Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

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

Melanie McDonagh

Britain’s abortion laws are inherently absurd

The Director of Public Prosecutions, Keir Starmer, yesterday declared that it was right not to prosecute doctors who authorised abortions which, according to a Telegraph investigation, were requested because of the gender of the foetus. It seems that the women mentioned more than one reason for the abortions so it wasn’t possible to isolate the gender selection element

Isabel Hardman

Labour lurched towards honesty in its reshuffle

Labour types are pretty grumpy that yesterday’s far-reaching reshuffle of their ranks is being billed as another ‘lurch to the left’. The reality is a little more complex: the party hasn’t lurched to the left so much as lurched towards being honest about what it believes. This was what Ed Miliband did in Brighton two

Fraser Nelson

Sorry, Privy Council – press freedom was never yours to reject

The Queen need not bother attending Wednesday’s meeting of the Privy Council: the decision over press regulation has already been taken according to BBC Newsnight. And it has leaked. An octet of MPs has decided to reject the newspapers’ attempt to preserve press freedom (or self-regulation) and defer until 30 October  judgment on the politicians’ rival

Steerpike

‘Stella Greasy’ and the enterprising Minister for Enterprise

It’s been a mixed day for two of the pushiest MPs of the 2010 intake. Widely tipped for great things (usually by himself), Tory Matt Hancock has climbed another step of the ladder by becoming a minister of state. The former Osborne apparatchik has been appointed Minister for Enterprise, which may reflect his enterprising spirit.

Rod Liddle

Thanks Mehdi, for making me understand ‘ROTFLMAO’

I had never really understood the acronym ROTFLMAO properly until I read about the wretched Mehdi Hasan and his hypocritical denunciation of the Daily Mail, after having applied with cringing desperation to the same paper for a job. (Dacre told him to get lost, which is to his credit). My colleague Nick Cohen has filed

The LSE and the notorious t-shirt of hate

The London School of Economics (LSE) has been in the news recently thanks to a certain ex-lecturer who was a Marxist. But while Marxism retains some grip at faculty level in the LSE, it is — like many other universities — another variety of extremism that increasingly dictates events at student level. At last week’s

Steerpike

Chris Skidmore: the eligible bachelor?

Historian turned Tory MP Chris Skidmore will be hoping for something good in today’s reshuffle, especially after he was bigged up by Michael Gove from the stage at the Tory Conference last week as an old friend and one to watch on the backbenches. Praising his former adviser’s brain, the Education Secretary added ‘and most importantly of

Reshuffle: the full list of jobs | 7 October 2013

In Rob Wilson – PPS to George Osborne Gavin Williamson – PPS to the Prime Minister Judith Jolly – whip in the House of Lords (LD) Anna Soubry – Parliamentary Under Secretary at Ministry of Defence (Con) Tina Stowell- Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Kris Hopkins –  Parliamentary Under Secretary at DCLG (Con) Wayne David – PPS to Miliband

Isabel Hardman

Andy Burnham’s last stand

The details of the government reshuffle are currently being hammered out at the 8.30 Downing Street meeting. But as MPs and ministers nervously wait for the call from the Number 10 switchboard, Ed Miliband will be plotting his own changes to his top team for later this week. And as key Shadow Cabinet members such

As it happened: Government and shadow cabinet reshuffle

The Conservatives, Labour and Liberal Democrats undertook reshuffles today. As it happened, here is how Fraser Nelson, James Forsyth, Isabel Hardman and Sebastian Payne reported the day’s events. You can see a list of who’s in and out here. 1839:  So in the end three reshuffles that could have toiled on all week are pretty much

James Forsyth

Female and northern MPs charge your phone, the reshuffle is on

There are two more government resignations ahead of tonight’s reshuffle. John Randall, the deputy chief whip, has gone as has Chloe Smith, the Cabinet Office minister. Randall’s retirement has been overdue for a while now in the opinion of many in Downing Street. There is irritation at the way he put pressure on David Cameron

Isabel Hardman

Will Number 10 policy team get reshuffle boost?

