Is Rahm Emanuel on the way out?

The thing is, I simply don’t know if this ought to be another humble submission to my esteemed colleague John Rentoul’s outstanding series, regarding Questions in Headlines to Which the Answer is No.
You see, Alex Spillius has a rather intriguing scoop in the Telegraph this morning, alerting the world to the possibility that the American [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 12:35 pm

Krugmanite Keynesianism

Former Nobel laureate Paul Krugman has long been familiar to policymakers on both sides of the Atlantic, and not least for his erudite and forceful prescription for government spending through the global recession from which we are now emerging.
I think it’s probably fair to say that he and Martin Wolf of the Financial Times are [...]

By Amol Rajan | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 12:21 pm

The Budget: Savage cuts and ‘useful idiots’

By now, to tell the truth, I’m actually getting a bit bored with budget speculation and want Osborne to “bring it on”. There will be blood, to be sure, but a couple of points on that are worth mentioning.
One, there is now a danger that unless the chancellor really does go for it and raises [...]

By Sean O'Grady | Eagle Eye, Econoblog | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 11:55 am

Are these the top 100 books of all time?

How frustrating. I thought I could win a game of Humiliation, after Joshua Peck drew my attention to a 2002 list of the best books in the world. Clare Nomad asked:
Are these the top 100 books of all time?
Which is, of course, number 345 in my series of Questions to Which the Answer is No. [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 11:08 am

The enabling state, continued

It’s an old trick, and Matthew d’Ancona does it brilliantly in his Sunday Telegraph column yesterday. He quoted Michael Gove on schools reform, and then the Prime Minister:
Where parents are dissatisfied, they need a range of good schools to choose from; or where there is no such choice, [to be] able to take the remedy [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Monday, 21 June 2010 at 10:43 am

The Tory electoral reformer

Further to my article about Australian lessons for the Liberal Democrats (for which I owe a debt to Brent Martin, who spotted the parallel three days after our general election), I note David Cameron’s choice as Nick Clegg’s Conservative deputy as Minister for Political and Constitutional Reform.
Mark Harper (right), 40, is, like Cameron, a Brasenose [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Sunday, 20 June 2010 at 11:02 pm

New Quango Watch

Anyone remember the Conservative campaign against quangos before the election? How they were going to abolish the thousands of public bodies that had flourished under Labour and were spending billions of pounds of public money?
Not sure what number we’re up to yet, but on Wednesday George Osborne announced he was setting up the Independent Banking [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 10:46 pm

Clairvoyance and Glenda Jackson

Saturday round-up of stuff I mentioned on Twitter but did not have time to blog.
“It is an accursed gift, being able to see into the future.” Howard Jacobson predicts England won’t win the World Cup.
David Cameron wrote to Aung San Suu Kyi today to wish her happy birthday and “promise we will do everything we [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 10:18 pm

Public opinion braced for hard times

Our ComRes opinion poll for The Independent on Sunday suggests that the coalition’s honeymoon continues, with Conservative support holding, the Liberal Democrats up and Labour down, but all within the expected margins of random error, and each within one point of last month’s election result.

What is significant, before Tuesday’s Budget, is that the voters seem [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 7:30 pm

Bipartisan Reasonableness revisited

David Cameron won rave reviews for his statement on the Saville Inquiry on Tuesday, including from Labour MPs. David Cairns said:
David Cameron’s finest hour in the Chamber today. Didn’t put a foot wrong in a very complex and emotive subject.
Tom Harris blogs today, making the important point that the inquiry was worth its [...]

By John Rentoul | Eagle Eye | Saturday, 19 June 2010 at 5:02 pm