All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Describing foreign dignitaries as ‘castrated’ and ‘autistic’ is terribly Gallic. As a rule, British politicians tend not to invoke ‘sensitive conditions’ to aid their critiques and the force of their rhetoric. I can’t imagine Chris Bryant, for instance, describing David Cameron’s euroscepticism as ‘autistic’ – he’d probably even baulk at describing it as ‘political halitosis’,
Timothy Garton Ash’s piece recalling his adventures in central and eastern europe for this magazine is just as enjoyable as you would expect. Which is to say that it’s very enjoyable. But, mischievously, he ends with a provocative question: Now, 20 years on, the enlargement of the European Union to include most of the post-communist
The peerless Mariano Rivera. Photo: Jed Jacobsohn/Getty Images. After eight long, gruelling years the Curse of Bush is finally lifted and the universe is once more on an even keel: the New York Yankees are World Series champions again. For the 27th* time. Hurrah! Fans of other teams may bridle at the notion that nine
The latest issue of the Spectator is released today. If you are a subscriber you can view it here. If you have not subscribed, but would like to view this week’s content, you can subscribe online now. Five articles from the latest issue are available for free online to all website users: Walking the corridors
How close were Labour and the Soviets during the cold war? At the time, many newspapers were on the hunt for links – but allegations were hard to prove. Today, the Spectator tells the story from the horse’s mouth – Anatoly Chernyaev, the Kremlin’s link man with Labour in the 70s and 80s. Unbeknown to
I was interested to see the Observer story at the weekend about Lord Ashcroft accompanying William Hague to Washington. I tweeted this on October 23rd. I even teased Iain Dale and Tim Montgomerie about Ashcroft now dominating Tory foreign policy as well as domestic policy. Does this count as a micro-scoop?
The Afghan police were supposed to be layabout drug addicts and petty crooks, but that the force has been infiltrated by murderous, cowardly fifth columnists has concentrated Westminster minds. Current strategy in Afghanistan is failing. Paddy Ashdown’s is one of the most distinct voices on Afghanistan; and although he resembles a crazed Cockleshell hero when
Now that the Conservatives have promised a referendum on any future transfers of power to Brussels and have, in general, become fans of referenda perhaps the party leadership can address the other looming referendum issue: that pertaining to the Act of Union of 1707. Perhaps you can be in favour of a referendum on Lisbon
David Cameron kicked the can down the road on Europe today. What he announced will be enough to keep the vast majority of Tories united behind the leadership until the election; the party is close enough to power that most people are not inclined to rock the boat. But judging from those I’ve spoken with
A pointless endeavour, of course, but there was a petition sent to Downing Street asking Gordon Brown to do the decent thing and resign. Today the government decided to respond to that petition: The Prime Minister is completely focussed on restoring the economy, getting people back to work and improving standards in public services. As
So David Cameron will let it rest there after all. And in fairness to him, he can do nothing else. Thanks to the Blair/Brown stitch up, Britain has no options left. It never did. Cameron knows that and today’s speech was just a longwinded way of saying it. He is right not to promise what
This is ridiculous. Apparently Gordon Brown has been paying a DC firm of speechwriters for help “tailoring” his speeches to an American audience. West Wing Writers have been paid more than $40,000 by Downing Street. This included $7,000 for “tweaking” Brown’s dull, blindingly-obvious and banal speech to Congress earlier this year. According to the Guardian:
16:05: So, how does Cameron intend to make British law supreme? 16:06: We cannot hold a referendum to stop this treaty any more than we can stop the sun rising in the morning. And now Cameron lets rip. He points out that the betrayal was Blair’s and Brown’s, ably supported by the LibDems. The Conservatives
The word coming out of Committee Room 14 is that David Cameron has just told his MPs that his party’s manifesto will not contain a commitment to a referendum on whatever repatriation package that the Tories manage to negotiate once in government. The most that he said was that if a Tory government was unsatisfied
Cameron had little choice today. At PMQs he played it sober and he played it statesmanlike. The Afghan issue, which is close to becoming a crisis, dominated the session. Both main party leaders were standing shoulder to shoulder, and Cameron used five of his six questions asking the same thing. ‘Are we both right in
The front benches on both sides felt that they had to say that they accepted Kelly in full and so Harriet Harman and Sir George Young did just that. One member of the shadow Cabinet told me earlier this week the only option for the political class is unconditional surrender. But it does seem like
My old chum Toby Harnden says yesterday’s election results produced a “miserable night” for Barack Obama and clearly losing the gubernatorial contests in New Jersey and Virginia was hardly good news for the White House. But if the GOP has grounds for crowing there, then the result from NY-23, where Doug Hoffman’s conservative candidacy was
