apparently, David Cameron has been “whining like a schoolboy” about the Daily Mirror‘s coverage of the Conservatives. He’d requested a clear the air meeting with the Mirror‘s editor, Richard Wallace, which backfired when Cameron and his flunkeys decided to compare the paper’s coverage with that of Neil Kinnock in [...]