All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
An intriguing item in today’s Telegraph, which suggests Brown is planning to offer MPs a pay-rise to stem backbench anger over both the Legg and Kelly reviews into expenses. The idea is to boost the standard MP’s salary by about £3,000 and pay for it by cutting ministers’ salaries – so there’d be no further
Gordon Brown has just told the House of Commons that he is offering Stormont a financial settlement to increase funds for policing and judicial administration in Northern Ireland. Crucially, future emergency security costs in future will be met by the Treasury, and elements of the complicated settlement will stand until at least 2014. Northern Ireland
Everyone, naturally, is all flustered and boggled by Nick Griffin’s appearance on Question Time tomorrow. This has occasioned near record-breaking amount hand-wringing even though the BNP are, whisper it, less popular than the Greens. When you’re beaten by the loopy eco-warriors you know you have a popularity problem. Chris Dillow reminds us just how few
Stay tuned for live coverage from 1200. 12:00: Brown is to give a short statement on policing in Northern Ireland, in the hope that recent problems over power sharing can be resolved. Brown is offering a financial settlement to fund devolved justice and policing in Northern Ireland 12:03: Crispin Blunt opens up with the cuts
Well, as Britain’s senior Generals goosestep their way to Nuremberg, plucky squaddies and veterans have leapt to their defence. In the video below, provided by Nothing British, Andy McNab plays loyal Fritz to General Dannatt’s Keitel. And these veterans of the Second World War, the Malaya campaign, the Falklands war and current conflicts, will feel
The Guardian splash today puts some serious meat on my story in last week’s Jewish Chronicle about growing US unhappiness about the Tories’ new friends in Europe. Jonathan Freedland adds some important analysis. When I first put it to the Conservative Party press office that there might be an issue here I was told that
One argument against Sir Thomas Legg’s repayment requests is that many are founded on inaccurate information. Norman Baker was charged for gardening expenses despite not having claimed any. Today, Sir Thomas has had to apologise for overcharging Ken Clarke by more than £4,000, and he has had to state that John Mann MP will not
So how do you explain the postal strike when it makes little-to-no business sense whatsoever? That’s the question which Danny Finkelstein sets about tackling in his superb column today. I won’t set out his full answer here – you should read the full article for that – but suffice to say that it involves back
David Rohde’s account of being held hostage by the Taliban for seven months is a fantastic piece of journalism, I’d urge you to read the whole thing. One point in it struck me as particularly pertinent to the current debate about Afghanistan: “Over those months, I came to a simple realization. After seven years of
The good news for the Republican party is that it can’t get much worse; the bad news is that it’s pretty bad already. As Rod Dreher points out, a new Washington Post poll finds that just one in five Americans are prepared to identify themselves as Republicans. That’s some achievement in a two-party system. With
On Thursday night, we will most likely see a restrained performance from Nick Griffin – one which, in itself, gives little clue as to some of the disgraceful tenets of his party. But, as Sunder Katwala points out over at Next Left, Griffin’s official response to the letter released by military figures today leaves no
And so the strangeness continues: the latest Ipsos MORI poll has the Tories leaping a hefty 7 points to 43 percent, while Labour climb 2 to 26 percent, and the Lib Dems fall 6 points to 19 percent. It’s most likely a correction from their last poll – which had the Lib Dems above Labour
Many thanks to Iain Dale for digging up this Tory poster from 1929. Prescient and useful though it may be, I cannot share his confidence that the Conservatives will be very much better. That is, we may modestly expect an improvement in degree but not in kind. Alas. Here, at least, is an opportunity for
Now this is going to stir up some trouble. Addressing today’s Speaker’s conference, David Cameron has said that the Tories still don’t have enough women candidates, and, as a result, he may impose women-only shortlists on those constituencies which are yet to pick a candidate for the next election. Putting aside the many persuasive arguments
Hardly a day passes without Nick Griffin cosying up to a poster of Churchill and the Few. Valour provides potent nationalist imagery, but Griffin has no right to it – as his distinctly ambiguous stance on the Ghurkhas’ residency rights makes clear. This morning, senior officers, in conjunction with Nothing British, condemned Griffin’s opportunism:
It’s Tuesday, so it’s time to sift through Rachel Sylvester’s column for juicy quotes. In her latest, she saves the best for last: a Cabinet minister saying that “It’s up to the brotherhood now”. No, not that brotherhood – but the brothers Miliband, Ed and David. The intimation being that they need to take over
It’s not just death and taxes you can depend upon – you can also be absolutely certain that the Labour Party will, at every opportunity, take precisely the wrong decision about the BNP. You may have seen Fraser’s blog about Labour MPs voting not to allow democratically elected BNP MEPs into the House of Commons.
