mandate blog
“Unavoidable” and “Fair” claimed Osborne but how does the Budget maths stack up?
Posted by Katherine Morgan at Wed, 23/06/2010 - 11:22am in Political commentary
Yesterday George Osborne set out an undoubtedly bold Budget aimed at seizing control of the public finances in order to bring down the debt and restore economic growth. This Budget was, he argued both "unavoidable" and "fair" - but was it?
Three points.
Doom and/or gloom at Westminster
Posted by Rupert Lewis at Tue, 22/06/2010 - 1:26pm in Political commentary
For what seems like months now, political and economic commentators have been offering their own 'advice' to the new Chancellor on how to get to grips with the worst national balance sheet since the Great Depression.
Election 2.0: How did the internet shape the general election?
Posted by Mark Pack at Mon, 21/06/2010 - 5:15pm in Political commentary
The Yoosk website recently put together a panel of bloggers to answer questions about the impact of the internet, and social media in particular, on British politics. Alongside Iain Dale, Alex Smith and James Evans I answered a range of questions:
Bavaria Beer's World Cup escapade
Posted by Anna Wicks at Mon, 21/06/2010 - 1:39pm in Brand best practice
You've got to hand it to Bavaria Beer. They're relentless and arguably quite clever marketers. Four years ago Dutch fans were made to remove their Bavaria-branded Lederhosen, leaving them to watch the World Cup in their underwear, causing a lot of buzz on and offline. And this year they're at it again with a campaign that clearly is exploiting the World Cup.
Labour’s leadership race, World Cup-style
Posted by Nick Laitner at Tue, 15/06/2010 - 2:30pm in Political commentary
Appearing on Radio 5 during the last World Cup, in one of those effortless man-of-the-people turns that he did so well, Tony Blair was asked who Labour's Wayne Rooney might be. His response was unequivocal: David Miliband.
As the Labour leadership campaign enters its long, relentless stretch of hustings and meetings, Miliband senior may be reflecting on how Rooney has been performing thus far in the parallel, slightly more high profile campaign underway in South Africa.
Bill Morgan appointed as Special Adviser to Andrew Lansley
Posted by Mike Birtwistle at Fri, 04/06/2010 - 11:18am in Health Mandate news
Health Mandate's Bill Morgan has been appointed as Policy Special Adviser to Andrew Lansley. Born in Watford - and very much a Watford boy - Bill is a fierce defender of the NHS and healthcare free at the point of delivery, and will be unsympathetic to any attempt to divert the Government from the path set out by Andrew Lansley and David Cameron. Expect him also to be a champion for fuller and faster disclosure of information.
Welcome to the new politics
Posted by Gavin Devine at Tue, 01/06/2010 - 9:53am in Political commentary
So the backlash against Danny Alexander has begun. No, not the half-hearted effort by the Telegraph to detect scandal in his apparently pretty blameless expense claims (NB: exactly when will the DT stop pretending that buying and, er, reading a document counts as 'investigative journalism'?). More the muttering that has started over the weekend that he is not qualified for the Chief Secretary role and/or simply not up to the job.
Newspapers: to pay or not to pay?
Posted by Nicole Martin at Fri, 28/05/2010 - 11:08am in Corporate commentary
Rupert Murdoch unveiled the new websites of The Times and The Sunday Times this week, testing the perennial question of whether people are willing to pay to read news online.
It will be a few weeks before News International charges its readers to access its flagship UK papers, but champions of free content are already saying that this new business won't work.
How will paywalls alter online commenting habits?
Posted by Mark Pack at Thu, 27/05/2010 - 11:39am in Internet
Of course, if newspaper paywalls don't turn out to work outside the existing niches such as the Financial Times, their impact on general online commenting habits will be very limited. But let's assume for a moment that paywalls work well enough to spread across various newspaper and other sites.
The beginning of the end, or the end of the beginning?
Posted by Nick Laitner at Tue, 25/05/2010 - 11:21am in Political commentary
Given the conflicting priorities, personality clashes and short lead time involved in putting together today's Queen's Speech, it is testament to the political will behind the coalition government that the Queen was able to read out a full list of bills at all.
Some of what has been announced today demonstrates quite how much the coalition partners have in common. Scrapping of ID cards, removing unitary council status for Norwich and Exeter, and eviscerating quangos are all policies which both sides of the government can agree on.
