Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Steerpike

Friday caption contest: Boris attack!

Just in case last night’s Boris-bashing in the ITV debate wasn’t enough, Labour have decided to take another jab at the leading Brexiteer today at its ‘Tory Brexit Budget’ press conference. The room was filled with Remain activists wearing BoJo masks. A number then made their way to the Red Lion in Westminster where they posed with

Rod Liddle

The EU bullies everyone – on both the Left and the Right

The prevalent notion is that all those people who wish for us to leave the European Union are thick as mince ‘Little Englanders’ (the wrong insult, incidentally), motivated by racism, nostalgia and xenophobic spite. The left-wing argument to get the hell out has been scarcely touched upon, and yet it is – for me, at

Fears over pension freedoms, rent rises and financial advice

Cracks are beginning to show in the new pension freedoms, hailed by the Chancellor as a ‘pensions revolution’. About 160,000 people have had to pay fees to access their pensions since these freedoms were introduced in April 2015, with some seeing more than 10 per cent of their retirement pot swallowed up by charges. The study by Citizens

Podcast: Jeremy Clarke’s Low Life

When The Spectator ran a readers’ survey to ask your opinion of the magazine, which writers you like and what you’d like to see more of, an overwhelming number of your responses said ‘more Jeremy Clarke’. So here it is: you can now listen to Jeremy read a selection of his columns – from his starting

Nick Cohen

Brexit: The triumph of the right.

The only arguments that matter in politics today are the arguments on the right.  The only futures that are possible to imagine are those offered by the different strands of right-wing thought. The right’s arguments are not good to my mind. Nor are the futures it offers desirable. It is just that the right’s opponents

Steerpike

Beast of Bolsover backs Brexit

At this late stage in the EU referendum campaign, the majority of MPs have declared their voting intentions — with some even finding time to do so twice. However, one crucial voice has been missing in the debate until now. Step forward Dennis Skinner. The veteran Labour MP has let his thoughts on the referendum

EU referendum TV debate – Leave and Remain face off in ITV showdown

Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman review the ITV debate: Welcome to Coffee House’s coverage of ITV’s EU referendum debate. Boris Johnson, Andrea Leadsom and Gisela Stewart made the case for Brexit, and Nicola Sturgeon, Angela Eagle and Amber Rudd argued for Britain to stay in the EU. Here’s our commentary from the debate, as well

Isabel Hardman

How big a blow to Leave is Sarah Wollaston’s defection?

Sarah Wollaston’s defection to Remain is a blow to the Leave campaign, whatever some of its supporters might say. The Tory MP is notoriously independently-minded, and unafraid of changing her mind, too, which makes her a rare species in Westminster. She is also totally uninterested in a government job, which makes it more difficult for

House prices forecast to fall for the first time since 2012

Another day, another house price survey. Today’s research from chartered surveyors predicts that house prices are set to drop for the first time since 2012, as demand for property falls at its fastest rate in eight years. The Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (Rics) says there will be a short-term drop in UK house prices over the next three

Ross Clark

The NHS shouldn’t fund a drug that prevents HIV

What would you say if a powerful cyclists’ pressure group ganged up on the NHS and lobbied it to provide free cycle helmets to anyone who asked for one, accusing it of having on its hands the blood of every helmet-less cyclist who died while the NHS tried to spurn the demand? I think I

Tom Goodenough

The Spectator podcast: Brexit – the first 100 days

To subscribe to The Spectator’s weekly podcast, for free, visit the iTunes store or click here for our RSS feed. Alternatively, you can follow us on SoundCloud. The EU referendum on June 23rd looks set to be one of the most important political moments in a generation. But if Britain does vote out, what would

Glastonbury’s ‘women-only’ venue deserves to sink into the mud

It was only a matter of time before Glastonbury, the world’s most middle-class festival, caught up with the latest political trend. In an announcement heralded as brave, pioneering and ‘necessary’, a group called ‘The Sisterhood’ have announced a women-only venue at the four-day festival. ‘In a world that is still run by and designed to

Two countries now exist: Tourist Greece and Real Greece

‘The isles of Greece! The isles of Greece! Where burning Sappho loved and sung, Where grew the arts of war and peace, Where Delos rose, and Phoebus sprung!’ I couldn’t agree more with Lord Byron about the joys of the Greek islands. Here in Cephalonia, the poppies are out, back-lit by a strong spring sun.

Transcript: George Osborne vs Andrew Neil on Brexit

  Coffee House Shots James Forsyth and Isabel Hardman discuss George Osborne’s performance Abridged transcript of George Osborne’s interview with Andrew Neil. AN: Now you claim the European Union could cause armed conflict if we leave, could put a bomb under our economy if we leave – the Prime Minister’s words: hurt pensioners, collapse house

Isabel Hardman

Tory MPs fall out over EU referendum campaign visits

Tensions are worsening in the Tory party over the EU referendum, with Leave campaigners telling Coffee House that they will now not notify pro-Remain colleagues when they visit their constituency. This is an established convention that all MPs across the House of Commons follow, of letting one another know when they are visiting their turf,

Lloyd Evans

PMQs Sketch: Cameron was both the fibber and the whistle-blower

Is Corbo working for the Tories? The Labour leader was such a pushover today that Cameron turned what should have been a televised monstering into a party political broadcast on behalf of left-wing Conservatism. Corbyn raised tax-avoidance, the minimum wage, and short-term contracts — three of Cameron’s strongest issues. The PM boasted that prosecutions of

Charles Moore

Revealed: Rodney Leach’s verdict on Brexit

One of the most influential and learned figures in the British European debate is Rodney Leach. In the 1990s, he helped lead those of his fellow businessmen who became convinced that the abolition of the pound would be a disaster. He was a moving spirit in Business for Sterling and then in the ‘No’ campaign

Why Brexit wouldn’t leave voters out of pocket

The Treasury says that the cost of the UK leaving the EU would be £4,300 per household – but compared with what? We’re not told. As a cross-bencher, I naturally take very seriously the task of checking and challenging the work of the government so I put down two Parliamentary questions which eventually elicited the