All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
With Dominique Strauss-Kahn, known as DSK, undertaking scientific and forensic tests to determine if he sexually assaulted a hotel maid, the International Monetary Fund will be run by its No. 2 official, John Lipsky. A former banker, Lipsky was appointed “first” deputy managing director in 2006, and was expected to step down later in the
…here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the weekend. James Forsyth says that this weekend’s revelations pose a grave threat to Chris Huhne’s career, and reveals that the Lanlsey plan has suffered another setback. Peter Hoskin analyses the government’s policies on a military covenant, and ponders Maurice Glasman’s ‘Blue Labour’. Daniel Korski
The US-Pakistani relationship has always been fraught, but it is particularly fractious right now. It is highly likely that the US will conduct more Abbottabad-type raids following the killing of Osama Bin Laden. According to sources in the US government, several locations were under surveillance alongside Bin Laden’s compound. And that was before the CIA
If there’s anything that stands out from Andrew Lansley’s interview with the Sunday Times (£) it is his air of quiet defiance. Of course, the Health Secretary sounds some of the conciliatory notes that have crept in to the government’s rhetoric since they decided to pause, listen and engage on NHS reform. But he also
The National Security Council was a sound idea. But it has disappointed, both inside and outside Whitehall. The Ministry of Defence has complained that it “failed to give strategic direction”. Among previous supporters in the media, Con Coughlin has commented sourly that “all it has achieved so far is the replacement of Blair’s much-derided ‘sofa
In the factory where my grandfather worked for decades, there was one item more important than any piece of machinery or safety apparatus: the swear jar. Whenever someone uttered a curse word, he was bound to pay sixpence into it and, at the end of the month, the coins were collected and used to buy
Looking at today’s papers, it is clear—as Pete says—that Chris Huhne’s political career is in real danger. The most striking thing about the Mail on Sunday and Sunday Times stories about the allegation that he asked someone to take driving penalty points for him is that the person who took the points appears to have
The vultures appear to be circling closer and closer to Chris Huhne — does he have enough strength to shoo them away? After all, he was already diminished by last weekend’s claims about his delinquent motoring practices. Today, he is diminished further still. Both the Mail on Sunday and the Sunday Times (£) have published
Number 10 has now taken charge of coalition health policy to such an extent that the Department of Health press office was caught unawares by the news that the Prime Minister was to deliver a major speech on health next week. David Cameron is determined to present the coming substantial changes to the Lansley reform
Vince Cable, it seems, has notched his Tory-baiting down from 11 to about 8. Last weekend, in the bitter wake of the local elections, the Business Secretary labelled his coalition partners as “ruthless, calculating and thoroughly tribal”. Today, in an address to the Fabians, he would only argue that the Tories will benefit most from
Maurice Glasman and Ed Miliband do not think as one. But Miliband’s Favourite Thinker™ is an undoubted influence on the Labour party — and, as such, it’s worth tuning into his ideas from time to time, if you have a tolerance for such things. Glasman’s “Blue Labour” philosophy has already enjoyed heavy exposure this year,
With more than 800 people thought to have died in Syria, the situation is getting more and more serious. President Bashar al-Assad has clearly decided he cannot allow any challenge to his regime and has rejected even the advice of friends like Turkey and Qatar to step back from the brink. The military — principally
I suppose you could call it an O-turn. First, the Prime Minister declared, in a speech aboard HMS Ark Royal last year, that a new military covenant would be enshrined “into the law of our land.” Then, there seemed to be a U-turn, with the government committing only to review the covenant annually, not to
The coalition is just a year old and Coffee House compiled an exhaustive Coalition A to Z to mark the occasion. It’s also a year since the Labour leadership saga opened. Writing in today’s Times (£), Phil Collins argues that party has not made much progress from its position a year ago, which he thoroughly
Here is a selection of posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the last week. Coffee House has an A to Z of the coalition’s first year in office. Michael Thomas Duffy, a veteran of charter schools in the US, gives his exclusive insights on the free schools programme in England. And Ed Howker reveals that some
There are intriguing manoeuvres on the education front today. Michael Gove has written a letter to Andy Burnham, calling on his counterpart to guarantee to protect the Academies programme. There’s nothing unusual in this: politicians are always writing pointless letters to each other. But the timing of this one is quite significant, coinciding as it
As the country tightens its belts, some councils are taking the courageous decision to increase spending on certain essentials. The Labour councillors who run the London borough of Southwark have identified a deprived group in need of urgent help: themselves. The council is amending its constitution (Page 48) to create 8 new executive posts to
There is much excitement in Westminster at the moment about Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall’s campaign to end ‘discards’ under the Common Fisheries Policy. DEFRA and non-governmental organisations estimate that perhaps as much as 60 per cent of a catch will be returned dead to the sea because the CFP’s controversial quota system is based on the amount
France and Germany’s better than expected growth numbers are making news today. But the divergence within the Eurozone — Estonia grew at 2.1 percent in the first quarter, Portugal shrank by 0.7 per cent — highlights one of the single currency’s biggest problems: how can one interest rate fit all? Economists expect Germany, whose GDP
This photograph adorns the homepage of the Labour Party’s website. It’s rather odd to show the PM and his deputy looking quite so soigné as the starting point for a critique. The New Statesman’s Dan Hodges descibes it as ‘insanity’.
