All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
It’s easily done, I know, when you’re trying to convey the beauty of a two-way relationship, to remember that others may have been involved in the events that brought you closer. But when it’s the Second World War, these little lapses of memory are less forgivable. In a moving article in The Times today (£),
Patriotic peers have demanded that David Cameron raise the US haggis import ban with President Obama at the White House today. As Steerpike noted yesterday, the 1971 ban on the product is under renewed scrutiny in the run up to Burn’s Night, with Lord McColl demanding answers to great cheers in the House of Lords
Caroline Fourest is a French journalist and feminist. Unlike so many of her Anglo-Saxon sisters she does not think freedom is only for white women, and is ready to condemn the oppression of women wherever it occurs. For instance, she exposed Tariq Ramadan, who on the one hand appeared the ideal moderate Muslim, while at the
There are many disheartening aspects to the war on cartoonists, one of which is the way that some people are so caught up in their own culture war that they can’t see the difference between their opponents and enemies. A small number of anti-racism activists still see the power + prejudice formula in a way
Given the political parties are already well underway with their General Election campaigns, the Church of England couldn’t have waited much later to dispense its advice on how to campaign and what to campaign about. In this week’s Spectator, the Archbishop of York gets on with handing out some of that advice, telling me that
Real disability is humbling for those who have to live with it and those who care for the disabled. A true disability — degenerative neurological disease, for instance — involves the equivalent of a daily war to live in the way that most of us take for granted. We shouldn’t mock the truly disabled by
Today MPs hold a short Commons debate on the proposed transatlantic trade and investment partnership – TTIP. As a pan-EU trade deal with the US it is being negotiated by the European Commission, with a mandate and direction from member state governments including our own. Despite the fierce extra-parliamentary debate the planned deal has provoked, this
There’s something wrong with the relationship between patients and their GPs. I’ve spent much of this winter in my local surgery, what with one thing and another, sitting among the stoic and snivelling, drifting between different doctors. They’re pleasant, if perfunctory, but with each visit I became more sure that something fundamental is awry. The
Is it time for Islam to confront Islamists? On this week’s Spectator podcast, Qanta Ahmed discusses in the wake of the attack of Charlie Hebdo why this might happen — as well as how Egypt is leading the way on reforming the religion. Douglas Murray also looks explains why Islam needs to confront the facts of its own history if the terror
There are, presumably, a great many people who dream about what they will say when the day comes that they get to meet David Gandy – but I have to confess I wasn’t one of them. So when I found myself, six months back, sitting across from him in the ‘interview room’ of the Sun
Tomorrow, parliament will debate a topic of immense significance. Steerpike hears that Tory peer Lord McColl is planning on championing a great repressed minority, in a land that claims to be free. Not so much a political hot potato, rather a hot sheep stomach stuffed with the animal’s heart, liver and lungs. Since 1971 haggis has
David Cameron did, as James says, manage to avoid debating the rather more electorally damaging issue of the A&E crisis at Prime Minister’s Questions today because Ed Miliband chose to talk about the TV debates instead. But he still had a good opportunity to raise the Labour leader’s refusal to confirm or deny that he
The last 007 film saw James Bond substitute his trademark vodka martini for a Heineken, after producers found a £30 million advertising deal with the Dutch brand too good to refuse. Thankfully, the next film Spectre will see Bond reunited with his martini as a result of a sponsorship agreement with Belvedere vodka. So Mr S was reassured to hear
Would he say no to saying no? The first question at PMQs, from Gregg McClymont, was about Cameron’s vote in the EU referendum, (if it ever happens). McClymont wants the PM to rule out ruling out Britain’s participation in the economic suicide pact based in Brussels. Nope, said Cameron. He went on to boast that
A recent study has suggested that over half of Britain’s Jews feel they have no future in the UK. At first glance this might seem outrageous, indeed incredible. Arguably (one might say) we Jews are the most successfully integrated of all the UK’s ethnic minorities. A miniscule set of communities – comprising in total 0.5 per
Last Sunday, David Cameron marched through Paris in solidarity, so it seemed, with those who stand up for free speech. Anyone who thought he meant it must now be crying out, ‘Je suis un right Charlie!’ Hardly had the march finished than the Prime Minister had rediscovered his other side: the one which reacts to
Je suis Charlie indeed. This is the problem with placards — there is rarely enough room to fit in the caveats, the qualifying clauses and the necessary evasions. I suppose you could write them on the back of the placard, one after the other, in biro. Or write in brackets and in much smaller letters, directly
