By James Macintyre

David Cameron "really is beginning to resemble Tony Blair", according to John Rentoul on Open House today.

By James Macintyre

Questions are being raised in the Saturday papers over the Chelsea shooting by police of Mark Saunders earlier this week, and rightly so. One that doesn't seem to have been answered (or asked), is why did officers apparently spray him with bullets before throwing tear gas and stun grenades into his house, rather than the other way around? The Met, as ever, is behind the scenes heavily briefing its side of the story to the press. But the scrutiny it faces is notably enhanced since the last high-profile police shooting, that of the innocent Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes when he was mistaken for a suicide bomber in 2005.

By James Macintyre

So, one or two of us were indeed very wrong about the London maroyal election, having underestimated the extent to which real, electoral politics can be influenced by a right-of-centre rampant media pack at Westminster. Clearly also, as has been noted here on Open House, the Tory candidate benefited from a high turnout among the very English, political-chat-show-watching, big-car-driving suburbanites on the edge of the city; while much of the more diverse, inner city and - yes - Labour electorate stayed at home. But the voter is always right, and there is no denying that a victory for a stylish, media-friendly but thin-on-policy Tory Etonian, over a gruff, flawed-but-boringly-substantial Leftist deliverer, is genuinely bad news for Gordon Brown. But is it, along with the horrific local election results across the country, proof of the total national meltdown that is now being reported as a done deal for Labour?

By James Macintyre

Having been abroad and in a British political news blackout over the past ten days, it is more than ever impossible to know how voting in today's London and local elections will go. But given that this blog was told it would look "silly" on May 1st after predicting - amid 10 point poll leads for Boris Johnson and media consensus that Ken Livingstone was finished - that the Tories would in fact lose this forerunner to a general election based on substance against style, and seeking to help explain why a gulf exists between press and electorate, it is reproducing that post here today, as it was rightly challenged to do.

As to the wider picture across the country, a brief look at Open House shows that the media frenzy around Gordon Brown is more determined than ever. From a distant, overseas perspective, the escape route seems disconcertingly simple: as Ben Chu implies, the Prime Minister can't have it all. Now that not only conventional wisdom, but virtually the entire press pack across the board is hostile, why not choose simply to alienate one side of it rather than both, and pursue a brave, progressive agenda?

By James Macintyre

As excitement within the media world reaches a peak over the prospect of Boris Johnson winning London's mayoral contest on May 1, it is time for those of us who doubt the likelihood of this to speak up once again. In recent days the Evening Standard - relentless to the point of embarrassment in its near-blanket opposition to Ken Livingstone - and the Guardian have given Johnson poll leads, the former by a huge ten points. The consensus is clear: Livingstone is on his way out. At this point it is worth pausing and noting this consensus, because if by any chance it is wrong it will have served as a useful demonstration of the distance between the media bubble and the ordinary electorate outside Westminster. Similarly but more importantly, it may act as an indicator that the same bubble is wrong over the forthcoming fight between Gordon Brown and David Cameron.

By James Macintyre

Harriet Harman, standing in for Gordon Brown who is away, just comprehensively got the better of a carefully-prepared William Hague at PMQs.

By James Macintyre

It's a relatively media-centric side issue, granted, but now that the judge presiding over the inquest into Princess Diana's death has definitively ruled that "there is not a shred of evidence" to suggest she was murdered, shouldn't the Express newspaper follow its apology over its coverage of Madeleine McCann, with a similar mea culpa over its secondary obsession with an alleged Diana conspiracy? And, more importantly, what about a full-scale climbdown over the paper's handling of the third and most poisonous of its trinity of rotating "splash" subjects: asylum?

By James Macintyre

Does anyone else feel a little queesy at the open-mouthed frisson apparently caused by Gordon Brown getting "lost" amid the "pomp and ceremony" of last night's white-tie state banquet at Windsor Castle?

By James Macintyre

It didn't have to be like this. When Gordon Brown visited the Vatican as prime-minister-in-waiting last February, he handed the Pope a book of his father's Church of Scotland sermons, and the meeting could not have gone better, officials say.

