Best Buys: 0% Introductory Purchase Rate – Credit Cards
This week’s Best Buys, provided by Moneyfacts, are 0% Introductory Purchase Rate Credit Cards. For more information on how these cards could work for you, read this Spectator Money article.
Latest from Coffee House
All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Friday
The Queen is a true Christian leader. But what about Prince Charles, who seems more interested in worshipping himself?
Every time I suggest on social media that the Queen is Britain’s most inspiring Christian leader, there’s a chorus of agreement – with Catholic voices among the loudest, interestingly. Churchgoers in this country have noticed that Her Majesty is quietly uncompromising about her beliefs; her Christmas message doesn’t skate over the teaching that the infant
RBS, John Lewis, housing and motorists
Royal Bank of Scotland dominates the business news this morning following its announcement of a £7 billion annual loss. According to the BBC, the deficit is more than treble 2015’s loss of £2 billion. It is the ninth year in a row RBS has failed to make a profit. Over the next four years, the taxpayer-backed bank
Thursday
Cressida Dick’s anti-terror cock-up should have disqualified her from the Met’s top job
Well, on the bright side, it seems that the Home Secretary and the Mayor of London are forgiving people, at least concerning offences that don’t concern them personally. Amber Rudd and Sadiq Khan have, as was universally predicted, decided that Cressida Dick should replace Bernard Hogan-Howe as head of the Met, the biggest policing appointment
Trump’s new ambassador is right: the UN is anti-Israel
The most important statement from the new administration. Clear, concise, simply and devastatingly expressed. Exactly what many of us have been saying for years – and always upbraided and denounced for so doing. Ladies and gentlemen, I give you Nikki Haley, the new US ambassador to the UN, who has called out the organisation’s anti-Israel bias: Well
Polls close in Copeland and Stoke
Polls have closed in the Copeland and Stoke by-elections. It is too early to say with any certainty what the results will be, but we’ll be with you on Coffee House until the results are declared. In Copeland, it is a two horse race between Labour and the Tories. The Tories aren’t predicting they’ll take
Brexit isn’t to blame for the Polish exodus
I guess the hate crime epidemic that gripped Britain after Brexit hasn’t put that many people off, with new figures showing net migration of 273,000 in the three months to September 2016. That represents a decline of 49,000, of which 12,000 is due to an increase in eastern Europeans heading home (39,000, as opposed to
Why Labour deserves a crushing defeat in Stoke
Never in recent years has a party deserved to lose an election, to be demolished by people’s ballots and fury, as much as Labour does in Stoke. The way Labour has treated this northern constituency is a microcosm of the metropolitan contempt it now feels for all the rough-handed, gruff-voiced non-Londoners who once made up
Brexit and the rise of the superliar
For an exercise in popular sovereignty, which was meant to take decisions away from the hated ‘elite’, the Brexit referendum has, inevitably, produced Britain’s greatest outbreak of political lying. Yesterday’s liars look pale and wan in comparison with the latest models. It is as if the long-awaited singularity has occurred. But rather than advances in
The post-fact world suits feminism just fine
We now know that the video of a cyclist confronting a catcalling driver, which spent much of yesterday being circulated on social media and covered in the national press, was staged. Barely had viewers finished cheering on the woman as she tore the wing mirror off the side of her harasser’s van than the truth
Storm Doris is here. It’s time to panic
Today is Storm Doris’s day. A woman called Helen Chivers, not Shivers as she should be, from the Met Office was on Radio 4 this morning telling us that giving human names to gusts of wind is a really good thing because it makes everyone aware of the dangers of bad weather. We must keep our
What you need to know before buying health insurance for kids
If you’ve had enough of battling to get the kids a doctor’s appointment, or don’t want them waiting months to be seen by a specialist, there is an alternative. You could take out children’s private medical insurance that will pay for some or all of the diagnosis and treatment your child may require. Such policies
The Spectator podcast: May’s third way
On this week’s Spectator podcast, we discuss Theresa May’s Third Way, whether we could have an Uber for social care, and look at Mies van der Rohe’s unrealised plans for a Mansion House skyscraper. On the cover of this week’s magazine, Theresa May plots a course through the twin perils of Scylla and Charybdis, as she
Books podcast: Daniel Dennett and the evolution of minds
In this week’s podcast I’m talking to the philosopher Daniel Dennett — whose new book takes on one of the biggest and most intriguing problems of all: consciousness itself. In From Bacteria to Bach and Back, Prof Dennett makes the case that consciousness itself is a sort of illusion — and that the same evolutionary
Business rates, Barclays, mortgages and Centrica
The row over a sharp rise in business rates rumbles on – but now the government has bowed to sustained pressure and announced help for small firms. The Guardian reports that Philip Hammond will announce new measures in the budget on 8 March following comments by the communities secretary that more should be done ‘to
What the papers say: The worrying tale of the British IS bomber
Ronald Fiddler doesn’t have quite the same ring to it as Abu-Zakariya al-Britani, which perhaps explains the British Isis fighter’s decision to change his name. Either way, Fiddler’s death during a car bomb attack in Mosul has sparked an almighty row. It’s emerged that Fiddler is a former Guantanamo Bay detainee who was paid compensation –
Wednesday
Emmanuel Macron’s idyllic vision of France is a myth
As Emmanuel Macron stood on the steps of Downing Street on Tuesday urging Britain’s ‘banks, talents, researchers, academics’ to move across the Channel after Brexit, security services in France were dismantling yet another Islamic terror cell preparing to launch a terrorist attack. That makes three this month, a clear indication that the Islamists are itching to
