All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Commenting on Sarah Palin here, regular correspondent Snowman does us all a favour by distilling Palinism to its essence: Tell me, if you will, what is it that irks you that much? If she is that of a comedian, why does she make you madder than the dogs, ha? You reckon the great unwashed of
An occasional series in which the great theorist’s ideas are considered in terms of how they may be applied to cricket. Today: defence. Granted, Clausewitz takes the view that the defensive side in war generally finds itself in a stronger position than is customarily the case on the cricket field. Nonetheless, his observations on Types
Nick Clegg has one policy that he should be talking about at every opportunity, his plan to make everyone’s first ten thousand pounds of income tax free. It is a radical idea that would lift millions of people out of tax altogether and be a massive step towards making work pay. As one Tory candidate
Another weekend, another set of embarrassing revelations for Gordon Brown. The Mail on Sunday continues its serialisation of Peter Watt’s Inside Out; this time focusing on what Watt wryly describes as Labour’s “plans … for swapping the most electorally successful Labour Prime Minister in our history for Gordon Brown.” Ok, so the Blairite-Brownite wars
The Conservative party’s security proposals have sparked a bit of debate, with many on the right concerned that democracy-promotion is getting short shrift. A lot of the attention has focused on Pauline Neville-Jones’ role in a future government, rather than anything the documents say. Though she is likely to take over Lord West’s job, rather
The Tories have said plenty to dismay me in the last few weeks, so I was delighted to pick up the FT today to see George Osborne talking sense – and boldness. Given that we have to increase taxes, it’s an obvious one to raise. The “too big to fail” principle means that the state
Today was a day which demonstrated just how much Peter Mandelson has won back the turf he lost before Christmas in recent weeks. First, there was his interview in the Telegraph where he comes out for the 50p top rate of tax going down when the fiscal situation allows. Then, there was Gordon Brown’s speech
Why did it take Peter Mandelson so long to support Brown on the afternoon of the snow plot? Well, his lordship was taking luncheon. His interview with the Telegraph contains the disclosure: ‘As the scheming by Geoff Hoon and Patricia Hewitt unfolded, the Business Secretary ate haddock with an old friend. “We had a good
What intrigues me most about the Cruddas/Purnell axis is their commitment to faith in public life. Many politicians discuss faith carefully and define its role in society as essentially passive – remember David Cameron’s recent interview with the Evening Standard. Cruddas and Purnell envisage faith and the civic mutualism it engenders as an active ingredient
The government has caved in its dispute with the Muslim Council of Britain. The government broke off relations with the group over its deputy director-general Daud Abdullah signing the Istanbul Declaration. Indeed, Daud Abdullah even instigated legal action against the then Communities Secretary Hazel Blears over her statements about what the declaration called for. But
Since September 11, Britain has lost one war and is not winning another. But the question of why this is the case remains depressingly low down the agenda. There is remarkably little interest in why the “British army was defeated in the field in southern Iraq”, to quote Gordon Brown’s and David Miliband’s favourite counter-insurgency
Fraser Nelson congratulates Ross Kemp for giving both sides of the Israeli/Palestinian debate. James Forsyth believes that Jon Cruddas may be Labour’s coming man, and scents Labour’s plotters gathering to oppose international jurisdiction. Peter Hoskin is stunned to hear Ed Balls say the same stuff differently, and praises the Tories sensible re-think of their marriage tax
Andrew Neil’s guest on this week’s Straight Talk (BBC News Channel – Saturday at 0430 and 2230 and Sunday at 0130, 1530 and 2330) is former Speaker Baroness Boothroyd. There is a delicious anecdote about the time Boothroyd invited herself round to Bercow’s flat and advised him on several weighty matters, but I’ll leave you to
The sword of truth is working overtime this afternoon. First, Andy Burnham writes a letter to David Cameron demanding answers about a £21,000 donation from John Nash, chairman of CareUK, to the office of, oh dear, Andrew Lansley. As Paul Waugh notes, a conflict of interest scandal looms here because CareUK is a private firm
Oops! Britain’s inflation is heading back to 4 per cent territory as you’d expect with the Bank of England printing money and using the debt to finance government spending. If you create more money, you reduce the value of the money. Citi has done another brilliant research note, which it is putting online, laying
As the world has geared up to help a devastated Haiti, new challenges came into view. Destroyed ports, a crumbling airport and the lack of a local counterpart are hampering the international effort to help people still trapped under the rubble. Survivors, many of whom have no place to sleep, may have lost friends and
We have led the magazine this week on coming Tory defence cuts, with a brilliant piece by Max Hastings. Look closely at the cover image (our second by Christian Adams) and you can see the guillotine blade will hit he RAF and Navy guys before the Army. This, Hastings argues, will be the effect of
