The early bird

Both leaders have been up bright and early this morning.

Gordon Brown getting a grilling from Jon Humphreys on the Today programme interestingly questioned about his record on the econony pre the banking crisis.

He insisted that he took responsibility for what occurred when he chancellor but said the primary problem had been keeping inflation and interest rates low.

He failed to acknowledge that his policy of creating a credit fueled consumer boom was at least partly responsible for the problems that occurred.

Meanwhile David Cameron was on the sofas of GMTV.He repeated the pledge to ringfence NHS spending whilst insisting that the Tory efficeincy savings could work.

Both leaders were questioned on their political futures.Brown insisting that if he wins he will stand for a full five years whilst Cameron refused to speculate either on what the Conservatives would do in a hung Parliament or whether he would step down if the Conservatives lost the election.

"Put your trust in us and I will not let you down"

Perhaps today will be seen as the start of the election campaign.

Gordon tells his audience at Thomson Reuters in Canary Wharf that

Our opponents build their policy on political ideology. Ours is a policy built on the experience of economic history. That is why we have rejected from the outset the laissez faire approach that would have let the recession take its course - and it is why we are investing now in the industries of the future."

The message is essentially put your trust in us and I will not let you down adding that

we avoided adepression not by accident, but by design; by learning from the mistakes made and experience gained in previous recessions and making tough but necessary decisions.

At the same time framing the battle he announced that there will be pay freezes for doctors, dentists and hospital consultants as well as senior managers across most of the public sector.

At the same time confirming the budget will be on 24th March

Cynicism on the part of Gordon as he heads to Afghnanistan

It is not only former Prime Minister John Major who is unhappy about Gordon Brown's trip to Afghanistan yesterday so soon after his appearance in front of the Chilcott inquiry.

Even Labour Home appears upset

I still cant get over this today . Is this the most cynical stunt ever pulled by an “elected” politician ?

It has to be up there with

David Mellor parading his family at the front gates of his home , after being all over the tabloids scoring goals in a chelsea shirt and his khacks and Gummer force feeding his daughter with a beefburger in the middle of a BSE crisis .

Comment of the day No 2

It has been a strange week,” “The only thing I haven’t been accused of recently is killing Archie Mitchell in Eastenders. For the press here: I promise you, I didn’t even lay a finger on him.”

Gordon Brown speaking to the Welsh Spring Labour conference

Ht-Jim Pickard

The forces of hell

It's not going away is it?

Last Sunday's Observer carried a largely ignored piece about the way that Gordon Brown's mafia had ganged up on his chancellor after Alistair Darling had told the country to effectively batton down the hatches as we went into recession.

A message that the man who told us we were best prepared for the impending economic gloom clearly didn't want us to here.

Darling accused Number 10 of unleashing the 'forces of hell' against him in an interview last night forcing Brown to go on the offensive this morning denying that he would ever do anything to undermine his Chancellor.

However it was no secret that Brown wanted his sidekick Ed Balls in that position.He was thwarted back in 2007 and again last year when senior members of his cabinet refused steadfast to put Balls in one of the three grand positions.

Strange also that it is Balls who is in front of the media this morning insisting he did not recognise claims there is a poisonous atmosphere at No 10.

But back to the Chancellor's claims.Speaking to Sky he said that after his prediction back in 2008 No 10 aides briefed journalists that he had harmed the economy and should be sacked. The finger being squarely pointed at a certain Damien McBride as hinted in the Rawnsley extracts

Winston's bullying problems

Events dear boy events reminds us that Gordon Brown isnt the only Prime Minister to have problems over relationships.

This letter was sent to Winston Churchill by his wife Clementine during the Battle of Britain:

What a day

You could believe that perhaps Andrew Rawnsley is out to get the Prime Minister.Geoffrey Robinson certainly thinks that clearly of the opinion that a pro Blairite Rawnsley has never wanted Brown in the top job.

Rawnsley though is a top political journalist with impeccable sources.It's unlikely that these revelations have come from anywhere other than senior Labour sources.

Meanwhile allies of the Prime Minister have challenged the claims made by the bullying headline and called for the charity to to prove them and to cap it all the patron of the charity has resigned saddened by the sudden lack of confidentiality in its dealings with the press.

As I have blogged earlier the longer this goes on,the more damage that will be done to the Brown brand and the fact that it has taken Sir Gus O'Donnell the best part of the day to refute the allegations says a lot.

"The Cabinet Secretary would like to make clear that he has never raised concerns with the Prime Minister about him acting in a bullying or intimidatory manner in relation to No 10 staff, let alone giving him any sort of verbal warning,"

Somehow I suspect there will be a lot more on this to come out of the woodwork

Unravelling by the second

Last night,it appeared that the final nail in Gordon's coffin was being hammered in with as Christine Pratt released details of complaints made to a national bullying "charity".

