Morning Report – April 20th

Over the past few days we’ve been following the unfolding saga of Gordon Brown, the Tories and the IMF. Brown hasn’t even confirmed that he wants the IMF job, and there’s not even a job to apply for at the moment, but that hasn’t stopped the Tories engaging in a spot of old-fasioned Brown-bashing. You’d almost think they had concocted a means of talking about Gordon Brown every day in the run up to the local elections. Surely they’re not that cynical though? The Mirror have stuck the boot in to the PM today, but the damage is probably already done for Labour, and for Brown…

The Guardian reports on Ed Miliband’s visit to De Montfort University yesterday, a year to the day since Nick Clegg arrived at the same campus on a wave of Cleggmania and promised to end tuition fees. Miliband didn’t make any similar promises, but it’s reassuring to know that his team are mindful of these dubious anniversaries, and know how to exploit them. A quick note to Ed and his team though – don’t say “I coined the phrase ‘the squeezed middle'”, because that’s not true – John Healey did on LabourList and in a Demos pamphlet last summer.

Can you hear the sound of machinery this morning? That’s the sound of Ed Balls planting his tanks on George Osborne’s lawn. He has been hitting the chancellor with some long-range artillery fire for quite some time now, and landing some useful blows, but today he has got up close and personal with the chancellor, calling him out of his depth, excitable and impulsive. Expect Osborne (who like Cameron has something of an Ed Balls obsession) to react (or overreact) swiftly.

Elsewhere, NHS waiting times are on the rise (as Iain Duncan Smith confirmed last week), and Nick Clegg has donated (£) £40,000 to the taxpayer after he downsized his Sheffield home. Firstly, why is he downsizing? Doesn’t he expect to be in Sheffield much longer? And secondly, does he think that this (welcome and correct) behaviour will buy him the support of the people of Sheffield ahead of the local elections? We doubt that – we think they know much better than that Nick.