James Macintyre's Blog, page 6

The Blair book

A few titbits you may not have read already

Since publication on the book's web site last night, a number of extracts from Tony Blair's A Journey have been reproduced in the media, mainly as "world exclusives"). We have confirmation of the now fifteen-year-old story that Blair and Gordon Brown largely did not get on in government, and some more substantial sections on Iraq -- see Mehdi Hasan's forensic overnight blog -- and Northern Ireland. They are all over the place. So here I thought I...

Exclusive: David Miliband boosted by fresh endorsement

David Lammy, chair of Ken Livingstone's mayoral campaign and influential black MP who nomiated Dianne Abbott, backs former foreign secretary

David Miliband today receives a significant boost to his campaign for the Labour leadership with the endorsement of the influential black MP David Lammy.

Lammy, MP for Tottenham, is highly respected by London's ethnic minority communities and around a third of all Labour party members are based in and around the capital city. Lammy was also recently...

Andy Burnham: are you having a laugh?

Shadow health secretary acts like a bloke just passing by in the Labour leadership contest

For some time I've had the impression that Andy Burnham, admirable politician I am sure he is in many ways, is not seriously running for the Labour leadership to win, but merely to raise his profile and cement his position as a senior player in the shadow cabinet.

Certainly during the New Statesman hustings in June, Burnham acted a little like he had been grabbed off the street and thrown onto the...

Breaking: Now Ed Miliband hits back hard against his brother

"New generation" needed to move beyond "New Labour comfort zone"

Ed Miliband will tomorrow issue his clearest political attack yet on his brother David, calling on the Labour party to provide a "mandate for change" so a "new generation" can lead the party out of its "New Labour comfort zone".

In a speech being distributed to as many party members as possible tomorrow, the younger Miliband brother will unashamedly draw stark dividing lines with the bookies' favourite, David Miliband, who is ...

Has Rupert Murdoch dropped Blair?

And if so, why?

As any observer of Rupert Murdoch and his stable of media outlets knows, the mogul went so far out of his way to defend Tony Blair in office that some say that, were it not for his staunch support over Iraq, the former prime minister would have fallen earlier.

But in recent weeks, Murdoch-watchers may have noticed an apparent change of approach. A trickle of stories that are damaging to Blair has appeared in the Sun and the Times in a way that would once have been...

Has Rupert Murdoch dropped Tony Blair?

If so, why?

As any observer of Rupert Murdoch and his stable of media outlets knows, the mogul went so far out of his way to defend Tony Blair in office that some say were it not for his staunch support over Iraq the former prime minister would have fallen earlier.

But in recent weeks, Murdoch-watchers may have noticed an apparent change of approach. A trickle of stories that are damaging to Blair have appeared in the Sun and the Times in a way that would once have been unthinkable. For...

David Miliband attacks Blair, Brown . . . and his brother, Ed?

Some so-far unreported extracts from tonight's speech.

Below are some extracts that haven't been trailed from David Miliband's major leadership campaign speech this evening.

On Blair and Brown:

Tony and Gordon did great things. Really great things. But I know that in Tony's time, he did not focus on income inequalities, stopped devolution at Scotland and Wales when we should have carried it on and too often defined himself against the party, not against the Tories.

Gordon was wrong about the...

Should a leadership contender

David Miliband

Should a leadership contender "trim" to win?

David Miliband's dilemma has echoes of Ken Clarke's own leadership bids.

Yesterday this blog touched on the question of whether David Miliband could do more, himself, to shed the unfair "Blairite" tag hung round his neck by internal opponents and the media in order to win the Labour leadership.

Looking at the trailed sections of his big campaign speech this evening, he appears to show no sign of doing so: there is no indication, for example, of a fresh move to get out from under the shadow ...

Does anyone out there still think the Lib Dems have an identity?

Even the FT calls for coalition party to reassert itself.

As the Liberal Democrats stay in denial mode about the "regressive" nature of the Government's fiscal agenda, as reiterated by the IFS's report on the Emergency Budget today, criticisms of that party have come from an unpredictable new quarter: the Financial Times.

The respected, basically non-ideological and pragmatic pink paper -- which if anything has tilted slightly rightwards in recent months -- yesterday ran a fascinating...