Hopi Sen

These are just two of the many things I didn’t care about on holiday, and still don’t care about now I’m back. 1. Who members of the government are or are not sleeping with. No, I don’t even care if they’re employees. I didn’t care when it was John Prescott*, and I don’t care today. [...]

I’m taking the week off, both from work, and this blog. As I’m an internet obsessive, even when on holiday, it’s more than likely that I’ll post links of things I read and find interesting, but the thousand word walls of text I’ve been producing recently will be diverted elsewhere for the next week. I’ll [...]

The Advance person’s life is not a happy one. You get a call from some pointy head saying “We want to have some pictures to go with our oh so important speech on social mobility” First thing tomorrow OK? The speech is at 11am in London, so the visit’s  got to be in central London too. So obviously, [...]

Ed Miliband is absolutely right to rule out working with Nick Clegg. It might seem early, but it’s worth setting out the obvious straight away. Nick Clegg has defined himself entirely with the Tory dominated Coalition policy agenda. Just as significantly, he has supported a political strategy that involves regular and full-throated combined attacks on [...]

The Winter Fuel allowance is now a major story. This is probably entirely egomaniacal, but I do sort of feel that I’ve some minor role in this. I’ve been banging on about it for days, and yesterday it turned into a proper story as journalists followed it up.  This is clearly all down to me going [...]

The excellent Joe Murphy of the Evening Standard has done some proper journalism* and got the DWP and Treasury to admit they are looking at cutting the Winter Fuel allowance for many pensioners, in direct contradiction of David Cameron’s pre-election pledge. “Sources in both the department and the Treasury would not deny that the cuts [...]

One of these things is not like the others. “We will keep the winter fuel allowance. Let me take this opportunity to say very clearly to any pensioner … You know you are getting letters from the Labour Party that say the Conservatives would cut the winter fuel allowance, would cut the free bus travel, [...]

I see quondam commentator, blogger and loudmouth Coalition government supporter Sunny Hundal has realised the terrible mistake he made in supporting the claims to office of David Cameron, Nick Clegg and his crew, and has humbly asked to be admitted to the brother (and sister) hood of the Labour party. I understand there are others [...]

I think the Labour party has rather bigger things to worry about than the career prospects of former Cabinet ministers. Yes, Alan Milburn surely knows that working with the Coalition provides David Cameron and Nick Clegg with a nice headline in August, and gives political emphasis to Cameron’s claim to have moved to the centre [...]

Further updates from the right wing blogs about the internal Coalition rows on Benefit Reform. They’re trying to spin it as a victory for IDS, but if true, it’s a savaging. Here’s Iain Martin, of the Wall Street Journal Europe: “Whitehall peace talks have produced the outline of a deal which… could keep IDS inside [...]