Nigel Farage will now have to compete for space at the bar with comedian Al Murray, who has announced he will stand for Parliament in South Thanet, as The Pub Landlord for the Free United Kingdom Party. FUKP’s manifesto contains many ‘common sense policies’ similar to those we’ve heard before from the Pub Landlord. Here’s how he will offer the voters
PMQs today was dominated by the debate about debates. After a few statesmanlike questions about the aftermath of the Paris terrorist attacks, Miliband started to needle Cameron about his reluctance to take part in TV debates while Labour MPs made chicken noises. Cameron claimed that he was happy to take part in TV debates as
The recent BDO and PDA darts championships were undeniably glorious. Ronnie O’Sullivan is arguing that snooker needs to learn from darts by introducing shot clocks and power play to speed things up. Perhaps another way of boosting snooker’s status would be to bring in an element of hooliganism. John Wells was delighted when a Jamaican
This afternoon Labour has its debate on forcing energy companies to pass on lower oil prices to their customers. The potency of the political attack has been blunted rather by the party’s admission that its energy price freeze is in fact a cap, rather than an endless promise that no matter how fabulously low prices
There is the distinct suspicion that at last some more usually bien-pensant commentators are getting it. I mean getting the threat posed to us by irritated Muslim people. First, unexpectedly, David Aaronovitch talked a degree of sense in the Times last Thursday. Yay, David, way to go. Something else you’ve been wrong about for ten years –
Dear Peta, Thank you for your recent letter objecting to my campaign to support British livestock farming and encouraging sustainable red meat industry. I read with interest your argument that consuming red meat is ‘out of touch’ and ‘irresponsible’. I am sure the millions of ordinary Britons who have enjoyed roast beef or a shepherd’s
Trouble is brewing in Parliament. First there was vegan month, which rattled the cages of the establishment’s red-blooded males, and now a proposal for a meat month has led to beef between a Tory MP and Peta. The animal rights group have asked Neil Parish, who is chair of the All-Parliamentary Group on Animal Welfare, to reconsider his proposal for
Labour, the Lib Dems and Ukip are having quite a bit of fun with their identical letters from their respective leaders demanding that David Cameron take part in the TV debates – or risk having something done to him that is even worse than a noun being turned into a verb (the latest threat is
From ‘The Windfalls of Soldiering’, The Spectator, 16 January 1915: This war is unlike all our previous wars, in that it was known from the very beginning that a vast number of men would be required. Thus it was plain at once that the only speedy way of reaching the front for the civilian of
Meetings of the Northern Ireland Affairs Select Committee are rarely so popular that they have to book an overspill room, but today’s hearing with Tony Blair was a sell-out occasion, with both the Wilson Room and the Boothroyd Room in Portcullis House packed with people wanting to watch the former Prime Minister give evidence on
David Cameron and George Osborne addressed Tory MPs this evening. The meeting was to update the Tory parliamentary party on the economy and its place in the party’s election strategy. Cameron told them that whatever the question was, the answer was that you can only have it with a strong economy and urged them to
listen to ‘Chris Leslie says Labour will cut the deficit through gun licences’ on audioBoom
It was no expenses spared last night at One Great George Street to toast the departure of long-time Andrew Marr Show editor Barney Jones. Most ‘leaving dos’ in journalism involve a few beers down the Dog and Duck but Aunty was an extremely kind benefactor, providing fine wines and canapés as well as music from Nick
Even though they ended up walking through the lobbies together (though not hand in hand, skipping, sadly), Ed Balls and George Osborne still managed to have the sort of Commons showdown that would fit right in to the script of Bridget Jones. On and on their furious fighting went, over whether the long-term economic plan
To the Oldie literary lunch where Mr S dined alongside the magazine’s editor Alexander Chancellor and Alan Johnson. Talk soon turned to Johnson’s former boss Tony Blair, as the Labour politician recalled a joke that backfired spectacularly. ‘Probably the reason why I fell out,’ Johnson said, before stopping himself and tactically rephrasing. ‘Alex and I have
The latest issue of Charlie Hebdo goes on sale tomorrow, with around 1,000 copies expected to be available in the UK. Some people have decided that buying it shows ils sont Charlie, but both David Cameron and Nick Clegg don’t appear to be joining the rush for copies. The Deputy Prime Minister told the Today programme that
David Cameron is holding another one of his parliamentary party meetings this evening to discuss party strategy and rally the troops. Normally these things are quite well-attended, save a few conscientious objectors who think these events are an attempt by Downing Street to undermine the 1922 Committee. But today’s one might look a little quieter,