All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Tomorrow’s TV debate between the seven party leaders is the chance for the insurgent parties to muscle up to the mainstream leaders, make them look tired and old, and in doing so gain more supporters. But the leader with the biggest challenge is Nick Clegg, the insurgent in the 2010 debates, now coming to the end
Mr S was a guest at Spectator Life‘s birthday party at Belgraves. To mark the magazine’s third anniversary, party-goers including Princess Michael of Kent, Pippa Middleton, Rachel Johnson and Mick Hucknall joined editor Olivia Cole to raise a glass in celebration. Gosford Park actress Camilla Rutherford stuck to water at the event, revealing to Steerpike that she is expecting her
From ‘National Concentration‘, The Spectator, 3 April 1915: A WORD or two of explanation seems necessary in regard to the attitude which we and others have taken up towards football displays, racing, and drinking during the war. Some people seem to think that those who hold our views want to find in the war an
Scottish Labour is having no luck in denting the SNP’s support. ComRes/ITV News have released a new poll this evening, which shows a 19 per cent swing to the SNP across the 40 Labour held seats in Scotland. Based on this, the SNP would take 28 of these seats in the upcoming general election. North of
Immigration is a pretty important driver for voters who turn to Ukip. So you would have imagined that the party might have spent a while really making sure that its own policy on the matter is crystal clear. This morning in Dover, Nigel Farage said ‘I’m saying a net level of about 30,000 a year
Well, at least Joey Essex has given bored pundits something to talk about today. He pitched up at a press conference with Nick Clegg, and took a selfie with the Deputy Prime Minister, which will certainly add to Clegg’s collection of useful props he hopes might win him a few more votes. The Guardian’s Jonathan
So farewell then Lord Ashcroft: well, not quite. The former Tory Party treasurer has announced today that he has resigned his life peerage, yet will be able to keep his title for life, under changes to the rules passed in 2013. Having fallen out with Cameron in 2010, the billionaire one-time Tory backer and in-house pollster is
‘E-Cigs Time Bomb’, shrieks the front page of today’s Daily Mirror. Vaping gets kids hooked on nicotine, experts fear. Experts do a lot of ‘fearing’, it strikes me, but what we don’t know – cannot know for years – is whether e-cigarettes will cause long-term addiction to nicotine. Or what proportion of those nicotine addicts will
This morning Ed Balls gave a speech promising to help small firms succeed if Labour get into power. However, with Balls keen to inspire voters Mr S is curious as to why he chose to such an uninspiring location. Sky’s Sophy Ridge reports that the speech took place in a graveyard: Ed Balls is giving a speech on
Few politicians can have gone into a debate with lower expectations than Natalie Bennett. After her ‘brain fade’ on LBC, the Green leader has been roundly written off. There have been murmurings that the decent thing for her to do would be to stand down in favour of Caroline Lucas, the party’s first MP and
The Scottish nationalists are in a buoyant mood. At last weekend’s spring conference in Glasgow, the 3,000-odd SNPers had two main issues for the upcoming general election: fighting both the Westminster establishment and the coalition’s austerity programme. In the latest Mini Election video, watch above, I spoke to some SNP supporters to find out what’s on
Last week Mr S reported on the poshest squatters ever: dozens of angry militant lefties had taken over a building on Pall Mall to protest against a multitude of right on issues. However, the dopey hippies got the wrong building. They thought they were ‘occupying’ the Institute of Directors but it wasn’t the case as
You will remember how the Tories planned to deal with Ukip. Well, that was just the start. David Cameron’s interview with the Daily Mail today is all very well and good but it remains the case that the party’s approach to Scotland is very simple: THE SNP ARE DREADFUL. PLEASE VOTE FOR THEM. (Works best if delivered
David Cameron doesn’t regret the Lansley reforms that have done so much to damage any chance that the Tories could be trusted again by voters on the NHS. That’s what he told the Today programme this morning, saying: ‘The reforms were important and they were right… Of course [I stand by the changes]. If you’re
Tonight Martin Freeman will take on a starring role in the latest Labour election broadcast. In the short film, the Sherlock actor says that for him ‘there’s only once choice’ and that’s Labour. Alas for Labour, that hasn’t always strictly been the case. Mr S recalls the 2001 general election during which Freeman voted not for Labour,
The Conservatives have offered a rather peculiar new pledge: another two million jobs. They are right to focus on their record job creation, as I outlined in my Spectator cover story on the jobs miracle. But I also discussed, then, how there are already now massive worker shortages in certain parts of the country – and
Have you noticed how often adults – particularly of the earnest, nagging variety who work in the public sector – are behaving like children? I don’t mean acting childishly, but literally behaving like children. Last week delegates to the NUS women’s conference were using ‘jazz-hands’ instead of clapping – in case it should trigger an anxiety attack. I can think
