All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Three years on from the Great Bonus Bailout, where is the UK taxpayer standing on their investment in the UK banks? The answer is less than encouraging. RBS shares currently trade at 23.9p, less than half of the 50.5p purchase price. And Lloyds provides a similar picture — the taxpayer got in at around 74p
‘Cat-flap’ is the story that just won’t go away. A report in today’s Guardian claims that the whole story may have been lifted from a speech made by Nigel Farage, the leader of the UK Independence Party. One colleague of May’s tells the paper that “Not only has Ms May been caught out making up
Mariella Frostrup, fresh from interviewing Nick Clegg in Cheltenham, writes about women’s rights in Afghanistan in The Times (£). Her pithily-titled piece — “Women’s rights in, before troops out” — makes the case that British forces cannot withdraw from, and the government should give no development assistance to, a country where the plight of women
Labour’s reshuffle is the best thing Ed Miliband has done since he became leader. I say this mainly because I am feeling very smug because I have been writing that the Labour Party should skip a generation for some time. I wrote (slightly too admiringly) about Chuka Umunna’s rising star in January 2009 when he
This is one Fox who doesn’t have the benefit of a hole to bolt into. He is on open ground, and exposed even more this morning by fresh revelations surrounding his relationship with Andrew Werritty. A business card and a self-aggradising title, that certainly smelt of impropriety. But now we’re talking about sensitive business meetings
Chris Huhne has fallen into the Twitter direct message trap. I’ve done it myself.* When you think you’re privately messaging someone then — horror! — it is broadcast to the world. In his case “From someone else fine but I do not want my fingerprints on the story C'” He deleted the tweet but —
Presumably Chris Huhne didn’t send this Tweet either? Clearly this was supposed to be a private message text message sent to some lobby hack, presumably with Huhne complaining about George Osborne or something like that. It’s getting to the stage where it’s more embarrassing – that is pitifully humiliating – to keep Huhne hanging around
If Murdo Fraser can boast that a bare majority of his colleagues are backing his leadership campaign, Ruth Davidson enjoys the support of many of the party grandees. Indeed with the likes of Michael Ancram and Lords Forsyth and Sanderson in her corner it’s tempting to suggest her campaign amounts to Yesterday’s Men for Tomorrow’s
A former postman has stripped naked and superglued himself to a desk at the Job Centre in Bridlington, in protest at being refused disability benefit. (Yorkshire Post) Police stations in Leicestershire have been ordered to take down their flagpoles as a cost-saving measure. They will share a single mobile flagpole instead. (Leicester Mercury) A curry
A selection of posts from the past seven days at spectator.co.uk Fraser Nelson explains Cameron’s debt U-turn and says that party conferences are now more for lobbyists than activists. James Forsyth says the Tories knew the importance of Boris’ speech and that Cameron did enough in his. Peter Hoskin says Gove’s school reforms provided the
The Tory conference was so forgettable that it’s hard now to remember it took place earlier in the week. But, for what it’s worth, here are my conclusions from the whole conference season: 1. The search for Osborne’s growth strategy has been called off. This ‘leadership’ theme was short for ‘leadership in the crisis, which
With one notable exception most of the Tory “establishment” appears to be backing Ruth Davidson in the Scottish Conservative leadership election. That exception is David McLetchie. The former leader has announced he is endorsing Murdo Fraser. But, as befits an Edinburgh lawyer, McLetchie’s support is not perhaps quite as forthright as Fraser would like. Although
Britain’s diplomacy needs to help British business. The Prime Minister made this clear soon after the coalition was formed and William Hague has followed up, reorganising the Foreign Office and putting commercial diplomacy at the top of the agenda. To some, this risked making diplomats into salesmen and there was even dark talk of “mercantilism”.
