All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Mr S unleashed his inner-feminist at the Veuve Clicquot Business Woman of the Year Awards last night. Veuve Clicquot president Jean-Marc Lacave was clearly feeling equally empowered by the opposite sex, telling Mr S ‘in sixty years my dream is to have a businessman awards because the world will be run by women.’ Mr S,
Gatwick or Heathrow, who will triumph in the battle of the airports? Both sides have submitted more detailed proposals to the Airports Commission today, setting out why they are the right choice for expanding the UK’s airport capacity. While Boris Island appears to be mostly sidelined, the battle is looking to be between a second
The inconvenience of the Newark by-election notwithstanding, the Tories have had the perfect preparation for a drubbing in next week’s European elections. They’ve told everyone who even stops for a second on the pavement next to them that they’re expecting a difficult time and thus have managed the expectations of the party both at a
What will become of the other big coalition row that’s burning away alongside free schools? David Cameron was asked today about the plans to introduce mandatory sentences for repeat knife offences, and made some very supportive noises again, which the Tories signed up to Nick de Bois’ amendment to the Criminal Justice and Courts Bill
Labour is failing to make up any ground on Ukip ahead of next week’s European elections. A new poll from Sky News and YouGov today says that Labour’s support has dropped to 25 per cent, while Ukip remain comfortably in first place with 31 per cent of the vote: [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/LbUDH/index.html”] Interestingly, Ukip has not
What are we supposed to make of Boris Johnson? I mean, are we supposed to pay attention to what Boris actually says? Or is he permitted to play the game of politics by different rules? That is, the sort of stuff that applies to other politicians does not apply to Boris because the Mayor of
Even though the row over free schools has nothing to do with the Labour party, it took a reasonable bet that it would benefit from joining the fray by asking an urgent question on the allegation that Michael Gove diverted £400 million from basic need funding to the free schools project. In the Commons this
The Tories are ahead in a national opinion poll for the first time since 2012. The first Lord Ashcroft/Conservative Home poll has the Tories ahead by two points, on 34 to Labour’s 32. The Lib Dems are on 9 and Ukip 15. One swallow doesn’t a summer make. But this poll will have a psychological impact
Today, Labour in Wales celebrate 15 years in power. Despite all the evidence to the contrary, party members will congratulate themselves on what a fantastic job they’re doing. First Minister Carwyn Jones claims his administration represents a ‘living, breathing example of what the party can achieve in power’. Labour leader Ed Miliband agrees. He says
Throughout this latest, blazing Coalition row over Michael Gove – which is spreading like fire over dry heath and has now ignited the normally harmonious Treasury – the Liberal Democrats have insisted that they support free schools. They argue that it is simply Gove’s ‘zealotry’ in transferring £400 million from the basic need allocation to
If you were concerned about animal welfare, would you choose to spend money on prosecuting farmers whose welfare is below par? Or would you spend that money on improving animal welfare through regular unannounced farm inspections, and the labeling of meat that has met strict welfare standards? There seems to be a split in the
Kensington and Chelsea Council can do nothing to counter its reputation as the most affluent borough in London. In fact, it revels in the notoriety. Take a look at the council’s new alcohol awareness campaign. The prostrate gentleman appears to be in white tie and drinking a half-bottle of champagne, while the lady, bedecked with pearls,
Mr S attended the international rugby union 7s tournament at Twickenham on Saturday, which was graced by some 76,000 people – mostly yuppies on the razzle by the look of things. I regret to report that this crowd of genteel, if beery, English people loudly and roundly booed the Scottish team. The Scots ran in several tries
Yet again, the best Eurovision entries rose to the top on the night. Sweden, the Netherlands and Austria were the bookies’ favourites before the betting started, and no amount of ‘buddy voting’ upended that. What did disappoint me was the booing of the teenaged girls representing Russia. I felt desperately sorry for the Tolmachevy twins, who
Ukip may be sailing towards first place in the European elections, but Nigel Farage unwittingly revealed today how the party is still a long way from becoming a mature political movement. During his interview on the Sunday Politics, Farage didn’t seem to know what was in Ukip’s local election manifesto — in particular whether the party was
There has been plenty of progressive backslapping this morning because Britain was one of the many countries to award the full 12 points to the bearded Austrian drag act Conchita Wurst in Saturday night’s Eurovision Song Contest. We showed those bigots over in Eastern Europe and Russia a thing or two, the chatterati say. Mr
Why is David Cameron so confident that he’ll get what he wants from his renegotiation of Britain’s relationship with Europe? Today on the Andrew Marr Show he managed to advocate Britain voting ‘yes’ in the 2017 referendum before he’s even started changing the terms of the membership voters would be backing. His reasoning for this
David Axelrod jets into London this week for the first time since signing up to help Labour in 2015. Axelrod, who friends admit is no expert on UK politics, will have two days to try and get his head round the shape of the next election campaign. This trip will mark the first time that
The Eurovision song contest has just started – seven million of us will tune in, at least 30 million Eurovision-related drinks will be consumed and the voting will be deliciously political as always. (Poland has entered again, perhaps just for the joy of being able to vote on Russia). But there’s plenty domestic politics too.
