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Latest from Coffee House

Latest from Coffee House

All the latest analysis of the day's news and stories

Steerpike

Watch: Pro-Palestine protestors vandalise Labour HQ

Uh oh. Labour is once again facing dissent from its own supporters over the Israel-Gaza conflict. Things came to a head this afternoon when a group of renegades targeted Labour HQ in London by — you guessed it — dousing the building in spray paint. While other protestors held a march in central London, the

How much trouble is Angela Rayner in?

10 min listen

Angela Rayner has faced fresh allegations related to her taxes. Keir Starmer and other MPs in the shadow cabinet have come to her defence. Could these accusations jeopardise her position as shadow deputy Prime Minister? Also on the podcast, what are Richard Tice’s plans for Reform? Natasha Feroze speaks to Katy Balls and James Heale. 

James Heale

Reform: scrap net zero to fund the NHS

Richard Tice spent this morning fulfilling a role well-known to leaders of smaller parties: defending their vetting procedures amid criticism of unsuitable candidates. The Reform leader was grilled by journalists at a Westminster briefing over the suspension or ditching of at least a dozen election candidates over their social media posts. ‘If you’re going to

Why are Foreign Office mandarins so ashamed of their own country?

The Foreign Office has been criticised as ‘elitist and rooted in the past’ in a scathing report by some of the UK’s most senior former senior diplomats and officials. The report, entitled ‘The World in 2040: Renewing the UK’s approach to International Affairs’, has been penned by the former cabinet secretary Lord Sedwill; a former

Steerpike

Honeytrap scandal: Jenkyns says Wragg must face disciplinary action

Back to the Westminster honeytrap, and now Dame Andrea Jenkyns has revealed that she was also targeted by the parliamentary phishing operation. Jenkyns is the third MP to go public, following her Conservative colleagues William Wragg and Luke Evans who admitted last week that they had been sent suspicious and rather salacious messages.  But the

Steerpike

Listen: Tice calls the Tories ‘sexual weirdos’

Another day, another drama. This morning it was the turn of Reform party leader Richard Tice to be interviewed on the BBC’s Today programme. Tice’s party recently gained its first MP after former Tory deputy chairman Lee Anderson defected in March, telling a press conference that he wanted ‘his country back’ and hitting out at

Why Justin Trudeau is turning against immigration

Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau is in a state of desperation. His minority Liberal government has been polling behind Pierre Poilievre’s Conservatives for the better part of two years. They’re down in most opinion polls by 15 to 18 points, and only have the support of 23 to 26 per cent of the Canadian electorate. His left-leaning

Ian Hislop’s elite blindspot

A common argument against populist politicians such as Nigel Farage or Donald Trump is that their attacks on elites are in some sense inauthentic because they themselves are members of those same elites. Trump is, after all, a billionaire who has been prominent in New York corporate circles for almost half a century. His social

Is Whitehall ready for war?

James Heappey, who will soon step down as Conservative MP for Wells after nearly a decade, may have won more column inches in the last fortnight than the rest of his career combined. In March, he resigned as minister for the armed forces, a post he had held since 2020, and now that he is

Sam Leith

There’s no Roald Dahl without his cruelty

Roald Dahl Goes Woke: Part Two in what promises to be a very long and funny and ignominious series. Not three days after Puffin Books announced that they were to publish a series of specially commissioned new stories set in Roald Dahl’s fictional universes, a lead author of the continuation editions has had to issue

Scotland’s hate crime act is stifling academic freedom

For the past few days, I’ve been hoping to receive an email from the two universities in Scotland where I’m enrolled in a joint PhD programme. So far, though, I’ve not heard from either of them. It seems obvious that all of this is creating a climate of fear and stifling academic discourse Since the

The truth about the Rwandan genocide

Today a solemn ceremony takes place in Rwanda’s capital. President Paul Kagame, flanked by international dignitaries – including our own development secretary Andrew Mitchell – will light a flame of remembrance at Kigali’s genocide memorial, where the bones of more than 250,000 people are interred. ‘Kwibuka’ (‘Remember’ in Kinyarwanda) – this act of commemoration –

Bulgarian Tsar: the West is not in decline

Bulgaria has rarely been the master of its own fate. Throughout history, neighbouring powers have often succeeded in imposing their will upon it. Nevertheless, Bulgaria has endured. There are few who can attest this with greater authority than Simeon II, who reigned as Bulgaria’s last Tsar from 1943 to 1946 and returned, after five decades

Will Iran attack Israel?

