All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
“Did he know who you were? I mean, not to be disrespectful, but he has been away for two and a half years…” So Five Live’s Phil Wiliams asked David Miliband who was talking about his conversation with Peter Moore who has just been released from Iraqi captivity. Brilliant image. The guy gets out of
It’s that time of year – TV and radio are packed with special editions of Dr Who, news reviews and numerous best-ofs. So let me add to the cacophony with a look ahead to next year. Here are thirteen (and a bit) predictions for 2010: 1. The Taliban will mount a Tet-like attack on an
Clear your diary, invite the relatives over, and huddle around a computer: Gordon Brown will be delivering his New Year’s message – via podcast, on the Downing St website – this evening. Just in case you’ve got other things to be doing, this article in the Telegraph gives you a good taste of what to expect. In
The next time your four year old nephew smears chocolate over your trousers you are to congratulate him. According to government guidance, soon to be issued to nurseries by Dawn Primarolo, the glibly smirking illiterate would have been writing. Yesterday’s Independent reported that in response to evidence that the gender gap between children under the
Hogmanay is still a couple of days away, but it’s proving to be a very happy old year for us at 22 Old Queen St. The Spectator just been named political magazine of 2009 by readers of Iain Dale’s blog. Normally, we’d maintain a bashful silence: but I’d like to say a quick thanks to
Two of the leaders of the organisation that is claiming responsibility for the attempt to blow up a jet over Detroit were released from Guantanamo in 2007, ABC News is reporting. They were sent from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia where they were entered into an ‘art therapy’ programme designed to rehabilitate terrorists. They seemed to
Oh, Darling, what hast thou done? There are few more pertinent, or more damning, examples of what the government’s soak-the-rich policies could mean for the country than the news that JP Morgan is having second thoughts about developing a £1.5 billion European HQ in Canary Wharf. Of course, the bank may still go ahead with
As I say in the intro to my selection of the decade’s “overlooked” books for The Daily Beast, this kind of list is a tricky little customer. Not only will you omit some title which really, really oughta be in there – but just what makes a book overlooked in the first place? Do you include a
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New York’s ever falling murder rate is one of the wonders of modern urban policy. It is proof that decisive political leadership can arrest and then reverse decline that many had considered inevitable. This year, as The New York Times reports, New York is scheduled to record the lowest number of murders since records began
If you’re looking ahead to 2010, it’s a safe bet that Iran is going to be an even bigger issue than it was this year. The violence currently rocking the country is an echo of June’s presidential election, and a reminder, too, of the continuing internal pressure that the Iranian regime faces. The question
In the spirit of goodwill, Ed Balls has called-off the class war. As ever with Balls that is but half the story. Class war has not so much ceased as been re-branded. A Brown aide, quoted in the Independent, says that Labour’s strategy is concerned with “economic class, not social class”. So there we are; the impoverished squirearchy can sleep sound tonight: the Labour party is only interested
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
Make a note, CoffeeHousers: Labour won’t be fighting a class war against the Tories, after all. That’s what Ed Balls tells us in this morning’s Times – so it must be true, mustn’t it? Erm, well, perhaps not. This is how the Schools Secretary continues: “‘David Cameron’s and George Osborne’s vulnerability is not their schools
Now is not a good time–politically–to be an incumbent. The economic realities mean that tough choices have to be made: services cut, taxes raised or both. So it is a clever move by Jon Cruddas and Chuka Umunna to set up a website, Tory stories, scrutinising the work of Tory councils. It also plays to
Bang! ‘Mr Schuringa then saw a ‘burning object’ – which he said resembled a small, white shampoo bottle – between the student’s legs. Mr Schuringa said: ‘It was smoking and there were flames coming from beneath his legs. I pulled the object from him and tried to extinguish the fire with my hands then threw
The Ed Balls leadership cart is revving up a gear. He wants to position himself as the main mover behind the election campaign, now that Gordon Brown is dead in the water. It was his plan to stop Darling jacking up VAT to 20 percent, so he can accuse the Tories of wanting to do
I have some advice for CoffeeHousers hungry for the latest evidence about the guy who tried to blow up the Amsterdam-to-Detroit flight: go to the American press and their websites. They are 100% free to pursue these stories: the press in Britain isn’t. Not any more. The suspect suffering second degree burns in hospital, named
So, dear and gentle reader*, here’s wishing you a splendid and very merry Christmas. Thanks for being here this year and for all your comments and contributions to this blog. It’s not the same without you. Anyway, here are Shane and Kirsty performing one of the few Christmas songs worth a damn. *Not actually
Barring major political catastrophe, Coffee House will be falling silent over the next few days as we all celebrate Christmas. Many thanks to CoffeeHousers for your contributions over the past year. We hope you enjoy a happy holiday. If you’re looking to fill your time, then Paul Johnson’s and Lloyd Evans’ pieces from the Christmas issue of
The Tories have missed a trick in responding to the predictable news that Gordon Brown won’t be giving evidence to the Iraq Inquiry until after the election. William Hague has just said that it stinks. He should have followed up by listing the questions Brown should be asked – highlighting the extent of his personal
There’s a story in some of today’s newspapers that evil Cypriots are murdering our robins and eating them. Crucially, for me, it does not say which Cypriots. The Greeks and Turks have the second and third worst cuisines in Europe (the Scotch are at the bottom) and there is not much to choose between them.
