All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
While the Tories bask in the glory of Abu Qatada’s deportation, the progress of James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill, and the general good atmosphere in the party, Labour is trying to work out what the best response to its terrible week is, and how to get to a situation where it is on top of
A Scot has ended Britain’s 77 years of hurt: it’s a glorious day, and Andy Murray’s was a glorious victory. Anticipating this, there were three party leaders watching. From the moment Alex Salmond settled down in Centre Court, you knew what he was up to: he’d have packed a Saltire in his lunchbox and would
The Wimbledon men’s final is now underway and the glamorous (Victoria Beckham, Colleen Rooney) are being joined by the wannabe-glamorous (Miliband, Cameron and Salmond). Mr Steerpike noted Dave – who was gladhanding all and sundry on the way in – was coldshouldered by Salmond. The curry king – who had also been quick to stand
Someone alert the World Wildlife Fund and Sir David Attenborough. Yet another indigenous British creature is facing extinction, its ranks denuded to almost nothing by arrogant human behaviour. In particular the arrogant behaviour of women. Yes, this is the sad story of pubic lice – a familiar tale of wilful habitat destruction. Researchers say the
Looking forward, as one always must, I wonder if the law will eventually be changed to allow one to marry one’s dog. Until now, this would have been considered disgusting, since marriage has been a law revolving around sexual behaviour, and sexual acts with animals are still, I believe, illegal. But, as this column has
The Home Office has released pictures and video footage of Abu Qatada being escorted to an aircraft heading to Jordan where he is to stand trial. He left Belmarsh at midnight and his private jet (carrying a Jordanian welcoming party) took off (yes, they have pictures of that too) from RAF Northolt at 2.45am. He’s
MPs are incomparable. This may seem an odd thing to say in the current climate of opinion, but I mean it exactly: they cannot be compared with others. Now that a big rise is being suggested by Ipsa, the ‘independent’ body which sets their pay, people say they should be compared with local authority chief
Gordon Ramsay is a terrible fraud. Friends of ours lived near him, and one Christmas their little boy made mince pies. ‘Do you think Mr Ramsay might like my pies?’ he asked, and his parents, a little nervously, assured him he would. So the lad left a plate outside the Ramsay door, and next day
The BBC’s Proms kick off today, with the First Night of the Proms from the Royal Albert Hall delivering what they describe as ‘a surge of natural energy in sea-inspired works by Britten and Vaughan Williams’. In this week’s magazine, Kate Chisholm speaks to the director of the event, Roger Wright, about the challenges of what
Wham! Len McCluskey and Ed Miliband have spent this afternoon hitting criticisms back and forth over the Falkirk row. Earlier, the Labour leader sent a challenge shooting over the net to the Unite boss, telling McCluskey he ‘should be facing up to his responsibilities’. Then the Labour party said it was referring the matter to
James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill has passed its second reading in the House of Commons by 304 votes to 0. The Labour Party’s decision to abstain on the vote, and Conservative backbenchers’ insistence that a vote be held does make the chamber look rather North Korean this afternoon. But what have we learned from just
The Chair of IPSA, Sir Ian Kennedy, gave a speech at the IPPR this morning on MPs’ pay. Here’s what he said: There’s never a good time to do anything about MPs’ pay. The pressing issues of the moment always make it a bad time. This is the sad history of attempts to introduce changes
Ed Miliband’s supporters have been arguing that he needs to show muscle on the Unite row before his opponents successfully argue that he is a weak leader in thrall to the union puppet masters. While Conservative MPs joked abut Tom Watson’s ‘Buddha’ comments in the Chamber this morning, the Labour leader did speak out about
This week’s coup in Egypt leaves President Obama’s administration in an awkward position. Although the State Department has insisted it remained neutral in the dispute, American taxpayers have been supporting the Egyptian armed forces since 1948 with more than $70 billion in military and economic aid. A further $1.3 billion of military aid is budgeted
The uprising against President al-Assad shows little sign of reaching a conclusion. The civil war is causing huge suffering – with atrocities perpetrated on both sides. There are no easy answers. Some in Government actively push for Britain to supply weaponry to the rebels. But this would be a mistake of historic proportions, as it
Lib Dem MP Martin Horwood resigns from Unite after taking offence at jokes made by Labour MP Ian Davidson about ‘snivelling liberals’ in the House of Commons. Here is the exchange: Ian Davidson: Well, the Whips have been to see me and they deployed the ultimate threat. They said, “If you think of voting for
The Tory party have been having a very fun morning in the Chamber so far. The debate about James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill for an EU referendum has had the atmosphere of a children’s party. David Cameron was smiling on a frontbench like the indulgent father watching his child getting a little over-excited. William Hague
