All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The one memorable moment from last night’s Labour leadership debate was Liz Kendall’s remark that ‘country should come first’, with regards to another leadership contest before 2020. It was a swipe at Andy Burnham, who had said that the ‘party should come first.’ Team Kendall is understandably pleased at the Vines and clips of this
During the election, Ed Miliband’s opponents regularly criticised the Labour leader for naming his life experience outside the Westminster bubble as ‘teaching at Harvard’. Still, the naysayers haven’t put his former sidekick Ed Balls off returning to the university he once studied at. Today the ousted Labour MP has confirmed reports that he is joining the Ivy League establishment
‘The dreams in which I’m dying are the best I’ve ever had’ When we were both sixteen, my then-best friend Dave carved the above lyric on his school desk. It was from the song ‘Mad World’ by the band Tears for Fears and we both thought it ineffably cool. It’s a line that elegantly evokes
As the situation in Greece becomes more serious by the day, is a default or Grexit on the horizon? In this week’s View from 22 podcast, Channel 4’s Paul Mason discusses this week’s Spectator leading article with Ambrose Evans-Prichard from the Daily Telegraph. Which side is being more unreasonable in this stand off, the European Central Bank or Syriza? Is anything drastic likely to
Last night’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate proved to be a rather dull affair with all four hopefuls failing to make a strong impression. While many were quick to suggest that this was down to lacklustre leadership candidates, party members have come up with a different reason the broadcast failed to impress. Step forward Laura Kuenssberg: Labour’s ‘attack
From ‘Chatter About Peace’, The Spectator, 19 June 1915: THE student of foreign telegrams will not have failed to notice that during the past week there have been a good many hints as to the possibilities of peace, and the willingness of the Germans to end the war on what they consider would be reasonable
The Sun has video footage of Boris Johnson telling a Cab driver to ‘f— off and die’. Normally, this would sound pretty dire for a politician. But having watched the video, which The Sun has put online here, I don’t think this exchange will do Boris that much harm. The Mayor and the Cabbie are
The first televised debate in the Labour leadership contest was a rather dull affair. None of the candidates shone and no one stumbled. Although there were a few moments of interest, everyone conformed to their stereotypes. Andy Burnham was brash and appeared too keen to speak over the other candidates. He spoke about the problems
At last it happened. Benn led Labour. Hilary Benn, grandson of a hereditary peer, stood up at PMQs on behalf of the dispossessed. Gravitas was his chosen register. Radicalisation was his chosen theme. His policy: more cash for cops and teacher to discourage Muslims from joining the death-cult. Let’s hope it works. The SNP’s Angus
Unfortunate timing for ambitious new Tory MP Alan Mak to be turned over by the Times today, after he was on the order paper to ask a prominent question at PMQs. Mr S’s fellow diarist at the Times wrote this morning: ‘Alan Mak (Conservative, Havant) has been an MP for only a month and already
Pope Francis’s encyclical on the environment comes down firmly on the side of the global warming consensus/lobby (delete according to taste) and is a slap in the face to climate sceptics of every hue. Thwack! It’s very much this Pope’s style. Laudato si’ says several important things about climate change. Here’s the Catholic Herald’s summary, based on
Last night Chris Evans was announced as Jeremy Clarkson’s Top Gear successor, following Clarkson’s fracas with a BBC producer. However, this doesn’t mean Clarkson won’t be appearing on the BBC anytime soon. In fact, despite previously calling those at the corporation ‘f—ing b—–ds’, Clarkson has already made a star appearance on BBC2 this lunchtime as
PMQs was not the normal, partisan slug-fest today. Instead, there were a slew of serious questions on the challenge of Islamic extremism at home and abroad and the migrant crisis. George Osborne, standing in for David Cameron, turned in a solid performance. He seemed unfazed by the occasion. His only misstep was persisting with a
Five candidates have made it onto the ballot paper for deputy leader of the Labour party. Tom Watson and Caroline Flint have long had the 35 nominations required to make it into the contest, but until this morning, it was looking to be a two-horse race. But with just under an hour to go until
Tonight’s Newsnight debate will see the four Labour leadership hopefuls — Liz Kendall, Andy Burnham, Yvette Cooper and Jeremy Corbyn — head to Nuneaton in a bid to boost their campaigns. Given that this week, Kendall’s supporters have been dubbed the ‘New Labour Taliban‘ by a Labour source, relations are likely to be strained between the four. However, Kendall
Ahead of his PMQs debut, George Osborne is boosted by the news that unemployment is down again. As the chart above shows, the government’s jobs miracle continues with just over 31 million now in work. Between February and April this year, unemployment fell by 43,000 to 1.81 million. With inflation low and pay packets growing, the
In 1987, the American historian Richard R. Johnson wrote a quite brilliant essay explaining how a clash of legislatures had contributed to the American declaration of independence. In short, his argument was that a deal was eminently achievable, but ‘parliamentary egotisms’ made it impossible to achieve. Westminster wouldn’t give way to the Massachusetts Assembly and
