Politics

The Labour government has been spinning aggressively that British troops are withdrawing from Iraq because the job is done. Major General Andy Salmon, the British Commander, has even made the rather dubious claim that Basra is now safer than Manchester. It is true that the progress made in recent months has been remarkable: there have only been three successful militia bomb attacks during this period. The recent provincial elections saw the extremist Fadhila party, which had controlled the city, well and truly routed. Prime Minister Maliki’s Dawa party won a plurality of the votes and a majority of the seats; a testament to the public’s view of the Charge of

We at The Spectator would like to say sorry to the Prime Minister. When he declared in October that the world needed a ‘new Bretton Woods’ — a reference to the 1944 conference that established the global financial system — we took him at his word. And when he swore that the G20 summit in London would be a great event, and that world leaders would do ‘whatever it takes’, we assumed he meant what he said. We now realise that we severely underestimated the PM’s sense of humour and failed to see the twinkling eye of surrealist humour in those dour features. In fact, the G20 has been the

It’s dawning on me that the Prime Minister can’t listen to criticism. It’s dawning on me that the Prime Minister can’t listen to criticism. I don’t just mean that he can’t respond to criticism; I mean that he literally can’t listen to it. When he came to the European Parliament to drum up support for his spending plans, I made a three-minute speech in favour of balanced budgets. As I talked, he pulled his face into what I think was meant to be a disdainful smirk, then ostentatiously chatted to his officials, then pretended to doodle on a piece of paper. I’ve never doubted Gordon Brown’s convictions: he seems genuinely

Here are some of the posts made during the past week on Spectator.co.uk: Fraser Nelson analyses Gordon Brown’s G20 deal, and gives ten reasons why a Tory government should cut state spending. James Forsyth gives his take on Barack Obama’s gift for the Queen, and reports on David Cameron’s search for a broader shadow cabinet. Peter Hoskin reports on Brown’s G20 sermon, and sets the reasons why the Prime Minister shouldn’t expect a significant post-summit bounce. Lloyd Evans watches the London Summit get under way. Martin Bright says that Boris just doesn’t get it. Clive Davis reports on the G20 meeting. Alex Massie laments Benjamin Netanyahu’s recipe for disaster. Melanie

Such is the disrepute into which Scotland’s once all-conquering bankers have fallen that the favoured put down at Edinburgh dinner parties these days is “My husband pays your husband’s salary”. A period of silence on the part of these erstwhile Masters of the Universe would be most welcome. This injunction, it seems, also applies to their spouses. That sound you hear is the noise of a righteous middle-class populism. These are disconcerting, humiliating times to be a Scottish banker. Nowhere is this more keenly felt than at the Royal Bank of Scotland’s headquarters at Gogarburn on the western outskirts of Edinburgh. RBS’s downfall and subsequent nationalisation-in-all-but-formal-name has made it open

At the height of the internal Labour Party coup against Gordon Brown just before the last Labour Party conference even the Prime Minister’s greatest detratctors agreed that he did the international economic stuff rather well. I remember one senior Blairite heavyweight suggesting that after his removal, Brown should be allowed to occupy a new role as a roving economic ambassador. Since then, his reputation for economic competence has undergone an assault from which few would recover. But, whatever his opponents might say (and Fraser is right to say that it was largely done with smoke and mirrors), the G20 summit ended up as something of a triumph or Gordon Brown. I

Over at the Motherblog, Peter writes that Gordon Brown is being damaged by, inter alia, the continuing brouhaha over Jacqui Smith and her expense claims.  A revealing PoliticsHome poll, released this afternoon, finds that a majority of voters (56 percent) think she should step down as Home Secretary – with only 36 percent thinking she should remain in the post.  Despite his support for Smith, the PM will find it difficult to ignore that level of public disapproval. Count me among the 36% then. Not because I think Mrs Smith deserves to stay in the cabinet. Quite the reverse in fact. Outside the financial departments, no cabinet minister has done

A lot of us have been wondering what Westminster might be like under the Tories. What, for instance, would the parliamentary press lobby look like under a Cameron government? A return to deference, perhaps. Would the gentlemen and the ladies of the press take their information dutifully from the PM’s spokesman or woman (who would presumably be called a spokesman) and put it straight in the paper? We now have an indication from the behaviour at Eric Pickles’s bash (quite literally) last night that we may see a different kind of throwback to the days of boozing and brawling that seemed a distant memory.