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Leading article

The vision thing

Wednesday, 7th November 2007

The Spectator on the Queen's speech

The bitterness of the exchange between Mr Brown and David Cameron that followed Her Majesty’s address was a more accurate guide than the speech itself to the complexion of politics in the months ahead. For all the pieties about ending ‘Punch and Judy politics’, it is clear that this is precisely what we are in for between now and the election. On Tuesday, the Tory leader was beating the Prime Minister with Punch’s stick, all but shouting: ‘That’s the way to do it!’ Mr Brown will say that Mr Cameron has no substance — although that has not stopped him from pilfering Tory proposals, such as inheritance tax cuts, when they have played well in the polls. Mr Cameron will say that the PM is not as strong as Tony Blair, that he is a shameless thief of Tory ideas and that his sole purpose is to cling on to power.

Rarely has politics been so brutal or so personal. The account on p. 12 by our Tory mole, Tamzin Lightwater, of the two men’s conversation before the speech rings true. There is every sign that politics between now and polling day will be a cage-fight rather than a philosophical debate. That, in truth, is the predictable consequence of a mostly piecemeal, opportunist programme of measures that is less than the sum of its parts.

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A child of our time

From the economic and psychological bedlam of the global downturn has emerged a particularly dangerous false dichotomy: namely, that there is somehow a choice for ministers over the next few years between economic reconstruction and the repair of Britain’s broken society, and that the government (whether Labour or Conservative) must prioritise the former at the expense of the latter.

Diary

Anne Robinson

The daughter and I spent the last few days before the American election in Arizona.

Politics

Fraser Nelson

Fraser Nelson reviews the week in politics

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

‘A money-financed tax cut is essentially equivalent to Milton Friedman’s famous “helicopter drop” of money.’ So said Ben Bernanke, now the chairman of the Fed, in a speech about how to ward off the ‘extremely small’ chance of deflation, which he delivered in 2002.