All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The conventional wisdom about the consequences of the failure of Lords reform is that the Liberal Democrats will wreak their revenge for the Conservatives’ ‘breach of contract’ by scuppering the boundary changes. Over the past few months, the party has taken great pains to link the two reforms, and now that it is clear that
One of the criticisms of the idea of Boris Johnson as a potential Prime Minister is that he doesn’t look the part and isn’t serious enough. The argument goes that it is all very well for the Mayor of London to jape around, but quite another thing for the Prime Minister to (Phil Collins produced
When you are not a part of the Tory tribe there are certain subjects you worry about mentioning as journalist, whether it’s at a Conservative Party conference, or indeed, on a blog for the Spectator. One is Europe, another is immigration and a third is multiculturalism. These three interlocking bogies drive the Tory grassroots and
It has taken the police nine years to secure convictions for murder against the parents of 17 year old Shafilea Ahmed. Murdered by her parents in an honour killing, they spun a web of lies to conceal the true circumstances of her death for years. A wall of silence surrounded the case until 2007 when police finally made a
Lord Moynihan’s comments about the dominance of private school athletes in Team GB have caused a stir. He suggests that the fact that half of our medals in Beijing were won by athletes who attended fee paying schools is ‘one of the worst statistics in sport’. He’s right and it’s worrying. But rather than hand-wringing
This is the end of diplomacy in Syria. Kofi Annan announced yesterday that he will step down as international peace envoy for Syria at the end of this month, highlighting the impotence of United Nations efforts in the country. This effectively closes the main diplomatic avenue by which Western powers have been able to raise
Despite having carried out terrorist attacks for the last thirty years and killed hundreds of people around the world, the terrorist group Hezbollah is, unbelievably, still not on the European Union’s list of banned terrorist organisations. In today’s Wall Street Journal. Daniel Schwammenthal lays out the imperative case for putting them on that list. Officially
In recent weeks, Downing Street has been repeatedly told by Tory MPs that if proposals for an elected element in the House of Lords were brought back to the Commons, the next rebellion would be even bigger than the 91 who voted against second reading. Downing Street, as the Telegraph reported this morning, has now
Let’s forget for a minute about the Lib Dems and their dire threats of ‘consequences’ for the failure of the Lords Reform Bill and focus on the Conservative party. David Cameron has failed to convince his party to support the legislation. He said he needed the summer to try to win the rebels round before
When the coalition returns from the summer recess, don’t expect a relaxed, post-holiday spirit. David Cameron has failed to convince his backbenchers to support the House of Lords Reform Bill and The Telegraph reports that the Prime Minister will announce that these reforms are to be shelved in the coming days. This triggers that new
The case for reform of secondary school exams gained further momentum today with the revelation that the number of schools using Cambridge IGCSEs has increased by 300 per cent since 2010. Michael Gove allowed state schools to enter pupils for these ‘tougher’ tests two years ago, and the state sector now accounts for almost half
Keep an eye on Saudi Arabia’s newly appointed spymaster, Prince Bandar bin Sultan. After a long stint in Washington where he served as ambassador for 22 years, the prince was recalled to Riyadh in 2005 and then largely sank from public view. Reinstated to frontline politics last month, both King Abdullah and Barak Obama are
It’s a strange old world when a Prime Minister backing his own Chancellor is worth reporting. But this afternoon the Prime Minister was asked by Sky News whether he was going to reshuffle George Osborne. Naturally, he answered: ‘George Osborne is doing an excellent job in very difficult circumstances and he has my full support
Today’s YouGov poll is the latest Boris talking point. For what it is worth, it shows that the idea of Boris as leader reduces the Labour lead from six points to one. It is the first polling evidence we’ve seen that suggests the Tories would do better nationally under Boris. The Boris speculation has now
The Robin Hood tax has galloped into France, and once again Britain is being pressured to introduce the same thing in its financial sector. It’s a thankless job defending the City at the moment, what with UK banks mired in one scandal after another and Libor-gate still unresolved, but the UK must stand firm in
In the last week alone by winning Olympic gold and through his victory in the Tour de France, Bradley Wiggins has single-handedly raised the profile of cycling in this country. Now our government needs to get further behind cycling and pump more money into our infrastructure and make safety improvements to promote our most efficient
Mario Draghi has just finished giving his press conference in Frankfurt about what the European Central Bank is going to do as part of its ‘whatever it takes’ crusade to save the euro. The ECB chief described the single currency as ‘irreversible’, and perhaps it is his seemingly incontrovertible belief in its capacity to survive