Here is a preview of Toby Young’s column in this week’s Spectator, out tomorrow. Subscribe from just £1. There’s a warning buried in the detail of the new report by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission on why top companies employ so few applicants from comprehensive schools: ‘Though this study provides valuable insights into
Honestly. No sooner have I filed a piece than along comes Sayeeda Warsi to help prove my point. Yesterday morning she popped up because another three sisters and their nine children appear to have traveled from West Yorkshire to join the thriving Islamic State. Apparently Sayeeda knows one of the families. And of course she
Tonight’s Newsnight Labour leadership debate is a sink or swim moment for Liz Kendall. So far, there has been a lot of talk about Kendall’s candidacy and her potential to be a reforming leader. But until now, there hasn’t been a lot of proof to back that up. Some have been whispering that she doesn’t perform well
From ‘The American Note’, The Spectator, 19 June 1915: Mr. Wilson recognizes the existence of a painfully simple issue. The issue is between the German submarines and international law. Consent to the continuance of German submarine warfare as now practised means the abolition of international law at sea. Mr. Wilson understands that he must choose
I daresay some of you lot are amusing yourselves by joining the Labour Party for three quid so as to vote for Jeremy Corbyn in the forthcoming leadership election. Can’t say I blame you – it would be a hoot to watch. That being said, he is not the worst candidate on the list. At
The government has defeated Bill Cash’s rebel amendment on the changes to the ‘purdah’ rules during the EU referendum campaign, but only thanks to Labour abstaining. The actual vote was 288 to 97. Now, the SNP voted with the Tory rebels as did Douglas Carswell, a few Labour Euro-scpetics, Plaid and the DUP. This means
As a general rule I prefer the stupidity theory to the mendacity concept of politics. That is, if a politician says something obviously wrong it is more probably because they are thicker than mince than because they wish to deceive the public. There are some exceptions to this usual rule but, most of the time,
Yvette Cooper is attempting to put as much distance as possible between her and the anonymous ‘Taliban New Labour’ comments. In an article for the Huffington Post, Cooper’s campaign chair Shabana Mahmood says there is no place for negative briefing in the Labour leadership contest. Mahmood sets out two promises from the Cooper campaign: ‘If anyone is speaking on behalf
Although Richard Desmond recently pledged his allegiance to Ukip’s Nigel Farage, the media mogul previously backed Tony Blair, with the owner of the Express papers donating £100,000 to Labour in 2001. Now, in his new biography Richard Desmond: The Real Deal, Desmond claims that he made a £5,000 profit from the donation. Desmond writes that the donation came
Today the BBC invited arch-enemies Dan Hodges and Owen Jones onto Daily Politics to discuss the Labour leadership battle. What began as a civil exchanging of views over Jeremy Corbyn’s inclusion on the ballot, rapidly turned into an all-out spat with Jones calling Hodges ‘the Katie Hopkins of the Blairite right’: DH: You’ve insisted he’s on the ballot, he’s
Matt Richardson has returned to his role as Ukip’s general secretary today. The party told the BBC in a statement, ‘Matt has resumed the role… by law any constituted political party must have a party secretary who is a qualified lawyer.’ This might not seem like big news — Steerpike reported that Richardson would be returning
Should we feel sorry for people who join barbarian jihadist groups like ISIS? I ask because I had always assumed that people who volunteered to join gangs which specialise in rape, decapitation and ethnic cleansing should be looked on with opprobrium. But the ground is, it seems, shifting. Everybody needs to be a victim in
Reports of deflation’s death are exaggerated – sure, the CPI index has risen from -0.1pc in April to +0.1pc in May. But many important things are still getting cheaper: food, for example, costs 1.7pc less than this time last year. And the prices of larger-ticket items, the so-called ‘consumer durables,’ fell an average 2.6pc in May – the sharpest year-on-year
David Cameron appears to have made two concessions to his Eurosceptic backbenchers over the EU referendum. Firstly, the referendum vote won’t be next year. The decision against holding the vote in May 2016 was taken yesterday, against the will of some Downing Street advisers according to Newsnight’s Allegra Stratton. The signs coming from No.10 have been that the
Today’s report from Alan Milburn’s Commission on Social Mobility found young people from working class backgrounds are being ‘systematically locked out’ of top professions because they fail the ‘poshness test’. The figures are stark: 43 per cent of newspaper columnists, over half of senior civil servants and a staggering 71 per cent of senior judges
The Guardian ran an article today about research by the Social Mobility and Child Poverty Commission. The commission claims around 70 per cent of jobs at law, accountancy and financial firms go to applicants from private or selective schools. And the Guardian goes into full class war mode. Its article — which has the rather provocative
You might expect to see Lionel Richie pass outside your door, if you were in the Ivy last night, or in the VIP yurt of this month’s Glastonbury Festival. But hello, which peer was he looking for this afternoon? The global superstar and former Commodores front man was accompanied by Lord Levy, after the two