All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
In the final PMQs of this session, David Cameron scored his most comprehensive victory. Challenged by Ed Miliband to rule out raising VAT, Cameron got to his feet and simply said ‘yes’. At that point, Miliband’s fox was shot. Cameron then moved from defence to attack, repeatedly challenging Miliband to rule out an increase in
Organisers at a National Union of Students Women’s Conference have asked that those attending the event use ‘jazz hands’ instead of clapping, because it is ‘triggering anxiety’. Nona Buckley-Irvine, a general secretary at the London School of Economics Students’ Union (LSE SU), was reported as saying that ‘jazz hands are used throughout NUS in place of clapping
Never one to miss a dig, hats off to the PM at the final PMQs of this parliament for managing to shoehorn a gag about Ed Miliband into a spurious point about the Battle of Bosworth. Responding to a question regarding Richard III from self-noted historian Chris Skidmore, Cameron couldn’t help himself: ‘Of course, this
As the current parliament draws to a close, we’ve reached the final PMQs fixture. It seemed the perfect opportunity to reflect on some of the highlights from recent PMQs. Here’s Coffee House’s pick of the best moments from both David Cameron and Ed Miliband. It’s been one hell of a ride. David Cameron: ‘Calm Down, Dear’ listen
“Would you like a glass of pink champagne?” asks Alex Salmond at 3.30pm, sounding very much like a man settling down for the afternoon. It’s Monday and Scotland’s former First Minister has cause to celebrate. He spent the previous day musing on television about the price he’d demand for the SNP supporting Ed Miliband in
I preferred Grant Shapps when, as Michael Green, he was just another loathsome internet huckster peddling obviously quackish get-rich-quick schemes. He did less damage then. That is, he played a smaller number of people for fools back then. This morning Shapps, the Conservative party chairman, made the remarkable claim that “Alex Salmond is threatening to undermine a
PMQs at midday today essentially marks the end of this Parliament. Although Parliament won’t formally dissolve until Monday, very little of consequence will happen in the next few days.The main topics for debate at today’s PMQs not hard to predict: the PM’s gaffe about not serving a third term, the booming economy under this government, the NHS and, if
Next week will see the dissolution of Parliament and the official start of the election campaign. With some MPs destined never to return to the House of Commons, offices are shut down and the keys to the country are handed over to the civil service for six or so weeks. So from 00:01 on Monday
From ‘News of the Week’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: The controversy as to what should be our future military policy in the west still goes on, and calculations are made on the basis of the inquiry — If it cost us so many thousand men to advance two miles on a front of four,
After Boris Johnson got his dates muddled while discussing his biography of Winston Churchill on LBC yesterday, it has come to Mr S’s attention that a selective memory could run in the family. Speaking at an Oldie literary lunch earlier this month, Boris’s father Stanley Johnson revealed to Steerpike that there is an embarrassing mistake in his second autobiography Stanley, I
What is Tristram Hunt trying to say in the Times today? He seems to say that the teaching of British values is an important thing, except when Michael Gove or another Tory says so. When they advocate the teaching of British values, the concept becomes reactionary tosh, because Tories are restructuring the schools system in
Another day, another senior Liberal Democrat takes a pop at Tim Farron. After Farron publicly marked the party’s leadership ‘two out of ten’ for its handling of the coalition, the knives have been out for him. Vince Cable is the latest senior figure to attack the former party president. In an interview with BuzzFeed News, the Business Secretary said this
Boris was waxing lyrical about Winston Churchill during his weekly LBC phone-in earlier when it all went a little wrong. Discussing the ‘many different phases Churchill’ went through ‘in his life’, Boris recalled that ‘in 1908 I think you’ll remember, he was in favour of cutting defence spending when he was going around with Lloyd
As Fraser Nelson says on this morning’s Spectator podcast, David Cameron will likely be regretting yesterday’s announcement for the rest of his premiership. He’s not a ripe watermelon; highlighting that he has a best before date won’t encourage anyone to eat him now, before he grows mould. Worse, he’s announced a shortlist of three possible successors:
It’s been a bad month for dogs, first there were reports of the fatal poisoning of a prize-winning Crufts dog, and now there will be no canine lead in the new series of Downton Abbey. Downton fans were left outraged last year after the Grantham family’s beloved Labrador Isis was killed off during the fifth
One of the most notable features of Alex Salmond’s account of the closing stages of last year’s referendum campaign is his hatred of the press and, indeed, the media more generally. Newspapers which run inconvenient stories are ‘anti-Scottish’ and journalists who ask awkward questions are accused of ‘impersonating Alistair Darling’. Salmond cannot quite decide whether the press are
Imagine if the body of a notorious child killer was exhumed and that, during the week of its reinterment, 35,000 people thronged the streets of a major UK city to respectfully watch the passing of the specially designed coffin and, with hopeful hurls, bedeck that coffin with white roses. The funeral procession itself is led
What Dave said in his kitchen during an interview with the BBC has blown this week’s news agenda wide open, yet Mr S couldn’t help but chuckle at the fact the PM was in the kitchen at all. After Miliband’s ‘kitchenette’ spin gaffe last week, it was no coincidence that Dave and Sam invited James Lansdale
