Gordon Brown may be a son of the Manse, but it’s the Archbishop of Canterbury, of all people, who has picked up a presbyterian cudgel with which to whack the Prime Minister. To wit: The Archbishop of Canterbury criticised the government’s fiscal stimulus package on Thursday, likening it to “an addict returning to a drug.” Then again, it hardly matters. It’s not as though many people listen to the Church of England anyway….
Adapt and change or die is the mantra of the day. And not just in economics neither. Here, for instance, is the Australian rugby coach Ewen McKenzie, currently in charge at Stade Francais, arguing that the experimental rules used this season in the southern hemisphere be adopted in europe too: “I understand the debate, change is difficult,” he warned. “But we are now in the entertainment business. Kids have all sorts of technology in their homes now so we as a sport have got to do things to make them get off their bums and come to watch our game, especially when the weather is cold. “That means you have
So Caroline Kennedy is kind enough to explain why she thinks she should be appointed the next Senator from New York: “I come at this as a mother, as a lawyer, as an author as an education advocate and from a family that really has spent generations in public service,” she began, in response to a question about why she’s running, saying this is “a time when nobody can afford to sit out.” Personally I’d be wary of trading upon her grandfather’s public-service career, but then again perhaps she liked the old bastard. Clearly, however, she’s decided that there’s no point ignoring the dynastic/entitlement issue and has chosen, instead, to
Ah, it’s that time of year again! Yup, the splendid blog Regret the Error rounds up the most entertaining newspaper corrections of the year. Some of my favourites: The Daily Mail was among the newspapers to report that David Gest contracted herpes from Liza Minnelli on their wedding night. Not so! In articles published on 23 and 26 May 2008, we gave the impression that Mr Gest had contracted a sexually transmitted infection and alleged that he had Liza Minnelli’s dog killed without her knowledge. This was wrong. David Gest has never had a sexually transmitted infection and did not have Ms Minnelli’s dog killed. We apologise to Mr Gest
CoffeeHousers, the mission is straightforward – suggest a New Year’s resolution for David Cameron in the comments section below; we’ll pick out the best one on Boxing Day; and its author will win a bottle of champagne. Good luck.
Inspired by last week’s New Statesman cover piece, we at Coffee House Central figured we’d pick out some of our favourite political speeches. You can find them listed below – along with our comments and YouTube footage, if availiable. Do mention any of your own favourites in the comments section. I’ll get the ball rolling with my own pick… Peter Hoskin Disagree with the man, disagree with his politics; but there’s little denying that John F. Kennedy was one of the great political orators of the Twentieth Century. He may have made better speeches, but his 1962 address to Rice University – on the NASA moon landing program – strikes a
And the Quote of the Day belongs to Rowan Williams. Here’s what he said to the Beeb earlier on Gordon Brown’s borrowing binge: “I worry a bit about that, it seems a little like the addict returning to the drug.” Say what you will about the Archbishop getting involved in politics, but this is manna from heaven for the Tories. First it was the Germans and now it’s the Church. The list of detractors to Brown’s economic approach grows longer by the day…
With the election speculation mounting, two points in Iain Martin’s Telegraph article today are worth bearing in mind. The first is that Tories have penciled in 26th February as a potential snap election date. The second is that we’ve never really seen Gordon Brown doing the whole frontline campaigning thing – something that may be either a symptom or a cause of any reluctance he may have to go to the polls. As Iain writes: “It is hard to envisage the country, confronted by Brown each day during a contest, growing to like him more. The format of an election campaign will suit Cameron’s style because the “toff” has form
One of the political winners of the last quarter of this year has been Ed Miliband. He gave one of the best speeches of the conference season and then was promoted in Brown’s reshuffle to one of the sexiest portfolios in government. James Macintyre in his predictions for 2009 says: “Ed Miliband will emerge as the up-and-coming politician of 2009 and come to be regarded as Brown’s natural successor.” One of the smartest commentators on the centre-left said something similar to me the other day citing Ed’s popularity across the party and the fact that the political energy is now on the more statist left where Ed has always been. His
Westminster is in awe of Peter Mandelson’s power. There is no doubt that he has almost unparalleled access and a remarkably wide-ranging remit; as Rachel Sylvester noted he sits on 33 of 39 cabinet committees. But it seems there are still some Brownites who are not yet ready to welcome him into the inner circle. Kevin Maguire, no friend of Mandelson, reports in his New Statesman diary that: “The great guessing game over the date of the election has overlooked a regular gathering in No 10 on Wednesday afternoons. Chaired by Gordon Brown’s mini-me, Ed Balls, the eclectic collective includes Miss Moneypenny Sue Nye, the spinner Damian McBride, the union
Here are Theresa May’s answers to the questions put forward by CoffeeHousers: john miller “Why have Government ministers been able to spout the most outrageous lies over the last few months, effectively unopposed by the Conservatives? The Tories seem to lack a short succinct rebuttal that gives a voice to the feelings of the public.” On the contrary, I think we have shown ourselves to be highly effective in opposition, continually questioning the government’s actions and putting forward a coherent alternative. There are people who have vowed to vote Conservative in the next election who would never even have considered us before. We still have a lot more to do
I’ve just uploaded my set of culture recommendations, which you can read here. If CoffeeHousers have any culture picks of their own, please give them a mention in the comments section to this post.
