Fraser Nelson Fraser Nelson

Responding to the New Statesman

All of us in 22 Old Queen Street are admiring the New Statesman this week, guest edited by Alastair Campbell. He’s evidently put a hell of a lot of work into it and ransacked his contacts book: diary by Sarah Brown, interview with Alex Ferguson (Pete, a dedicated Man Utd fan, says it’s one of the best he’s read), Danny Finkelstein on the theory of the left waking up to the net (except they’re not, but it’s a good read) and Anthony Charles Lynton Blair on his new friend, God. While the Spectator is evidently on the other side of the fence to The New Statesman we’re not really rivals, insofar as very few people stand at WH Smith and go “eeny meeny” between the two of us. I very much doubt that CoffeeHousers read the New Statesman as a matter of course. But you should today: it’s a genuinely good read. Campbell has missed his vocation.

Anyway, it’s a special honour for yours truly to be given a mention in such an issue, and in the opening paragraph of the political column no less. I am introduced as a “Cameron cheerleader” (remember that next time you’re all slating me for being too cruel to him) and the writer, James Macintyre, gives a fascinating view of the Tory Party from planet zog.

The CoffeeHousers who despair at Cameron’s lack of radical policies would do well to read this piece, as it will cheer you up immensely. Cameron has adopted a “state-slashing, neo-Thatcherite agenda. While Cameron claims to be committed to spending increases, he is backing “spending cuts and tax cuts.” Rather than declaring Europe to be a low priority, Cameron “presides over the most anti-European parliamentary party in Tory history”. He has apparently reversed his plan not to expand grammar schools (damn, I missed that story) and, even better, William Hague is now a neoconservative.

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