All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling will launch their umpteenth fight back today by talking tough on banks and bonuses. They hope to prove the Conservatives are interested solely in “helping their rich friends”. The Times has the details: ‘The Chancellor will tell the party conference in Brighton that legislation to be introduced in the next
Last night, I appeared on an hour-long phone in on Five Live listening in amazement as Angela Smith and Barry Gardiner defended Brown. You’d be amazed the lines the Labour MPs are being sent out with: that the shallow media is personality-based, but real people know that Brown did a great job on the economy. Seriously. That
Photo: Christopher Furlong/Getty Images. Fraser makes a number of excellent points in his latest post on the BNP and I also agree that Jack Straw is not a great choice to debate Nick Griffin. Straw is too self-righteous for the job and, despite his lefty past, neither the bruiser he thinks he is, nor possessed
Jack Straw has announced that the BNP edition of Question Time will be aired on 22 October and that he will be Labour’s choice to take on Nick Griffin. Great news for the BNP. Labour should have sent a street fighter, not a desk general. Jon Cruddas is far and away the best BNP baiter
The discovery that Iran’s regime has, yet again, deceived the international community and secretly built an additional nuclear facility has made world leaders re-focus on the issue. On Friday, the US, UK and France said the UN had to be given immediate access and urged tough new sanctions. Even Russia expressed concern. Today, the Iranian
From the Department of Getting Away From It All. How far away from a branch of McDonald’s is it possible to get? What, in other words, is the McFarthest Spot? Weather Sealed offers this map of the continental United States coloured by distance from a branch of the Golden Arches. As expected, McDonald’s cluster at
I’m interviewing David Cameron tomorrow, for the next edition of the magazine. When Boris was a mere journalist, he said that writing interviews was like trying to make a mosaic out of a truckload of gravel – you ask questions, some trigger interesting responses, others not so much. So the writer sits with a heap
Andrew Marr asking Gordon Brown if he was on anti-depressants was a real surprise. When I first heard that Marr had put this question to Brown, I thought there was a possibility that Labour aides had let it be known that the Prime Minister would like the chance to shoot down these rumours. But Brown’s
The Conservative party’s seizure of the progressive agenda and the rhetoric of liberal democracy suggests that Cameron intends to build a broad coalition. But how large would the Tories’ tent be? Peter Mandelson reveals that he would have no trouble “serving his country” under a Conservative government. ‘In an interview with The Sunday Times magazine, the
I must admit that I’m taken aback that Andrew Marr asked Gordon Brown if he was on anti-depressants in his interview with him this morning. (For the record, Brown said that he wasn’t). Do Coffee Housers think the question was appropriate?
I do miss not being behind the counter at CoffeeHouse as much now that I’ve moved back of shop. You don’t get much BNP debate in the mainstream media – which is, of course, part of the problem. So I thought I’d respond to the comments from my recent post via another post. Jeremy
Today’s papers give us an idea of what Labour’s new dividing line with the Tories is going to be. Labour will find money for eye-catching but not too costly initiatives such as the cancer pledge that the papers have reported on this morning. These pledges will be financed by taking money from the less sexy parts
Throughout Labour conference, the Tories will be trying to promote the message that the conference shows Labour is on the way out. Expect the Tories to pump out lots of statistics about how the number of delegates attending is down, how there are fewer commercial stands, lobbyists and the like. The other thing the Tories
I would like Britain to keep its independent nuclear deterrent, largely because I don’t trust the French. I would also like the USA to have a very large amount of brand new and extremely efficient nuclear weapons – those really big ones that can destroy the earth – and China, Pakistan, North Korea and Iran
Apparently the Labour Party is selling tickets to sit behind Gordon Brown during his leader’s speech for a bargain £130 a pop. At the same time they are struggling to fill the seats for their gala fundraising dinner in Brighton. Things are getting desperate. Already, last year in Manchester, the exhibitors’ hall was dominated by
Ok, ok, this will be my final post today on a Labour interview, but it’s worth highlighting the Guardian’s chat with Ed Balls. Breakfasting CoffeeHousers may not make it past the opening image of the Schools Secretary, “half-naked on a desolate main road in Knowsley,” so here’s the key passage from later in the article:
Another post, another interview with a Labour figure. This time it’s John Prescott’s conversation with Michael Savage in the Independent. Prescott puts in a fiery performance, and lashes out at almost everyone and everything within his party. I’ve pulled out some of his attacks below, for the benefit of CoffeeHousers: On the Labour Party: “There