Now it seems that this all could have been part of a Tory spin plot.

As Adam Bienkov reports a quick look at the "charities website reveals

In fact a quick look at NBH's website reveals:

* A personal endorsement from Conservative leader David Cameron
* One of their patrons is Conservative MP Ann Widdecombe
* Another patron is Boris Johnson's Chair of the London Health Authority, Conservative Cllr Mary O'Connor
* They have close ties to Conservative controlled Swindon borough Council.

As I write this piece,Christine Pratt has confirmed that none of the claims came from the office of No 10.

But let's get one thing clear.Bullying at work is a serious matter,it can leave victims scarred for life and it is quite symptomatic of the state of our work environment that this culture has permeated inside the corridors of power.

Now I also understand that any Prime Minister must be under enormous pressure and that ,combined with a political passion, must place great strains on working relationships.

Does it matter what happens behind the closed doors of Downing Street? The answer is of course it does.

Quote of the day

And having got round to watching Gordon on the Piers set I can wholeheartedly agree with Steve Richards

Forget about the evasively familiar battles over debt and plans for growth. Piers Morgan's interview with Gordon Brown was the most important event in the pre-election campaign so far, with its tears, laughter and selectively frantic dash through a troubled life.

Quote of the day

Comes from the Times leader commenting on Gordon Brown's appearance on ITV last night which says that it eroded the dignity of his office

Gordon Brown gave the public a glimpse of private anguish. Mr Brown and his wife Sarah have suffered the worst that can befall a parent. The interview was an insight into personal grief; at times, Mr Brown’s controlled distress made for uncomfortable viewing. But for all the sympathy that the interview will have generated for Mr Brown, it was a mistake.

Quote of the day

Comes from Lance Price in the Independent whose new book promises more revelations from the former spin doctor On Gordon Brown's premiership.

His behaviour towards relatively junior members of staff can be "unforgivable" according to one person who has witnessed it. "It isn't a very nice place for people to work. However bad it sometimes looks from the outside, it's far, far worse from the inside. And the atmosphere is very much set by him."

Quaking in their boots

I am sure that Labour supporters may well be horrified when they see the front of the Sunday Times this morning.

The paper carries a report that Gordon is making secret plans to stay on as Labour leader after the general election even if his party is defeated.

According to what the paper describes as close sources

Gordon has said he believes his enemies in the party are too divided among themselves to force him out,” said a senior Labour source.
“He thinks that if the May election is indecisive and if there is any prospect of a second election, Labour should not be plunged immediately into a messy leadership contest.”

A reversal on Iraq

Hot on the heals of telling the nation that he is happy tp appear in front of the Chilcott inquiry before the election,we here that

The Iraq Inquiry has confirmed that it had received Brown's letter today. The panel will consider it "as soon as possible".

Rather an about turn then from his stance last week when put under the cosh by Nick Clegg.

Although according to Paul Waugh

Personally, I would be surprised if they allowed to give evidence before polling day. Their original reasoning for not inviting him was because the committee didn't want to get dragged into party politics. As Brown was PM when the troops were pulled out of Iraq - a key bit of the inquiry's work but not yet fully explored - then he is a key witness. But that would mean questioning him about his role as PM (not Chancellor so much), hence the committe's reticence.

It is hard to exaggerate the dislike which the Prime Minister arouses among senior Labour figures

Flicking through my feeds this morning,my eyes fell on Bruce Anderson's piece in the Independent headlined All of Brown's Cabinet now want him to lose the next election.

According to Anderson,

It is hard to exaggerate the dislike which the Prime Minister arouses among senior Labour figures.If the Labour Cabinet could decide the outcome of the election in a secret ballot, there would be an overwhelming vote for a Cameron-led minority government,

Many,including Peter Mandelson have alreday written off the election.

he is devoting all his energies to the future. He will continue to work hard in the election campaign, to try to avoid a massacre and to ensure that he retains his current prestige

No vision, no strategy, no co-ordination. It was completely dysfunctional.

Little doubt that the Mail on Sunday have the scoop of the year so far with the serialisation of former Labour General Secretary Peter Watt's book.

Front page in the paper he gives the first account of the election that never was.

It seems it was partly scuppered by George Osbourne's announcement on inheritence tax

It was pathetic and devastating evidence of one of Gordon’s gravest weaknesses – an inability to make big decisions.

