All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Why, in the final few days of campaigning, are both sides in the Scottish independence referendum becoming obsessed with bullying and media bias? Shouldn’t they use their valuable airtime making the case for the Union, or for independence, or rebutting claims by the other side about the NHS? Today Alistair Darling said that ‘Scotland will
As the political nation waits with bated breath for the Scottish referendum result, the polls are dictating the mood. One showing Yes in the lead led to the abandonment of PMQs and all three party leaders heading to Scotland. Recent ones showing No back in the lead, have steadied nerves and reassured the No camp
It’s certainly an interesting strategy for endearing wavering Scots. Former England football captain David Beckham has been unveiled as the latest celeb supporter of the Let’s Stay Together campaign. Nothing like football to bring two ultra-competitive countries together, right? In an open letter, Beckham writes: ‘My sincere hope is that you will vote to renew our historic bond which
Just a few days now until it’s all over, and those against Scottish independence are trying every option. David Beckham has written of the ‘common bond’ between English and Scottish sportsmen, the Queen has offered as much of an intervention as is possible when she is remaining officially neutral, while David Cameron is going from
There are various pieties that politicians observe in the wake of some barbarity committed by Islamic fundamentalists and duly David Cameron observed them in his statement yesterday about the murder of David Haines. Of the perpetrators, he observed: ‘They are killing and slaughtering thousands of people – Christians, Muslims, minorities across Iraq and Syria. They
Yes, Britain is on the point of breaking up – but there are more ill winds blowing in Europe right now. The National Front is polling so strongly in France that Marine Le Pen would be president if an election was held tomorrow. And as I write, the populist Sweden Democrats seem to be the only real
The three recent beheadings by the so-called Islamic State have been peculiarly, barbarically pointless. IS was asking western governments to leave them be to wreak havoc across the Middle East; it was an unrealistic demand. But rather than toning down their behaviour to a level perhaps tolerable, they simply executed their hostages. By murdering two American
Isis are playing a game with this country and America. We need to take a view about what our response to that game should be. The ‘game’ is the gradual drip-drip of beheading videos. Obviously the images are intended to spread terror and maximise the dissemination and impact of the terrorist movement’s beliefs, demands and aims. The releases are highly
Just over a week ago I wrote a piece in the Spectator asking if we were on the verge of an anti-Muslim backlash that could spread beyond the strongholds of the aggrieved white working class in Barking and Rochdale and into the home counties. After the gloating videotaped murder of David Haines, a British aid worker, the
This week’s Spectator cover piece is written by our readers. Here are some more letters to Scottish voters, explaining why our United Kingdom should stay together. I come from the Isles of Scilly, which is as far away from Scotland as it’s possible to get whilst remaining in the UK. Flung out into the Atlantic
Okay, so it’s going ahead: The Unity rally in Trafalgar Square, where people will come together to say how much the United Kingdom means to them, will take place 6pm Monday 15h September – Battle of Britain day, an appropriate time for the battle for Britain. And Spectator readers are welcome to come by for a
The horrific situation in Syria and Iraq means both aid workers and reporters are urgently needed, but as the awful murder of British hostage, David Haines shows, it’s now virtually untenable for any foreigner to try to help. As Paul Wood wrote after the murder of Steven Sotloff, hostage taking has become a $100 million
Gaily into Uxbridge Station runs the red electric train, And alighting on the platform – he with the albino mane. Can he charm the blue-rinsed matrons, Past-it bankers, golf club patrons, Can he do it – yes he can! Well done Boris! Side-step Clacton, ‘Essex is no place for me, ‘Better here in leafy
At times in the last few months, it has seemed that if no one was making the case for Britain in Scotland. Too often it seemed that Better Together knew the price of separation but not the value of Britishness. But that is changing. Yes closing the gap, and taking the lead in a couple
From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: WE desire to address a word to the American people, a word which must be spoken, though we are fully aware that it will be liable to misunderstanding and misconstruction, and is certain to be distorted by those whose business it is to exercise pressure upon American opinion in
Who will be relieved and reassured when they read this weekend’s polls on how Thursday’s independence referendum will go? Well, it looks like neither camp has much to celebrate as the polls are all over the place – which means that anything could happen in just a few days’ time. So here’s what we know
Unsurprisingly, Uxbridge and South Ruislip Conservatives picked Boris Johnson last night as their parliamentary candidate for the 2015 election. Boris has a 11,216 majority to defend, but that’s only the start of the work he needs to do. His supporters are well aware that before the Mayor can ever throw his hat into that leadership
