Politics

Geraldine James, recently notorious as the breast-feeding mother in Little Britain, talks to Tim Walker about her role in Howard Barker’s Victory Geraldine James’s agent telephoned one day and asked if she would care to play an over-protective mother. And he added there was something that she ought to know: it involved breast-feeding and, ah yes, the recipient would be a man in his thirties. The distinguished stage and screen actress has always liked surprising people and that was why, after she had seen the script, she agreed to appear in the ‘Bitty’ sketches in Little Britain — although not, she hastens to add, with her own breasts. ‘Everybody assumes

Fraser Nelson continues the Spectator Inquiry into the causes of the recession, and marks a first anniversary that shouldn’t be celebrated. James Forsyth gives his take on the Labour leadership speculation, and says that the London G20 Summit can’t live up to expectations. Peter Hoskin outlines a day of good and bad news for the Tories, and spots the vultures circling above Downing Street. Lisa Hilton laments Italy’s apathetic attitude towards corruption. Daniel Korski analyses Obama’s mini-surge. Martin Bright observes the irresistible rise of the Lib Dems. Clive Davis gives his take on the Allen Stanford case. Alex Massie notes when English is actually British. Melanie Phillips marks a requiem

I suspect Peter is right and that David Davis’s remarks about “the Davis agenda” will raise a few eyebrows. But I find them encouraging. There’s an obvious upside to Davis returning to the front bench at some point since, despite the Tory parties advantageous position in the polls, the party could do with the extra muscle Davis would bring. From the point of view of civil liberties, however, there’s something to be said for Davis prowling the back benches, keeping an eye on a Tory party that may well find it too easy to slide away from the civil libertarian agenda once it’s in power. Davis, then, has an important

Here’s today’s nominee for Most Deluded Man in Britain (Non-Government Division): Wigan head coach Brian Noble believes Super League clubs should be buying up rugby union’s big stars. The former GB coach is advocating the scheme in order to bring more British and Irish talent into the sport. “Every club should be given a remit to sign one union home nations player,” Noble told The Super League Show. “Just imagine the national headlines our game would generate for bringing the likes of a Jonny Wilkinson or a Brian O’Driscoll across.” Just imagine! Well that’s all you can do, isn’t it? I can’t think of a single reason why any leading

George Monbiot raises a complaint one has seen several times lately: Had Heathrow’s third runway been debated only by English MPs, the proposal would have been resoundingly defeated; it was approved by 19 votes, after 67 MPs from the other nations were induced to support the government. They can support such measures without any electoral risk, as their constituents are not directly affected. Except that, in this instance at least, a so-called English issue is actually a British issue. Heathrow’s capacity – indeed the capacity of all the London airports – is a matter of interest north of the border. After all, Heathrow is Scotland’s most important air connection to

Brother Bright gives some of his reasons for hoping that Labour will prevail at the next election here. As a good man of the left, one would expect no less from him. And he’s right, I think, to suppose that we’d be facing many of the same problems had David Cameron and Georgie Osbourne been running the country these past five years. In that sense, you can undertsand the frustration some of the Prime Minister’s supporters must feel. Not all of this is the PM’s fault, but he’s the only fellow the public can kick. But for those of us who aren’t automatically attached to any party the calculation is