Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Has AI just killed the podcast bro?

It’s a well-known psychological phenomenon: that time seems to slow down if you experience lots of new and unusual events. For example, if you are travelling across Asia, a week can seem like a month, and a month like a year, as you encounter so many different landscapes, peoples, climates, languages, cities, and that deep-fried

James Heale

Where is the Brexit dividend? Live at Conservative conference

37 min listen

In this special Saturday shots we hear from a panel discussion on Brexit, originally recorded at Conservative Party conference.  Four years on there are successes to point to, namely eliminating the cost of membership, new trade deals and the speed of the vaccine rollout. Yet the prevailing sense is that the full potential of Brexit

Turkey’s döner kebab spat with Germany is turning nasty

Germany and Turkey have had a fair share of differences and tensions over the years. But their latest row – over kebabs – is in danger of turning nasty. Last April, German president Frank-Walter Steinmeier decided to bring along a 60-kilogram döner kebab on his state visit to Turkey. It did not go down well.

Can David Lammy solve the Gibraltar dispute?

The British government is preparing to lodge a formal complaint with Spain over Gibraltar. Spanish military aircraft have twice flown over the Rock in the past ten days: once on 27 September, reportedly while a commercial British Airways flight was taxiing on the local airport’s runway, and then again on 30 September. These flyovers (thought

Patrick O'Flynn

The case for – and against – James Cleverly

When is the best time to hit the front of a Tory leadership contest? In the final chain of the final furlong after coming up unseen on the rails, obviously. As charismatic front-runners from Michael Heseltine to Michael Portillo have found out, Conservative leadership battles are brutal for the established heir apparent. There is something about

Freddy Gray

What is Melania Trump up to?

For eight years, Melania Trump has done a brilliant job of keeping us all guessing. Is she, as gossips have long suggested, secretively estranged from her errant husband? Does she hate politics? Or is she, behind closed doors, the real force that drives the Trump family’s remorseless ambition?   Nobody seems to know and that has

Ross Clark

Is there really a private school exodus?

Will Labour actually gain some revenue for slapping VAT on school fees, or is it heading for fiscal embarrassment as so many private school pupils are decanted into the state sector that the taxpayer will suffer a net loss? The question has been batted around for months as everyone ponders a great unknowable: how many

A remake of Cheers won’t work

One of the most popular sitcoms of the 1980s, Cheers, is set to return to our television screens. The show is set for a revamp, except now it will be uprooted from Boston and transposed to a pub in Britain. This is obviously a terrible idea, for a few logistical reasons – and for one

When prison seems completely pointless

I met Daniel in a high-security prison, where I worked as a prison officer. He was just 21. We’d talked about him a lot before he arrived on the wing – we passed the security briefing on him back and forth, scrutinising his vacant mug shot and the endless red bullet points beneath it: Climber wouldn’t

Freddy Gray

Is the enlightenment over?

Amy Wax is a professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania, known for her views on race, culture, and social policy. Recently, Amy faced suspension from her teaching duties following remarks that sparked debates over academic freedom and the limits of discourse in the classroom. Amy joins Freddy Gray on the Americano show to

Steerpike

Scottish Tories fume over leadership rivals snubbing Scotland

Back to the Tory leadership contest which is gathering pace post-conference season. In a matter of days, MPs will cast their votes to leave just two contenders in the race, before the membership gets its say. But there is consternation about the final two among the Holyrood group – which only appointed a new leader

Ross Clark

Ed Miliband’s ‘new era’ for energy policy is anything but

How the ground is shifting now that Labour finds itself in government and is actually responsible for UK energy policy. This morning, workers at a glass factory on Merseyside were treated to an unusual visit from the threesome that is the Prime Minister, Chancellor and Energy Secretary. Keir Starmer, Rachel Reeves and Ed Miliband had

Steerpike

Fifteen top takes from Boris Johnson’s memoir

Boris Johnson’s new memoir Unleashed is to be published next week, and with the highly-anticipated account promising to be the ‘political memoir of the century’, Mr S was rather interested in what exactly it contains within its pages. Steerpike has put together a list of the top 15 things we learned from the former Prime

James Heale

Can Keir Starmer sell carbon capture?