The Middle East is bracing for an attack whose exact source, targets, method, timing and scope are unknown. On Monday, a suspected Israeli air strike targeted a group of Iranian officials in Damascus, Syria, and citizens of the region are now waiting to see how Iran’s regime will respond. Israel has scrambled GPS signals across

Despite Russia’s intensifying attacks, Kharkiv carries on

Irina Kotenko, 53, was already awake when a Russian drone crashed into the roof of her three-story building at 1 a.m. last Thursday. She had heard another strike nearby and was wondering where it might have hit. The explosion blew out the windows of her home. Somehow Irina, her husband, Vitaly, 48, and her daughter

Steerpike

Scotland’s police at ‘breaking point’ over hate law

Oh dear. As the furore around Scotland’s Hate Crime Act extends into its sixth day, there are now fears about police spending as the force looks set to struggle with the sheer volume of complaints. It is understood that, since the Act was implemented on Monday, 40 officers a day have been required to work

Mark Galeotti

How likely is Putin to target the Paris Olympics?

One thing the French seem to be learning (or, given their history, re-learning) is that the Russians are always up for a scrap. A ministerial phone call between the two countries has led to a diplomatic spat such that a stung Emmanuel Macron is now claiming that Moscow plans to target this summer’s Paris Olympics

J.K. Rowling vs Scotland’s hate monster

15 min listen

J.K. Rowling has been at the centre of a Twitter backlash against Scotland’s new hate crime laws which came into effect on April 1st. How has the first week of this controversial legislation gone for First Minister Humza Yousaf? And is political support for the policy dwindling? Natasha Feroze speaks to Lucy Dunn and Isabel

Freddy Gray

What’s Biden’s strategy in the Middle East?

24 min listen

Suspected Israeli air strikes were launched on targets in Syria this week and Israel’s war in Gaza has entered its seventh month. Americano regular Jacob Heilbrunn joins Freddy to discuss what an escalating situation in the Middle East could mean for Joe Biden. What’s the Democrats’ strategy? And how could this impact the 2024 election?

John Ferry

Who’s to blame for Scotland’s ferry fiasco?

You wait eight-and-a-half years for someone to lose their job over the SNP’s ferries fiasco, then two sackings come at once. So which Scottish government minister has finally paid the price for a scandal that has left islanders without reliable ferry services, brought the Scottish government and its agencies into disrepute, and cost Scottish taxpayers hundreds of

Euthanasia is too cruel to doctors

It seems like every day there is a new push to legalise euthanasia in the UK. This week, Prue Leith has called on parliament to debate euthanasia before the next general election. Keir Starmer has said that he is committed to allowing a vote on assisted dying if Labour gain power. And in Holyrood, the

No, prison sentences aren’t going soft

In 1894 Maria Hermann, an Austrian-born prostitute stood trial at the Old Bailey for the murder of a client. The evidence seemed overwhelming and she faced a death sentence if convicted. But she had the remarkable good fortune to be defended by Edward Marshall Hall, the greatest criminal advocate of the day. He produced evidence

Philip Patrick

The curiously quiet reaction to Oppenheimer in Japan

Finally, eight months after its US premiere and a month after it triumphed at the Oscars, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer has opened here in Japan. The film had been mysteriously delayed and there were rumours it would never be screened in the only country to suffer the consequences of a nuclear bomb. No definitive explanation was

Patrick O'Flynn

The Tories are resigned to an almighty defeat

The herd of Conservative MPs is on the move again, this time obediently setting off towards the abattoir in which the careers of most will meet a grisly end. When historians come to write their accounts of the Conservative administrations of 2015-24, they will have a bewildering variety of ‘worst weeks’ to choose from, but

Steerpike

Second Tory MP admits he was Westminster honeytrap target

A second Tory MP has admitted that he was a target of the Westminster sexting honeytrap. Luke Evans, who represents Bosworth, revealed this evening that he was sent a photo of a naked woman on WhatsApp. ‘Here’s a video I didn’t expect to make on a Friday evening,’ Evans said in a Facebook video. ‘A

The recklessness of William Wragg

Everyone makes mistakes, but they are seldom as monumental as William Wragg’s. The Tory MP has admitted handing over the phone numbers of colleagues to a man he met on Grindr, a gay dating app. The vice-chairman of the 1922 Committee said he offered up the details after sending intimate pictures of himself. Wragg deserves

James Heale

Will the Tories remove the whip from Will Wragg?

Who else was caught up in the sexting honeytrap? That’s the question Westminster is asking today. It follows last night’s revelation that William Wragg, vice chair of the 1922 committee, was the source responsible for passing on MPs’ phone numbers to a man he met on the gay dating app Grindr. This man then used the numbers