All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
In the past few minutes, Alex Salmond has told a press conference that he is resigning as leader of the SNP and will stand down as First Minister. listen to ‘Alex Salmond resigns’ on Audioboo Accusing David Cameron of already reneging on the timetable promised by Gordon Brown for the legislation enabling the transfer of
Can anyone explain why there are so many dead rabbits lying around at the moment? I’ve found three in my garden, untouched by predators, and the lanes nearby are festooned with carcasses. Also, my dog twice nearly caught a rabbit, which was behaving in a very un-rabbit-like lethargic manner. I wondered if, at first, it
Relief, actually. Not joy. A battle won is better than a battle lost but still an exhausting, bloody, business. There is no need to bayonet the wounded. It would, in any case, be grotesque to do so. Scotland voted and made, in my view, the right choice. The prudent choice. The bigger-hearted choice. But 45 per
We’re drawing this live blog to a close, but we’ll keep you updated on the day’s events in fresh posts on Coffee House. 09:52 The Union is saved – but at what cost? James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson ask what’s coming next in a new Spectator special. 09:49 Paddy Ashdown, the former Lib Dem leader, has come out against a rushed
Here is a picture of Cardinal Raymond Burke, whose grand title of Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura is matched only by the magnificence of his ecclesiastical dress. He is famous for his willingness to don the cappa magna, the astonishingly long silk cloak often worn by bishops before the Second Vatican Council but now confined
Islamic State (IS) have just released a new video that features the journalist John Cantlie. Until now, his whereabouts in Syria were unknown, but it now looks as if he has been captured by IS. This time, the video takes a different format. There is (thankfully) no beheading, but it’s sinister in different ways. Cantlie, believed
Well, it’s going to be a nail-biter. The voting has closed, and I’ve just spoken to Hamish Macdonell and James Forsyth for the podcast: both sides think that they have won. Why? The polls show it’s too close to call, so each side is going on anecdote – and risks a positive feedback loop. I’m in
No has won the referendum. Scotland won’t become independent, but it will get new devolved powers, David Cameron promised this morning. Follow the developments on the PM’s plans to change the constitution here. 08:13 The final result is in. Highland. Yes: 78,069 No: 87,739. That’s 47.1% to 52.9% on a turnout of 87.0% 07.10 am: What are these ‘further
This is an extract from a speech delivered by Tory MP Conor Burns at a Conservative association dinner in Chris Grayling’s constituency tonight: It would be extraordinary if I did not mention what is going on in Scotland this evening. I represent, as self-evidently, does the Lord Chancellor beside me a constituency in England. I
Coffee House is ready to cover the independence referendum results, and we’ll be bringing you news and analysis throughout the night. Isabel Hardman, James Forsyth and Fraser Nelson will be blogging – and you can follow them on Twitter @FraserNelson, @IsabelHardman and @JGForsyth for immediate reaction. Polls close at 10 o’clock tonight – but anyone still queuing will
The most startling development over the past few days has not only been the narrowing of the polls but the consequential commitment of the three UK party leaders to Gordon Brown’s accelerated timetable for agreeing more devolution. Whether or not it convinces voters, this promise will have far-reaching effects not just for Scotland but also
As I left Edinburgh this morning, en route to Inverness, I passed about four ‘yes’ activists cheerily wishing me good morning, asking if I have voted and would I like a ‘yes’ sticker if I had. It worked: on the way to Waverley, people were wearing the ‘yes’ stickers with nary a ‘no’ to be
With the Scottish independence referendum drawing closer, two Newsweek Europe magazine correspondents and friends – Finlay Young (Scotsman), and Simon Akam (Englishman) – travelled the length of the United Kingdom together. They tried to get to the bottom of the independence debate, interviewing politicians, writers, artists, activists, and ‘ordinary’ citizens en route. In this excerpt
With Labour conference next week, a letter has gone out to business people from Alan Buckle, the senior accountant who Ed Miliband appointed to look at how to boost the minimum wage, asking them to sign an open letter ‘calling for the minimum wage to rise faster in the years to come than it has in
From ‘A review of the war’, The Spectator, 19 September 1914: It is the duty of all English publicists to make people here understand the splendid heroism with which the Servians have fought. They have contributed very greatly to the overthrow of Austria, and their brave Army and nation deserve all the help and encouragement
Scotland goes to the polls today, but whichever way the vote goes, it’s clear who lost the campaign: ‘No’ was outsmarted at every stage of the referendum battle. But how was this allowed to happen? In this week’s podcast, James Forsyth discusses what went wrong with Hugo Rifkind and Alex Massie. If Scotland does become
The last YouGov poll of the campaign, which has a far larger than usual sample size, has No ahead 52-48. The last phone poll of the campaign, a Survation effort, has No up 53-47. So, the No campaign is ahead by a clear but small margin. [datawrapper chart=”http://static.spectator.co.uk/3gFhn/index.html”] The Sun’s political editor Tom Newton Dunn
