All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
If you want a measure of how disastrous yesterday’s Queen’s Speech was for Gordon Brown, you need only pay heed to two things. First, today’s news coverage, which is almost universally negative for the PM. Even the FT, which is usually quite forgiving of Brown, launches an acerbic attack on the “shameless politicking” in the
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: Con Coughlin believes
The Queen’s Speech contained some worthwhile bills. Parents will face orders when a child breaches antisocial behaviour rules, and the Flood and Water Maintainence Bill, whilst unlikely to rival the 1911 Parliament Act in the annals of Westminster, is welcome, responsible legislation. I can even see that if you’re that way inclined, which I’m not,
The story, ‘Afghan Minister accused of taking bribe’ might seem depressingly predictable. But the accusations in today’s Washington Post are shocking even by the standards of the Karzai government. The paper reports that a US official has confirmed that there is a ‘high degree of certainty’ that the Afghan Minister of Mines took a $30
Even before the Queen had trundled back to Buckingham Palace, Mandy had let the cat out of the bag. Speaking on BBC News he said of the Gracious Speech, ‘All these laws are relevant … and achievable. It will be for the public to decide whether they want them or not.’ There you have it.
There’s a piece by my friend Dominic Lawson in the Independent yesterday, eulogizing the comedian Michael MacIntyre. At last, Dominic suggests, here is a comic who is not afraid to be middle class and nor is he coarse or cruel. Perhaps; but he is not terribly funny, either, whatever class he belongs to. You sometimes
Cameron just made a very good point in his speech – namely, that Brown claimed just days ago that Obama would make an Afghanistan announcement in the “next few days”. Now, we have no idea when the announcement will come. But this isn’t Gordon Brown’s fault – it’s Obama’s. The way Washington is treating Britain
Lord Mandelson argues in the Evening Standard that Labour’s legislative programme has the Tories running for cover. The forthcoming debate should prove this thesis to be nonsense. 7 minutes of largely rehashed policies, including all the old favourites – equality, the ‘smarter’ state and so forth, is unlikely to give Cameron sleepless nights. I suspect
Blink and you missed it. After seven minutes, the Queen had rattled through the Government’s legislative agenda for the next few months. It was all pretty much as expected – although it’s worth noting the “council of financial stability,” made up of the Treasury, the Bank of England and FSA, chaired by the Chancellor, and
So what to make of today’s Queen’s Speech? Myself, I’m finding it hard to drum up much excitement. After all, we already know most of its contents (if you want a primer, then check out this excellent Guardian summary article here), and much of it is either underwhelming, unworkable or – as everyone from David
Stay tuned for live coverage from 14:30. Here we go. 14:40: Rather a self-deprecating and witty loyal address by self-confessed “dinosaur still living”, Frank Dobson. He gives a wonderful potted political history of his constituency, Holborn and St. Pancras, with particular reference to John Bellingham, who assassinated Prime Minister Spencer Perceval, whose descendant is a
Steve Richards writes a stirring defence for what is likely to be Labour’s last legislative programme. Richards argues that if you suspend your disbelief and ignore everything you have read about current political situation and you will see not a tired, regressive government but a radical political force. ‘Perhaps none of the proposals will be
The British government’s policy on Afghanistan has a spasmodic, yet regular kind of rhythm to it. The issue pops up at intervals, hovers menacingly over Brown’s premiership until the PM awakes from a period of inaction. He then goes into hyper-drive, promises all manner of things, and reverts to inactive type a few days later
Today’s Daily Telegraph reports that: “As a prelude to next week’s announcement Mr Brown will today set out his plans for “a smarter, more efficient and more responsive government.” Among the plans Mr Brown wants 2,000 sets of data up and running and available to the public from January. It would include areas like the
Chris Grayling’s speech tonight to the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies at KCL is an attempt to set out the intellectual underpinnings behind the Tories’ home affairs policies. To my mind, the two most interesting things in it are how Holland is influencing Grayling thinking and his reassertion of the Tory commitment to elected
Peter Suderman notes that the Democrats’ health care plans have to play a finesse: on the one hand they promise that everything will get better; on the other they reassure you that most things will stay just the same. Tricky! Worse, much worse, for those of us who hope that Congress passes or kills health