The think tank, Chatham House, is the next venue for Cameron’s intermittent policy blitz. He will unveil his national security strategy, part of which, the Telegraph reports, will enable the government to raid the international development budget to fund military projects. ‘The Conservatives are committed to increasing the international development budget to meet a United
Hopi Sen argues that Gordon Brown needs to run a Harry Truman-like campaign. That’s probably right. But Labour’s problem is that Brown is in a position that’s more like the Truman of 1951 than the surprisingly victorious Truman of 1948. The economy has done to Gordon waht the Korean War did to the great haberdasher
Google’s decision to publicly confront the Chinese government over cyber attacks that have been hitting Google customers for the past year or so poses a difficult challenge for the Obama administration. The threat by Google to shut down its operations in China over the attacks is the first public acknowledgement by a major US corporation
The Labour leadership drama now looks like it will take place in opposition not government. This will have an effect on the kind of leader Labour elects. If one of the coups against Brown had been successful, Labour would have almost certainly selected someone who could be presented as a credible Prime Minister from day
Strauss: caught Amla, bowled Steyn 0 Photo:Duif du Toit/Gallo Images/Getty Images. Andrew Strauss might wish that he’d lost the toss at the Wanderers this morning since, as it turned out and despite a stripey pitch, South Africa would also have batted first. Strauss may have been dismissed by the first ball of the test but
Predictably, insurgency in Iraq has intensified as the March elections near; its scale and frequency was not predicted. Alastair Campbell beamed as a benevolent Uncle when talking about Iraq on Tuesday but Coalition diplomats fear for the democracy’s future. British ambassador to Baghdad, John Jenkins, told the Chilcot inquiry: “Iraq faces a real possibility of
An hour of Glenn Beck interviewing Sarah Palin! Unwatchable and mesmerising in equal measure. Choose your own lowlights… Here’s part one: Part two is, if anything, even scarier more hilarious: See the rest here. This is a cult not a political party.
Martin Bright and the Jewish Chronicle have the scoop that Labour will change the laws so that the power to issue arrest warrants under universal jurisdiction will pass from magistrates to the attorney general. What this means is that foreign politicians will not be arrested in this country for human rights abuses or war crimes
The latest issue of the Specatator is published 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 here, or purchase a single issue here. A selection of articles from the latest issue is available for free
Spending cuts are coming – we all know that. And if any party is serious about tackling the debt mountain, then pretty much every department will have to face the axe in some form or other. But wherever that axe falls, you can expect loud protest in reponse. Cut the RAF, and a former Chief
As the Labour Party descends further into student union gesture politics, it is perhaps appropriate that the last backbench rebellion before the election is set to be over Israel and the Palestinians. As James has pointed out on Coffee House, disgruntled Labour MPs are preparing for battle over the issue of universal jurisdiction, which blew
Does Gordon Brown look like the kind of guy who can keep a promise? Because that’s the main question which stands in the way of Labour’s election strategy, if Andrew Grice’s revelations in the Indpendent are anything to go by. According to Grice, Labour are going to repeat their trick from 1997, and focus on
A leader in yesterday’s Times concentrated on the Conservatives’ aid policy – and, in particular, their commitment (shared by the government and by plenty of developed nations) to spend 0.7 percent of gross national income on development assistance. There was much to like in the article, but it misses a few key points and trains
Because everything is a market opportunity, here’s a perfect gift for any friend going to the World Cup this summer. Adding team colours is a particularly nice touch. Apparently this is a genuine product and at least 35 vests were sold the first day they became available. So rush now before they sell-out… Disclaimer: I
I don’t doubt that there would be costs were we to have more sensible (and philosophically agreeable) drug laws but one thing we might avoid is what’s happening here right now: in the last couple of weeks seven heroin users have been killed by anthrax-tainted smack. But I don’t think Melanie need really worry too
Following the issuing of an arrest warrant for Tzipi Livni, the government committed to looking at changes to the way that ‘universal jurisdiction’ is applied. David Miliband said that, “The Government is looking urgently at ways in which the UK system might be changed in order to avoid this sort of situation arising again.”
Dreadful news, Douglas Alexander has been the victim of a cynical paraphrase. Talking to James MacIntyre, who’s given Paul Waugh a sneak preview, Alexander said that it’s really Peter Watt who’s responsible for that quote. “Listen I have said that was not my view. It seems that Peter Watt himself does not seem certain what he claims I said. I would
