Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Isabel Hardman

Will there be more defections to Ukip?

Now that Ukip has bagged a seat that the Tories thought they could win, other would-be defectors may well be having a good long think about their chances. The fact that Mark Reckless only won Rochester with a 2,920 majority over the Conservatives may well lead wavering MPs to conclude that it isn’t safe to

One night in Rochester: how Ukip won and what comes next

How did Ukip steal their second seat from the Tories with a candidate as uninspiring as Mark Reckless? Now that he has begun work in the Commons alongside Douglas Carswell, here’s a reflection on the last 24 hours and how the party romped home. Mature Ukip Ask any Ukipper why the party won Rochester and the

James Forsyth

Ukip on course for victory in Rochester – but no Tory panic

Counting is underway in the Rochester and Strood by-election and the early indications are that Ukip has won the seat on a turnout slightly over 50%. The result is expected between 3.30am and 4am, and my colleague Seb Payne will be tweeting updates throughout the night. This was a campaign that started with the Tories

The Spectator at war: Dispatches from the front

From The Spectator, 21 November 1914: The papers of Tuesday and Wednesday contained two exceptionally interesting despatches from an eyewitness at Sir John French’s headquarters. These descriptive narratives have improved remarkably in value since the beginning of the war—a fact which does not seem to be in the least appreciated by some newspapers. The despatch

Podcast special: was Emily Thornberry right to resign?

Just a few hours ago, Labour’s Emily Thornberry was protesting that she had no idea why anyone would take offence at her Tweeting a picture of a Rochester house with three St George flags and a white van. Now, the tweet has ended her front bench career – she has had to resign as Shadow Attonery General Emily

James Forsyth

Emily Thornberry resigns over Rochester Tweet

Emily Thornberry has resigned from the shadow Cabinet for sending a Tweet that appeared to mock a Rochester voter who was flying several St George’s Cross from their window and had a white van parked outside. Thornberry’s resignation follows Miliband aides briefing that the leader was the angriest they’d ever seen him after being told

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry apologises for Rochester tweet

Update: Emily Thornberry has stepped down as the Shadow Attorney General. More to follow… After being given a dressing-down by Ed Miliband, Islington MP Emily Thornberry has apologised for tweeting a picture from the Rochester by-election seen as a sneer at patriotic White Van Men: Ed Miliband’s aides assure the Daily Mirror that he’s livid. Jason Beattie, political

Isabel Hardman

Mark Reckless already arranging return to Commons as Ukip MP

This story first went out in tonight’s Evening Blend email, a free round-up and analysis of the day’s political developments. Sign up here. Mark Reckless seems pretty confident of a win in today’s Rochester and Strood by-election – sources have told Coffee House that the Commons authorities have been asked whether he can be introduced as a

Isabel Hardman

Emily Thornberry exposes Labour’s agony in Rochester

The Tories expect to lose in Rochester tonight – and blame Labour. Had it not been imploding, they argue, the Ukip vote would not be so big. And why is it imploding? Enter Islington MP Emily Thornberry, who was’t really helping any late efforts by tweeting this ‘Image from Rochester.’ Within no time, this was being taken as a

Steerpike

Russell Brand reveals the pick-up artists he will—and won’t—endorse

‘Any system for chatting up women is in itself questionable’ says Russell Brand today in response to the Julien Blanc scandal, that has seen the Home Office ban the controversial American ‘pick-up artist’ from touring in the UK. Brand continues: ‘any (system) that’s sort of based on objectifying or undermining women I would never, never,

Isabel Hardman

The top students who are too lazy to argue

[audioplayer src=”http://traffic.libsyn.com/spectator/TheViewFrom22_20_Nov_2014_v4.mp3″ title=”Brendan O’Neill and Harriet Brown discuss the rise of the Stepford student” startat=41] Listen [/audioplayer] Don’t be a Stepford student — subscribe to The Spectator’s print and digital bundle for just £22 for 22 weeks.  Brendan O’Neill writes this week’s cover piece on his encounters with ‘Stepford Students’ – a censorious mob who try to