By James Macintyre

The Prime Minister's Appointments Secretary is to leave Downing Street tomorrow in order to become Director of Policy for the new Faith Foundation being set up by Tony Blair, political and religious sources have told The Independent tonight. William Chapman, who has helped draw up lists for appointing Bishops and other figures to the House of Lords for eight and a half years, is the latest senior figure to become part of an “exodus” of officials leaving Number 10 under Brown. A downcast Downing Street was not set to announce this departure until tomorrow or next week.

By James Macintyre

There may be trouble ahead for David Cameron, due to give his set-piece speech to the Tory Spring conference this weekend. An obscure Conservative MP has accused his own party of “brass-necked dishonesty” after a bizarre row erupted yesterday over whether he had been sacked or resigned from the Tories in Parliament.

Castle Point MP Bob Spink interrupted the Budget debate in the Commons today to announce he'd "resigned" the party Whip “because the Conservative Party has failed to deal with serious criminal and other irregularities in my constituency."

By James Macintyre

The poll highlighted on Open House today, showing Europe to be around 18th on voters' list of priorities, is another reminder of the real forces behind the dishonest clamour for a referendum on the relatively mild Lisbon Treaty. The only reason the Tories - whose "modernized" parliamentary party is more anti-European that at any time in its history - are able to piously make out they are seeking to clean up politics by using the debating point that the Government promised a referendum on the (very different) "constitution", is because Rupert Murdoch, via an aide, threatened Tony Blair before the 2005 election with the withdrawal of the Sun and the Times's support unless the promise of a public vote was granted. Unnecessarily and anti-democratically, Mr Blair performed a U-turn. So it is not in fact "the people", but one media baron, who is behind this disproportionate and insane row.

By James Macintyre

For those who do not hate Hillary Clinton, but nonetheless believe that Barack Obama represents the best chance for an undivisive clean break from the Washington establishment, the story of this year's Democratic contest has - up until now - contained only one minor niggle on the conscience.

By James Macintyre

Gordon Brown's remark that "it is a matter for the Commons but Michael Martin has been a very, very good Speaker", is seen as a defense of Mr Martin. Perhaps, but Mr Brown's slightly curious use of the past tense is not unsimilar to another memorable line as Chancellor when he said of his then neighbour at Number 10, in 2001 and at the height of the "TB-GB" feuding: "Tony Blair is the best friend I've had in politics".

By James Macintyre

On Thursday, this blog asked if the Sun's headline would be "HANG HIM" after some of the Ipswich victims' relatives (understandably) called for the reintroduction of the death penalty for the convicted murderer Steve Wright. In the event, the paper yesterday splashed with a different story, while claiming above that even Wright's father wanted him to die. Tomorrow, though, the tabloid makes up for it as - perhaps feeling it missed a trick over Wright - its front page screams: "EXECUTE HIM" over the disgusting Mark Dixie's conviction for sexually assaulting and murdering Sally Anne Bowman. Inside, Sun readers are asked to vote in a phone poll as "the clamour grows" for lethal injection.

By James Macintyre

In a sign that Barack Obama is indeed edging closer towards the Democratic nomination and, dare it be said, the Presidency, the media and political attacks on him are suddenly taking on a more urgent - and panicked - air. Rupert Murdoch, said to be mildly bemused that his Times and New York Post have run editorials backing Obama, will be pleased with Gerard Baker, who this morning in his proprietor's flag-ship London title brands the new frontrunner a "dangerous leftwinger" who represents a "leap all the way across in one go" into "European-style" politics. That he received the support of Ted Kennedy (at a pivotal, uncynical rally alongside JFK's daughter Caroline) is "not really an accident", according to Baker, and somehow further evidence of the "dangerous" radicalism behind Obama's desire to make a clean break from the Washington Establishment.

By James Macintyre

The families of the victims of the 2006 Ipswich murders - for which Steve Wright was today convicted - have just emerged from the trial into a press conference, and called for the return of capital punishment. The statements currently being made - like the stories of the five women whose futures Wright brutally snuffed out - are moving and heartfelt, and will no doubt make up the front pages of tomorrow's papers (will the Sun's headline be "HANG HIM"?). Such a reaction, on the part of the victims' relatives at least, is entirely understandable. But hanging will not return to the UK, partly because of a far-from-perfect criminal justice system which would, under a system of capital punishment, have seen many innocent people killed. This does not mean there should be no legislative response, however.

