Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Should there be troops on the streets?

In the wake of terrorist outrages such as Monday’s bombing, the British public tends to keep calm and carry on. We saw it in London after the Westminster attack in March; we saw it yesterday on the streets of Manchester – a stirring sight. That calmness in the face of evil is an attitude that

Tom Goodenough

The Manchester bombing: what the papers say

The ‘cruel’ attack in Manchester is ‘more proof’ that the ‘liberal West shelters hate-filled enemies set on destroying our way of life’, says the Daily Mail. The bombing, in which 22 people lost their lives, was the worst since 7/7. And while our thoughts are now with the victims and their families, says the paper,

Steerpike

Mark Carney falls victim to a hoax

For weeks now, an email hoaxer has been trying to catch bank officials out online. After the prankster tricked Barclays boss Jes Staley, they set their sights on a new target: the governor of the Bank of England. Claiming to be Anthony Habgood, chairman of the court of the Bank of England, the hoaxer emailed

Tom Goodenough

Manchester terror attack: what we know so far

What we know so far: Police are hunting a ‘network’ in connection with the Manchester bombing, as they confirmed that the bomber was Salman Abedi, 22, who was born in Manchester to Libyan parents Six people – including a woman – have so far been arrested in connection with the attack. One of those held by police

Katy Balls

UK terror threat level raised to ‘critical’, soldiers deployed to the streets

In her second statement of the day, Theresa May has announced that the national terror threat level has been raised from “severe” to the highest level,”critical”. She added that she has also deployed the military to help armed police by triggering Operation Temperer,  a protocol that sends troops to help police with security at airports, rail networks, harbours etc. This is

Rod Liddle

We must come together – and repeat the mantra ‘hope not hate’

We must all come together. Hope, not hate. Nothing to do with Islam. Nothing to do with Muslims. Just a rogue individual, possibly in the employ of some mysterious foreign agency. Just terrorism, bad people. Unaligned wickedness. Nothing to do with religion. We must all come together. And show love. And solidarity. Hope not hate.

Alex Massie

The Manchester attack is especially vile but we must go on

The first victim named was from Lancashire, the second an eight-year old girl. Two girls from the isle of Barra in the Western Isles are among those still unaccounted for. A reminder, if it were needed, that though this was an attack in Manchester, the chains of personal connections to the horror stretch all across

Housing is escalating up the political agenda

As we ready ourselves for what has become an annual pilgrimage to the polling booths, in terms of finance there is little doubt that housing is taking centre stage in this election. This was not always the case. It’s true that if you look back to newspaper coverage of the housing crisis in the late

Andrew Neil interviews Theresa May: full transcript

AN: Prime Minister, you started this campaign with a huge double digit lead in the polls, it’s now down to single digits in some polls. What’s gone wrong? PM: Well, Andrew, there’s only one poll that counts in any election campaign, as I’m sure you know from your long experience, and that’s the one that

James Forsyth

Why the ‘dementia tax’ U-turn is such a blow to Theresa May

U-turning on a manifesto commitment just days after it was announced would be embarrassing for any politician. But it is particularly humiliating when your whole campaign is based around the idea that you offer competent, ‘strong and stable’ leadership. But even leaving aside the immediate political repercussions, this U-turn is a deep blow to Theresa

Steerpike

John Prescott has a change of heart over ‘useless’ Jeremy Corbyn

Just two months ago, John Prescott made the news over some indiscreet comments he made about Jeremy Corbyn’s leadership. Following a meeting of the Parliamentary Labour Party, the former Deputy Prime Minister was reported to have ranted: ‘They are just not up to the f—ing job. They’ve always been useless and now they’re running things.’

Ross Clark

There’s a fairer way of funding social care. Here’s how

So, the Conservatives have capitulated. After days of facing negative headlines about the ‘dementia tax’ Theresa May has given in and announced that there will, after all, be a cap on care costs faced by an individual. No wonder modern governments find it so hard to eliminate their structural deficits. So loud are the protests

Steerpike

Theresa May leaves Damian Green with egg on his face

As is becoming a habit with Theresa May, the Conservatives have today performed a U-turn on their manifesto plans for social care. After unveiling proposals that would mean many would have to pay more for their own social care — up until their assets were 100k or less — there were cross-party complaints about the plans and

Five reasons why the ‘dementia tax’ U-turn was inevitable

‘The Tory “dementia tax” could backfire for Theresa May’ was the Coffee House take last Thursday, perhaps the first mention of that phrase in the media last week. It took a few days for the announcement to sink in, and for the ‘dementia tax’ tag to stick. But it most certainly has backfired now. Jeremy Hunt tells the Evening Standard that the

Dwindling pension funds plugged by workers’ wages

A decade ago, while working for a national newspaper, I forced the then Labour government to release documents under the Freedom of Information Act. The papers showed that Gordon Brown defied repeated warnings from his own officials about the potentially devastating impact of this £5 billion-a-year raid on pension funds and went ahead with it

Steerpike

Labour shadow cabinet minister’s fake news

Oh dear. Given that today’s papers are filled with negative headlines regarding the Conservative manifesto, one would be forgiven for thinking that all Labour had to do this Sunday was sit back and watch. However, Jon Trickett has other ideas. The shadow minister for the Cabinet Office has taken to social media to share some