12:35: Harman says that the people need to have trust in confidence in those who are supposed to represent the public interest. The Kelly Report is another step to secure this. 12:37: Harman suggests that Parliament has pre-empted the Kelly report on the cessation of 2nd homes allowances, pay increases, gardening etc. This is all
A judge has decided that belief in climate change is precisely the same as a belief in religion; a conviction impervious to the “present state of information available”. Mr Justice Michael Burton was adjudicating in the case of a hugely irritating chap called Tim Nicholson, who wishes to have his case that he was discriminated
Stay tuned for live coverage from 1200. 1159: Still waiting for the main event. 12:02: And we’re off, Brown paying tribute to the 5 soldiers killed and those injured by the rogue Afghan policeman. 12:04: Labour’s Jamie Reid asks for the end of the postcode lottery on cancer screening. Brown says he will and launches
10:10: Kelly states that support for mortage interest should cease, reimbursement should be for rent only, or in special cases hotels, up to £120/night. From today, there will be no more capital gains at the public’s expense and no more flipping; those with mortgages currently will hold them for the next parliament and then the practice
As another £30 billion of taxpayers’ money is handed over to banks, the role of banking sector in the continuing UK recession cannot be understated. 1990s Japan taught the world that developed economies with zombie banking systems don’t grow. Crippled by bad debts, lending margins on solvent borrowers increase, credit availability declines and ongoing bailouts
I happened to be on the phone to the Foreign Office press office late this afternoon when I heard a huge cheer go up. The press officer I was speaking to laughed nervously. “The Lisbon Treaty has been signed”, she said. So who was cheering? It surely can’t have been independent civil servants. I guess
I’ve been away for the half-term break. Sorry not to have blogged, but I needed a break from all the constructive criticism of my regular commenters. i always get soppy about this first half term of the school year. It takes me right back to my west country primary school in the 1970s, kicking through the
Photo: Germain Moyon/AFP/Getty Images Plenty, according to Matt Yglesias. Not least the fact that, like its southern brother, it exists at all. The Roughrider State celebrated the 120th anniversary of its accession to the United States yesterday. Congratulations. Matt, however, sees the Dakotas, and their brethren on the plains, as a problem obstructing the Greater
Two years after Northern Rock became the first bank failure of this crisis, another £30 billion of taxpayers’ money needs to be thrown at the banking system. Behind all the noise about improving competition and the European Commission lies one core fact: the UK banks have lost an astonishing sum of money. The above chart
The accusations of betrayal being hurled at David Cameron are, for the reasons I outlined earlier, deeply unfair. It is Labour that has broken its promise, not the Tories – a point that the Tories should be shouting from the rooftops. Also, Euro-sceptics should remember that Cameron did keep the pledge he made during the
There are times when Twitter is a bit like playing I’m Sorry I Haven’t A Clue. Today, for instance, folk have been frittering the afternoon away thinking of Unseen Prequels that have mysteriously disappeared from cinema history. Some of my favourites: All About Adam, Gremlin, Build the Bismarck!, Duck Stock, Le Depart de Martin Guerre,
Whatever happens in Kabul now, the next couple of months will be hard going. Hamid Karzai will form a new government, perhaps with Abdulllah Abdullah. But nobody expects the Karzai III government to be any better or less corrupt than versions I and II. Quite the opposite. In his bid for re-election, President Karzai surrounded
According to the BBC’s Laura Kuenssberg, Czech President Vaclav Klaus has signed the Lisbon Treaty. As James wrote this morning, Cameron has not broken any promise concerning a referendum because there was no such pledge except under circumstances that have passed; but Cameron must now detail how he intends to repatriate powers and obtain an
Rod Liddle reminds us that he’s no liberal. This will not, I imagine, trouble him unduly. Nevertheless, his disaste for the middle-classes gets the better of him when he writes: The mantra of consumer choice was co-opted by New Labour and applied to all sorts of perfectly unsuitable things. Children should go to their nearest
A fine piece by Fiona Millar in The Guardian about parents cheating the system in order to get their kids into supposedly better comprehensive schools. The key paragraph, I think, is this: ‘Successive governments have preferred to present schools as a market, dressed them up as a hierarchy and then urged parents to ‘do the
Alistair Darling has unveiled the initial phase of his plan to get the majority state owned banks back into private ownership. RBS and Lloyds will dispose of more than 918 retail branches across the country over the next four years and will receive up to £40bn of taxpayer funds to strengthen their capital bases. In
I don’t think there’s much doubt that 1989 was the best year of my life. Not so much for me personally, but for the world. True, there aren’t many contenders for that bauble, but even if there were 1989 would be tough to beat. In fact, 1989 was probably the last and best year