By James Macintyre

One of the most fascinating moments in David Cameron's leadership came during an obscure interview with Sky News fairly early on in the job when - for once - he was asked questions which came, to use TV speak, "from the left" as opposed to "from the right" (a process rarely, if ever, repeated since). "You have said you wake up every morning and think, how can I change the Conservative party today. Tell us what you don't like about the Tories," the question went roughly (a link is sadly unavailable).

A faltering Cameron, showing one of those rare but revealing flashes of rage, waved at the cameras to stop filming, protesting that this was not the type of interview he thought had been arranged, while his press officer hastily tried to bring proceedings to a close.

By James Macintyre

While the rest of us hone our new-found expertise on the intricacies of civil law in the wake of this weekend's sharia frenzy, the Archbishop of Canterbury and his office have quietly sought to clarify matters, with a detailed deconstruction of what Dr. Williams said and did not say on his web site here, and an address to the CofE's general synod here. Both should be required reading for those who, for varying reasons, continue to call for his head...

By James Macintyre

As Saturday's Mail puts it, positively licking its lips: SHARIA UK: NOW THE BACKLASH. And so it is, though not really about non-existent "Sharia UK", but about Rowan Williams: this time its personal.

The Sun, that bastion of moral leadership, has tastefully dispatched a double-decker bus and a couple of Page 3 Girls with balloons to Lambeth Palace to harass the "wealthy leftie with life of luxury". "Today," the paper announces, "we're giving our army of readers the chance to boot him out of his luxury pad". This "army" is encouraged to sign a "Church of England complaint form" - designed by the, er, Sun. All colourful stuff.

But the tabloid's energetic approach to this story makes you wonder: who really wants this rather gentle man out of his job - and why?

By James Macintyre

Given that the besieged Archbishop, Dr Rowan Williams, appears to be in a minority of roughly one in the sharia law frenzy caused by his remarks to Radio 4 yesterday (it's worth listening to the recording in full), and we've all apparently decided he's simply wrong, there isn't much point here in rehearsing the arguments, or even providing links to the drearily inevitable collective scream belted out by the press today...

By James Macintyre

Last June, one of Gordon Brown's firsts acts as Prime Minister was to release details of contacts between the media magnate Rupert Murdoch and Mr Brown's predecessor, Tony Blair. Blocked for years -- Alastair Campbell wrote in his diary: "TB said he didn't fear them coming at him about me, but about the relationship with Murdoch. And he didn't fancy a question about whether Murdoch lobbied him" -- the long-standing Freedom of Information response eventually showed the then PM spoke three times in the nine days before the invasion of Iraq, a war backed by all Mr Murdoch's 175 editors.

Towards the end of last year, The Independent submitted a similar request about Mr Murdoch's contacts with Mr Brown, after a senior cabinet minister close to the PM expressed private fears Mr Brown would "go the same way" as his predecessor - on Europe and other matters - when it came to courting and fearing the magnate. In December, Open House readers were asked to watch this space after a delayed response from the Cabinet Office and Number 10. Now, finally you can read the result of that request here.

By James Macintyre

Last week's edition of the unrivalled New Yorker carries what must be one of the most comprehensive, and fair, comparisons of Democrat candidates in the run up to the primaries' climax this "super" Tuesday.

In 'The Choice', George Packer - who you sense, including from his most recent article for the journal, marginally prefers a Clinton-Obama ticket in that order - portrays Hillary Clinton as the efficient, practical "executive" candidate, and Barack Obama as the inspiring visionary. Packer brilliantly outlines the advantages and downsides to both, and in the end seems to just about come down on the side of the practical. But buried in the essay is a crucial point.

By James Macintyre

Kenneth Clarke, never afraid to say the unsayable, has just intervened on the debate over his fellow Conservative MP Derek Conway, who channelled up to £80,000 into the accounts of his two sons for work they allegedly didn't do as "parliamentary researchers" while at university outside London. The former Chancellor said of Conway that "in any other walk of life he would be sacked".

Speaking on BBC1's Question Time the MP added that "public feeling is very, very strong and should not be underestimated". He also called for state funding of political parties.

Oh, and on stop and search, about which he was distinctly cool, the former Home Secretary (and the one modern politician to have contemplated taking on the force) warned the police not to "bully and intimidate" the "quite disproportionate" numbers of "black and Asian" people they target.