It’s eurosceptic party-time in Westminster today. Finally, the time has come for the Conservatives to show that they are the only ones who will #letbritaindecide. When I arrived in Parliament this morning, I was half-expecting a brass band and bunting to celebrate the momentous occasion of the second reading of James Wharton’s Private Member’s Bill,
Are Lambeth Palace and the Vatican about to undergo a significant transformation in how they operate and present themselves in public? On the latest View from 22 podcast, the Telegraph’s Damian Thompson explains how the evangelicals are taking over both the Catholic and Church of England, which will result in a dynamic shift in how
Today Ed Davey launched the London Array, an enormous offshore wind farm, and the Prime Minister posed for pictures with a sheikh whose sovereign wealth fund put up part of the money to finance it. But HH Sheikh Abduhall Bin Zayed is not backing this project out of the goodness of his heart. The Emiratis
Yesterday Len McCluskey made it very clear that Ed Miliband was definitely, definitely the leader of the Labour party. He said: ‘There can be absolutely no question about who runs the Labour party: it is Ed Miliband and he has my full support. Yes, there may be issues we disagree on, that is allowed in
Tom Watson’s resignation from the shadow Cabinet won’t draw a line under the row about Unite’s influence over Labour. But, rather, it will escalate it. This is now a serious enough issue to have drawn a shadow Cabinet resignation. Watson’s self-indulgent resignation letter makes clear that he’s going partly because of Blairite criticism. As he
Tom Watson has announced he is standing down from his role as Labour general election co-ordinator. You can read the full text of his resignation letter to Ed Miliband below. Given the letter says he offered to resign on Tuesday, the lines prepared by Miliband on Watson for yesterday’s PMQs make a little more sense
Last night, a terrific party was held in Old Queen Street for The Spectator. Our editor Fraser Nelson, looking a little bleary eyed two days after the birth of his third child, still somehow managed to smile at Pippa Middleton, our sports and adventure correspondent. Here is a selection of photos from the bash, courtesy
It is good to see Boris furthering his policy of allowing illegal immigrants to stay if they manage to evade the attention of the authorities for 12 years. Older readers may just remember that they read it in the Spec first. The idea, as I remember, came up in conversations for a leader for the magazine back in 2001,
Last month the Labour party moved two debates in the Commons pushing for Government to keep running the important East Coast Main Line (ECML) rail franchise between London King’s Cross, Newcastle and Scotland. The state has run this service since National Express East Coast was hit by the downturn in 2008 when it became unable
Lovely to see Lord Tebbit at The Spectator summer party. I reminded him that he had once written a short letter to me, which I still cherish. Back when I was editor of the BBC Today programme I had written to lots of famous people to get their views about religious belief and faith, for
William Hague was as circumspect as he possibly could be about the situation in Egypt in his Today interview. He insisted that Britain would work with whoever was in power in the country: ‘We recognise states, not government and of course we recognise the state of Egypt and we have to work with whoever is
As trailed on Coffee House yesterday, MPs in favour of an EU referendum met today to discuss how to advance James Wharton’s private member’s bill and how to pressure Labour and the Lib Dems to change their stance on the issue. I hear colleagues from all parties agreed with Wharton’s warning that amendments in the
The Durand boarding school project is a wonderfully ambitious attempt to give children from one of the most deprived parts of London the kind of education that has traditionally only be available to a privileged few. But earlier this week, the National Audit Office criticised the Department for Education for handing over money for the
There’s a joke doing the rounds in Tahrir Square which goes like this: ‘Nasser, Sadat, and Mubarak all tried to destroy the Muslim Brotherhood, but only Mursi succeeded’. As protests against the world’s oldest Islamist party intensify, the Brotherhood is now learning the price of power after decades of being confined to the political wilderness.
At Prime Minister’s Questions today, backbencher Philip Lee ambushed David Cameron on the subject of health tourism. He asked: ‘As a doctor who once had to listen incredulously to a patient explain, via a translator, that she only discovered she was nine months’ pregnant on arrival at terminal 3 at Heathrow, I was pleased to
Today Ed Miliband headed for the favourite destination of faltering leaders: abroad. Any crisis-stricken banana republic will do. At PMQs the Labour leader decided that Egypt would fit the bill. Knitting his brows into a gap-year frown of munificent superiority, Miliband asked the PM to tell us how Britain is encouraging President Morsi ‘to secure
Lord Bell, AKA the King of Spin, made some noise at the annual Freedom Dinner (established by libertarians to mark the anniversary of the smoking ban) last night at Canary Wharf’s cavernous Boisdale. He had stern words for the anti-tobacco lobby: ‘There is not one shred of scientific evidence of the existence of passive smoking