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| We're already on an election footing. God knows how we're going to survive the next 18 months. But here we are, ramping up for the longest general election campaign of all time. Tory ministers have been told to make every statement centre around a dividing line with Labour. Nick Clegg is relentlessly following an equidistance strategy. And Ed Balls is hedging his hung parliament bets by playing footsie with the Lib Dems. The public confidence, reflected by George Osborne on Monday with the the gloomiest return-to-work message ever, was not in evidence behind closed doors. In the mucky world of parliamentary toing-and-froing, the coalition had a dreadful week. Iain Duncan Smith went to war with Osborne - and Francis Maude too, for good measure. The latter was over the ongoing universal credit IT project disaster, a financial black hole which is visible from space. Maude's been drafted in to sort it out and he's not impressed. The former was over his attempt to protect welfare spending from another hack-and-slash visit by Osborne. That debate put left-wingers in a curious position, with IDS the champion and defender of what's left of the welfare state. Meanwhile, the coalition's bill outlawing 'annoyance' (just as absurd as it sounds) was knocked down in the Lords, who take a dim view of broad, vague legal language. The Home Office is going to press ahead, but the defeat was big and it's doubtful they'll have the stamina to get it past a stubborn upper chamber, especially if civil liberties campaigners can make it totemic. Tories were also hard at work dismantling the lobbing bill, a piece of legislation which took one problem, did little to address it, and then created several completely unrelated new ones. Not least among these was a draconian restriction of charities' campaigning abilities. The concessions convinced some opponents to drop their objections, but not all. In the Lords, peers were queuing up to secure their chance to speak in the debate over the private members bill on an EU referendum. It's a ploy to kill it. If they can talk it out until February 28th they can kill it off completely. That would put Cameron in an unenviable position: If he doesn't create a government bill he'll lose support to Ukip and rekindle the rebelliousness of his backbenchers. If he does, the Lib Dems will shoot it down. It was, all in all, a pretty dank week for the coalition, with little going their way. Even the vote they won – on a Labour motion tackling high-stakes gambling machines – saw Cameron adopt a an apologetic tone. The coalition wants to tackle the machines too, he insisted, but only after an industry report. After plain fag packs and minimum alcohol pricing, Labour wasn't having any of it. Cameron was even facing trouble on the continent, with the Polish PM taking a rather dim view of the constant references to his countrymen in the British welfare and immigration debate. Meanwhile, Tories in marginal seats were giving their colleagues a rather vital lesson: 'Please stop being so loud and right-wing. It's making it very difficult for the rest of us.' All in all, a tough start to the year for the Conservatives. And Clegg's growing confidence won't have lightened their mood. The deputy PM knows he needs to relentlessly attack Labour on the economy and the Tories on social justice. There were signs that it was all falling into place for him, despite Boris Johnson calling him a condom on his birthday – a description Clegg managed to laugh off unconvincingly. But his newfound friendliness with Ed Balls suggested something rather more significant. The shadow chancellor's overture towards Clegg was a far cry from his previous comments about the deputy prime minister, which were seething with personal animosity. Now, all is sweetness and light between the two men and Balls "totally" understands why he went into coalition with the Tories. It shows Labour is doing the maths and knows there's a good chance it'll end up in a Lib-lab coalition in 2015. It wouldn't do to go from mortal enemies to BFFs overnight, so the ground is must be prepared and the narrative sculptured. And sculpt it must, because Labour shows precious little sign of having the momentum to win outright. The party's internal problems were continuing, with one Miliband ally admitting to us that the public just weren't getting his 'One Nation' message. Instead, his MPs were using Ukip-coloured leaflets to sell their qualities. Remember when the Tories did that in Eastleigh? Didn't work there either. Best of NewsG4S and Serco heavily criticised for asylum housing conditions G4S and Serco have been heavily criticised by the National Audit Office for underperforming on a £620m deal to house asylum seekers. Belly flop? Another Tory MP heads for reality TV Tory backbencher Penny Mordaunt is to become the latest politician to venture into the perilous world of reality TV. Coalition defeated over 'annoyance' clampdown Peers have handed the government a big defeat in the Lords over plans to make injunctions against being 'annoying' legal. Miliband ally warns public 'don't get' Ed's One Nation vision Labour's MPs need to do more to "project" unity in the party by standing behind Ed Miliband's One Nation vision of Britain, shadow Welsh secretary Owen Smith has told Politics.co.uk. Labour MP's Ukip-coloured leaflet baffles rivals A Labour MP whose constituency literature was dominated by Ukip's purple and yellow colours is facing a barrage of questions from local rivals. Farage: 'Basic principle' of Rivers of Blood speech was right Nigel Farage comes in for renewed criticism, after he said the "basic principle" of Enoch Powell's infamous Rivers of Blood speech was "right" Blackadder Wars, part two: Baldrick brands Gove 'very silly' Tony Robinson accuses Michael Gove of "slagging off teachers" after the education secretary said Blackadder had become a left-wing propaganda tool for moulding attitudes towards the First World War Best of Comment and AnalysisComment: The Home Office admits it has no idea if the war on drugs is working They spend billions a year fighting drugs, but now even the Home Office admits it has no idea if it's made any difference. Is it fair to call Ukip a far-right party? For some reason, I'm getting into a bit of trouble from some people who support the far-right party Ukip. Comment: The Greens' revolution in open democracy We're going to open up our candidate selection process to the public - and we're letting 16-year-olds take part too. Blog: The BBC's political editor sounds like a government minister The job of the BBC is not to 'reflect public concern' about immigration. It's to provide accurate information so the public can come to its own opinion. Political Week OnlineThe Political Week Online: Cooking up a stink Mark Duggan, #benefitsstreet, porn, and racist cookery. The Week According to Sean DilleyThe week according to Sean Dilley Bidding farewell to Paul Goggins, one of parliament's finest | The coalition has trivialised the importance of health and safetyNASUWT comments on Triennial Review of the Health and Safety Executive. Flooding presents critical long-term issues for our national infrastructureProf Will Stewart from the IET comments on what floods tell us about the national infrastructure. BSIA members to fly the flag for the Best of British security solutions at Intersec 2014BSIA members to demonstrate their latest state-of-the-art security innovations to visitors at the forthcoming Intersec 2014 show in Dubai. Voice Scotland welcomes £3.5 million for childcare training after meeting ministerVoice welcomes £3.5milion funding package for childcare workforce development announced by the Scottish Government, after meeting Michael Russell. Country Land Association backs Owen Paterson's pledges on red tape, biotech and BTBThe CLA today backed Environment Secretary Owen Paterson’s pledges to slash £1billion of the red tape suffered by farmers, eradicate bTB and support biotech crops. |