The Labour reshuffle is an attempt to bring more energy and aggression into Ed Miliband’s top team. It is also a recognition that the party has failed to cut through on public service reform, hence new shadows at both health and education. Chuka Umunna’s rapid promotion to shadow Business Secretary will, I suspect, dominate coverage
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zTOskAPgL9c The Westminster Fox-hounds think they have picked up the scent this morning. Enemies of the Defence Secretary, of whom there are many, are convinced that they’ll be able to bring him to ground over his links to Adam Werrity. Werrity was Fox’s best man and is a good friend of the Defence Secretary. But
In the past year the government has proven good at cauterising self-inflicted wounds. This morning’s announcement from Iain Duncan Smith on childcare stems another potential bleeder. His department have found an extra £300 million to prevent further cuts to childcare support. It’s a welcome reversal of an ill-advised plan and a narrowly averted political foul-up. The
Remember when Alistair Darling said that we faced the worst financial crisis for sixty years? Now Mervyn King has trumped that piece of doom-mongery by telling Channel 4 last night that “This is undoubtedly the biggest financial crisis the world economy has ever faced” (see video above, three minutes in). The Governor of the Bank
My friend Will Wilkinson, mischievous and provocative as ever, reacts to the Steve Jobs mania in a typically interesting way: Ever since Jobs stepped down as Apple CEO, the video of his 2005 graduation address at Stanford has been in wide circulation and has been unavoidable since yesterday. It’s a nice enough sermon. It’s the
Aesthetics matter. Form matters. Form matters even more when it enables function. In this respect Apple and Steve Jobs really did help create modern computing. Nevertheless, as Kevin Drum explains here there were very good reasons why PCs trounced Apple in the computer business (I write this as someone who loves my Mac). In time,
John Healey and John Denham have resigned from the shadow Cabinet ahead of Ed Miliband’s reshuffle. Healey is, officially, departing for family reasons. But I doubt that many of those closest to Miliband will particularly mind his departure. I expect that Miliband may also take this chance to move Andy Burnham, who knows the health
Freed from the shackles of elected office, Steve Norris remains an electrifying speaker. He is also refreshingly honest. So, when I met the 66-year-old former mayoral candidate at a Tory conference fringe on the future of London, he was only too happy to admit how spent his Winter Fuel Allowance: “I’m amazed by the Chancellor’s
It’s that time of the year again. The nights are drawing in and the Spectator is choosing its parliamentarian of the year. As in previous years, we’re asking you to vote for a readers’ representative. So, which politician has excelled in the noble art of politics in the last twelve months? Think carefully, there must
A useful chart of the “Top Ten” nationalities of asylum applicants to the UK in 2010: I suppose one mildly happy consequence of the fuss over immigration from eastern europe (and elsewhere) is that there is less talk than there used to be about Britain being “flooded” by “bogus” asylum seekers. Doubtless there remain some
Vladimir Putin, in the manner of a modern day Tsar, has launched a series of initiatives to mark his march back to the Kremlin. His most eye-catching proposal is to form a Eurasian Union, a Moscow-controlled EU for the post-Soviet space. Writing in Today’s Times (£), Russia’s strongman explains the benefits: a union would aid
It’s been quite a week for Republicans deciding they’re not interested in entering the White House in 2013. First, Christie closed the door on a presidential bid on Tuesday. Last night, Sarah Palin followed suit, saying: “After much prayer and serious consideration, I have decided that I will not be seeking the 2012 GOP nomination
The Ken Clarke and Theresa May cat-flap has sparked up again this morning, with the Justice Secretary accusing the Home Secretary of using “laughable child-like examples” to attack the Human Right Act. In some ways, it’s hard to take a political row about a cat particularly seriously. But this back and forth between May and
Good god, #Catflap shows no sign of abating. And people are losing their minds over it. Poor old Tim Montgomerie is the latest fellow to see the rumpus as an excuse to get rid of Ken Clarke. Apparently a “Cabinet minister should never publicly attack a colleague” and so Ken must be sacked as soon
So the Bank of England has pulled the lever on a second round of Quantitative Easing. Apparently sluggish economic growth, plus more ominous signs from the eurozone, have persuaded the central bank it can’t wait any longer to print more money. But given the evidence from QE1 – only a small boost to GDP accompanied
The immediate beatification of Steve Jobs, the visionary Apple chief who has been killed by pancreatic cancer aged 56, fulfills all the criteria for mass delusion and is evidence of some kind of quasi-religious quackery. The Book of Jobs, indeed. Sky News report that Apple-obsessives are “flocking” to Apple stores, presumably to “pay tribute” to
Here’s the latest in our Another Voice series of posts, which give prominence to viewpoints outside the normal Coffee House fold. This time it’s the IPPR’s Associate Director, Will Straw, with his five-point take on the fringe events of Tory conference, and the lessons that might be learned from them: 1. The Tories know that
An odd definition of what it is to be a Conservative from the Prime Minister in Manchester yesterday: “We’re consulting on legalising gay marriage. To anyone who has reservations, I say: Yes, it’s about equality, but it’s also about something else: commitment. Conservatives believe in the ties that bind us; that society is stronger when
Not a lot is the short answer. Many commentators argue that the speech failed to match the gravity of this moment in time; that it was safe; that it was not prime ministerial. Steve Richards believes that Cameron was timid, choosing to reassure rather than challenge. He writes: ‘Yesterday in his address David Cameron did Ed
I’m sorry, this isn’t a proper post. I’ll do one of those later. It’s just that this bit of one of the posts on the Dr Liddle’s Casebook thread made me laugh so much I can’t type straight. “Also should have contacted Moorfields Eye Hospital on the different reasons for having to wear glasses.”
Six months ago I’d have said Sarah Palin was more likely to run for the Presidency in 2012 than pass on the chance. But as the summer turned to autumn it became ever clearer that time was running-out and that her moment of superstardom was waning. Her decision not to run is no longer the