Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Jonathan Ray

Mount Gay Rum

Jonathan Ray visits the oldest rum distillery in the world and gets his hands dirty blending My travels round the Caribbean wouldn’t be complete without a trip to Mount Gay, the longest-established rum brand in the world. The oldest surviving deed from the company shows that it was in operation as early as 1703 and

Jonathan Ray

The Joy of Chocolate

In Grenada, Jonathan Ray attempts to extend his life by eating plenty of dark chocolate. I’m in the House of Chocolate mini museum in St. George’s, Grenada, and Kindra, my guide, is giving me a brief chocolate master class. Not only do I learn all about its production, I stuff my face with as much

Ethical investing is reforming capitalism’s vices

Winston Churchill said the inherent vice of capitalism is its unequal share of blessings. Today, the ever-widening chasm of inequality is contributing to a potential tide of political shocks across the West. But it is not all doom and gloom. A rapidly increasing number of individuals are attempting to redress inequalities by using their money

Steerpike

Diane James’s exit proves costly for Ukip

Here we go again. First Steven Woolfe quit Ukip following a row with his MEP colleagues and now it is the turn of Diane James, the former party leader. James has released a statement announcing that she will sit in the European Parliament as an independent — adding by way of explanation that her relationship with

Gavin Mortimer

Juppé, Fillon or Le Pen: who will define the French right?

And once more the polls have got it wrong. For months French pollsters confidently predicted that the first round of voting to find the centre-right candidate to represent Les Républicains in next year’s presidential election was a straight shootout between Nicolas Sarkozy and Alain Juppé. The other five contenders? There to make up the numbers

Katy Balls

Theresa May rows back on pledge to put workers on boards

Today Theresa May used her speech at the CBI annual conference to both reassure and inspire business leaders about Brexit Britain. In doing this, she also managed to upset a number of Brexiteers by suggesting — in the Q&A — that the government could pursue a ‘transitional deal’ with the EU as ‘people don’t want a

Steerpike

Theresa May’s awkward reunion at CBI event

Today the Confederation of British Industry hosts its annual conference. Last year, David Cameron gave a speech to attendees and this year it’s Theresa May’s turn. Alas signs so far suggest it won’t be all smooth-sailing for the Prime Minister. While CBI president Paul Drechsler is expected to use his speech to urge May to ensure

Subscribe to The Spectator’s Evening Blend email

You already know that Coffee House serves up the best analysis, comment and insight into the day’s political events. Why wait for tomorrow’s papers when the best writing is already up online? But our emails – Lunchtime Espresso and Evening Blend – mean you don’t even have to wait until you can log on to

Meet the man who created the Middle East

When turbaned warriors from Daesh (or Isis) advanced on Raqqa in Syria two years ago, they whooped wildly about having ‘broken the Sykes-Picot Agreement’. They were celebrating the destruction of national frontiers which had stood for nearly a century, since the fall of the Ottoman empire in 1918. They were also venting their spleen against

Charles Moore

Why Conrad Black was right about the genius of Trump

At least two former Spectator figures understood things about the recent American contest which eluded most commentators. The first is our former proprietor, Conrad Black. Disagreeing with the anti-Trump conservative National Review, for which he writes, Conrad filed a powerful piece at the time of Trump’s nomination: ‘What the world has witnessed, but has not

Theo Hobson

Is patriotism a virtue?

Michael Gove makes a semi-persuasive case for patriotism in The Times this week. Brexit and Trumpism are largely just assertions of the basic, healthy human impulse to love one’s homeland, and to defy the international structures, and liberal sneering, that denigrate this impulse. The reality is that the moral status of patriotism depends on which nation

Spectator competition winners: a resignation letter from God

This time around you were invited to supply resignation letters from God. Despite mankind’s attempts to kill Him off, God continues to bounce back. ‘The Almighty,’ as Terry Eagleton puts it in his book Culture and the Death of God, ‘has proved remarkably difficult to dispose of.’ But what if He decided one day that

Nick Hilton

How social media won the day for the Donald

There are plenty of theories about how Donald Trump pulled off his shock victory. But however he did manage to achieve one of the unlikeliest political upsets in history, one thing seems clear: social media won the day for the Donald. The starting gun was fired when Hillary Clinton called Trump’s supporters a ‘basket of

Martin Vander Weyer

The Trump revolution is doomed to fail

Sunday brunch at Hugo’s, a bustling Mexican restaurant with a mariachi band and a multi-ethnic clientele: at the next table, a big Latino family with a happy baby in a high chair. This is a true picture of Houston: only a third of its citizens are white, and only 22 per cent of under-20s; the

Charles Moore

Why is this church offering diva pics and videos?

In Northern Ireland recently, I sought out the Mass times of the local Church of the Immaculate Conception. Its website duly listed them, but I was surprised to find roughly half its web-page filled with a picture of a young woman’s all-but-naked torso and the invitation to click for more ‘Diva pics and videos’. I

Katy Balls

Labour wins boundary skirmish

Labour tasted victory today in the Commons. MPs voted 253 to 37 in favour of Pat Glass’s private member’s bill to stop the government reducing the number of MPs from 650 to 600, as part of the boundary change review. The bill will now face a second vote, where the Tories are confident they can thwart it.

Damian Thompson

Brexit, Trump and the pious rage of the liberal clergy

Here are some statistics you’re unlikely to hear on Thought for the Day. Churchgoers in America backed Trump by 56 to 42 per cent – while six out of ten British Christians backed Brexit. Now, clearly these aren’t identical constituencies: I didn’t spot much enthusiasm for the US president-elect among Christian Leave voters. But we can spot one

Fraser Nelson

This is the era of Donald Trump – and of Theresa May

Bob Dylan called it pretty much right. When he sang ‘your old road is rapidly ageing’ he was calling time on an old order that went on to die in 1968. The events of that year ushered in a liberal order, revolutionising social norms, which lasted until Thatcher and Reagan in 1980. The conservative era then