All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
The ranks of the ‘Syriza Tories’ have been swelling in the run up to the Greek elections this Sunday. As I say in the magazine this week, the ‘Syriza Tories’ have decided that the Eurozone crisis needs to be brought to a head. Their argument is that the one thing worse than the Eurozone breaking
I heard a wonderful anecdote the other day. A well to-do couple knelt to receive communion. A man knelt next to them. They noticed that he was Enoch Powell. They told a friend after the service that a church which accepted Powell as a communicant was not for them. It is Enoch Powell’s centenary today,
The myth that George Osborne has held firm on his deficit reduction plan persists. When I was on Question Time last month, Alan Duncan said that Osborne may have changed some policies but he had not budged an inch from the deficit reduction programme. This was not a porkie; he genuinely believes this to be
London I always wondered what happened to that ghastly floating Chinese restaurant that used to meander around Sydney Harbour. Now it’s turned up as the new Royal Barge, from whence Elizabeth, Phil and the rest of the blue-fingered bluebloods watch the Jubilee Regatta making its way down the muddy Thames on a freezing winter’s, er,
Primary school children studying subordinate clauses and foreign languages? What an outlandish but suddenly very real idea. Michael Gove announced earlier this week a curriculum reshuffle to restore rigour and aptitude to primary education. But why is liberalising Gove instigating a top-down approach, prescribing what teachers teach? It’s not the first time that Gove’s
What we saw at the Mansion House last night gave us some hints of where British economic policy will go if the Eurozone start to fragment. For the moment, Osborne is persisting in getting the Bank of England to do the heavy lifting using monetary policy rather than attempting a fiscal stimulus. The first line
There are at least two things at which the British are very good: being jobsworths and complaining about jobsworths. Today’s example of this feature of British life comes courtesy of Martha Payne and Argyll & Bute Council. Martha, as you may know if you’ve read the papers today, listened to the radio, or been on
In this week’s issue, the great Robert Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. makes a bold prediction about the upcoming American presidential elections: ‘The Republican nominee will come out of the Republican convention in August with a full head of steam. Boosted by years of growing strength and aided by the independents’ concern for Obama’s huge deficits and
Benjamin Netanyahu’s announcement to authorise more than 800 new housing units in West Bank settlements, and the condemnation which followed from British Foreign Secretary William Hague, has marked a new high-water mark in the mutual frustration felt by the two governments. The move, which followed close on the heels of the Israeli Prime Minister’s decision
Something’s amiss when a nice glass of Rioja in the middle of Madrid costs just €1.90. As Spain’s credit rating approached ‘junk’ status yesterday the country recorded a dramatic decline in house prices for the first quarter. The scale and impact of the problem is everywhere visible on the city’s streets. A rising homeless population
‘If we lose sight of the central role of debt in this crisis, we will come to the wrong conclusions about how to respond,’ said George Osborne last night — before announcing another massive tranche of debt. The Mail and The Telegraph put it at £140 billion, the Times and the FT at £100 billion
David Cameron acquitted himself well at Leveson yesterday, as he does in all such events. But it was odd to hear him say that there should be ‘more distance’ between politicians and the press. The implication of his comment is that he has been sucked into the brutal realpolitik of the newspaper industry; that he
The Keynes vs Hayek debate is at its sharpest on the issue of employment. Can government create jobs (as Balls says)? Or does large public sector employment simply displace economic activity that would happen elsewhere (as Osborne says)? A fascinating study has been released today by the Spatial Economics Research Centre at the LSE showing
Chaos and confusion are mounting in Egypt tonight, where the country’s constitutional court has ruled that laws governing parliamentary elections are invalid. It follows that the Egyptian parliament must be dissolved, by the interim government led by the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces. And the constitution must be rewritten before the presidential run-off on
George Osborne will formally unveil the government’s banking reforms in a speech at Mansion House later this evening. The reforms are in line with the recommendations of Sir John Vickers’s Independent Banking Commission (ICB), as laid out by the Treasury, which published this White Paper earlier today. For those who’ve forgotten, Vickers suggested splitting retail
‘You attack poverty by knowing what you do changes the lives of those people.’ In that phrase on this morning’s Today programme, Iain Duncan Smith summed up the difference between his approach to combating poverty and Gordon Brown’s. As Fraser has put it, Brown saw poverty as ‘a statistical game… his great spreadsheet puzzler’. The
David Cameron was visibly rattled by Robert Jay QC, Counsel to the Leveson Inquiry, earlier today. Counsel was examining the relationship between the PM and Rebekah Brooks. Counsel concentrated on the text that Mrs Brooks sent Mr Cameron on the eve of his 2009 party conference speech. Mrs Brooks’s use of Cameron’s phrase ‘in this together’, which he
While summer party season is warming up, is the work drying up for Cherie Blair? At last night’s Renaissance Photography Prize at the Mall Gallery, Mrs Blair took full advantage of being introduced as Cherie Booth QC. ‘As a barrister there are important people for me here – solicitors!’ She went on to name check
History was made in the House of Commons this afternoon when two MPs spoke openly of their mental health problems; the first time that MPs have done so in the House. I’m indebted to Andrew Sparrow’s invaluable politics live blog at the Guardian, which carries the statements. Labour’s Kevan Jones on his depression: ‘Like a
Today is the last day of the Government’s consultation about its gay marriage proposals. But as an editorial in the Telegraph points out, this is a more limited exercise than it sounds…you’re not being asked whether it’s a good idea for gay people to marry so much as how you think the Government should implement
Friends of David Cameron are pretty satisfied with how today went. Their sense is that nothing explosive came out and that if that embarrassing Brooks text is the worst headline from his four hours plus on the stand then that’s not too bad a result. The prime minister has also been greatly helped by the
Is High Speed 2 headed for the sidings? In our cover feature this week, Ross Clark examines why the ambitious infrastructure project — designed to boost Northern cities — has all but disappeared from the government’s agenda. Despite the chancellor’s ‘boyish enthusiasm for fast trains’, the project has lacked the essential support from private business.
