Even though he has one of the best front pages to a political website I’ve seen in ages, Eric Pickles cannot escape a little scrutiny from the “Tories plan purge of town hall ‘fat cats’” story by Sam Coates in today’s times.
According to the story, the Tories will clamp down on the pay of local government Chief Executives. But take a look at the list. Six out of eight of the councils listed in the story are Conservative led ie they can sort it out now if they wanted. The luxury of opposition does not apply for Tories in all too many local authority areas these days. If Mr Pickles seeks to push down Chief Executive salaries, the Conservatives could sort it out now. I do hope that Mr Pickles will be challenged on this – he really should give an explanation unless he wants to earn the “Do Nothing” tag like his boss.
A third of Conservative party activists think George Osborne should go, according to a ConservativeHome survey (usual caveats on accuracy to be considered).
The Guardian seem to have been the victims of spin or have just got the emphasis of the story out of kilter with what Tory members are actually saying. Their piece carries the headline “Bring back Kenneth Clarke, party members tell Cameron as Tory reshuffle speculation grows” but if you look at the survey more deeply, it shows you that nearly as many activists do not want Ken Clarke back.
3 out of 4 activists want David Davis back though. So the headline should really have been “Bring back David Davis, party members tell Cameron”.
There have been a number of informed stories this week suggesting that Mr Clarke is returning to shadow-government. Significantly for Westminster watchers, he’s slimmed down his portfolio of outside activities in recent months. This could be because he’s 68 and taking it easy or that he’s been quietly preparing for a return for some time.
Having been on the receiving end of reshuffle speculation, the one thing I do know is that nothing is certain until they’re done, so there may still be hope for Mr Davis but it doesn’t look promising for him today.
“There will be no election promises of up-front unfunded tax cuts.”
George Osborne, The Times, September 2007
“My priority is to try to reverse the increase in National Insurance”
George Osborne, Sunday Times, 28th December 2008