George Galloway announced his support for Gordon Brown as First Minister of Scotland last night. Galloway’s endorsement came as Brown turned up at an event at Usher Hall in Edinburgh that Galloway was compering. The endorsement was met with a broad grin by Brown. But behind the humour, there is a serious point, Scottish Labour
Many voters in Scotland moan about the media: half of the country wants separation, according to the polls, but almost all newspapers are against it. So where to turn, for dispassionate analysis? As James Forsyth says in his brilliant political column this week, there’s no one left to tell the truth. That’s why private advice, issued by financial analysts to
The recent invitation to submit an imaginary feature from a newspaper’s health pages extolling the benefits to wellbeing of something traditionally thought to be bad for you drew a smallish entry, but I was impressed by your ability to cast pork scratchings and lard in a favourable light. If you have always viewed the deep-fried
A reader’s letter from The Spectator, 12 September 1914: [To the Editor of The Spectator] Sir, I am afraid your correspondent “Ex-Scholar” (Spectator, September 5th), in quoting a “howler,” has committed a little one himself. The incident of the sacred chickens to which he alludes did not take place in the “first sea fight between
Great news: a Unity rally has just been called in Trafalgar Square for 6pm on Monday. It’s for those who love Britain and don’t want to see it snapped in two. It’s all very last minute, but even if there is a happy few of us it can make a difference. What’s the point of
Can being more Right-wing make you happier? According to the right-wing Daily Mail it can: ‘People with conservative views are more content than their more liberal-minded neighbours, research suggests. ‘Those with politics that lean to the Right were found to have higher levels of well-being – even when their favoured political party was in opposition.
Former Newsnight correspondent Paul Mason seems rather happy to be free of Auntie, especially since the Scottish independence referendum campaign sent the establishment to panic stations: ‘Not since Iraq have I seen BBC News working at propaganda strength like this. So glad I’m out of there,’ he writes on his Facebook page, to the consternation of
Talking to Scottish voters over the last couple of weeks, a number of points have been made with increasing regularity. The first is that the ‘yes’ campaign has had all the emotional appeal, while the Better Together campaign has focused on practical concerns, largely about money. The second is that there has been too much
Only yesterday, Jim Sillars was being paraded by Alex Salmond as a nationalist heavyweight who has been taken back into the fold. He had once fallen out with the Alex Salmond but the two were, apparently, good friends again. A photoshoot, above, consummated this reconcilliation. Sillars is a former SNP deputy leader but now not part of
We all know the referendum is a big deal, but what can we actually say? None of us has much of an idea how the constitution might change after Thursday’s vote. Yet all of us want to talk knowledgeably about it and sound as if we really care. Here, then, is a primer for the
This is an extract from the The Spectator, 13 August 1982: One summer’s evening, I went for a stroll by the shores of Lough Erne, just outside the city of Enniskillen, Northern Ireland. Swifts and swallows patrolled separate strands of midge-covered waters as if divided into Catholics and Protestants. Gleaming in the twilight, the Gospel
ICM’s poll has ‘no’ ahead, but only just– it’s 51-49. The ICM poll is a telephone one so both phone and internet polls are now showing ‘no’ narrowly ahead but the race too close to call. Adding to the unpredictably of the contest is that ICM found that 17 per cent of voters remain undecided – ‘no’ is on 42 per
While distributing free Spectators in Glasgow yesterday, I came across a Labour rally and ended up standing about two metres away from Ed Miliband as he gave his speech. But no one could hear a word he said because the ‘yes’ crowd were eyeballing him, chanting and looking as if they were about to eat him.
There are more people who have not yet voted for the Conservative Party than could ever leave it for Ukip. My party needs to remember: all voters matter, not just those Tories being wooed by Nigel Farage. The real prize is not stopping voters defecting to Ukip – it is making the Conservative Party the natural home for the
From The Spectator, 12 September 1914: The King’s message addressed “To the Governments and Peoples of My Self-Governing Dominions,” published to the world on Wednesday, is noble in its sincerity of word and thought. What could be said better or with a truer dignity than the following: ‘Had I stood aside when, in defiance of
No unionist should breathe easily after last night’s YouGov poll putting the ‘no’ team on a six-point lead. The race remains too close to call. And the poll also suggests a degree of volatility quite unlike that seen in general elections. Michael Sauders from Citi has dug deeper into the figures (pdf). You need to treat
Anyone who thinks that the latest YouGov poll on Scottish independence, which shows the ‘No’ camp with a six-point lead over ‘Yes’ at 52 per cent to 48 per cent (once don’t-knows are excluded) is getting a little ahead of themselves. It is significant that this is the same pollster who sent Westminster into panic
