Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Katy Balls

Liam Fox’s Brexit optimism is matched by President Trump’s

Liam Fox is well known for his optimism when it comes to Brexit. The International Trade Secretary has even been accused by his critics of wishful thinking over what Britain will look like outside of the EU. And so it was that as Fox headed to Washington this week to lay the groundwork for UK/US trade talks, there

Ed West

I’m a Leaver who would be happy for a second referendum

To everyone’s huge surprise, Jeremy Corbyn has come out as being quite a hard-line Eurosceptic, despite his tireless campaigning last year during the referendum. He has also further cemented his party’s newfound respect for immigration restriction, attacking the importing of cheap labour from abroad. Whether any of this makes any impact on his legion of

Steerpike

Conservatives weaponise student debt

The Conservatives are back on the front foot. After Jeremy Corbyn appeared to row back on an election promise over the weekend that his party would abolish pre-existing student debt, Labour have been under attack in the press. Now brains at CCHQ have released an attack ad on the issue and it will not make

Jonathan Ray

Review: Winemaker’s Lunch with Chapel Down

Mark Harvey, Chapel Down’s managing director of wines, was in great form last week at our Spectator Winemaker’s Lunch, held as usual in our boardroom. And I must add that Mark’s wines were in equally tiptop shape. With vineyards across Kent and a winery near Tenterden, Chapel Down is well-known as the largest producer of

Isabel Hardman

Cabinet agreement on Brexit doesn’t equal Tory harmony

What’s the most significant thing that Liam Fox has said today, as he begins talks with the US on a post-Brexit trade deal? Is it that he thinks the British media has an ‘obsession’ with chlorine-washed chicken (Ross takes a non-obsessive look at this here) or that he has admitted that it might be ‘optimistic’

Ross Clark

Ignore the scare stories from Remainers over chlorinated chicken

Isn’t it weird how Remainers, so keen to present themselves as pro-free trade when discussing the single market, turn into Little Englanders the moment that the subject switches to the prospect of Britain doing free trade deals with countries outside the EU? We are mad to be turning our backs on the world’s biggest market,

James Forsyth

Will Labour split?

With parliament in recess and the Prime Minister on holiday, politics is calmer than it has been in some time. But Jeremy Corbyn’s comments on Marr yesterday about the EU and the single market are a reminder of Labour’s divisions over Brexit. At some point, this tension will have to be resolved. The 49 Labour

The IMF still hasn’t understood the economics of Brexit

Output is under pressure. Prices are starting to rise, living standards are getting squeezed, and every day brings fresh stories of one bank or another leasing office space in Frankfurt or Dublin. As the International Monetary Fund downgrades its growth forecast for the UK, whole edging up its predictions for our continental neighbours, Remainers can

Steerpike

Shouldn’t Labour’s ‘gender pay audit’ begin at home?

This weekend, Jeremy Corbyn was full of beans during an appearance on the Andrew Marr show. As well as frank comments on immigration and student debt, the Labour leader found time to turn his ire on the BBC over the gender pay gap. Discussing the disclosure that two thirds of the corporation’s highest earners are men,

Theo Hobson

Why is there so much naked flesh on TV?

The other day I frowned at Love Island. I dislike adding (in my tiny way) to such shows’ publicity, but sometimes the obvious moral objection must be made, when sexuality is tackified, and when other commentators queue up to say what kitschy fun it is. The worldly pundit smiles at my earnestness: ‘It’s the culture

Katy Balls

Will Labour’s tuition fee row end Corbyn-mania?

As Theresa May sets off hiking in the Italian alps, CCHQ can take heart that – for a change – it’s not Conservative in-fighting dominating the headlines. Instead, it’s Labour’s dubious election promises – thanks to Jeremy Corbyn’s admission on the Andrew Marr show that his party has no plans to abolish pre-existing student debt. The reason this presents

Steerpike

Diane Abbott’s vanishing act

On Thursday, Diane Abbott came unstuck in an interview with ITV News after she failed to explain how Labour would pay for its policy to put 10,000 more bobbies on the beat. The shadow home secretary’s confusion was particularly telling given that she struggled with the same policy during the general election campaign – with a car

Theo Hobson

How tolerant should liberals be of Islamic theocracy?

I quite enjoyed James Fergusson’s exploration of British Islam – Al-Britannia, My Country. If it is done intelligently, I approve of someone accentuating the positive, reminding us that the majority of British Muslims have successfully integrated to a large extent, and that optimism is warranted. But I have a couple of quibbles. He spends much

Charles Moore

Why are students allowed to vote where they study?

The Electoral Commission is finally sidling up to the consequences of its failure to police voting registration. It finds the thought that lots of young people may have voted twice ‘troubling’. Why is it that students are allowed to register in their place of study as well as their home? After all, they rarely stay

Isabel Hardman

What will Jeremy Corbyn do next?

The Labour party has a troubling recess ahead of it. Many of its members just won’t know what to do with themselves. This is because for the first time in two years, there is no leadership contest. Those who had eschewed beach holidays in favour of spending their summer recess in windowless rooms listening to

Ross Clark

Is Michael Gove really an environmental reformer?

How right Michael Gove was, in his first speech as Environment Secretary, to promise to put an end to a Common Agricultural Policy (CAP) which ‘puts resources in the hands of the already-wealthy’. But how bizarre that he then proposed a reform that will continue to do just that. Doing away with CAP ought to

Steerpike

Friends reunited: Michael Gove’s tête-à-tête with Nick Timothy

Although Theresa May’s former co-chiefs of staff – Nick Timothy and Fiona Hill – both swiftly exited No 10 following the disastrous election result, there are some Conservatives who fret that her Rottweilers still hold influence from afar. So Mr S was curious to come across the latest offering to Eye Spy MP. A follower

Gary Lineker, the leader we need

Is there a whiter place in London than Barnes? I ask only because I have been going there at the weekends for the last two years to buy artisan chocolate croissants and artisan coffee from a favourite artisan café (artisan is metropolitan for expensive), and to let my daughter bother the ducks at the picture

James Kirkup

Who will be the next Tory leader? | 21 July 2017

Summer is finally here. Tory MPs, exhausted, relieved and nervous, can retreat to contemplation. One theory says that distance from Westminster will break the magic spell that holds Theresa May aloft: they’ll go away and realise that stumbling and mumbling into full-blown Brexit is just impossible, then come back in September and put an end