All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Hot summer, drippy autumn. Ed Miliband’s performances have declined steeply after the heady highs of July. He came to PMQs today badly needing to fight like a champion. Things looked rosy for him at the weekend. And they got better overnight. We learned that a pilot scheme to fast-track incoming tourists last summer had allowed
Galling as it may be to admit this, it is possible that in the Great Poppy Stramash of 2011 FIFA is right and the Football Association is wrong. Perhaps that puts it too strongly. Let me put it this way: were I in charge of FIFA, I’d make an exception to their general prohibition on
A few months ago a German magazine phoned me to talk about Scotland leaving the UK. The reporter had bought the SNP line that Scottish independence was a practical proposition, and that Scotland could survive and indeed flourish as an independent state in the Eurozone. But, I told her, the Royal Bank of Scotland and
Ed Miliband broke with his post-conference policy of always asking about the economy at PMQs to devote all six questions to the whole Brodie Clark/Theresa May border dispute. Miliband, though, had no new killer fact or question. Instead, he stuck to general criticisms of the government’s approach. This gave Cameron an easy ride. He simpy
Chris Huhne’s article in the Telegraph this morning attacking those who think that shale gas can solve Britain’s energy needs is built around a straw man of an argument. Huhne claims that, ‘Some therefore argue that we should abandon everything else and devote ourselves wholly to shale.’ This is, to put it mildly, a dubious
PMQs, 9 November 2011
Making it easier for people to petition parliament is, on the whole, a modest but useful step forward. The White House offers a similar online “service” though the point of it escapes me since the President’s powers are so limited when it comes to legislation. Anyway, all Americans should sign this petition: [Hat-tip and Spotters’
The markets, it seemed, wanted Berlusconi to go. Berlusconi duly announced his resignation yesterday. And now what? The interest paid on Italian ten-year bonds has just hit 7 per cent. The eurocrisis is hastening ever onwards, with our without the departing Italian PM. 7 per cent, as you will be reminded frequently today, is the
Has anyone used the “Mayday” gag yet? Perhaps it’s too cheap and obvious, but it’s certainly applicable today. Not only are Theresa May’s troubles still splayed across the newspapers — sure to come up in PMQs later — but they have also been aggravated by the man who just quit as head of the UK
George Osborne was filmed laying into the idea of a Tobin Tax on financial transactions at today’s Ecofin meeting in Brussels. As he says: if you want to tax bankers, tax them but don’t create a tax that will only be paid for by their customers. Here’s Osborne: All this is well said (transcript here)
George Osborne’s attack on the European Commission and his fellow finance ministers, for wasting time talking about a financial transactions tax when it is not going to happen, is quite a significant moment. It marks an attempt by Britain to knock this idea, which would hit this country far harder than anywhere else in Europe,
I’ve not been paying much attention to the elections in the Congo. Nor, I suspect, have you. But politicians everywhere can learn from Etienne Tshisekedi, the man hoping to knock President Laurent Kabila off his perch. His method seems admirably simple: declare victory three weeks before the polls open for business: Those who say that
The economists who advise the Home Office on immigration policy have come out against a plan to turn economic migrants into ‘guest workers’. Last week, the Migration Advisory Committee (MAC) published their response to the government’s proposals on restricting settlement rights for skilled workers from outside the EU. With all the debate around David Cameron’s
Silvio Berlusconi no longer has the support of the majority of Italy’s MPs. That big budget vote was passed an hour ago, but only because 321 of the 630 members of the lower house didn’t vote. Just 308 supported the Prime Minister, leaving him eight votes short of a majority and suggesting he’d lose a
The game is the game, you know? And one of the rules of the Presidential Primary Game (Press Edition) is that there’s more space to be filled than there are sensible things with which to fill it. (This, plainly, is a problem exacerbated by the intertubes.) This being so, ’tis the season for the traditional
A week ago, the offices of the French satirical paper Charlie Hebdo were burned down. This attack came after it advertised the founder of Islam, Muhammad, as ‘editor-in-chief’ of the new issue. The move was a light-hearted response to the very serious matter of the election of an Islamist party (the Ennahda party) as the
The obvious thing to be said about the pilot programme run amok that “loosened” border controls at a number of busy UK airports this summer is that said programme was both rational and reasonable. Obviously one is not supposed to say this and instead concentrate on the thousands of terrorists and other nasties who will