Miliband has also been busy ‘looking at options’ for renationalising Britain’s railways at the end of current franchise contracts. This is yet another of what I have called Labour’s ‘targeted tweets’ designed to please trade unions and pick off loose voters — in this case disgruntled south–eastern commuters. What it’s not is a credible, costed
Is intellectual self-confidence a good thing? Ed Miliband was teased in parliament by David Cameron for claiming to possess it, and teased again by Lord Finkelstein in his notebook for The Times. ‘I know he thinks he is extremely clever,’ Cameron sneered at PMQs. Lord Finkelstein refers to a book that claims that intellectual self-confidence
Over the next two days, one of the most important events in the British sporting calendar takes place. No, not the final day of the Premier League season. Badminton Horse Trials, obviously. This is one of only two annual horse trials in the UK (and six in the world) at which eventers compete at the
More than 200 Nigerian girls are missing after being abducted from school by Boko Haram militants nearly a month ago. One of the group’s leaders has said he’s planning to sell them as slaves. It’s thought they were kidnapped because the Islamist Boko Haram doesn’t approve of girls’ education. As the evidence mounts that educating
The kidnapping of the 276 predominantly Christian schoolgirls by Islamic terror group Boko Haram is an atrocity, but it is not the first atrocity they have committed. It is just the first one to trip the West’s interest switch. A girl’s right to an education has become an important pillar in western ideology, and an
What a funny, contradictory week it has been for Labour’s campaign machine. First Ed Miliband told the Evening Standard that he had greater intellectual self-confidence than the Prime Minister – and won praise in the Spectator’s leading article for being someone who does indeed have the courage of their political convictions these days. Then he
Labour has a long, hard slog to win arrest the public’s loss of faith in its economic competence. The party’s latest advert hasn’t helped. It shows David Cameron and Nick Clegg as two peas-in-a-pod whose VAT hike has put £450 on your shopping bill. There’s one big problem with the advert: it makes its claim in front of a whole
The Coalition has been much more of a success than anyone could have predicted when it formed in 2010. It hasn’t just held together for spending cuts, but has passed important reforms to welfare and education. It’s important to repeat that now, when the partnership is growing increasingly tired and snappy. The parties spent yesterday
David Cameron’s trip to fast food chain Nando’s last night has caused a stir, with countless ‘selfies’ of the peri-peri PM appearing online before anyone could even whisper ‘cynical PR stunt’. He’s not the only politician who’s a fan of the Portuguese chicken chain. It’s practically a second office for the Tory party chairman, who
There have been one or two calls to brand Ukip a racist party, and some media debate about whether it is. But what’s become clear during the last fortnight is that there is a strong, cross-party consensus both that Ukip isn’t a ‘racist party’ – and that it must get better at keeping out individuals
David Cameron has now decided that rather than pretend Ukip don’t exist, he’s going to attack them, and do so repeatedly. This morning on BBC Breakfast, the Prime Minister remarked that ‘we’ve seen some extraordinary statements from Ukip financial backers and candidates and I think it does go to the issue of the competence of
Rory Sutherland writes in this week’s magazine that the Mozilla/Brendan Eich affair has finally put him off his dream of moving to the United States, quoting Andrew Sullivan that ‘The whole episode disgusts me – as it should disgust anyone interested in a tolerant and diverse society.’ The issue of gay marriage has changed politics
Having been born in 1983, I am a part of Ed Howker’s ‘jilted generation’. I think it is quite reasonable for him to argue that governments of all parties have made choices which do not reflect our interests, or those of future generations. They have increased public spending, which will reduce medium term growth and
Do you know where the chicken in your lunchtime sandwich came from? Where it lived and how it died? For most people, the answer’s probably no, so it might have been a surprise to discover that many restaurants, supermarkets, and even schools have been selling halal meat without labelling it as such. Of course there
The new baddie from Doctor Who has come up with a novel solution to private pensions – stealing from the set. Ben Miller, star of the BBC’s Death in Paradise Drama, will guest star as “a dastardly villain with considerable sideburns” in an episode penned by Mark Gatiss. Describing himself as a “committed Whovian” he is such a