Gotcha!

Alan Douglas

Plonker ! You should have stuck to plonk !

Alan Douglas

strapworld

When will you learn? It is a symbolic thing. It is a 'class' thing. It just fits into the TOFF mentality McGuire goes on and on and on about. It also is something the BBC journalists(with their over inflated salaries)keep mentioning.

With Cameron asking all to avoid champagne. Yours, Mr Nelson, was a cheap shot.

Now, if you were to offer a case of champagne to all new subscribers, now that would be welcomed!

John Ward

I do not begrudge Cameron — or you, Fraser — a glass of champagne. This is genuinely turning out to be a corker of a Conservative Conference.

George Osborne, a little earlier, was truly outstanding, and there have already been some very good speeches, debates and all the rest of it — and that's just the televised part!

After the last two weeks on the couth coast, the real fresh air is coming from, of all places, Manchester. I am mightily impressed!

dozy

I always suspected Nelson was a Nu Labour 5th columnist.

DavidDP

A bit guilty?

You are a twit, aren't you Fraser.

Moraymint

It really is sad isn't it that the fate of this once great, self-confident and humour-loving nation (indeed, a one time global empire) could hang on whether a political party leader quaffs a glass champers at a reception.

Are the British people reduced to thinking that a man who enjoys a flute of champagne during a crisis is somehow a callous and incompetent monster who couldn't be trusted in government?

What a dire indictment of the British people, as a well as being a measure of the pernicious effects of many, many years of the closet, under-handed Marxism that has now thoroughly infected this country. Sad indeed.

That old champagne socialist himself, John Mortimer, will be turning in his grave.

Chumping for it

Natursekt all round, nein danke!

Dean

I personally have no problem seeing David Cameron drinking champagne in anticipation of the expected Tory victory. I also look forward to seeing him order guacamole in a fish and chip shop like his mentor Peter Mandelson.

It's the idiots hiding in the shadows behind Cameron I worry about...

Nicholas

So what. Time to stop being afraid of the misrepresentations and smears of champagne socialists.

Bell Ringer

Oh me, oh my. Isn't it all a hoot!

Peter Hitchens is right. This is a lifestyle magazine.

Apart from Melanie Phillips, who is social conservatism's version of Roy Keane, enough intellectual muscle to fight the entire opposition on her own and then (using the term loosely) take the useless part of her 'own side' to the cleaners too, what is this magazine good for?

Boasting about champagne. Great.

The Daily Express is now 30p and carries pieces by Leo McKinstry, Douglas Murray and Freddie Forsyth. And what are you charging for this magazine? If you can't pick up the slack, someone else can.

Get back to your prawn sandwiches.

You make me sick.

Coeur de Lion

What about a nice moderately expensive Cava laced with a little creme de cassis and advertised as Kir Royal?

Ray

You should have handed the guests their champers in complimentary 'Spectator' mugs instead.

Tiberius

Shame on you, Fraser, doing TGF UKIP's and Verity's work for them.

EC

Fraser!

Good to see that you took my comment yesterday about Kelvin MacKenzie seriously.

;-))

Kevyn Bodman

Few posts and comments have made me as sad and angry as some of the comments here.
Are you insane?

What on earth is wrong with drinking champagne?

I drink rather a lot of it when in the UK or Europe,and I am certainly not a toff.I work hard for my money and choose to spend it on things I enjoy. And I will not modify my drink of choice to pander to anyone who thinks this is in some way inappropriate.

If there are idiots out there who are so stupid as to think a man having a glass of champagne at a party is in some way insensitive or irresponsible then they should be told to 'go away'.

For heavens sake you Conservatives, get a spine.Do what you want to do at parties without apology.
And in policy areas grow a spine and say during the election campaign what you will do in government.
Enough of this wimpish nonsense of 'if we say or do that people might not like us.'
Say what you believe,don't hide it or be embarrassed or ashamed of it.

Man drinks champagne at party, idiots don't like it, idiots can 'go away'.

Irene

Looks like orange juice to me.

Verity

Well, I suppose David Cameron is to be - grudgingly - congratulated as having been one of the few contenders ever to actually get Champagne out of The Speccie.

(According to winners of previous competitions, it always seems to get lost in the post.)