While all eyes are fixed on Italy’s ever-increasing borrowing rates, a far larger problem may well be emerging. The EU bailout fund, set up to help countries who can’t borrow, may itself have trouble borrowing very soon. A sale this morning of 10-year bonds by the European Financial Stability Facility (EFSF) had a very muted
Good grief, the Metropolitan Police have asked for – and worse, been granted – permission to deploy officers armed with rubber bullets as thousands of revolting students march through London tomorrow. I suppose the Met has always had this power but, this, as Sam Bowman says, is still a terrible idea: Deploying them now is
The defensive playground boast Stick and stones may break my bones but words will never harm me was always unconvincing protesting, as it did, far, far too much. In case you doubted this, consider the sorry example of Joe Frazier, lion of Manila and the Garden, forever embittered and broken by Muhammad Ali’s taunting. All
Reports of Silvio Berlusconi’s imminent resignation yesterday may have been exaggerated, but it remains to be seen how greatly. He faces a big test today, in the form of a crucial vote on the Italian budget. Berlusconi has proved adept at surviving such confidence votes throughout his time as Prime Minister, but today’s opposition may
So soon after taking on the right over the European Union, David Cameron didn’t want to be seeing negative headlines on another of their hot-button issues. But that’s just what he’s woken up to this morning, thanks to the revelations that the Home Secretary authorised the relaxation of border checks. As James said, May’s performance
Nicolas Sarkozy has served up his second austerity budget in as many months, in a bid to retain France’s AAA credit rating. The president wants to cling on to those three precious letters at all costs. There are elections in six months’ time and he isn’t doing well in the polls. Austerité Part Deux consists
David Cameron provided a reassuring presence for the Home Secretary today, sitting supportively next to her throughout her statement and Yvette Cooper’s response. May, who didn’t sound or look like someone who thinks their career is in danger, stressed that she “did not give my consent or authorisation to any of these actions”. But she
I see the poor bloke who organised the rugby club firework display near the M5 is being pilloried. The Daily Mail, in particular, was anxious to fling the blame at someone for the appalling pile-up on the motorway which left seven people dead. It immediately alighted upon the fact that there had been a firework
David Cameron’s statement to the House of Commons on the Cannes summit was dominated by the question of increasing Britain’s dues to the IMF. Cameron stressed that his message to the Eurozone countries was “sort yourselves out and then we will help”. He also tried to offer reassurance that the IMF would not contribute to
Don’t be too hard on the Independent leader writer and proof readers. Ed or David Miliband? It’s an easy mistake to make. John Humphrys got it wrong on the Today programme back in May, and even Ed’s own deputy, Harriet Harman, slipped up. “I hope we will have David, er, Ed, Ed Miliband elected as
If the EU comes crashing down as a result of the Euro crisis, one thing is certain: the UK will be at the forefront of re-creating the bloc. Not exactly the way it is now, but not a totally different entity either. The reasons for this are three-fold, simple and are about Britain’s interests. First,
There’s something Kerry Wilkinson isn’t telling us. But I’m not sure he knows what it is. Four months ago, the most remarkable thing about Wilkinson was that, at the age of 30, he was a part-time magistrate, handing out fines to local miscreants. A sports journalist for the BBC website, living in Preston, he
Theresa May has up to now proved remarkably adept at avoiding the political bear-traps that have ensnared so many Home Secretaries in recent years. But she now finds herself caught in a classic Home Office row over who allowed the UK Border Agency to ease passport checks to cut queues during the summer months. James
Welcome to the latest CoffeeHousers’ Wall. For those who haven’t come across the Wall before, it’s a post we put up each Monday, on which — providing your writing isn’t libellous, crammed with swearing, or offensive to common decency — you’ll be able to say whatever you like in the comments section. There is no
The word sweeping across Italy is that the PM may be forced to step down in a matter of hours, even “minutes”. Ex-minister Giuliano Ferrara says: “That Silvio Berlusconi is about to resign is clear. It is a question of hours, some say of minutes.” And he couldn’t leave too soon. The Italian bond yield
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. Fraser Nelson says Ruth Davidson “could have been designed by a committee of A-lister fantasists”. James Forsyth says the Union needs a champion to take on Alex Salmond. Matt Cavanagh gives his take on the latest immigration revelations. Rod Liddle asks how you
The eyes of Europe, which have been focused on Greece all week, will see a slightly brighter picture today – albeit one still engulfed in heavy fog. The good news: a new coalition government will be formed – the government of “national unity” that EU leaders wanted – to approve the bailout package ahead of