All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Fabulous stuff from Ken Livingstone, as reported in the Daily Telegraph. Labour’s mayoral candidate wishes to make London a ‘beacon for Islam’. He was speaking at the Finsbury Park mosque, once the redoubt of Islamist mentalists. According to Andrew Gilligan’s report, the idiot also pledged to ‘educate the mass of Londoners’ in Islam, saying: ‘That
When I spoke to the tax justice campaigner Richard Murphy about Ken Livingstone’s tax avoidance, he said that the practice of individuals pretending that they were companies caused ‘a massive leakage of tax revenue. They have all the tax advantages of a company without the obligation to tell the world what they are doing with
Transparency marches on, and what a joy it is. According to the newspapers today, George Osborne will tomorrow turn Ben Gummer MP’s call for tax transparency into government policy. And so we will all get statements detailing just what our tax pounds are spent on. To use the example being bandied around this morning, a
The Chancellor didn’t even bother to hide the thick end of the wedge as he inserted the thin end into the Sunday trading laws. He declared yesterday that restrictions on Sunday trading would be lifted for the duration of the Olympics and Paralympics on the basis that ‘It would be a great shame if the
New roads in Britain are badly-needed, but who should bear the costs? Motorists, says David Cameron — and his speech today is a move in the right direction. No tolls would be slapped on existing roads, so motorists are free to drive as freely as they do now. But if they want a shortcut, they’ll
Will Wednesday’s Budget herald the end of the 50p tax rate? It’s looking increasingly likely, with today’s Telegraph claiming that Osborne will replace it with a top rate of 45 per cent. Leaving the economic arguments aside, the consensus is that this will prove an unpopular move that could damage the Tories. Tim Montogmerie tweets
In the magazine last week I wrote about an illiterate Muslim idiot in the north of England who posted on his Facebook site nasty things about the British soldiers killed in Afghanistan, to the effect that they would ‘go to hell.’ For this, he was arrested and charged with some imaginary crime the last government
David Cameron’s speech today says all the right things about infrastructure. But the test will be whether Cameron forces these changes through the system. Already, the planning reforms have been held up by a lengthy consultation. The government will respond to this consultation this week. But that won’t be the end of the matter.
Here are some numbers for you: the adult rate of the national minimum wage will be raised, this October, by 11p to £6.19 an hour, but the separate rates for 16-17 and 18-20 year-olds will be frozen, at £3.68 and £4.98 respectively. I mention this not just because these figures were announced today, but also
At the weekend, I was honoured to award the Secularist of the Year prize to Peter Tatchell on behalf of the National Secular Society. From the stage, I looked across the restaurant where the celebratory lunch was held and saw only intelligent, polite people (if by that stage of the proceedings, intelligent, polite and slightly
…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson provides an insight into the man behind the Budget and asks if Lansley’s time is finally running out. James Forsyth examines Osborne’s logic behind local pay rates and reports on Downing St’s plans to boost construction. Peter Hoskin asks why Balls attacked Brown
Are we facing ‘toll road UK’, as the Mirror suggests this morning? That is certainly a possibility arising from David Cameron’s plan to allow private firms to bid for chunks of Britain’s motorway system — but I wouldn’t get too excited just yet. It’s a very distant possibility at the moment. After all, just note
Nassim Taleb, the Lebanese-American academic whom we interviewed in The Spectator last month, is the subject of a Radio Four profile by The Economist’s Janan Ganesh that was first aired last Monday but will also be on Radio 4 at 21:30 this evening. David Willetts is interviewed, saying that Taleb’s work underlines the folly of
In the last few months, there’s been a distinct change in the attitude of the Tories at the heart of government. They are now far more cognisant of just how difficult it is to drive change through the government machine. It is no longer just Steve Hilton and Michael Gove complaining about this, but Osborne
‘A Budget for Working People’. That’s the headline theme of this year’s Budget, says our former editor Matt d’Ancona in the Sunday Telegraph today. And his words are borne out by George Osborne’s interview with the Sun on Sunday. ‘We’ve got to help people into work, particularly young people,’ says the Chancellor, ‘We have to
A few months ago, I was invited to speak at the Health Service Journal conference, and hugely enjoyed meeting various reformers from within the NHS (and, of course, their enemies). One representative from the NHS Confederation pointed out that in most countries which were run by coalitions, the junior party was always given control of
Wales have won the Grand Slam and I have grown to love rugby. Over the past weeks I have been completely captivated by the Six Nations and I don’t quite know how this has happened, because I used to hate it. I look back to those bitterly cold afternoons up on the hills above the