By James Macintyre

Ben Chu, below, is right to highlight the significance of the unquestioning love-in across the main parties over the reintroduction of fuller stop and search powers for the police. It demonstrates yet again that - despite much-publicised Police Federation march over pay - politicians are on the side of the force as the last great unaccountable public body in Britain.

As a result, officers look set to stop and search people - proved to be disproportionately from ethnic minorities - without an explanation and with other powers for the first time since they were curbed after the Brixton riots in the '80's, and despite a spectacular record of racism, incompetence and thuggery since...

By James Macintyre

The sight of the Kennedy clan - Senator Ted Kennedy, his son Patrick Kennedy and John F Kennedy's daughter Caroline - lining up to endorse Barack Obama is an uplifting one and one that's well worth a watch, along with the candidate's passionate response in which he describes why the family's tradition of public service and social justice is so "cherished" in the hearts of Americans.

By James Macintyre

Imagine what, in the current climate, the media pack's reaction would be if one of Gordon Brown's senior Labour MPs had been caught allegedly siphoning off up to £80,000 of tax-payer-funded money to his sons, another - a work and pensions spokesman and personal friend of the leader - had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting his teenage son and daughter, and another MP had been arrested on suspicion of assaulting  his wife.

There would be uproar as the narrative about Mr Brown's government morphing into that of John Major was stepped up into fever pitch.

Instead, because it the MPs in question were part of David Cameron's fashionable Conservative party, it appears that much of the media pack either forgets - or refuses - to join the dots.

By James Macintyre

Adrian Hamilton, below, disagrees with those of us who have negatively compared the Tory MP Derek Conway's payments of thousands of pounds to his sons to be "parliamentary researchers" while they in fact studied at university, against the various allegations around Labour deputy leadership fund-raising. He says that the way in which the political funds were raised - in the face of a desperate need, incidentally, for state funding - is "no better or worse morally" than financial hand-outs to Mr Conway's family.

By James Macintyre

In his excellent blog Today in Politics, our Political Editor Andrew Grice has pointed out that the overpayment by £13,000 from the Tory MP Derek Conway to his own son, Freddie, was not - as the BBC bizarrely claimed yesterday - "small beer" compared to alleged Labour sleaze.

By James Macintyre

Not unusually, George Galloway is on the warpath, this time over a story in The Independent highlighting the divisions within the 'Respect' coalition and his latest plan to stand on an alternative "list" in the London Assembly elections in May. In angry and unfiltered comments published on this blog site (scroll down from the link), Mr Galloway - who claims neither he nor his office were contacted - threatens to refer to the Press Complaints Commission the article and its author, "whoever James Macintyre is".

Well, forgive this brief and indulgent foray into the personal but George, you've hurt my feelings. Not just because this put-down must mean you've missed all my earth-shattering blogs here on Open House, but because - despite your claim to the contrary - we could so easily have been introduced verbally yesterday, when I called your House of Commons office, your constituency office and the mobile phone number you give out to the media...

By James Macintyre

There were two exciting moments at Prime Minister's Questions today, neither of them during the Brown-Cameron exchanges which the former marginally won. One was when we got a rare taste of what it would have been like had the Tories gone for the former Chancellor Kenneth Clarke as leader, with a lively exchange on the economy while a slightly uncomfortable-looking David Cameron looked on.

The other was when Nick Clegg said that the reason Gordon Brown was apparently moving against Northern Rock nationalisation was because he was "running scared from the Conservative party". Mr Clegg was howled down by Tory MPs, and will no doubt be ridiculed by the sketch-writers for appearing to hand the Tories the perception of success in setting the agenda. But the point he made was an important one.

By James Macintyre

Nick Clegg's decision to make the Liberal Democrats oppose a referendum on the EU treaty - which amends his predecessor Ming Campbell's questionable policy of a referendum on EU membership - is unsurprisingly presented as a "betrayal" in a news piece on page two of this morning's Mail. The story begins: "Liberal Democrats were last night accused of betraying Britain by promising to block a referendum on the EU Treaty", though there is no mention of who is doing the accusing. What is clear however, is that the Eurosceptic press - and the Tories - are suddenly on the defensive after the Lib Dems joined forces with an interesting Conservative rebellion, led by Kenneth Clarke and against David Cameron's position of a public vote, to help the Brown Government win its first Commons battle  over the Treaty.