Nice work, Reuters: Man who snatched wig will have toupee Hat-tip: Radley Balko.
In 2004, George Osborne wrote a piece for The Spectator setting out ‘The 13 keys to Number 10’. It was adapted from one of those American guides that predict who will win presidential elections. In 2004, Osborne predicted Tory victory using it but that was more due to some scoring decisions that were based more on loyalty than reality. Indeed, going through it in a more sober fashion would have given you the correct result. Anyway, here are the 13 keys and my thoughts on who has the edge on each: 1. Real per capita economic growth during the parliament equals or exceeds the mean growth during the previous two
This press release from the Tories just landed in my inbox: Commenting on Harriet Harman’s comparison of Gordon Brown to Superman, Shadow Cabinet member, Chris Grayling, said: “Gordon Brown is the Lex Luthor and not the Superman of British politics. He gets us into a deep mess and all his ideas about how to get us out of it just aren’t working.” ENDS Notes to Editors Lex Luthor is a fictional character that appears in comic books published by DC Comics. The character first appeared in Action Comics #23 (Apr. 1940), and was created by Jerry Siegel and Joe Shuster. Luthor is described as “a power-mad, evil scientist” with incredible
How the Tories can get back on the front foot was the talk of the Christmas parties and bars of Westminster last night. There’s a general feeling that even though the Tories lead in the polls and the political fundamentals favour them, they are not doing as well as they should be and that they need to improve their poll standing if voices in the party are not to start sounding off. I suspect that a lot of Coffee Housers would like to see the leadership rip up its whole playbook. That’s not going to happen and it would be a mistake if it did: a string of flip-flops would
Gordon Brown is in Iraq today, avoiding the final PMQs of term, so we have Harman versus Hague again. Contrary to what people expected, Harman has held her own in these encounters. The Tory benches could certainly do with cheering up today, though. 12:05 Harman starts off with condolences for the family of the British solider who died in Afghanistan and informs the House that Brown will make a statement to the House on his return from Iraq. 12:06 Harman promises to change the law to force energy companies to pass on the fall in fuel prices if necessary. 12.07 Hague gets in his first gag of the session, joking
One of President Elect Obama’s key challenges in 2009 is going to be how to deal with captured terrorists. During the campaign, Obama pledged to close Gitmo. But the recent guilty-plea of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks means Obama will face a dilemma. By Inauguration Day, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and five other defendants may have been sentenced. Any sentence will have to be signed off by the President. This means that Obama will either have to agree or disagree with the verdicts which could include death sentences. If Obama seeks to change the system, for example by having them retried in an ordinary U.S court,
The Labour protest over the Government’s plan to allow foreign investors to take up a stake in Royal Mail has just been ramped up a notch by the resignation of Jim McGovern as PPS to Pat McFadden, Minister of State for Employment Relations and Postal Affairs. All signs now are that this could turn into one of the biggest rebellions that Gordon Brown’s faced during his premiership – and certainly something that could punctuate the general stream of positive coverage that’s been flowing his way recently. Given the quantity of foreign cash that’s propping up the British economy – albeit mostly in sectors that don’t have quite the same national-sentimental kudos as Royal Mail – one thing to look out for is whether this
The mutterings about this have been around for a while, but now it’s been confirmed: UK troops will be leaving Iraq by July 2009. In a joint statement just now – at the start of a surprise visit to Iraq by our PM – Brown and Nouri Maliki claimed that UK forces will have “completed their tasks” by then. Expect plenty of questions over all this: are those tasks really complete? Are the Iraqis being abandoned? Is the withdrawal operation too rushed? But, as I see it, the most important conflict zone for us is Afghanistan; or, more specifically, the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region. Any signs that the Afghan mission is