There are plenty of other cutting quotes too

Like many of my colleagues, I had had deep misgivings about Gordon becoming Prime Minister.
He lacked leadership skills and seemed to struggle to relate to other people. Often he was downright rude.

Here's another one

Downing Street was a shambles. There was no vision, no strategy, no co-ordination. It was completely dysfunctional.
Gordon was simply making it up as he went along.

and from his close ally Douglas Alexander

The truth is, Peter, we have spent ten years working with this guy
(Gordon Brown), and we don’t actually like him.
We have always thought the longer the British public had to get to know him,
the less they would like him as well."

Yes it can be seen as the ramblings of a seriously discontented man,but it is the first time we have seen a close look at the inside of Gordon's Downing Street.

Whether this will have any effect on the party is debatable but it comes at the end of an uncertain week for the Prime Minister amid signs that the polls are starting to stabilise

Don't panic-Gordon says we are not running out of gas

This from Sky News

In his latest podcast from Number 10, the Prime Minister said: "National Grid has confirmed that it expects supplies to meet demand. I can assure you: supplies are not running out."
Mr Brown said the public should feel at ease regarding the country's gas situation as the UK owns large fuel reserves in the North Sea, in addition to access to further reserves in Norway and the Netherlands.

A snowstorm in a teacup

I rather like the Economist's Bagehot's comments on the coup that wasn't

There is a French school of historians who see climate as one of the underlying drivers of human history. The typical application of this view to Britain is that, being a grey, damp nation, we have quiet, uneventful politics. Yesterday we had the snowstorm: I wonder what difference that made. Among other things, it meat that the BBC didn’t even lead with the plot on the Six O’clock news, going with the snow instead. It meant that some MPs went home early. If it had been an uneventful, sunny day, would it have made any difference? Maybe not.

Time for Miliband to show his colours

Well the BBC's Nick Robinson calls it quite simply extraordinary.

It the decision of Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt to ask for a secret ballot on the leadership of their party.

With rumours unfolding during the week the move was made even as the PM was standing up in the house during PMQ's

As Nick explains

This call for a secret ballot is designed to overcome those two obstacles - by giving the initiative to backbenchers not the cabinet and by bringing forward the pain of public division so that the fear of it is removed as a factor.
Don't believe Labour MPs and ministers who say they've not talked about changing leader. For months the talk's been of little else.

But this is different.As Martin Kettle says

First, this is real and on the record, not speculative as almost everything since last spring has been. That makes it different. Two senior Labour backbenchers, both ex-ministers, one of them (Patricia Hewitt) who can be labelled as a Blairite, the other (Geoff Hoon) who can't, have broken cover. This is not, in other words, a revolt of the usual suspects. It is not an attempted Blairite coup. If you read that it is, you are being lied to. It is what it says on the tin.

As yet though real or not,without a high ranking challenger there is little prospect of this going much further other than defelcting the issues away from the parties policies as the election campaign gets underway.

Will David Miliband finally take the mantle? Accused of baulking out twice,will the party forgiven for a third time if he waits for electoral defaet before standing?

It has taken time but the cabinet are slowly coming out in favour of Brown.Amongst them his loyal ally Ed Balls,Transport minister Sadiq Khan and Shaun Woodward who tells Sky News he is "bewildered" by the calls for secret ballot, and urges Hoon and Hewitt to back down.

Chief Whip Nick Brown also says that Hoon and Hewitt have "no significant support" in push for leadership ballot.

Peter Mandelson menawhile has said that

'No one should over-react to this initiative. It is not led by members of the government. No one has resigned from the government. The prime minister continues to have the support of his colleagues and we should carry on government business as usual.'

So far conspicious by their absence are the Chancellor and the foriegn secretary but wtach this space

Gordon to repay £12,415.10

Meanwhile news coming in that Gordon Brown is to repay £12,415.10 overclaimed between 2004 and 2009 after recieving the dreaded letter this morning from Sir Thomas Legg.

Brown incorrectly claimed for

£10,716.60 for cleaning;

£302.50 for gardening;

£1,396 for painting and decorating.

Acording to the BBC

The claims were within the rules but auditor Sir Thomas Legg has said £2,000 a year for cleaning and £1,000 for gardening was sufficient.

A decade of disaster for Gordon

Tom Clougherty is definitely not a fan of Gordon Brown.

Writing on the Adam Smith insitute blog he says that

Next year, government spending in Britain will reach 54.1 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP), up from 36.6 per cent in 2000. This devastating statistic, buried on the OECD’s website, has been largely overlooked; yet it is one of the most important facts that everybody should know about today’s Britain. It demonstrates that almost an extra fifth of our economy (17.5 per cent, to be exact) has come under state control on Labour’s watch since the start of the century.