All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Given that Peter Hitchens’ weekly column was absent from the Mail on Sunday the week before the general election, Mr S was glad to have the opportunity to hear his thoughts on the election at the Hay festival. Taking to the Telegraph stage this morning, Hitchens joined Johann Hari, David Aaronovitch and Bronwen Maddox for a panel discussion titled ‘Election 2015:
The government’s announcement that EU migrants will not be able to vote in the EU referendum tells us a number of things about the way David Cameron is approaching this vote. Firstly, he’s keen to show everyone that he’s getting on with it – indeed, the Prime Minister seems reinvigorated on all fronts at the
It isn’t the type of kiss-and-tell story Mr S is used to reading in the Sunday papers, but Lynton Crosby has today spoken about an election smooch he shared with the Chancellor of the Exchequer. The Sunday Times reports that George Osborne was so convinced that the Conservatives would not win a majority in the election that he
Pressure is growing on Alistair Carmichael, the former Scotland Secretary and only Lib Dem north of the border, to resign his seat after an official investigation proved he lied about leaking a confidential memo during the election campaign. The SNP are aiming for him in today’s Observer, with deputy leader Stewart Hosie saying ‘Mr Carmichael
Last week James Rhodes won a legal battle to publish his memoir Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication and Music. This judgement came after his ex-wife took out an injunction through a court appeal to prevent the book from being published over concerns that the pianist’s account of the sexual abuse he experienced as a child could harm their
So when Nigella Lawson popped up on television to give Britain’s results, what had Britain decided? The UK vote is a 50/50 split between jury and televoting – and the Eurovision authorities have just given the breakdown. They show that British televoters went for the cute, joyful Lithuanian duet. Our second choice was Poland, whose rather lovely Monika Kuszyńska did pretty
“Over the past five years, Britain has produced some of the biggest chart-topping acts on the planet from Adele to One Direction, Ed Sheeran, Sam Smith. But in nearly two decades, it has failed to produce a single winner of Eurovision.” – BBC 1 News, 24 May 2015. That’s one way of putting it. Another way is
From ‘Scraps of Paper‘, The Spectator, 22 May 1915: Fifty years ago Parliament was far more conscious collectively of the sanctity of contract than it is at the present time, and the change of attitude can only be attributed to the change of constituency. The House of Commons of previous generations was elected by a
Ireland, for so long the most overtly Catholic state in Western Europe, has voted for gay marriage by a stupendous margin – 62 per cent. Never before has a country legalised the practice by popular vote. It would be naive to ask: how could this happen? Hatred of the Church is one of the central features of modern
In more ways than one it’s impossible to be heard above the din right now in the wake of the Yes vote in Ireland on gay marriage. There’s a special noise that goes with an orgy of self-congratulation, a roar of mutual approbation, and it drowned everything else out in Dublin as the results came
After Nigel Farage resigned as the leader of Ukip following his defeat in South Thanet, he hastily ‘unresigned’ days later. Not everyone was pleased by the quick turnaround, with Ukip MEP Patrick O’Flynn and party donor Stuart Wheeler criticising Farage over his reinstatement. This in-fighting resulted in both of Farage’s personal advisers Raheem Kassam and Matthew Richardson leaving the
From ‘Array the Nation’, The Spectator, 22 May 1915 THERE have been many surprising things in this war, but perhaps the most surprising of all is Lord Kitchener’s speech in the Upper House on Tuesday afternoon. In it he told the nation that he wants three hundred thousand more recruits “to form new armies.” If
David Cameron was in an extremely confident mood when he addressed the press at the end of today’s EU summit in Riga. He continually joked about journalists needing to write stories about the trials and tribulations of his EU renegotiations over the next couple of years, but those stories not meaning very much at all.