By James Macintyre

There are two versions of today's Britain in the Saturday papers.

In The Independent you can read about how within a few hours we are set to deport a 14-year old Nigerian boy with sickle cell anaemia who has lived in this country for over four years. The case follows that of Ama Sumani, a cancer patient who was sent back to Ghana this month. Neither is expected to receive the treatment they need back home.

By James Macintyre

More bad news for Gordon Brown (and Peter Hain) tonight. As the PM tours China, controversially "soft-peddling" over the issue of human rights - in the words of our esteemed political editor Andrew Grice, who is with him - a more local but potentially more damaging story has kicked off here in the windy, wet UK. In a perhaps-inevitable follow-on from the the the HM Revenue and Customs data fiasco last year, it has emerged that police are investigating the theft of a laptop from a Royal Navy officer which held personal details - including bank details, National Insurance numbers, and passport details - of 600,000 people. As if that wasn't bad enough and in what may be another case of theft, reports are coming in of another police inquiry after hundreds of documents from the Department of Work and Pensions (Mr Hain's responsibility) containing sensitive data - such as mortgage payments and benefit claims - have been found dumped on a roundabout in Devon.

By James Macintyre

If it's also your habit each day to put "Rupert Murdoch" into Google's news search engine to check what the media mogul's been up to, this morning you'd have seen a headline that at first appeared to be one of those internet spoofs. A closer look among the usual off-the-wall references however, revealed a genuine news story: Murdoch 'Doesn't Control' The Sun. Really? That is news, to all of us. So, forget Mr Murdoch himself giving a running commentary on the process by which he decides what the tabloid should do. Forget countless descriptions of the "tyranny" and "telephone terror" of working under him even on a broadsheet. Forget the obsessive lobbying by Alastair Campbell and Tony Blair of Mr Murdoch (and vice versa) to gain the Sun's approval, as chronicled in Mr Campbell's diaries. There was no point to any of it, for now we have it, in the form of "evidence" given by the Sun editor Rebekah Wade to a Parliamentary committee on media ownership. There's only one catch to this surprising story (the headline for which has been changed and made more balanced this afternoon): it was carried by, er, Sky News, which - though there is no disclaimer - is another Murdoch-owned News International organisation. The way the account is written - and more importantly Ms Wade's claims - are fascinating and worth a glance...

By James Macintyre

A rumour went round media-land tonight that Newsnight had a new development in the Peter Hain funding saga. In the end it turns out their "top line" - that the police may be called in to investigate undisclosed donations - had already been obtained by The Independent's unrivalled political team (see tomorrow's paper), which has led the way on this story.

The programme did make some vague, brief claims about David Cameron that caught the eye: that some of his own donations and flights were allegedly not declared to the Electoral Commission. This suddenly brought to mind the fact that Mr Cameron - who today attacked Mr Hain's use of a "think-tank", the Progressive Policies Forum which had no web site and appears to have released no thought, as an apparent "front" for donations - knows a bit about such tactics: In August, The Independent revealed that the Tory leader's chief fundraiser was using a parliamentary "research assistant" security pass alloted to a Conservative peer who has no office and asks for no research (if anyone spots him still nipping into the Commons by the way, do get in touch).

By James Macintyre

When, back in 2004, the blogosphere's favourite MP Boris Johnson decided to bow to his then Tory leader Michael Howard and apologise for an anti-Liverpool editorial in the Spectator (Johnson edited the weekly at the time, though the offending article was written by Simon Heffer), he took a significant decision to be more a politician and less an independent journalist. This morning, the deceptively ambitious mayoral candidate has taken another step in the same direction, and given up his Telegraph column which has gone uninterrupted for twenty years - for a four month sabbatical until the contest with Ken Livingstone concludes. "I am laying down my pen," he writes this morning in a column that is not yet on the paper's web site, "and taking up the sword full time". In doing so, he is - half - taking the advice of Independent media commentator Stephen Glover, who wrote this week: "Boris cannot be a top-flight politician and a highly paid, successful columnist at the same time."