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 3 April 1915: Whether it is the lull before the storm or only an accident we do not know, but in any can there is a most curious absence of news both from the western and the eastern theatres of the war. In the western sea area we read
Ed Miliband’s so-called ‘Paxo bounce’ in the opinion polls is ebbing away. The polls out this evening have the Conservatives either level pegging with Labour or slightly ahead. Tonight’s latest from YouGov/The Sun has both parties neck and neck, with the Conservatives and Labour on 35 per cent — a three point rise for the Tories on Sunday —
David Cameron has given an interview to the Daily Mail where he appears to confirm that he will extend Right-to-Buy to 2.5m housing association tenants – a plan first revealed by James Forsyth. Here are the main points of the interview:- 1. Cameron says he’ll extend Right-to-Buy, blames Lib Dems for resisting him thus far. ‘I am a
Nick Clegg ain’t done yet, and as if to prove how deadly serious he is about winning this election, the Deputy Prime Minister visited a hedgehog sanctuary on his first campaign stop. Probably his least prickly public encounter since 2010. The Liberal Democrats have focussed their initial onslaught focusing on women, with Monday’s Guardian reporting
Ukip launched its general election campaign poster today. Nigel Farage was there, both in person and in print, with a very large image of his face emblazoned across the new poster. Mark Reckless was there, posing for photos with the party’s ‘pledge card’ (although unless he has very big pockets or an enormous wallet, the
Lucky viewers of BBC One this evening will have seen the Conservative party’s brand new political broadcast. Entitled ‘Securing a better future for your family’ — watch above — the saccharine video is designed to soften the hearts of even the most ardent Tory haters. Loaded with messages about abolishing the deficit, cutting income tax,
When reports emerged that a dog had allegedly been poisoned at Crufts, David Cameron appeared to be extremely worried that a similar fate might befall the Downing Street cat, Larry. Talking to Heart FM, the Prime Minister promised to ‘double the security around him and make sure he’s ok’. But this morning Larry looked far
Why are the Tories peddling what the independent Institute for Fiscal Studies has described as ‘at best unhelpful’, which is the claim that households would be hit with a £3,000 tax bombshell if Ed Miliband becomes Prime Minister? The IFS’ analysis came out earlier today, but this evening George Osborne repeated the claim, saying: ‘Well
You might have thought Ukip bosses would want to distance themselves from their outspoken and eccentric candidate Winston McKenzie after he organised the disastrous ‘Carnival of Colour’ in Croydon last year before going on to declare that Farage was bigger than Jesus. However, Ukip don’t play by the usual rules. In fact senior party figures wear their allegiance to
Where did Nick Clegg go on the first stop of his General Election campaign tour? To visit a creature under threat. Not a Lib Dem MP struggling to hold on to a marginal seat, Lorely Burt, but a hedgehog who can only walk in circles after an injury. Of course. Mr Steerpike keeps a keen
This is an extract from Hugo Rifkind’s column in the next issue of The Spectator, out on Thursday: The Labour party has put its five core election pledges on mugs. No, I don’t know why. Presumably the idea is that you buy all five, and then, when your friends come around for tea, you each
Now that David Cameron and Nick Clegg have had their final audiences with the Queen at Buckingham Palace, they can get on the road. Their shiny battle buses are waiting to accompany them on the campaign trail. The Lib Dems are charging hacks who want to clamber aboard their bus £750 per person per day,
I know it’s early, but I’d like to tip a winner from Thursday’s debate: Nicola Sturgeon. SNP leader. She has just been positioned next to the Prime Minister, who’ll be on the far-right. This which will cause relief in Tory HQ who had been worried about his being flanked by Nigel Farage and Sturgeon. The lineup, from left to right, is as
It is rare for politicians to mention their opponents by name – don’t give them the publicity is the normal approach. But standing in Downing Street just now to announce the start of the election campaign, David Cameron pointed at the door of Number 10 and said ‘The next Prime Minister walking through that door
Fair play to Ed Miliband for launching Labour’s business manifesto today in Bloomberg, not perhaps the party’s natural stamping ground, at least not since the prawn cocktail initiative in 1997. And it was gutsy of it too to take out a full page advertisement in the FT – they don’t come cheap – to broadcast
During her time as a Labour councillor, Karen Danczuk has managed to have bust-ups with women in both the Conservative party and her own. As well as Danczuk’s ongoing spat with Louise Mensch over her revealing selfies, she claimed last month that Harriet Harman had told her to join Girls Aloud – something Harman has denied. With Danczuk now stepping down from
The order in which the party leaders will stand in this Thursday’s televised debate has been set as follows: Natalie Bennett, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage, Ed Miliband, Leanne Wood, Nicola Sturgeon and David Cameron. So Ed Miliband will be in the middle, and David Cameron and Nigel Farage will be sufficiently far apart from one