What to make of David Cameron’s announcement that this will be the last time he leads the Tories into battle? Cock-up or conspiracy? In this View from 22 podcast special, Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth and I discuss the Prime Minister’s interview with the BBC – and whether this represents the first gaffe of the 2015 campaign. How significant
So much for Ed Miliband’s ‘cost of living crisis’. UK inflation, as measured by the CPI index, has just fallen to zero (pdf). Even this figure masks better news: food prices are actually falling, by 3.4 per cent over the last 12 months. The cost of motor fuel is down by 17 per cent, mainly thanks to collapsing oil prices. Crucially the price of such
Faragephobia reached dizzy new heights on Sunday afternoon, when a bunch of thespians and circus freaks invaded Nigel Farage’s local pub and hounded him and his family out. Behaving with grating and probably knowing irony like small-minded Little Englanders, though dolled up as punkish outsiders, the protesters were basically saying to Nige: ‘Your sort aren’t
Some voters may be rather puzzled by David Cameron’s comments that Prime Ministerial terms ‘are like shredded wheat: two are wonderful but three might just be too many’. The most popular Shredded Wheat today is the bitesize variety (above). But Mr S is informed that the original, monster-sized Shredded Wheat was a staple of the breakfast halls of
Did the Prime Minister mean to say it or not? That question will be on the lips of pundits and politicos over the next few days as everyone attempts to figure out what was on David Cameron’s mind when he spoke to the BBC’s James Landale. This morning’s papers suggest he has committed the first major gaffe of
Who needs the Comedy Channel when you have Newsnight? The best part last night was watching Michael Gove who has been dispatched to try to make sense of David Cameron’s tragicomic pre-resignation. You can’t, of course, there is no logic that justifies starting a leadership race on the week you’re supposed to launch a general election campaign. Gove
From ‘The Industrial Situation’, The Spectator, 27 March 1915: The present industrial situation shows how completely what we may call the economic pacificists misjudged the probable effects of a great European war. Instead of our industries being brought to a standstill, they are in a condition of abnormal activity. The trouble is not to find
Next Tory leader: Code without iframe <div id=”highcharts-ejazuna”><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/ejazuna’ defer=’defer’></script></div> Code with iframe <iframe class=”highcharts-iframe” style=”border: 0; width: 100%; height: 400px;” src=”//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/ejazuna” width=”300″ height=”150″></iframe> Next PM: Code without iframe: <div id=’highcharts-itamiqu’><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/itamiqu’ defer=’defer’></script></div> Code with iframe: <iframe class=’highcharts-iframe’ src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/embed/itamiqu’ style=’border: 0; width: 100%; height: 400px’></iframe> Next Labour leader https://cloud.highcharts.com/charts/acumut <div id=’highcharts-acumut’><script src=’//cloud.highcharts.com/inject/acumut’ defer=’defer’></script></div> <iframe class=’highcharts-iframe’
Two polls out today have the Conservatives and Labour neck and neck, while another has Labour ahead by two points. Lord Ashcroft’s national poll has the two main parties at 33 per cent — both up on last week — while Ukip is on 12 per cent, the Lib Dems on eight and Greens on five. Tonight’s YouGov /Sun poll has a
With just days to go until the general election campaign, David Cameron has declared that this is last time he’s leading his party into battle. It’s not clear why he felt the need to make this announcement, a tactic normally used by unpopular and besieged leaders to buy time. He says he will stand for a ‘full
It is always useful to remember Robert Conquest’s suggestion that The simplest way to explain the behaviour of any bureaucratic organisation is to assume it is controlled by a cabal of its enemies. No, I don’t know why David Cameron would amputate his authority before he runs for re-election either. But that’s what he has done
David Cameron is facing calls from Labour to discipline a local council candidate after they dressed as Oscar Pistorius for a costume party. Gregg Peers – who is standing for the Conservatives in a Cumbria County Council by-election – posted photos of himself in the fancy dress on his Facebook page. Labour’s Liz Kendall has said the
The Conservative party still doesn’t attract enough ethnic minorities. In this week’s Mini Election video, I visit Essex to speak to the Culture Secretary Sajid Javid about what the Tories have done to increase their appeal to non-white voters. He thinks Baroness Warsi is wrong and believes that the Conservatives are not ‘set to lose’ the Muslim
Miliband finally got some good media coverage this weekend. Alas, it was David rather than Ed who was on the receiving end. The Labour leader’s brother was branded ‘Celebrity Big Brother’ in a glowing profile in the Sunday Times. According to well sourced ‘friends’, the former Foreign Secretary turned Labour leadership loser has conquered America and is
Will the SNP eviscerate Scottish Labour? A new poll from the Guardian/ICM today suggests once again that the SNP is on course to do very well in the upcoming general election — and is currently on course to take 29 seats from Labour. As with Lord Ashcroft’s polling earlier this month, the numbers suggest that
We have been here before, you know. Seven years ago Alex Salmond looked forward to the prospect of a hung parliament and spied an opportunity to ‘make Westminster dance to a Scottish jig’. If Scotland returned at least 20 SNP MPs – members, as the then First Minister indelicately put it, ‘ready, willing, and able to