2 Big Stories

Brown will acknowledge need for cuts

The BBC is leading with news that the Prime Minister will use the ‘C’ word for the first time!

Prime Minister Gordon Brown is to admit for the first time that spending cuts will be needed, the BBC understands.

BBC political editor Nick Robinson said Mr Brown would make his most explicit comments yet on spending choices in a speech to union leaders on Tuesday.

Deliver us from Gordon

Meanwhile, The Times reports that almost half of voters would replace Mr. Brown with… well, anyone:

Almost half of voters think that anyone would do a better job than Gordon Brown as Labour leader.

Nine months at most from a general election, a Populus poll for The Times suggests that 48 per cent of voters believe that “literally anyone” from Labour’s ranks could do better, without naming alternatives. Only a third say that Mr Brown is the best leader available to Labour.

2 Must-read Posts

The War on the War on Drugs

Mark Thompson reckons that drug laws should be reformed, and so does his interview Philip Openheimer, the former Tory minister who was from the ‘progressive wing’ of his party before it was fashionable:

I think that politicians would be surprised at the response they would get to a serious debate on the subject. My experience is that a lot of Tories now favour reform, but they are terrified about being seen as soft on drugs by the media and prejudicing an almost certain election victory. Cameron had a chance to start a real debate when his own drug taking experiences became an issue, but I guess he was too timid to do so.

Marching to the sound of the guns

At the risk of being accused of serving my producer-interest… I will finish by pointing you to Bernard Salmon’s excellent discussion of the relvance of history to national identity and political debate:

Whether we think of ourselves as Scottish, British, English, Jamaican, British Asian or whatever, there does have to be some understanding of what that means and where that identity comes from.

However, one question I do wish to ask is whether the English have an unusual lack of interest in their own history.