All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
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
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
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
Tenzin Wangmo, a 20-year-old Tibetan nun, woke up to clear skies on October 17th. At around noon, she gathered the things she needed and walked down the valley to the bridge below her nunnery. Once there, she found a suitable spot, perhaps thumbed the prayer beads strung around her neck one final time, and began
The First Minister of Scotland v the Secretary of State for Scotland on the Politics Show today was a non-contest. Michael Moore was hesitant and failed to fill the screen. Alex Salmond was crisp and confident. This disparity between Salmond and his opponents is one of the biggest problems for the Unionist cause. Polls consistently
While the Coalition is split over Europe, Labour does not look like they are in a much better position. Ed Miliband told the BBC that he was in favour of the Euro; Ed Balls would presumably tackle anyone to avoid that becoming the party’s policy. Meanwhile Douglas Alexander, Labour’s brainy Shadow Foreign Secretary, has yet
If Italy’s a country on the brink, it doesn’t show it. At least not in Milan. Along the city’s rainswept streets, thousand of designer-clad people hit the shops this weekend, unperturbed at the prospect of the government’s likely collapse and the risk of a financial meltdown. At a small deli called Pack overpriced but delicious
Today’s immigration headlines have a familiar feel. Twenty four hours after embarrassing revelations about a hundred thousand asylum case files being quietly written off, we now learn that at certain times over the summer, UK Border Agency staff were told not to bother checking people’s passports, or checking them against watch lists for crime and
One of the great challenges facing Britain is how to re-moralise society. A country where individuals, or businesses, can’t tell the difference between right and wrong has fundamental problems. The Times reports today that David Cameron is planning to start talking about the need for “moral markets”. There’ll be those on the right who don’t
This week’s Bookbencher is Michael Fallon, MP for Sevenoaks. What book’s on your bedside table at the moment? David Abulafia The Great Sea: A Human History of the Mediterranean (2011) – a magisterial successor to Fernand Braudel’s survey of mare nostrum. What book would you read to your children? Winston Churchill My Early Life (1930)
David Rennie (aka The Economist’s Bagehot) has an excellent column in this week’s issue about the difficulties that Britain will face if she tries to repatriate powers from the EU. His main argument, having spoken to a number of senior German politicians and officials, is that if Britain holds up any treaty revisions in the
The Irn Lady pulled through – and the Scottish Conservatives survived. Had Murdo Fraser won, he would have renamed the party and left David Cameron running an England-only Conservative party. Yes, I can also imagine how much that would have upset them. But the day has been saved. The kickboxing Ruth Davidson, committed to reviving
The political situation in Greece remains unclear this morning. George Papandreou’s government survived last night’s confidence vote. But the main opposition party has rejected the idea of a national government and Papandreou’s finance minister appears to be maneuvering to replace him. Papandreou’s victory in the no confidence vote means that there probably won’t be elections
We so enjoyed Nigel Jones’s last contribution to Coffee House that we thought we’d invite him back to describe the rather eccentric Bonfire Night celebrations in Lewes… Here in Lewes near the Sussex coast we were awoken this morning at 6am by a flash in the sky followed by an ear-splitting explosion. The shock waves
I see that the UK Border Agency has “lost” 124,000 asylum seekers and immigrants. It has done this in exactly the same way in which I deal with begging letters from Cancer Research and that charity that wants you to help the little foreign girl with no lips. Unwilling, out of embarrassment and shame, to
This week there were rumblings that war with Iran may be closer than most people thought. In a piece for the Spectator in 2004, Andrew Gilligan argued that even with a nuclear bomb, Iran would not be a threat to us: The case for not attacking Iran, Andrew Gilligan, 27 November 2004 Do the last
There is a very peculiar passage in Ken Livingstone’s memoirs, “You Can’t Say That”, about a visit he made to Israel as leader of the GLC. He had been invited by the Socialist-Zionist party Mapam, which has since merged with Meretz. Livingstone had already been identified as someone who was hostile to Israel and so
While the Palestinian bid for membership at the United Nations moved closer to rejection, it turned out that Palestine has a veto over which UN agencies the United States funds. For after Palestine gained admission to UNESCO, the US administration followed through on its threats and cut the organisation’s funding. As UNESCO is based on
