Morning Report – April 27th

This is one of those strange days where we don’t quite know how things will pan out yet. There’s one crucial bit of jigsaw missing and George Osborne is the only person who knows what it is. It’s GDP growth figures day of course, and at 9.30 we’ll get to see whether growth is weak, strong or “negative”. Bearing in mind the economy went backwards at the end of 2010, a good growth spurt is needed to prove that we’re on the right track. Ed Balls is no doubt pacing up and down in his office now waiting to be unleashed on the chancellor. Keep an eye on Vince Cable if the figures are poor – he’s explaining the government’s “growth strategy” at 9.45. Excellent timing..

PMQs returns today after a hiatus. Cameron’s performances were going downhill fast in the sessions before Easter, so it’ll be interesting to see how he fares today. In all likelihood it depends on those ONS numbers at 9.30. Either way expect Ed Miliband to bash Cameron on growth, and Cameron to argue that everything is rosy. Other topics that may arise are the NHS, AV and general coalition discontent. Lets be honest – Miliband has plenty of material from the past two weeks to work with.

Elsewhere, the Times – that fine paper of record – has run today with the startling story that Labour MPs are split on AV (£). Really? Who would have guessed? Now we don’t believe that the Times are so daft as to have missed this story – they have surely watched it emerge over the past few months – so we can only assume they’re stirring ahead of the election. But they wouldn’t let their editorial line on a referendum (and party politics) impact on their news covergae would they? Surely not…

And finally, want to see the Daily Mail attack the Royal household in defence of Blair and Brown. Sounds unlikely? Well it’s true. The Royal Wedding snub of the previous two PMs has been lambasted by the Daily Mail in their editorial today. Curiously though, the pressure isn’t applied to No 10. Surely they saw the guestlist?