And so it starts. The news that suicide bombers have attacked the military base at Shabqadar, northern Pakistan, sounds a chilling note. The Pakistani Taliban has claimed responsibility for the attacks, committed in retaliation for the assassination of Osama bin Laden. Security experts and politicians warned that it would be so. It is, we are
Plenty of folk seem to think otherwise. Including George Bridges who has written a very curious post for the Motherblog in which he seems most perturbed by the prospect of this happy isle’s population increasing. He even suggests he’s not doing his bit since Mrs Bridges is expecting their third child, presumably furthering the onrushing
Every so often the good John McCain reappears. His recent Senate speech on torture and the hunt for Osama bin Laden is the best thing I’ve seen from him in lord knows how long. It deserves to be read in full but some of the highlights include: [There has been a] debate over whether the
Bosnia has been getting more attention recently, as analysts predict gridlock (or worse) in the coming weeks. The reason is a move by the country’s Bosnian Serb leader, Milorad Dodik, to challenge parts of the Dayton Peace Agreement, which ended the hard-fought war in 1995. Few people outside Bosnia know who Dodik is. Those who
A trickle of documents from the Chilcot Inquiry have been released today, among which is the written witness statement of former Europe Minister Denis MacShane. It’s rather intriguing. MacShane told the inquiry that it was his understanding that France ‘would not leave the US, Britain and other allies alone in any action against Saddam’ and
In yesterday’s speech to commemorate 12 months of the coalition, Nick Clegg promised a stronger liberal identity in the future. His party was ‘not left, ‘not right’ but ‘liberal’ and would judge other parties by their commitment to liberalism. Above all, and despite professed disavowal of tribal politics, he claimed that the Lib-Dems were ‘more
Ross Douthat and Andrew Sullivan have been debating the extent, if any, to which Barack Obama’s foreign policy has broken with his predecessor’s. Ross’s point in his column this week is that Obama’s approach is more consistent with Bush’s than is generally supposed. I think that’s true, though some of Andrew’s criticisms of that view
There may be a lot of debate about what the “big society” means, but there’s one thing we should all be able to agree on: we live in a big society – and it’s getting bigger. 62 million today. 64 million in five year’s time. And then on up to 70 million by 2028, according
David Laws has just apologised to the House of Commons in a short statement listened to in sombre silence. Laws stressed that he was glad that the commissioner and the committee had accepted that his motivation had been to protect his privacy not to enrich himself. Indeed, Laws pointed out — somewhat boldly — that
Who cares about immigration? In theory, everyone. It’s always mentioned as the policy that exercises voters but is ignored by politicians. (Europe generally comes second in this category.) Let’s see what YouGov reports. In one of their tracking polls this week they asked voters to pick the three most important issues. Chart? Fully 66% of
The Parliamentary Commissioner for Standards, Sir John Lyon, has delivered his report on David Laws’ expenses claims. The headline is as expected: ‘Mr Laws was guilty of a series of serious breaches of the rules’, and it is recommended that he be suspended for 7 days from 7 June. It is a stern punishment for
In Number 10, they are already concerned that they are losing public support on crime and punishment. David Cameron is planning to give a speech on the subject that will, in the words of one senior coalition figure, ‘throw a lot of bones to his party’s right.’ But Cameron’s words will mean little if
Third party support is an important political asset. Nobody trusts politicians any longer (when did they ever?) and so it’s useful to draft in supposedly apolitical backers to support your plans. Yesterday’s PMQs was a case in point, with David Cameron and Ed Miliband competing for support from GPs. As Jim Pickard writes over on
Yes, this is a site soliciting commitments (and email addresses) from those prepared to pray for Mike Huckabee to assist him make the anguished decision to run for the Presidency of the United States. Or not. It’s not, his spokesman tells Ben Smith, an official Huckabee site, though it is linked to from his own