Blair air eiridh a-ribhist - cunnard neo cuideachadh?

1998 -Blair aig fosgladh drochaid Scalpaigh, coiseachd air burn


Tha e air èirigh a-rithist. Tillidh Tònaidh Blair gu poileataigs Bhreatainn an-diugh agus e gu bhith a' toirt seachad òraid ann an Trimbton Colliery, san t-seann roinn phàrlamaid aige Sedgefield.
Sin, dh'fhaodadh tu a ràdh far an do thòisich an iomairt airson New Labour bho chionn ceithir bliadhna fichead air ais.

Tha e air tilleadh nar measg airson òraid a dhèanamh, airson taic a thoirt dha Gòrdan Brown, am fear a phut a-mach à oifis e bho chionn trì bliadhna (bheil cho fada sin bhon dh' fhàg e?).

Chan eil fhios agam an e òraid neo searmon a gheibh sinn - neo a bheil diofar eadar an dà rud a-nis airson Tònaidh Blair - ach chan eil ticead ri fhaighinn airson an "gig" seo.

Tha dùil gun toir e slaic pearsanta air Dàibhidh Camshron. Tha an Camshronach a' dol timcheall, a-rèir cuid, a' toirt a chreids gu bheil e air atharrachadh mòr a dhèanamh air a' phàrtaidh Tòraidheach, air a ghlanadh a-mach 's e air a chur air ais ann am meadhan poileataigs na dùthcha.

Uill, tha fios aig Tònaidh Blair mu dheidhinn atharrachadh a thoirt air pàrtaidh. Thog e na Làbaraich bhon an lar agus thug e crathadh orra mar New Labour mus do bhuannaich e taghadh.

Cha do rinn Camshron càil coltach ri sin ach tha e a' dol timcheall a' cumail a-mach gun e oighre Bhlair a th' ann - "heir to Blair" mar a chanas iad.

'S e chanas Blair gu bheil Camshron faoin, gu bheil esan eòlach air dè dh' fheumas tu dèanamh airson pàrtaidh a thoirt gu ìre airson oifis, agus nach eil Camhshron faisg air an sin.

Tha Blair connspaideach, gu h-àraid am measg luchd-taic nan Làbarach fhèin, air sgàth cogadh Ioraic gu h-àraid, agus mar sin tha beagan cunnart ann e a' tilleadh mar seo.

Ach cha do bhuannaich e, cuimhnich, trì taghaidhean dìreach le taic treubh nan Làbarach. 'S e an rud mu dheidhinn Blair gu bheil e a' tarraing bhòtairean bho thaobh a-muigh a' phàrtaidh.

Agus cha bhi e na aonar tuilleadh. Tha iad a' cur an t-seann chòmhlain air ais ri chèile. Mandelson, an Caimbeulach, sin Alasdair am pìobaire; Blair air vocals agus Brown ag amas air na drums le dhòn dùinte.

Mar sheann chòmhla rock tha iad a' dol air ais air an rathadh airson aon turas eile - le John Prescott a' dràibheadh a' bhan.

Bidh iad an dòchas gu bheil fonn neo dhà air fhàgail a nì a' chùis an turas cuideachd.


Taing Eilidh Dhubh

Post debate Nelson provocative as usual

I disagree with Fraser Nelson on so many things but ever so often he hits the nail on the head.

I had expected his blog - "Osborne's silent victory" - to be a paean in defence of the indefensible. the accepted political wisdom is that Osborne didn't do well yesterday at all and did not shine in the debate.

But as Fraser rightly points out neither did he make a fool of himself and that is, in its own way, an away win. Unpersuaded voters might not think him the demon oik that Labour want to portray him as.

It also reminds me that there could be a difference between the developing media narrative of this campaign - tightening polls, underdog Brown fights back, Tories not assured, hung parliament in the final act - and reality.

Some of the commentators today are still writing about tightening polls when in fact they are opening up again.

All of the plot lines above may be played out but something quite different might be taking place in the country

Polls -gap widening but still looking hung up

An Independent poll tonight has Tories steady on 37%and Labour down two points to 30% and the Lib Dems on 20%, up one point. Other parties are on 13%.

This leaves David Cameron 31 seats short of an overall majority in a hung parliament.

Ironically that's about the size most of the experts thing Cameron will achieve as a majority.

There's not much to add on the Chancellors' tv debate, if you saw it for yourselves.
All three men looked nervous at the beginning of the first big tv debate of the election but the encounter ended without any of them making a major slip up.

Vince Cable, sainted for his foresight in seeing the economic crash coming, managed to draw some applause and a laugh or two for attacks on the “pinstriped Scargills”, his term for the bonus-rich city bankers.

Darling, whose solid reputation is now one of Labour’s prime assets, showed a flash of political anger and the steely determination that took him and the country through the worst crash in a generation.

Sure enough Osborne’s tax cutting promise, to be paid for by shaving £6 billion of "waste" from public spending in the coming year, came in for a mugging from the more experienced players, Darling and Cable.

Darling said: “You have not got a single penny in the bank to pay for that. You are going to be forced to cut even deeper or put other taxes up to pay for that.”

Vince Cable simply mocked Osborne saying: “I thought your tax priority was taking millionaires out of inheritance tax “

Osborne, who had looked tense and pasty at a morning press conference, managed to come through by referring constantly to his boss David Cameron rather than himself. He only sneered once, when Cable landed a blow against the rich who will benefit from Tory inheritance tax plans.

Last night the Tories took pride from the fact that the debate was mostly about their tax cutting proposals - but the one-two jab from Darling and Cable left the policy floored and Osborne’s credibility exposed.

