All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So, new jobs figures out today. Which do you want first: the bad news, or the kind-of-alright news? The bad news is that employment’s showing no signs of growth: the total number in work has been stuck at 29.1 million since it fell there in the summer. It’s a touch better than the trough of
The question to be asked of the Offensive Behaviour at Football and Threatening Communication (Scotland) Act 2012 is whether it is iniquitous, merely pointless or, perhaps paradoxically, both. I vote for both. Here’s why: Two Hibernian fans caught chanting offensive songs on the train back from a cup quarter-final have become the first people convicted
Much twittering today about the New York Times op-ed in which a Goldman Sachs executive announces his resignation. Iain Martin, for instance, suggests it is “a devastating knee in the nuts” for the world’s leading infamous financial institution. Perhaps so, though I rather suspect most people who think about these things are already pretty sceptical
With David Cameron off in America, Nick Clegg is on PMQs duty today. Follow our live coverage below: (Not actually) PMQs 17 March
Consider these three propositions: 1. A Mormon, moderate conservative from Massachusetts won 30% of the vote in Alabama and Mississippi in Republican primaries in which 80% of voters were evangelical Christians. Not bad! 2. The Republican front-runner, armed with a massive advantages in cash, organisation and “establishment” support, was rejected by 70% of conservative voters
Poor old Mitt Romney. He just can’t win. Every time it looks as if he’s finally closing in on the Republican nomination, he slips again. Rick Santorum triumphed yesterday in the ‘dixie primary’, winning in Mississippi and Alabama. Romney finished third in both states. He wasn’t expected to win in the south, admittedly, but the
George Osborne is planning to launch a 100-year bond, says the FT — a sure sign that the Bond Bubble is getting even bigger. These devices are usually used by American universities: the California Institute of Technology issued one at 4.7 per cent, MIT did one at 5.6 per cent, and a few American companies
Above is what they call the ‘raw video’ of David Cameron’s and Barack Obama’s trip to a basketball game last night. It’s the unrefined version of what Downing St hopes will be refined, packaged and sent to your television screen at hyperspeed: images of the PM and the President dressed casually and chatting away as
I was in Washington at the time so did not see the Question Time episode Nick Cohen mentions in his latest post. Those tempted to grant Shirley Williams some kind of “National Treasure” status should be reminded of her appalling views on the alleged “insensitivity” of awarding a kinghthood to Salman Rushdie: Her bad luck,
David Cameron’s plane has just landed in Washington. The next few days should provide him with a set of images that will portray him as a significant figure on the global stage. The Obama administration is giving Cameron the full works: a huge event on the White House lawn and the kind of banquet that
I wrote about the great man here, but cricket-minded readers should also scamper to Cricinfo to read Ed Smith’s reflection on his former Kent team-mate. This is the telling passage: What a brilliant inversion of the usual myth told by professional sportsmen: that they had unexceptional talent and made it to the top only because
It’s the same for celebrities and policymakers: talking about marriage gets you headlines. Hence why the newspapers have concentrated on Iain DuncanSmith’s remarks today that ‘marriage should be supported and encouraged’ by the state. But there were two other parts of IDS’s speech — and the ‘social justice strategy’ document behind it — that I
Can actors at the National Theatre quote Christopher Hitchens’ destruction of Shirley Williams for her failure to defend freedom of speech against suicide murderers on Question Time, while all the time contorting themselves in athletic dance moves? My somewhat surprising answer is ‘yes they can’. The DV8 dance company’s Can We Talk About This?
