Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

The British right is embracing direct action

First, it was Robert Jenrick tackling fare dodgers. Then it was Gareth Davies pursuing a thief. You might be forgiven for thinking that copies of Marvel’s Avengers were circulating in Portcullis House. But among elements of the British right there is a renewed appreciation of the benefits of direct action. Shut out of office until at least 2029, Tory and Reform politicians are finding ways to channel their frustrations into novel, low-cost, forms of protest. Nigel Farage’s aides have embraced humorous stunts such as beaming their membership numbers onto CCHQ and handing out blank books to journalists titled Highlights from my first 100 days, by Kemi Badenoch. Others, like Jenrick, try to think

Steerpike

Phillipson visits zero private schools in 11 months

It’s been quite the year for Bridget Phillipson. The under fire Education Secretary is now regularly tipped as one of the ministers most likely to be moved at the next reshuffle. Her Schools Bill has been lambasted for its impact on academies while her private school tax raid is hitting the state school sector too. Yet despite dire warnings about the impact of putting VAT on independent school fees, Phillipson seems indifferent to their fate. For a Freedom of Information request by Steerpike has confirmed that she is yet to visit a single one in nearly a year in office. According to the Department for Education: Minister Morgan and Minister

Yossi Melman

Is Israel ready for a long war with Iran?

The spectacular Israeli attack on Iran’s nuclear, missile and military sites and their commanders and scientists astonished the Israeli public as well as the world. It was a combination of accurate intelligence and brilliant execution by the Israeli Air Force and Mossad operatives. The intelligence preparations for this operation, codenamed‘ Rising Lion’, lasted more than a year. Mossad agents infiltrated Iran and created a network of agents, assistants, safe houses, workshops, vehicles, forged documents and cover stories – alongside advanced technologies. They also smuggled drone components into Iran, before assembling and hiding them there. These drones took part in the attack. In a sense the attack was reminiscent of the

Limor Simhony Philpott

Netanyahu wants to topple the Iranian regime

Last night, the Middle East witnessed its fiercest clash yet as Israel and Iran traded blows. A daring Israeli operation, orchestrated by Mossad and the Israeli Air Force (IAF), obliterated Iran’s top military commanders, including IRGC leaders, and struck ballistic missile sites and nuclear facilities. Iran initially retaliated with a barrage of drones, all of which were shot down. It then escalated its attack, firing over 200 ballistic missiles targeting civilians. Several missiles hit the densely populated cities of Tel Aviv, Ramat Gan, and Rishon Lezion, killing three civilians and wounding over 75. Unlike Iran’s barrages last year, which inflicted minor damage, this assault overwhelmed Israel’s defences. A lot less

Michael Simmons

Paul Johnson: The spending review was ‘incomprehensible’

Rachel Reeves’s spending review was the ‘most incomprehensible speech I’ve ever heard from a chancellor’, according to Paul Johnson of the Institute for Fiscal Studies. He spoke to me on today’s edition of Coffee House Shots. In this special episode, I was also joined by Ruth Curtice, chief executive of the Resolution Foundation, to take a wider look at Britain’s fiscal and economic problems. Why, despite record tax levels, do our public services feel as if they’re in managed decline? Why do voters’ expectations of the state seem so out of whack with what we actually deliver? We discussed whether Ruth’s predecessor, Torston Bell, was right to claim Labour has ended

Spectator TV Presents

The new icons of left-wing violence: the LA riots, Luigi Mangione, and vigilante justice

Watch now

Friday

10 Jun 2022

Jonathan Miller

Abolish the railways!

As the country is held hostage once again by the rail unions, it’s time for the nation to ask itself: does it need trains at all? The last time anyone dared ask this question was 60 years ago when Dr Richard Beeching boldly closed more than 2,000 stations and 5,000 miles of track. The time has come to finish the job and shut down the rest of Britain’s viciously expensive, underperforming and fundamentally inefficient rail network. The economic reasons for doing so are irrefutable, no matter how the railroad anoraks might sputter. Originally private, then nationalised, then privatised again, then morphed into an odd hybrid in which tax subsidies are higher

Thursday

18 Nov 2021

Alex Massie

Boris’s rail betrayal is no surprise

A promise made is merely a promise waiting to be broken. If events complicate life for all governments it is nevertheless apparent some governments are more likely to abandon their promises than others. And by now no-one should be surprised that a government led by Boris Johnson finds it easier to jettison its pledges than to honour them. It is the nature of the creature. Today it happens to be High Speed Rail, but yesterday it was something else and tomorrow it will be another thing altogether. The Prime Minister’s inconstancy is his constancy. Even so, the watering down of previous plans to – at long last – invest seriously

Monday

1 Mar 2021

Ross Clark

Perhaps it is time to nationalise our failing railways

We mustn’t abandon the railways to market forces, many on the left asserted when British Rail was broken up and privatised in the 1990s. They needn’t have worried. A quarter of a century on and we have yet to see a market force take to the tracks. Wasn’t the whole purpose of privatisation supposed to be to transfer financial risk from the taxpayer to private finance? Instead, as soon as the Covid crisis struck, while other industries were offered loans, furlough payments and business rate relief but were otherwise left to fend for themselves, the rail industry was propped up as if nothing was wrong. The government simply suspended the