David Cameron’s morning at the Leveson Inquiry has not been a pleasant experience for him. In the opening hour or so, Cameron was calm and statesmanlike. But as the inquiry moved onto his connections to News International and how Andy Coulson was hired, the prime minister was pushed onto the back foot. One could see
Yesterday saw the annual Commons vs. Lords Tug of War, in aid of Macmillan and sponsored by BAE. Battle was joined at Westminster College Gardens, behind the cloisters of Westminster Abbey. Teams of marines, fireman, hacks and staffers battled it out before the final show down between the elected and the unelected. Disappointingly for the
<a href=”http://www.coveritlive.com/mobile.php/option=com_mobile/task=viewaltcast/altcast_code=9ebfd32d82″ >PMQs live</a>
A firestorm has torn across Westminster overnight, since Nick Clegg instructed his MPs to abstain from today’s opposition motion demanding that Jeremy Hunt be referred to Sir Alex Allan, the ministerial standards supremo. Numerous Tory backbenchers have taken to the airwaves to condemn their perfidious coalition colleagues. The Mail has the most complete record of
George Osborne and Michael Gove are two of the Cabinet ministers closest to the Prime Minister. In their appearances before the Leveson Inquiry, they have both made clear that they are not interested in some giant new regulatory system for the press. Indeed, the vigour with which Gove made this argument rather got under the
I got lost about two minutes into PMQs today. Or maybe sooner. Jeremy Hunt’s in trouble over that old business again. And Baroness Warsi has breached the ministerial code but hasn’t resigned. So Ed Miliband wanted to know why Warsi has been referred to someone or other and Hunt hasn’t. And David Cameron said it
The government won’t fall over the Lib Dems abstaining on an opposition motion attacking Jeremy Hunt. But Nick Clegg’s decision to order his MPs to sit out today’s vote is another sign of how the ties that bind the coalition are weakening. Those close to Clegg argue that because Cameron did not consult Clegg when
A slightly absurd PMQs today, dominated by Leveson and Jeremy Hunt. I suspect that history will not look kindly on the fact that there were no questions on what is happening in the Eurozone until 28 minutes into this half hour session. The Cameron Miliband exchanges were rather laboured, neither man was on particularly good
Why was David Cameron so lukewarm in his endorsement of HS2 at PMQs today? (In response to a question about the project’s future, he offered, ‘I believe we should go ahead with HS2’, which is rather than different to asserting that it will go ahead.) The project is – as one Tory minister has told The
It’s not often that three relatively small NGOs can change politics. So today’s parliamentary debate on the Defamation Bill is cause for considerable pride, among my former colleagues at Index on Censorship and their partners at English PEN and Sense about Science. In November 2009, we began a campaign to reform England’s unfair libel laws.
There’s an inevitability about the Times’s big splash (£) this morning: Gay Marriage Plan Could Divorce Church From State. The Church of England’s historic role as ‘religious registrar’ for the State would have to be severed, we are told, if government plans to legalise gay marriage go ahead. That would not, apparently, mean ‘total dis-establishment
In nominating the lawyer and former rail regulator Tom Winsor as her choice to be the next chief inspector of constabulary, the home secretary has stoked more discontent among the ranks of the Police Federation. Not only is he the first non-police officer ever to be nominated to the role, but he is also the