Society

As Isabel says, the HS2 brigade are on a roll. Not only are Labour now under serious pressure over the party’s support or otherwise for the project, each day brings a new headline about the advantages of high speed rail. Today, the money quote comes from David Prout, the HS2 director general. He says that, without high speed rail, London would become ‘a global city surrounded by rust belt’. The Times leader page dutifully regurgitates Westminster’s fodder: ‘If the map of Britain is not to become a literal illustration of Disraeli’s two nations, the tracks must be laid.’ At first this is a compelling argument. It seems obvious that a quicker link between capital Birmingham and Manchester

Like all good select committee hearings where MPs are grilling some unsuspecting witnesses on something they’ve decided to be very angry about, this hearing of the Energy and Climate Change committee took a very long time. It has been cut off for the time being from Ofgem’s evidence by a series of votes in the Commons, but here’s what we’ve learned from this first mammoth hearing in any case. The first is that the MPs clearly read Iain Martin’s memo in the Telegraph about show trial-style select committee hearings. Only Ian Lavery managed the kind of fury that all members of these committees normally feel it necessary to manufacture, and

Ofgem is the energy market regulator that is supposed to be examining what it is that is going well or badly in the market. But it doesn’t seem to be doing the greatest job. This week we will hear more details about the annual competition test announced by David Cameron at PMQs last week, but the problem is that Ofgem has only just concluded an examination of this anyway. That review of the retail energy market took two years and published a series of rule changes in June 2013. The changes were designed to address ‘widespread consumer confusion over energy tariffs, poor supplier behaviour and lack of transparency which is

The Daily Mail appear to be avid readers of The Spectator but we’re pleased that they now follow our weekly podcast, the View from 22, just as closely. It yesterday ran a story based on the comments of one of our podcast guests, Professor J Meirion Thomas, saying that £200 NHS levy on foreigners ‘will attract more health tourists’: Top cancer surgeon claims move would be a ‘disaster’. What the Mail had to say about Thomas’ take on Jeremy Hunt’s efforts to tackle health tourism is powerful stuff: ‘Professor Thomas, a cancer specialist, was one of the first whistleblowers to expose the financial impact of non-British residents seeking free healthcare on the

Well, the whole Royal Mail privatisation is going terrifically well, isn’t it? I’m not talking about the pricing of the issue which has obsessed most of the pundits. I’m talking about users. The latest exciting new development from this privatised company with the Queen’s head on the product is that it is to use new technology to let companies know that their promotional material – junk mail as it’s affectionately known to its recipients – has been safely put through the door, so they are now free to cold call households to follow up the delivery. Nice! But it’s the impact on the price of stamps that really gets me

Until Wednesday I couldn’t decide whether Russell Brand was a fatuous buffoon or a misunderstood genius. But then nor, I think, could he.  I’m still unsure, although I suspect that he is a lot smarter than some of those who were going into raptures on Wednesday evening because Newsnight featured a guest who was spouting a few banalities about revolution. If this seems like sour grapes on my part then so be it; but considering Brand apparently wants to be taken seriously then I think it’s only fair that his ideas are scrutinised on their merits, rather than on the fact that they came out of the mouth of a celebrity

Magnus Carlsen is seeking to become the 16th world chess champion in a line that includes such giants as Bobby Fischer, Boris Spassky and Garry Kasparov. The $5 million World Chess Championship will be a clash between the reigning Indian world champion Viswanathan Anand (defending champion from the World Chess Championship 2012 and twice winner of the coveted Sportsman of the Year title in India) and the young Norwegian challenger. It will be held under the auspices of Fidé, the World Chess Federation, from 9 to 28 November in Chennai. There will be 12 games — one per day, with days off for rest — plus a 13th and final