The Staggers: Gordon Brown

Thanks to Sky News, we now know the details of the forthcoming party leaders' debates. It's a lengthy old document, but here are the bits you need to know:

Each debate will last 90 minutes.Alastair Stewart (ITV), Adam Boulton (Sky News) and David Dimbleby (BBC) will be the moderators.The debates will take place in Manchester (ITV), Bristol (Sky News) and Birmingham (BBC).The order of the debates ... read more

Here is the Tories' latest poster, an apparent attempt to exploit Alistair Darling's "forces of hell" remark. It's true to say that voters hate divided parties, but I can't see this particular attack working.

First, while the Chancellor's frank interview with Sky News's Jeff Randall fascinated the Westminster village, it had little impact elsewhere. Most voters don't even recognise Darling.

Second, as the ... read more

Latest poll (Sunday Times/YouGov): Labour nine seats short of a majority.

"Gordon Brown on course to win election" is a headline almost no one would have expected to see at this stage of the electoral cycle. But today's YouGov poll confirms what a terrible start the Conservatives have made to their campaign. It puts the Tories on 37 per ... read more

The Times and FT report today that Camps Brown and Cameron have reached across the Atlantic to borrow a little of Barack Obama's election-winning know-how to help them get into shape for the leaders' television debates.

The Tories have hired Anita Dunn, a former White House communications director (name-checked on this blog yesterday for praising the Daily Show's Jon Stewart), and Bill Knapp, in the form of  read more

Andrew Rawnsley's revelations about Gordon Brown have made it to Taiwan. Here is one news station's take on "Bullygate". Just make sure you watch the hilarious computer dramatisations that kick in around the 35-second ... read more

Andrew Rawnsley's "explosive" new book, The End of the Party, is serialised in the Observer today. What are the main accusations levelled, and what has the initial response been from those implicated?

Perhaps the most damaging allegation is that Sir Gus O'Donnell, the top Whitehall official, was so concerned by Brown's behaviour that he intervened. The other allegations in today's paper are mainly anecdotes around the same themes of aggression, ... read more

David Cameron made headlines today after an interview with Shortlist magazine, in which he enthusiastically went for the "I'm just a regular guy" approach favoured by Tony Blair.

Hot on the heels of Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan, does this signal a new line of competition? One along the lines of: "Forget policy; let's just see how many mundane details of your daily routine you can share."

Here are some ... read more

Get ready for the political weather to become even more determined by polls. YouGov has launched its daily tracker in the Sun, with polls initially published from Tuesday to Friday. This will rise to seven days a week for the final four weeks before polling day.

You may remember that YouGov experimented with a tracker during conference season last year. What was remarkable then was how much the polls fluctuated ... read more

In today's Independent, Steve Richards makes the argument that Gordon Brown's interview with Piers Morgan may yet change the political weather.

He writes:

A common view on the blogs and in the newspapers was that the exercise was pointless because voters have already made up their minds on Brown and will not change them now. I disagree. Voters have made up their minds about Brown more than once. Indeed, they change ... read more

It has just been confirmed that Britain finally emerged from the recession in the last three months of 2009, but only just. Growth was a paltry 0.1 per cent (economists had forecast 0.4 per cent), a figure so low that after adjustments, the economy could actually still be in recession.

Meanwhile, economists such as our own David Blanchflower warn of a double-dip recession, with VAT's return to 17.5 per ... read more

The backlash against Peter Watt for writing his memoirs was predictable, and he was braced for it.

However, I challenge anyone to read his full story, which I ghostwrote, and not understand and respect his decision to tell it.

Actually, the idea for the book was mine, not his, though he didn't take much persuasion. And let's get one thing straight: neither ... read more

The Times has published its monthly Populus poll, taken over the weekend. The headline figures were 28 per cent for Labour, 41 per cent for the Tories and 19 per cent for the Liberal Democrats.

This is 2 points down for Labour and 3 points up for the Tories on the last Populus poll, in early December, and appears to show that the plot against Gordon Brown by Patricia ... read more