Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Nick Hilton

The Spectator podcast: May’s winning hand

On this week’s podcast we discuss the royal flush that Theresa May has been dealt, debate Sadiq Khan’s progress, half a year into his tenure as London Mayor, and pose the seasonal question of whether advent is better than Christmas. First, James Forsyth‘s cover story this week charts the remarkable fortune of Theresa May, as the weaknesses

Autumn Statement, Black Friday and consumer credit

So, no more Spring Budgets. In one of the most surprising announcements in yesterday’s speech, the Chancellor revealed the abolition of the traditional March Budget and Autumn Statement. From 2017, there will be a single Budget in Autumn, along with a ‘Spring Statement’ with no major policy announcements from 2018. In truth, the final Autumn Statement

Steerpike

Gove struggles to compete with Boris

Spare a thought for Michael Gove. While his fellow Brexiteer Boris Johnson’s leadership campaign came to an abrupt end thanks to Gove challenging him, in the end it was the former mayor who found himself in the Cabinet and Gove who ended up on the backbench. Now it seems that Boris has had the last laugh

Donald Trump might be going soft but his supporters don’t seem to mind

‘Mister Softie’, screams the headline on the New York Daily News, with Donald Trump’s luxurious comb-over transformed into an ice-cream twist. The president elect is back-pedalling, flip-flopping and cozying up to his enemies. Going soft. Before he has even taken up residence in the White House, America’s liberal media has declared Trump a traitor to the millions

James Forsyth

Philip Hammond’s productive afternoon

For most people being Foreign Secretary would be a great job, but Philip Hammond never looked like he particularly relished that role. What he has always wanted to be is Chancellor and today in his first major parliamentary event in the role he crisply set out what he thinks is wrong with the UK economy.

Lloyd Evans

PMQs sketch: Does peace in Syria depend on the World Cup?

Corbyn did quite well today. He got all frothed-up about the NHS and put some real oratorical venom into his closing attack. It began as an incomprehensible ‘battle of the budgets’ between the Labour leader and Mrs May. They were like a pair of drunken sailors comparing scars. The PM claims to have added a

Steerpike

Watch: Shadow Treasury minister fails to get to grips with her brief

As Labour struggle to be relevant, Rebecca Long-Bailey — the shadow chief secretary to the Treasury — managed to secure a prime spot in the BBC’s coverage of the Autumn Statement. Alas, brains at Labour may now be wishing she’d given the interview a miss. Long-Bailey appeared flustered as Andrew Neil asked her several questions about

Philip Hammond is just about managing

From the moment she arrived in 10 Downing Street, Theresa May has been commendably clear about her economic priorities for Britain. She wants the country to be a beacon of free trade, at a time when protectionism is on the rise the world over. She is annoyed at the way in which quantitative easing has

Katy Balls

Chancellor’s rabbit in hat misjudges public mood

Despite promising no rabbits in hats or displays of showmanship  — unlike his predecessor — Philip Hammond managed to offer up a few surprises in his first Autumn Statement. For one, that this will be his last — with the Chancellor putting an end to the annual event. Secondly, he chose one project to give a

Full text: The Autumn Statement

Mr Speaker, It is a privilege to report today on an economy which the IMF predicts will be the fastest growing major advanced economy in the world this year. An economy with employment at a record high – and unemployment at an 11 year low. An economy which, through the hard work of the British

Steerpike

Diane Abbott and Tom Watson’s turf war at PMQs

It’s a big day in the Commons with the Autumn Statement. Perhaps that’s why seat tensions ran so high at PMQs among Jeremy Corbyn’s shadow cabinet. After arriving in good time, Diane Abbott — dressed in a showstopping silver jacket — secured a prime seat next to the dear leader. Alas when Tom Watson arrived,

Moaning millennials have just made the rental market fairer

Online petitions don’t actually change things, do they? What a silly waste of time. Politicians don’t actually listen to…the people, right? Millennials are so naïve, look at them indulging their narcissism with online clicktivism. Or not. After seven months of campaigning to Make Renting Fair at The Debrief, working with the likes of Lib Dem