Former Labour MP Ed Balls has appeared on BBC news today in his first interview since he was ousted from his seat by the Tories. While he discussed Ed Miliband and the economy with Nick Robinson, conversation quickly turned to the question on everyone’s lips: Will he appear on Strictly Come Dancing? ‘Well I’ve run three marathons
Why is it that whenever anyone proposes a tax on the wealthy all hell breaks loose, but when someone proposes a tax on the poor there is no more than a faint whimper of protest? Yesterday, life sciences minister George Freeman, speaking at the Hay Festival, floated the idea of a sugar tax. In contrast
Last month, 700 migrants attempting to sneak into Europe drowned when their rickety vessel capsized in the Mediterranean. This week, the European Union announced a naval initiative to crack down on migrant smugglers. It won’t work. These tragedies are going to recur endlessly, as long as a steady fleet of unsafe boats are able to set
During the election campaign the Telegraph reported that Nicola Sturgeon wanted David Cameron to remain Prime Minister, after a memo was leaked to them which included an account of a private conversation between Sturgeon and the French Ambassador. Naturally, the SNP leader was furious and demanded an inquiry. The Cabinet Office has now finished their investigation and concluded that the former Scotland Secretary Alistair Carmichael
Bad ideas die hard in the world of ‘public health’, especially when the government can make money out of them. The shipwreck of Denmark’s notorious ‘fat tax’ should have served as a lighthouse for politicians for a generation. The negative consequences of the Danish experiment could not have been clearer. After levying a tax on all
Unencumbered by the regressive Liberal Democrats, the new government has already managed to start taking extremism seriously. The counter-extremism legislation which the Lib Dems managed to stall will be included in the Queen’s Speech next week. But the government already faces an early test of its policies. Muhammad Salah – a ‘star’ of Huda TV –
It’s good to see that an actual anthropologist is studying the behaviour of some of America’s weirdest women. Wednesday Martin’s book The Primates of Park Avenue describes the exhausting lives of Manhattan’s most full-on wives: sci-fi beauty regimes, frenetic fund-raising, intensive mothering and military household management. In 1832 when a farmer in Lancaster offered up
After Harriet Harman announced that Labour would ‘let the public in’ to its leadership contest, the BBC has announced that it will broadcast a hustings with the candidates on 17 June. The programme, which will be broadcast on BBC Two (which might give a clue as to how popular BBC executives think this example of
Kezia Dugdale, the deputy leader of the Scottish Labour party, has announced that she’s running for the leadership of the Scottish party following Jim Murphy’s resignation. With Murphy not being an MSP, it has fallen to Dugdale to take on Nicola Sturgeon at First Minister’s Questions. She is generally thought to have done a good
From ‘The Future of Italy‘, The Spectator, 22 May 1915: WHEN the King of Italy found himself unable to accept the resignation of Signor Salandra at the end of last week the intervention of Italy on the side of the Allies became almost certain. The cause of the neutralist party had flared up for a
Five days before the Queen’s Speech, David Cameron is taking on the first big challenge of this new Parliament: renegotiating our relationship with the EU. He’s undertaking a whistle-stop tour of European capitals today, focusing on the smaller countries at first. As the Prime Minister sets off for a summit in Riga in Latvia, he was keen to point
I love the series Yes, Minister and Yes, Prime Minister for many reasons, among them the timeless, elegant dialogue that can be applied to today’s politics. Hearing the pledge emanating from Number 10 that very soon the UK will enjoy a ‘seven-day a week GP service’, conveniently devoid of any details as to how that service
Nigel Farage stamped his authority on Ukip with a round of sackings, but he has also listened to his critics. In his Spectator diary, the Ukip leader admits one of his chief critics Douglas Carswell had a point, saying ‘he was right: I could do with a break.’ He told Emily Matlis on BBC News this afternoon he
Of all the MPs to pick a fight with, Dennis Skinner is not high on Mr S’s list. Still, that hasn’t stopped the new SNP intake from spending their first week in Parliament battling the 83-year-old Labour MP. The Scottish Nationalists have been trying to take over the bench where Labour’s awkward squad likes to sit. This bench is where Skinner
Liz Kendall is the great unknown Labour leadership candidate. She is the only one who hasn’t been in government or Shadow Cabinet, and as I blogged earlier, she needs to show that she has got qualities that make up for this lack of experience. She made a pretty good start on this at the press
With Ivan Massow currently vying to be the next Mayor of London, the businessman released a campaign video this week explaining who he is and why he is running. In the video, he claimed that he was an unlikely candidate for mayor given that he is gay, dyslexic and an ex-alcoholic. While he’s putting it all out there,
Now that Liz Kendall has enough MPs backing her to make it on to the ballot paper for the Labour Party leadership contest, the three main candidates are all starting to think about how to appeal to those party supporters who will vote for the leader. This involves contacting constituency Labour parties, trade union branches
As British politics becomes more presidential, the structure of Number 10 matters more and more. David Cameron values continuity, collegiality and calmness in his senior team and what is striking is how many of his team are staying on post-election. The word coming out of Downing Street today is that Ed Llewellyn will remain as
A few months after Ed Miliband was elected Labour leader I met with one of his supporters in the shadow cabinet. Who, I asked, were ‘Ed’s People?’ He began reeling off a list of names. ‘Chuka Umunna, Peter Hain, John…’ ‘Chuka?’ I said. ‘But he’s walking round the Commons with a giant target on his
One of the odd decisions that the Tories made before the election was to pursue their net migration target, in spite of the fact that they cannot meet it. Today’s figures underline that, with net migration at 318,000 last year, which is the highest total for a decade. The Office for National Statistics said this
I feel torn on pianist James Rhodes’ victory at the Supreme Court yesterday. On one hand, the lifting of the legal injunction preventing him from publishing his child-abuse memoir is a great strike for freedom of speech. But on the other hand — another child abuse memoir? Really? Rhodes had an injunction taken out against