All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
No government likes to u-turn, and particularly not on a Budget measure. So, tonight’s changes to the VAT regime proposed by the Budget for Cornish pasties and static caravans are embarrassing for the coalition. It is also worth noting that they have come after they have taken most of the political heat they were likely
There are calls for Britain to pull out of the Eurovision Song Contest, after Engelbert Humperdinck finished second-last on Saturday, with Norway bottom. The Mayor of Leicester has today denounced Eurovision, saying: ‘The politics of Europe — which countries are friendly with which others — has a lot more to do with it than the
The Tony Blair Show was back in town today. The former Prime Minister was clearly less nervous in front of this inquiry than he was in front of Chilcot; there was little of the passion and intensity in his voice that there was that day as he defended his decision to take the country to
UPDATE: The below video has now been taken down from YouTube, but Guido has another copy here. Guido was first to this video of Downing St’s Director of Communications, Craig Oliver, remonstrating with the political correspondent Norman Smith about the tone of a BBC report — but it’s worth posting again here. Mr Oliver, it
What is Baroness Warsi accused of? The main allegation in yesterday’s Sunday Times is that, in early 2008, Warsi was ‘claiming parliamentary expenses for overnight accommodation when she was staying rent-free in a friend’s house’ in Acton. The house in question is owned by Dr Wafik Moustafa but Warsi stayed there as a guest of
…here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Peter Hoskin says the IMF is losing patience with Greece, reports on UK Uncut’s protest outside Nick Clegg’s home, looks at the expenses allegations against Baroness Warsi, and watches the continuing tragedy in Syria. James Forsyth sees a shift in the government’s thinking about
How best to help British business? More debt, of course — varieties of this answer come time and time again from this government. This time it’s Lord Young proposing £2,500 loans for young people, copying a successful model of the Prince’s Trust. The latter point should give reassurance, as the Trust has quite a striking
Nick Clegg did not show his Berlin speech on the Euro crisis to Number 10 or the Foreign Office before releasing it to the media. This is quite remarkable. Up to now, there has been a recognition that while the Liberal Democrats may try and differentiate themselves from the Prime Minister on various things, the
It’s not looking terribly good for Baroness Warsi, the co-chairman of the Conservative Party, is it? She has apparently claimed £165 per night subsistence allowance expenses whilst staying rent free in a mate’s house (who also, apparently, lived there rent free). The Baroness has said she made appropriate payments, but the owner of the flat
Our beliefs are like our families. Some we live with every day. Others are distant relations we rarely see but still think of as part of our clan in a warm, vague way. On the odd occasions they thought about it, leftists and more conservatives than readers of the Spectator may expect have seen the
Last Friday, the Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-moon, produced a gloomy 13-page report about the situation in Syria. ‘The overall level of violence in the country remains quite high,’ he wrote, before adding that ‘there has been only small progress’ on Kofi Annan’s six-point peace plan. And then, as if to prove
If David Cameron had a list of headlines he doesn’t want to see, I’m sure ‘Top Tory in expenses scandal’ would be near the top of it. Yet that’s what he, and we, will read this morning on the cover of the Sunday Times (£). The ‘Top Tory’ in question is Baroness Warsi, co-chairman of
‘It’s getting personal this time.’ So says a UK Uncut type, in the video above, explaining why the group staged a protest outside Nick Clegg’s home in Putney today. The event passed off peacefully, apparently — but this brand of personalisation must still be worrying for those subjected to it. As Tim Montgomerie points out, ‘The
Theresa May’s suggestion that Britain could suspend the free movement of people in the event of a Eurozone break up is a reminder of just how transformative an event the falling apart of the single currency would be. The Home Secretary is a cautious politician who picks her word carefully, so when she says that
Much ado about Christine Lagarde’s interview with the Guardian this morning — and understandably so. After all, the head of the IMF is normally so restrained and delicate, yet here she lets that drop. When it comes to Greece, she says, ‘I think more of the little kids from a school in a little village
Private passions Sir: I was a pupil at St Paul’s School from 1952 to 1957. I remember seeing the bill for a term: £30 tuition, plus £15 ‘extras’ (lunches, books…). I was a scholar, so the £30 was deleted. It was no great distinction to be a scholar, as there were 153 scholars among the
Some of those who queued outside the Cineworld multiplex in Edinburgh for this morning’s Yes for Independence launch found it hard to contain their chortles. There, hanging above the door through which Alex Salmond was due to arrive was a huge poster carrying just two words — The Dictator. And if that ad for Sacha
