Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Steerpike

David Cameron’s guru says May should resign over terror failures

It seems to be a British tradition that Steve Hilton, David Cameron’s close friend and former director of strategy, intervenes in a general election. During the EU referendum, he came out for Brexit. Now, it’s Theresa May’s turn to have Hilton turn on her. The former No 10 aide, who now lives in California, has once more made

Nick Cohen

This election will be remembered as a triumph for the wealthy

This dismal, unnecessary election, conducted between the scream of police sirens and the murders of civilians, will be remembered for one thing only: the dementia tax. In years to come, political pros will shake their heads at the naivety of Theresa May. She appeared invincible, they will say. All she had to do was to

Fraser Nelson

Why Theresa May is pointing the finger at American tech giants

  After the 9/11 attacks, Tony Blair traced the jihadi menace to the problem of ungoverned spaces, like Afghanistan. In her speech after the London Bridge attacks today, Theresa May used similar language to describe cyberspace. “We cannot allow this ideology the safe space it needs to breed,” she said. “Yet that is precisely what the

James Forsyth

How to tackle the terrorist threat: four steps we must now consider

For the second time in this election, political campaigning is suspended because of a terrorist attack. Given the volume of terrorist attacks—three in the last three months and five other plots disrupted—you might think that the issue would have dominated the campaign. But it hasn’t. Until Theresa May’s statement today talking about how there has

Katy Balls

Theresa May says ‘enough is enough’ following latest terror attack

Theresa May has said ‘enough is enough’ in a robust statement following last night’s terror attack, which left seven people dead and 48 injured. Acknowledging that this is the third terror attack Britain has experienced in three months, the Prime Minister said that while the three attacks were not connected in their planning, they are bound together

Katy Balls

Terror strikes London again

Seven people were killed and at least 48 injured after a van and knife attack in the London Bridge area. The police have declared the incidents as terrorist attacks. The Conservatives, Labour and the SNP have suspended their national election campaigns for the day. Officers from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command have arrested 12 people in

What I saw on London Bridge

Just after 10pm on Saturday night, I was in an Uber minicab with my wife, heading south over London Bridge. We’d been out for a tapas dinner and were on our way home. It had been a lovely evening. Suddenly I noticed something odd on the pavement on our side of the road. It looked

Carola Binney

Corbyn supporters are peddling ‘fake economics’

Labour have been up-in-arms this weekend about a viral Conservative campaign video, which used some dubious editing to suggest that Corbyn said ‘No’ when asked whether he would condemn the IRA. In fact, he said ‘No, I think what you have to say is all bombing has to be condemned and you have to bring about

James Forsyth

Brexit and tax to be Tory focus in campaign’s final days

The Tories want to make their closing argument in this campaign about Brexit and how Labour would raise taxes, I write in The Sun this morning. I understand that Lynton Crosby held a meeting with senior Cabinet Ministers on Tuesday which set out this strategy. I’m told that the meeting made clear that Crosby is

Hugo Rifkind

Jeremy Corbyn’s one true virtue | 3 June 2017

Enough of all these vital, apocalyptic, existential elections. They don’t half wear you out. The Scottish referendum was vital and apocalyptic, so they said, because the wrong decision would have seen Britain crack like a plate, and Scotland spiral off into insane debt, and residual Britain fade in geopolitical importance. Or, on other side, Tory

Corbyn for PM? | 3 June 2017

‘The news that Harry Perkins was to become prime minister went down very badly in the Athenaeum.’ Thus begins my novel A Very British Coup, written 35 years ago and, with the narrowing gap in the opinion polls, suddenly topical again. Since Jeremy Corbyn became Labour leader it has been reprinted twice and, earlier this

Katy Balls

Jeremy Corbyn hammered on defence in Question Time special

Tonight Jeremy Corbyn faced his toughest media appearance of the campaign as he took questions from a live studio audience in the Question Time Leaders Special. Although the audience appeared more favourable to him than Theresa May at first (with the Labour leader receiving a loud whoop as he entered the stage), the format actually

Fraser Nelson

Why we can’t be sure that Theresa May won’t blow it

We’ve just had our pre-election meeting at The Spectator, and agreed the usual drill for the big night. Election day itself is dead: we relax and steel ourselves for the evening. There’ll be the normal 8.30pm curry as we wait for the exit poll and we’ll lay on some wine (and desk space) for contributors who’ll

Donald Trump is right to ditch the Paris Agreement

Yesterday’s announcement by Donald Trump that the United States is withdrawing from the Paris Agreement is truly historic. The Paris accord was the closest the Europeans had come to getting the US to accepting timetabled emissions cuts in the now quarter century saga of UN climate change talks. The first was in the 1992 UN climate change

Tom Goodenough

Tory candidate Craig Mackinlay charged with election offences

Craig Mackinlay, the former Tory MP and the party’s candidate in South Thanet, has been charged with election offences. The decision by the CPS – which comes less than a week ahead of the snap election – was made following an investigation by police into Conservative Party expenses during the 2015 General Election. In that election campaign, Mackinlay

Steerpike

Theresa May performs yet another U-turn

Given that Theresa May hasn’t performed one of her customary ‘strong and steady’ U-turns for over a week, it was about time she changed her mind on something. So, Mr S was relieved to read her interview with City AM editor Christian May. While the Prime Minister promises to defend the City in EU negotiations, it was the

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Are we heading for a coalition of chaos?

Theresa May’s warnings about a ‘coalition of chaos’ used to sound like empty threats. Not any longer. Since the publication of this week’s YouGov poll which suggested we could be heading for a hung Parliament, the prospect of Jeremy Corbyn making it to No.10 suddenly seems less unbelievable than before. But if May does lose

Labour’s abortion stance is the final straw

Well, that didn’t last long: in April, I rejoined the Labour Party. Last Sunday, I cancelled my subscription and cut up my membership card. Being part of the official opposition to a Tory Government, my conscience can live with; being the official opposition to the unborn, it cannot. I’ve always leaned towards backing Labour. And while