By James Macintyre

Voting in the New Hampshire presidential primaries has now closed, and at this very early time of writing John McCain is reported to have won on the Republican side, while Hillary Clinton appears to have come back to an extent, taking a marginal lead over Barack Obama (though reports are mixed, with some saying Obama has retained his lead from Iowa). At present, the results are:

Democrats: Clinton - 39.90%   Obama - 35.42%   Edwards - 16.7%   

Republicans: McCain - 36.97%   Romney - 28.56%   Huckabee - 11.98%   Giulliani - 9.34%   

You can monitor the latest results as they come in through the morning here.

By James Macintyre

In one of the most interesting lines of the campaign for the US presidency so far, Bill Clinton, defending his wife and attacking Barack Obama on inexperience, suggested that voting for the younger candidate would be what he called a "roll of the dice". Fascinatingly, as predicted here, that is precisely what America appears to be doing.

By James Macintyre

If the economic turbulence predicted in the new year indicators comes true, and the Northern Rock crisis continues to reverberate, an opportunity could emerge some time in 2008 for Gordon Brown to reach out beyond his cabal, add some gravitas into government, and surprise everybody. Why not call in the big beast that is Charles Clarke - languishing on the back-benches since Tony Blair threw him to the wolves of the populist press over the "foreign prisoners scandal" - and make him Chancellor of the Exchequer?

In turn, that might add another, weighty name to the "Brown's successor" parlour game begun, below, by John Rentoul.

By James Macintyre

Thanks to Liberal Democrat sources talking over the new year, the story of how Ming Campbell was forced out of his lacklustre leadership becomes a little clearer, presenting a small irony.

At the time, Ming blamed Chris Huhne, who was seen as the political descendant of Charles Kennedy. But it emerges that Nick Clegg - effectively anointed by Ming as his successor - was, days before Ming resigned, at a crucial dinner with a handful of MPs who agreed the leader had to go, and who then formed a delegation telling him just that.

By James Macintyre

How fickle fashionable political consensuses are. This time last year, six months before Gordon Brown became prime minister, commentators had it that David Cameron, on a high, would probably win the election. Some have said, including on Open House, that nobody thought Mr Brown's arrival would produce the bounce in the polls that followed. But as this blogger - who recklessly put money on Labour (and Obama) at the time - wrote elsewhere [Reading the Runes, The Tablet, unfortunately a pay link] this time last year:

"Conventional wisdom among the media classes [in December] has it that Mr Cameron can – and probably will – win the next election. However, those media classes are more than ever cut adrift from an alienated public, and contain the same - perhaps bored, certainly overexcited - people who tried to whip up uncertainty over who would win the Labour leadership.

By James Macintyre

John Rentoul, the Independent on Sunday's Chief Political Commentator and Open House blogger, is a very senior and highly respected columnist. His biography of Tony Blair is the best on a crowded market. Political insiders take note of what he says in print. But could he be mistaken when he writes in today's Independent that "it's all over" for Gordon Brown and that anyone who says otherwise is living in a "parallel universe"?

First, some context as to who is saying what, and on timing. "No wonder many people take the safe option of saying 'Don't write Gordon off'", John says. But is it a safe option, and are there many people saying that? From a brief look at the commentariat, it seems that only the unlikely partnership of Steve Richards, John's equally respected equivalent on the (daily) Independent, and the Mail on Sunday loner Peter Hitchens are daring to suggest Labour is likely to win the next election. On the other hand conventional wisdom - Andrew Rawnsley in the Observer, Matthew D'Ancona and Rachel Sylvester in the Telegraph, Jackie Ashley in the Guardian - has it that Mr Brown has "lost his way", "blown it", or done so badly that he'll be replaced by Ed Balls before the election (John slightly differs from this, believing Mr Brown's problem is that he is not Blairite enough, and thus David Miliband is the proper successor). Meanwhile, amid dismal polls for Labour, the tabloids collectively scream at Mr Brown over one "crisis" after the next, from Northern Rock to lost data discs (not all of which, John acknowledges, can be blamed on Mr Brown personally). 

By James Macintyre

Both Labour and Tory politicians would do well to reflect this Christmas on the powerful Midnight Mass sermon about immigration by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor.