Why argue your case when you can smear your opponent’s name? According to this morning’s Telegraph, that’s the approach that a group of MPs are taking over the Sir Thomas Legg letters. The plan they’re apparently considering is to use parliamentary questions to find out details such as Legg’s pay, his team’s expenses and how
The BBC reports that President Karzai has given into mounting pressure and called a run-off, to be held on the 7th November. My gut instinct is that the run-off will prove a costly mistake, in terms of money, men and politics. The sole purpose of these elections is to emphasise that Kabul is the centre
I didn’t think I’d ever find myself uttering the words in that headline, but I’m afraid those looking for further evidence of my ideological drift to the dark side will be disappointed. I do have to express my heartfelt gratitude to the old curmudgeon, however it’s for his guidance as a literary rather than an ideological
It seems that a second Afghan election is now probable after Hamid Karzai’s share of the vote fell below 50%. The BBC reports that the drop is the result of the UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission ordering that ballots from 210 polling stations be discounted. The pro-Karsi Independent Electoral Commission will deliver its verdict shortly, but
So what’s the deal with the opinion polls we’ve been seeing in the newspapers recently? There was some hubbub in Tory circles yesterday over the fact that two weekend polls – YouGov for the Sunday Times and ComRes for the Indy on Sunday – had Labour either gaining ground on the Tories or a maintaining
Just what was in Barry Sheerman’s coffee this morning? So far today, the schools committee chairman has used a couple of media appearances to a) call Ed Balls a “bully”, and b) criticise all three party leaders – including Brown – for their “cowardly party leadership” over the Legg review. Punchy stuff, which makes you
Paul Waugh reports that 5 ‘refusenik’ Labour MPs are threatening to trigger by-elections over Brown’s reluctance to curb Sir Thomas Legg’s retrospective cap. Clearly, Brown is in an invidious position – it is conceivable that Labour will lose these by-elections in any event, but Brown would be committing very protracted and very painful electoral suicide
…here are some posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: Fraser Nelson says that the horror story of the BNP’s success is not over, and argues that current Tory health plans are backward-looking and reactionary. James Forsyth reports on the end of a convenient fiction, and thinks the Tories have found the right way to
I’m absolutely delighted to welcome Susan Hill to Spectator.co.uk’s pantheon of guest bloggers. Susan is, of course, a celebrated writer – the author of numerous works of fiction and non-fiction – but many of you will know her as an incisive commenter around these parts, as well as a frequent contributor to the print magazine.
Any attempt to use legal measures to keep the BNP off Question Time will only have one winner: the BNP. The more of a fuss that is made about the BNP appearing on Question Time, the better for the BNP—it means that Griffin will get more publicity and if he is clever enough to disguise
Right, wrong, or somewhere in between? I imagine that a few people who were fervently behind the Legg letters started having second thoughts when Frank Field announced his opposition to them over weekend. After all, it’s one thing when the usual, venal suspects start whining, but quite another when Field – one of the decent
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
How will you be celebrating the birth of Guru Nanak this year? I thought we might get together for a party, bring a bottle, play a few games. The founder of the Sikh religion’s birthday is celebrated in November, although he was actually born in April: that’s just one of the mystifying things about religion,
It is much to my regret, but I do not know the postman’s name. In fact, I have never met him or her because the post is delivered after I have left for work. I suspect that a large majority of people are in the same boat. That so few of us have any contact
This chart, pinched from Burning Our Money, shows how much work needs to be done if the Conservatives’ talk of handing power back to local communities is actually likely to amount to anything. As you can see, local government raises more of its own money in almost every other leading country. Only Ireland, Greece and,
Tory Bear is upset with the continuing brouhaha over the Conservatives’ pals in the European parliament. Well, fair enough. I find it hard to believe that anyone, apart from euro-obsessives, cares about the european parliament but perhaps I’m mistaken. Accordingly he wants, not unreasonably, to draw attention to some of Labour’s less than wholesome allies
Och, David, dinna fash yersel’. The chances of Alex Salmond playing a tune for anyone to dance to next year are a good deal slimmer than the First Minister himself. His speech was, like Gordon Brown’s in Brighton, a parochial affair, designed to appeal to the lumpen party memebership, not convince anyone who ain’t already