Lord Boyders

I'm going out to have one now, might have to persuade someone to take a photograph, but if I can, I'll send it to the (soon to be free) Evening Standard.

DavidDP

The funniest post of the day goes to the poster claiming Mel Phillips has intellectual muscle......

Liz Brown

but he's not actually drinking it!!!!

Andy Carpark

Champagne makes me chunder through my nose.

Hysteria

what Moraymint said.......

Senor Frizby

Just digesting this critical piece of news from the conference. Did David Cameron actually sip the champagne? Or did he [quake] actually finish it?

Obviously unfit for office.

Verity

Kevyn Bodman - Calm down! Have a drink!

The context of this Speccie post is, David Cameron, in his inept, creepy way, banned Champagne at the Conference because he thinks it is seen by hoi polloi as the drink of toffs.

One more crass misunderstanding of the ordinary Brits he essays to govern. The man makes me want to scream.

Boris Johnson would never have so misunderstood the British public that he would have thought they would immediately resolve not to vote Tory if they saw people at a Conference, or "a jolly" as some might call it, drinking Champers.

If he makes such basic errors at this level, how hazardous would this man be in office?

Dirty Euro

Champagne conservatives at it again. LOL

Verity

I don't know whether Cameron's ever been in a supermarket. But if he had, he might have noticed that there are shelves in the liquor section devoted to bottles of Champers not all of which are labelled Brut. In many instances, even 'demi sec' would be severely overstating the case.

God, what an inept fool this man is. His perception of "the little people" is just so insulting.

Faceless Bureaucrat

I once worked with a senior Civil Service Mandarin who was always paranoid about getting snapped with an alcoholic beverage in his had. As such, I was always despatched at formal Receptions to get him his customary tipple of Sauvignon Blanc and then discretely decant it into a tumbler before handing it to him - if he was subsequently snapped, he would always claim it was 'apple juice'...

FB

CS

Verity, sweetheart, I suspect that Cameron banned champagne not because the hoi polloi see it as the toff's drink but because the media see it (hypocritically) as the toff's drink and headlines about toffs swilling bubbly are ones the Tories can do without - however unjustified they may be.

DavidDP

"because he thinks it is seen by hoi polloi as the drink of toffs."

No, because it's generally seen a a drink of celebration, and he did not want pictures to go round that looked as if the party was celebration prematurely.

And he's right.

Victor Southern

Verity

I find it hard to understand which is the greatest chump. Is it you for your ridiculous comment about how drinking a glass of champagne makes Cameron unfit for office or Fraser who deliberately [obviously] set this up despite his protestations to the contrary.

Perhaps it is a dead heat.

Cuffleyburgers

Verity give it a f'king rest you're a cracked record

Charles Flaccidwidger

Verity, I suspect that Champagne was banned at the conference by DC to avoid the pathetic spin by Mandelson et al that the Conservatives are arrogant and have assumed that they will win the election. Such is the level that British politics has been dragged by our current government.

R King

Is Verity really Beryl Reid reincarnated?

Kevyn Bodman

Verity:
Your advice that I should calm down is right on the button.
But I was really angry about this.Genuinely,I was not joking.

As for your advice that I should have a drink,also good advice.But I can't follow it,I'm afraid.
Location,location,location.
My last drink was,of course,champagne. At LHR.
But next month I will certainly take your advice to have a drink.

Verityred

Don't know why Verity spends so much time on this site, posting the same old stale horse water. A very angry and aimless existence.

The Voice of Hoi Polloi

Victor Southern – Yours is probably the greatest statement of miscomprehension in the history of this blog: "Verity - I find it hard to understand which is the greatest chump. Is it you for your ridiculous comment about how drinking a glass of champagne makes Cameron unfit for office …" Victor (at two syllables, I am surprised that you can remember your own name. I suggest that Vic may be easier on your brain cell.) Read my post again. I wrote the exact opposite of what you miscomprehended.

David DP – Triumphalism. Yes,you may have a point.

CS, sweet thang – What is “the hoi polloi”? Did you mean hoi polloi?

R King – Who Beryl Reid?

Fergus Pickering

God Almighty! Do you really suppose that the workers don't drink champagne. We drink anything that comes in a bottle or a can that will make you nicely pissed. A twelve year old Malt will do me very well after sundown. Before that the world is my oyster.

Talia

How can this make the front page of The Standard? I despair.