Remember when Alan Johnson said he doubted that he would have been “good enough” to lead the Labour party? Or when he claimed that his defeat by Harriet Harman in the deputy leadership race had killed the “little bit of ambition” he had left? Well, the tune has slightly changed since then. In today’s interview
The news that Iran has a second, secret nuclear installation can hardly be considered a surprise. Nor, alas, is there anything surprising about Charles Krauthammer’s reaction to Barack Obama’s decision to make nuclear proliferation an issue at the UN General Assembly: What did he accomplish? Nothing. This is really quite surreal. As we speak, the
New York The reaction of the Obama administration to the discovery of a secret, underground Iranian nuclear plant strongly suggests, as the Washington Post points out, that the administration has given up on engagement. Attempts to engage with the Iranian regime were always likely to be futile. But Washington had to show the international community, and
Here are some of the posts made at Spectator.co.uk over the past week Fraser Nelson argues that the BBC and mainstream political parties need to think very carefully about how they will handle Nick Griffin on Question Time. James Forsyth sees the Lib Dems’ incoherence embodied in Nick Clegg, and says that the Tories are
I was a panelist on Question Time last night, and it started me thinking about how they will handle the BNP episode – which I expect fairly soon. Make no mistake, a Question Time slot is as big for the BNP as winning seats in Europe. When I was on the campaign trail with them
It’s the question that won’t go away for Gordon Brown: should he – will he – take part in a televised leaders’ debate? On this weekend’s Straight Talk, Andrew Neil takes the opportunity to quiz Ben Bradshaw about his views on the matter. Here’s how the Culture Secretary responds: “I don’t think [Brown]’s got anything
President Barack Obama & First Lady Michelle Obama welcome Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi to the G20 dinner on September 24, 2009 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Photo: Jewel Samad/AFP/Getty Images. My latest piece for the Daily Beast takes a look at the grimly entertaining Silvio Berlusconi: Were you to be so unwise as to combine the
James has already highlighted the New Statesman’s interview with Gordon Brown, but it’s worth flagging up this passage as well: “Again and again, throughout our interview, Brown refers to the next election as being about ‘big choices’, not the small issues, which he says the Conservatives would prefer. ‘What was the latest thing? The cost
Vaclav Havel, Timothy Garton Ash, Bernard-Henri Levy and Adam Michnik are among those calling for the EU to take a stronger line with Russia on matters Georgia. They write: Looking at Europe today, it is abundantly clear that history has not come to an end and that it remains tragic. Twenty years after the emancipation
Brown’s pursuit of Obama through the UN canteen has finally paid dividends: PoliticsHome is reporting that Barack Obama will hold bilateral talks with Gordon Brown later today. After yesterday’s negative headlines, Obama was always going to make a gesture that indicated how much he valued Brown; but from the Prime Minister’s point of view, the
Given their position in the polls, and the challenges that face the next government, it’s understandable that the Tories are turning their minds to the post-election period. They’ve been meeting with high-ranking civil servants for months now, and have been hammering out the details and design of a cuts agenda. But one of the most
The news that General Andrew Mackay has quit over the government’s failure to properly equip the Afghan mission is significant. For one thing, it will have ramifications for the UK US military relationship. Mackay is the British general from whom General Petraeus feels he has learnt the most; Petraeus affectionately called him the “King of
The Ministry of Defence is the subject of two very damaging stories this morning. First, there are twice as many former service personnel in prison than there were six years ago. And second, Major General Andrew Mackay, a former commanding officer in Helmand, who masterminded the recapture of Musa Qala, has resigned his commission. Mackay
The news that Max Clifford is now involved in publicising the story of Baroness Scotland and the illegal cleaner is another blow to an already bruised Labour party. One of the last things that it needs is the beginning of its conference being overshadowed by a story that combines the two toxic issues of political
Let us accept that Barack Obama is going to disappoint many of us in many different ways. Let us further accept that this is only to be expected and that, yup, one of the awkward things about democracy is that sometimes the other mob wins. There is, however, no need to lose your mind when
Speaker Bercow has suggested that prominent cabinet ministers who sit in the House of Lords should be brought before the backbenchers for scrutiny. The Telegraph’s James Kirkup has the details: ‘Mr Bercow said: “I find the fact that backbenchers have no means of directly questioning prominent Ministers of the Crown because they happen to sit
Over at his WSJ blog, Iain Martin reckons that Baroness Vadera’s resignation might be an indication that Gordon Brown is considering standing down. Martin writes: ‘Throughout his troubled premiership I have been of the view that Gordon Brown will fight the looming general election. If he ducks out then history will surely judge him
