Simon Heffer's Blog, page 46

The battle between the Police Federation and the government on police reform rages on

Across the country this week, leaflets will drop through letterboxes encouraging the public to vote for a police and crime commissioner for their area.

Class war and Red Ed's betrayal

The job of an Opposition is to rattle the Government, and a useful means of doing so is to get ministers sacked.

Downfall of a bully and new doubts over Dave’s judgment

Andrew Mitchell should have resigned before this. David Cameron did not want him to, and as a result the House of Commons was treated to the embarrassing spectacle of Ed Miliband humiliating the Tory Chief Whip on Wednesday.

It's a great and important institution, but the BBC can't be allowed to investigate its own 'cesspit'

No one, inside or outside the BBC, can yet gauge the long-term damage the Jimmy Savile scandal will have on the Corporation’s reputation. But it is bound to be significant.

How Mr Cameron could win the next

Party conferences used to have a powerful influence on people’s perceptions of politics: but no longer. The public have lost interest in these annual gatherings, to the point where Ed Miliband’s speech this week, although hailed as impressive by political obsessives, will have made little impact on voters.

Hypocrite who dare not tell voters the truth

Which was the more offensive aspect of Ed Balls’s speech to the Labour conference yesterday: his intellectually dishonest prescription for curing the woes of the British economy, or his hypocritical refusal to acknowledge his part in causing them?

Red Ed’s on a high – but he’s doomed if he doesn’t win over the striving classes...

Although criticised for his shortage of charisma and geek-like mannerisms, Ed Miliband arrives in Manchester today for Labour’s annual conference with an opinion poll lead of 10-12 points.

A gross dereliction of duty: How Coalition defence cuts have left Britain terrifyingly vulnerable

Most people realise that the world is a much more dangerous place than it was two years ago. But, worryingly, that view does not seem to be shared by our political class.

I've been Cameron's fiercest critic, but even I agree it'd be madness for the Tories to dump him

Three weeks before what promises to be a tense annual conference, the Conservative party is divided, depressed and sniping at its leadership.

Pig-headed union barons who could wreck Red Ed's No 10 dreams...

Some things never change, and the trade union movement’s pig-headed refusal to learn anything from history is one of them.