All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Given their record in government, any sane person would regard a pledge by the Liberal Democrats with a healthy dose of cynicism. Their latest hobby-horse is mental health; it has been the subject of several recent speeches and the issue has a dedicated page on their website. The ‘mental health action plan’ consists of seven
With Katharine Viner guaranteed a final round interview to be the next Guardian editor-in-chief after winning a staff ballot, rumours are circulating that her former colleague Ian Katz is the other horse left in the race. Hot goss: final two in race for Guardian editorship are now @iankatz1000 and @KathViner, insider tells me. — Paul Waugh (@paulwaugh) March
Has Andy Burnham really reinvented himself to prepare for a future leadership bid? In this week’s Spectator, I interviewed the Shadow Health Secretary about his rather forthright views on the NHS: views that some suspect have conveniently changed in order to appeal to Labour’s base. You can read the interview here, but for Coffee House
Ed Miliband has today ruled out a formal coalition between Labour and the SNP. Labour hope that this will draw the sting from Tory claims that if you vote Labour, you’ll get SNP and put pressure on Cameron to rule out any deal with Ukip. But, as Nicola Sturgeon has been quick to point out,
Can Nigel Farage survive as leader of Ukip if he doesn’t become an MP? Although he stood in South Thanet ten years ago — and gained a meagre 5 per cent of the vote — he has much bigger hopes for the impending election. But the dangers are also much higher than ever before. As
This election is going to be fun. Not because of the talent on display – this is not the Champion’s League – but because most of the players are so hopeless their flounderings almost become endearing. There’s something wrong with each of them. Pick your favourite cripple. Nicola Sturgeon is one of the more impressive performers
Someone once said (it may have been me) that while the left looks for traitors the right looks for converts. Only in Britain’s centre ground, however, are converts treated as traitors. Maajid Nawaz is one of the most interesting public figures I know. As a young man growing up on the Essex coast, he received
Hippies have invaded the heart of St. James’s, occupying a building on Pall Mall to protest the evils of capitalism. Yet it seems they did not do their homework… 123 Pall Mall, where the invading lefties have hoisted their banners, used to be the home of the Institute of Directors – and they were the
How damaging for the Tories is the row about Grant Shapps’ second job? While it is quite easy to write up the Conservative chairman’s business past in a way that makes him sound like a slightly murky character teaching people how to make a ‘ton of cash’, does the latest story, that Shapps was still
The weekend brought yet another warning by an American website about Ritalin. Addiction.org wants people to know about the dangers of the ‘abuse’ of the drug when it’s taken OTHER THAN PRESCRIBED. The capital letters are theirs – but the quote marks around ‘abuse’ are mine because I think the distinction between using and abusing Ritalin is
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 20 March 1915: When we wrote last week we were only able to chronicle very briefly the news that on Wednesday, March 10th, we had achieved a considerable local success at Neuve Chapelle. Now, however, that we have the details of the action contained in the spirited despatch
Thank God for Dolce and Gabbana. Where other fashion designers play with their image like Mr Benn, the children’s character who adopts a different persona every time he changes his hat, they have a remarkably consistent – for fashion – way of looking at the world. It’s about family, the kind of families they had,
George Osborne is the most political of Chancellors, and his Budget today will doubtless read like a party political broadcast. The economic momentum is on his side: soaring employment, plunging inflation, fuel prices down. But he has had more trouble with the public finances than he expected (as things turned out he could afford it, as global borrowing rates have
The Liberal Democrats sense an opportunity in all this speculation about who the Tories and Labour would do deals with in the event of a hung parliament. They believe that they can position themselves as the responsible party that will keep the country in the centre ground in contrast to the other smaller parties. Today,
The Green Party’s fundraising ball was set to be an event to rival the Tory Black and White ball. Tickets to the lavish bash, which included a champagne reception, started at £500 with tables going for up to £15,000. However, after news of the planned fundraiser broke on Friday, party members complained that the the ball
George Osborne has today said that he’ll allow people to sell their annuities for cash, and will consult on how best to establish a market for second-hand annuities. This move will be popular with many of the five million or more who have been forced to buy these annuities in recent years. Here’s what you need
For Mothering Sunday, some advice to mothers from a 1912 edition of The Spectator. Be with him yourself as much as you can… I have no fear of your being a fussy mother, worrying him with continual attentions, but I have just the slightest fear lest you should entertain that silly idea that seeing much
It seems Tim Farron has rather annoyed his senior Lib Dem colleagues with his quite naked desire to become party leader. After the ambitious MP said that the Lib Dems got 2/10 for the way they’d handled the Coalition, he received a pretty hefty slap down from Lord Ashdown on this morning’s Pienaar’s Politics on
George Osborne and Ed Balls have just done their pre-Budget interviews with Andrew Marr. The show, though, was dominated by talks of post-election deals rather than the contents of the Budget. Ed Balls said that Labour had ‘no need, no plan, no desire’ to do any kind of deal with the SNP. But, as Andrew
From ‘The Defence of the Realm’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: BEFORE dealing with the merits of the Defence of the Realm (No. 2) Bill which Mr. Lloyd George introduced into the House of Commons on Tuesday, it is necessary to say a few words about the manner of the introduction. This is a measure
Later today, Vince Cable will launch his traditional conference attack on the Tories. He’ll denounce them for their positions on Europe and immigration. But his pre-conference interview in The Guardian will have, for once, delighted the Tories. For in it, Cable rules out a deal with the SNP. Now, this is a turn-around from Cable.