The Guardian’s interview with David Willetts is a decent preview of the Tories’ forthcoming green paper on family policy, and is neatly summarised by Jonathan Isaby here. Although I have my doubts about some Tory thinking in this area, there are a few encouraging ideas in there – such as relationship guidance schemes modelled on those provided by
One of the surprises of the Tory leadership campaign in 2005 was how David Davis bested David Cameron in the TV debate between the two men. Those involved in Cameron’s preparations for that debate blame Cameron’s poor performance on how Michael Gove knocked Cameron’s confidence in the run up to it. Gove was Davis in
A hefty one-two punch in the continuing “Have Gordon and Peter fallen out?” story, this morning. The Telegraph has quotes suggesting that Mandelson is “upset” and feels “disposed of” by Brown. And Sue Cameron of the FT details a specific rift between the pair, ending with the observation: “I hear Lord M is not happy,
It’s that time of year. There’ll be only a little blogging here until Christmas is done for one more time. So here, as the season demands, is a wee quiz to keep you occupied. You could, I suppose, google some of the answers but where’s the fun or satisfaction in that? So don’t google. No
Just realised that today is the twentieth anniversary of Samuel Beckett’s death. Only twenty years! Seems like it should be longer, somehow, since the finest cricketer to have won the Nobel prize for literature finally gave in to the temptation of not going on. Then again, most of the old boy’s best work did belong
The latest Comres poll for the Independent indicates, as if we needed telling, that the Tories are yet to seal the deal. It’s far from panic stations – the lead remains at 9 points – but there are two figures that prove where the Tories are going wrong. The majority of respondents feel that a
The spin machines are gearing up as we amble towards an election, and strategists’ latest hobby-horse is self-defence. Following the sentencing of Munir Hussain, Alan Johnson admitted feeling “uncomfortable” about Judge Reddihough’s decision. Never one to miss the bus, Chris Grayling went further and faster, suggesting that householders should be immune from prosecution unless they
As the perfect end to the political year, the three wise men of our main political parties have brought the newborn infant of our renewed parliamentary system the gift of a televised debate. This could actually be quite exciting. David Cameron was soundly beaten by David Davis in at least one of his leadership debates
The Daily Mail sets about David Cameron in its editorial today. It accuses him of “insulting voters’ intelligence”, tells him to “avoid the PR men, spivs and trashy celebrities with whom he has taken to mixing” and advises him to “spend less time with his spin-doctors, worrying about his image and trying to be all
We’ve been experiencing a few technical difficulties on Spectator.co.uk today, which means some of you may not have been able to access the site. We hope that things will be fully fixed shortly.
George Monbiot isn’t everyone’s cup of char, not least in these parts. I don’t write much about climate change because the subject* bores me and so I’m happy for Monbiot to promise that the end of the world is just around the corner and I don’t spend too much time worrying about it. I suspect,
I don’t pay enough attention to the Liberal Democrats to be certain about this but today may have been Nick Clegg’s best day as leader. The announcement that there will be not one but, god help us, three debates between Gordon Brown and David Cameron and that Clegg has been invited to participate as an