James Forsyth 
David Cameron is nearing crisis point
For David Cameron, Margaret Thatcher’s funeral must seem an awfully long time ago. Back then, all the talk was of a new Tory unity. He had found a way to… Read more
The secret of David Cameron’s Europe strategy: he doesn’t have one
Shortly before the Conservative party conference last year, the head of the Fresh Start Group of Eurosceptic Conservative MPs went in to see the Prime Minister in Downing Street. The… Read more
Why the Tories need their own Nigel Farage
There are two talking points in Westminster this week. One is about who is up and who is down following the local council elections. This finds the Cameroons privately pleased… Read more
Ukip vs the world
Ukip hope that this week’s county council elections are just the fireworks display before the big bang. In 2014 they think they can blow open British politics by winning a… Read more
A rare mood of unity descends on the Conservatives
The idea that ‘loyalty is the Conservative party’s secret weapon’ was always dubious. Benjamin Disraeli, for instance, made his name attacking a sitting Conservative prime minister. This, though, did not… Read more
Ed Miliband, Nigel Farage and the age of cynical politics
Would you rather this country was led by a man who is out of touch, arrogant and smug or someone who is out of his depth, weak and out of… Read more
The Tory modernisers are Margaret Thatcher's true heirs
Margaret Thatcher’s death has inevitably prompted intense reflection among Tories about what lessons the party should learn from her time in office. ‘We must finish the job’ is the refrain… Read more
What will David Cameron be remembered for?
Ten Downing Street has been an odd place these past few days. The prime ministerial portraits that line the main staircase have been taken down and the furniture covered in… Read more
Do Tories want David Cameron to lose?
Downing Street aides nervously run through the symptoms: a flat economy, poor press, leadership mutterings. Then they say, ‘It’s just mid-term blues, isn’t it?’ A second later, they add nervously,… Read more
For once, Osborne will be glad not to be the story
A few years ago George Osborne would have bristled at the idea that one of his budgets wouldn’t be the biggest event of the political week. His ability to conjure… Read more
David Cameron’s secret Budget plan
It was the night that the Conservatives’ dream of a majority died. The first televised election debate in British history was meant to be the moment that David Cameron moved… Read more
David Cameron needs Willie Whitelaw. He has Nick Clegg
David Cameron needs a Willie. So say the ministers who work most closely with No. 10. It is not a call for shock-and-awe radicalism, but for someone who can help… Read more
Lord Rennard, Mark Oaten and the Lib Dems’ embarrassing adolescence
Imagine if seven Tory Cabinet ministers had resigned since David Cameron became Prime Minister. Then think about another seven being accused of having covered up alleged sexual misconduct by a… Read more
Have the Tories lost Eastleigh?
Monday morning. Grant Shapps, the enthusiastic Tory party chairman, is sitting in a people-carrier, putting the final touches to a scathing press release attacking his Cabinet colleague, the Deputy Prime… Read more
The horsemeat scandal shows the true extent of Europe’s power in Britain
There’s something gripping about a food scandal. The idea we could be inadvertently eating something taboo exercises a fascination on the public mind. But where has all the horsemeat in… Read more
The battle of Eastleigh will be bloody
This week’s Cabinet meeting was a deceptively straightforward affair. Conservative and Liberal Democrat ministers met as usual, and discussed economic competitiveness and their priorities for the next Queen’s speech. It… Read more
Cameron will have to fund his Mali adventure
‘This is the hour of Europe, not the hour of the Americans,’ Jacques Poos, foreign minister of Luxembourg, declared in 1991. Yugoslavia, he said, was a problem in Europe’s neighbourhood… Read more
Will the real radicals please stand up?
At the next election, all parties will agree that Britain is in a mess. They will disagree about is who is to blame. Both the Tories and the Liberal Democrats… Read more
‘I’m still a Thatcherite’
Sajid Javid seems the very model of a rising young Tory: student politics, then investment banking, then a junior Treasury minister in his first parliament; well-cut suit trousers, crisp white… Read more
Cameron’s European moment has come – a year late
David Cameron should have given his big Europe speech a year ago. Having just threatened to veto a new EU treaty, he had proved that he was prepared to aggressively… Read more
Blogs
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Why it’s not the 1990s all over again for the Tories
The last twenty four hours
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Woolwich attack: the aftermath
Westminster and Whitehall are tonight
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The chancellor survived the IMF report, but there’s another challenge ahead
George Osborne has got through
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Gay marriage easily passes third reading vote in the Commons
After all the parliamentary back
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David Cameron should be out there making the case for gay marriage
David Cameron’s approach to the
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The Liberal Democrats, the natural party of government?
If four years ago, a
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Top Tory calls party activists ‘mad swivel-eyed loons’
Insulting your own side is
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What does Cameron actually want back from Brussels?
If you ask what’s the
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Nick Clegg and Harriet Harman play a cautious game at PMQs
There was a rare moment
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Will the draft EU referendum bill calm Tory tensions?
The last few days have
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Gove: I’d vote to leave the EU if referendum held today
In a firecracker of an
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If Cameron is going to win in 2015, he is going to need a lot of help from Boris
One consequence of the local
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MPs gear up for 2015 slugfest in Queen’s Speech debate
The Queen’s Speech debate is
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What was Clegg’s priority in the last few hours of the coalition talks? Stopping a European renegotiation
The latest extracts of the
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The Tory party holds its nerve – for now
The dust is settling from
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David Davis and the Tories’ class war
To the relief of Conservative
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Nigel Farage, the anti-politician
Nigel Farage was in full
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Labour hold South Shields with Ukip 2nd and Lib Dems 7th
The result is now in
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Nigel Farage’s tax flip-flop shows us where he’s trying to take his party
We might this week have
Latest blogs
- Rupert Murdoch: Cameron’s in trouble – I read it in The Spectator. Fraser Nelson
- Lamont: QE is blowing another bubble. It will soon meet a pin. Norman Lamont
- Can any government really expect to carry out ambitious reform? Isabel Hardman
- Spectator Play: what’s worth watching, listening to or going to this weekend Camilla Swift
- Drummer Lee Rigby Douglas Murray
- Eight Golden Rules for Tragedy Tweeting Freddy Gray
- Government behaving badly over ‘quietly aborted’ lobbying reform Iain Anderson