This was our cover piece 50 years ago today, celebrating the consecration of the new Coventry Cathedral built following the bombing of the previous Cathedral during the Second World War. The great barn, Kenneth J Robinson, 25 May 1962 As I stood just inside the glazed ‘west’ wall of Coventry Cathedral, beneath John Hutton’s gaily
Here is a selection of articles and discussions from this week on Spectator.co.uk… James Forsyth says the Beecroft report is — to many Tory MPs — symbolic of how the Lib Dems are holding the government back on growth, and explains what Nigel Farage’s offer means for David Cameron. Peter Hoskin asks where our politicians’
Adam Smith’s Leveson ordeal is now over. The testimony we’ve heard from Smith and Fred Michel has left Hunt’s position weaker in one key regard. The crucial allegation is that he misled Parliament when he said that he had not tried to influence the quasi-judicial decision on News Corp’s bid for BSkyB when it was
Treasury Select Committee Chairman Andrew Tyrie recently explained he would support cutting back the size of the state even if our public finances were in balance. I doubt whether the leadership of the Conservative party agrees. Cameron and Osborne seemed settled on the Brownite consensus until the financial crisis threw them a curved ball. This,
The campaign for an independent Scotland launches today — but the date to really keep in mind is the 27th June, when The Spectator will hold its own debate on Scotland’s future. The motion is ‘It’s time to let Scotland go’. The venue is the Royal Geographic Society in London. The chair is Andrew Neil.
A couple of weeks ago, James revealed that the promise of an EU referendum is almost certain to feature in the 2015 Tory manifesto. But might we actually have one before then? If the speculation by ‘senior government sources’ in today’s Times is to be believed, we might indeed. According to No.10 and the Foreign
So Theresa May has voiced her support for same-sex marriage, joining Lynne Featherstone, Yvette Cooper and the PM’s Parliamentary Private Secretary Desmond Swayne in recording an Out4Marriage video. Of course, we shouldn’t be too surprised. It’s May’s own department that’s put forward the proposals for same-sex marriage, with a foreword signed by both the Home
How goes the Tories’ plan to reduce net migration to the ‘tens of thousands’ over this Parliament? Not too well, judging by the latest ONS figures released today. As it is, net migration was 252,000 in the year up to September 2011. That, lest you need reminding, is over double the Tory target. No.10, however,
Fred Michel’s testimony this morning at the Leveson Inquiry was embarrassing but not devastating. The texts between him and Jeremy Hunt are cringe-worthy but my read is that the Culture Secretary is not in a weaker position than he was this morning. More important for Hunt’s survival prospect is the appearance of his former spad
A few days ago, I attended the Oslo Freedom Forum, where dissidents and human rights campaigners gather to exchange ideas. I feared the mood was a little too optimistic, and remembered that the first duty of the journalist was to be the bearer of bad tidings. Here’s what I said:
Are you an addict without even realising it? Smartphones, Twitter, video games, emails, prescription drugs and even cupcakes are causing an unnerving shift in our natural behaviour, says Damian Thompson in our cover feature this week. In his new book, The Fix, Damian examines the ‘public health nuisance’ that is taking control of our lives.
Nigel Farage’s suggestion of joint UKIP / Tory candidates at the next general election is part serious offer, part mischief-making. Farage knows that if the polls stay the same this will be an appealing offer to Tory candidates. As one leading Eurosceptic Tory MP said to me when I put the idea to him, ‘the
What do Ed Balls and Mitt Romney have in common? They both want you to think that Barack Obama is spending government money like never before. For Mitt Romney, it’s an attack: he wants to make Obama a Big Government bogeyman who’s failing to tackle America’s deficit. ‘I will lead us out of this debt
If you want to know why the great Labour-NHS argument about healthcare is wrong, read today’s National Audit Office report on the provision of diabetes care in England. Diabetes is one of this country’s biggest health problems and it is getting worse. There are currently over three million people with diabetes here today, and, on
Ed Miliband had it easy at PMQs today. The government is bleeding in all directions. And a further haemorrhage has arrived in the shape of Adrian Beecroft, a government adviser, whose proposal to relax employment law has delighted the Tory right and incensed the soft-and-cuddly Lib Dem left. ‘A proposal to fire at will’, is
Ed Balls succeeded in getting David Cameron to lose his rag at PMQs today. The shadow Chancellor sledged the PM throughout the session, apparently asking him how many glasses of wine he had had today and the like. Towards the end of the session, Cameron snapped and called Balls ‘the muttering idiot sitting opposite me’.