TGF UKIP

Tiberius, it's your boy Dave, not Fraser, who makes our "work" so easy.

By being so willing to dance to the tune of Labour and their media friends on this as on many more substantial matters, Dave makes himself such an easy target for both Right and Left.

Holly

Verity, I can not wait to read what you have to say when Dave is elected as our Prime Minister!
Oh and I hope there is Champagn all round.
You really do make coming on here boring.
You NEVER really say anything,just inane drivel, when you are not being verbally abusive to someone..Cameron included.
I miss out your rambles and read the shorter ones in the vain hope you have an oppinion on something that effects everyone in the country...pray alas....pigs may fly.
My only consolation is, that people like you are a minority yet disliked by majority,long may it remain so.
This Conservative conference SHOWS what government SHOULD be like,NOT the shady lies of Labour or the made up as we go Lib Dems.
Hague..BRILLIANT, Osborne...BRILLIANT & HONEST, Boris...Brilliant.DC will be next and he too will be BRILLIANT.
Shame you are on the losing side.
Fraser....pity you have so much time on your hands, that this is what your new job leaves you time to pull.A childish stunt you KNEW the lefty press would jump on. Hope you feel more fulfilled having seen it work and your life is all the richer.
Cameron could have refused I guess, but he has NEVER claimed he would NEVER drink champaign..It was the 'symbolism' you were after...well done...you got it..Now the question is...ARE YOU TRUSTWORTHY?

Che Guevara

Front Cover: Do'h!......not a revolutionary but a reactionary...get a life Spectator and mingle with lumpen proletariate. Less champagne and more working with the common man.

Kathy

No one cares about the blasted champagne.

What they care about is the fact that the instruction not to drink champagne came from on high, and look who's drinking it!

Can't even hold a line as trivial as not drinking champagne for a week.

That's what's so telling. That and the boasting of Fraser Nelson as if to say: "Oh look, we got caught, but who cares?"

And who's the person slagging off Mel? Peter Obore in disguise? Or Peter McHackey in disguise? Let's hope not.

I know she beats them two hands down in terms of her support on the Mail but they'll just have to try and grow into proper journalists one day.

As Peter Mandelson might say: "What a pair of 'chumps'"

BG

Now on the front cover of the Daily Mirror as well with the headline 'Fizzy Rascal'..

Great result by the Speccie !!

Tiberius

That picture is on the front page of the Mirror tomorrow but with Fraser in full view.

Kev will sleep well tonight.

Victor Southern

The Voice of Hoi Polloi

I could hardly read your post again as I never read it in the first place. In fact I cannot find it at all.

I was castigating Verity, as many others did. Are you also Verity? Do you troll under many other noms de plume?

Verity

Like Ché Gueverra posting above, I am also puzzled by Cameron's face imposed on this image. What on earth motivated this idea?

Except for that one t-shirt shot, which must have been the best picture he ever took, Ché was a fat greaser who killed children. As in, in a camp in which Ché was keeping prisoners, he beat up a prisoner, with the help of his thugs. The prisoner's little 12-year old son, also being held, raced to his father's defence and tried to beat Ché and the thugs off. This really got up Ché's nose and he grabbed his gun and shot the little boy.

There are other stories like this, but this incident was actually witnessed by many men being held on the grounds (by Ché's "army"). Most of them eventually either escaped, or were released after Ché was bested. And quite a few of them who witnessed it wrote about this murder, either in private letters to their families, or Cuban newsletters or for publication, which they witnessed. It's not just a rumour.

I must say, I was amazed when I saw your cover.

John Robson

Typical Tories.

Insensitive, detached and callus. God couldn't they just restrain them self for a few days.

They're a disgrace.

Robert Johnson

What on earth is there to celebrate in making a load of cuts to peoples lives? The mood at least should be reserved, sombre and respectful.

Some people are struggling to make ends meat and will be worried sick already about some of the announcements made and/or what might be made.

A load of politicians, not even having the common decently to refrain for a couple of daysfrom quaffing back - in peoples faces - £140 bottles of booze, in my view, is disrespectful.

Surely they should have the discipline, restraint and character to go just a few days without quaffing back champaign in public.

Especially after the chairman of the party banned it.

When you actually think about it, it is rather insensitive and disconnected behaviour, when put in the context of the huge cuts being announced at the conference.

