There are it seems some rather concerning and amusing stories in this morning's Sundays. According to the Sunday Telegraph, Gordon Brown has decided to cut £50 million from drug treatment programmes in the forthcoming Comprehensive Spending Review.
Now some will say that it is Darling that is Chancellor, but the cynic amongst many of us will know that really means Brown. Meanwhile the Independent on Sunday has a whistleblower story about the NHS, with one of Britain's most senior surgeons saying there is a bed crisis for trauma patients.
The BBC finds itself hit twice in the Mail on Sunday which alleged that the BBC entrapped someone by offering them £40,000 for some children in a human smuggling scandal in Bulgaria. At the same time it is expressing outrage that the bleeding obvious fake caravan fire in Top Gear was... errr... faked.
Michael Portillo in the Sunday Times has an interesting piece, which, if you can get past his constant slagging of the Tories, suggests Brown should scrap ID Cards and it would be a sign of his strength. Also in the same paper, Bryan Appleyard has a brilliant piece about the "Web 2.0" world and the creation fo notorious nobodies (also known as web celebrities).
My one criticism as ever is this belief that Web 2.0 is actually different to Web 1.0, it isn't, apart from the fact that a technically illiterate person can now easily publish online. There were many web celebrities before the easy publishing systems - Jay Stile springs to mind even if his sites are, shall we say, decidedly adult.
Finally, on a purely political point, David Davis, has weighed in with support for David Cameron, telling the Sunday Telegraph that "David has passed his first test. Now the party must pass its first test, and that is a test of discipline."
He's absolutely right too. Whilst there have been some tactical errors in the past few weeks, and the "Brown Bounce" is suddenly surprising people who were openly acknowledging it would happen before it did, it's not a time to start blinking and talking about patricide.
1 comment:
I'm surprised at the Brown bounce. I really thought his lack of charisma would be a major handicap but it seems the British voter has not been fully Americanized.
It would be unfortunate for Cameron to be perceived as another Blair at precisely the wrong moment but there you go.
I've said elsewhere that while the economy is doing well political parties will converge to the centre so the battleground will really be over style and personality rather than policy. OK small differences in policy will be magnified by partisans but essentially there won't be that much difference. Big changes will only come when there is a significant economic downturn, which always happens eventually.
Wonder what'll happen to the Tories if they lose again. They will have tried everything.
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