For years, the main parties have been competing with each other to sound tough on both asylum and immigration, which - along with the equally separate areas of race and terrorism - have become dangerously merged in the current, hysterical national discourse. Tories of course, lead the way in hostility to immigration and, despite popular myth, like William Hague before him the "centrist" David Cameron long ago forgot his initial strategy to steer clear from such core vote issues.

This is in some ways odd from a party that is meant to be in favour of people seeking to better their lives and those of their families (can race be a factor for a party still calling for significant cuts in non-EU immigration, claiming it threatens "community cohesion"?). But there is even less excuse for Labour, the party of social justice increasingly distracted by a desire to win over the populist media to the point where the Government now boasts of cutting all - including genuine - asylum seekers.

By James Macintyre

The "news" that Tony Blair is converting to the Roman Catholic church seems to have emerged about as many times as did the announcement that he was stepping down as prime minister (which came with a statement pre-election, pre-conference, at conference, and several times in the spring and summer), and its confirmation was properly, fully reported first six months ago in The Independent.

Perhaps that's why there were so many critics ready to be wheeled out to comment on the move, including Ann Widdecombe, who's made a surprise return to our screens in time for Christmas to declare Mr Blair's domestic political record - on everything from stem cell research to abortion - incompatible with the Roman Church (one wonders what she makes, incidentally, of David Cameron's socially liberal, pro-homosexual, libertarian Tory party).

But in all the comment about the conversion, not much has been said about the convert's joint-instigation with the US of the Iraq invasion, and it is this that senior Catholics say privately did most to alienate Mr Blair from the Church (and from Catholics around him in Downing Street). Given that we now know (from Bob Woodward's books and elsewhere) that Mr Blair was offered the chance by President Bush to "do a Wilson" and keep British troops out, and repeatedly refused, preferring instead for the UK to pay the "blood price", sources say it is another kind of right to life, then, that worries the Church hierarchy most, and point to a message by Pope John Paul II on Christmas day five years ago tomorrow, backing calls for weapons inspectors to be given more time and warning against the dangers of war.

By James Macintyre

Despite its proprietor's republicanism, there doesn't appear to be any irony intended in The Sun's extensive coverage of the on-off relationship between Prince William and Kate Middleton this morning. The paper reveals the wonderfully irrelevant news that Kate has been given "unofficial" access to a set of keys for Clarence House, alongside large photographs of the royal couple "dressed in traditional green tweeds" on a pheasant shoot at Windsor Great Park yesterday. "The day out - which bagged a trailor full of birds - was William's Christmas gift from his grandmother The Queen", we are lovingly told. And below a large picture of the grinning pair - armed with several successful kills hanging down beside their wellies - is some searing analysis of the scene by the Sun's Royal Correspondent under the headline "JUST LIKE US". It begins: "At the core of Prince William's relationship with Kate Middleton is one over-riding factor - the desire to be normal".

By James Macintyre

The surreal, you-couldn't-make-it-up news that police officers are set to pose as punters and monitor us inside pubs this Christmas, highlighted on Open House, is, of course, wearily plausible in the context of the smoking ban, the apparently unstoppable preparations for ID cards and a range of other assaults on civil liberties.

But even in the climate of modern Britain - where, we are told, "the rules of the game have changed" - there is something that sends a slight shiver down the spine about a scene in Canary Wharf shopping centre at the time of writing.

By James Macintyre

As the Police Federation ballots its members on whether to go on strike, back-bench MPs rush to sign a Commons motion in support and officers call for the Home Secretary's resignation, it appears on the surface that the police and government are headed for a full scale clash. But the current salary dispute hides a taboo reality that dare not speak its name about the force: it holds a special, untouchable status as the most unaccountable public body in Britain. Unlike teachers and NHS staffers - by turn demonised and shaken up under Tory and Labour administrations since that of Margaret Thatcher - police enjoy an exceptionally cosy relationship with government. While in office, Tony Blair summarised his approach to police powers, for example, in a speech saying: "We asked the police what powers they wanted and we gave them to them." Those words were eerily echoed this morning in a Times interview with Gordon Brown in which he says (this time about pay, and with no reason to disbelieve him), "I am the last person to want to be in a position where we don't give the police what they want".

That politicians hold the police in such high esteem is handy for the force, because the briefest look at its recent record shows a lethal combination of racism, thuggery and incompetence from a "service" virtually free from checks and balances...