Jeremy Corbyn challenges Labour to a race to the bottom
The so-called leader of the so-called opposition gave another so-called performance today. Jeremy Corbyn seems to have challenged the Labour party to a slalom race. Target: rock bottom. Go Corbo! his enemies cheer as they watch his hapless figure slithering and shimmying down the ice-floes of public contempt. Today he came to the Commons with
Corbyn fumbled his NHS attack at today’s PMQs
When Ed Miliband was asking the questions at PMQs, we didn’t think we were living through a vintage age of parliamentary debate. But every week, Miliband’s performances looks better by comparison. Jeremy Corbyn went on the right topic today, the NHS, but his questions were all over the place and lacked coherence. Indeed, at one
A quick trade deal with the US after Brexit is less likely than we think
It is many a Brexiteer’s fantasy: In 2019, shortly after the UK formally leaves the EU, Theresa May welcomes Donald Trump to Downing Street to ink a trade pact. Out with the old, in with the new, and the ‘special relationship’ standing tall. But how likely is that scenario? A trade deal would certainly be
What the papers say: Why Sajid Javid needs to listen up to shopkeepers
If Britain really is still a nation of shopkeepers, the Government seems to be picking its enemies rather unwisely with its plans to ramp up business rates – in some cases by as much as 400 per cent over the next five years. The policy – and the somewhat bungled attempt by Communities Secretary Sajid Javid
Owen Jones turns to fake news to endear himself to the Left
In today’s world of left wing politics, many Labour supporters find themselves classed as Tories and Zionists. In fact, even Owen Jones – the one time poster boy for the Left – has found himself on the receiving end. After the Guardian journalist was revealed to be speaking at a Jewish Labour Movement memorial event, Jones
Labour’s Stoke candidate has a change of heart over Ed Miliband
As part of Labour’s last-ditch effort to hold onto Stoke-on-Trent Central in Thursday’s by-election, Ed Miliband headed north on Monday to help the party’s candidate Gareth Snell campaign. Although Snell has made a number of questionable comments about women on Twitter, the former Labour leader didn’t seem to mind as he posed for pictures on the
Why we need to cancel the Oscars to save the Oscars
Oscar has a problem, and I say that as a fan. If I could, I’d take one of those famous statuettes by its tiny golden hand, and show it a happy life in the bars, restaurants and movie theatres of its native Hollywood. But, clearly, others don’t feel the same way. The number of people
Watch: Tom Watson’s ‘dab’ dance at PMQs
Tom Watson and Jeremy Corbyn haven’t always been the best of pals but Mr S is pleased to see that Labour’s deputy leader was fully behind Corbyn at PMQs today. In fact, Watson seemed so supportive of his boss for a change that he applauded Corbyn’s questioning of the Prime Minister with a ‘dab’. The
The Supreme Court’s ruling on foreign spouses is shameful
Just when you were minded to think that Supreme Court judges were a bunch of diehard liberals whose fundamentalist belief in the application of human rights overrides common sense, they deliver a judgement which makes them look like the pathetic toadies of an authoritarian government. This morning the court upheld a rule that forbids British
Why London Fashion Week needs to die
Twice a year, those fortunate enough to have climbed the emotionally hazardous fashion ladder descend upon London to participate in a circus of collection displays, parties and self-funded photo shoots. Festivities ended yesterday and though there are some troubling dynamics – real time bullying of interns, unpalatably thin models, the volume of waste derived from six-inch-thick
The importance of financial independence: don’t rely on a man
‘Never give up your career for a man.’ These words of my mother’s rang in my ears throughout girlhood, adolescence and young womanhood, until, about a decade into my marriage, she finally accepted I wasn’t going to. The very opposite of an Austen-esque Mrs Bennet, desperate to engineer a good marriage for her daughter, my
Camilla Long’s 3* review of Moonlight doesn’t make her a racist
I have a bone to pick with Camilla Long – a colleague of mine at the Sunday Times, where she is the film reviewer. She gave five stars to a stop-motion animation film called Anomalisa a year or so back and I went to see it on her journalistic recommendation. Oh, and also cos it
Lloyds, investment, compensation and housing
Lloyds Banking Group has set aside a further £475 million for misconduct costs as the bank’s statutory profits more than doubled to £4.2 billion. The Times reports on results that Lloyds called a ‘good overall performance’. Its profits are the highest for a decade and shares in the bank rose by 4 per cent after the
UK Sport’s brutal funding cuts show that winning is now all that matters
Is sport really so great? Or is it only winning that’s great? UK Sport says a loud yes to question two: and as a result, they won’t be funding half a dozen perfectly decent sports because they’re unlikely to win Olympics medals for Britain – or for Team GB, as they like to be called.
Tuesday
The Stop Trump protesters have got their priorities all wrong
There’s almost as much talk about ‘virtue-signalling’ these days as there is about ‘fake news’. But one thing that doesn’t get said often enough is why virtue-signalling isn’t just irritating, but destructive. Like Brendan, Will and others here, I also take a slightly dim view of the anti-Trump protests that took place in Britain last
This fake story made me feel sympathy for Donald Trump
There was a great commotion in central London last night. A police helicopter hovered over The Spectator‘s office making a din, police sirens sounded and thudding music rattled the windows. I found out why when I left the office and walked via Parliament Square to Whitehall. There was an anti-Trump protest outside Parliament – #stoptrump was the
George Osborne is to blame for the business rates fiasco
It is almost always unwise to postpone the introduction of a big, scheduled tax change, but often tempting at the time. George Osborne, when Chancellor of the Exchequer in the coalition government, postponed the revaluation of business rates, when it was due two years ago, for obvious political reasons. So now it is happening, and it