Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Alex Massie

George Osborne gives Alex Salmond a lesson in power politics

Politics is about power. It is surprising how often this is forgotten. Power and the application of power. Sure, there’s policy too and noble aspiration and all that happy-clappy stuff but, in the end, politics is a question of who gets to wield the big stick. Lyndon Johnson knew this; so does George Osborne. In

James Forsyth

PMQs: Miliband won’t put politics away over the floods

PMQs today started with a more genteel tone in deference to the floods. But Ed Miliband showed that he has no intention of putting politics away entirely, effectively needling David Cameron on cuts at the Environment Agency. Tellingly, at the end of their exchanges, Cameron rebuked Miliband for seeking ‘to divide the House’. When a

Betting on the future of Scotland — Parris vs. Massie

How would you bet on the outcome of the Scottish independence referendum? With Ladbrokes offering odds of 1/5 on a ‘No’ vote, its a much better return than any savings account. But should writers put a wager on something they can possibly influence? Matthew Parris discussed how he might bet with Alex Massie on our

PMQs needs reforming but it shouldn’t be toned down

To anyone in Westminster, Prime Minister’s Questions is terrific fun and a good measurement of how the leaders are doing every week. But what does the rest of the country think of this rip roaring event? The Hansard Society has released a new report Tuned in or Turned off? Public attitudes to Prime Minister’s Questions

Camilla Swift

Could beavers really solve our flooding crisis?

All this talk about dredging is well and good; but could the humble beaver in fact be the solution to the nation’s floods? Well, as far as the Mammal Society are concerned, yes. The animal has been extinct in the UK since the sixteenth century, but in recent years people have been pushing for its

Tube strike called off, but is either side victorious?

Londoners rejoice — the Tube strike has been called off. Following discussions through the ACAS arbitration service, the RMT and TSSA unions have called off the second 48 hour strike due to begin tomorrow. It seems to be a draw, with neither Transport for London nor the unions being crowned the winner. In return for

Isabel Hardman

Nick Clegg: Rob Wilson is as good a wingman as Icarus was

That Danny Alexander struggles with appearing to have gone native in the Treasury has been well known in Westminster for a long time. He gets on well with George Osborne on a personal level, and I reported in December that he’d been rebuked for accidentally using the Tory term ‘global race’. Today Nick Clegg was

Steerpike

Baby takes her final bow

Thousands of social media users have taken to their keyboards to express shock and surprise at the death of Shirley Temple. Almost everyone, it seems, thought that the film star and diplomat had passed away many years ago: Shirley Temple – dead at 85. I had no idea she was still alive. — Gvac (@WMGvac)

Shirley Temple, 1928 – 2014, remembered in The Spectator

Shirley Temple has died in California at the age of 85. She was known as America’s little darling after she appeared in her first film at the age of three. Later in life she moved into politics, running for Congress and joining the diplomatic corps. Henry Kissinger, she said, was surprised she knew where Ghana

Isabel Hardman

Philip Hammond: Politicians don’t do yes-no questions

In Westminster this morning, Cabinet ministers are looking nervously at their diaries. They’re wondering whether they’ll be the next to get the call asking them to try to smooth down the comms mess the government has made of the floods. Eric Pickles didn’t make a great go of it this weekend. Philip Hammond has just

Isabel Hardman

Government flooded with confusion on line to take on floods

In the past few days it has become increasingly difficult to tell what the Number 10 strategy is for responding to the floods. As one Tory MP remarked to me earlier, ‘there is a whiff of the Hurricane Katrina about Number 10’s handling of the floods. It’s the inconsistency of government comms and policy. First

Isabel Hardman

The education big tent is collapsing

The pegs are definitely coming out of Michael Gove’s education big tent, although it’s not just the Secretary of State who is pulling them out. Time was when Stephen Twigg could only make strangely consensual-yet-critical humming noises at the despatch box during departmental questions. Now Tristram Hunt is able to find sufficient difference between his

Isabel Hardman

Ed Miliband and the state

Ed Miliband is delivering the Hugo Young lecture tonight, and will focus on ‘people-powered public services’. All the briefing so far sets it out to be one of those ‘intellectual underpinnings’ speeches, rather than something that sets the world on fire (although Miliband does, to his credit, have a habit of pulling impressive speeches out

Isabel Hardman

Lord Rennard sets out legal threat to Lib Dems

Just when the Lib Dems thought the Lord Rennard row had calmed down, the peer announces that his lawyers have demanded that he be reinstated as a member by Thursday, or he will take legal action. His spokesman has confirmed that a ‘pre-action protocol’ has been sent to the party which notifies it that certain

Steerpike

Coffee Shots: Farage confronts deluge

Nigel Farage has been warning of a ‘deluge’ for some time: it’s just that he was talking about migrants, not rivers. But the Ukip leader is never one to avoid capitalising on a crisis, so here he is yesterday, visiting flood-stricken Burrowbridge. After a hard day’s wading, there’s only one thing a chap can do:

Steerpike

PM courted by KP and Strauss

The love-in between Kevin Pietersen and David Cameron continues. As I reported last week, the PM waded into the row over the sacking of the England batsman, and now KP has changed his Twitter picture to this snap of the two of them in happier times. Mr S doesn’t want to stunt this blossoming love,

Camilla Swift

Memo to the Environment Agency: humans have needs too

It is not surprising that the Environment Agency (EA) have come under attack for the flooding in South West England. What is surprising is how long it took people to catch on to the fact that if anyone was to blame, it was the EA, not Owen Paterson.  As this week’s  leading article in The Spectator

Isabel Hardman

Why politicians secretly love the Environment Agency

‘I’ve kept my counsel up to now,’ said Chris Smith, loftily, when he appeared on the Today programme. Perhaps by the end of the interview, in which he managed to distance himself from previous policy pronouncements while defending his staff to the hilt, he wished he’d kept his counsel too. Those opening words suggested that

Isabel Hardman

How does the Tory party solve its ‘women problem’?

It’s a week since Harriet Harman claimed it was ‘raining men’ in the Tory party, and yet the debate still rages about whether the Conservatives have a ‘women problem’. Tory backbencher Tracey Crouch has written a forceful piece for the Mail on Sunday on why she felt Ed Miliband’s intervention at Prime Minister’s Questions on

David Cameron should take aim at the Turner Prize

David Cameron seems to be prepared to speak out on certain subjects that many other politicians avoid. This is very welcome. I think it’s about time he took a dig at the Turner Prize. I am unconvinced by the banal installations and grainy videos that consistently win that particular prize. The Prime Minister needs to