Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Isabel Hardman

Gove axes another Grayling plan

You can tell when Michael Gove is driving all over another one of the policies of his predecessor Chris Grayling purely by the volume of incredibly polite language and fulsome praise that he deploys when doing so. In a written ministerial statement published today, the Justice Secretary announces that he will not be going ahead with

Gavin Mortimer

Anyone who joins Isis should be tried for treason

Fifteen months ago Philip Hammond talked about treason. In an exchange with Conservative backbencher Philip Hollobone in the House of Commons, the Foreign Secretary declared: ‘We have seen people declaring that they have sworn personal allegiance to the so-called Islamic State. That does raise questions about their loyalty and allegiance to this country and about

Steerpike

Another day, another Johnson comes out for the In campaign

Although David Cameron has said he will allow ministers a free vote on the EU referendum, only a handful of cabinet ministers have so far taken the plunge and declared themselves to be ‘Outers’. While Boris Johnson had at one point been tipped to lead the Out campaign, the Mayor of London has remained rather quiet on the

Steerpike

Evan Davis slips up introducing Hilary ‘Big’ Benn on Newsnight

While Hilary Benn has been called a lot of names in recent months by hard-left activists after he voted in favour of airstrikes in Syria, Mr S suspects that the moniker given to him on tonight’s episode of Newsnight will be a first. Introducing an interview with Benn on the war in Yemen, Newsnight‘s Evan Davis appeared to be feeling

Steerpike

More Google woes at the Treasury

Oh dear. It’s not turning out to be a great week for staff at the Treasury. After George Osborne declared that a £130m tax settlement they had reached with Google was a ‘major success’, he faced a cross-party backlash as it was pointed out that the internet giant had only paid a tax rate of three

Steerpike

Johann Hari is economical with the truth (again)

Once the Independent‘s star columnist, Johann Hari experienced a dramatic fall from grace when he was suspended by the paper on grounds of plagiarism. It was then revealed that as well as lifting quotes from interviews and books, Hari had also found time to amend the Wikipedia pages of his rival journalists. Happily, it seems none

UK economy grew by 0.5 per cent in Q4

GDP growth accelerated to 0.5 per cent the final three months of last year, compared with 0.4 per cent in the previous quarter. Based on this preliminary estimate, the economy grew by 2.2 per cent last year, a little shy of the OBR’s November forecast of 2.4 per cent, and down on 2014’s expansion of 2.9 per

Steerpike

Did David Cameron adopt the ‘dead cat’ strategy at PMQs?

David Cameron has today come under fire after he used the phrase ‘a bunch of migrants’ to describe the refugees Jeremy Corbyn met on a recent trip to Calais. Various politicians and columnists have since claimed Cameron’s words were ‘divisive’ and ‘dehumanising’. Alex Salmond has gone one step further and accused him of making the controversial comment

James Forsyth

PMQs: Corbyn misses his chance over Google’s tax deal

Today’s PMQs was an opportunity for Jeremy Corbyn to embarrass the government and align himself with public anger over how little tax some multinationals pay. But he missed this opportunity. By going on HMRC’s deal with Google in isolation, he allowed Cameron to point the finger of blame at the last Labour government. Indeed, Cameron

Steerpike

Watch out Laura! Corbynistas strengthen ties with Robert Peston

Even though Robert Peston has only been in his new job as ITV’s political editor for little more than a week, he has already managed to slip-up. On top of experiencing difficulties getting into the ITV building, the former BBC economics editor — who Marr once described as a man ‘crippled by a sense of his own lack

Isabel Hardman

Google tax row is convenient for Labour

In the Google tax story, which continues to run in the papers today, Labour has found a theme that it can exploit in the Commons and in speeches over the next few weeks. Given so many Tories were prepared to criticise the ‘derisory’ amount the tech giant has agreed to pay back when the Commons

This could be the year that sport dies of corruption

Like religion, sport can take any amount of passion in its stride. It’s indifference that’s the killer. Sport can be bubbling with incontinent hatred, poisonous rivalries, ludicrous injustice and the most appalling people doing the most appalling things: but as long as people still care, as long as the sporting arguments still echo, as long

Tom Goodenough

Today in audio: Tuesday 26th January

Haven’t had a chance to follow the day’s political events and interviews? Then don’t worry: here, The Spectator, brings you the best of today’s audio clips in one place for you to listen to. Jesse Norman had an awkward time on the Victoria Derbyshire show after being taken to task by a furious Paula Radcliffe.

Steerpike

Vote Leave reveal their secret weapon: FUD

It’s not turning out to be a great week for the In campaign. Yesterday Britain Stronger in Europe’s chairman Stuart Rose failed to remember the name of his own campaign group during a Sky News interview. Now they have been given an unfortunate new nickname by their opponents. Speaking on Today, Vote Leave’s Jon Moynihan

Ross Clark

A select committee revelation: the doors were painted red 20 years ago

The whole purpose of parliamentary select committees was supposed to be to help inform policy-making. Instead, they have sunk to becoming rather vulgar kangaroo courts used by wannabe barristers of the backbenchers to boost their egos. It took about five minutes at today’s session of the Commons Home Affairs Committee to establish that neither G4S

If only the Government had listened to Henry Worsley

Dust swirled up from Lashkar Gar airfield in the sunshine towards the blue skies; convoys were forming, line after line of bulldozers, oil tankers, 4×4 cars bristling with guns and men in wraparound sunglasses. The American private security company, DynCorps, had come to town to start Afghanistan’s opium war. Lieutenant Colonel Henry Worsley watched the