All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
So the dividing line persists. Today, both Gordon Brown and David Cameron will talk about “going for growth” at the CBI’s annual conference. But it all, more or less, comes down to the same, dreary “investment vs cuts” line that we’ve heard countless times before. According to the Times, Brown is going to say that
…here are some of the posts made on Spectator.co.uk over the weekend: James Forsyth welcomes David Cameron’s emphasis on growth, and highlights an important member of the class of 2010. Peter Hoskin looks behind the closed doors of Brussels, and observes a fine line between love and hatred for Peter Mandelson. David Blackburn identifies where
Ofsted is bracing itself for the public lynching it roundly deserves. The Guardian reports that the Children, Schools and Families Select Committee, local authority service heads and head teachers are united in condemnation of the ‘wasteful’ bureaucratic giant in the wake of its annus horribilis. What is Ofsted doing wrong? The highly respected former Chief
You’d have to stupid to think an Ivy League* education must be a necessary qualification to be President of the United States but you have to be even dumber to consider it a disqualification. And, to be sure, there are many ways of answering the question Bill O’Reilly asked a prominent American politician the other
Martin Bright argues that “the British people deserve a hung parliament”. I’m not sure that’s quite correct. It might be more accurate to say that David Cameron’s Conservatives have not quite convinced the electorate that they merit a large majority. (Nor, for that matter, have Labour persuaded anyone other than true believers that they merit
A new opinion poll puts the Tory lead down to just six points, the lowest for quite a while. It’s only one poll, of course, but it does tend to support what I was saying last week about this being a fairly promising time for Labour (with the polls in the week leading up to
I can’t help thinking that the Observer’s Ipsos/Mori poll this weekend was something of a blip. What exactly has the Labour government done to narrow the gap in the last week or so? I hope I’m wrong, because I think the British people deserves a hung parliament, which would be the best result of the
The success or failure of Cameron’s EU policy rests in part on the promised British Bill of Rights. What is clear is that Tories are unclear what should be included in it. One question that is yet to be answered is whether aspects of the constitution should be entrenched? Writing on the Blue Blog today,
One of the main charges against the choice of Herman van Rompuy as the first permanent European Council President and Catherine Ashton as the EU’s foreign affairs supremo is the supposed “undemocratic” nature of the selection process. People who opposed the Lisbon Treaty have been particularly critical of the conclave-like decision-making. Daniel Hannan called it
So far as Downing Street is concerned, this morning’s Sunday Times cover is a presentational nightmare. It reports that Peter Mandelson is calling on Brown to make him Foreign Secretary – a move which would create all kinds of internal difficulties for the PM. Sounds a little bizarre to me: we all know that Mandelson
David Cameron was not at his best on the Andrew Marr show. On a morning when there are two bad news stories for him in the papers, the narrowing of the Tory lead to six points in one poll and him and Brown having to apologise to Westminster Abbey for their conduct on Remembrance day,
There will be no decision from the White House on Afghan strategy this coming week. The Obama administration has told Reuters that the decision will not come until after the Thanksgiving weekend. This delay in making the decision is getting quite absurd. When the election process was still going on, there was an argument that
Dominic Raab, who has just been selected for the safe Tory seat of Esher and Walton, will be a formidable addition to the Tory benches. Raab is a lawyer who currently serves as chief of staff to Dominic Grieve, the shadow Justice Secretary. I don’t agree with all of Raab’s views, but he will be
Michael Portillo believes that a future Tory government, like those that came before it, will not succeed in cutting public spending. I agree with Pete: public finances are so parlous that cuts have to be made. Demolishing the state is not an overnight job; it will take time and cost money, and so it should
I’ve just been looking up the history of Lady Catherine Ashton, who was appointed last week to the post of Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy to the European Union. Nothing too taxing, just a quick browse through Wiki (which is almost always wrong, I grant you) and some other background stuff. It does
Afghan politics stinks; we all know it. But it’s still shocking to read how the former governor of Helmand, Sher Mohammed Akhundzada, encouraged his supporters to join the Taliban after he lost his position, in 2005, under a cloud of drug-running allegations. Here’s what he tells today’s Telegraph: “When I was no longer governor
Today’s Times carries a cracking account of all the wheeling and dealing that went on during the EU jobs fair this week. Here are some of the most striking points that I’ve culled from it: i) Brown rejected advice from Mandelson and other ministers that he should try and secure one of the EU’s financial
It’s that time of year and that time of the decade. So, what’s the best XI of the last ten years? In some ways it is a disappointingly easy selection. But here it is anyway: 1. G Smith 2. V Sehwag 3. R Ponting 4. S Tendulkar 5. B Lara 6. A Gilchrist* (Wkt) 7.
