Conservatives
The boy David
Lunch with a young Cameron on polling day, 1992
Portrait of the week
Home Launching the Conservative party manifesto, David Cameron, the party leader, told voters he wanted to ‘turn the good news…
Barometer
Out of tune The use of a song, ‘Love Natural’ by the Crystal Fighters, at the launch of the Labour…
Cameron must show he’s not too posh to push
At 5.45 a.m. Lynton Crosby holds the first meeting of the day at Conservative campaign HQ. The aim is to…
Call me insane, but I’m voting Labour
Quite often when I deliver myself of an opinion to a friend or colleague, the reply will come back: ‘Are…
Swing time
The age of two-party politics is over: we know that because everyone keeps saying so. We are entering an era…
Miliband vs Millwall
I’ve been trying to think of a good football analogy to describe the battle between the two main parties as…
Passion, please
When launching the Conservatives’ campaign this week, David Cameron told party activists that the general election was ‘on a knife…
Return to the rose garden
The Prime Minister could never admit it, but he’s dreaming of – and scheming for – another coalition
Why we lie to ourselves about opinion polls
A strange ritual takes place on Twitter most evenings at around 10.30 p.m. Hundreds of political anoraks start tweeting the…
Osborne’s decisive moment
George Osborne usually tells his aides to prepare for each Budget as if it were his last. This time round,…
Healing the NHS
To adapt Aeschylus’s aphorism on war and truth, the first casualty in a general election campaign is objectivity. Over the…
Did Cameron ever really want to be nice?
I have a friend who was a Young Conservative. Just the one, I promise, and he’s grown out of it…
The nailbiting run-up to Question Time
I was invited on Question Time this week, which gave me a few sleepless nights. Natalie Bennett’s disastrous interview on…
The not-very-general election
There’s normally an easy way to tell which party is losing a general election campaign. Whenever one side starts telling…
My dad saved the pound
If you’re grateful not to be in the euro, it’s James Goldsmith and his ‘rebel army’ you should thank
Laying down our arms
Britain is forfeiting its position on the world stage. With no national debate, we are surrendering our claim to be…
Where is the Tories’ secret weapon?
‘You did this,’ David Cameron repeatedly declared to Tory donors as he reeled off a list of the government’s achievements…
Thatcher’s soap
How EastEnders became a positive reflection of Tory values
School’s not out
For those who assumed that the removal of Michael Gove as Education Secretary marked the end of the Conservatives’ scholastic…
The proof is in the league tables, Mr Hunt
For a brief moment earlier this week, I thought education might become an issue in the general election campaign. The…
How Greek voters will decide Britain’s general election
Before the eurozone crisis, Greek elections didn’t receive much attention in Westminster. At the moment, however, the polls from Athens…
The election where everyone loses
Whatever happens on 7 May, both main party leaders face disaster
The defence never rests
Sir Ivan Lawrence QC on the Krays, Dennis Nilsen – and Chris Grayling
Cameron’s winning hand
Almost exactly five years ago, the Conservatives fired the starting gun for a general election — and shot themselves in…