As the reshuffle heaves in to view, plenty of names are in the frame for promotion, both on the backbenches and junior ministerial ranks. Some of those names include members of the Number 10 policy board, chosen for that role because they were all deemed to be talented individuals. This means they are also considered

James Forsyth

George Osborne attempts political jiu-jitsu on Ed Miliband

If this conference season is remembered for anything, it will be for Ed Miliband’s pledge to freeze energy prices. This pledge might be economically flawed but it has given the Labour leader a retail offer to voters and rebutted the charge that he doesn’t have any policies. Initially, the Tories were uncertain of how to

Isabel Hardman

Has Adam Afriyie jumped the shark? Number 10 hopes so.

James Wharton, the Tory MP leading the EU referendum bill through the House of Commons, has become something of a minor celebrity in the party, with admiring young things approaching him at the Conservative conference last week as though he were a minister of Ken Clarke’s standing, not a backbencher. His performance with the legislation

Give us your views! Here is Fraser Nelson’s

Spectator readers are known for their views — fierce, funny, original. Now we want not only your opinions, but your visual views as well. This week’s magazine features Sam Leith’s lovely review of Simon Jenkins’ wonderful book, ‘England’s 100 Best Views’. What are your favourite views, from these shores and beyond? Send them to us.

Get a sense of humour: the Tories and coalition

Like so many pundits before me, I had earnestly hoped never to begin a piece on coalitions by quoting Disraeli.  But since I was asked by Bright Blue and the Electoral Reform Society to join Mrs Bone’s husband, as well as Ms Hardman and Mr Oborne of this parish, on the Tory fringe in Manchester

Nick Cohen

Who is the greater hypocrite: Mehdi Hasan or the British left?

As displays of duplicity go, Mehdi Hasan’s performance on the BBC discussion show Question Time seemed hard to beat. Hasan delighted leftists by hounding the Daily Mail. Who really “hated Britain”? he asked. Not Ed Miliband’s father, as the Mail had claimed, but the “immigrant-bashing, women-hating, Muslim-smearing, NHS-undermining, gay-baiting Daily Mail.” How the audience clapped

James Forsyth

Bercow baiter Simon Burns to run for deputy speaker

We’re about to find out what Tory MPs really think of John Bercow. Simon Burns, Bercow’s biggest Tory critic–and that’s says something, has resigned his ministerial post to run for deputy speaker. If he wins, the Speaker will be forced to work day in, day out with someone who, as Tim Shipman who broke the

Rod Liddle

Alastair Campbell, moral arbiter? Pull the other one.

Has there been a more emetic sight than Alastair Campbell touring the radio and TV studios lecturing the world on moral probity? I can’t think of one, offhand. The BBC, an institution he once tried to destroy, if you recall, is more than happy to shove him on air whensoever he feels like it. I

Isabel Hardman

The knives are out for Andy Burnham

When David Cameron first addressed Parliament on the Francis Report, he told MPs that he didn’t want to seek scapegoats. Some of his MPs were disappointed that the Tory leadership wasn’t going after Andy Burnham or Sir David Nicholson. Well, the latter has left, and the former is looking vulnerable in a forthcoming Labour reshuffle,

Ed West

Ukip’s supporters are anxious, not awkward

I guess the ‘unite the Right’ memo has not got through to some Tories, with Michael Heseltine calling Ukip ‘a racist party’ and James Wharton saying they’re ‘an awkward group of strange people’. That may be unwise — rather like attacking your customer-base — but it’s also untrue. Small Right-wing parties have a huge disadvantage

Lloyd Evans

Sketch: Question Time is no longer an honest debating chamber

A good honest debating chamber. That’s how Question Time is billed. In fact it’s an unseemly gold-rush for applause. The panelists are a set of needy egos with semi-fictionalised hairdos. And the audience is composed of wonks and party activists posing as disinterested voters. Last night’s episode was particularly fractious. The crowd was keen to

Fraser Nelson

Vultures are circling Britain’s free press. Again.

My first job in journalism was with the Glasgow Herald, which then had a bar built in to the complex. I was taken under the wing of the legendary James Freeman, who taught me the ways of the jungle. ‘You see that journalists always drink in groups of three?’ he told me in the bar

Isabel Hardman

The clever councils keeping localism in vogue

One of the problems with localism is that it sounds very grand and clever in opposition, and then turns out to be a nightmare to implement in reality. A minister recently remarked to me rather grumpily recently that ‘all the good people left local government because Labour starved them of responsibility’, and a lack of