Prospect magazine’s In Fact column always contains some thought provoking numbers. This month, I was particularly struck by this statistic: “The annual retail spend of Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street is £5.5bn—more than Manchester and Birmingham.” On one level, this is testament to the importance of clusters. But it is also a sign
Previously, I’ve argued that even if General David Petraeus does have political ambitions there are any number of obstacles that might make it difficult for him to make a successful bid for the Presidency. All those points still stand. Nevertheless, it’s worth noting that the CENTCOM commander is this year’s recipient of the American Enterprise
Credit where credit’s due, Peter Tatchell wrote an article for the Guardian describing Sharia law as being “especially oppressive”. He says: ‘Its interpretations stipulate the execution of Muslims who commit adultery, renounce their faith (apostates) or have same-sex relationships. Sharia methods of execution, such as stoning, are particularly brutal and cruel – witness the stoning
Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week. Fraser Nelson congratulates Michael Heath, and introduces Britain’s AWOL ally. James Forsyth praises Chris Grayling’s commitment to elected police commissioners, and finds an example of corruption that is shocking even by the standards of the Karzai government. Peter Hoskin says that Brown
It’s always heads they win, tails you lose with the euro-sceptics isn’t it? For instance, they were adamant that they didn’t want a high-profile figure such as Tony Blair to become President of the EU Council. No Big Beasts please, we’re British! Now it turns-out that they’re equally disappointed that an unknown Belgian and a
Ever the contrarian, Michael Portillo makes a case that you don’t hear from many on the right in his interview with Andrew Neil on Straight Talk this weekend. George Osborne has given “a fair amout of detail” about the Tories’ debt-reduction plans, he says, but that could be the wrong approach: “I wouldn’t seek probably
Among a batch of unpopular blogposts, this is the one that will get Coffee Housers to grab their pitchforks and hunt me down. Because I think the appointments of Belgium’s Herman Van Rompuy, as president of the European Council, and Britain’s Catherine Ashton, as EU “high representative” for foreign affairs, are not bad at all.
The River Ettrick, running high and fast, at 2.45pm this afternoon.
Sir Hugh Orde, the head of the Association of Chief Police officers, has issued another broadside against Tory plans for locally elected police commissioner. Orde has warned that senior police officers will resign over the plans and that, “Even the perception that the police service of this country… is under any political influence, I think
The national newspapers may not be terribly interested in the Paul Clarke case but, happily, legal blogger Jack of Kent is. He’s produced a detailed account of the case, and the law, that I highly recommend. Mr Clarke may not be the ideal poster boy for liberty but it’s equally clear that this is of
There’s some very readable stuff in this week’s Economist (including a leader which outlines what Brown’s government should – but almost certainly won’t – do with its “last months in power”). But if you read only one article from it, make sure it’s the Bagehot column and its dissection of Brown’s latest Big Idea: public
In their party political broadcast last night, the Tories endorsed a community right to buy. The idea is that communities would be offered first refusal to take over and run local amenities that are faced with closure. For example, the community would be able to take over a Post Office rather than see it shut
It’s a pity the Spectator has already run a political scandals supplement: the Telegraph’s latest scoop is a sordid classic. The Telegraph allege that Tory MP David Curry has claimed £28,078 on a second home from which his wife had banned from using after Curry used it as a rendezvous for assignations with a local school
I have written about the battle against the neo-Nazis and radical Islam in this week’s Jewish Chronicle. This is such an important issue that I am cross-posting the two pieces. The JC’s splash this week is the news that Barking and Dagenham Council could fall to the BNP next year. This follows the news that
You can say this for the European Union, it never misses a chance to disappoint. The first EU president is a Belgium Prime Minister who is obscure even by Belgium standards and its first foreign minister is a Brit who would be treated as a joke if they had been made Foreign Secretary. From
Sure, plenty of Democrats thought George W Bush “stole” the 2000 election (and conservatives would have reacted similarly had Al Gore been pronounced the victor by the Supreme Court) but did Barack Obama steal the 2008 election? Apparently our nutty American cousins believe so: PPP’s newest national survey finds that a 52% majority of GOP