Tom Goodenough

The Autumn Statement as it happened

Philip Hammond offered up few surprises in his Autumn Statement. As predicted, he said the minimum wage will go up (slightly), fuel duty will be frozen, letting agency fees will be banned and George Osborne’s welfare reforms will be partly softened, with the ‘taper rate’ for Universal Credit slowed down. But he did save room for one

Tom Goodenough

What the papers say: Philip Hammond’s Autumn Statement

The Sun has warm words for Philip Hammond ahead of his Autumn Statement announcement this afternoon. The Chancellor’s plans for a rise in the national living wage, ‘a U-turn on benefit cuts to low-paid workers and a crackdown on exorbitant letting agents’ fees’ are praised for ‘improving Sun readers’ lot’. The paper goes on to

Freddy Gray

Another mad day in Trumpland

Yesterday was another mad day in Trumpland — or America, as it used to be called. The president-elect started the morning off by promising, somewhat mystically on Twitter, that ‘Great meetings will take place today at Trump Tower concerning the formation of the people who will run our government for the next 8 years’. But the

Jonathan Ray

Boris and Prosecco

So, dear old Boris has put his size 10s in it again, upsetting prosecco producers and Italians everywhere with his frank and forthright views about Brexit and the cheaper end of the Italian sparkling wine industry. Our former editor and current Foreign Secretary seemed to suggest that Italy should back his version of a Brexit

Donald Trump and the five stages of libertarian grief

If you think Theresa May has made life difficult for ‘right-wing libertarians’ in the UK, spare a thought for the poor schmucks across the pond. I was in Washington DC for a few days either side of the presidential election and the overwhelming impression I got from various think tank wonks I spoke to was

Decent broadband now a ‘must-have’ for house buyers

Location, location, location is the estate agent’s mantra when asked to define what makes a property hot – or not. But these days where your house sits on the digital highway can also prove crucial to luring prospective buyers. It’s no secret that the rollout of super-fast broadband and mobile connectivity in the UK has

Steerpike

May and Hammond’s chequered history

Ahead of tomorrow’s Autumn Statement, speculation has been growing about what policies the government have up their sleeves. However, another thing to look out for is strained relations between the Chancellor and the Prime Minister. Speculation has been growing in Westminster for some time that Theresa May and Philip Hammond don’t particularly see eye-to-eye. So, with that in

Katy Balls

Boris Johnson vs the virtue signallers

As the government ‘consider’ inviting Donald Trump for a state visit, the president-elect was top of the agenda at today’s Foreign Office questions. With the Westminster establishment riled over Trump’s latest tweet claiming Nigel Farage would make a ‘great’ UK ambassador to the US, Simon Burns hit back — suggesting Boris Johnson return the favour and request Trump

James Forsyth

Don’t send Farage to Washington; invite him to Chevening

Donald Trump has been putting the cat amongst the diplomatic pigeons—again. His tweet suggesting that Nigel Farage should be made the UK’s ambassador to the US couldn’t have been better designed to wind up the UK government by reminding everyone that it is the leader of Britain’s third party—not the Prime Minister—who knows the president-elect

Broadband, Brexit, credit cards and spending

Philip Hammond will provide more than £1 billion to improve broadband speeds for up 2 million homes and businesses as part of an infrastructure plan to be detailed in the Autumn statement tomorrow. The Guardian reports that, following calls from businesses for more support for the digital economy, the Chancellor will back a £400 million digital infrastructure fund.

Ross Clark

Will Philip Hammond be arrested after the Autumn Statement?

So, austerity is to end. Or that is what the briefings for Wednesday’s Autumn Statement seem to indicate: Philip Hammond will loosen the purse strings, relax his fiscal targets and give the economy a big public spending-induced buzz – if indeed buzz is quite the right word for what happens when governments spend money. There

Steerpike

Donald Trump’s undiplomatic move

Since Donald Trump won the presidential election, he has made it clear that he has no intention to play by the rules. On top of plans for his wife Melania to remain in New York — rather than move into the White House straightaway — and keep his business interests active throughout his term, the president-elect