All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories
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
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
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 ‘Appeal to Conscience’ World Statesman of the Year ought to be treated with more respect, otherwise the award becomes a mockery. The news that President Obama rebuffed the PM’s requests for bilateral talks at the UN or G20 meetings capped a dreadful day for Gordon Brown. A White House spokesman told the BBC: “Any
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
Yesterday was bad enough, but today’s turning into an utter catastrophe for Brown. First, it emerged that the Tories enjoy a 4 point lead in Labour’s traditional northern strongholds, then Baroness Vadera leaves the government to work for the G20, and now another former GOAT, Lord Malloch Brown, tells the World at One that Brown
If, as the Westminster rumour mill suggests, business minister Baroness Shriti Vadera is about to resign from the Government, it is a far greater blow to the beleaguered prime minister than the loss of a PPS no one’s ever heard of over the Baroness Scotland affair, the potential loss of Lady Scotland herself, or even
Financial Times research has revealed that Labour has lost its traditional northern strongholds under Gordon Brown. Here are the details: ‘The Tories have built a narrow four-point lead in the north, eradicating the 19-point Labour lead in the region that underpinned Tony Blair’s last general election victory, the research shows. The 11.5 percentage point swing
Tom Clougherty makes a sadly good point: We can’t rely on a Conservative government doing much to fight the nanny state. On the contrary, what we’re promised is an army of local directors of public health, dedicated public health budgets, a bigger, stronger chief medical officer’s department, a “holistic strategy to focus public health across
Conferences on a Decade of Devolution are ten a penny these days. But the latest at least offered the potential for some entertainment given that not only was Alex Salmond speaking but so too was his principle opponent: Jim Murphy. Many of those who remember Mr Murphy from his days at Strathclyde University and the
The New York Times reports that President Obama has re-opened internal debate about Afghan policy, suggesting that he is going to u-turn from the counter-insurgency strategy that he announced in March. It seems that Joe Biden, who lost the policy argument last time round, might win out with his argument that, “Instead of increasing troops,
Sky News reports that Stephen Hesford, who was PPS to the law officers, has resigned over the Baroness Scotland scandal. His resignation letter reads: ‘Whilst I have great personal regard for the Attorney General, I cannot support the decision which allows her to remain in office. In my view the facts of the case do
So, where the hell is Loloahi Tapui, the Tongan maid hired illegally by our Attorney General? She seems to have gone to ground – perhaps she has found alternative employment with one of the Milibands, or is secreted away in one of Jacqui Smith s homes, maybe with her feet up watching a porno dvd.
Nick Clegg started the Lib Dem conference with an interview calling for ‘savage cuts’ in public spending and ended it with a speech trying to position the Lib Dems as the main party of the left in Britain. That pretty much sums up the strategic incoherence of this conference which has left the Lib Dems
What a week for the LibDems. The conference began, as always, with the sound newspapers being arranged across sleeping faces as the mass snore-in started. A few hopeful souls wondered if the LibDems might finally tell us exactly what their party is for. And LibDems went about their usual business of behaving like some cuddly
Last week’s magazine is now available across the website and can be viewed without a subscription. There is a selection of articles below to get you started. If you would like immediate access to tomorrow’s magazine and have yet to subscribe, you can do so here. Alasdair Murray reviews the week in politics. Boris Johnson
The kerfuffle over Lord Ashcroft’s purchase* of a majority stake in PoliticsHome is not something, I suspect, that mch interests anyone beyond the Westminster village. That said, I think Hopi Sen has the best take on this midget-brouhaha: The result of these expert polls was usually a story like “Westminster insiders think Clegg needs to
15:00: Clegg opens up by praising the tenacity of British soldiers’ in Afghanistan and damns the government’s record on defence. 15:17: “I want to be PM because I have spent half a lifetime imaging what a better society would look like and I want to spend the next half making it happen” – listing prejudice,
In his interview with the FT, Nick Clegg says that the Lib Dems have been too “reticent” about making Europe a dividing line with the Tories. There’s little doubt that Clegg, a former MEP is an ideological pro-European. But if he starts banging on about Europe he’ll cause his party problems. The Lib Dems have
It turns out that the PM’s not in America to address the UN about nuclear proliferation and he’s not there to cosy up to the President, although naturally he won’t be able to resist a spot of “Obama Beach-ing”. No, he’s crossed the Pond to be acknowledged as the ‘Saviour of the World’. Iain Martin
Gordon Brown is expected to offer to decommission one of Britain’s four Trident submarines as part of nuclear non-proliferation discussions at the UN today. The Times has the details: ‘Mr Brown will signal tomorrow that he is ready to negotiate at a meeting of the UN Security Council on nuclear non-proliferation. It follows President Obama’s
From Barack Obama’s speech to the United Nations today: Now is the time for all of us to take our share of responsibility for a global response to global challenges. If we are honest with ourselves, we need to admit that we are not living up to that responsibility. Consider the course that we are
So, the report written by ISAF commander, Stanley McChrystal, to President Obama on NATO’s Afghan mission has been published. It does not contain a request for more US troops, but most analysts think it is only a matter of time before a request is sent from Kabul. In the recently-published report, McChrystal says: “While the
The BBC understands that the UK Border Agency is expected to find Attorney General Baroness Scotland to be in “technical breach” of the rules on employing migrant workers and faces a fine. This is a civil, not a criminal offence and a government source made it clear that the Baronesses’ resignation is not being sought.
It is with great sadness that I have tonight resigned as a member of the PoliticsHome panel. I was a founder associate editor of the site and I think Freddie Sayers and his team should be proud of everything they have achieved. It has become the first port of call for anyone with an interest
After an awful conference so far, the last thing the Lib Dems needed was for another internal row to threaten to overshadow the leader’s speech. But that is what has happened. 18 of the 29 member Federal Policy Committee, which produces the Lib Dem manifesto, have written to The Guardian saying that they will include
Every Tory I have spoken to this week has said the same thing, ‘aren’t the Lib Dems having a terrible time.’ The Tories are particularly happy because they see the Lib Dems’ credibility on economics taking a battering thanks to the total confusion over Cable’s proposed new tax on million-pound homes. They also think that
The Liberal Democrat’s party conference is the one occasion when they are guaranteed what they need most: publicity. This year has seen them dominate the headlines, albeit negatively. Unashamedly public in-fighting followed Nick Clegg’s extraordinary pronouncement about “savage cuts”. Steve Webb’s rejection of Clegg’s plans to tighten up ‘middle-class benefits’ and Charles Kennedy’s thinly veiled
The other thing to be borne in mind about the Liberal Democrats – apart, that is, from the fact that they betray proper liberalism every day – is that they’re hopeless at politics. Vince Cable’s proposals on freezing public sector pay, reforming pensions and increasing the personal allowance are actually all very sensible. Good policies