Best of the Politics Blogs

As MPs parted discussing plans for summer freebies and parliament broke up for the summer recess, the Tories were still suffering the Brown bounce.

A beleaguered David Cameron, freshly-returned from Rwanada, took a beating from Gordon Brown in the last PMQs and the Tories were further behind Labour in the opinion polls. Iain Dale, who had accompanied Cameron on his African adventure, felt compelled to speak up for his ... read more

One of the big political news stories of the week was yet again broken on the blogosphere. A Jonathan Isaby post at the telegraph.co.uk gave out the results of the Ealing by-election postal votes, with the help of a breach of electoral law on behalf of the Conservatives.

Before it was taken offline, Political Penguin flagged it up and was the first to note its importance. There’s still a ... read more

In a week dominated by the publication of Alastair Campbell’s diaries, it is perhaps fitting to see how the electronic political diarists – bloggers to you and me – viewed his revelations. Given AC is said to have condensed two million words to a fraction of that amount, below I have condensed a similar volume of to just a few hundred.

NR (aka Nick Robinson) is quick to point ... read more

Gordon Brown’s first week – or should that be five days – in charge of the country were nothing if not eventful. It culminated with is first PMQs under the media, and blogging community’s, watchful gaze.

For Waking Hereward, it was car crash TV. He wrote: “And so Gordon, the man with the supposed intellect as big as Ben Nevis, a mind as sharp as William Wallace’s Claymore and ... read more

In the first week of any new job there is always a lot to sort out, which could perhaps explain the new deputy leader of the Labour party’s lack of blogging. Harriet Harman’s last blog entry begins: “The polls for Labour’s deputy leadership election close in one hour.”

With the other big announcement of the week being Brown’s first cabinet, the BBC’s Nick Robinson could be heard on ... read more

Of the Queen’s Honours list, Reactionary Snob noted: “If you listened very carefully you could actually hear Blair pulling out the pin of the hand grenade last week... this was going to cause a shitstorm, and a shitstorm it has caused.”

He was of course highlighting the decision to honour Salman Rushdie. Reactionary Snob goes on to take apart Pakistan’s religious affairs minister’s condemnation of the honour in language ... read more

As the Labour deputy leadership race gains pace, the display of aptitude by the contestants on Question Time, as on Newsnight the week before last, gripped the blogosphere.

Iain Dale thinks Harriet Harman has had her time in the spotlight during this contest and will be eating humble pie come June 27.

He said: “I do enjoy the sight of Harriet Harman dissing the very government she has been ... read more

After an exclusive in the Guardian followed up by some BBC exposure, the BAE corruption scandal is back in the spotlight.

The payments given to a Saudi prince, which were in the full knowledge of the Ministry of Defence, contravened anti-corruption legislation brought in by the current administration. The flouting of such laws angered many in the blogosphere.

Tim Worstall said: “It’s said that the definition of a ... read more

Two men given top appointments this week share the fact that one of them was forced out of their last job and the other is replacing someone who was forced out. They are Andy Coulson and Robert Zoellick. The blogosphere asked: "Any similarities?"

News of Andy Coulson’s appointment as director of communications for the Conservative party shocked the blogosphere.

Yes, this is the guy who took “ultimate responsibility” for the ... read more

Sexist blogging has reared its ugly head over the past couple of weeks. The chief recipient was Telegraph hack Melissa Kite after writing a blog on the Spectator website attacking the Tory blogosphere.

The responses she got were straight out of a builders handbook, as she divulged in her Telegraph.co.uk article on Sunday: “All I want to say is that a week ago I speculated about the shadow ... read more

With all the ‘hoorah’ of Gordon Brown imminently taking over as Prime Minister, it was smart thinking for the Tories to introduce a significant change in education policy this week. But bloggers far and wide were not all convinced by the recent shift in attitude towards grammar schools.

Last Ditch got down to the nitty gritty of the arguments. Concluding, he wrote: “To compete in the world, we need ... read more

Simon Jenkins used his column in Wednesday’s Guardian to opine: “It is surely time for the Lib Dems to fold their tent and go.”

Jenkins’s charge, that Lib Dems are “both hopeless and nice”, was fiercely contested by key Lib Dem bloggers. As if to rebut this vignette, they responded in a fashion that was anything but.

Cicero describes the attack as a “bleat of pain from that ... read more