The expenses scandal obviously failed to breed any humility into some of them.

Archie

ONE glass of fizz! Big f***ing deal!

Archie

Verity: Take absolutely no notice of these miserable buggers. Courage, ma brave!

Archie

The Voice of Hoi Polloi: You are obviously a classicist, madam..........or sir!

Hildegard Hinxey

I’d like to add a health perspective to what has already been said.

There is an argument – a very strong argument - that problem drinking is, in a real sense, becoming ‘the new smoking’ in terms of the challenge that it presents to public health.

More than two and a half million adults are drinking alcohol at a “higher risk”. That is 1.6 million men regularly drinking more than 8 units a day or 50 units a week, and a million women regularly drinking more than 6 units a day or 35 units a week.

And we also know that issues around alcohol raises of health inequality. The poorest areas have more than double the mortality rate than affluent areas do, and up to five times higher hospital admissions rates.

So the Government needs to step in because if they don’t step in, the consequences are enormous for our communities. And the starting point has to be Whitehall, and strong cross-Government action is a good starting point. The men - and women - in Whitehall really do know best.

And may I just say one thing.

What the Government is putting in place at this time is a new and wide-reaching Alcohol Improvement Programme to accelerate progress.

There will, for instance, be new data on hospital admissions broken down by each of the medical conditions listed in Vital Signs Indicators.

And the National Alcohol Treatment Monitoring System will also collect information from providers on the numbers receiving specialist alcohol treatment, and these figures will help PCTs correct the deficiencies that we know in the system.

Robust commissioning is also a bedrock of better partnership working between services.

Partnership is, of course, the big theme of today. Partnership, led by ‘partnership champions’, brandishing clipboards and breaking through the boundaries, helping PCTs make the right connections with SHAs, councils and the DoH, and providing a clear point of co-ordination to help us collaborate on the key indicators.

I’ll give you one example of what this means in practice. It is the North East Alcohol Office that will bring together a number of agencies including the police, the local authority, the Mental Health Trust and Children’s services, among others.

It will work to create safe, healthy communities through more effective law enforcement and better treatment services.

Good multi-agency working like this isn’t just the right way forward, it’s the only way forward!

Together we can make a massive difference and banish wanton abuse of alcohol from our community at this time.

Paul Linford

Cameron has finally done something to make him go up in my estimation.

lagerlout

"Champagne Charlie Dave? Chairman says we have to dilute the bubbly this year, might have a flutter on Guiness shares."

ian

All that expensive education, and Cameron doesn't even know how to hold a champagne glass properly... what a waste.

Verity

Hildegard Hinxey - oh go and have a unit and lie down and shut up.

Thank you, Verity. Sometimes, as the will to live in our Nulab society wavers, so the will to respond to long, earnest and tendentious comments is found wanting.

But this:

"And the National Alcohol Treatment Monitoring System will also collect information from providers on the numbers receiving specialist alcohol treatment, and these figures will help PCTs correct the deficiencies that we know in the system"

is beyond parody. 'Issues around' a glass of fizz, indeed. Irony sought in vain here. Yes, drink really is 'the new smoking': a ready target for wowsers, nannies, and interfering busybodies who are not content with existing levels of state interference but actually ddemand more.

And where did those statistics come from? Is this the same "science" which demonstrated, incontrovertibly, that 194% of toddlers under 5 die from passive smoking suffered in public areas? No wonder people drink and smoke more in a society which proscribes individual freedom.

No-one, as far as I am aware, wants to encourage alcoholism. But you can't ban it and it is futile to limit alcohol anywhere and for anyone by suggesting an arbitrary cap on units per week. And it doesn't destroy society either. Drunks are a nuisance, and boring, and sometimes dangerous to themselves and other people. So are politicians. They are the halfwits who force every advertiser to say "Please drink responsibly", as if (a) anyone who wanted to drink irresponsibly would think twice before doing so and ( again

Get a life, HH, and let the rest of us live ours.

Patricia Shaw

It's one thing breaking bread, or bubbles, with Fraser Nelson.

It's another beeing seen in public with the editor of a magazine that openly incites racial and religious hatred.

Jamie Redfearn

Hildegard Hinxey - I would sooner drink myself to an early death than spend any time sober with you. You boring soul.