Osborne ripped but tax cuts could play with voters

George Osborne's offer to cut taxes out of efficiency savings that have still to be identified properly is being hammered here at Westminster this afternoon, and yet...

Alistair Darling, in some pre-bout sparring ahead of the 8pm debate tonight, has accused Osborne of making it up as he goes along.

"George Osborne has panicked and is making policy up on the hoof," said Darling. "On the Tories' own figures, they've made a £28bn tax promise over the next Parliament, but not a single one of their savings is in the bank. It's paid for on a wing and a prayer."

Flaky, opportunistic, the oldest trick in the book - promising a tax cut in an election campaign might be all these things but beyond the beltway, outside Westminster, it might play.

With our close-up focal range we hacks forget that lots of voters will pick this up simply for what it is - a promise to tax them less.

The Tories weren't pulling away from Labour by promising tough love - cutting the deficit and public spending immediately - so they've changed direction over the weekend and lurched for a tax-cutting offer.

Sure, you can say they're rattled, but that isn't to say that the strategy won't work in the polls. Once again, it's a question of credibility and I'd say that's going to the biggest issue in the no-holds-barred debate between Darling, Osborne and Cable tonight.

The Lib Dems would usually place themselves in the middle of a three-way debate as the sensible alternative but I suspect that it will be a tag-team of Vince and Alistair against George tonight. The boy has a lot to prove, and there's an election riding on how he performs.

Dan and Dan - The Daily Mail Song

Great, gentle ribbing here from Dan(and Dan, thanks to Paul at Never Trust a Hippy.

Speaking of hippies did anyone see Duncan Campbell's atmospheric recollections of Goa and the hippy trail in the Observer yesterday, joss sticks and all. Go wash that petiole oil out of you silver locks Duncan.

Osborne gambles tax cut ahead of TV debate

Busy old Westminster morning - Tory press conference in Millbank Tower (on the very site that Tony Benn was born), MPs expenses, daily lobby briefing. Run, run, run.

George Osborne, facing the biggest moment of his political career in the Channel 4 Chancellors debate tonight, decided to start the day by upping the stakes in the election race.

Osborne announced this morning that the Tories would not go ahead with the 1p National Insurance rise that Darling proposes.

The shadow chancellor claimed he could fund this tax cut with £12bn of efficiency savings in government spending that can be delivered without harming frontline services.

Some £6bn could be made in this coming financial year 2010-11, he said, to make a start in reducing government borrowing.

A further £6bn of savings would also be made in the Departments of Health and International Development - but would be re-invested in the front line - and in the Ministry of Defence, although not until the next financial year.

The pitch is that seven out of ten working people will be better off under a Tory government.

But this isn't just a stab at vote-winning tax cuts, it's a question of credibility too.

Osborne is Labour's prime target in the election and they were fast out of the blocks claiming that you cannot fund tax cuts on efficiency savings you have not yet made.

Ken Clarke, who was on the stump with Osborne this morning, said as much only a week ago. Both Cameron and Osborne have said the same thing in the past.

A full Labour rebuttal is underway, describing this tax cut a back of a fag packet policymaking. Ed Miliband is calling this a "panicked move" that undermines George Osborne's credibility. "You can't fund a tax cut on the never never," says Miliband. Whatever happened to the priority of cutting the deficit, they ask?

It was a bold move by Osborne, but one that looks like blowing up in his face before this evening. The immediate questions from journalists were all on the same theme - how can you identify savings from efficiency cuts that have not yet been made?

While he was on top of his brief Osborne looked pale and pasty when he sat down, his natural pallor unfortunately. It's going to be a tense day for him and it will be interesting to see how much flak the NI tax cut can take before it reaches the TV studio tonight.

Dr Who, WH 1212 and a dalekproof jacket

Matt Smith with Karen Gillan and that jacket

Just back from doing some very enjoyable early morning radio with the newspaper and Stornoway legend that is Angus MacLeod.

Angus,the Times man who reviews the Saturday papers for Radio Scotland's Newsweek, was proud today of how he had persuaded his paper to put the Harris Tweed brand on the front page next to the picture of the new Dr Who, Matt Smith.

I have to share some of the credit, I declared. The association between Harris Tweed and Dr Who goes back to a Whitehall 1212 entry last July when the first publicity shots of the new timelord were released.

When I saw Matt Smith sporting a bow tie and what was simply described in the publicity then as a "tweed jacket" I immediately contacted the BBC press office.

This jacket, I asked, was it the enduringly strong Harris Tweed jacket hand-woven in the Hebrides, beloved of crofters and aristocrats for generations and now the talk of fashion houses across the universe?

Was it the mythical Harris Tweed jacket worn by the heroic George Mallory on his unsuccessful 1924 attempt to climb Everest? Was it, in short, the genuine, timeless, Harris Tweed article?

The press office kind of got my drift. Er, yes, vintage Harris Tweed they replied.

Since then, if you read today's Times, the phone has been ringing off the hook at the Harris Tweed Authority with Whovians phoning up asking for a copy of the tweed look. I fully expect Tom Harris MP, Glasgow South, to be wearing one on the election trail.

I've no idea if it really is Harris Tweed or not but according to the Times Matt Smith’s tweed has been identified as a Mackenzie “two by two” dogtooth, probably produced in the 1960s.

The label shows it was first sold by Dunn & Co. and the costume designer has tracked down a similar weave in Savile Row and made up five reproduction jackets for stunt wear, leaving the original for special occasions.

To which I say, don't they know how tough a Harris Tweed jacket is? Not even a dalek could exterminate one.

With a tweed jacket and a Highland woman by his side (Karen Gillan is being allowed to use her own Inverness accent) - this new Doctor, he can't be defeated.