Ruth Davidson was reluctant to say very much when she accepted the Scottish Conservative leadership this afternoon, insisting only that she wants to build up Tory party membership north of the border. But she knows – and all those around her know too – that membership levels are the least of her problems. Ms Davidson
Here is a selection of a posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. James Forsyth has news of a Cabinet row about the euro and looks at the post-riots political landscape. Fraser Nelson chides Nick Clegg for claiming to create jobs and says the birth of the world’s 7 billionth person should be celebrated,
The Cannes summit leaves the world no further forward on its quest for some kind of solution to the Eurozone crisis. Strikingly, the Germans still won’t agree — despite huge diplomatic pressure — to the ECB fulfilling the traditional emergency function of a central bank and acting as lender of last resort. This is a
Reuters is reporting tonight that the Greek Prime Minister has agreed to resign on Friday. The news agency says that at a meeting Cabinet colleagues told George Papandreou that he had to resign for the good of the Socialist party and he agreed. It quotes one source saying, “He agreed to step down. It was
I should declare an interest and say that I have always admired Time Magazine. It has great journalists. It has even commissioned your humble correspondent and allowed him to join its exalted company of writers – and more to the point paid your humble correspondent ready money for the privilege. In normal circumstances I would
“As an American who spent many years in this underground industry, I can tell you that the British phone hacking scandal has exposed only a tiny part of a vast criminal network.” So Frank Ahearn wrote in The Spectator a few weeks ago: he spent his life as a “skip-tracer” (as they’re called in America),
A few days ago Douglas Carswell laid out a way for the Prime Minister to regain the eurosceptics’ trust. One of his ideas was to replace the UK’s new chief diplomat in Brussels with someone directly accountable to Parliament. This idea has a snowball’s chance in hell of succeeding. First, the PM has resisted all
Back in June 2008, when Gordon Brown’s government was young but already so weak it looked like it might not last, James Foryth wrote about one positive legacy it might leave. The Union Flag all around Whitehall on the top of public buildings. Whether you saw that cynically as an attempt by a Scotsman to
On Tuesday night the French satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo was firebombed, presumably by Islamic terrorists, for naming the Prophet Mohammed its editor-in-chief. Nobody was hurt in the attack but the newspaper’s offices have been destroyed. They still managed to see the light side, running a commentary saying “After Greece, save Charlie”. The left-wing paper has
The BBC reports that Papandreou will resign today and ask the Greek president to approve a new coalition government, with former ECB vice president Lucas Papademos likely to take over as Prime Minister. Opposition leader Antonis Samaras has said: “I’m asking for the formation of a temporary, transitional government with an exclusive mandate to immediately
Confusion has reigned today in Athens, clouding the first day of the G20 summit in Cannes. Reports at midday that the Greek Prime Minister was to resign turned out to be false. Papandreou’s staying put, for now at least. Instead, it seems there will be no referendum on Greece’s bailout package. In a sharp reversal,
Word reaches me of a vigorous exchange of views in Cabinet this week between Chris Huhne and Michael Gove over the European question. Huhne, who has form when it comes to Cabinet scraps, launched into a polemic against Tory Eurosceptics and insisted that the coalition not be “wagged by the Eurospecptic tail”. It has, obviously,
This week’s issue of The Spectator hits the newsstands today. Here, for CoffeeHousers, is James Forsyth’s Politics column from it: Last week’s rebellion by David Cameron’s backbenchers in support of an EU referendum ended eight years of peace in the Tory party on the European question. Now, the offer by the Greek Prime Minister of
The electoral success of Tunisia’s Islamist Ennahda party and the likelihood that the Muslim Brotherhood will do well in Egypt’s forthcoming elections has heightened fears in many quarters. Will Islamic parties always dominate such contests in the Middle East? The electoral success of the Islamic Salvation Front in Algeria, the Justice and Development Party in
Last night, as we mentioned yesterday and the day before, was The Spectator’s debate on whether Britain should cut its overseas aid budget. Here, for CoffeeHousers who couldn’t attend the event, is Lloyd Evans’ review of it: Chair: Rod Liddle Proposing: Ian Birrell, Richard Dowden, Stephen Glover Opposing: Prof Paul Collier, Alan Duncan MP,