The UK inflation rate again “surprised” to the upside today, registering at 1.5%. As the above chart shows, the UK now has by some margin the highest inflation rate in G7. Were it not for the temporary VAT cut – which takes about 1% off the current CPI rate – the rate would be moving
The public’s judgement on Gordon Brown will probably come with the general election, but CoffeeHousers may have fun with this webpage in the meantime. It has been created by the clean-up-politics organisation Power 2010, and will let you grade Gordon Brown in the aftermath of tomorrow’s Queen’s speech. Naturally, the grades run from A (“Top
What’s your favourite moment from The Wire? Here are 100 great lines from the best TV show of the decade. [Hat-tip: Radley Balko]
My recent post about the BNP has offended liberals as well as the hard right. Liberal Conspiracy’s Sunny Hundal writes: ‘David is highly confused. This is because he says: “The Spectator has maintained that the party’s domestic policies are inspired by racial supremacist ideology and that its economic policies are like Dagenham – that is,
The glib answer to this is to suggest that she’d do the party a great service by not running at all. Yesterday I wrote that she’s a “wrecker not a uniter” and that she could hijack the primary season to disastrous effect. That’s clearly one possibility. But there are others, including some which might actually
There’s something futile about Gordon Brown’s and, now, David Miliband’s speeches on Afghanistan. After all, the world is still waiting to hear what Obama’s strategy is for the country. Will he increase troop numbers – and by how much? What does he actually want to achieve with them? Until that’s known, it’s a little premature
Remember the outcry after the discovery that Paul Clarke could face five years in prison for the “crime” of finding a sawn-off shotgun in his garden and handing it in to his local police station? No, me neither. Well, blog-land has not been happy about this but, as a reader points out, our friends at
Last week, I argued that the Glasgow North East by-election would force the SNP to alter its tactics. The Scottish press are reporting that Salmond will scrap his plans for a straight referendum on independence in favour of a multi-option poll on what further powers Holyrood should assume, short of independence. Such a withdrawal was
I still think there are too many hurdles standing in the way of Tony Blair, but it’s worth noting this passage from Ben Brogan’s latest blog post about our former PM’s chances of becoming EU President – particularly the bit I’ve highlighted in bold: “When the manoeuvring [by EU leaders] is stripped out, who is
Much as I hate to provoke, you have to say it’s been a very good couple of weeks for both the Prime Minister and the Labour Party. It is probably true that Labour SHOULD have won the by-election in Glasgow North East, but that is not what tends to happen with extremely unpopular governments these
David Cameron has written an apoplectic editorial in the Times condemning Gordon Brown’s partisan hijacking of the Queen’s Speech. Here is the key section: ‘We are mired in the deepest and longest recession since the Second World War, with deep social problems and a political system that is held in contempt. The State Opening of
Things never seem to go smoothly for Gordon. On a day when the Telegraph carries details of his Whitehall savings programme, the FT has news that one of his closest allies, Ed Balls, is calling for relatively hefty spending increases elsewhere. Apparently, Balls has asked the Treasury to grant his department – the Department for
I can’t quite decide whether there really is a return of ideas to British politics or whether the political columnists have just grown tired of writing yet another piece about just how bad things are for the Prime Minister this week. Jackie Ashley’s column in today’s Guardian complements Janet Daley’s in the Sunday Telegraph yesterday.
Over at his blog, Nick Robinson has put together a useful digest of the different attitudes towards Brown’s premiership inside the Labour party. Putting it briefly, he thinks Labour MPs fit into three distinct “camps”: 1) The plotters: “…believe that Mr Brown is taking their party to certain oblivion and are still desperately searching for
The spirit of Hereward the Wake is stalking the Fens again. It is very tempting to characterise Elizabeth Truss’ opponents, nicknamed the ‘Turnip Taliban’, as a collection of Rigsbys thwarted in their ambition to find the permissive society on the one hand, and plain reactionaries on the other. Not least because Melissa Kite reveals in
The people of Kosovo voted yesterday in the first local elections since the Albanian-majority region won independence from Serbia last year. More than 1.5 million people were eligible to cast their ballot and some 74 political parties, coalitions and independent candidates stood. The elections are a test of Kosovo’s readiness to organize democratic elections on
Well, kind of. America’s most famous hockey mom is on Oprah this week, promoting her memoir. There’s going to be an awful lot of Sarah Palin this week. In the Wall Street Journal, Weekly Standard and his own book, Matt Continetti tries to make the case that Palin is, or rather could be, a populist