The Daily Mail is wrong — homeopathy can’t cure Ebola

Normally this blog is about relatively silly things, I’m happy to admit. Is red wine good for you? (No.) Are high heels good for you? (No.) I mean, it’s worth debunking that sort of nonsense when newspapers print it, but I don’t pretend that I’m fighting some moral crusade. Most of the time, anyway. But

Alex Massie

Farewell Alex Salmond, hello Nicola Sturgeon

And so the Age of Nicola dawns. Elected First Minister by the Scottish Parliament yesterday; sworn in this morning. Taking First Minister’s Questions this afternoon. Alex Salmond’s departure was a long drawn-out affair but it will not take Nicola Sturgeon anything like as long to leave her own distinct impression on Scottish politics. I am

James Forsyth

Cameron and Miliband exchange insults at PMQs

PMQs is in a rut. The exchanges between Cameron and Miliband now descend into the trading of insults even faster than they did before and both sides simply use PMQs as an opportunity to trot out stock lines. Miliband was determined to use today’s exchanges to paint Cameron as a kiss-up, kick-down politician, trying to

Isabel Hardman

Responding to Ukip shouldn’t just mean talking about immigration

Can you out-Ukip Ukip? Depending on which day of the week it is, both mainstream political parties think you can and you can’t. Last week Ed Miliband said you couldn’t and that he wouldn’t, arguing that it was about time someone levelled with Nigel Farage’s party. Yesterday Yvette Cooper announced tough immigration measures that some

Should old people start wearing stilettos?

It must, I sometimes think, be exhausting, if you actually take health advice from newspapers; diligently eating eggs one week but not the next, avoiding mobile phones in case they irradiate your gonads, avoiding all foreign-looking people in case they’ve got that Ebola. I thought this particularly the case this week when I read the

The Spectator at war: Stamp of disapproval

From The Spectator, 21 November 1914: If nations obtain the Governments that they deserve, it may be hoped that they do not always deserve their postage-stamps. If that were so, we should be a less deserving nation than we were in the twenty or thirty years which followed the introduction of “adhesive labels” in 1840,

Isabel Hardman

The immigration arms race

Who is tougher on immigration? Neither the Tories nor Labour want to be left behind by Ukip, and have descended into an arms race over who can best crack down on EU migration. Today Ed Miliband’s party launched a two-pronged attack on the subject, with Yvette Cooper speaking in the morning about her plans to

Baroness Warsi uses her retirement to provoke British Jews

If anyone ever wondered what the over-promoted, incapable and incompetent Baroness Sayeeda Warsi was planning to do in retirement, now we know: provoke British Jews on Twitter. Today, after four Jews, one a British citizen, were butchered while praying in Israel, Sayeeda Warsi used the opportunity to taunt British Jews. Not just the Zionist Federation but

Steerpike

Does George Osborne really lock his office fridge at night?

It seems the most exciting thing to come out of today’s Commons press gallery lunch with Danny Alexander was the Chief Secretary to the Treasury’s claim that George Osborne locks his fridge in the department. Mr Steerpike has never been afflicted by an attack of the munchies while lurking in that part of Whitehall but

Why the Hunting Act is still dividing opinions ten years on

Most weeks there is a demonstration of some sort in Parliament Square. I can hear the noise from my office and occasionally read the odd banner or two. Some are confusing, occasionally amusing, often serious, but always important to the supporters. Most make me think a bit about the cause being championed. But each one

Steerpike

Yvette Cooper steals Tory immigration slogan from 2005

At the height of the 2005 election, the then Tory leader Michael Howard (advised by one Lynton Crosby) declared: ‘Let’s be clear. It’s not racist to talk about immigration. It’s not racist to criticise the system. It’s not racist to want to limit the numbers. It’s just plain common sense.’ Howard was lambasted by Labour for