Jacob Rees-Mogg, the Conservative MP for North East Somerset, is this week’s Bookbencher. He prescribes Psmith for all ailments. 1) Which book is on your bedside table at the moment? Paper Promises by Philip Coggan. This is a straightforward review of the current financial crisis in the context of a brief history of paper money
In today’s Telegraph, I profile Rupert Harrison, chief economic adviser to George Osborne and the man who’ll do more than anything else (including his boss) to shape next week’s Budget. In the British political system, special advisers are given very little attention — even though the best of them are more influential than the average
George Osborne has just fired the first shot in the fight over the 2012 Budget. His decision to introduce local pay for the 160,000 civil servants coming off the public sector pay freeze is, as is often the case with Chancellor Osborne, both an economic and a political move. The economic case for local pay
And so, farewell Rowan — the only Archbishop of Canterbury ever to have suggested that Sharia Law might be a good thing for England. His flailing, his ability to be wrong-footed at every turn, his inconsistency, could not have been better summarised than by his response to the ‘can Christians wear crosses?’ controversy of the
Normally, pre-Budget interviews with shadow chancellors are dry and methodical. But the Times’s interview with Ed Balls (£) today is the opposite: frenetic, relatively non-fiscal and utterly, utterly strange. Given that CoffeeHousers are probably waking up to brunch, I thought it might be a bit much for you to wade through his thoughts on food
The IPA’s Freedom Extravaganza Tour with Mark Steyn finished last week. Sold-out events across every mainland capital (sorry Hobart — next time.) Nearly 600 people in Melbourne for Steyn and Andrew Bolt onstage together and 600 for Steyn, Janet Albrechtsen and Tom Switzer in Sydney. Plus a dozen media interviews and an appearance for Mark
Here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the past week: Fraser Nelson criticises Cameron’s new plan to rig the housing market, and George Osborne’s 100-year bond scheme. James Forsyth says Cameron will have to take on Ken Clarke if he’s to appease the right on Human Rights, and says mayoral elections are
To mark today’s news that Rowan Williams will be stepping down as Archbishop of Canterbury, here’s a piece he wrote for The Spectator during the financial crash of 2008: Rowan Williams, Face it: Marx was partly right about capitalism, 24 September 2008 Readers of Anthony Trollope will remember how thoughtless and greedy young men in
Labour’s launch of its new youth jobs policy has been rather overshadowed by Harriet Harman’s inability to explain the costing behind the policy on the Daily Politics earlier: not a good look for a party trying to show that it is fiscally credible. But more interesting than the number behind the policy is how it
Jack Valero is the press officer for Opus Dei in the United Kingdom. Plainly, his tweet is made in a personal capacity but it’s not really so far removed form the kind of talk one hears from the Vatican these days. It is hysterical stuff and hysteria is not the best preparation for winnning arguments.
Rowan Williams will step down at the end of 2012, having been Primate of All England for a decade. It is already clear that his term of office has been disastrous. Church people have affection for him, respect even. He is not blamed for the disaster, since he is only doing a job he was
A few weeks ago, in a cover piece for the magazine, Rod Liddle backed John Sentamu as the next Archbishop of Canterbury. Given that Rowan Williams announced his resignation today, here’s that article again: Who shall be the next Archbishop of Canterbury, do you suppose? They are jockeying for position at the moment, suffused with
Well he’s done it. At last. Surprisingly, this was Sachin Tendulkar’s first ODI century against Bangladesh. One hundred international hundreds – 51 in test cricket and 49 in the abbreviated game – is an achievement so astonishing it becomes mesmerising the more time you spend contemplating it. Better still, however, is the fact that it
So goodbye, Rowan. The Archbishop of Canterbury has announced that he will stand down at the end of the year (leaving Britain bereft of bearded authority figures). Inevitably, people will say he failed. The Anglican Communion is at war with itself over gays and women bishops and the place of religion in a secular multi-cultural society,
No wonder David Cameron and Barack Obama were being so chummy: they both knew that they could help each other. The Times carries an intriguing story (£) on its front page this morning, about how the two men discussed a plan to get fuel prices down in the UK and the US. The idea is
The Guardian reports that George Osborne is going to cut the top rate on income tax from 50% to 40%. Cue much rejoicing on the Tory side of politics, especially from those who are likely to benefit from this tax cut. Assuming it happens, of course. Fraser makes the best case there is for this
Will George Osborne scrap the 50p tax in next week’s Budget? Whispers to this effect have been getting louder, and now the Guardian is saying that it will come back down to 40p, and it makes a lot of sense. As I argued in my Telegraph column a fortnight ago, this is the perfect time
