With the weekend about to start, you might want to read Robert Peston's latest blog before embarking on a weekend shopping spree

Four hours after my earlier post on the possibility of a 2009 election, I flinched on reading evening newspaper billboards in central London saying: "Go for June 4, Allies Tell Brown" or words to that effect. Wrong again, Mike?

Not on this occasion. A few minutes later, I received a text from a friend who usually knows what's going on behind the big black door. Had I just heard Gordon Brown on Radio 2's Jeremy Vine show? (No). "He's just responded to your blog and killed off this election speculation nonsense."

Well, that's nice, if a bit misleading. People as busy as Gordon Brown don't have time to read newspapers much (it's usually a bad idea in their shoes), let alone blogs: they have people who monitor media for them.
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Photograph: Chris Ratcliffe/Rex Features

The master of spin fails to share in the nation's grief as he learns of the news that John Sergeant has quit Strictly Come Dancing

Some blogs recycle second-hand jokes but you won't find any of that going on here. This gag must be third-hand, at least.

Still, I think it's worth it.

What is the funniest book in the English language? It's not a very original question and I ask this cold winter weekend only because I heard a couple of shortlisted candidates being promoted at a memorial service the other day.

Few people beyond his very large and eclectic circle of friends may have heard of David Chipp. Even his profession lent itself to anonymity. He was a news agency journalist who survived stepping on Chairman Mao's foot (young Chipp was the first western correspondent in Beijing after the 1949 revolution) to become editor-in-chief of both Reuters and the domestic wire service, the Press Association.

And much loved he was too. I have never seen St Bride's, Wren's lovely 1672 church behind Fleet Street (the seventh on that site in 1,000 years) so full, not just of hacks (some rather grand ones), but lawyers, fellow Henley rowing buffs, opera enthusiasts and many others. Chipp had an infectious smile and believed that champagne was a non-alcoholic drink. Even Mao forgave him. Chipp died suddenly in his sleep in September, aged 81.

Anyway during the course of the service, Jonathan Grun, the current editor of the PA (which reported the event in five crisp lines), read an extract from AG MacDonell's England, Their England (1933), explaining before doing so that Chippy thought it the second funniest book in the language.
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In the run up to Monday's pre-budget report, the gloves have come off and the fight for the next election (speculation about which I'll save for another day) has begun.

For many years now – since Labour first promised to match Tory spending levels for two years ahead of the 1997 general election – caution and stability have been the watchwords on fiscal (tax and spending to most of us) policy. As ardent students of the New Labour Handbook, George Osborne and David Cameron made a similar pledge to match Labour spending plans into the next parliament – the cornerstone of their economic policy.

This jockeying for the centre ground by sending reassuring signals on tax and spending policies has removed the clear and significant dividing lines between the parties (even if these statements served to cloak true intentions and directions of travel).

This week that all changed.
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Alistair Darling will doubtless be polishing up his pre-budget report speech this weekend. Perhaps he would like to hear JFK explain how tax cuts could stimulate the economy in 1962

Liberal Democrats should be feeling sincerely flattered. Labour has plundered virtually all our policy ideas on the economy, leaving Vince Cable unchallenged for the title of Best Value Government Consultant – as well as the Spectator's Parliamentarian of the Year.

As Andrew Rawnsley acknowledged in this week's Observer: "Nick Clegg is quite correct when he claims that his party was ahead of the game by being the first to propose tax cuts to alleviate recession. What's more, their proposal to lop 4p off the basic rate of income tax is funded - well, just about - by tax increases for the more affluent, which is the responsible and effective as well as the redistributionist way to go about trying to boost demand."

The BBC even argues that Barack Obama's tax policies are closest to Nick Clegg's. Well, we know the president elect has Lib Dems on his team.
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Talking this week to what the media sometimes calls "a No 10 insider" about an unrelated policy matter, I heard my contact dismiss renewed speculation among Labour MPs about a 2009 general election – which had been pumped up by one poll that cut the Tory lead to a mere 3%.

In fact, some of Gordon Brown's chums may be telling him not to allow loose talk to permit even a sniff of a repeat of last year's on-off election drama. He should take an opportunity soon – this weekend? – to rule it out, they say.

Good. Let's get real here. It was the silliest talk I have heard since learning that President-elect Obama is serious about considering his erstwhile opponent, Hilary Clinton, for the post of US secretary of state.
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Alistair Darling's ratings among Britain's business leaders have risen to an all-time high, while confidence in his Tory shadow, George Osborne, has sunk to a new low, according to a ComRes survey for the Independent.

Samuel Brittan defends Gordon Brown's approach to tackling the recession.

The Times' Peter Riddell says Brown needs to apply patience by showing a way out of the recession before calling a general election.

The Telegraph's Jeff Randall says Alistair Darling needs to "resist signing some of the prime minister's blank cheques".

The former deputy children's commissioner Rob Williams explains why children at risk are often not put into care.

The Belfast Telegraph outlines the policy action finally taken after the Stormont executive's first meeting in five months.

Speculating about an early election is fun, but the most interesting question at Westminster this week – this month, this year even? – is whether David Cameron's decision to oppose Labour's anti-recession strategy will win him or lose him the next election. And nowFrank Field has weighed in with his verdict.

Field is often described as the Tories' favourite Labour MP, so the fact he thinks the gamble might work doesn't count as earth-shattering news. But he identified the damage the 10p tax row would do to the government before anyone else, so his views are at least worth considering.
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Genetically modified oilseed rape, one of the four main commercial GM crops. Photograph: Christopher Furlong/Getty

At the Soil Association's annual conference in Bristol this week, delegates had the pleasure of the Right Honourable Hilary Benn's company. Not in person, you understand – the secretary of state's planned visit was foiled by important Commons business – but over the phone at least.

Benn came on the line to participate in a debate about the best way to feed Britain. Audience and panel members were able to grill him, and his replies were broadcast live around the conference hall.

A question about GM food generated the most controversy. Phillip Lowery, director of the Real Food Festival, asked Benn what the government's view of GM was in light of last week's IFPRI report.

Benn replied that only two questions needed answering in relation to GM food. One, is it safe to grow; and two, is it safe to eat? Continue reading...

"They're very pragmatic," remarked a City Hall secret squirrel of the Boris Johnson regime, "and generally quite realistic." This description seems to fit the mayor's draft housing strategy which was launched this morning at New London Architecture, a display and networking space in Bloomsbury for people who care about the capital's buildings.

A 1:1500 scale model of central London was displayed to his right as Johnson set out his policy stall. Like sex, a place to live is one of life's basic needs but its provision lacks orgasmic qualities. The Blond did his best to turn us on. Continue reading...

Unfortunately for Gordon Brown, the Tory deputy chairman had apologised for saying 'the recession must take its course'

No. At least, that seems to be the majority view at Westminster. "It's rubbish," a minister told me. "We were ahead in the polls then there was all the speculation last time. Now we are still behind. Gordon's not going to call an election."

Clarke made his comment about Brown planning an early election in an interview in the Daily Mail. Although he told the paper that he did not think a 2009 poll would actually happen (because Brown would eventually decide not to take the risk), he said Brown wanted to cut taxation and raise spending because "he wants to hold an election and thinks a very short-term programme can possibly win it". Continue reading...