Politicians are always trying to appear normal, sincere and authentic. It’s not just Ed Miliband trying to decide which kitchen to pose in: every MP is always trying to craft an image of themselves as a man or woman of the people through carefully-posed Twitter photos. Mr Steerpike particularly enjoys shots of MPs enjoying themselves in their
The most recent test of competitors’ skill, wit and ingenuity called for acrostics in the style of a well-known poet, where the first letters of each line spell out the poet’s name. This turned out to be a challenge of unprecedented popularity. Entries came pouring in from regulars and newcomers alike. The poets chosen ranged
From a letter, ‘Ascot in Wartime’, The Spectator, 13 March 1915: [To the editor of The Spectator] Sir,—”Pleasure as usual” is “certainly a vile motto,” say you in your note to “Schoolmaster’s” letter regarding Ascot in last week’s Spectator. You are profoundly comprehensive. I had, by the way, turned to your note almost immediately after
It seems that the laughably misnamed ‘Islamic Human Rights Commission’ did not like my last piece. Indeed the Khomeinist organisation has written to complain to my editor. Here is their letter: Dear Sir, I note that Douglas Murray’s article published on your website yesterday has several points of concern. Most pressing is the fact that he
If general elections were won on how swanky a campaign office is, the Greens would beat the Lib Dems hands down in Bristol West. Their candidate Darren Hall works out of a smart, airy office overlooking the harbour in one of the most expensive commercial parts of the city. It’s all thanks to Vivienne Westwood,
Is Jacob Rees-Mogg confident about reelection in North East Somerset? For the latest Mini Election video, I visited the West Country to speak to Jacob (and his son Peter) about his efforts to hold onto his marginal seat in the upcoming election. Although he was victorious in 2010 with a comfortable majority of 4,91, the constituency
Yesterday Mr S reported that Ed Miliband posed in his second kitchen for a BBC interview with his wife Justine, rather than his larger main kitchen. Now the Labour leader has come out in defence of his two kitchens, claiming that the smaller ‘kitchenette’ is his main kitchen. Speaking to the Birmingham Mail, Miliband says that he does
Since the Times cartoonist Peter Brookes first drew Ed Miliband in the image of Wallace from Nick Park’s cartoon Wallace and Gromit, the Labour leader has been unable to escape comparisons to the goofy-faced character. Now, the Evening Standard reports that Park is growing tired of its negative use in the lead up to the election. ‘As a huge Labour supporter
I do feel sorry for Danny Alexander. He’ll have been worked off his feet for the Budget due next week but his party then dispatches him to butter up a would-be donor – or, in this case, an undercover reporter from the Daily Telegraph. Not that he said anything incriminating, but the idea of him
It’s not just on the Health Select Committee that election fever is starting to take hold. The Public Accounts Committee had a party-political row this week too, with accusations that Tory members had blocked plans to question Lord Green over HSBC. There is now a leak inquiry underway about who from the committee told the
As every prisoner and ex-prisoner knows the most frequently used route for drug smuggling into all categories of jails is ‘bottling it’. This is the crude but effective smuggling technique of inserting a package of drugs into an inmate’s anus. Unless prison staff receive a tip off that a particular prisoner is acting as ‘a
If mainstream politicians are a bit confused and downbeat at the moment, Scottish Labour MPs are the most miserable of the lot, facing a savaging in constituencies they never thought would slip out of their party’s hands. But last night Ed Miliband gave them reason to be a bit less miserable, just for a little
Is there a future for compassionate conservatism in Britain? Michael Gove outlined why there are reasons to feel optimistic at a speech at the Legatum Institute last night. The Tory Chief Whip said that many of the ideas promoted by The Good Right project are a core part of the Conservative Party’s mission — but there remains