Alex Smith

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Labour has selected Liverpool, Manchester and Bournemouth as the host cities for its annual conferences from 2011-2014. The decision provides for a broadening of the Labour party's conference venues. After…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 It seems many thousands of people are using Twitter to communicate with our transatlantic cousins, and to rebut Daniel Hannan's ugly claims against the NHS - in the last couple of hours, #WeLoveTheNHS has…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Every day and all across the country, we encounter new schools and hospitals, Sure Start and comunity centres, new bridges and roads and any number of other projects that have been the direct result of this…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Back from his holiday in Corfu, Peter Mandelson is again ubiquitous, and has attacked George's Osborne's "progressive conservativism" speech yesterday as "audacious political cross-dressing" in this morning's…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Tory MEP Roger Helmer is doing himself no favours as he tries to dig himself out of a very large hole after saying yesterday that "homophobia doesn't exist". In the Northampton Chronicle today, Helmer said…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Compass have just announced the winners of their election for positions on the Compass Management Committee and the Compass Youth Organising Committee. Gavin Hayes, Compass' General Secretary said in an email…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Very little can be written about Peter Mandelson that hasn't already been said, but his interview with Decca Aitkenhead of the Guardian this morning relveals once again this fascinating convergence of…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 It's not often we quote from the pages of the Daily or Sunday Mail on LabourList, but Vince Cable has written a good explanation of the improving economic signs in that paper today: "There is undoubtedly good…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 This is Philip Hammond, whom ConservativeHome say will be a "very powerful Deputy Chancellor" if the Tories win the next election. Mike Smithson even thinks it's a fair bet he'll be a Tory Chancellor at some…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 UPDATE: The full version of David Miliband's article is now available to read here. UPDATE: Surprise, surprise, it's the Spectator's Coffee House blog that calls the first leadership play, saying: "it's…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 Thankfully, after a long winter, the signs of economic recovery that Gordon Brown has been craving for so long are beginning to appear. They are by no means definitive and there is evidently still a long way…

By Alex Smith / @alexsmith1982 After a week of speculation as to the future of the Observer, it seems plans are afoot amongst the paper's journalists themselves to save the stricken stalwart of the left. Staff at the world's oldest Sunday…