When I asked one leading SNP figure right at the start of this process how they would try and win this referendum, he told me that by the end of the campaign you’d barely be able to tell the difference between, what he called, independence-lite and devo max. This is why Salmond has put such
‘Ineptocracy: Noun – A government characterised by incompetent leaders.’ A gloriously incompetent attack on incompetence, and the greatest example of Muphry’s Law that Mr S has seen in a long time. The old adage is that if you write anything criticising someone else’s writing, there will be a fault of some kind in what you have
Anyone listening to Alex Salmond’s final pro-independence rally tonight in Perth might have been forgiven for thinking the ‘Yes’ campaign was in the lead in the polls. He used most of it to congratulate his side for running such a successful campaign and for changing Scotland before the final result had even been declared. There
I have been almost silent about the Scottish independence campaign. Not just because, like a lot of British people, I had assumed that this terrible matter would never have been opened unless people who know more than me were certain that the union would continue. But also because there has been a stifling of debate which has
One of the more bizarre aspects of the Scottish independence debate is the idea that UK welfare reform somehow doesn’t fit Scotland. On the contrary, it was designed for Glasgow – the Easterhouse housing scheme, to be specific, after a visit which changed Iain Duncan Smith’s whole career. And the other point about these reforms
Aside from the odd angry moment, campaigning with ‘Yes’ in Kelvin this morning was very pleasant. It was also rather different from yesterday’s ‘No’ door knocking, and not just because the two areas are not at all similar. ‘Yes’ bussed their supporters from a campaign base out to their target streets. Then they split off
And so our watch is all but over. Who knows what comes tomorrow but at least and at last the final reckoning is upon us. It is choosing time and there’s no escape. Few people would wish the campaign any longer. Many voters tired of it some time ago. Their minds were made-up and would
No-nonsense businesspeople will be very much what’s needed in the aftermath of the Scottish Catastrophe, as it will surely come to be known whichever way the vote has fallen. No nation, independent or semi-autonomous, can hope to prosper on the basis of the wild welfare promises of the SNP, unsupported by any plan to attract
Journalistically speaking, it’s been a good year to be Scottish and Jewish. Had I been a Welsh Zoroastrian, say, I doubt I’d have had nearly so much to say. In recent months, obviously, it’s been the Scottish thing that has really taken off. I used to be marginally Scottish, irrelevantly Scottish; never realising that a
As told to Jonathan Foreman… To my fellow citizens I would like to apologise for the role I have played in the dismantling of the United Kingdom. I am sure there is little need for me to tell you that I never dreamed that my Prime Ministership would be the Union’s last, or that I
It’s been called rousing, barnstorming, the speech of his life. Gordon Brown’s passionate message for Scotland, which he delivered to an enthused crowd at the Maryhill Community Central Hall in Glasgow, has certainly caught people’s attention: There are people on the streets of Glasgow talking about Gordon Brown’s speech. — Isabel Hardman (@IsabelHardman) September 17, 2014
Do you remember what you were doing on Monday the 30th of June 2003? I do. I was in Parliament Square at the Families for Hunting Vigil, holding a big sign that said ‘Give us a honk for hunting’. A vote was going through the House of Commons to ban hunting entirely in England and Wales.
In Glasgow, it’s difficult not to conclude that the ‘Yes’ camp has the momentum in these final few days. There are ‘No’ badges, posters and flags around the city, but they’re drowned out by the number of ‘Yes’ posters, and the excitement that ‘Yes’ events are creating. Last night I visited a perfectly jolly ‘Yes’
From ‘News of the Week’ in The Spectator, 19 September 1914: As friends of Italy, we feel bound to point out once more that she will make a capital error if she does not take action at once and join the Entente, and join it not in a half-hearted but in a whole-hearted way. To
I’ve just watched a passionate, informed debate about politics taking place on a street corner between three ordinary people. I’ve never seen that before. I should be thrilled, but instead I’m not. Why? That debate followed the first bad language and bad feeling I’ve personally witnessed while following campaigners from both sides of the Scottish
Thank you, oh thank you, dear scientists, for rehabilitating these dietary dangers: Chocolate Previously dismissed as full of sugar and fat, chocolate is now claimed to have all sorts of health benefits. Researchers have found that it helps guard against heart disease and stroke by lowering blood pressure and cholesterol levels. It may also stave
Alex Salmond was criticised in the spring for endorsing certain admirable qualities in Vladimir Putin. Salmond told GQ magazine that Mr. Putin had ‘restored a substantial part of Russian pride and that must be a good thing.’ He was quick afterwards to lament that Russia’s record on human rights needed improvement and to express solidarity