The Prime Minister is in Liverpool today, outlining plans for green investment. Nearly £22billion is pledged for projects to capture and store carbon emissions from energy, industry and hydrogen production. This includes funding for two ‘carbon capture clusters’ on Merseyside and Teesside over the next 25 years. Ministers hope this will create new jobs, attract

Boris is right: we need a referendum on the ECHR

Nobody should be surprised that Boris Johnson favours a referendum on leaving the ECHR, as his book now makes clear. Boris is an instinctive populist and maverick, who cordially despises the educated progressive establishment which argues for continued membership. He is also right.  Intellectually, the case for remaining in the ECHR gets ever flimsier Intellectually, the

Ireland’s puritanical attack on smokers

While the UK braces itself for a budget so tight we can already hear the pips squeaking from across the Irish sea, this week saw an Irish budget which was marked more by largesse than any attempt to balance the books. With an election due either in November or sometime early next year, and a

Steerpike

Cleverly and Jenrick slam CCHQ machine

Who would want to work in Conservative Campaign Headquarters? The election this year was certainly not Tory high command’s finest hour, with rows over stitch-ups and misallocated resources neatly topping off the party’s worst election result in history. So with discontent high among both MPs and members, it is no surprise that Tory leadership contenders

Gavin Mortimer

It’s time to break the stranglehold on the migrant crisis debate

John Major and Nicolas Sarkozy are grandees of their respective centre-right parties. But the days when the Conservatives and the Republicans dominated the political landscape of Britain and France are long gone. The fortunes of both parties have dwindled as the migrant crisis has deepened. Neither the Tories nor the Republicans confronted the phenomenon with

Steerpike

Labour in fresh ‘cash for croissants’ storm

It’s a day ending a ‘y’ – so there’s another Labour scandal brewing. After the ‘passes for glasses’ row about Lord Alli’s role in Downing Street, the party has been plunged into another row about claims of ‘cash for access.’ The Sun today reports that companies have been offered breakfast with the Business Secretary in

Steerpike

Boris and Liz in Chagos Islands’ blame game

Mauritius is getting the Chagos Islands – and a lot of Tories ain’t happy. Tom Tugendhat calls it a ‘shameful retreat’; Robert Jenrick bemoans the ‘dangerous capitulation.’ The Telegraph calls it a ‘national scandal’ while the Mail splash screams it is ‘Starmer’s surrender.’ So with the Tory tribes raising a hue and cry, who better

Handing over the Chagos Islands is a grave mistake

The British government’s decision to hand over the Chagos Islands to Mauritius is a profound strategic error, rooted in a misunderstanding of international law and a failure to protect the UK’s vital national interests. Surrendering sovereignty over the Islands will have a deleterious effect on British and allied interests just as international strategic competition intensifies.

Gareth Roberts

Doctors and the trouble with the BBC

The BBC’s daytime soap Doctors will soon vanish from our screens after 24 years. But while the final episodes make for excruciatingly bad television, they are worth watching for a simple reason: they encapsulate everything that is wrong with modern television. The BBC’s obsession with ramming progressive storylines down viewers’ throats is plain to see

Stephen Daisley

Britain should just join the United States

Ruth Cadbury is hard at work campaigning for Kamala Harris ahead of November’s presidential election. It’s what you might expect from a Democrat politician, except that Cadbury is British, a Labour MP, and New Hampshire falls a little outside the boundaries of her Brentford and Isleworth constituency. She’s not the only British politico heading Stateside

Katy Balls

MPs to be given historic vote on assisted dying

Keir Starmer is pressing ahead with his promise to give MPs a free vote on assisted dying laws. This evening, the Labour MP Kim Leadbeater has said she will use her private member’s bill this month to give terminally ill adults a choice at the end of life to shorten their pain and suffering. The

Steerpike

Starmer’s friend revealed as Mauritius’ chief legal adviser

There was national outrage this morning at the news that Sir Keir’s Labour has decided to cede sovereignty of the Chagos Islands to Mauritius – but perhaps Brits shouldn’t be so shocked by Starmer’s move. It transpires that the Prime Minister is friends with Philippe Sands KC, who also happens to be Mauritius’ chief legal