All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
A politician’s life on Twitter is rarely uneventful. I have written in defence of all the goodwill and positive communication this election has seen on social media. But slip-ups are costly. As the election gets closer and the debates, broadcasts and gaffes begin, Twitter is watching. My research group CASM looked at how the #BattleForNumber10
Nice to know, isn’t it, that public attitudes are finally catching up with MPs’? It seems, from the Social Attitudes survey, that finally, half a century after parliament suspended the death penalty, 48 per cent of people no longer want the death penalty reintroduced. Opinion has been stubbornly in favour of it ever since 1965,
Ed Miliband used last night’s election interview with Jeremy Paxman as an opportunity to blast the Murdoch press. The Labour leader told viewers that he had stood up to Rupert Murdoch, and would continue to do so in spite of whatever bad publicity is thrown at him as a result. However, this appeared to come as news to Murdoch.
Say this for Alex Salmond: he is entirely typical of the movement he once led. The former First Minister’s new book makes much of what you might deem the referendum’s dirk-in-the-back theory. It was The Vow what won it; the last-minute, hastily-prepared, promise of more powers for the Scottish parliament. Without that, Yes would have carried the day. And
David Cameron and Ed Miliband both ‘won’ last night’s TV Q&A session. The Prime Minister put in a decent performance and came out ahead in the snap poll. But Miliband exceeded expectations, albeit ones which were pretty low. It was a given that Cameron would be fluent and deal ably with the casual conversations in the audience Q&A. But some
One of the many delusions of the Right is the myth of conservative robustness. Conservatives don’t play the victim card, they say. They tell it like it is, and don’t care who knows it. They stand on their own two feet, and take it on the chin. They have guts and backbone too. It’s easy
According to the snap polls, David Cameron was victorious in the first TV ‘debate’ — but Ed Miliband didn’t do too badly either. In this View from 22 podcast special, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and I discuss the televised Q&A session with Cameron and Miliband yesterday evening. Did the Labour leader exceed expectations? How did
The US Centres for Disease Control and Prevention have launched a wildly expensive campaign against e-cigarettes because… well, I can’t really work out their logic, but the sickly aroma of liberal puritanism is unmistakeable. The medical arguments are risible. The Wall Street Journal reports: Print and radio ads starting Monday target e-cigarette users who continue to
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: On Friday the Admiralty announced that they bad good reason to believe that the German submarine ‘U29’ bad been sunk with all hands. The vessel was commanded by Captain Weddigen, who sank three British cruisers at the be- ginning of the war, and who on
David Cameron won tonight’s TV head to head with Ed Miliband according to an instant ICM poll. The poll for the Guardian gives the evening to Cameron 54-46. Though, it is worth noting that this 8 point margin is smaller than Cameron’s usual lead on the leadership question. Cameron started with a grilling from Jeremy
Given that Gordon Brown has hardly been seen in the Commons since losing power five years ago, it was a bit rich of him to say goodbye now. But the SNP uprising has started — it looks set to claim his own seat of Kirkcaldy — and so he’s off. In his final speech to the
Everyone agrees: the outcome of this election is impossible to predict. But are we witnessing the end of the stable, two-party system of government we’ve become used to? On Monday, the Spectator posed this question to a panel of political experts for their thoughts on whether this election will mark the beginning of a series of
David Cameron is keen to demonstrate his willingness to give straight answers to straight questions at the moment. But there is a limit to his candour. Anyone who asks him about whether he’s preparing for another hung parliament will be told that he’s not thinking about, that he’s going all out for a majority. However,
If no-one was very excited about the launch of the Lib Dem’s election poster this morning, it wasn’t just because of the rain. According to The Times, political posters are on their way out. Political parties are spending 50 per cent less on outdoor posters this year than they did in 2010, and unofficial reports
Welcome to The Spectator’s live coverage of the Q&A session with David Cameron and Ed Miliband on Channel 4 and Sky News. We’ll be providing the latest developments and analysis on the programme, starting at 9pm this evening. This page will automatically reload.