Today is the day when European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi’s big talk last week about doing ‘whatever it takes’ to save the single currency meets its test. The ECB is meeting to discuss what precisely that entails and will make an announcement at around 1.30 about its decision. After teasing the markets last week,
Now that everyone has stopped moaning about a lack of Olympic gold, focus has returned to another burning issue issue – why is Team GB’s kit so terrible? Designed by Stella McCartney, critics have pointed out the blue-and-white stripes look more like a Saltire than a Union flag. Don’t even get me started on the
None of us would accept being treated by a doctor or by a nurse who hadn’t had extensive training, nor would we want legal advice from someone who hadn’t been through law school. Nor would we be comfortable with our company accounts being managed or audited by anyone not trained to a high level in
Are flying killing robots about to change our lives? Mary Wakefield interviews technology expert turned thriller writer Daniel Suarez in this week’s magazine, who believes the day of killing drones is fast approaching. In our latest View from 22 podcast, Mary examines the fast approaching juncture faced over drone warfare: ‘One of these [fast approaching technologies]
It is wrong to insult an Olympian who has just missed out on a medal, and worse to bring his dead father into it. But, as Melanie Philips and others have pointed out in this morning’s papers, it is hardly criminal. Yesterday, Dorset police arrested a teenager after he sent a nasty message to Tom
After Boris’s re-election as London mayor, his departing aide Guto Harri complained that the dry but effective campaign had rather taken the ‘bubbles out of the champagne’. Well, the Olympics is certainly putting them back in. Boris keeps taking opportunities that no other politician would dare to—the zip wire ride today being the latest, and
They may have failed to install one of their candidates as the Republican’s presidential nominee, but the Tea Party is having better luck in other elections. Last night, Ted Cruz — backed by Sarah Palin, Rick Santorum and Ron Paul — beat Lieutenant Governor David Dewhurst 57-43 in the Republican primary for Texas’s senate election
TfL have today stopped running those Boris Johnson announcements over the tannoys at Underground and national rail stations that were rather getting on commuters’ nerves. But their replacement seems to be trying to undo some of Boris’ good work in trying to scare people away from the centre of London. Last night, Westminster Underground Station
Oh dear: this morning Boris Johnson was being hailed as ‘unstoppable’ in his bid to be the next Conservative leader. But it turns out Westminster has been far too preoccupied with the boring details of how he can get re-elected in time to take over from David Cameron that we all failed to notice the
Hidden behind today’s gushing Olympic headlines lies more disappointing economic news. Nationwide’s latest House Price Index release today shows that house prices are continuing to fall, with a 0.7 per cent decline in July. As the graph below shows, the fall in prices is a continuation of a trend that began when the country re-entered
One can see why the idea of Iain Duncan Smith as Justice Secretary appeals to some in Tory high command, as the Daily Mail reveals this morning. The former leader is one of the few people who could square the party to a policy that treated rehabilitation as the main aim of the penal system.
Yesterday the ONS published a report showing average disposable incomes at their lowest level since 2003. This is difficult news for ministers: as Isabel pointed out, concerns about the cost of living – stagnant wages and rising prices – are one of the main reasons given by voters in recent polls for turning away from
It’s been a few weeks at least since George Osborne’s last U-turn, so it must be time for another one, mustn’t it? Today’s launch of the Funding for Lending Scheme is being hailed as another change of course from the Chancellor as it signals the slow death of the National Loan Guarantee Scheme. The Sun’s
If Ian Thorpe, Lord Coe, and Lord Moynihan aren’t bothered about China’s phenomenal swimmer, Ye Shiwen, neither am I. I was in Hong Kong when the Chinese swimmers Adam’s-apples bobbing and heavily muscled, won most of the golds from which they were soon parted for having eaten cart-loads of steroids. The same fate befell China’s
‘Poll shows support for UK split has dropped,’ proclaims the Scotsman today . Looking at the actual poll , the headline may be over-reaching slightly: YouGov’s latest figures are within the margin of error of the ones from January, and anyway the question is worded differently. But it should certainly be worrying for Alex Salmond
Today brought yet more reminders of why the eurozone can’t carry on like this much longer. Youth unemployment in Spain and Greece is above 50 per cent – a generation being crucified on a cross of euros – 163 billion euros left Spain in the first five months of the year, and the Greek deputy
Abu Qatada has just lost his bid in the High Court to be released from prison immediately. He had tried to argue that it was a breach of his human rights to be held in prison ahead of the court hearing in October which will decide whether he should be deported to Jordan to face