Everyone knows about Mitt Romney’s Mormonism — and that his religion might freak voters out — but what about Rick Santorum’s connection to Opus Dei? Santorum is not, he says, a member of ‘the work’. But he is close to it. His parish in Virginia has Opus Dei links, and, as The New Republic reports:
The political theatre of David Cameron’s trip to America will have Downing Street drooling. The PM is, today, not only going to become the first world leader to fly aboard Air Force One with Barack Obama, but then they’re also going to take in a game of basketball together. It’s a carefully calibrated blend of
Today’s Independent has an interesting demonstration of the insidious influence of lobbying. This is how it’s done, people: The independence of a Government adviser on red tape appointed by David Cameron has been called into question as details emerge of a possible covert attempt by the tobacco industry to undermine the proposed introduction of plain
Rory Stewart’s article on Afghanistan, published in yesterday’s Evening Standard, makes a succinct case for speeding up the west’s withdrawal from Helmand and the Hindu Kush. As he says, We are not obliged to stay till the last day. Did our mission go wrong because Nato had too few troops; or because it sent too
When the Beecroft report’s recommendation of ‘Compensated No Fault Dismissal’ was first leaked back in October, Norman Lamb was one of the strongest Lib Dem voices to speak out against it, describing it as ‘madness’. Back then, he was Nick Clegg’s chief of staff. Now, thanks to Chris Huhne’s resignation and Ed Davey’s promotion, he’s
If you thought Winston Churchill wouldn’t be mentioned until the second sentence of today’s “Obama-Cameron” op-ed in the Washington Post then, by gum, you’re a mug. Of course the old boy makes it into the first line. What else would you expect from a puff piece published on DC’s leading propaganda page? But the White
After several months on the back foot, Boris looks ready to sink Ken’s campaign for good. The cries of hypocrisy have been growing louder and louder since the revelation that Ken has been filtering his six-figure income through a limited company to avoid thousands in tax. Ken has waited two weeks for the story to
Nile Gardiner is always good for a laugh and his latest contribution to the Telegraph is no exception. Apparently David Cameron, visiting the US this week, will rue the day he “snubbed” American conservatives. It is a short-sighted approach with significant long-term risks. David Cameron’s visit to the United States this week is a lost opportunity.
The combination of the European Court of Human Rights and the European Convention on Human Rights is, I predict, going to give David Cameron an increasing number of headaches in the coming months. As Fraser wrote yesterday, Michael Pinto-Duschinsky’s principled resignation from the coalition’s Commission on the British Bill of Rights has revealed that this
Following his arrest for attacking fellow MPs in the Strangers’ Bar of the House of Commons, Eric Joyce has resigned from the Labour Party and made a personal statement in the House this afternoon:
There are few sights more pitiful, more vexing or more predictable than the sight of teaching unions on the whinge. This time it is the EIS and the other unions representing teachers in Scotland. They are unhappy that the new Curriculum for Excellence – of which, for what little it may be worth I have,
You’d think the American sub-prime crisis would have taught politicians the world over not to try to rig the housing market. But no, David Cameron is back on it today — about how to ‘unblock’ the system so the debt geyser starts to gush again. ‘The problem today is that you have lenders who aren’t
For years now, Afghanistan policy has been governed by a simple question: Do the unknown costs of leaving Afghanistan trump the known costs of staying in Afghanistan? Until now the answer, at least officially, has always been Yes. But this is not a static question. The known price of remaining in Afghanistan increases all the
Barack Obama’s re-election has been looking more and more likely in recent weeks. His approval rating has risen fairly steadily, economic forecasts have improved and he’s opened a nice lead in head-to-head polling against Mitt Romney, as the Republican primaries have taken their toll on his most likely opponent. But the latest polls show things
If you ever needed reminding that government is a series of swings and roundabouts ensuring that what you gain on one you lose on the other, consider the coalition’s plans for something called the NewBuy Guarantee. This project is designed to assist househunters by providing 95% mortgages for houses costing as much as £500,000. The
It’s lasted a lot longer than I had thought, this coalition. I gave it a year, assuming that either the AV referendum would do for it entirely or the Lib Dems would tire of playing grown-ups and revert to type. There is certainly plenty of evidence of the latter. Almost every time Lynne Featherstone opens
…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson says it’s no surprise that Clegg brilliantly outmanoeuvred Cameron on the ECHR. James Forsyth reports on Tory irritation with Vince Cable, and says Nick Clegg’s conference speech was a preview of his 2015 election pitch. Peter Hoskin analyses three main areas of coalition
A week devoted to Mervyn King and his eight-year reign at the Bank of England sounds like pretty turgid stuff. But, already, the series that has started in the Times (£) this morning — building up to an interview with the man himself — is anything but. Here, for instance, is a snippet from one
News that Nick Clegg has brilliantly outmanoeuvred Cameron over the British Bill of Rights will come as no surprise to CoffeeHousers — we told you so last March. The panel was stuffed full of ECHR enthusiasts, balanced by Tories most of whose competence lay in other legal areas. Perhaps Michael Pinto-Duschinsky, the most clued-up of
Nick Clegg’s speech today was a preview of what the Liberal Democrat argument will be in 2015: coalitions work and we’re the ‘one nation’ party who will ensure that the government is fiscally credible but fair. This strategy is the leadership’s best hope for the next election. But it is reliant on coalition government being
Have you noticed, CoffeeHousers, that our politicians are talking more and more about what they’d do after the next election? This has been happening, really, since last November, when George Osborne extended the forecasting horizon of his Budget to 2017. That had a hint of chicanery about it, ensuring that Osborne continued to meet his