Tonight Kay Burley will moderate a ‘town hall’ style Q&A with David Cameron and Ed Miliband as part of the election debate package. When Mr S bumped into Burley’s Sky colleague Adam Boulton at this morning’s Helen Darroze Regency Power Breakfast at The Connaught, there was no sign of sour grapes about him not being assigned the gig: ‘Sky took
There was a time when both MPs and viewers of Prime Minister’s Question Time would welcome an interjection from the Commons Speaker. Indeed, there was a time when the Speaker commanded the respect not just of the entire House but the whole nation. But, after almost six years of John Bercow in the chair, that feels
More crying in the Commons. More applause. John Bercow didn’t try to hide his tears as it became apparent that the government had lost its vote that would have fatally undermined him. The motion to re-elect the Speaker by secret ballot after the general election failed by 202 ayes to 228 noes. It looks as
The Commons has gone beyond uproar on the vote on the secret ballot to re-elect the speaker. There has been clapping, a standing ovation, and tears. Charles Walker, chair of the Procedure Committee, told MPs that he had been ‘played for a fool by the whips and the party leadership who had had meetings with
Well, after months of Parliament appearing boring, tired and without things to discuss, the zombie seems to have woken up. MPs are currently in uproar in the Chamber over William Hague’s proposal to make the re-election of the Speaker at the start of the Parliament a secret ballot. Naturally, those who really dislike Bercow are
The Liberal Democrats have unveiled their funky new campaign poster this morning, only to unceremoniously dump it on a yellow line on an empty street in Westminster: Mr S is slightly concerned for the career prospects of whichever party bod designed the poster, as it appears they need to learn how to cross the road. In
Vince Cable has made some ambiguous comments in the chamber this morning about an EU referendum. At the last business questions of this Parliament, the shadow business secretary Chuka Umunna asked Cable whether he agreed that the prospect of a referendum is ‘the biggest uncertainty facing business in this country’. Here’s the exchange: ‘Chuka Umunna:
Every government comes to power eager to deliver on its manifesto pledges and policy ideas. Yet our polling shows that just 1 in 6 of us believe politicians focus on fulfilling their election pledges. This mismatch between ambition and perception may be explained by another widely held opinion – most of us don’t believe that politicians
The establishment drive to marginalise Ukip has been under way for three months now, and it has having its effect. You will not read anything about Ukip in your newspapers unless it is a negative story — some half-witted candidate’s office fraudulently claiming expenses, or a disappointed member explaining that they’re all vile people and
There was something genuinely frightening about the disturbance aimed at Nigel Farage and his family this weekend; what’s scary is that there seem to be so many people in our country who think a man having lunch with his family is a legitimate target for such a stunt because of his views. If you’re prepared
Tonight Ed Miliband and David Cameron will be interviewed by Jeremy Paxman in two separate interviews, after Cameron declined to do a head-to-head interview with the Labour leader. Now, Mr S hears that the prospect of a Paxman grilling has been keeping Miliband up at night. Word reaches Steerpike that Miliband has hired the help of American public relations guru Michael
William Hague has given today’s vote that will set up a secret ballot on the re-election of the Speaker as a ‘leaving present’ to Tory MPs. But not all of them are happy with the way this vote is being carried out. Here is an email from Julian Lewis, passed to Coffee House, about what
David Cameron is secretly planning for a second coalition, according to the new Spectator. In this week’s View from 22 podcast, James Forsyth and Miranda Green discuss the possibility of another Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition after the general election. Would it be more difficult than it was five years ago to strike a deal? Will the Conservative party back Cameron if he
As soon as I heard the French prosecutor reveal that the co-pilot of the Germanwings jet appears deliberately to have flown his plane into a mountain it took me back to an anecdote told to me by a friend who is an airline pilot. A pilot, like you and I, has to go through scanners
Benedict Cumberbatch once complained that ‘posh-bashing’ had got so bad in Britain that he was contemplating a move to America. Cumberbatch, who attended Harrow, moaned that people showed prejudice towards his background despite the fact that he is not actually that posh. ‘I wasn’t really born with a silver spoon in my mouth, or as part of the landed gentry,’
A lot of people seem to have confused the fact that Jeremy Clarkson is right wing and amusing (which they believe is at odds with the culture of the BBC) with the fact that he’s shown himself to be a brute (which is why he’s been sacked). The investigation into his attack on Oisin Tymon
Two very different but valuable crops are grown in Central and South America. After hours of toil, each is carefully harvested. But it’s not the plant itself that is prized: it’s the product inside. So both crops are subject to a process of extraction. The aim is to have a high concentration of pure product. One
From ‘President Wilson’s Mistake’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: President Wilson’s attitude can only be described as a tragedy. We do not believe that there was a man more determined than he was when he entered office to conduct his administration on moral lines, and to show the world that morality and politics are not
Ed Miliband had a disastrous PMQs today after the Labour leader claimed the Tories would raise VAT, only to have David Cameron deny that he would increase the tax. Besides leaving Miliband lost for words, Cameron’s pledge has also left a massive hole in Labour’s election campaign. It was only yesterday that Ed Balls unveiled a snazzy new poster,
